This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous line from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: "Eft gush gush, stage 114 / For negi gush / And this guy's trying / To save him" . It's a quote from the play's opening lines, in which Shylock asks Shylock if he can "save" him. Shylock replies that he can, but he doesn't have the power to do so. Instead, he has the ability to "empathize" , which means he can feel people's pain and empathize with them. This is the kind of power that everyone has, but it's not the same as being able to "feel" or "appreciate" someone else's suffering. The world is made up of victors and losers, and this is the way the world works. The only difference between the two is that the victors are able to create history and society, while the losers are unable to create anything. The fact that the protagonist is able to empathize with people and feel their pain is a "miracle" that she's been able to do this for so long. She's made herself last for 20 years, and now she'll either have to defeat her next victim or take his place. She can't do this with her power, though, because she can only do it with the power of the victor. The protagonist asks if she can save her grand father, but the protagonist says that she can do whatever she wants.