Chapter 7.1 - Great Figure
After obtaining his reward, all of the 200 yuan was exchanged for pure water, food, and ammunition. Su did not have any intention of staying in this inhabited area. After some simple replenishment, he prepared to leave. Within the map in Su’s consciousness, this place was a hundred kilometers from Asmo, so it was rather close. Even though Li did not seem to want his life, she was still sufficiently troublesome. Moreover, Su had a bad premonition that she would bring him great trouble.
As a result, Su chose to leave.
Before leaving, Su would walk around and visit every corner of the habitat out of habit. Every detail would be recorded in his mental map. Based on the coordinates, he marked this habitat as K7. As soon as he thought of this, next to the area that corresponded to the inhabited land appeared the marking K7.
Habitat K7’s commander hoped for Su to stay. Su's performance proved just how crucial a sniper was to the outcome of a battle. Of course, Su’s refusal was not outside of what he expected. Only a large company could have the ability of making someone like Su stay. Habitat K7 was just too small and poor.
In the previous battle, their opponent’s strength was exceedingly strong. Being able to hire Su for 200 yuan was something the commander thought to be fortunate. If he hadn’t, the end result might have been completely different. With Su’s combat performance, the commander estimated that hiring him would cost at least 500 yuan, but K7 definitely didn’t have this amount of money.
Within the darkness of night, Su left Habitat K7 and headed west.
Before he left, the commander gave Su a map, and a certain location was marked on it. It was the location site of a mercenary group called Falcon. Falcon’s head was a former war comrade of the commander, so what the commander was implying was that if Su lacked money, it was worth heading there to try his luck. No matter where it was, good snipers were always welcomed.
Early morning arrived as usual in Pendulum City.
The sky had just brightened, yet the military anthem was already resounding above the eastern region’s skies. Soldiers began to march and exercise under the light of dawn. Li stood on the rooftop of a five floor building and coldly watched her soldiers complete their drills. She was standing on the defensive wall surrounding the building, so the slightest bit of carelessness might cause her to fall. Even a soldier with three levels in the Combat Domain would not casually stand in such a place. If they fell down, even though they wouldn’t die, breaking a few bones was unavoidable.
Pendulum City’s environment was comparatively better than that of the surrounding areas. The amount of radiation and pollution was comparatively less here as well. Even though these soldiers didn’t undergo any immunity strengthening, they were all healthy and robust, so they could completely endure radiation that was even a level higher. Contrary to how the era of turmoil emphasized individual combat strength, Li highly valued the military training of the olden age. In addition, she paid particular attention to the soldiers’ teamwork and equipment quality. It could be said that eighty percent of Roxland Company’s northern region funds were used on this troop under Li. Yet, the amount of profits earned by this group wasn’t even enough to support the lives of fifty people under Li.
It hadn’t even been three months since Roxland Company’s northern region was established, yet there were already five hundred men under Li’s command. It seemed like half of Roxland Company’s elite troops were assigned here, and it was clear that they hadn’t been gathered just for the sake of Base N11. Under Li’s command, the more people there were, the more powerful they became. The number of armed refugees and mobs might number in thousands upon thousands, yet these 500 elites of Li could easily sweep through them.
Within Roxland Company’s northern region, Li Gaolei supervised the agents while Li controlled the armed forces. Of course, many of these agents possessed powerful individualized abilities, or else they wouldn’t have any footing in the wilderness.
Contrary to Grace Company’s Asmo, Pendulum City did not welcome outsiders, and the northern region did not do business with the outside world. After selecting Pendulum City to be the base, Li used half a month of time to clean up the entire city, and another half a month to clear up the underground tunnels. All of the tunnels they couldn’t use were blown up with explosives. They then set the surrounding ten kilometers around Pendulum City as forbidden land. Refugees naturally couldn’t reside within this area, and not even those from other companies or inhabited areas could pass through this place. Even if they were mercenaries or hunters with a license issued by Roxland Company, if they didn’t have a mission that involved an area within these ten kilometers, they were similarly refused entry. Those that ignored these rules would suffer the attacks of Roxland Company’s guards. Within the wilderness, being attacked often meant death.
The light of dawn gradually became brighter. The scene of smoke and dust rising could vaguely be seen in the distance. The sentinel placed inside the highest construct within Pendulum City’s border noticed this abnormality. Through the binoculars, the individual could vaguely make out a large vehicle fleet within the smoke and dust, and they were currently speeding on their way over. The sentinel immediately released the safety of the heavy machine gun, and at the same time the division was notified through a walkie-talkie.
Not long after, the sentinel received a reply. This was the head office’s fleet.
It seems like the one that came this time was a great figure. At the center of the fleet were three old era style black recreational vehicles. Their protective force was made up of two armored vehicles that were filled with soldiers. For the sake of traveling through the wilderness that had practically no roads, these recreational vehicles had all undergone modifications. It was essential that the bottom of the cars could be raised at least a meter off the ground, and it needed enough horsepower to travel through anything that the armored vehicles could. No matter which era it was, imposing appearances could only be created through materialistic means.
The fleet was still a kilometer away from Pendulum City, but Li Gaolei and Li were both already outside the city to welcome them.
The one that got off the recreational vehicle was a white-haired elderly man that was already starting to put on weight. His light gray suit was well-ironed, and his shining black leather shoes were spotless. The smile on the elderly man’s face seemed to always be there. Just from his outer appearance, he didn’t seem to have any extraordinary ability. In this quickly changing era, the majority of people actually did not have any unique abilities.
Since the ancient times, people were separated by talent, and in this age of turmoil, it was the same. Most people didn’t have the natural talent for obtaining abilities. Even those that did would be restricted to a certain domain, and they would stop at the first level. Genetic evolution medicine allowed ordinary people without natural talent to develop evolution points and thus obtain abilities. However, the price and rarity of the medicine was an even greater barrier than talent itself, so ordinary people wouldn’t be able to collect enough money to purchase a single dose of the medicine even if they saved for their whole life. However, if they were willing to do everything they could, and their luck was good enough, after a few battles, they might obtain an evolution point.
Ever since humans developed wisdom, there were always two rules that had never changed. The first was that life was inherently unfair. The second was that through hard work, one could overcome this unfairness. However, what was ironic was that throughout history, most of the time, the result of this type of ‘hard work’ would only lead to a society that was even more unfair.
Even though the elderly man had no abilities, Li and Li Gaolei were both extremely respectful towards him. This elder named Fazir was one of Roxland Company’s founders, as well as one of the five current board members. He was a great figure whose words truly held power within the company.
Behind Fazir were two brilliant youngsters. They wore the exact same dark black suits, and at their cuffs were two faint golden decorations. Their clothes were vastly different from what the other members of Roxland Company wore, and much more luxurious as well. They were well-fitted and exquisitely hand crafted, with the materials used being not much inferior to Fazir’s own suit. Apparently, these two individuals weren’t members of Roxland Company and belonged to another organization.
Outside the city was naturally not the best place to talk. They returned to the vehicles and headed straight for the division’s building. A short while later, they were all seated within the top floor’s conference room. Every single middle or higher ranked supervisor was gathered to participate in this meeting.
What was shocking was that those two youngsters who clearly weren’t members of Roxland Company were also seated within this conference room. They didn’t say a word and simply sat quietly at Fazir’s side.
The conference was rather short. Towards the northern division’s achievements so far, Fazir was extremely satisfied. Moreover, in place of the company’s upper echelon, he even raised the average salary by 30%. Following the meeting, Fazir had Li Gaolei stay behind. The division knew that there would be a secret discussion afterwards, and as a result, they all happily left. Even Li got up and left the conference room. However, those two youngsters stayed in the conference room, quietly sitting upright in the back row seats.
Li Gaolei sat in front of the spacious conference room table, and without knowing why, he suddenly felt an uneasy feeling. Li Gaolei had already served the company for more than 11 years. He was extremely clear on how much power this seemingly always smiling, amiable, slow-looking elder had. In this world, power represented the authority one’s words carried, and in terms of wisdom, it was hard for him to be on top.
Those two youngsters drew Li Gaolei’s curiosity. At the same time, he felt a sense of danger.
The youngster on the left was tall and imposing, with a height that was not any less than his own. His shoulders were broad, and his body was so robust that it resembled a fort. His physique was extremely well proportioned and full of power. This youth looked like he was about twenty or so years old. He had a nose that seemed almost like it was sculpted, and a pair of hawk-like eyes. His expressionless face carried an undisguisable bit of arrogance.
The other individual looked a bit younger, seeming to have just reached twenty or so years of age. He had rather unique looking gray hair, and his eyes were similarly a rarely seen ashy green color. He appeared rather different from his large and robust companion. This youngster was particularly quiet, to the point where he almost seemed a bit bashful. He was also looking curiously at Li Gaolei. Li Gaolei suddenly noticed a vague radiance flash through the depths of the youngster’s eyes. At the same time, Li Gaolei felt as if his body had been doused with cold water. His intuition told him that this youngster had already completely seen through him.
Fazir stood up and paced back and forth a few times. Then, he personally closed the conference room door. Upon returning to the conference table, he sat down. He repeatedly intertwined his fingers, and only after a long time did he sigh and say, “During this period of time, I was extremely satisfied, but I was also extremely disappointed.”