Thirty kilometers outside Night Spirit City.
A sprawling camp stood among the rolling, low hills.
This was one of Sky City's military bases, and a large section of it had been set aside specifically for the Crimson Training Camp.
Up in the staff dormitory building, Shen Xinghai, a man of about thirty-five or thirty-six, sat on the balcony, feeling the mountain breeze brush his weathered cheeks. The scar over his left eye twitched involuntarily.
He was one of the instructors for this training camp, hailing from the Land of Exiles. He had barely transferred from the front lines to the rear when he received the assignment.
He was a Sequence 7 Awakened.
Frowning, he tapped the stiff document with his callused fingers and scanned the roster for this training camp. When he spotted a few familiar names, he bit down on the cigarette in his mouth.
"Goddamn it..."
"Nothing but pampered young ladies and rich brats. What the hell are they coming here for? Are we supposed to train them or wait on them?"
He scratched his tangled, coarse black hair, curled his tongue, and bit the cigarette into his mouth a little at a time. Ignoring the glowing embers, he chewed it.
As if he were chewing gum.
Crunch!
Crunch!
His face was a picture of enjoyment.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound from inside the room, like a rat gnawing on something.
He turned and discovered that the captain of Sky City's Second Squad, an old comrade who had fought alongside him on the Wasteland front lines, was eating the Great Fiend jerky he had brought back.
The two exchanged a glance and laughed.
"Even you got dragged in to be an instructor? Looks like they're really going all out this time." Shen Xinghai grinned.
"Can't be helped.