Chapter 1236: The 1000th Squad
Chapter 1236: The 1000th Squad
Draco followed the Squad Captain through the entrance of their barracks and was met with a surprisingly organized room with well constructed wooden bunk beds. Within the room were exactly nine creatures, who all focused their attention on Draco when the duo entered.
The Squad Captain clapped to get everyone's attention as she smiled at the group. "Alright squad, some good news. We have been allocated a new squad member for the upcoming skirmish against those blasted elves."
The fellow reached out a hand and patted Draco on the shoulder with appreciation. "This is Unranked Warrior Draco, and he will be fighting alongside us henceforth. Introduce yourselves!"
Silence.
There was a palpable silence in the room as everyone glanced at Draco… then looked away and resumed doing what they were doing before.
"Oh?" Draco muttered as his eyes lit up, finding the situation interesting.
The Squad Captain seemed somewhat embarrassed by the entire situation. "You fellows!! Don't you know that this is our future comrade and ally, who will cover our backs on the battlefield?!"
The group did not seem moved by the captains words, but one of them, a tiger man that was extremely muscular, polished his black saber idly while replying lazily.
"No need to know his name, where he comes from or what his goals are. He wont last long against the elves being a newbie to their tricks."
The others seemed to think the same, and one rabbit girl who - was seated on a top bunk while swinging her furry legs - laughed and seemed interested in joining at this point.
"Hey, even Byron lost his leg to their booby trap last time, and he is the oldest amongst us! What chance does some unranked newbie have?"
Byron, who identified himself by the prosthetic magitech leg, frowned slightly but sighed. He was a burly bronze-skinned human male with golden eyes and tattoos all over his body.
"Lia, enough. There no telling who might die next time. For all you know, he might be the one one among us to survive."
The rest seemed too lazy to even chip in hurtful comments at this point. It truly seemed like they had done this many times, being allocated a newbie who was starry eyed but would die in the first deployment, warranting the allocation of another.
Lia did not heed Byron's admonishment as her eyes lit up. "Hey, this unranked warrior is pretty handsome! It would be such a waste if he died!"
This prompted another look from the group, who seemed to agree somewhat. Of the people here, four were female and five were male, not counting the squad captain - who was obviously male - as well as Draco himself.
A female warrior with bird-like wings on her back smiled. "If you are scared of death, you can come to me. I will do my best to protect you."
Draco glanced at her with a smile. "And? What do I need to do in return?"
"Nothing much. You will just have to bend over every night to receive my special love, heh heh." She replied somewhat vulgarly, adjusting her helmet casually.
"Hehe, don't look at how Jenna is so sexy, she is actually a hermaphrodite! She can give just as well as she can take!" Lia chipped in from her side, swinging her legs even faster.
Jenna, the bird woman with green colored wings, did not seem bothered by this reveal. "My race are a bit special, endowed with high sex drives and both organs to propagate quickly. As long as you submit, I can guarantee your safety."
All eyes fell on Draco, looking to see if he would agree.
Draco glanced at everyone one by one with a smile… then laughed.
He roared with laughter so loud that it could likely be heard in the administrative tent, his hands on his stomach, and tears in his eyes, as if he had truly heard the world's funniest joke. Not only that, Draco's laughter was piercing and hateful, the kind that the class bully would use to torment you in front of the class.
It caused those listening to it to become incredibly uncomfortable, becoming cognizant of their breathing as well as any flaws in their appearance or behavior. For the group here, it made them all frown, feeling that something was wrong.
"Did I perhaps say something amusing, Unranked Warrior Draco?" Jenna stated slowly and with a hint of coldness.
Draco reined in his laughter with difficulty and breathed in deeply to clear his lungs, slapping his cheeks to focus himself. However, he stood there with a poker face for two seconds before he giggled once more.
Seeing that everyone was really losing their patience, Draco struggled to calm his laughter and sighed with amusement.
"Heh, you can't blame me for laughing guys. After all, I haven't heard such… amusing… lines in such a long time."
Draco raised a hand and made a gesture of 'it cant be helped'. "Look, let me paint a picture for you. A near omnipotent god is casually walking among mortals for fun, then a random dog by the roadside tells the god that it would give the god power if the god let the dog sniff his ass. What do you expect the reaction of the god to be?"
Looking at his helpless expression and hearing his words, the temperature in the barracks dropped sharply. Many, including Lia, froze and glanced at Draco with incomprehension, as if they were looking at the most bizarre creature ever.
Jenna stood up from her bunk and glanced at Draco with a frosty expression, her eyes devoid of any amusement. "I request the Squad Captain oversees a duel between myself and this newly allocated member."
The Squad Captain frowned deeply and hesitated. "Jenna, actually, there's no need to-"
"Captain, please oversee it. I don't want to have to write a formal application to command." Jenna interrupted softly but firmly, not taking her eyes off the amused Draco.
The Squad Captain sighed. "He still has to accept."
The fellow turned to Draco. "Do you-"
"Yeah, but make it a life or death thing. Or can I make her my slave if I win?" Draco asked with a sparkle in his eyes.
The Squad Captain was speechless. "No. The War Maniac Pavilion understands that there will occasionally be conflict between soldiers. You can request a life and death duel from the pavilion headquarters, but not during active conscription."
Draco seemed to deflate. "Then what's the point?"
"Pfff…" Lia covered her mouth hurriedly when everyone looked at her, seemingly embarrassed that she almost laughed.
The Squad Captain frowned. "There cannot be active conflict in the squad before deployment though. The two of you have to either duke it out and drop it, or publicly make up right now."
Jenna nodded. "As long as he kneels before my crotch and swallows my excrement in front of the squad, I will not only drop this matter but still offer the protection I premised earlier."
The Squad Captain's forehead creased as she glanced at Draco, but Draco was also glancing at him while making a gesture of 'get a load of this guy'. Even the usually stoic captain couldn't help but have his lips twitch.
Bryon stood up and exerted some pressure. "Jenna, drop it. You provoked him first with your rude offer and he responded in kind. We have a battle in less than 12 hours, we cannot afford such childish squabbles!"
Jenna glanced at Byron casually, smirking coldly. "You may have some clout, but not with your one-legged wretchedness. Sit this one out before I retire you from the battlefield permanently with no legs."
"Enough! I agree with Byron on this, you have overstepped, Jenna. Drop it or face the consequences.' The Squad Captain stepped forth and said angrily.
Jenna eyed him and did not seem intimidated in the least. "Says you. Our noble squad captain, have you even told our new recruit your name? Did you introduce yourself to him? You disregard him as much as we do but act noble about it."
The tiger man chuckled and stood up. "With that, I agree. Unranked trash, you sure have a big mouth, but if you think Jenna has disrespected you the most here, you are truly naive."
Lia seemed excited by all the chaos as her legs swung faster and faster her entire body leaning forward with bulging eyes, as if wanting to take the entire scene in deeply.
The Sqaud Captain frowned but sighed and stepped away from Draco. He simply gave Draco a casual glance and shrugged, not refuting their words, probably because he didn't see the reason why he should.
The 1000th Squad. From the moment Draco got here, he had been looked down upon, ostracized and even toyed with by literally everyone. Even the Bryon fellow as guilty, because he was simply playing the role of the devils advocate for amusement.
You see, while these fellows might not know it, Draco had a wide range of abilities. He could literally read minds, pierce souls and sense emotions. The entire 'play' that was going on before him left him amused, which was why he laughed.
Imagine a scammer called you to tell you that you won a million dollars, even acting a play with multiple people and references, meanwhile you had long seen the script somewhere else. Despite this, the actors kept acting out their trick thinking you didn't know.
How could Draco not laugh twice?
As for what he told them, that was obviously also part of it. The truth was that he was here to role-play as a bottom feeder soldier to re-live what it was like to be the loser he had been in the previous timeline as a harveey of Darkrow.
If not for that, do you think any of them would be still standing after all this nonsense?
Now, one had to ask, what was the goal of this farce?
Well, it was simply out of boredom for one, and secondly, because they truly didn't want to lose a new member.
See, it was obvious to any of us from the outside, but this War Maniac Pavilion isn't a fucking charity. They give you status and benefits, but they also expect results.
The 1000th Squad had initially been allocated to this realm, which was not even that strong overall, and though it would be GG EZ.
Forget defeating the enemy, some members of this squad - as well as the others located here - had already begun calculating how they would either sell or sexually abuse their future elf prisoners turned slaves.
They did not expect to get their ass handed to them and continually do so as well.
The losses here were so bad that even if a god descended and smashed the entire elf kingdom to paste, the penalty the warriors deployed by the WMP would suffer was enough to make them feel weak at the knees.
So the losses had to be curbed somehow. Either they collectively became stronger or they simply prevented more people from dying, and the choice they made was obvious.
It might seem far-fetched, but this entire charade was to make Draco take something akin to Jenna's initial offer. As long as they got this loser unranked warrior to give up some of his benefits and accept their protection, everything could work out in the end.
A pity.
The one they targeted had to be none other than Draco.
While people were still talking and acting out the play, Draco lost interest and walked over to one of the empty bunks. In full view of everyone, he transformed his armor into a set of black pajamas with chibi Eva and Shuangtian's patterns then jumped on the mattress, covering himself with the blankets.
The entire squad was left speechless.
While we are here talking and making a ruckus, the subject in question had already gotten comfortable and jumped into bed. How are we supposed to continue the act?