Chapter 105 - The Bounty

Shao Xuan didn’t end up representing the Gold Erasers on stage, but he still stood up and waved to the crowd, earning a round of cheers. After doing this, he also pledged five energy cores to supplement the recruit combat assessment’s consumption needs.

Since the combat assessment was the White Erasers’ idea, they would use their energy cores first. If any of the Gold Erasers’ five remained unspent, they would be taken back.

“Everyone’s welcome to choose us Gold Erasers,” Shao Xuan added before sitting back down. He had made an excellent impression on the recruits.

From the back row, a mischievous young female soldier hiding in the corner grumbled, “Hah, I’d love to choose you, but would you choose me?! All you do is make empty promises and toy with people’s feelings.”

Her voice dripped with grievance, like a bride left waiting at the altar.

A ripple of quiet laughter spread through the auditorium.

The Gold Erasers only had two openings this year, and everybody knew that one was already spoken for.

The projection displayed the Gold Erasers’ platoon profile, brief and to the point.

Last year’s overall ranking: first in the army.

Platoon history: participated in the campaign to kill a Red Shoulder.

Current status: strongest combat force in the Ninth Army.

Qin Guowen stood on the stage as their representative, beaming at the crowd.

“The guys in the platoon told me to add a note about that last line. The reason it’s ‘strongest combat force in the Ninth Army’ is only because we haven’t had the chance to do a full round with the platoons from the other five armies yet.”

The quiet confidence and authority that the Gold Erasers embodied came through with that one line.

Sharper recruits also caught a second meaning. This implied that the Gold Erasers and White Erasers, or really all the top-ranked platoons, apparently had full-scale showdowns. The Gold Erasers had won. Likely for many years running, at that.

The veteran platoon leaders confirmed as much when asked.

After finishing ?his appeal, Qin Guowen waved and stepped off the stage.

The last item on the agenda was for each regiment’s commander, leadership, and instructors to replace their recruits’ shoulder marks with the official Coalition soldier insignia and offer some parting words.

With that, the recruitment briefing assembly concluded.

Han Qingyu walked through the dispersing crowd with Wen Jifei, He Tangtang, and the others, carrying boxes of energy cores and exchanging greetings with friends they were about to part ways with.

As for Han Qingyu’s choice of platoon, even Liu Shiheng had held back from asking since they’d returned from the medical station. He felt it wasn’t his place, and he didn’t want to put pressure on Little Qing to decide.

“Hello, Han Qingyu?” someone called out, a strange edge to their tone.

A person emerged from the crowd. He stood out with his 180-centimeter height and exceptionally broad shoulders. Though powerfully built, his face looked no older than twenty-one or twenty-two.

“Yes, that’s me. Hello,” Han Qingyu responded with a polite smile. There were many recruits in the army; he couldn’t know everyone.

“So, you’re the strongest recruit of the decade in our Ninth Army?!” the young man asked loudly, his tone a little odd. This immediately drew a crowd. He seemed to wait deliberately before introducing himself. “I’m Bai Ji.”

Nobody in the crowd seemed to recognize the name. Han Qingyu didn’t respond right away either.

“Source energy integration level: A+,” Bai Ji added.

“Whoa.” Gasps of astonishment rippled through the crowd.

“No one could match me last year. Now I want to fight you,” Bai Ji said bluntly. “And yes, last year. You might think it’s unfair, because I actually joined the Coalition last year.”

The crowd buzzed with debate. The first few years after recruit graduation were when a soldier’s strength grew the most. For Bai Ji, a veteran with a full year of battlefield experience and source energy tempering, to challenge Han Qingyu was somewhat unreasonable.

Bai Ji quickly overpowered the chatter with his booming voice. “The thing is, I was actually armored for less than twenty days last year before I was badly injured. I spent almost a year recovering, so the army counts me as part of this year’s class, which is why I’m graduating with the rest of you.”

The effect of his justification was immediate. The murmuring vanished.

Some even secretly felt that, if anything, this could actually be unfair to him. Han Qingyu was actually among them.

He had actually been interested in sparring with an A+ veteran. Even setting the combat assessment reward aside, he would’ve gladly gone all out against the man. But now...

Under the stares of Bai Ji and over a hundred onlookers, Han Qingyu said with a smile, “I think I’ll pass.”

He doesn’t care about face at all? Bai Ji was briefly thrown. Out loud, he asked, “Why?”

“Because I need to go count my energy cores.” Han Qingyu held up his box of energy cores with a grin. As he walked past Bai Ji, he asked quietly, “How’s your recovery going? I hear old injuries can be tricky. Make sure you take care of yourself.”

He meant it. They were both Coalition soldiers. Bai Ji had been badly hurt, and Han Qingyu didn’t know what shape he was in. He worried that a serious match between fighters of the same caliber could re-injure someone who had only just recovered. A casual fight, meanwhile, would be pointless.

Despite this being a valid public excuse for declining, he didn’t say this part out loud.

The two of them passed each other.

Han Qingyu was about 183 centimeters himself, not short by any means. In terms of build, though, his frame and limbs looked a full size smaller next to Bai Ji.

Just then, an officer standing on the second floor of a nearby building called his name, “Han Qingyu.”

“Here.”

“You have a phone call.”

“Alright.” Han Qingyu was a little curious. Who would be calling him here?

He hurried upstairs.

“It’s an internal classified line,” the officer said in a low voice, leading Han Qingyu through a winding set of corridors to a small room. He gestured for him to enter, then stood outside the door.

The phone sat on the desk.

Han Qingyu picked it up. “Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s me, Brother Qing. It’s Tu Zi,” the voice on the other end said.

“Oh, are you calling to pay back my energy cores?”

“No, uh, I haven’t saved up enough yet.”

“Then what’s this about?”

“I’m calling to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a bounty on your head.”

“What? A bounty?”

“It’s the Wipers. Most likely, that Mr. Zhu you nearly killed. In the past couple of days, he’s posted a bounty in the City of Sin for your life.”

Over the next while, Tu Zi introduced Han Qingyu to a world he had known nothing about.

It seemed there was a dark, chaotic corner to this world of source energy. Somewhere on the border between Mosaigo[1] and Mitaly was a small town. It had once been the headquarters of a major drug cartel, but now no longer housed any ordinary residents.

This town was known as the City of Sin.

1. Novel’s version of Monaco ☜