Saitama's abrupt complaint made Hellish Blizzard pause, clearly not understanding what the bald man was saying.
Lin Mo, however, had a flicker of an imperceptible smile in his eyes because of that remark.
He looked at Saitama, his gaze as if to say, 'You're occasionally quite clever, aren't you?'
He turned his head back, refocusing his gaze on Hellish Blizzard.
In his deep-set eyes, there was no longer scrutiny, but rather a calm that saw through everything.
"Dong... dong... dong..."
The roar of the Emperor Engine seemed to become steadier and clearer at this moment.
"Hellish Blizzard."
Lin Mo spoke, with an undeniable weight, clearly reaching Hellish Blizzard's ears.
"Your question, from the very beginning, was wrong."
Hellish Blizzard's body trembled violently. She looked up, her emerald eyes filled with deep confusion and bewilderment, staring intently at the man before her.
Wrong question?
She just wanted to know if her persistence had any meaning. Was that wrong too?
"Your confusion is not about whether 'relying on companions' is right or wrong, nor about whether 'forming a team' has any meaning."
Lin Mo took a small half-step forward.
Just a half-step.
To the bystander Saitama, it was nothing more than a perfectly ordinary movement.
But in Hellish Blizzard's perception, an invisible yet immensely powerful pressure surged towards her.
This pressure made her instinctively tense all her muscles, even giving her the urge to stumble backward.
His voice precisely cut through her heart, which was wrapped in layers of pride and stubbornness, directly pointing to the deepest vulnerability that even she herself was unwilling to confront.
"The reason you chose this path, the reason you are so fixated on forming the Blizzard Group and uniting B-class heroes around you..."
His words paused, each word seemingly weighing a thousand pounds, heavily striking Hellish Blizzard's heart.
"It's simply because, deep down, you've already admitted, and desperately believe—"
"On the solitary path of 'pure strength,' you will never, ever surpass your older sister—Terrible Tornado."
Boom!
This sentence was like a clap of thunder, exploding in Hellish Blizzard's mind.
Her emerald pupils instantly constricted, the color drained from her face, and her lips trembled uncontrollably, yet she couldn't utter a single word.
Yes... this was the truth.
Her leadership, which she had always been proud of, her painstakingly managed Blizzard Group, her so-called creed of 'unity is strength'... everything, its most fundamental motivation, was just two words—
Escape.
Escape from that absolute genius named 'older sister' who stood before her like an insurmountable chasm.
Because no matter how hard she tried, how desperately she trained her psychic abilities, she could never reach the height where that petite figure stood.
That figure was like an eternal dark cloud hanging over her head, obscuring all her light, making all her efforts seem so pale and ridiculous.
So she gave up.
She gave up chasing after individual might and instead found another path, attempting to use 'organization' to prove her worth and construct a different definition of 'strength.'
This was not her active choice, but rather another way out she passively sought in despair.
Terrible Tornado's words were so hurtful precisely because they ruthlessly exposed the lie Hellish Blizzard used to comfort herself.
"Your older sister, Terrible Tornado, she wasn't wrong."
Hellish Blizzard's face grew even darker at these words.
Sure enough... is that how it is? Even the strongest man on earth, KING, thinks so?
Everything she had done was indeed just the struggle of the weak, just a joke... Should she still... give up?
"However," Lin Mo's tone shifted, restarting Hellish Blizzard's almost stopped heartbeat.
"Her vision is limited by her own excessive power."
"Huh?" Hellish Blizzard looked up, puzzled.
"Let's go back to that question," Lin Mo glanced at Saitama, who was still out of the loop, "Is it better to team up, or to solo?"
He didn't give a direct answer, but used an analogy that both people present could understand.
"In some games, a max-level player can indeed crush all beginner villages, intermediate maps, and even most team dungeons."
"He's fast enough, has high enough attack, strong enough defense; one person is an army. To others, he is a god."
"This is your older sister, Terrible Tornado."
Hellish Blizzard listened quietly. This analogy made her feel a bit fresh, yet surprisingly apt.
"However," Lin Mo continued, "there are always some special dungeons, whose design isn't simply about clearing them by relying on stats."
"Some bosses require specific class combinations to break shields, some stages require different people to step on mechanisms simultaneously, some enemies are immune to all physical attacks and must be dealt with by mages."
"At this point, even that 'solo god' will encounter a bottleneck."
Lin Mo glanced at the thoughtful Hellish Blizzard and continued, "A hero's job is more complex than any game."
"Facing a disaster that sweeps across an entire city, some people need to be responsible for direct combat, some for evacuating civilians, some for rescuing the injured, and some for logistics and command."
"Can you say that any one part is unimportant?"
Hellish Blizzard listened in a daze.
She had never considered the problem from this angle.
In her subconscious, forming the Blizzard Group was her 'second-best option' after losing hope of catching up to her older sister, a compromise of settling for less.
But from KING's mouth, this had become a completely different path, yet one that could also lead to the 'pinnacle.'
'Soloing' and 'teaming up' were not distinctions of 'strong' versus 'weak,' but rather two different 'playstyles.'
"Hellish Blizzard, your path itself is not wrong."
Lin Mo's voice became solemn.
"What's wrong is your original intention for embarking on this path. You unconsciously walked this path to escape your older sister's shadow."
"That's why you were so easily crushed by her words, because your belief, from its very foundation, was shaky, impure."
"What you need is not to ask me if this path is right, but to ask your own heart."
He gazed into her emerald eyes, which were beginning to regain their sparkle, and said, word by word:
"Do you truly want to be a 'second-rate player who can only lead a team because he can't be the strongest damage dealer'—"
"Or do you want to become a 'strongest leader' who truly believes in his companions, utilizes everyone's strengths, and challenges all impossibilities?"