CHAPTER 7: Checking Spoils

The journey took a day. On their way to Mars, Lei Shi and Leng Shi healed their broken arm and slashed back respectively using the ship's healing system. The healing system was pretty effective since they were already done healing before they arrived at Mars, since their injuries weren't critical ones.

Mars was a super-developed Planet, and its streets were bustling with citizens going on with their daily lives. There were houses that floated in the air or on water, there were houses that were underwater (crazy, right?) and houses that were on land (normal, right?), there were flying ships moving through the air, with electromagnetic trains and nuclear powered cars floating and moving on the ground, There were artificial water bodies scattered throughout the planet that even contained submarines and fishes of different kinds.

In the cities, it wasn't allowed for citizens except law enforcers, government officials, scientists, and surprisingly, teachers, to fly using jetpacks, so as to prevent overcrowding of the skies and to encourage exercise by citizens (it seemed teachers were finally recognized and were being given the respect they deserved). The planet had converted large swathes of undeveloped territories to be permanent farmlands that were being worked on and maintained by artificially intelligent Robots, and so much more.

The twins, after disguising their aircraft and putting away their HTB suits, landed on the 'parking lot' of a land house in the bottom ranks of the middle-class residential area.

Some things just didn't change even with the passage of time. Just as in the past, the rich lived with the rich, and the poor lived with the poor. In Mars, the residential area was divided into the peak-class, the top-class, the mid-class, the low-class and the bottom-class residential areas. Luckily, it didn't depend on whether you're of noble blood or a government official, it simply depended on if you could afford it. Also, there were no fights over living conditions, because even if you were homeless, you still got food to eat. That was because AI Robots completely took over food production and feeding, and made it so that everyone got a basic level of food to eat as long as they were alive.

The basic level of food was implemented to prevent wastage of food, but if one wanted more food so that they'd become fat, they'd have to pay for it. That turned out to make the world a lot more peaceful, because it turned many of the struggles in life were caused as a result of hunger. However, in order to prevent people from exploiting the free food, there was a limit of five children per man, and that was only changeable by the government body in charge of Population Studies.

The twins alighted from the aircraft and entered the house, there they met their family.

Their family consisted of five members, them inclusive. They had a father and two older brothers. Their mom died when they were younger.

"You're back?" they heard a voice ask them as soon as they had entered the living room "No, not yet. We're still on our way back" replied Lei Shi sarcastically to the owner of the voice.

"Fucking bastard" said the first brother, whose name was Wuwei Shi, to Lei Shi after receiving such sarcastic reply. He was 24 years old while the twins were 18 years old.

"Hey, I'm still alive. You little brat" said a middle-aged man who just stepped into the room.

"Sorry Dad" said Wuwei Shi embarrassedly to the middle-aged man who was their father. Their father's name was Wan Shi and he was 57 years old.

"Dad, give me some face and let him off just this once. I promise to train him better" said Lei Shi to their Dad.

Before Wuwei Shi could get a chance to retort or curse Lei Shi, Leng Shi asked the second brother who just stepped in from his workshop "Guy, is there food?".

"Food, food, that's all you think about. You can't even greet your senior" answered the second brother whose name was Zhen Shi. He was 21 years old.

"Sorry Sir, Good Afternoon Sir, have you cooked food Sir?" said Leng Shi as he bowed deeply every time he said the word 'Sir' while also stressing the word every time he said it.

"Hmm good good. Truly filial indeed" said Zhen Shi as he nodded his head before adding "Well, you're in luck, we just finished cooking not too long ago"

"Thank you senior!" exclaimed Leng Shi before rushing to the kitchen

"Hahaha" everyone laughed at his funny display, and followed him to the kitchen.

After the food was served into dishes, they went to the dining room and sat down, and began eating. Talking, joking and laughing all the way.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Wuwei Shi after they were done eating.

"Not bad" answered Lei Shi "Pretty good, if I do say so myself" he added arrogantly.

After answering, he got up, went to the ship, and returned with the spoils of their last mission. He dropped them one by one on the table with a smirk on his face.

*Thud*

The first item Lei Shi dropped on the table was a foot tall, 8-inch wide, white egg with Helix-patterned black lines drawn on it.

*Silence*

All except Leng Shi were shocked after seeing the first thing Lei Shi dropped on the table.

"Th... The... The Three-horned Komodo Dragon Egg!!!" exclaimed Wuwei Shi.

"You guys succeeded!, Amazing!" exclaimed Zhen Shi.

"Since you guys got the egg and completed the mission, I can be able to turn it in and collect the reward. A Rank C mission's rewards truly are generous, 50,000 units is no joke. With that, Zhen Shi can be able to upgrade your current HTB suits heavily, and the possibility of getting Rank 3 HTB suits isn't a far-fetched at all" Wuwei Shi prattled on excitedly before finally stopping. After inhaling deeply, he added "Well done you guys"

Units were the monetary currency used at that time, a single unit was very valuable, and was the only currency being used at the time because at an earlier year, humans had unanimously agreed to have one currency. No one actually knew why this idea was brought and enforced; some said humans wanted to be more united while others said Currency traders simple got tired of trading.

"I must say, you guys, you've impressed me, I never thought you'd actually pull it off, since the mission was supposedly too high level for you, because two Rank 3 HTB suit wielders were said to be guarding the egg. I expected you guys to at most probe the facility, and the strength of the guards before coming back for further planning. But who would've thought that 'Not bad' actually meant you succeeded. Great work you two! It seems my custom-made High-level Auto-hack flash drive didn't go to waste. And the adjustments that I made to your suits to release black smoke, the selling of rigged Lollipops to Poland, and most importantly, that five-pronged spinning device, wasn't a waste after all. Thankfully, all those preparations weren't wasted" said Zhen Shi to the twins with a smile on his face. He was happy that they succeeded, and delighted they didn't waste his creations because using them once would make them forever ineffective, since their opponent would be expecting it next time and would prepare against it.

"Well done boys, I'm just glad you guys came out of it without a scratch" said their Dad

"Well, we actually got scratched a little. I broke my arm while Leng Shi got slashed on his back" said Lei Shi embarrassedly. But he quickly tried to cover it up saying "But it was nothing actually, it was only a scratch; a scratch that was easily healed using the ships healing system. So, there's no need to worry" Lei Shi didn't want their Dad to worry.

"Are you sure?" asked their Dad

"Yes, I'm sure" answered Lei Shi hastily then he quickly added "Now, for the main course"

"There's more?" asked Wuwei Shi, who had already stood up from the table in an attempt to go and make preparations to exchange the Three-Horned Komodo Dragon Egg.

Lei Shi once more donned his smirk on his face, looking as proud as ever. He then removed two HTB suit vessels (The devices that look like metal sword sheathes that contain HTB Suits) and dropped them on the table with a slam before lifting up his chin.

Upon seeing the HTB suit vessels Zhen Shi spoke in a condescending tone "C'mon guy, I understand your suits may need repairs since they must've been busted up during the last mission but there's no need to be so proud of it too. Does your arrogance really know no bounds?"

"Wait!. WHAT!?!" exclaimed Zhen Shi as he stood up after noticing three golden stars on the black HTB suit vessel.

The number of golden stars on a HTB suit vessel is the sure-way of finding out which Rank it was, with the number of stars corresponding with its Rank number, and three golden stars on a HTB suit vessel represented that it contained a Rank 3 HTB suit.

"H... Hh.... How?!?" exclaimed Zhen Shi again after his brain registered that there were two of them. Seeing one of them was shocking enough, but two? That was absolutely mind-blowing!

"Don't tell me!" exclaimed Wuwei Shi after giving this entire incident some thought.