Chapter 130 - Onward to the Ruins
At dawn, Xia Fei packed up and walked out of the dormitory, ready to meet up with the other members of the internal division who would explore the mysterious ancient ruins for the first time in their lives.
This exploration was strictly kept under wraps from the cadets. Every cadet participating only received a simple message, which briefly informed them of the date and the approximate time the entire expedition would take place. There was no mention of where it was located, what kinds of dangers lurked, or what special preparations they might need.
The ancient ruins did not just symbolize the ancient civilization. All types of ruins contained varying amounts of relics, and these items, which were far beyond the technological levels of modern-day society, could be sold for incredible prices on the black market; this was not mentioning the incredible research value they represented.
Thus, it was incredibly normal that the Adjudicator Union would keep the ruins, which were under their control, a big secret.
Chen Dong and Moon Song had been waiting on the white stone arch bridge outside of the dorms. The others were waiting next to the internal division launch pad, and there appeared to be around forty people. All of these cadets had been fully immersed in their training, so many of them had faces unfamiliar to Xia Fei despite being in the same division.
Moon Song was leaning lazily on a fence in a tight-fitting, black combat uniform, which accentuated her curvy figure. In truth, Moon Song was a woman of good taste; unfortunately, her unique personality kept most people at bay.
Moon Song asserted that she liked women, not men, but Xia Fei had never seen her bringing a girl back to her dorm, and every time it was brought up, Moon Song would say that the women in the camp did not suit her taste. Xia Fei never looked any deeper into it as her sexuality was no concern of his.
“I don’t have any interest in exploring; my aim is to try and find opportunities to battle other cadets, especially Bai Ye and Ya Han. Ya Han is apparently the strongest among our generation of recruits, so I’ve been itching to fight him for a long time. Bai Ye, on the other hand, had a dispute with Xia Fei during the race, so I’ve been wanting to teach him a lesson.”
“There are many messy rules within the training camp, and combat challenges can be declined. I should have a chance at it now that we are about to go outside,” Chen Dong muttered as they walked; it seemed like he had put a lot of thought into this.
Xia Fei simply laughed. It was not surprising that Chen Dong, with his personality, would think like this. Having been training hard all this while without getting much of a chance to fight someone, he must be all pent-up. Since he finally had a chance to leave the training room, what else would he do other than fight?
Moon Song gave Chen Dong a hard look. “Musclehead, are you going to die if you don’t fight? Whatever. Xia Fei and I can form a team, too, right?”
At the same time, Moon Song glanced at Xia Fei with a hint of a pleasant surprise.
Xia Fei waved his hand. “We still don’t know any of the specifics. I’m of the mind that we should wait; it’s not too late to figure out our strategy once we get a better understanding of what to expect.”
“Xia Fei.” Moon Song crossed her arms, then glared at him. “Do you not want to team up with this lady?”
Xia Fei was left speechless. Since Moon Song had already started referring to herself as ‘this lady’ at such a young age, he felt that he should steer clear of this tigress.
After chatting for a while longer, the Gaian Catalyst-class destroyer slowly appeared from afar and descended to land.
Bosingwa, Ye Xiaohan, and two other internal division instructors exited the ship, all wearing combat uniforms and armed with weapons, all of them looking particularly stern as they stood there.
After confirming everyone’s identity, the forty or so cadets boarded the ship.
The destroyer was much more spacious than a frigate and still felt that way even after all of them had boarded.
Xia Fei habitually looked around the ship to check out its equipment.
From the outside, the Catalyst-class destroyer seemed incredibly average, but inside, it was equipped with a high-capacity reactor and a large engine that Xia Fei did not recognize.
“Is this ship perhaps about to engage in ultra-long-distance travel? Why else will it need such large-scale equipment, and what model is this engine?” wondered Xia Fei.
Xia Fei, Moon Song, and Chen Dong sat down on a sofa in a corner. Ye Xiaohan then handed everyone a pair of virtual reality glasses so that they could view whatever they wanted to pass time.
“This ruin exploration involves the core secrets of the Union, so everyone has to sign a non-disclosure agreement. You can’t reveal anything that happens in the ruins,” Bosingwa said in a deep voice; it appeared that he was leading this operation.
The agreement was an electronic one; they just had to provide their fingerprints using the projected screen. After everyone had signed their NDAs, the Catalyst-class destroyer slowly took off as they headed toward the ruins.