The Man Disgusted by Death

In the noisy and simple dining room of the Promise Keeper cargo spacecraft, Lu Zhao was seriously gnawing on a piece of compressed rations. In order to avoid choking, he needed to scoop up a spoonful of protein paste on the plate from time to time to help him swallow.

Lu Zhao is 19 years old this year. He still has the innocence of a teenager on his face, and his forehead is covered with soft and soft hair, but his figure in the uniform of the Pioneering Regiment already belongs to a young man.The figure of the young man looks very slender, only those who are familiar with him know how much energy this inconspicuous body can explode.

Sitting opposite Lu Zhao was his teammate Ma Sen, a big man with strong muscles.

"You can eat such a thing, what is your stomach made of?" Mason asked.

Glancing at Ma Sen and putting the last ration crumbs into his mouth, Lu Zhao said, "My sense of taste is normal." He just felt that food should not be wasted.

Accompanied by a small bump of the ship, the cup on the dining table slipped a few centimeters, Lu Zhao reached out to pick up the cup and began to drink the sour passion fruit juice inside.

Mason already had an unbearable look on his face.

A middle-aged man with a sallow complexion walked over slowly, and put several cans of beer on the table in front of Masson.

"Thanks, Old Tang." Mason asked, "Is there anything else to eat?"

The man named Old Tang slumped down on the bench by the wall, and said lazily, "What else is there, this is a cargo spaceship."

"Hey, we are going to Hope City to perform official duties." Ma Sen said dissatisfiedly, "Shouldn't we have some good food on the way?"

Old Tang glanced at the table, "That's your standard meal, and the military department didn't allocate additional funds for me."

"I go!"

Mason tore up the No. [-] ration bag of the Pioneering Regiment, chewed it bitterly, and cursed while eating, "I knew that the military department is a penny-pinching stinger, and calling us over this time may not be a good thing."

At this time, Lu Zhao had finished drinking his juice and began to clean up the tableware and food packaging bags on the table.

With a piece of jerky in his mouth, Ma Sen casually opened a can of beer and handed it to Lu Zhao, but Lu Zhao didn't pick it up, "I'm not yet of age."

Imperial law stipulates that 20 years old is considered an adult.

"Under the age of 20, you can't drink alcohol, but children under the age of 16 can be recruited to colonize planets to open up wilderness-this fucking law!" Mason took back the beer can and started drinking it himself.

After drinking and belching, Ma Sen turned to look at Old Tang, "What's going on this time, do you have any news?"

"I don't know." Old Tang shook his head, "I heard that each regiment has drawn some people, most of them are elite."

"The so-called elites are the ones with big lives. With a loss rate of more than [-]% per year, they can be considered elites if they can survive for five years." Mason squeezed the jar in his hand and threw it into the trash can next to him. , "The grandchildren of the 'Planetary Ecological Diversity Council', a good colonization must be called a protective development. What can be done with a neutron bomb, we have to pay for it with our lives."

"Hehe." Old Tang laughed, "If it wasn't so dangerous, how could we earn three times the contribution points of ordinary garrison troops?"

"Yeah." Mason pouted self-deprecatingly, "It's all for the empire—after all, it's for the sake of money."

"You're almost ready to retire." Old Tang asked.

"There are still the last few months." Mason nodded, "I will go home when I receive the loyalty award."

"Go home." Old Tang repeated melancholy, "Go home..."

"What about you, aren't you going to leave?" Mason asked.

"Let's go?" Old Tang asked back, "Drag these two mechanical prosthetic limbs, where can I find them when I go back to work? If you can get out of the body like you, it will be regarded as a complete merit."

Ma Sen was speechless, took a sip of beer silently, and then said leisurely after a long while, "If there was no Lu Zhao, I would probably have been buried in the ground."

He turned his head and looked at the porthole of the spaceship.

Lu Zhao was lying on the porthole glass looking out at the clouds.

"That kid, is he really that godlike?" Old Tang asked.

"After he came, the annual loss rate of our regiment dropped from 11.00% to [-]%. Do you think it's a god? We all call him—a man rejected by death."

"This nickname doesn't sound very pleasant to my ears. Why isn't it called a man favored by the goddess of luck?" Old Tang was puzzled.

"Goddess?" Mason laughed, "This is the Pioneering Group, there is no goddess here."

***

mom,

I'm going to Hope City. Mason said that this trip is unpredictable, but I'm not worried. As Aunt Julie always said, there must be a way before the car reaches the mountain.

Lu Zhao

***

Because there were still supplies to be unloaded at several Pioneering Regiment stations along the way, the Keeper of the Faith did not return to Hope City until the next day.

Hope City is the capital of the colony planet Zeta 426. It is located on a large island near the planet's rotation orbit. Since this island is the earliest colonial stronghold, it is now well built.In addition to the garrison, logistics, and family members on the island, there are also many adventurers who come here to pan for gold, plus various practitioners serving these people, the permanent population has exceeded 20.

The spaceship landed on the tarmac of the military headquarters. As soon as the hatch door opened, heat waves rolled in.

"Good luck," Old Tang said.

"Of course, Lu Zhao is here." Mason waved his hand and jumped off the gangway.

Lu Zhao walked to the door with his backpack on his back, said goodbye to Old Tang, and then caught up with Ma Sen.

After entering the military building, they were led into a conference hall.There were already many people in the conference hall, most of them were wearing the uniforms of the Pioneering Group, chatting around in twos and threes, and when they noticed someone coming in, everyone turned their eyes.

"Hi, everyone." Mason greeted with a smile.

"Mason, you're still alive." Someone responded, "I thought you were dead."

"How can it be, you are still here, old Cheng, I dare not die." Ma Sen pulled Lu Zhao to sit next to an acquaintance, "Lu Zhao, come to meet this Brother Cheng, he is from the Seventeenth Regiment Where is the number one sharpshooter?"

"Brother Cheng." Lu Zhao greeted honestly.

"You are Lu Zhao, that lucky boy?"

"Ah?" Lu Zhao was a little taken aback, his nickname was not like that.

Unexpectedly, Ma Sen nodded, "Yes, he is the lucky charm of our group." Patting Lu Zhao on the shoulder quite proudly, Ma Sen asked Old Cheng: "Which show is this time, you do you know?"

"I don't know." The man named Lao Cheng replied.

There were dozens of people in the hall, none of them knew why they came here today.

But they didn't wait too long, and Lieutenant Colonel Linnes, the highest military officer of the Zeta 426 colony, appeared. He first commended everyone present for their contribution to the pioneering cause of the empire, and then told them to report to the Governor's Mansion the next day.

"For the next period of time, you must obey the orders of the governor." Lieutenant Colonel Linnes said: "The empire will not forget your contribution."

"All for the empire!" Everyone saluted and watched the officer leave.

"So, this time, I'm actually going to do something for the governor." Out of the military building, Mason pondered: "I heard that the governor came from the imperial capital galaxy to get his qualifications. I don't know if he is generous or not?"

Lu Zhao followed beside him without saying a word.

"What are you looking at?" Mason turned his head and found that Lu Zhao was looking around.

"Look at the excitement." Lu Zhao said, "There are a lot of people here."

After staying in the pioneer group for a long time, the noise of Hope City is especially rare.

"Stupid." Ma Sen rubbed Lu Zhao's hair, "Young man, my brother will take you out tonight."

Lu Zhao immediately stepped back vigilantly, "No, I'm still young."

"Small." Mason said strangely: "It's almost as tall as me."

"No." Lu Zhao shook his head.

Ma Sen looked at Lu Zhao, and then sighed, "I don't know what's in your head." He had been with Lu Zhao for three years, and he was used to this child's strange stubbornness in some things.

"Then do you want to stay alone at the military reception?" Mason asked.

"I want to go shopping." Lu Zhao said, as if thinking of something interesting, he grinned, showing two dimples.

"Okay, go shopping by yourself, but don't buy things randomly." Mason instructed, "Except for local specialties, the industrial products here are much more expensive than outside, and it's not worth it."

"I see." Lu Zhao nodded.

Although Lu Zhao was born on a remote planet with an honest and silent personality, Ma Sen couldn't think of anything else to remind him. When it comes to being cautious and thrifty, Ma Sen himself can't match Lu Zhao.

Holding Lu Zhao's left hand, Ma Sen transferred five hundred you on Lu Zhao's smart bracelet, "Brother, give you some pocket money." He knew that Lu Zhao had very little need for material and pleasure, and would save his salary every year. Get up, and occasionally buy something on Xingwang, and it will be sent back to my hometown.

Lu Zhao was surprised to receive the transfer, "Brother Sen, no need."

"Take it and buy something delicious for yourself. I won't go back at night."

"We will gather tomorrow morning." Lu Zhao was a little worried.

"Don't worry, I can't miss it." Mason turned around, raised his right hand and waved it casually.

After Ma Sen's figure disappeared, Lu Zhao studied the street signs for a while, then chose the direction of a commercial street and walked over.

It has been almost three years since Lu Zhao came to the colony planet Zeta 426, but there are not many opportunities to go to Hope City. In addition, the city is in the development period, and the urban construction can be said to be changing with each passing day. What I saw half a year ago is completely different.

Lu Zhao watched with great interest the pedestrians on the road, the shops on the side of the road, and the low-altitude hovering cars coming and going.Lu Zhao can live in the monotonous pioneering group's resident, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like such lively and noisy scenes.

Lu Zhao saw a lot of interesting novelties, but he kept in mind that the prices of these products were ridiculous, and he just silently thought, "So there are such things", and then let it go.

Walking to a crossroad, Lu Zhao met a promoter of a newly opened cold drink shop.

"Sir, the new store is open, [-]% off for the entire site." The half-human-tall robot wore a floral apron with ruffled leaves, and handed over a flyer in a soft voice.

"Thank you." Lu Zhao thanked, took the leaflet and read it carefully.

"We also have ice cream made from local fruits, which is absolutely unavailable on other planets." The robot circled around Lu Zhao enthusiastically.

"Get out of the way, don't get in the way." Someone shouted behind him.

Hearing the words, Lu Zhao retreated to the wall, and immediately saw a hovering motorboat swaggering past, with a crash, the salesman of the cold drink shop was knocked over to the ground.

There were other people nearby who were startled by the motorboat, and a man in a gray heat-insulating cloak cursed: "Fuck, rush to reincarnate, isn't it just a generation of travelers."

"One generation is not bad, after all, this is a colonial planet." His companion said, "It's time to show off."

Lu Zhao withdrew his gaze and bent down to help the promotional robot.

The robot stood up straight, probably affected by the impact, it turned around a few times in a daze, and then handed out a flyer to Lu Zhao, "Sir, the new store is open, and the whole store is [-]% off."

"No, I already have it." Lu Zhao declined the robot's sales, and was about to walk away when a shadow flashed across the sky, and he couldn't help but look up, but he couldn't see anything anymore.

The man in the cloak exclaimed, "Hold the grass, what is that? How can the starship drive into the city?"

"The privileged class can do it." His companion was very calm, stretched out his hand and pointed to the distance, "Didn't you see that the ship was heading for the Governor's Mansion?"

Lu Zhao also followed the man's direction and saw nothing but the streets, vehicles and pedestrians.

Governor's Palace?How do you feel that their mission to Hope City this time seems to be related to the spaceship just now?

Lu Zhao tilted his head and thought for a while, then put the matter aside, and happily went to find the cold drink shop according to the address on the leaflet.