Chapter 193: volume 3 the frontier

After Clark finished explaining the information, he got from the call that transpired between him and the communication official of the Spartan army, both Leo and Rose were shocked as they kept quiet in contemplation.

Clark was also surprised, as he did not expect an official of the Spartan army to act so rudely to him despite his current status.

According to the male voice from the other end of the call, he was nominated and selected for an extremely important mission, and that he should immediately report to the Spartan army headquarters the next day.

When he queried why his opinion was not asked before being selected for a mission, the man from the other end refused to answer. The man rudely told him to inquire when he reported to the army ground, before cutting the call connection the next second.

Though he felt a little irritated and angered, he suppressed his emotions before thinking of what he was just told.

Normally, on every occasion, no matter the significance of the mission, the opinion of a soldier is always asked before being included to participate in any mission.

The decision of participating in a mission is still the soldiers to make, not the army, that is a strong rule of the republic that is hardly broken.

Even when he was still just a Sergeant, his opinion was still asked before he joined the Spartan’s rage mission, despite its immense importance.

This sudden news was so abrupt that he felt something suspicious behind it. And it was exactly the same day that he ended his press conference, where he challenged the supposed hidden manipulators ruling the republic.

“Clark, do you think it's because of what you said in your press conference today?” Leo finally asked after contemplating further on the situation.

As a soldier who had more serving experience under the republic than his friend, he was more conversant with the rules governing missions. He also knew of the republic’s manipulators that hid and controlled from the dark.

In his 4 years of service, never had he heard of nor seen any soldier that was included in a squad participating in a mission without his/her consent. This was an obvious travesty of the law.

Listening to the words of the 2 soldiers, Rose was already feeling tense and worried as her imaginations went wild, painting a random picture of the situation her boss was currently in.

As she was not a soldier, she could barely understand most of the terms that they used in their discussions. Despite this, she was perceptive enough to know that her boss was in trouble.

“Who did boss offend?” She felt genuinely scared. She didn’t even know why she was this scared, she was just scared. Her emotions were already in a jumbled-up mess.

In all these conundrums, what made Clark more shocked was the fact that this mission’s location was the dreaded frontier. As someone with an implant, he knew of such commonly famous information.

The frontier, though it sounded a little mysterious, it actually referred to the most dangerous locations on the present-day earth. The term was categorized into 2 by the people who made it, being the Space and the special earth locations.

Space referred to the normal vacuum space, being the outside universe, the milky way galaxy, and the 9 known planets.

After so many years of rapid development, humanity’s achievements and discoveries in space were already significantly ahead of what seemed impossible in the 21st century.

Currently, every country with high-grade military strength and above had a special military station in each of the 7 explored planets. The large gaseous Jupiter and the extremely cold Pluto were the only hard nuts that have not been cracked.

Well, although information about the Space exploration progress was numerous, Clark didn’t have the leisure of recalling such random information as the location of this new mission was indicated to be in the special earth locations.

Just like the dangerous uncharted territories of space, the special earth locations were the 2nd most dangerous regions of the present-day earth. Like the name suggested, these were locations that were directly here, on the planet.

Due to the appearance and discovery of exotics, as technical skill and development skyrocketed, so did the danger and extremities of nature also skyrocketed.

Though researchers have not come to a definite verdict for the cause yet, after the discovery of exotics, it became glaringly evident that natural disasters became more powerful and impactful.

An earthquake of a frequency that was supposed to originally level a 2km area, can now level a 10km area in this age of exotics and technology. This was just a small description of the spike in the power of nature.

Of the special earth locations, the most well-known and dreaded were the big Mountain Everest and the large Sahara Desert. There were countless other death zone locations, but these 2 were the most dangerous.

Though Clark always loved the prospect of going for a new challenge, this did not mean that he became an idiotic battle maniac who mindlessly looked for danger.

With his current strength, he was not confident at all of surviving in extreme regions such as the now dreaded Mountain Everest or the Sahara Desert. What made him more angered and pissed off was the fact that no one even asked for his opinion about it.

Inside him, he felt a little excitement at the prospect of going, but because this was forced on him, his rebellious spirit was already aroused. He inwardly vowed to not go on this mission.

“Even if I originally wanted to go, because you forced me, I’ll stubbornly remain in my current position. What can you do about it?”

Due to his military obligations and restrictions, he could not explain everything to his friend despite him being a soldier also. Though he explained only a filtered little from what he just learned, his friend was still able to understand his current plight.

“Clark, what will you do? You’re not ready for this, I highly advise against it”.

“Don’t worry Leo, this time, I won’t be going. No one can force me; I have my rights as a Spartan soldier”.

After taking some more time to organize his thoughts, he suggested to his friend that they should go back to his mansion. Leo had no objections as they both entered the car, letting Rose drive them out of the forest.

As the car drove back, no one spoke out, everywhere was silent as Clark made use of this opportunity to think further on what he should do.

Originally, he had confidence that no one could violate his rights as a soldier. But thinking of the fact that the hidden influential typhoons were probably the ones who arranged this, he could not help but doubt himself.

Their efficiency and decisiveness scared the hell out of him. He wanted to calm his nerves and remain strong, but the restlessness slowly growing in him could not be suppressed.

He suddenly grabbed his military encrypted communication device, hesitated for a moment before dialing General Maks number.

General Maks Vincent and General Oxford were the 2 influential soldiers that he was familiar and close with, so he thought of them immediately when he sought help.

Riii…!! Riii…!! The call rang for dozens of minutes, but the General did not pick up, bringing his already agitated self, more restlessness. He thought that he was already an adult, but this sudden setback brought him back to the painful truth that he was still susceptible to fear.

As soon as he got back to his mansion, his assistant offered to take Leo to the room prepared for him, but he insisted that Leo should stay in his room, which his friend easily agreed on.

As friends who spent most of their years as cadets and soldiers staying in one room, they were already used to each other’s company. The 3 years of separation did little in breaking this bond.

Leo understood that his friend was currently fragile emotionally, so he just sighed on getting to the luxurious room before carelessly dropping into the even more luxurious king-sized bed.

He just wanted to sleep away from all his problems. After spending so much time with his friend, their bond already re-ignited, so the luxury all around did not deter him again. This was his house; his best friend’s property was his.

Thinking of how the problems that his friend faced daily increased steadily with his status, he could not help but like the fact that he was still a 1st rank high-grade soldier.

Getting to a higher rank and having more status was definitely impressive but added with all the problems that followed, he felt that it suddenly seemed much less attractive.

He paid no more attention to his friend that was still pacing around the room, before slowly falling into the cushy embrace of sleep.

Clark noticed as soon as his best friend fell asleep, but he hardly cared as his thoughts still resolved on the call that he received. After trying General Mark’s number again without any success, he finally called General Oxford.

Just like with the other General, General Oxford’s was even worse as the connection got cut off immediately, saying that the General’s number was busy.

“How can they both be busy at the same time. This is not a coincidence”.

As his situation became more and more apparent that it was a consequence of his actions back in the day, instead of worrying further, he forced himself and gradually started calming down.

He spoke out for his city even though he knew that there would probably be retaliation. He made this decision himself, despite the consequence coming faster than he predicted, he was not a scaredy Clark, he was a daring Clark.

He quickly erased any negative thoughts from his head, changed from his clothes into new clean night pajamas, before plopping down on the bed to sleep beside his friend.

As he said, this was the reason why he trained to be a soldier. He would not allow himself to cower, no matter how many fiery darts his opponents hurl at him.

“Tomorrow, everything will become clear. Let me really see how much power these bastards hold over the republic”.

With this thought, he slowly started feeling the exhaustion of his activities throughout the evening with his friend seep in. just like someone under the influence of drugs, his eyelids blinked a few times before finally closing.

“F*ck you, bastards. F*ck you, bastards”. Curse words at his oppressors subconsciously came out of his mouth, as he joined his friend in the dreamy land of sleep.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Hey guys, I want to use this medium to appreciate all my readers, I'm really happy and proud to meet you all. To me, it's like a dream come true, I finally entered volume 3 of my first ever book. Congratulations to you and me, I hope you all enjoyed the ride so far. I promise that it will only get better and better. A flying kiss from me to you all, thanks again.]