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To the East! (1)
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Carl Gustav immediately set out to go to the Commander’s office to report about Iron’s decision to accept the East’s request to investigate Ghost Island. He thought that it would be better if he reported this early so they would have less chances of robbing them of an important figure. And also to receive lesser lashings from the curses of the commander. However, Carl Gustav thought wrong.
“Captain… are you alright?”
Iron looked apologetic as he asked Carl Gustav. But Carl did not answer him. He just nodded at Iron with a haggard look on his face.
“Because of me… I’m sorry.”
“I’m alright.”
Carl Gustav forced a smile as he handed the documents to him.
“This is the order to temporarily assign you to the East.”
“Ah… Then, will my status as a Ghost disappear too?”
“No. You’re TEM. PO. RA. RI. LY. assigned to the East so you will maintain your original status as a Ghost.”
Carl Gustav emphasized the word temporarily as he asked him to never forget that he was a Ghost even after going to the East.
“I understand.”
Gustav nodded when he saw Iron smiling as he answered him.
“Good. There will be more explanations later. But once you arrive in the East, you will be a member of the direct investigation team under the Eastern Command.”
“Who’s part of the team?”
“You will be moving with the East’s strongest Knight Order, the Wave Knights, and their strongest fleet, the Blue Whale.”
Carl Gustav told Iron the members of the team roughly.
“I mentioned this earlier, but there will be one other-worlder divine beast contractor and three spiritualists. There’s also a new star from the East in the group.”
“The East’s new star?”
“That’s right. There will probably be a lot of people who want to compare with you.”
Iron looked at Carl as if he couldn’t understand his words.
“Are you talking about me?”
“I think the Northeast must have overexaggerated your packaging.”
“Ah…”
“If they undermine you then they can naturally bring down the other new stars from the North. So, it’s like hitting two birds with one stone, you know?”
Iron looked at Carl Gustav incredulously. A sigh came out from the military’s political moves. He had already seen enough political forces carrying trashes around while the Northeast was being devastated back in his previous life so this was something that he really did not want to deal with again.
“It’s already giving me a headache.”
“Hoo… I told you not to go.”
Carl Gustav sighed as he spoke.
However, the rewards were too great for him to give up on this. Although he was yet to deal with phoenix’s power properly, he still wanted to sign a contract with a new divine beast. After all, he would be able to gain greater strength just by signing a contract with a divine beast. In addition, the next divine beast was most likely to be a fairly rare species. He was quite sure on this matter since he saw that notification when he signed a contract with Baepsae.
― Number of Possible Remaining Contracts: Rare (1) ― Legendary (2) ― Mythical (1)
Those were the remaining contracts that he could sign after signing a contract with Baepsae. Assuming that Two Moons was a rare species, and phoenix was a phantom species of the legends, the next one that he would contract would definitely be at least at the legendary level. Perhaps it was a phantom species or something at the same level.
So Iron couldn’t give up no matter what. And since dimensional cracks where divine beasts were involved tended to grow in size, it was just correct for him to go to them and give them some help.
Right now, the Northeast and the North were both doing well so he did not have to worry about them for the time being.
‘If I die here then it’s over.’
Since his body had fused together, it would be the end once he died. So, he had to consider this world as his own world and move as if his life depended on it. Iron’s will was firm.
He quietly listened to Carl Gustav’s explanation as he continuously reminded him about the things he needed to pay attention to. They were things that he already knew, but he still listened intently as if he never heard them before.
The East had three main characteristics:
1 Their trade routes are the most active in the entire Empire.
2 They hold the strongest fleet in the entire Empire.
3 They house the largest Magic Tools Workshop in the entire Empire.
These were the three main things that they were proud of. This was especially true for the Magic Tools Workshops. It was said that they could even rival the Wizard Towers from the South with how amazing their workshops were.
“Hoo… You’ll hear more from the East.”
Carl looked tired after briefly explaining the main characteristics of the East.
Iron quickly sent off Carl Gustav. He knew that he had been rubbed cleanly by the commander so he sent him off to rest. He also took this time to prepare to leave for the East. He simply packed his luggage as he collected the activity allowance that he needed to go to the East.
“To the East…”
It was a place that he longed for in his previous life. This place had a lot of things including trade routes, fleets and even the Merchant Association. However, there was one thing that Iron coveted.
‘Magic Tools Workshop.’
In his previous life, he dreamt of setting up a Magic Tools Workshop in the North and making the North completely independent. But he eventually failed.
However, it was still clearly something that he coveted. So, he thought that it wouldn’t be bad if he went there and took a look.
“Magic Tools Workshops… is it about time for the people of the modern world to become active in this aspect?”
After considering the great synergy that would arise from the combination of modern day technology and magic tool engineering, he thought that he somehow had to bring them to the North.
The financial power to rival the Merchant Association, the group of the best merchants in the Empire, one of the East’s main characteristics. The ease of supply and demand materials due to enormous trades. The workshop line that had long been established.
Bringing in the Magic Tools Workshop to the North would easily give them the power to overcome those problems.
In the past, there were only monsters in the North. They had a huge amount of monster corpses and mana stones. However, just having these two alone would not give them a chance at independence.
‘Dimensional crack’―’Mana core’.
The branch of the Wizard Tower was already being built thanks to the scholar’s quest for knowledge being stimulated by the dimensional crack. There was also a high-possibility that they would be able to build a North-only Wizard Tower once they enticed some high-ranking wizards. Since that was done and they have now secured the core of the escaping monsters, they have now been drooling to make contact and establish a connection with the Magic Tools Workshop.
Neither the dimensional cracks nor the mana cores were free of charge. It costs a huge amount of money for anyone to study and use it to their heart’s content. And all of that money was scheduled to enter the Northeast Command. Even the North was scheduled to receive a certain amount as a benefit.
And with that money, it was highly likely that they would use that to build numerous workshops with the focus on Magic Tools Workshops and Wizard Towers. After all, there were still a lot of monsters which meant that there would be a lot of mana stones that needed to be processed. And those who wanted to make use of the void insects and other rare species were most likely going to enter the Northeast.
What would happen if the North and the East are connected?
‘The Center will sink right down to the abyss.’
Just creating a connection between the North and the East would bring about a great synergy. And the synergy would be so fierce that the benefits that would be created would go beyond the initial benefits that he had thought of once they connected the East, the North and the West before. This was what Iron had planned in the beginning but the possible benefits of this connection were going to be extreme.
Why?
Back then, he did not think that it was possible to overcome the dimensional cracks to this extent. He also did not know that they would be able to acquire two mana cores in the Northeast. That was the reason why they would be able to make more than enough progress than what Iron had initially expected. In fact, it did not even matter if the North and the East did not connect. They would still gain a lot of benefits.
However, he thought that creating a new trade route by connecting the East to the West via the North with the help of Leonhardt’s support, would be possible in this situation. Once that happened, the Center would no longer be able to drag the North down. And they were also busy protecting their own turf so Iron thought that they couldn’t afford to pay any attention to their movements.
“I wish I had some free time though…”
There were those who were dissatisfied with the current system in the East. If that was the case, then there would be people who wanted to start anew in a new place.
Iron briefly summarized what he wanted to do in the East.
‘I want to approach them.’
After finishing all of his preparations, the day when Iron would go to the East had finally come.
“Hurry up and come back.”
“That’s right. There’s nothing good about living far away for quite a long time.”
Billie Brandt and Lintel saw Iron off while urging him to come back quickly. Iron smiled and nodded at them.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Alright. Don’t get ignored and be pushed back for no reason at all. Got it? Us Ghosts are people who can’t be ignored wherever we go.”
“Yes.”
Iron nodded his head at Lintel’s final request before climbing on top of the warp gate.
Thanks to the support that the Center reluctantly gave them, it was now possible for them to maintain a huge warp gate. Iron climbed on top of the warp gate as he and the merchants and several other officers headed for the East were surrounded by a bright light.
“Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter?”
Iron heard someone calling his name as he looked at the East’s unique architecture after the bright lights had disappeared.
The man tilted his head asking ‘Is he not the one?’ when Iron turned his head away. The man had pinpointed him since he was the person who looked the youngest from the group of people that arrived.
“Who are you…”
“So, I was right. I’m Captain Mateo, I will be your temporary guide here in the East.”
Iron looked at Mateo. There wasn’t that much age difference between them. Iron thought that it was a bit unusual when he saw Mateo, who looked like he was only two or three years older than him, already being a captain.
He was lucky enough to gain enough merits in the unusually harsh environment of the Northeast and got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. But in general, the fastest course to promotion was gaining merits step by step. And this was a process that seemed to be easily and quickly done by Captain Mateo.
“I’ll guide you to Eastern Command.”
“Thank you.”
Iron walked to Mateo’s side while thanking him as they moved forward.
The smell of the sea immediately wafted through his nose as soon as he arrived. Worthy of a Command that was built near the sea.
“Is this your first time going to the sea?”
“…Yes.”
He had seen the sea in his original world but in his previous or present life here, this was his first time. He had never been out of the Northeast let alone go to sea. After all, he had been stuck in the Northeast to study before and he had also been sealed there just recently. This was in fact his first trip out of the confines of the North.
“It’s pretty.”
Iron looked at the sea as he passed by the bridge that connected the warp gate and Command.
There were numerous ships anchored on the dock while geese flew in the sky.
“It’s really beautiful when it’s peaceful.”
Mateo also spoke up to acknowledge the beauty of the current landscape in front of them. Despite seeing the sea every day of his life, Mateo still somewhat found beauty in the scenery that the sea offered. It was so beautiful that he fell in love with it. However, the Eastern Command was not a place where they could afford to be sentimental.
“Are there a lot of pirates?”
Mateo smiled bitterly at Iron’s question.
If one thought about the East, they would naturally think of merchants, workshops and numerous ships. However, there was also one more thing that the East was known for. And it was none other than the notorious pirates.
There were as many pirates as there were merchant ships that flocked to Eastern Command. Because of that, a warship was always at a ready to be deployed to prevent the pirate ships from harassing the merchant vessels.
It was only natural for pirates to make a lot of money if they could do things properly. Rather than targeting those small merchant ships dozens or hundreds of times, they would often just take a risk with their lives on the line to take a gander against those big merchant ships.
Of course, the navy strictly guarded the trade route to protect these merchant ships. But no matter how powerful their fleets were, it was impossible for them to cover the entirety of the wide seas.
As a result, Command was always busy.
“Actually, we’re already at our limits.”
“Ah…”
“If a dimensional crack appeared in this situation… the East might not be able to bear it.”
Iron nodded heavily at Mateo’s bitter smile.
Soldiers would be rolled around and ground everywhere. This was the truth of the military.
“You’re working so hard.”
“I have said useless things in front of someone from the Northeast. Haha…”
“Not at all. There’s no place in the military that’s not difficult. Am I right?”
Iron comforted Mateo who looked haggard.
Mateo smiled awkwardly at Iron as they headed to Command while continuing their small chat. Once they arrived at Command, there were a lot of young men that looked at him. It seemed like they were wondering if he was the last of the people to arrive.
In such a strange atmosphere, the Eastern Commander stepped forward and greeted Iron.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Richard Burton, the commander in charge of the East.”
Iron tried to smile at him after Richard Burton greeted him happily.
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter, the ‘11th Sword’ under the Ghost, a unit directly under the Northeast Command.”
Richard Burton’s eyes widened slightly upon hearing Iron Carter’s introduction.
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To the East! (2)
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Richard Burton couldn’t help but smile at Iron’s introduction.
“Oh! The 11th Sword… Are you going to introduce yourself properly from now on?”
“What do you mean…”
Iron looked at Richard Burton as if he couldn’t understand what he was saying. Richard laughed.
“That gentleman, he still hasn’t fixed his personality yet.”
Richard Burton looked at Iron as he spoke.
“Commander Crimson always does this. He never skipped that part. He was worried that I would always forgot about where you belonged.”
“…Yes?”
Iron looked at the Eastern Commander in confusion. Richard smiled when he saw Iron’s reaction.
“Everytime we saw each other, he would never skip the affiliation whenever he mentioned the ‘11th Sword’. This always happened without fail. I even doubted if he would ever let you leave the Northeast or the Ghost.”
“Ah…”
“The Center has been aiming for you recently, right? I guess that’s why he’s been anxious.”
Just like Richard Burton had said, it seemed like Crimson’s anxiety had risen because of that. But because he was temporarily moving to the East, Crimson’s anxiety had once again risen. For some reason, he heard that there had been an increase in the amount of curses that he heaped on the Central Military in recent years. In addition, Carl Gustav had strangely listed out the things that he wouldn’t normally say just to grab on to Iron. He even mobilized the Ghosts to pester him about the benefits of staying in the Northeast every day.
“Because of you, I received a lot of curses as soon as I personally asked for you.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry.”
Richard Burton turned his head as he continued to speak.
“I’ll introduce you to the others.”
“I’m Captain Daniel Cevaior of the Eastern Command.”
“I’m Allan Reishor. I’m a member of the Southern Wizard Tower.”
“I’m Peter Marvio from the Central Wizard Tower.”
All of them were around 20 years old and were still quite young.
“Although they’re not as strong as you, these friends are still quite well-known. They’re all at the beggining of the 4th Stage or higher so they will be able to help.”
They were the new up and coming stars that were around the age of 19 and 20 years old. And all of these aces at the 4th Stage looked at Iron with vigilance.
The commander did not even block their force and momentum. He even stepped back as if he found the situation to be fun.
Then, the commander sighed lightly as he turned to his deputy commander.
“Is he not here yet?”
“…That’s right.”
Richard Burton sighed after hearing his deputy’s answer.
“In fact, the reason why I asked for you despite knowing that the Northeast would criticize and curse me was because… of the divine beast contractor that appeared in the East.”
“I heard that they’re an other-worlder.”
Hearing Iron’s words, the other youngsters turned to look at the commander. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and wonder. It seemed like they wanted to see an other-worlder divine beast contractor.
“Hoo…”
The Eastern Commander looked troubled by their stares.
“Is there a problem with the other-worlder?”
Richard Burton nodded his head in answer to Iron’s question.
“They’re quite arrogant.”
“You’re saying that they’re arrogant?”
The word arrogant was not something that would easily come out from the mouth of the Eastern Commander, a person at the core of the Imperial Military. After all, it was normal to at least crawl in front of the commander when they appeared in front of them.
However, based on the commander’s expression, it seemed like the other-worlder acted rudely in front of him.
“Reporting to the Commander, the other-worlder Kin Jwongtae has entered the command.”
Iron frowned when he heard the deputy’s report. It was not because his pronunciation was bad but it was because he felt suspicious about the name.
‘Kim Jungtae? No way… that psychotic bastard?’
Even before the beta testers had identified themselves back in their previous lives, there were a few idiots who willingly divulged their identities to the world. And one of them was none other than Kim Jungtae.
One of the monikers given to him was ‘Water Crazy Bastard’. He crazily wanted to see and learn any abilities related to water. He was a nutjob who did not care if he would dive into shit as long as he could learn about those abilities. He was also considered as one of the top five beta testers in the whole world. He did not know if he did have the ability but he was a man who was good with his head so there were quite a few people who followed him.
‘No way, right…’
Iron waited while thinking that he must have heard of it wrong.
Not long after, a man appeared after the door to the commander’s office opened.
“I was right.”
Iron mumbled to himself quietly. Although this was the first time that he had seen his appearance in the original world. So, Iron still couldn’t be sure right away.
The man that entered was deliberately revealing the image of his divine beast while letting water droplets spin around his body. He was showing off that he had learned magic.
‘Divine beasts and spirits? How the hell?’
The nutjob had a fish that seemed to be his divine beast with a small water spirit floating around at the same time.
Iron had never heard of any divine beast contractor having a deal with spirits.
The appearance of this man who was letting out his water magic was strangely fascinating. The only problem was that he continued to maintain that despite being in the commander’s office. He used the excuse that they should always be together to increase their affinity but Iron wondered what in the hell did he really want to achieve with what he was doing. He should have known when and where he should hide them but he did not intend to do so. He was still just like himself in his previous life.
“Long time no see, Commander.”
“You… You…!”
The deputy commander couldn’t help but grab the back of his own neck in anger when he saw Kim Jungtae arrogantly asking for a handshake. The deputy commander wanted to angrily rebuke this arrogant other-worlder but the commander just smiled bitterly as he ordered him to step down with a slight gesture.
It seemed like the commander could still fully tolerate this kind of disrespect. After all, as long as the threat of the dimensional crack was still here, Kim Jungtae’s value would remain to be extremely high. So, the commander believed that his authority could be put down for a while.
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Kin Jwongtae.”
“It’s Kim Jungtae.”
Kim Jungtae frowned as he corrected the commander while looking around.
“More importantly, I heard that the divine beast contractor from the Northeast came.”
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter.”
“Nice to meetcha!”
Iron stepped up first on behalf of the troubled commander. He just smiled at Kim Jungtae who had been rude from the very beginning. After all, it would be unusual for him for someone to look at him in the eyes and remain quiet.
“I’ve seen this face somewhere…”
Kim Jungtae looked at Iron firmly as he said this.
‘What does this punk want to say…’
Since he had seen Iron’s face in his previous life, he would probably be fully aware of his status as Leonhardt’s eldest son. However, compared to his appearance back then, his hair and eye color had already changed. This was because his hair and eyes had both taken on a dark red hue after being sealed in the Black Forest. In addition, they had only met in his previous life after he had undergone all kinds of experiments like magic tattoos and shape changes. So, he wouldn’t be able to recognize him since his face shape was different from when they had met before.
“Hmm… Or not?”
As expected, Kim Jungtae failed to recognize him.
“You’re dealing with both divine beast and spirit?”
“Kgghk~ As expected of a divine beast contractor, you’re asking about this straight away. I had a hard time signing a contract with both of these guys.”
Kim Jungtae showed off his contracted divine beast and spirit as he stared at Iron with a smirk.
“It seems like you can’t understand. It’s possible because of my own abilities.”
Then, Kim Jungtae gathered the water around him.
‘It’s not magic.’
Iron looked seriously at the droplets of water clumping together in Kim Jungtae’s hands.
Everyone looked at Kim Jungtae as if he was someone amazing. This was because water itself, not mana, spiritual power, divine power or sorcery, was gathering at Kim Jungtae’s hands. No one has ever heard that this was something that was possible.
‘With an ability like this, his skills are definitely something to be coveted. It was more than enough to endure his rude behavior.’
Iron, who had experienced Kim Jungtae’s unique abilities before, nodded as if he only understood now.
If the others’ unique ability were at this level, then he believed that those in the Center would never ignore them. This was already the case now but if they were given the room to grow, they would likely become a huge figure in the future.
“But you don’t go around showing off your divine beast?”
“They’re currently sealed.”
“Sealed? Ah! Was it because you purified the contaminated mana in the Black Forest?”
Iron nodded at Kim Jungtae’s question. It seemed like he had heard the rumors so he was fully convinced with the authenticity of Iron’s words.
In their previous lives, Kim Jungtae was also someone who grew sick and tired of contaminated mana. So, he could understand the amount of power needed to purify it.
“Too bad. I heard that you signed a contract with a lot of divine beasts… Don’t you have an idea when your contractors will wake up?”
“Yes. That’s unfortunate…”
Kim Jungtae looked genuinely disappointed when he heard Iron’s answer.
“But still… All that matters is you’re connected. They’ll always wake up sooner or later…”
Iron smiled when Kim Jungtae consoled him while stroking the flying fish around him. Although he was a complete nutjob, it looked like he was sincere with his affections towards his divine beast.
The commander clapped his hands after watching Iron and Kim Jungtae talk.
“Since you’re all acquainted with each other, you can go back and take a rest. We’ll start explaining the team formation and operations tomorrow.”
Hearing the commander’s words, Iron, who came from the farthest location, left and followed the deputy commander out. Even Kim Jungtae left the commander’s office as if he had already finished his business there.
“Aren’t you going out?”
“I still have something to say.”
Allan Reishor, a member of the Southern Wizard Tower, looked at the Eastern Commander with a dissatisfied look on his face.
“Hmm… The others too?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes.”
The others answered with their heads down when the commander asked them.
“Let’s hear it.”
When Allan Reishor, the one who looked like he had the most complaints, was given the right to speak, he immediately opened his mouth.
“Isn’t there a problem if Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter couldn’t even call out his divine beasts?”
“A problem?”
The Eastern Commander looked at them as if he couldn’t understand their words.
“What good will it do for our future plans to include someone who had their divine beasts sealed? Do we really need to include such a person in our team?”
After hearing Allan’s words, the Eastern Commander finally looked at him as if he understood what he wanted to say. Allan’s expression was clearly telling him that he found Iron useless without his divine beasts and that he would only be taking merits away from them. The others also had a similar expression as they spoke their own thoughts. It seemed like they wanted to persuade him to not bring him in.
“Hmm… I’ll still need his help as a divine beast contractor. Besides, he has already closed dimensional cracks twice so his experience will be of great help to the team.”
Peter Marvio, a member of the Central Wizard Tower, spoke up in response to the Eastern Commander’s words.
“His experiences in the Northeast are certainly great. But will he even be of help if his divine beasts are sealed?”
“Hmm…”
The commander pondered for a moment before turning to look at Daniel Cevaior.
“What about you?”
“I feel the same way. Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter’s experiences might be great but using that as an excuse to make him fight in the field seems to be way too much. Why don’t we just leave him at Command and focus on planning operations based on his experience and information?”
The Eastern Commander turned to ask Daniel Cevaior upon hearing Peter Marvio’s words but it seemed like they were of the same mind. They all judged that Iron, with his divine beasts sealed, would have no significant contributions to the results of their operation in Ghost Island. What was worse was the fact that the three people left here were the people that each region had called aces.
The two were wizards affiliated with the Southern and Central Wizard Tower. They were also people who had contracted with the spirits. Even Daniel Cevaior had a contract with a water spirit and was an officer and an ace who obtained a navigator license that was extremely hard to complete. They were obviously thinking that they weren’t behind Iron in terms of skills.
Since it was possible for spiritualists to detect divine beasts, they believed that Iron and his sealed divine beasts were of no use. In addition, although Kim Jungtae was arrogant, he was still a divine beast contractor so they did not have a need to have two of them in their team. They thought that they would just be putting in useless people to decrease the merit distributions.
“Do you all believe the same?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
The commander looked troubled when all three of them answered in the affirmative at the same time.
Since they were still young, he thought that they would just be jealous of the person ahead of them and have a strong sense of competition. However, it was much worse than what he thought. If he knew this would happen, he would have just asked for more experienced spiritualists but he couldn’t do so anymore since they had been dispatched to other regions.
There were quite a few spiritualists, but those who had experience were rare and extremely hard to recruit. At the very least, he asked for these young new up and coming stars so they could build their merits and enhance their reputation while gaining experience.
“Go out for now.”
The commander said that. But once the youngsters went out, he clearly looked troubled.
He called for Iron despite his divine beasts being sealed since his experience would be of great help to the team. But if he forced him to lead the team, the team would definitely fall apart and crumble which would lead to a bigger problem.
“I’m having a headache.”
The Eastern Commander was at a loss on how to coax the young new stars.
Even if his divine beasts are sealed, he’s still a Ghost.
Due to the Ghost’s status, important information about their members, like their level and mana attribute even their small hobbies, were extremely confidential. But even if it was confidential, the Eastern Commander could roughly tell the extent of their strength.
Especially Iron. The Eastern Commander had seen the information about Iron that Crimson had handed over when he requested for Iron. So, he had no choice but to worry.
“If you make the wrong move, you’ll die…”
Daniel Cevaior, Allan Reishor and Peter Marvio were all at the 4th Stage. However, they were just at the beginning of the 4th Stage. However, the information had revealed that Iron’s strength was already at the peak of 4th Stage.
But based on what Crimson had told him, he was already at the beginning stage of the 5th Stage and although it was only a little, he could already use his ability to build up his own attribute in his sword.
Any information aside from that was confidential that even the Eastern Commander did not have the access to.
In other words, with the information he received alone, he knew that those three new stars would definitely be used to wipe the ground.
And because of that, he had no choice but to get worried.
Daniel could handle his own even if he got hit a few times but Peter Marvio and Allan Reishor were different. If they pick a fight for nothing, then they would probably be in a situation where they could die before even getting hit.
What if they crossed the line?
They would have a ticket reservation straight to the afterlife.
And there was also Kim Jungtae in the team. He was well-known for being arrogant.
In short, the team that he had just formed was already on the verge of being smashed to the ground.
“I sincerely hope that Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter is a calm and collected person.”