Star Gate

Chapter 856: Another Promotion (IV)

All of the mysterious power stones disappeared when General Pagoda waved his hand. He was rather resigned to see Li Hao still looking at him. A man’s ambitions were not far reaching when he was poor, and this same were a tree’s ambitions. After some thought, he sighed and commanded a crystalline branch to fall off of the massive tree.

“This is the tree heart formed out of the core essence of my primary body...”

“It’s just a regular branch!” The old turtle’s voice could be faintly heard on the wind.

General Pagoda looked at the city and then at Li Hao.

“I don’t mind!” coughed the young man.

“......” General Pagoda was well and truly resigned. “It is indeed a regular branch, but it’s still different! There’s not much use to this item, but if you carry it on you, it will be a deterrent to regular plant spirits that you meet. So long as they are not higher ranked than me, the natural difference in ranks will somewhat constrain their power.”

“It’s not as useful as your dog’s bloodline power!” The voice came again from the city.

Li Hao looked innocently at General Pagoda. I didn’t say nothing, it came from that one!

The pagoda tree wanted to smite the one in the city! It fell silent for a bit before continuing, “That’s fine, it can also nourish your physical body...”

“It’s less useful than one hundred drops of Water of Life.”

“Get out here!” General Pagoda flew into a rage.

The old turtle glanced outside the city from its position on top of the pagoda and couldn’t be bothered to respond. It piped in with commentary because it couldn’t stand how miserly the old tree was being. Its penny-pinching ways couldn’t be tolerated! It would be the shame of all Battle Heaven!

......

The old tree mused silently for a very long time. I’ve only just awoken, what do you want me to give him? I don’t have anything to give!

Li Hao didn’t suggest anything and merrily accepted the branch. “There’s no need to mind any of this, general. We do not seek a reward, we did all of this voluntarily!”

Do you really not want a reward? The old man projection from the tree wanted to roll his eyes. Then why do you keep saying all this and keep looking at me? What’s with that expectant expression?

“You’re not a division leader yet, are you?” he finally said after prolonged thought. “With the changes in the world, Battle Heaven’s city lord and commander-in-chief are not in residence. I and the old turtle can make some decisions on their behalf.

“I hereby promote you to leader of the Eleventh Division of the Reserve Defenders in accordance with wartime regulations! This will be valid so long as the old turtle agrees and certifies it with the Black Tortoise Seal. You will be able to commandeer ten thousand sets of armor from Military Supplies and issue orders according to your own will. The command comes with ten sets of silver armor and one hundred sets of bronze armor. Internal assessments can be delayed until further notice given that we are at war...”

Li Hao’s jaw dropped.

“Is this... appropriate?” came the old turtle’s voice.

“Why not?” the general said faintly. “He revived me. Is that not a deed of great merit for Battle Heaven?”

The old turtle was at a loss for words. How are you turning it around on me? It wasn’t a grave matter, but that this promotion might cause some problems.

“Guardian, it is not out of the question to promote Li Hao to the Eleventh Division leader,” the Gold Armor commander said coldly at the gates. “But if anything untoward develops, it is the guardian who is at fault!”

The position of division leader didn’t matter much; giving Li Hao the authority to recruit more Black Armors was inconsequential. But giving him authority over denoting more Silver Armors—troop leaders—was very problematic.

“I will take full responsibility!”

“Then I have no opinions otherwise after receiving the guardian’s assurance!”

“I don’t have an opinion either...” stated Director General Wang.

“It doesn’t matter even if you do,” chuckled General Pagoda. “Security’s jurisdiction does not include the military.”

“......” Director General Wang swallowed the rest of his words. Will you listen to yourself?

Li Hao ducked his head and swallowed hard. This was not bad! Ten thousand sets of black armor, ten sets of silver armor and one hundred sets of bronze... Heh, not bad! Not bad at all! He knew that the old tree was poor, but this was an unexpected surprise. I’ll take it!

“My thanks to Sir Guardian!”

“Go to the barracks,” General Pagoda didn’t say anything else. “Come find me in three days!”

The human projection vanished and Li Hao immediately ran back to the city. The Gold Armor on the city gates had vanished, the old turtle remained silent, and Director General Wang was quite dejected. So Li Hao really had become a division leader... there was no helping it!

The three troop leaders on the city gates looked at each other with some envy.

“Favoritism... we don’t need to be bothered by it!” transmitted one of them. The other two looked at the one who’d spoken. Seriously now?

Even if he made use of nepotism to get to his position, we have to acknowledge it all the same. The key thing was, he’s been promoted! Although the Eleventh Division no longer existed and was merely an empty shell, the young man was still a division leader in title.

Golden armor manifested over Li Hao and he swiftly moved toward the city gates. He looked mirthfully at the three troop leaders. “Then I’m off to the barracks, gentlemen...”

“Greetings to Division Leader Li!” The three snapped salutes, as did the thousands of Black Armors on the ground.

Li Hao roared with laughter and vanished, but quickly returned a few seconds later. “I forgot to say just now that we should all have a drink later...”

“Greetings, Commander Li!” The group saluted again.

“Don’t be like that, at ease, everyone!” Li Hao said humbly and vanished again. The three room leaders were speechless and nearly went up a wall when the young man came back.

He’s gone crazy, hasn’t he?

“Greetings, sir!”

“At ease. I just remembered that the seventh troop leader gave me some advice before. My thanks! Let’s talk about it later!”

The three watched him leave before looking hesitantly at each other. Their heads drooped when he didn’t come back this time. He might’ve heard their transmission. This guy did all that on purpose!

In the barracks, the commander of the Ninth Division was equally at a loss. After a long moment, he said to a Red Armor next to him, “Throw him out if he comes again!”

“Understood!”

The doors to the Ninth Division headquarters slammed shut. The commander couldn't be bothered to see Li Hao’s smug face. Out of sight was out of mind.

Meanwhile, Li Hao plainly didn’t care and sped straight to Military Supplies. What a pity he hadn’t been made the commissioner of Military Supplies. He’d be able to throw his weight around the deputy commissioner who didn’t treat him with much respect!

......

Military Supplies.

Li Hao was here again. Zhang Liang had already heard General Pagoda’s words and was already morose for it. The irritating fellow was a division leader now, the rank of a general. Wasn’t it nice to have a backer? Even though their army commander, reserve commander, and city lord were gone, he was still promoted when he ought to be.

“He’s here...” Zhang Liang mumbled to himself, his vat of jealousy overflowing.

“Hello, Deputy Commissioner Zhang!”

“......” Zhang Liang’s moroseness deepened. Now you know I’m a deputy commissioner? People change when they come into power! You’re such a petty person, pah!

“Deputy Commissioner Zhang, I’ll mention to General Pagoda later that Military Supplies needs a commissioner,” Li Hao chuckled. “Someone has to take over the position, right?” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Greetings, commander!” Zhang Liang snapped to attention and was full of energy. “What do you need, sir? Zhang Liang is at your service!”

“......” Li Hao remained chuckling merrily. Now there’s a real enthusiast of bureaucracy. I’m not. I just want some benefits and don’t care about titles. This one though, won’t be happy unless he’s promoted.

The young man was so joyful that he was in an even better mood.

“Give me ten thousand sets of armor!” He’d already taken five thousand before, so strictly speaking, all he needed was another five thousand to round out his numbers. But... who said what he requested before was part of this count?

“The newly designated Eleventh Division is so poor and lacks everything!” Li Hao sighed. “It’s all up to you, Deputy Commissioner Zhang. Now that General Pagoda is awake and has time, I can chat with it. It won’t be hard to accomplish this with wartime regulations in effect, right?”

“Ten thousand sets of armor, did you say?” the deputy commissioner quickly responded. “Not a problem! The reserve defenders have their own reserve armor that hasn’t been in use for many years. There’s no use for them anymore now that everyone is dead. I’ll go fetch it for the commander. Is there anything else you need other than the armor?”

“What else are the other divisions equipped with?” Li Hao smiled.

“Energy cannons, do you want them?”

“What are those?”

“Um... weapons that can fire on cities...”

Energy cannons? Why do they sound like our city annihilation missiles?

“I do! How many do you have?”

“Regular divisions are equipped with a company in charge of energy weapons. That makes for ten cannons and one thousand rounds of ammunition.”

“Just ten?” Li Hao’s eyes gleamed. “Mine’s a new division, isn’t there an allowance made for a certain scrap rate?”

“......” Zhang Liang no longer had teeth or his would be aching by now. Where did you learn this concept? He mumbled, “Yes... then... I’ll assign twelve cannons and twelve hundred rounds of ammunition to your division?”

“Yep, Deputy Commissioner Zhang is the best!”

Zhang Liang didn’t know what to say, but at least this was all within the rules, so it didn’t count as him opening a back door for Li Hao.

“What else are regular divisions equipped with?”

“Under normal circumstances, a division’s functionality is to be taken into account when assigning equipment other than armor and energy cannons. But there are many parts of the city that are inactive and some that we do not have in storage, so I’ll speak of what we do have.” Zhang Liang quickly ran a mental checklist. “A newly designated division is allotted ten signal towers that can expand the range of communication by tenfold. That’s ten times five hundred kilometers, not just fifteen hundred kilometers... With these towers, communication can range over five thousand kilometers and each troop is equipped with one.”

Signal towers! This was great. Li Hao quickly nodded rapidly.