A Letter of Recommendation

"How do I get to the Northern Frontier?"

The moment he said it, Zhou Zheng and Xing Feng both breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhou Zheng pulled a waterproof pouch from the inner pocket of his training uniform. Inside was a palm-sized credential booklet and a pen.

He flipped to a blank page and scribbled several crooked lines, then signed it and pressed a bloody fingerprint at the end.

"Recommendation letter from Special Operations Battalion Third Squad. Take this to Fortress No. 13 in the Northern Frontier and report in. You can go straight through the special recruitment channel."

Li Zhengyang took it and gave it a glance. The handwriting looked like a dog had crawled across the page, but the official seal and serial number were all there.

"Can you even walk with your leg like that?"

"Won't kill me." Zhou Zheng slapped his broken leg and bared his teeth. "Xing Feng can help me down the mountain. We'll find a communications point and call for extraction. You go first. Military transport planes leave from the northern military airport at two every afternoon. You can still make it today."

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

"Wait." Zhou Zheng called after him. "You asked whether I had any money."

"Oh, that." Li Zhengyang looked back.

Zhou Zheng took an old military watch from his wrist and tossed it over.

"Worth twenty or thirty thousand. Use it as emergency money."

Li Zhengyang caught it and turned it over. A line of small words was engraved on the back: Northern Frontier Military Region Special Operations Battalion Founding Commemorative.

A limited edition. Something like this could sell for fifty thousand on the black market.

"Fine. I'm not losing out."

Li Zhengyang pocketed the watch, raised a hand in farewell to the two men, and carried his gun down the mountain.

Watching his back vanish beyond the ridgeline, Xing Feng quietly muttered something to Zhou Zheng.

"Squad leader, are you sure recommending someone like him to the Northern Frontier is a good thing?"

Leaning against a rock, Zhou Zheng closed his eyes.

"That place has plenty of Magic Beasts. It's just right for burning off that fire of his on the right path."

After coming down the mountain, Li Zhengyang first returned to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion.

Li Zhengyang dumped everything remaining in his Space Ring.

The male Dragon Lizard's scales, tendons, and teeth; fragments of the female Dragon Lizard's damaged armor; and some scattered Spirit Materials he had accumulated earlier.

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

"Twenty-three intact scales from a Fourth-Rank Dragon Lizard, eight thousand each. Two tendons, fifteen thousand each. Twelve teeth, five thousand each. Seventeen fragments of the female Dragon Lizard's armor. The quality is a little poor, twenty thousand as a bundle. The remaining miscellaneous items are eighteen thousand."

She punched numbers into a calculator.

"The previous one million has been settled. These remaining items total three hundred and twenty thousand."

"Add these two." Li Zhengyang took out two more Beast Cores, the dark-gold one particularly eye-catching.

The instant Su Jin picked up the dark-gold Beast Core, her fingers paused slightly.

"A Fourth-Rank Beast Core? You killed the Dragon Lizard?"

"Is that strange? It was just something I did in passing."

Su Jin fell silent for three seconds. Yesterday, he had sold Third-Rank Beast Cores. Today, he had brought out a Fourth-Rank one.

"The Fourth-Rank Beast Core is worth two hundred and twenty thousand. The smaller one is fifty thousand."

Altogether, that made five hundred and ninety thousand.

The money was transferred.

Leaving the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, Li Zhengyang hailed a cab straight to the northern military airport.

The airport was not large: one runway, two aprons, all encircled by a fence. Two armed guards stood at the entrance.

Li Zhengyang took out Zhou Zheng's recommendation letter.

The guard accepted it, looked it over, then looked at him.

Barely in his twenties, wearing a black T-shirt still stained with blood, a long spear on his back, and bulging pockets.

No matter how one looked at him, he did not resemble a proper soldier.

But the serial number and official seal on the recommendation letter passed verification, so the guard let him through.

At exactly two in the afternoon, a military transport plane lifted off from the runway.

More than twenty people sat inside the cabin. Most were supply escorts, while several were independent Martial Warriors like Li Zhengyang, each holding a recommendation letter.

Their expressions varied. Some were excited, some nervous, and some completely blank-faced.

The one thing they shared was that every one of them carried a weapon.

The transport plane flew for four hours.

Outside the windows, towns gave way to wilderness.

There was no heating in the cabin. The others wrapped their coats tightly around themselves and shrank into their seats. Li Zhengyang's Martial Spirit-level physique could withstand it, so he remained in that black T-shirt, leaning against the cabin wall with his eyes closed to rest.

At six in the evening, the transport plane landed.

The instant the cabin door opened, an icy wind rushed inside, making everyone shudder violently.

Fortress No. 13.

Li Zhengyang jumped down the boarding stairs and looked over what lay before him.

Steel.

Steel everywhere.

Alloy walls over ten meters high enclosed an area roughly three kilometers across. Dense watchtowers and firing positions had been welded along the walls.

Inside the walls stood rows of sheet-metal barracks, warehouses, and training grounds.

Far out on the plains, black dots of wandering Magic Beasts could vaguely be seen.

A middle-aged man in military uniform waited beside the apron, an unlit cigarette pinched between his fingers.

"New arrival? Recommendation letter."

Li Zhengyang handed it over.

The middle-aged man glanced at it, and one brow rose.

"Recommended by Zhou Zheng? Someone from the Special Operations Battalion?"

"Yeah."

The man looked him up and down for two seconds before putting away the recommendation letter.

"I'm from the fortress administration office, in charge of personnel assignments. According to this recommendation letter, you can be assigned to logistics support. Ten thousand a month, food and lodging included, no need to go to the front line. What do you think...?"

"Are there any positions where I can take missions on my own?"

The middle-aged man froze for a moment.

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

"I don't want stability. I want to kill Magic Beasts."

The cigarette in the man's mouth nearly fell out.

Of the independent Martial Warriors who came to the Northern Frontier, nine out of ten wanted to squeeze into logistics.

Hunting Magic Beasts on the front line? That was a business where you tucked your head into your waistband.

"If you want to take missions... there's only the Bladebreaker Battalion."

"What battalion?"

"Bladebreaker Battalion. A combat unit specifically for taking in independent Martial Warriors and military disciplinary cases. There are no fixed missions. You have to fight for jobs in the mission hall yourself, and however many you kill is however much you earn. The upside is freedom. The downside is..."

The middle-aged man paused.

"That place is full of thorns, gamblers, and desperadoes. Its death rate is the highest in the entire fortress. Last month, a platoon went out on patrol. When they came back, only one squad remained."

Li Zhengyang's attention was entirely on the six words, "however many you kill is however much you earn."

"How do I get to the Bladebreaker Battalion?"

The middle-aged man sighed and pointed toward the fortress's northwestern corner.

"Those sheet-metal houses that look the most rundown."

Li Zhengyang walked off with his gun on his back, then turned around after more than ten steps.

"Oh, right. Does the Bladebreaker Battalion pay a salary?"

"Three thousand a month in base allowance."

"Three thousand is still money."

The Bladebreaker Battalion's station really was rundown.

The sheet-metal walls of the barracks were mottled with rust. The sign at the entrance hung crookedly, and the paint on the words "Bladebreaker Battalion" had nearly peeled away.

Li Zhengyang pushed open the door. Sweat stench mixed with the smell of alcohol hit him from inside.

The man on duty at battalion headquarters was a burly sergeant with a face full of flesh, lounging with his legs propped up as he looked at his phone.

"Reporting in?"

"Yeah."

The sergeant took the documents, skimmed them, and stamped them with a loud smack.

"Third Platoon, Seventh Squad. Find your own bunk. Assemble at six tomorrow morning. The mission hall opens at eight, so go fight for your own jobs. Don't be late. Late arrivals lose allowance."

"Where's the mission hall?"

"In the fortress's central district. The biggest building."

Li Zhengyang carried his bag off to find a bunk.

Third Platoon, Seventh Squad's barracks sat in the farthest corner. When he pushed the door open, he saw eight sets of bunk beds housing twelve people.

Several bare-chested men were playing cards. They glanced at Li Zhengyang when he entered, then ignored him.

Li Zhengyang chose a lower bunk against the wall, rested his gun against the bedframe, and lay down.

He took out his phone and checked his bank balance.

Northern Frontier, mobile vault, your daddy is here.

Early the next morning, the mission hall.

By the time Li Zhengyang arrived, a long line had already formed outside the entrance.

The hall was huge. At its center stood an electronic screen two stories tall, densely packed with mission listings.

Li Zhengyang squeezed forward two steps. Before he could make out the words on the screen, someone patted his shoulder.

"New guy, get to the back of the line."

The voice was far from polite.

Li Zhengyang turned his head.

A group blocked the best spots before the electronic screen. There were seven or eight of them, all wearing training uniforms printed with a fierce tiger emblem.

Their leader was a bald brute, one meter eighty-five tall, with a necklace of Beast fangs around his neck.

The bald man swept Li Zhengyang with a glance and snorted through his nose.

"A Bladebreaker Battalion rookie? By the old rules, the high-paying bounties in Zone A and Zone B belong to our Fierce Tiger Squad. Rookies can go to Zone C and take cleanup jobs. Don't block the way."

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

Zone A mission: patrol rich mineral zones and hunt lone Magic Beasts of Third Rank or above. Rewards started at sixty thousand per beast.

Zone B mission: clear Magic Beast nests in designated areas. Rewards ranged from thirty thousand to one hundred thousand.

Zone C missions...

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

[C Zone Cleanup Mission]

[Target: Low-level Magic Beasts in the fortress underground sewage pipe network. Number unknown, estimated to be nearly one thousand.]

[Reward: 2,000 Great Xia yuan per beast, settled by count.]

[Note: Total pipe network area approximately 12 square kilometers. Gradual advancement by zones is recommended.]

A line of red text hung beneath the screen: This mission has been posted for 47 days. No one has accepted it.

Two thousand per beast, nearly a thousand beasts.

Li Zhengyang's pupils contracted.

Even if there were only one thousand, that was still two million.

A full two million Great Xia yuan.