The Recruit

Captain King nodded at Arnold, acknowledging him. "You. Come over here."

Arnold complied and stood in front of the captain. He simply stared at him without saying anything. Although the person in front of him seemed to be called a captain, from the insignia on his shoulders, one would notice that he was actually ranked a Brigadier General, which is of a much higher rank than Captain. The reason that King was being called captain was unknown to Arnold.

Captain King sent Arnold a probing gaze. He noticed that there were a lot of spiritual energy surrounding Arnold, giving him quite a pleasant surprise. With his body having such an attraction to spiritual energy, the body must at least have a Level 6 Foundation Establishment.

The captain did not say anything and gestured for one of his men that was doing drilling exercises to come over. Then, he commanded, "Lewis, bring this new recruit to the training room and have a spar with him and tell me the results."

The person named Lewis saluted the Captain King and yelled, "Yes, sir!"

Then, he headed over towards Arnold and gestured for him to follow him. After walking through the yard, they arrived at another rather large building that had the style of a high school. If one did not know that they were currently on a military installment, they would have thought that normal high school students would be hanging around inside this building.

Lewis brought Arnold inside the building. He noticed that on the side of the walls, there were pictures of different people framed, showing off a mighty aura. Lewis, noticing Arnold's gaze, explained, "These were all the past generals that headed the Army of the Base."

Arnold nodded in reply. After walking to the end of the hallway, they turned left and entered a flight of stairs. Lewis brought Arnold downwards. They walked down several floors before arriving at the very bottom. There was another long hallway that stretches in front of them, heading towards who knows where.

After walking through the hallway for about a minute, Lewis turned right and headed into one of the rooms that were located on the side of the hallway, opening the door and heading in. Arnold followed closely behind him.

The door automatically closed behind him. As Arnold took a look on the surroundings, he found a rather large empty room in front of him. The whole place looked like a steel box, trapping people in.

"The training room here is reinforced with carbon fiber and multiple other materials that I have no knowledge of. Therefore, even someone at the peak of the Qi Gathering Stage would not be able to break through the walls. This room is normally reserved for Captain King for his private use. If you want to use a training room available to the regular army in the future, you would need to reserve a room beforehand." Lewis explained.

Arnold stretched his arms, readying himself for the spar. He stood a few meters away from Lewis, facing him cautiously. Lewis also stood in a battle pose and said, "You can start anytime you want."

Arnold stared at Lewis cautiously. He circled around the training room. Lewis did the same, causing the distance between them to remain constant. Suddenly, Arnold used a burst of spiritual energy on his ankle and flew over to Lewis, not giving him a chance to react.

Lewis immediately made a cross with his arms and filled them up with spiritual energy, directly blocking Arnold's blow. However, the force from the blow caused Lewis to take a few steps back. Arnold did not stop after his first blow. He immediately switched his position and started punching Lewis at unimaginable speeds.

Lewis, who was in a defensive position, continued to be dragged backwards due to the force of the punches. However, he still seemed to be unscaved. After using a round of spiritual energy, Arnold bounced back and cautiously circled around the training room again. This time, it was Lewis' turn to attack.

Lewis gave a roundhouse kick towards the side of Arnold's head, causing him to subconsciously raise his arm to defend himself. After being hit by the kick, Arnold was slightly surprised by the force exerted upon him. He only managed to soften the blow before being smashed away. Arnold flew to the side. He subconsciously used his other hand and pressed it on the ground, balancing himself and making a back flip, completely stabilizing himself from the previous blow.

It was then that Arnold suddenly felt what seemed like a heavy load that was pushing him downwards on the ground. However, Lewis was still standing a few feet away from him, seemingly nonchalant.

Arnold was forced to endure, completely focused on repelling the invisible force. He was unable to move, much less defend when Lewis ran over and gave him a puch right in his abdomen. Arnold spew out some spiritual air from his mouth and was forced backwards. The force caused him to slam against the wall. He could hear a cracking sound from his spine as he spewed out more air from his mouth. It was lucky that he had no more blood on his system, otherwise the blow just now would have heavily damaged the flow of his breathing.

"Was that your esper power?" Arnold asked Lewis with his back still leaning against the wall. He winced from the pain and stared at Lewis with extreme caution, expecting another attack at any time.

Lewis shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Guess."

Arnold furrowed his brows and decided that something needed to be done in order for him to gain the upper hand against Lewis.

************

Captain King was watching from afar with a device on his arm. As there were multiple hidden security cameras in the training room, he could see everything that was going on inside. Standing beside him was another general that seemed to have curiousity peaked when he was informed by King that he found a high quality recruit.

"Hmph. This kid still seem to be lacking in combat skills." The general standing next to King analyzed.

"That's expected, Brown. He's a recruit after all. Besides, I have already made a background check on him. This kid is an orphan with no backing. It seems that the reason for his high Foundation Establishment is simply due to his natural good genes." King explained.

"Mhmm. It's rare that someone can produce such a high quality offspring naturally in this day and age. Do you have any information on his parents?" Brown asked with a slight curiousity in his tone.

"There's nothing really to note about his parents. They worked in the nuclear plant at the surface level and both died of acute radiation poisoning more than 15 years ago when there was an accident. They were ordinary engineers that were from Level 2. As per legislation, the kid was sent to an orphanage in Level 1." King said with a dull voice.

Brown furrowed his brows and said, "From the photo of his parents, this kid looks nothing like them. Although it's normal for a child to look nothing like his parents, it's still quite rare. I think there should be someone behind this messing around with things."

"You mean the black market?" King immediately knew what Brown was insinuating. He directly spoke out Brown's conjecture with no qualms whatsoever.

Brown nodded. "Yes. After all, with such a history, this Troy Anderson person is the perfect candidate for identity fraud."

"It actually doesn't matter whether or not this person's identity is false as long as he does what he's told." King deliberated. "We just have to make sure to know if he had the backing of any of the 49 Families or 7 Clans. They are the people that should never be messed with."

"I'll see if I can gain any information from my contacts. You focus on continuing to cultivate the Special Forces, captain." Brown said. The way he said 'captain' was slightly sarcastic, giving King a slight frown.

"Stop with that. I still have no idea why my subordinates continued to call me captain after all this time." King seemed to be quite dissatisfied with that nickname.

Brown tapped on King's shoulder and gave a slight smile. "Don't be too annoyed. It's just a name of endearment. Besides, you have earned your nickname brilliantly on the battlefield. You should wear it as a badge of honor instead of complaining from time to time."

King rolled his eyes and retorted, "Then why don't you have your subordinates give yourself a fancy nickname and see if you'll be happy about it."

Brown shrugged his shoulders and jested, "Well if I have such a cult following within the military, then I would definitely give myself a nickname. How does the Brown Bear sound?"

"You are always really bad with naming things." King sighed in disappointment. Then, his face immediately became serious as he looked at his comrade. "If there's nothing wrong with this kid's background, I'm going to place him in the 1st Platoon of the Delta Force."