“Thank you, Clark, thank you for letting me witness such an achievement in my lifetime. Citizens of Sparta, Sergeant Clark broke the national individual award of excellence. Clark shocked me and the whole Spartan military as he achieved perfection in his graduation training, he scored a whopping 360 points out of the 360 allocated as the milestone. What astonished me most was that he scored more than the allocated 360 points but there was no place to further increase his points tally. What a genius”. General Maks spoke with so much emotion in his voice.
“When Arthur, the prodigy from North Sparta broke the record setting it at 340 points the whole country was shocked. Arthur is now a great pillar of the Sparta military; he is now one of the few soldiers who already had their 5th breakthrough. But I, General Maks believe that Clark can do better. Clark is simply out of this world, he is more than a prodigy, he is more of an alien”. The General grinned again as he suddenly snapped his fingers.
All the lights in the huge hall darkened as a single big projection lit up facing the audience. It was just like the ballon dor award given to footballers centuries ago as projections of Clark’s battle were being shown. Clark was surprised but not too astonished as a lot of things were now possible due to increase in technology.
Clark didn’t even know that his fights were recorded. Clark smiled as footages from when he fought the black panther were shown, when he fought the ape exobeast and the Night Rakshasha. The whole hall was eerily silent as footages of when he assaulted the terrorist base was shown, gasps escaped from the audience as footages of his ferocious fight with the terrorist commander was shown. Cheers erupted from the audience when he fended off the commander’s attacks, still killed some of his subordinates while conveniently stealing his exotic sword.
Kpa! Kpa! Kpa! Kpa! A thunderous sound of applause followed immediately after the footage finally ended. The lights went back on as the audience cheered and clapped wildly without any sense of fatigue. Clark couldn’t help it, he smiled suddenly feeling the urge to cry. This is the feeling he always felt in his dreams when the whole world appreciated him.
“It’s ok my fellow Spartans,” the General finally intervened after more than 2 minutes of cheering and clapping.
“I know, if not because of time restraints I would’ve approved celebrating this genius till the next day even for the rest of the week. Clark is simply a legend to all up and coming soldiers, I know he is already a role model to thousands of other cadets and soldiers who are watching this ceremony from their home or are here physically”.
“Sergeant Clark, I won’t keep you waiting forever. I will now present your awards to you,” the General said with a smile. Today the General’s smiles alone were enough to make him 10 years younger.
“Clark the Spartan government provided an exotic car worth 10,000,000 Spartan credits as a congratulations to you”. The crowd erupted into another wave of cheers and applause while Clark was completely dumbfounded. The General continued breaking Clark’s thought process as he stared at the him, a dump look on his face.
“The exotic car has an inbuilt stealth system and other high-grade technologies of the Spartan government. It is one of the best machines the country can create with its technology at the moment”. Clark was simply lost for words, a 10,000,000 credits car. He was sure that his parents accumulated income for all their life was not even 10% of the car’s worth.
The other graduating soldiers felt it more, “a 10,000,000 credits car. What the…,” a lot of soldiers started feeling deep admiration from their hearts. There were naturally those who felt deeply envious.
“Clark, this is a sign from the Spartan military that we have faith in you, work hard and you will surely become the next pillar of the Spartan military”. The General said with a genuine smile planted on his face.
Clark felt a lot of emotions run through him, he felt very happy, he felt fulfilled and accomplished, he felt lucky and proud of himself and most especially his desire to serve and be loyal to the Sparta republic just shot up by over a thousand points.
He finally spoke into the voice amplifier placed at his front. “Thank you, sir, I…, I don’t really know what to say, I’m deeply flattered by the government’s generosity and trust in me. I promise to always serve the Sparta republic from the bottom of my heart, that’s the least I can say and do to repay this favor”. Clark’s voice was completely solemn as he made this personal oath.
“Clark no need for all the complications, I General Maks personally know that your heart belongs to the Sparta republic. But Clark don’t get complacent, continue to be hardworking and surpass our expectations. I can’t wait to hear the continuation of your legendary story”.
“The government also provided you with the golden Sparta medal. The golden Sparta medal is a medal which shows your status as a legend of the Sparta republic. It will help smoothen your road as a soldier considerably, make good use of it”.
The General finally took a photo with Clark before leaving the stage for him, a lot of other high-grade soldiers quickly came forward to also take a photo with him. He also took a photo with Captain Spoky, “Clark you’ve come a long way I’m really proud of you”. Captain Spoky said emotionally with the I raised you well signature look on his face. “Continue breaking limits as you walk forward in your career as a soldier”.
The ceremony finally ended; Clark didn’t get a stealth exotic armor anymore but the car he got was far better.
Surprisingly 3 of Clark’s childhood friends also graduated as soldiers. Angela, Harry and Mike came together as they congratulated him while also asking for a photo with him. Clark talked with them a bit as they haven’t talked for a long time after receiving their implants. They congratulated him and left shortly afterwards.
Finally, Clark’s bro, his partner in crime came to meet him as they smiled at each other. Leo stood opposite him as they simply smiled at each other for 10 seconds before wrapping themselves in a hug.
“I’m really proud of you bro”, Leo said. He congratulated Clark sincerely from the bottom of his heart before they left together.
[Thank you for reading this chapter I really appreciate. Please if there is any problem with the translation quality or there is any wrong spelling or sentence, indicate I'll try to fix it immediately.]