District 13

Yero City's outer city, District 13.

A recruitment office sign hung crookedly in front of a huge, somewhat rundown building.

The sign was so old that even the words "Recruitment Office" were partly worn away.

Beneath the setting sun, a bald teenager waved goodbye to the steam-powered vehicle.

Then he stepped through the recruitment office's entrance without hesitation.

"Why is it so deserted here?"

"Where's the guard?"

"Has everyone gone home?"

Just as the rumors said, the recruitment office's entrance stood wide open.

Unfamiliar with the area, Lu Zhan had planned to find someone to give him some "directions," but after wandering around for ages, he hadn't seen a single soul.

It wasn't merely that the recruitment office had no visitors. The entire building showed no sign of life.

Just how bad could their recruitment numbers be?

Has this place been abandoned?

That can't be right. This is the address on the flyer!

Am I really so unlucky that even enlisting isn't an option?

After searching the entire building, Lu Zhan felt his heart sink.

There were plenty of offices here, and their doors even stood wide open.

But their interiors were covered in dust, looking thoroughly abandoned.

Could that middle-aged driver have pulled something to make me cool off?

If so, his good intentions really backfired.

Lu Zhan shouted several times inside the building, but no one answered.

Left with no other choice, he decided to go outside and ask around.

Hopefully, the new recruitment office hadn't moved too far away. Otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to afford the fare.

"Stop!"

"Who are you? How dare you trespass on military premises?"

"I'm giving you a chance to turn over a new leaf. Enlist."

"Otherwise, we'll haul you straight before a military court!"

Lu Zhan froze as soon as he returned to the recruitment office's entrance.

The doors, which supposedly never closed, were now shut.

And that wasn't all. Three soldiers armed with loaded guns had appeared out of nowhere and were aiming at him.

For an instant, Lu Zhan genuinely thought that veteran driver had set him up.

"Little baldy, didn't you bother asking what this place was before coming here to steal?"

"It's your lucky day, running into me. I can give you a chance to turn over a new leaf."

"Otherwise, you'd have been riddled with bullets already."

A potbellied fellow who looked like someone in charge emerged from behind the three soldiers.

His eyes burned with eagerness as he looked at Lu Zhan.

After waiting so long, he'd finally caught another fool who didn't know better.

"I'm not bald. My hair just hasn't grown back yet."

"And I'm not here to steal anything. I'm here to enlist."

"I have a flyer to prove it!"

Being called "little baldy" out of the blue left Lu Zhan somewhat confused.

Only when a cool breeze brushed his scalp did he realize they meant him.

But that wasn't the point. The point was, weren't this recruitment office's tactics a little too underhanded?

This wasn't recruitment. They were press-ganging people!

"What?"

"You're here to enlist?"

"Wonderful, wonderful! What a promising young man!"

"Come, come. Let's get that contract signed right away."

In the breeze, the recruitment flyer in the bald teenager's hand was glaringly conspicuous.

At the sight, Xu Dayong's weathered face reddened.

He'd really gone after one of his own by mistake.

But regardless, he'd "caught" the right person.

This would count toward his performance!

"Director Xu, is recruitment really that difficult for you?"

"Surely it can't be. There are millions of people in Yero City's outer city. Some of them must be unable to scrape by, right?"

"That whole display just now was seriously over the top."

In a freshly cleaned office, Lu Zhan, whom Xu Dayong had warmly ushered inside, sipped coffee while voicing his exasperation.

If he hadn't needed to enlist, that display alone would have made him turn back before it was too late.

"Ah, young Lu, you don't understand!"

"The people of Yero City have become utterly corrupt."

"Promising young men like you are rare indeed."

"Yero City's future will have to rest on your shoulders."

When recruitment came up, Xu Dayong looked utterly heartbroken.

He'd spent three years stationed here and recruited only fifteen soldiers.

Three of those had been "tricked" into joining.

District 13 really was an unlucky place. Of the outer city's thirty-six districts, his recruitment numbers were the worst.

"Director Xu, District 13 has the weakest economy of the outer city's thirty-six districts."

"They say half of Yero City's poor live here."

"If people are so poor they can't afford food, why would they still be afraid to enlist?"

As a precaution, Lu Zhan hadn't signed up in District 9.

Instead, he'd chosen the even poorer District 13.

The gangs entrenched here were hostile to the Wutu Gang, making it difficult for the Wutu Gang to reach into this area.

Lu Zhan had thought this was an extremely wise decision.

But the recruitment office's current state left him feeling uneasy.

There wouldn't be any major problems with enlisting here, would there?

"Don't worry, young Lu. You'll receive exactly the same benefits here as you would anywhere else."

"There are other reasons for District 13's recruitment problems."

"You're from another district, aren't you?"

"In principle, we're not allowed to recruit across district boundaries, but there's always room for exceptions."

"If you're willing to sign up here, I'll arrange special approval for you."

The shrewd old fox Xu Dayong had deduced from Lu Zhan's words alone that he wasn't a District 13

resident.

That put him considerably more at ease about Lu Zhan.

Recruitment had its rules. Outside this office, no one would make an exception for a pauper.

You can't even enlist outside your own district?

Then I've really stumbled into the right place by accident.

Fine. Whatever problems District 13 has, they have nothing to do with me.

Xu Dayong's words made Lu Zhan realize he had no other choice.

That was the tragedy of being poor. Every rule and restriction could bind you.

"Director Xu, I've decided to enlist in District 13."

"But I don't want to be an ordinary soldier. I want to become an Armored Warrior."

"I have the aptitude for it!"

With his mind made up, Lu Zhan wasted no time and laid all his cards on the table.

He concealed neither his former membership in the Wutu Gang nor his recent involvement in the bloody "mutant beast" incident.

After all, the recruitment office could uncover all of this with a little investigation.

He might as well disclose it himself and earn some goodwill with Xu Dayong.

Lu Zhan was gambling that Xu Dayong would help him get past one hurdle after another for the sake of his own performance record.

In the military, ordinary soldiers and Armored Warriors had completely different values. The gap was practically heaven and earth.

Xu Dayong had resorted to press-ganging tactics just to recruit ordinary soldiers.

So going a little further out of bounds to "recruit" an Armored Warrior wasn't out of the question.