Stacy Valentine

Keiko didn't immediately answer the question.

There was naturally a deep fellowship in the army since, as a soldier, there were many life and death situations that she had and would have to face together in the future.

However, she is currently in a unique situation.

She had just been transferred to the third squadron and was assigned as the deputy captain of the left-wing squadron while Valentine was the captain of the right-wing squadron. Therefore, their relationship was far more subtle.

She was neither her immediate superior, nor her comrade, and obviously not her subordinate either. These circumstances made it awkward for Keiko to suddenly say that Valentine was her friend.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Keiko replied vaguely.

In fact, she was sweating profusely at this moment. Valentine was a person with an extremely powerful aura, and her blue eyes… those eyes were so sharp as if no secret could be hidden from them, including her secret. This made her secretly feel very anxious inside.

Keiko just realized that she knew nothing about the previous owner of her body.

If Lieutenant Valentine didn't mention that she was just transferred recently to the third squadron, she was definitely still ignorant.

She remembered collecting the personal resumes and detailed information about Lt. Valentine and Captain Alexandrov, but she neglected to learn about herself.

Keiko promised herself that she would immediately read her personal archive when she returned to her room later.

Directing her attention back to the matter at hand, Keiko did her best to guess what motive Valentine had when she said that she wanted to be her friend. A sudden epiphany came to her.

She couldn't fully ignore the possibility that she had done it out of appreciation and good intention, but it was most likely that Valentine had set her eyes on Keiko and wanted to recruit her as a subordinate in the future.

It has to do with the promotion system in the Federal Army.

Every federal citizen over the age of 16 has an obligation to serve in the military for two years, and at the end of those serving years, there will be a big exam for selecting the new batch of Federal Army recruits. It was equivalent to the National Center Test for University Admission held in Japan.

Outstanding recruits who were selected through the examination could officially enlist as professional soldiers, and those with outstanding performance in individual special subjects could be assigned to work in munitions factories or armament companies.

The top educational institution was the military academy, where the most sophisticated talents and knowledge are concentrated. However, the military academy didn't recruit conscripts or ordinary citizens, only professional soldiers.

Therefore, those who fail to pass are equivalent to missing the top universities in this life.

After the conscripts officially enlisted to become professional soldiers, they began to accumulate seniority and military merit and upgrade their ranks.

Every year, the military academy holds regular admissions tests, and the upper age limit for registration is 20 years old. In other words, every professional soldier had two chances to be admitted into the military academy.

If you can be admitted to the military academy, you will be at least a lieutenant when you leave the military academy five years later, and your future will be guaranteed.

If you failed to enter the military academy, your only option was to slowly retain your qualifications, accumulate military merit, and upgrade your rank very slowly, just like Alexandrov, who had been a soldier for a lifetime but was still only a captain.

In contrast, Lieutenant Valentine was a product of a military academy. This Irish American commander possessed a wealth of knowledge and a strong commanding ability; her future development was bound to be better than herself.

Although Keiko still didn't understand why she was highly favored by Valentine, as a newcomer, the more acquaintances she had, the better. She must be a pig if she refuses a free meal like this.

It was just that she still had a concern about getting involved in a partisan battle. This kind of thing was all too common in the army. In the army, young, promising, and ambitious officers attracted like-minded people in order to establish their own forces in the future. And they were bound to clash with each other, trying to make the other party their steppingstone.

She currently didn't have enough information about the relationship between the right-wing and the left-wing, so even though she would not reject Valentine's offer, she didn't plan to get overly close to her, otherwise, she would be in an awkward position in her own unit considering her position.

Therefore, she could only answer in such an ambiguous manner.

Valentine seemed to understand what she was thinking, and with a smile, changed the subject.

"I've made contact with Captain Hill. She broke out of the encirclement with the left-wing escort 'Mistletoe', and has now thrown off the swarm, slowly moving northwest, waiting to meet us. We can't stay in Sleipnir too long. We will set off at noon tomorrow. You lost your mecha in the last mission, so you can only be wronged to ride in an armored vehicle for now."

Keiko's answer was only one word, "Affirmative!"

Although Valentine was not speaking fast, Keiko still needed time to absorb and digest the information in her words.

She was still very unfamiliar with this world, and she had only memorized the names of the people involved with her.

It took a long time for Valentine to explain that the Captain Hill she was referring to was Amanda Hill, the squadron captain of their third squadron.

She browsed through the list of officers and soldiers of the Third Squadron, picked up the most important key figures, and looked at them in detail.

As the leader of the Third Squadron, Amanda Hill naturally would not miss the list.

This American female captain has a very high reputation in the third squadron. Her mecha driving skills were splendid, her marksmanship was superb, and she was dubbed the Goddess of Armament. Among all military officers, her combat power was considered the cream of the crop.

Captain Hill also had her own style of leading troops. She has amazing insights, whether it is training strategy or combat tactics. Therefore, she was promoted to the rank of captain at a young age and became the commander of the main force. There was a rumor flying in the camp that she would be promoted again soon.

However, this mission made the "Armament Goddess" eat a big loss.

Actually, escorting the target item, code-named "MIstletoe," back to the city of Valhalla was not a difficult task. The road laying and removing obstacles between the "Secret Zone 1" and the main city was completed many years ago, so as long as you follow the safe route, there should be no problem.

Once again, as the saying goes, "life was never the way you wanted it to be."

They actually ran into a rare swarm of insects, the entire right-wing was separated from the main force, and Keiko, as one of the commanders of the left-wing, was also washed away, lost in the primitive jungle, and was almost killed by a first-tier Predator.

It's just that these things were not her personal experience, nor did she remember them at all, they were all inferred from intelligence records.

By the way, she almost forgot, where is the soldier Antonio who saved her now?

"I have asked the logistics to fix your power exoskeleton and armor for you, and I have also prepared a new combat suit to replace your torn combat suit. It isn't suitable for you to use it anymore, right?" Valentine took a gander at Keiko's combat suit and said with a warm smile. There was a hole in the sleeve of the upper arm, which had been pierced by Dolan's poison stick. "Later, you will follow Lilian to the equipment tent."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Keiko expressed her sincere gratitude.

As expected of a female officer, she was meticulous about the needs of her same gender.

In the past, when she used to be a soldier, although she was a special female soldier, most of the officers were men—to be precise, they were a rowdy bunch.

She felt a kind of intimacy when she met a female superior.

Sizing up the female adjutant standing behind Valentine, if Keiko wasn't wrong, her name is Lilian. Lilian Croft, an American, was in the same rank as Keiko. This freckled and charming female officer serves as the backbone commander in the right-wing and is Valentine's, right-hand man. It's just that she glanced at Keiko from time to time, and every time she looked at her, there was an intrigued smile on the corner of her mouth, which made Keiko a little uncomfortable.

"One last thing, there will be a bonfire held tonight. Don't you forget to come; all the soldiers are eager to see you. Remember to bring Sergeant Antonio with you. He lives with Leoz now, so you can go together." Valentine looked back at Leoz and said.

"Yes." Keiko and Leon replied at the same time.

Keiko didn't know that she was so popular among the soldiers, and her identity was getting more and more confusing.

It seems that she couldn't postpone finding out who the original owner of her body was.

Leoz and Lilian had already taken the lead in opening the door. Keiko also stood up, saluted Lieutenant Valentine, and then exited the room.

Walking over the door and returning to the curved corridor, the Latino male adjutant was leading the way with big strides, while Lilian slowed down and walked side by side with Keiko, blinking and smiling.

"You are not what I imagined the legendary "Death Reaper" to be."

"Death Reaper?" Keiko tilted her head sideways, with a puzzling expression on her face.