Chapter 22.4 – Wait
The sunlight seeping through the cracks in the clouds once again covered the enormous coastal city in a layer of gentle golden color. This was a rarely seen morning radiance that was just as beautiful as the beautiful mornings seen from olden era magazines.
Su stood in front of the long mirror and carefully looked at himself who was currently dressed in the Black Dragonriders uniform. As a second lieutenant, his uniform had a faint golden dagger at his cuffs, a dagger that was pierced into a somewhat glowing piece of metal. The uniform fitted extremely well, as it was custom-fitted to his body. Moreover, the material was exceptionally light yet incredibly sturdy, providing defensive capabilities that couldn’t be overlooked. When he fought against Laiknar and O’Brien, Su personally saw how they tumbled and fell onto the ground, yet the uniform they wore didn’t suffer any damage. Only now when Su personally wore the Black Dragonriders’ uniform did he truly feel the outstanding qualities of the material. Wearing the uniform felt extremely comfortable.
The price of something as good as this was naturally considerable as well. The price of each military officer’s uniform was 3500 yuan. As one’s rank increased, their new uniform’s material and tailoring process would become even more refined, and as such, the increase in price was definitely not just linear.
From the lieutenant uniform’s 5000 to the colonel’s 15000, the increase in price was already enough to leave Su speechless for a really long time. He could not comprehend how the price of a set of clothes could exceed the price of an intelligent sniper rifle. Of course, if the two extremes were a set of colonel uniform or 20 Barrets, Su’s blood pressure might go through the roof.
The light blonde hair of the young second lieutenant Black Dragonrider in front of the mirror scattered downwards, blocking a portion of his eye-patch. The dark-black eyepatch not only didn’t damage his appearance, but instead added a sense of mystery to Su’s appearance. The skin on the image of Su within the mirror was as white as jade without any signs of the wounds the natives left on his body, as if he had never been injured in the first place. From ever since Su could remember, there were never any scars left on his body. He didn’t know why this was the case, but it was also impossible for him to find a doctor to investigate his body.
Looking at the second lieutenant in the mirror, Su felt a strange feeling. He released a bitter laugh and silently estimated how much money the extravagant dragonriders paid for this type of sharp and clean appearance, or in more realistic terms, how much he owed.
Su stood within a newly decorated apartment building. There were three rooms, two washrooms, a spacious living room, and a secluded dining room. Purely from its composition, it seemed like nothing more than the residence of an olden era household, but in the new era, it possessed an out of the ordinary meaning. In particular, electricity supplied the inside of this building, and the refrigerator and the air conditioner were both new era designs. This was an olden era lifestyle and not simply decorations at all. The kitchen was also perfectly usable, but for Su who could even live quite well off of grass, the word kitchen was just another noun. The hardest for Su to accept was that every single faucet in the building could produce water, moreover fourth grade water that didn’t contain a drop of radiation. The stream of water was also quite powerful, as if it would never run out. Within the building’s washroom, there was a large bathtub. Only now did Su realize that it wasn’t just a decoration.
This apartment was simply the smallest and most simplistic model that the Black Dragonriders prepared for its officers. Su could not imagine what those villas were like inside.
It seemed like they even used water on flowers to maintain their gardens!
However, the rent for this apartment was 2400 yuan each month. Six Barretts… this was how Su tried to comprehend the rent. Of course, rent was just rent. There was still an additional cost for water, and on this aspect, the new era was completely the same.
Inside of the apartment building were two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was changed to an equipment room, and the other was a private firearms room. Of course, there was also a special place just for storing ammunition. However, right now, all three rooms were completely empty, because all equipment inside the Black Dragonriders had to be purchased by oneself, and Su right now was completely impoverished. When he left the hospital, if Persephone didn’t send someone over with a set of clothes, he would be running naked right now. Of course, there was still a number of nurses within the hospital that were willing to offer some compensation for a wonderful night. However, when they realized they were facing Persephone’s male toy, even the most brazen women behaved themselves.
Su had no choice but to wear the Black Dragonriders’ uniform, because he didn’t have a second set of clothes. Including the three months of rent paid in advance as well as a few lifestyle necessities purchased in advance, Su currently owed Persephone 15000. Su originally didn’t want anything that wasn’t essential, but Persephone directly had someone send these things over before sticking the bill on Su’s head.
Something else that was different from what he thought and had left Su stupefied was that after becoming a Black Dragonrider, not only was there no allowance, he even had to hand over 1000 yuan! This price was for the usage of information.
As for how to earn money, Su had absolutely no idea. The only thing he knew was that the next month of theory training was not cheap either. It seemed like the tuition and living expenses of that month were going to have to be borrowed from Persephone again. Borrowing money was easy, but how was he going to return it? He knew that money borrowed from Persephone had a glaring monthly interest of ten percent.
Su finally felt a sense of fear towards the Black Dragonriders. He wasn’t scared of their power, but rather at how many different ways they could charge fees.
With a rather gloomy mood, Su headed towards the academic lifestyle for the first time in his life.
The Black Dragonriders’ special training institution was a massive building complex at one of the bay’s corners. This was a place specially designed for new dragonriders, including all aspects including the theory behind ability domains as well as politics and economics in the new era. Only, Su couldn’t understand why such an enormous training base was needed when there were less than fifty new dragonriders each year. How much money was required to keep this place running year after year?
After walking through the training base’s large doors, Su noticed that the guards here were all rarely seen beauties. Seeing Su walk over, the eyes of two beautiful guards lit up. One of them walked over to welcome him. However, when they saw the insignia of a dagger inserted into a metal piece on his cuffs, their facial expressions immediately changed, becoming much more respectful. They first offered Su a military salute before asking Su’s purpose for coming.
Afterwards, there were some basic registrations that had to be carried out. All of Su’s information was recorded within the Black Dragonriders’ database, so after just a few minutes, the registration process was completed.
Only when Su disappeared through the large and gloomy doors did the two female guards release a breath of air. They began to whisper to each other.
“He is that Second Lieutenant Su? He really is just like what the girls said! However, did he really come from that deadly training camp?”
“Did you not see the insignia on his cuffs? That insignia is different from ordinary military ranks. I’ve heard that it’s the highest honor for a new dragonrider!”
“But… Will Second Lieutenant Su really die here?”
“…Maybe.”
Su wasn’t aware of the whispering behind him. He pressed a few times on the electronic tablet in his hands, and he traveled up to the eighth floor before walking along the long corridor. In the middle of the hall was a man with steel-like muscles and a full beard, and he was currently leaning against the wall while smoking a cigarette. Suspended above his head was an enormous no-smoking sign.
Su stood there while browsing through the tablet in his hands. Within the rules and regulations of the training base, there was clearly a line of text that prohibited smoking inside the base.
Su looked at the rule, looked at the no smoking sign above, and then looked at the cigarette butt that flickered between bright and dark sticking out from the man’s mouth. He then walked past him as if he didn’t see anything.
“Youngster, stop!” Right when Su was about to reach the end of the corridor, the male behind him finally couldn’t hold himself back any more and called out.
Su stopped. Then, he turned around and looked at this man.
There weren’t many who could act calmly under the gaze of Su’s green eye. However, this man was one of them. He also wore the uniform of the Black Dragonriders, only, most of his buttons were unfastened, revealing quite a bit of his developed pecs and thick chest hair. The way he wore his clothes was greatly different from Su who had every single button fastened meticulously. He looked at the insignia on Su’s cuffs, and his face suddenly revealed both worry and excitement. Only after a long time had passed did he grumble, “What a lucky fellow.”
Su also noticed that there were more decorative motifs on this man’s uniform than his. On his cuff was a cross, indicating that this individual was at the lieutenant commander rank. However, Su was already aware that within the Black Dragonriders, there was no requirement that a lower rank had to unconditionally obey a higher rank. Even if it was a general, a private could choose to refuse. However, the result would be that the individual would have to take on the general’s fury. Every single general from the Black Dragonriders could be considered similar to a legend. Perhaps someone like Commander Julio could rise to his rank through his wisdom, but that was his limit. Meanwhile, generals, even the ones with extraordinarily great wisdom, all possessed exceptionally terrifying fighting strength.
Su could choose to ignore this lieutenant commander. As long as he could win, then he was the one that was correct.
This man who was dressed rather slovenly gave Su the feeling that he was getting pricked by needles. This was the feeling Su got only when he faced the most dangerous of enemies. Su’s sharp perception reminded him that the fellow in front of him truly possessed strength greater than his own.
However, Su didn’t feel any fear. Real battles were full of unpredictable factors. Environment, suitability for one’s abilities, their condition, and other minute factors could change the outcome of the battle. Of course, luck was an element that could not be ignored. Su believed that it was impossible to guarantee that a fifth level ability user could definitely defeat a second level ability user just like what Captain Curtis had said before. On the other hand, Su, who was able to grab a sliver of opportunity during each battle and had fought for survival in the wilderness ever since he could remember had reason to maintain his confidence.
At the very least, when he compared himself to this man, Su did not believe that the difference in strength between the two of them was great to the point that it couldn’t be crossed.
That was why he did not have any intention of backing down.
“Youngster…” That man couldn’t wait for Su’s reply, and after some hesitation, he continued, “I know that this isn’t a good choice, but I think that it is still better for me to kill you!”
“Just by yourself?” Su laughed and then said towards this man, “Alright, I’ll be waiting.”
After speaking, he left the stunned man and disappeared into the corridor.
