22: Chapter 22 A Letter of Recommendation

"How do I get to the Northern Border Military Region?" As soon as he said this, Team Leader and Xing Feng breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Team Leader reached into the inner pocket of his combat uniform and pulled out a waterproof bag containing a palm-sized identification booklet and a pen.

He flipped to a blank page, scribbled a few lines, and pressed a bloody handprint as a signature at the end.

"This is a recommendation letter for the Third Squad of the Special Operations Battalion. Use this to report to Fortress No. 13 in the Northern Border Military Region and go directly through the special recruitment channel."

Li Zhengyang took it and glanced at it; the handwriting was like a dog's scrawl, but the official seal and serial number were complete.

"Can you walk with your leg like that?"

"I won't die." Team Leader patted his broken leg and grimaced. "Xing Feng will help me down the mountain to find a communication point to call for evacuation. You go first. The military transport plane departs from the Northern City Military Airport every day at 2:00 PM; you can still make it today."

Li Zhengyang tucked the recommendation letter away and turned to leave.

"Wait a second." Team Leader called out to him. "You asked me if I had any money."

"Oh, about that." Li Zhengyang turned back.

Team Leader took off an old military watch from his wrist and tossed it over.

"It's worth twenty or thirty thousand; take it as life-saving money."

Li Zhengyang caught it and flipped it over. A line of small text was engraved on the back: Commemoration of the Establishment of the Special Operations Battalion of the Northern Border Military Region.

It was a limited edition; this kind of thing could sell for fifty thousand on the black market.

"Alright, not a loss."

Li Zhengyang pocketed the watch, raised his hand in a gesture to the two of them, and carried his gun down the mountain.

Xing Feng watched his back disappear behind the ridgeline and muttered to Team Leader in a low voice.

"Team Leader, are you sure it's a good thing to recommend someone like him to the Northern Border Military Region?"

Team Leader leaned against a rock and closed his eyes.

"That place has many monsters; it's the perfect place to expend his energy on the right path."

After descending the mountain, Li Zhengyang first returned to Wanbao Pavilion.

Li Zhengyang poured out everything remaining in his space ring.

The scales, tendons, and teeth of the male Flood Lizard, the broken armor fragments of the female Flood Lizard, and some scattered spirit materials he had collected earlier.

Su Jin put on her gloves and spent ten minutes taking inventory.

"Twenty-three complete scales from a Rank 4 Flood Lizard, eight thousand each. Two tendons, fifteen thousand each. Twelve teeth, five thousand each. Seventeen pieces of broken armor from the female Flood Lizard; the quality is a bit poor, so I'll bundle them for twenty thousand. The remaining miscellaneous items are eighteen thousand."

She tapped away on her calculator.

"The previous one million is settled; the total for these remaining items is three hundred and twenty thousand."

"Add these two." Li Zhengyang took out two more beast cores; the dark golden one was particularly eye-catching.

The moment Su Jin picked up the dark golden beast core, her fingers paused slightly.

"A Rank 4 beast core? You killed the Flood Lizard?"

"Is it that strange? It was just a casual matter."

Su Jin was silent for three seconds. Yesterday he sold a Rank 3 beast core, and today he brought out a Rank 4 one.

"The Rank 4 beast core is two hundred and twenty thousand. The smaller one is fifty thousand."

Altogether, five hundred and ninety thousand.

Payment received.

After leaving Wanbao Pavilion, Li Zhengyang hailed a taxi and headed straight for the Northern City Military Airport.

The airport wasn't big; it had one runway, two aprons, and was surrounded by a wire fence. Two armed guards stood at the gate.

Li Zhengyang took out Team Leader's recommendation letter.

The guard took it, looked at it, and then looked at him.

He was in his early twenties, wearing a black T-shirt still stained with blood, carrying a long gun, and his pockets were bulging.

He didn't look like a proper soldier no matter how you looked at him.

But the code and official seal on the recommendation letter were verified, so the guard let him through.

At exactly 2:00 PM, a military transport plane took off from the runway.

There were over twenty people in the cabin, most of them supply escorts, along with a few freelance warriors like Li Zhengyang holding recommendation letters.

The expressions on these people's faces varied; some were excited, some nervous, and some expressionless.

The commonality was that everyone was carrying weapons.

The transport plane flew for four hours.

The scenery outside the window changed from towns to wilderness.

There was no heating in the cabin. The others wrapped themselves tightly in their coats and huddled in their seats, but Li Zhengyang, with his Martial Spirit Rank physique, could handle it. He just wore that black T-shirt, leaning against the cabin wall with his eyes closed to rest.

At 6:00 PM, the transport plane landed.

The moment the cabin door opened, a blast of cold wind poured in, making everyone shiver.

Fortress No. 13.

Li Zhengyang jumped off the ramp and sized up what was in front of him.

Steel.

Steel was everywhere.

A dozen-meter-high alloy city wall enclosed an area of three square kilometers, with densely packed watchtowers and firing points welded onto the walls.

Inside the city wall were rows of sheet-metal barracks, warehouses, and training grounds.

In the distant plains, one could faintly see black dots of monsters wandering around.

A middle-aged man in a military uniform was waiting by the apron, holding an unlit cigarette in his hand.

"New arrival? Recommendation letter."

Li Zhengyang handed it over.

The middle-aged man glanced at it and raised an eyebrow.

"Recommended by Team Leader? Someone from the Special Operations Battalion?"

"Yes."

The middle-aged man looked him up and down for two seconds and took the recommendation letter.

"I am from the Fortress Administration Office, in charge of personnel allocation. According to the recommendation letter, you can be assigned to the Logistics Support Department with a monthly salary of ten thousand, room and board included, and no need to go to the front lines. What do you think..."

"Is there a unit where I can take on missions myself?"

The middle-aged man was stunned.

"You don't want to go to logistics? Logistics is safe, and the salary is stable."

"I don't want stability; I want to kill monsters."

The cigarette in the middle-aged man's mouth almost fell out.

Out of every ten freelance warriors who come to the Northern Border, nine want to squeeze into logistics.

Killing monsters on the front line? That's a job where you carry your head on your belt.

"If you want to take on missions... there's only the Po Feng Battalion."

"What battalion?"

"The Po Feng Battalion. It's a combat unit that specifically recruits freelance warriors and military personnel under disciplinary action. There are no fixed missions; you have to grab orders from the mission hall yourself, and you get paid for how many you kill. The advantage is freedom; the disadvantage is..."

The middle-aged man paused.

"That place is full of troublemakers, gamblers, and desperadoes, and it has the highest mortality rate in the entire fortress. Last month, a platoon went out on patrol, and only a squad returned."

Li Zhengyang's attention was entirely on the six words: "get paid for how many you kill."

"How do I get to the Po Feng Battalion?"

The middle-aged man sighed and pointed to the northwest corner of the fortress.

"Those dilapidated sheet-metal houses over there are it."

Li Zhengyang shouldered his gun and left, but after walking a dozen steps, he turned back.

"By the way, does the Po Feng Battalion pay a salary?"

"The basic allowance is three thousand per month."

"Three thousand is still money."

The Po Feng Battalion's station was indeed dilapidated.

The sheet-metal walls of the barracks were rusted, the sign at the entrance hung crookedly, and the paint on the three characters for "Po Feng Battalion" had almost completely peeled off.

Li Zhengyang pushed the door open and went in; the inside smelled of sweat mixed with alcohol.

On duty at the battalion headquarters was a sergeant with a fleshy face, who was sitting with his legs up, looking at his phone.

"Here to report?"

"Yes."

The sergeant took the document, scanned it, and stamped it with a 'thud'.

"Third Platoon, Seventh Squad. Find your own bunk. Assemble at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. The mission hall opens at 8:00 AM; go grab your own orders. Don't be late; if you're late, your allowance will be deducted."

"Where is the mission hall?"

"In the central area of the fortress, that biggest building."

Li Zhengyang grabbed his bag and went to find a bunk.

The barracks for the Third Platoon, Seventh Squad were in the furthest corner. He pushed the door open to find eight bunk beds with twelve people living there.

A few shirtless men were playing cards. Seeing Li Zhengyang enter, they glanced at him and ignored him.

Li Zhengyang picked a lower bunk against the wall, leaned his gun against the head of the bed, and lay down.

He took out his phone and checked his bank balance.

Northern Border, mobile vault, here I come.

...

The next morning, at the mission hall.

When Li Zhengyang arrived, a long line of people had already formed at the entrance.

The hall was huge. In the very center stood an electronic screen two stories high, with mission entries scrolling densely across it.

Li Zhengyang squeezed forward two steps, but before he could clearly see the words on the screen, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Newbie, go line up in the back."

The voice was rude.

Li Zhengyang turned his head.

A group of people was blocking the best position in front of the electronic screen—seven or eight of them, all wearing combat uniforms with the Fierce Tiger logo.

The leader was a bald, burly man, 1.85 meters tall, with a necklace of beast teeth hanging around his neck.

The bald man glanced at Li Zhengyang and snorted through his nose.

"A newbie from the Po Feng Battalion? The old rules apply: the high-reward bounties in Zone A and Zone B belong to our Fierce Tiger Squad. Newbies go to Zone C to take cleaning missions. Don't block the way."

Li Zhengyang ignored him and stood on tiptoes to look at the screen.

Zone A Mission: Patrol the rich mineral area, hunt down lone monsters of Rank 3 or higher; bounty starts at sixty thousand per monster.

Zone B Mission: Clear out monster nests in designated areas; bounty ranges from thirty thousand to one hundred thousand.

Zone C Mission...

Li Zhengyang's gaze landed on the column for Zone C, and his expression changed.

[Zone C Cleaning Mission]

[Target: Low-level monsters in the fortress's underground sewage pipe network; quantity unknown, estimated at nearly one thousand.]

[Bounty: 2,000 great xia currency per monster, settled by count.]

[Note: Total pipe network area is approximately 12 square kilometers; it is recommended to advance gradually by section.]

A line of red text hung at the bottom of the screen: This mission has been posted for 47 days with no takers.

Two thousand each, nearly one thousand monsters.

Li Zhengyang's pupils contracted.

Even if it's only one thousand, that's two million.

A full two million great xia currency.