Shi Lang and Quinn finished their conversation and life returned to normal for them. The mundane routine was changed when Shi Lang asked X for permission to get an independent lab space. The reason he stated was to try and develop a weapon for his beast companion, to see if she can be more advanced aid in combat.
X agreed to it and the young man busied himself inside the lab. Do not forget this guy was a tech genius in his school. Inside the lab, there were not only tools but also knowledge for his aid. He did not directly jump into creating some tools, but he researched a bit first. Now other than reading and listening to the X’s lectures, sparring with Quinn, and working up a two-man strategy in the simulation realm, Shi Lang would spend most of his time inside the lab.
A few weeks passed and one day he received a message from Amelia that she was going on a special scout mission and will text him in a few days. Shi Lang replied to her to take care of herself outside and stuff like that.
Then he got busy with his work again. After a complete month, when Shi Lang had finished developing a few tools for Zysha, Quinn came looking for him at the lab.
The door was knocked at, Shi Lang raised his head to check on the door cam, found Quinn standing outside. He said, “Unlock.”
The voice command system worked and the door was opened with a click. Quinn rushed in and said, “Ace, let’s go, the team they assembled is here. Come on.”
Shi Lang raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, “How come there is no notification on the communicator?”
Quinn was exasperated, she said, “Are you kidding me? Fuck your communicator and fuck your notification. Get your ass moving, the people are already waiting in the briefing room.”
Just as Shi lang was about to scold her, the communicator buzzed. He saw the message calling him over to the briefing room. He nodded and moved said, “Come Zysha, we have people to meet.”
The tigress stood up and followed the young man. She was complaining to him about the extra weight on her ears. This was a device that Shi Lang had made for her. It was a pair with a collar on her neck. Shi Lang made the collar look like some ornament to cover up a module inside it. The collar would emit a high range soundwave, and the earring will receive the data, creating a mental image in Zysha’s mind.
The three people moved through the corridor but when they came in front of the Briefing room, Shi Lang gave Quinn a cold gaze and said, “Do not speak until you are asked to.”
Quinn nodded and saluted him like a junior. She was very lax in terms of discipline, and these days Shi Lang had often beaten her black and blue for this, so she was quite restrained in front of his cold gaze. The young man knocked on the door and heard a cold and indifferent voice from the inside, “Come in.”
Shi Lang pushed opened the door and like a gentleman gestured for Quinn to in first. He followed her inside and found four people sitting in front of X with their backs facing him. He saluted X and the man said, “Ace, these are your team members, You all are to go out in the wild, settle in a camp there, and train for a week before you depart for the Neomon territory. Any Questions?”
Shi lang replied, “No Sir.”
He did not notice but three people out of four shivered slightly when his voice rang out. X nodded and said, “You are capable of commanding a chopper, you will be taking the team out there immediately. The ration supplies have been stored in the treehouse. The location has been sent to your communicator. Now dismissed.”
Shi Lang saluted him and waited for the team members to stand up before he could go out. The team members stood up, took a few steps back, saluted X, and turned around before facing Shi Lang.
The young man opened his eyes wide for a few seconds, then he regained his composure, and with a nod, he said, “I am Major Ace, the commanding officer of the team, the rest of the details we will discuss after arriving at the treehouse.”
The people nodded and they moved out. Behind him, he could hear Quinn whispering to the people to ignore his uptightness. He smirked slightly and walked out of the base to the spaceport to commandeer the chopper allotted to them. He did not say much and got in the pilot position. Quinn took in the co-pilot and Zysha sat in the cabin with the other four people.
After communication and clearance from the base tower, they flew up. Shi Lang said, “Welcome to Mythya. The person you just met was the commanding officer of the Card Class. We will be now living in an isolated secondary base called the treehouse. It is used for covert team training that even the members of the card class are unaware of.”
Quinn said, “I hope you all do not mind, Major Ace is very uptight.” she said in a low voice.
Suddenly, she heard a burst of loud laughter in the cabin, a guy spoke up, “He is uptight? You should have seen him kissing the school goddess in front of the whole class.”
Followed by this sounded a female voice, “He was late for his classes almost daily, until the final day.”
Shi Lang could not control it anymore and said, “Okay, Head Teacher, Jenkins, spare me some leeway, this lady beside me is Quinn, she is my adjutant on the mission and she lacks in terms of discipline, Head Teacher you better line her up.”
The person who spoke first was Jenkins, and he was followed by Rosa Blues, Shi lang’s old headteacher. The lady said, “I am no longer your Head Teacher, Major Ace, you should address me by my rank, Colonel Blues.”
Shi Lang replied, “Understood Colonel.”
Quin gave him a surprised look, and asked out loud, “This stone-faced guy can actually be romantic? Do you know that in the past month I have suffered thirty fractures? One of them almost took me out for good.”
Jenkins replied, “The reply should come from the only second person herself. Major Amelia, any comments?”
The third person was Amelia, she shook her head and said nothing. Quinn asked, “Do you all know him?”
The fourth guy shook his head and said, “I do not know him, but I have heard a lot. I used to be a part of the secret divisions, name is Darcx, they did tell me about a guy who completed an SSS mission within the year of joining. They told me his name was Ace.”
Shi Lang said, “Do you not know, it is classified information that you just revealed?” his voice was cold and made everyone shiver.
The guy replied, “I apologize, sir, I do not know the details just the legend.”
Shi Lang replied, “Get buckled in if you are not, we are going down.”
The people were confused and hurriedly buckled up when they felt the chopper nose-diving. The speed and the scene in front of them were scary. Even Zysha had her nails dug into the floor as she growled.
Shi Lang said nothing but only dived, when the people closed their eyes thinking they were about to crash, they passed through a narrow crack in the forest ground. The crack was big enough to fit a chopper through, and it was two hundred meters deep. Just when the people in the cabin musted up the courage to open their eyes, they found the fall to be breaking.
They looked around and found a place that seemed to be a cave underground but this cave was as deep as the highest building and as wide as a whole city. Shi Lang said, “Welcome to the treehouse.”
Jenkins said, “What the fuck.”
Amelia, Rosa, and Dracx were having similar expressions on their faces. They did not expect it to be such a place. Amelia asked, “How come this place has natural light, and it seems to be coming from below.”
Quinn replied, “The source of this light is the liquid system here.”
Rosa asked, “Do you mean water?”
Quinn chuckled and said, “More like liquid Diamond. You will know once we are down there.”
Shi Lang controlled the chopper and they began to descend. Jenkins asked, “You have been living on this planet, what is this a paradise?”
Shi Lang chuckled and said, “Yeah, why don’t I leave you alone in this paradise and let you deal with the natives.”
Quinn chirped, “You have no idea, how dangerous it is here.”
With that said, the team landed on the ground and training kicked off.