chapter 44: captain wulin

The next morning, Luke went to the monolith in a somber mood. He may have successfully created his space cloak but anything else had to be put on hold for it. ' I don't like it but I will have to match my fighting style to my elements in the mission itself. '

Greeting the others, Luke sat near Ozz and waited for the announcement of the mission with the others. As she was quite bored, Milfa turned to Luke, the one with the least knowledge in the whole ECG and asked " Do you know the ranks of each tier? " Not expecting this question, Luke paused as he replied " No, what are they? "

" As you know, tier 2 and 3 are soldiers. Tier 4 powerhouses are lieutenant, tier 5 are captain, tier 6 are colonel, tier 7 are general and tier 8 are supreme general. Fun fact, Lords are not part of the army and don't have a rank but they can do anything they want. In fact, the only Lord who likes to lead the army, Lord twelfth, is also a supreme general when he does. "

Nodding, Luke thought that it was quite similar to the military system of some countries of Earth, although simplified. Thinking about something, Luke smirked " I did assassinate some generals in that war… Yet, if I ever dream of doing so now, I would have to wait a few thousands of years…'

" That's right, what is the life expectancy of each tier? "

" Hmmm, that totally depends on the individual but if you want an average... tier 4 is roughly ten thousand years… tier 5, a million or something… tier 6, hundreds of millions of years and for tier 7 onwards, none died a natural death yet. "

" I see, thanks. "

As they were chatting, the system prompt finally resounded.

* The first week's squad mission will begin. You will join the 255th squadron led by captain Wulin in galaxy R7932103456, planet B111. Your mission will be to kill a thousand enemies of tier 2 and five low tier 3. You will be immediately teleported to the allied camp. Good luck soldier Luke. *

Stunned as they were never immediately teleported before, they disappeared from the monolith and reappeared in a mighty looking red fort. The translucent red force field barrier that served as a perfected wall and the red earth and sky were the only things that they could see, not factoring the soldiers.

As they looked around, they saw thousands of men, women or not distinguishable people. The only things these people had in common were the flag on their armors. The flag was, in fact, a swirling black hole with multicolored lights rotating around it ( the book cover ).

As they appeared, a two meters tall, gray-haired and furred wolfman, came to greet them. By how strong, distinguished and noble he looked, they deduced that it was the captain Wulin, a tier 5 existence. His face expressionless, he said in a flat tone " You should be team dazzle right? " Hearing that, Milfa's and Abacus's foreheads gained a few black lines while Lou was sweat dropping. This matter stayed as an unresolved grudge since it came to light.

On the other hand, the soldiers who were curiously observing them as they were thought as the crème de la crème began to boisterously laugh. The name of an elite team was not necessarily important as only power was but this... This just eradicated all credibility they had.

As he wasn't the patient kind, to begin with, captain Wulin screamed at his subordinates to quiet down. What he wouldn't admit was that he also laughed hard when he saw the name of the team. Turning back to the depressed team dazzle, he said " I won't waste my time with you guys. In here, you are soldiers. I set rules, you follow them. If you are not capable enough to accomplish your mission within due time, you will be sent back not only without any rewards but your names " Then he looked particularly at Luke " or your titles will be remembered by everyone as synonyms to shame and incompetence. As privileged brats, you won't be under the threat of death but know that everyone else here is. So if my people die because of you, I will make sure you suffer! Is that clear? "

Maybe because of the charisma he exuded, they all responded at the same time " Yes sir! "

" Good, follow me. " Having said that, he turned around and entered a room. Team dazzle followed, with Luke marveling on the feeling he felt being before someone so much stronger than him, to the point that he instinctually felt like an ant. His resolve to become stronger heightened.

Inside the room, which was empty, captain Wulin materialized a kind of chair as he sat down. " You are the third team of privileged brats that acme this year. This will be your quarters. You do whatever you want inside but know that if I say something once, I won't repeat myself. So you better be ready for anything. Every year that you privileged brats come, my men die because of you. Well, your predecessors, I don't want to amalgam. So know that this year, I'm hell-bent on this not happening okay? " "Yes sir! "

" Good, you can rest for the day or visit the camp, do whatever you want but don't go out of the camp. Our enemies, as stupid as they may be wouldn't hesitate to capture and consequently torture you for information. In which case, you will have to suicide if you don't want to be in for a world of pain. "

With a troubled face, Lou respectfully asked " But isn't torture outdated? Like, nobody does this for a few billion years. " At this remark, Luke sneezed. ' Billions of years, what am I to you? A caveman? No, a fish? '

Sighing and looking at him with pity, captain Wulin said " They do it for pleasure only. These barbarians really like to watch their future enemies suffer while they are weak and believe me, you don't want to be caught by them. Well, if that's all, have a nice day. " With that, he left.

Staring speechlessly at his departing figure, they got out of the room to visit the camp and see with which other teams they would spend the next week.

The fort was pretty simple if you forget about every advanced technology in the hands of the soldiers. There was a barrack for said soldiers, where everyone of them had their little space of comfort. There was a ward, a practice field, full of ambitious people who are not satisfied with their life. There was cantine, where the soldiers would most likely reunite, not really for the food but for the bonds. After all, you won't put in the same amount of effort to save a nobody and your brother.

Then, there was the administrative tower. Deciding to not mingle with anything that touched the realm of administrations as even at the universe scale, it's still as maddening and tiring, the came to the last place: the force field. Looking through it, they could see the outside. It was all black but unlike the natural red of the earth inside the fort, the earth outside was pitch black, from blood.

There was no body, but they could not only see the traces of battle, they could almost view it. They didn't know how it was like to be on the battlefield, but they knew it was brutal. Just outside the fort was already like this, testifying the brutality. As their moods became somber, an all too familiar voice resounded behind them. " Well, we sure got lucky, we got paired up with number one and number four! A weakling and a kid! Haha! "