Chapter 89: Chapter 87: You Must Have a Child with Me l
Translator: 549690339
“Harrison Clark, please accept my condolences.”
Wearing a neatly pressed military uniform, Nora Camp took the urn containing Daniel Thompson’s ashes from Harrison Clark’s hand and placed it on the memorial tower beside her.
Harrison Clark nodded expressionlessly.
Grief, however, didn’t quite describe his feelings.
He simply wasn’t used to the sensation of a familiar face dying before his eyes, before the final curtain.
He hated this feeling, which was why he had always tried to maintain a distance from others during his time in the military.
But one can’t always control the circumstances.
This time, he had unintentionally spent an extensive amount of time with Lion, and before he knew it, the square-faced man had left a mark on his heart with a chisel.
He leaped up, his hand gripping a golden knife, and carved another name into the massive memorial tower.
Daniel Thompson.
“Salute! At ease!”
Nora Camp stepped forward and shouted loudly.
Below the stage, tens of thousands of instructors and new recruits from the Black Bear Training Base saluted in unison.
The military song “The Fire” resounded through the air once more.
Everyone stood at attention and paid their respects.
The strong wind whipped the bright red flags, making them flutter and rustle. The atmosphere was solemn, desolate, and somber.
Accompanied by the stirring military song, Nora Camp used her clear and crisp voice to shout powerfully.
“A general dies a hundred times in battle, yet his body remains wrapped in horsehide. Instructor Hill has gone ahead of us, and we will not let his blood be shed in vain! Return to the training base and continue training!”
A massive, dark crowd silently dispersed to their respective training locations.
Harrison Clark immersed himself in training once more, with even greater focus and dedication than before.
He even forgot the original intention of his trip – to copy songs.
His motivation was simple.
Every time he allowed his heart to be idle, he couldn’t help but recall Lion’s last words.
Although the hope was slim, almost nonexistent, he decided to follow Lion’s wish and try to fight on the front lines once.
To try and taste the sensation of striving towards the distant goal of becoming a savior.
After all, he had to live on Lion’s behalf and strive to survive until the end of civilization.
Harrison Clark’s dedication caused problems for the base’s technicians responsible for equipment maintenance and logistics.
He could always easily operate at over 23G acceleration, but the Azure Dragon Armor couldn’t withstand it.
The failure and damage rate of his training equipment was too high. Almost every training session would cause large-scale cracks in the vital components and joint areas of the Azure Dragon Armor.
“Can you please take it easy? You break a set every day, and the general assembly has tailored seven sets for you according to your size—it’s not enough to keep up with your consumption. Do you know how much it costs to completely repair the Azure Dragon Armor once? Not to mention that many of your components are irreversibly damaged! You bum through millions of credits daily, which is enough for the annual consumption of tens of thousands of ordinary households!”
Looking at the Azure Dragon Armor that was constantly shedding metal fragments, Professor Owen couldn’t bear the heartache and said this.
It was unbearable.
Only half an hour had passed since Harrison Clark used the serum, and he had already ruined another set!
Harrison Clark did some mental calculations in his mind, comparing it to the era he lived in, equivalent to spending several hundred million RMB a day.
That was not too bad.
He asked back, “Professor Owen, according to the military’s usual philosophy, isn’t this what should be expected? Good steel should be used on the cutting edge, and my purpose is to test the limits of human combat prowess, isn’t it? Did I do anything against the rules?”
Professor Owen’s mouth twitched, “That’s true, I don’t mean to blame you, it’s just that I feel sorry for these excellent equipment. Sigh.”
Harrison Clark retorted, “I’ve been training for so long, and I still haven’t reached my limit. It’s these things that are holding me back. How can this be considered good equipment? If the operator has to suppress their abilities to adapt to the equipment, what’s the point of the training? If I don’t improve, what’s the meaning of practice?”
Professor Owen actually wanted to say that there was indeed no need to train anymore.
Harrison Clark had already raised the limit of human operation skills to an unprecedented level.
The military had long utilized the data collected from his daily training to compile a new Azure Dragon Armor training program.
This new program had brought human piloting skills of the Azure Dragon Armor to an almost unattainable level for nearly all operators.
Up to now, even the second-fastest learner in the military had only completed less than a quarter of the new program.
And the program only got more challenging towards the end.
According to the Central Intelligence data simulation, no one would be able to complete half of the newly compiled program within the remaining year.
So, in a sense, humanity no longer needed Harrison Clark to train so hard.
As Harrison Clark had once observed, even if an individual’s strength soared to break through the sky, it was still just a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things.
Harrison Clark might become the tallest, strongest plank in the barrel effect, but it wouldn’t help the barrel hold even a single extra drop of water.
The reason why the top military officials in today’s world still indulged Harrison Clark’s extravagant waste of resources was, on the one hand, their extravagant hope that through his progress, they would be able to see the ultimate peak of human combat ability; and, on the other hand, it served as compensation for Harrison Clark’s contributions.There was even a faint idea circulating among the military high-ranking officials.
The human body, as a carbon-based mammal, limited Harrison Clark’s potential.
Although humanity had already stepped out of Earth and established bases with manufacturing capabilities on Mercury, Venus, and Mars, the sum of the energy that humans have dominated so far had barely exceeded the total amount of solar radiation that Earth could receive each year.
Thus, humanity had just barely crossed the threshold of Type I Civilization – the Homeworld Civilization. It was like an infant making its way towards a Type II Civilization – Planetary Civilization, still at the very bottom of the Kardashev Civilization scale.
The human brain and nervous systems had not yet evolved and were not yet adapted to the new interstellar era.
The low level of the Homeworld Civilization limited the heights that someone with extraordinary potential, such as Harrison Clark, could ultimately reach, and the universe did not afford humanity and Harrison much more time to advance.
If it weren’t for the current disaster, if Harrison had been born a few thousand years later when the human race had completed its next stage of evolution, possessing a more formidable brain, better cosmic observation capabilities, and a more stable and efficient nervous system, then perhaps he would have been able to unleash his true potential.
It could even be said that Harrison might represent the next stage of humanity, regarded as a “superhuman” or perhaps “post-human.”
However, it was all too late, and there was no more time.
It was the human Homeworld Civilization that owed Harrison Clark.
So, although his current training method was a bit resource-intensive, it was still acceptable, and the military higher-ups did not call a stop to it with some expectations in mind.
“Alright, I couldn’t convince you otherwise, but take it easy on yourself and don’t train so hard that you cause stress injuries.”
“Mhm.”
Professor Owen left.
Harrison swapped back to the simulator, experiencing the false sensation of 28G.
Unfortunately, the real machine could simply not withstand this level of intensity and would fall apart instantly; he could only indulge in fantasies about what it would feel like while using the training simulator.
Once he had experienced the real machine, even the most realistic simulators could not satisfy his needs.
Not long after, a notification came through Harrison’s helmet.
“Lieutenant Harrison Clark, please pause your training and report to Major General Nora Camp’s office.”
Harrison, with a puzzled heart, went to the command center.
After the military competition, General Nora Camp had disappeared for a while, and he had no idea what the general had been busy with.
Why did she summon him as soon as she returned?
He knocked on the door.
“Please, come in.”
Harrison entered the room.
Nora Camp was standing with her back to him, looking up at a three-dimensional star map based on the Solar System, seemingly lost in thought.
Just as Harrison was about to ask her what she wanted to see him for, she turned around, scrutinizing him for a few seconds before walking to the side, picking up a cup from the shelf, and pouring a glass of orange juice for Harrison. “Would you like some?”
Harrison took the glass and sipped it lightly, “So, General Camp, why did you call for me?”
Nora Camp sat down beside him and nodded, “Yes, have you decided which spaceship to choose?”
Harrison was at a loss, “I sent you reports recently, wanting to see the information about the various spaceships in the fleet, but you were away from the base, and I couldn’t make a decision without the data.”
Nora Camp smiled, “I deliberately didn’t let you see it.”
Harrison was not surprised, it was expected, “But that’s the right of the army games champion. If you won’t let me see it now, once it’s time to board next month, I would naturally be able to see.”
“Why don’t you just simply choose The Giant Wave?” General Camp asked unwillingly.
Harrison shook his head, “That would be unfair to me and the other captains.”
Nora Camp seemed to see through him, “Excuses, that’s not your real intention.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Harrison smiled calmly.
General Camp took a deep breath, “I guess you don’t know much about me yet. You may be considered a cross-era genius in the field of Azure Dragon Armor control. And I, Nora Camp, the youngest battleship commander in history, am a genius in the field of combat command! Only on my battleship could you truly become the cutting-edge weapon humanity needs.”
Harrison couldn’t help but laugh, “Is that so? Then can you tell me what kind of enemy we are facing? How do you plan on using me in battle? What stance should I take when facing what kind of enemy? Who exactly should I be stabbing with this sharp blade?”
Nora Camp’s expression froze.
Harrison’s question had stumped her.
So far, as to what type of civilization the enemy was and how the war would break out, the military had spent hundreds of years calculating billions of possibilities, but none had reached a definite conclusion.
“Forget it, let’s not talk about that. I’ll let you access the data tomorrow.”
“Thank you, general.”
“I will also ask researchers from the Yellowstone Research Institute to design and modify the Azure Dragon Armor specifically for you, in order to produce a higher-performing model. I have been running around dealing with this matter recently.”
Harrison’s face lit up with joy, “Thank you, general!”
“But you have to promise me one condition.”
“Please, go on.”
Nora Camp took a deep breath, locking eyes with Harrison, “You have to have a child with me..”