Bai Lang’s “death” (2) - Bai Georgi POV (1)

-Bai Georgi POV-

When Bai Georgi saw Claire running towards him, without seeing Bai Lang anywhere in the vicinity, he got a very bad feeling in his gut. This feeling was soon after proven correct, because as soon as Claire reached the spot where they were waiting Claire burst out into tears, before he could even ask where Bai Lang was.

Seeing Claire burst out into tears Georgi figured something must have gone really wrong. Especially so since he knew Claire as a person whom didn't express her emotions easily.

Georgi didn't hold any particular affection for Claire. She was engaged to his brother and that is the only information he found relevant about her. Georgi always just found it weird that Claire never seemed particular interested in getting to know Bai Lang. Georgi just figured she always turned around him since he was the 'sort of guy' she was used to in everyday life. Since Claire was also a soldier and being from a military family like hers she probably just felt more comfortable around his 'sort' of people.

Georgi found Claire annoying at times, but there wasn't anything he could do about her since after all she would become part of the Bai Family. Especially since his parents particularly liked this girl he tolerated her. After all he didn't want to strain everyone's relationship by showing his dislike for her.

Georgi quickly questioned the situation though. Why was Claire crying? She never seemed particular close to Bai Lang. Now he couldn't completely blame her for not getting close to his little brother, especially since he himself never knew how to communicate with Bai Lang. It wasn't that he didn't love his little brother, after all he had beaten up quite a few people to leave Bai Lang in peace and not torture him during his school career. It was just that he and Bai Lang seemed to be from two different planets, being two different kinds of species and speaking two different languages.

Whenever Bai Lang was young he used to ask the question 'why' a lot. When Bai Lang was still 5 years old Bai Georgi could still give Bai Lang an answer to most "why's" and show Bai Lang a thing or two. The time that Bai Georgi was able to have an answer for Bai Lang, however didn't take all that long.

After Bai Lang turned 6 years old Bai Lang's questions quickly became too difficult for him to even start comprehending let alone explain. Bai Lang asked him questions about things like "why is the sky blue", "why does the sun disappear" and "how does antibiotics work" (after Bai Lang had to take them because of a heavy ear infection).

To Georgi it was like Bai Lang was speaking in a different language. "Why is the sky blue?" "Does it need a reason?" After all it has always been blue so why question, why it is blue?? Why the sun is disappearing? Bai Georgi was only 11 years old at the time! How would he know? Let alone the last question, why and how do antibiotics work. How could an 11 year old be expected to even muster up a reasonable answer? This were just several of the many, many questions Bai Lang had about everyday life. No matter how hard Bai Georgi tried he couldn't understand his brother or explain the things his little brother wanted to know.

Sometimes Georgi felt like he was incredibly stupid. He couldn't even answer his younger brothers questions how stupid was he?! This made Georgi very disappointed in himself. Therefore he quickly positioned his role. He might not be able to answer Bai Lang's questions, but he could give him a peaceful environment. How he created that peaceful environment? Well that was very simple. When Bai Georgi grew up like all the children of the Bai family he received military training. This training he used to beat up some people whom bullied Bai Lang. This way Bai Lang was able to live a relatively peacefully school career. Without Bai Georgi's protection with Bai Lang's low EQ living a peaceful school life would have been a dream.

However the gap between him and Bai Lang seemed to keep growing without him being able to stop it. It didn't help that his parents disagreed with 'Bai Lang's life choices' which made it seem like he didn't even want to get closer to his brother. Especially since he later, only after Bai Lang's "death", found out his parents liked to use him as a comparison to deride Bai Lang's choices. His parents liked to say stuff like: "Why couldn't you be more like Bai Georgi?". "Why do you have these weird habits and hobbies?" "You make us ashamed to face our family members and friends, when we talk about you, is that really what you want?" You should follow Bai Georgi's example, Bai Lang you are such a disappointment to us." When Bai Georgi found out that this was one of the reason for the gap he had with his little brother, a gap he never seemed to be able to cross, he felt helpless and small. Afterwards he just seemed to be grateful that his brother was a bigger person then him and didn't hate him.

Also a reason for the widening gap between Bai Lang and Bai Georgi was the life Bai Georgi lived. Georgi lived a military career so he often went on missions during the years while Bai Lang was growing up. Before he knew it Bai Lang was dubbed 'the nerd' and had low self-esteem, because of his parents and other people whom often bullied Bai Lang, while he was gone. Georgi to his regret never seemed to be able to close the gap between them, which seemed to have grown so expansive, that it seemed like a canyon almost which never could be crossed. No matter how hard he tried.

After they grew older the differences between them grew bigger. Where they could still find common ground when Bai Lang was still young. When they grew up it became more and more apparent he and Bai Lang seemed to be from two different planets, being two different kinds of species and speaking two different languages

But the question still remained: "why was Claire crying for someone she barely knew"? Was Claire just crying because she was afraid of what he would think? Or was there something else going on?

Before Bai Georgi could follow this thought however Claire reminded him of the fact that now wasn't the time and place to discuss what was happening. It wasn't safe outside anymore ever since Paradise started. Bai Georgi looked around and he could already see Bravika's moving towards where they were standing. Bravika's were nasty monsters and the group was already exhausted enough from collecting the generator as it is. They didn't have the energy or the strength for another fight. So Bai Georgi suppressed the uneasy feeling he had and took a deep breath. Looking around to the people whom trusted him with his life he gave an order: "Move out!"

It was a hard choice for Bai Georgi, however if their group had to fight now things might really go south quickly. Especially so since they didn't know which other monster might be lurking in the shadows. The people in this group were his family and he was responsible for every single one of their lives. He couldn't think about it any longer, he had to bring everyone to a safe environment first. So after another deep breath Bai Georgi gave the order again, this time louder than the first time, "let's move out!"

Everyone quickly got on the car. He looked back towards the building in which his brother had died. He wanted to go in and collect Bai Lang's corpse and give him a proper funeral, but they had learned in the last two years since the start of Paradise that they didn't always have that luxury. Most of the times the situation would be either too dangerous to retrieve the corpse of someone or there wouldn't be anything left of the corpse to begin with after the monsters were done with it. The question if there would be a corpse yes or no, mostly depended on which monster they were facing.

Bai Georgi really didn't want to see in which category Bai Lang belonged. He just let his brother down again. He never was deserving of the title big brother. In the end he couldn't even protect his little brother, whom had done so much for them to help him and everyone under his command, which he recognized as family, to survive in the apocalyptic world.

Georgi never understood why everyone seemed to look down on Bai Lang. He was different yes, but he was also brilliant. Bai Lang just never looked for glory. When Paradise started he wasn't lost when it came to fighting, he fought his entire life now instead of fighting against people it just became monsters. Sometimes facing monsters was even easier then facing humans whom seemed to be worse than monsters. Therefore the shift from humans to monsters really didn't matter to him all that much. All he had to do is change up his tactics depending on the type of monster they would be facing.

What did matter to him was the appearance of the game system of Paradise. The interface which everyone got with their statuses. Which contained people's name, Age, Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Mana, Occupation, Class, Merits and Skill Trees and more. He figured he could have figured something out as time went on, but it would have been a trial and error kind of situation. During this trial and error period a lot of people would have been needed to be sacrificed. Bai Lang protected his people by doing research for two years barely eating and barely sleeping in the process for people he barely knew. Bai Georgi knew Bai Lang was running himself ragged to help him. And the reason why Bai Lang did all this was because Bai Lang knew that Bai Georgi regarded these people as part of his family.

Besides that let's not forget all the gadgets Bai Lang invented. Sometimes he would say something to Bai Lang like it would be nice to be able to have small timer explosion device to be able to make this mission easier. Two days later he got up and he found the small timer explosion in a round cylinder shape on his desk with the instructions. Bai Lang being fast asleep. Those times Bai Georgi would feel helpless he couldn't help his brother and he knew Bai Lang had once again probably not slept these days. Just to provide him with what he needed.

He told Bai Lang repeatedly that he should make the suggestions of classes to his team, but Bai Lang just shrugged it off and said: "Do you really think they would listen to me? They would probably just pick the opposite of what I suggest to prove they aren't weak in the areas I classified them in as having a weak compatibility with. You are their leader, they trust you with their life and they would never think to question you. So this is just one of the burdens you have to bear."

Probably only Georgi knew that losing Bai Lang wouldn't just mean losing his brother, whom he loved dearly. It also meant losing an inexhaustible treasure of knowledge which would have made their life's in Paradise far easier. Luckily Bai Georgi had learned a lot from Bai Lang during these two years since the start of Paradise. However he was nowhere near as proficient as Bai Lang. Bai Lang was after all a genius. Paradise was just going to get so much harder from here on out he thought.