A Beautiful Young Lieutenant's Invitation

As for Xu De on the other side, he was just eating normally. The youth took a sip of yogurt, used it to wash down the dry sandwich that had clearly been sitting out for too long, and continued.

"I recall Ptolemy has a paid restaurant, right?"

"Yeah, what do you want to do?"

Hans asked curiously, and the other three looked over upon hearing this.

Of course, there was a paid restaurant; it served organic meat and vegetables flown in from Earth.

It was expensive as hell, but it was genuinely delicious.

"What else would I do besides eat..."

Xu De said, speechless.

"Pfft!!!"

Hans exaggeratedly sprayed the water from his mouth.

"Damn it! Why the hell did you spray that on purpose!"

Price, who had been splashed all over, said indignantly from across the table.

He had seen it clearly; after hearing Xu De's words, Hans had deliberately held a mouthful of water before spitting it out.

"Are you sick?"

"Sorry, I've always wanted to try that."

Hans handed the tissues at his side to Price and continued.

"But why do you want to go eat?"

"What do you mean why? Why wouldn't I eat after making money?"

Xu De silently took the tissues to wipe his face, while simultaneously taking out the manual he had quickly tucked away just a moment ago.

"I thought you'd say, 'Instead of wasting time eating, we should keep training hard.'"

Hans mimicked Xu De's tone, acting a bit cocky, which made the other two burst into laughter.

"I'm not an ascetic monk..."

The prize money was about to be issued; only a fool wouldn't spend money when they have it.

They worked so hard every day, so wouldn't it be unreasonable not to treat themselves?

Balancing work and rest was equally important.

Eating something good was also conducive to the absorption of knowledge.

A meal wouldn't take up too much time, as they had to eat anyway.

Besides, every time one improves, there should be a reward.

Only with the consciousness of becoming better can one have the motivation to move forward.

Otherwise, why would games give out rewards every time you level up?

A resilient spirit was important, but as long as it wasn't indulging in vices to the point of losing one's ambition, Xu De wouldn't be pedantic enough to refuse spending money where it was due.

After all, wasn't he working so hard just to live a better life?

On the battlefield, everyone had their own way of persevering; it couldn't be ruled out that some people were truly ascetic, but this was Xu De's own method.

"I was going to treat you guys, but forget it if you aren't going."

Xu De said.

"We're going! Of course we're going!"

Hearing Xu De's words, the three of them excitedly raised their hands.

They were about to vomit from eating this bread and yogurt.

Xu De still had a million; only a fool wouldn't eat.

After agreeing, Hans suddenly revealed a mischievous grin.

"How about we go see if there are any pretty girls after we eat? There are way more people at the base than here."

"And we have military merits under our belts now, too."

Facing Hans's grin, Xu De merely raised his eyes and glanced at him.

Ever since those young women had approached him before, this guy seemed to have triggered some strange switch.

Or perhaps he had just been pent up for too long.

"Not going, it takes too long."

"..."

This time, it was Hans and the others' turn to be speechless.

They suspected Xu De was bragging, but they had no evidence.

Finally, after a long wait, they arrived inside the Ptolemy.

It felt quite different from the seamless, unified impression it gave from the outside.

The facilities within this base were actually quite comprehensive.

There were barbershops, restaurants, billiard halls, and even hotels.

In short, it satisfied everyone's various needs.

The only problem was that the living conditions for ordinary soldiers were truly hard to compliment.

Because the units had been completely broken up, Xu De was currently arranged to stay with other ordinary soldiers.

After all, his rank was currently only that of a corporal.

Even if Revil had the intention to look after him, he wouldn't go so far as to upgrade Xu De's room.

Xu De was a subordinate he favored, not his ancestor.

Xu De himself had no special requests, and he didn't feel that the place was all that bad.

Although it was indeed worse than in his previous life, resembling those messy pigeonholes from 2077.

But at the end of the day, it was just a place to stay.

If he had a choice, he would want to live somewhere better, but given the circumstances, living in a worse place wouldn't kill him.

The higher-ups were still in serious discussions, and if he started demanding this and that, he would just be rushing to his own death.

He was still counting on getting a Gundam, after all.

"Xu De~!"

Just as he had finished putting his luggage on his bunk, the figure of Bella appeared before the young man.

The girl's appearance caused the chaotic and crowded barracks to quiet down a bit.

Bella, on the other hand, swept her gaze around the space filled with various body odors with a look of disgust before continuing.

"Shall we go to the restaurant to talk?"

Hearing Bella's words, the silence in the dormitory was such that one could hear a pin drop.

A bright and beautiful woman in the uniform of a second lieutenant was taking the initiative to invite this corporal before them.

They had only ever seen this kind of scene in novels.

If it weren't for the fact that Second Lieutenant Bella's rank kept them from acting rashly, they would certainly have gone up to introduce themselves.

But considering she was a second lieutenant at that age, she was either an elite or someone with connections.

Therefore, no one was truly crazy enough to try and show off in front of a beauty.

Of course, that didn't stop them from shooting daggers at Xu De.

Naturally, there were also those who already knew Xu De, and they looked at him with expressions of admiration.

No wonder Xu De had kept himself so clean and disciplined on the ship; it turned out he had a girlfriend of officer rank.

Everyone was clearly a new recruit who had only enlisted a few months ago, so why was only Xu De so outstanding?

Was this actually real?

Thinking this, several of them wanted to pinch their own faces to see if they were under an illusion, or if they had actually died at the World Tree and these were their dying fantasies.

But surely they wouldn't fantasize about someone else's life...?

"Who is that? To think an officer would take the initiative to find him."

Several people who didn't know Xu De's identity began to whisper among themselves.

At the same time, the looks they cast toward Xu De carried a hint of hostility; in their eyes, he was likely a gigolo.

It wasn't that being a gigolo was bad, but rather that they couldn't be one themselves, let alone land a gigolo gig of this quality.

"You guys don't know? Xu De is a genius in our Third Fleet!"

"I've even spoken to him before!"

Hearing the discussion, those who were originally from the Third Fleet couldn't help but step forward to enlighten them before they even had a chance to pinch their own faces.

Their faces were filled with pride.

Ignoring the gazes of others, Xu De gave a nod and followed Bella into the restaurant.

It wasn't an ordinary restaurant, but the high-end one Xu De had mentioned earlier that required one to pay out of pocket.

There weren't many people coming and going at the moment, but it was clear that the restaurant staff recognized Bella.

After all, money made one a master, and having both money and connections made one the master of masters.

This restaurant was clearly backed by some connections to be able to open here, and they were even more respectful toward Bella.

And so, amidst the manager's obsequious behavior, the two of them arrived at a private room deep inside.

Even though the straight-line distance from the barracks was less than ten kilometers, the environment was a world apart from the deeper underground quarters they had just left.

Although they were still underground, the table was made of expensive wood shipped up from Earth, and outside the transparent floor-to-ceiling windows, a small patch of bamboo forest was planted—it was hard to tell if it was real or fake.

Even the scent in the room was like the gardens of Xu De's hometown in his memories.

Clearly, this was a private room with an East Asia theme.