Hearing the alarm, the young boy’s eyes flashed. If he was given the slightest opportunity, he would escape. All the people that were in the holding cells had an alarmed expression on as one asked in a disbelief, “Who would dare to attack the Flagship of the 13th Special Attack Operations Fleet?” However, in a cell that was very far away from the little boy, there was a burly old man with short grey hair that was smiling. He was inside a normal cell and actually had very lax security. His hands weren’t even cuffed.
The man with grey hair had a muscular body and was currently wearing a black tank top with brown shorts and military boots. The old man closed his eyes and murmured, “Finally they come, I was starting to think that they would let the ship rendezvous with the fleet.” Hearing alarm, the guards entered the little boy’s holding cell. Four men were holding the young boy at gun point while two were aiming at the cell door and the last four had divided themselves. Two were aiming towards one end of the hallway, where a door was and the other two were aiming at the other side of the hallway. This was a tight guard that did not allow the little boy to even make one suspicious move while the doors leading to the imprisonment area were tightly monitored.
They had received an order from the Captain before, that if the ship goes into battle mode, no matter who, anyone who enters those two doors will be shot without a moments hesitation. As the sounds of explosions and firing grew fiercer and fiercer outside, soon sounds of firing and yelling were also heard from inside the ship itself. As the sounds of battle neared, everyone visibly tensed up.
It did not matter if they were the guards or prisoners, all of them tensed up and then suddenly, one of the doors at the end of the hallway opened. The moment it opened, the two guards, who had been pointing at the door, shot at the person at the door without any hesitation. After they had emptied their magazines, they were greeted by a humanoid steel golem.
The steel golem just laughed, “What are your puny Physical Rounds going to do now?” As he said so, the giant hunk of steel dashed forward and rushed towards the guards. Just as the two guards, who had been guarding the other end of the hallway, turned around to shoot at the giant hunk of steel, the other door leading to the prison area was blasted open.
*Siu*
*Siu*
Two bullets made of compressed air flew through the heads of the two guards that just turned around. Before the other two could reload their weapons the giant hunk of steel had arrived before them and as he swung his massive arm down, he directly squashed one of the guards heads. As for the other, he was smacked away like a fly and he flew out of the prison area into the hallway and as he hit the wall, only bones breaking could be heard as blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth and nose.
The guards who were aiming at the cell’s doorway, immediately shot at the sight of the steel man. However, only spark flew off of him as the bullets bounced off of him. Suddenly, one of the guard who was keeping the young boy at gun point shouted, “Use Energy Rounds! Unless it is a cannon, Physical Rounds can’t hurt him.” Seeing the peculiar scene of 4 men holding a little malnourished boy, that was chained to a wall, at gun point, the man covered in steel froze for a second.
He had no idea what the little boy had done but wasn’t this far too excessive? Suddenly, the old man with grey hair shouted form his cell, “Hey Block Head, kill those guards! We are taking that little boy with us!”
Hearing that, the man in steel woke up from his stupefaction, he saw that the guards had already loaded in Energy Bullets. Seeing this, the man’s face changed as he jumped to side yelling, “Shit, Energy Rounds!” Just before the two shot at him, he managed to dodge to the cover of the wall.
He let out a breath of relief and then looked towards the other side of the hallway, where a girl that was approximately 20 years old was cautiously walking towards the cell with the open door. She was wearing a tight combat suit that brought our her curves quite nicely. Her hair was green and extended to her waist. Her emerald green eyes were quite cold as she stopped next to the prison cell the young boy was in.
She nodded towards the man covered by steel and seeing this nod, the steel man held up six fingers indicating that there are six guards there in total. Then he showed two fingers and made the motion of holding a gun. It was a sign that two were currently aiming here. The green haired woman nodded again seriously and then stood up.
She took a deep breath and suddenly jumped. As she jumped, a gust of wind seemed to push her from the side and she quickly flew across the doorway to the other side.
When she moved across the doorway, a Siu* Siu* Siu* Siu* was heard and a few seconds after that, there were four thumping sounds made by four bodies hitting the floor. As the four bodies dropped to the floor, the steel man rushed inside the cell and quickly took care of the two guards left. After all of the guards were taken care of, the woman with green hair moved in front of the bulky old man’s cell and took a deep breath. As if spitting something out of her mouth, the cell door exploded.
The old man scratched at the back of his head and said, “Sheesh, would it kill you to wait for me to step back a bit before you blow up the door Sandra?” The young woman rolled her eyes and said, “Tinkerer, you should know very well that we do not have much time, so it was obvious that I would get you out as fast as possible. But are you certain?” As she asked the final question, she gestured towards the young boy’s cell with her eyes.
The old man also turned serious as he said in a low voice, “Yes, I will explain it later. Our first priority is getting out of here.” As he said so, he quickly went towards the young man’s cell. Since their cells were so far apart, he had no idea how he was imprisoned.
So, when he arrived at the cell door and saw the young boy chained, his mouth opened wide as he asked in disbelief, “Did you massacre their whole platoon to get this kind of treatment or what?” The young boy looked at the old man and said, “Why do you want to take me with you?” The old man put on a bitter smile and said, “Well, currently getting you out is very hard…. Your chains are all made from Adatantium, so no ESP ability will be able to break them. Getting them off would require us to pick all of the locks but we do not have the time for that.”
Hearing this the young man just looked at the old man in the eyes and asked again in a cold tone, “Why do you want to take me with you?” When the old man saw those cold eyes, his heart turned sour as he thought to himself, “What do you need to go through to transform a small child like that?”
The old man turned serious and said, “Since you seem so suspicious of us, let’s make a deal.” Hearing this, the other two’s faces changed as well. They did not know anything about the young boy but the old man had heard him say that he had escaped from the Garden of Eden, so he could not be someone simple. The young boy’s eyes flashed again as he asked in a low tone, “What deal?” The old man smiled and said, “We will get you out of here and in return you will work for us, how about it?” Hearing this, the young boy was surprised as he asked, “And who are you?”
The old man puffed out his chest with pride and said, “I am George Oil, the Head Mechanic of the Roaming Phantom Pirates fleet. And you would be working for our Roaming Phantom Pirates fleet, so you would not have to fear the Kriegrich Empire’s fleets chasing after you any more, since every authority in the Galaxy will be chasing after you.”
Hearing this, the young boy was surprised as he asked, “Are you not afraid that you will bring on the wrath of the Kriegrich Empire onto your Pirate Group if you recruit someone like me?” The steel man and the woman named Sandra both looked at the young boy oddly after that. It was a well known fact that their Pirate Group was like fire and water with Kriegrich Empire. The old man laughed loudly and said, “No need to worry about that. The Kriegrich Empire already considers us as mortal enemies, adding you into our ranks would only be beneficial for us while creating a bigger headache for them. So, do we have a deal?”
The young boy thought about the old man’s proposal but then remembered that they do not have enough time to undo the chains on his body. Just as he was about to say something, a communicator at the waist of Sandra let out a, urgent voice, “Sandra, Krieg! How long are you going to take? We have already exceeded the mission time and the reinforcements from the Enemy Fleet will arrive in 15 minutes. If we do not leave in the next 10 minutes, we are all going to die.” Just as Sandra was about to take the communicator, George took the communicator and said, “Give us 5 more minutes. I promise you, the wait will be worth it.”
As he said so, he turned the communicator off. He looked at the young man still chained to the wall and asked, “So, what is your answer? Since we have a time limit, I can’t let you think long.” The young boy said, “Okay, you have a deal.”
Hearing this, the old man was very happy as he started moving towards the panel that controlled the cell. The young man just yelled at him, “There is no time for you to hack into the system and release these chains. Only Commander Grade and up people have the permission required to undo these chains!” Hearing this, the old man froze and Krieg and Sandra looked at him in disbelief. Commanders were the people that were at the top of the food chain in a fleet. Above them would only be the Generals and the Emperor, so to try and hack into the system and try to remove the chains would be nigh impossible in the time frame they had.
“Do you have any other suggestions?” George said to him as he started walking towards the panel again. The young boy turned to Krieg, the giant steel man, and said, “Take the guards guns and shoot at the fourth link from my body, that is these chains weak spot. Although this won’t help me get these chains off immediately, at least we can get out of here.” Hearing this, George turned around and asked suspiciously, “Are you certain that this will work?” The young man nodded and said, “One hundred per cent sure. You need to use the Physical Rounds and aim at the fourth link from my body.” Hearing this, the old man decided to follow the little boy’s suggestion.
At the moment, this was the best they got any ways. After he picked up the gun, he carefully aimed at the welding spot of the fourth link and just as he shot at it, the link broke. Seeing that his was working, he eagerly shot the chains holding his legs and then finally, the one holding the arm. As the final chain got broken, the young boy fell to the ground.
Seeing his weak state, George put him on his back and started following Krieg and Sandra towards the rendezvous spot. He looked like a small koala baby that was on his mother’s back. George’s broad back was big enough for the little boy to use it as a shield.
All of the soldiers they saw during their escape were all killed off by the combination of Krieg’s shield like frame and Sandras air bullets that she shot out. After 5 minutes of running around in this maze like battlecruiser, they finally made it to their rendezvous spot. When the pirates, that were holding the fort saw the three of them come, relief was painted on their face. However, they soon looked at them in confusion when they saw the little boy being piggybacked by George.
After a moment of confusion, they sobered up and continued with their cover fire as they did not have the time to be dazed and confused. They all started going back through the bridge that was linking their two ships and Krieg, Sandra, George and the young boy would be left last. Just as they were halfway over the bridge, a wall of ice suddenly blocked them off. Seeing this, they faces fell as Krieg tried to body smash it to bits but was rebounded off the wall.
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All three of them looked back with ugly faces. They saw a young man wearing officer’s clothes walking in. His hair was black and short. His blue eyes gave of a feeling like you were stuck in a blizzard. His build was slender over all and in his right hand was a military sabre. He looked at the three coldly and said, “I don’t mind if you escape George.”
George cleared his throat and just as he was about to say something, the young man released an ice cold aura as he continued, “But he is not going anywhere.” As he said so, he pointed his sword at the young boy on George’s back. George’s face fell even further and turned quite grotesque but the two at his side were even more confused about the little boy. Seeing his imprisonment method, they felt as though he was some kind of a mass murder but it seemed like George knew something about him and his importances to the Kriegrich Empire was quite big.
Hearing this, the young boy climbed down from George’s back and stood in front of the three. He smiled as he whispered in a low voice, “Back up until the wall and leave a hole between me and the wall. Also, be ready to bolt on my command.” Hearing this, Sandra raised her brows and asked, “What are you-”
The young boy cut her short with a gesture of his hand and whispered, “Trust me, I do not want to go back to that hell, so there is no way I am staying.” Just as she was about to rebuke him again, George put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, indicating to do as the little boy said.
Seeing them back against the wall like that, the young man asked in a cold voice, “What are you planning Engineer?” The little boy just smiled at him and said, “I have no interest in going back to the Academy, so bye bye Frost.” As soon as his words ended, he turned around and smashed towards the wall of ice with his chains.
Seeing that, Frost’s face was coloured in surprise but soon grew alarmed as he realised what the little boy was going to do. The moment the chains came in contact with the ice wall, the wall burst into little snowflakes. Seeing this, the little boy yelled, “Run!” Without skipping a beat, all of them started running towards the pirate ship. Seeing all of them run, the young man shouted, “Stop right there!”
As he said so, he swept the sabre horizontally to the ground and four icicles flew towards George and company. Seeing the icicles flying towards them, Krieg’s, Sandra’s and George’s faces fell, they had no confidence what so ever in being able to take them head on. Just as they grit their teeth to take them head on, the little boy who was running at the back of the group, suddenly jumped up and swept the chains towards the icicles and as each of the chains accurately hit the icicles, they immediately evaporated.
After landing, the little boy started running like the wind again. The bridge was originally 500 meters long, 5 meters wide and 3 meters high but currently, it seemed like it was 500 kilometers long to the four. There was only 150 meters until the pirate ship and in the short distance of 350 meters, they had nearly died twice already. The chains still bound at the little boy’s hands were only 1 meter long.
Each chain was enormous and it was very heavy. To see the little boy actually being able to run and do such acrobatic movements with these chains made all of the pirates dumbfounded as one of them asked subconsciously, “Is that little guy a monster in human form?” Although no one openly agreed with him, no one rebuked him either.
When there was only 50 meters left until their goal, the young man called Frost dashed behind them and had caught up to them. All he needed to do was stretch out his hand and he would be able to catch the little boy. Seeing this, the pirate’s face changed as they all aimed their guns at him. Just as Frost caught the little boy by the collar of his shirt, the young boy borrowed the jerking force and did a backflip as the chains tied to both his feet came swinging towards Frost in a whip like manner.
Seeing the incoming chains, Frost let go of the little boy’s collar and adapted a defensive pose. However, before the chains could hit him, he felt two little feet press on the guarding arm and push off. It was only then that he realised that the hit with the chains was a feint and the little boy was actually using him as a spring board to dash forward. The three had already reached the door and had turned around just in time to see the little boy get caught.
However, their faces were painted in astonishment when they saw him fight Frost head on like that and even outsmart him. After the little boy had done a roll on the ground, he immediately continued sprinting towards the door. There were only 20 meters to go and the distance between him and Frost was 40 meters. Seeing him get away, Frost roared, “You will not escape Engineer!”
As he said so, he extended his left hand and a chain made of ice shot out from his palm. Just as the little boy crossed the doorway to the pirate ship, a chain of ice wrapped around his neck. Seeing this, George immediately smashed the button next to the door, so it would close. The door’s couldn’t fully close because of the ice chain but the little boy had recovered from the sudden loss of balance and hit the ice chain with the chains made of Adatantium.
As the chain made of ice evaporated into thin air in a split second, the doors closed and the bridge was detached as the ship immediately flew away. Since the Pirates ship was smaller, it’s flying speed and maneuverability was many times higher than a massive warships. Before the warship could even turn around, the little pirate ship had already entered Hyper Space and flown away.
On board the ship, the pirates at the door, felt as though a heavy rock has been lifted from their hearts. This kind of a risky attack on their flag ship was close to suicide to be honest, them being able to emerge with their lives intact was already something they were immensely happy for. Finally, Krieg could not take it and yelled at the little boy, “Are you some kind of a monster wearing human skin?”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward the little boy that was down on the ground panting. The little boy looked up and locked eyes with Krieg. He then said in a cold tone, “Anyone who has survived in the Academy as long as me can do at least that much.” Hearing this, everyone fell silent. George just gave a cough and asked, “You said before that you “escaped from the Garden of Eden”. Why did you need to escape from it for?” Hearing the name “Garden of Eden”, every pirate pointed their gun at the little boy.
The tension was sky high and if even a pin dropped nearby, it could startle someone into shooting. The little boy looked at George in astonishment as he asked him, “What kind of a place do you think the Academy is?” Hearing this, everyone faltered. Not much was known about the Academy, only thing that was known was that only especially selected people were able to enrol in it and the people that graduated got the position of a Captain of a ship at the very least.
In the eyes of everyone, that place was a holy ground that produced one genius after another. George also faltered but immediately answered, “It is a place where geniuses convene and when they graduate, they will be guaranteed a spot as the Captain of a ship. They are the elite of the elites of the Kriegrich Empire.” Hearing this, the young boy just laughed loudly.
He then stood up and said in a mocking tone, “That place is a living Hell. Every year, over a hundred 5 year olds are forced to enrol in that Hell hole and 10 years later only two or at maximum three people will be able to graduate. Do you know how?”
Hearing this, every single one of them were startled as their arms started to falter. The young boy walked directly in front of George and looked at him in the eyes as he said, “Each person that manages to graduate is someone that has climbed over a mountain of corpses. The number of people that survive the first year is half of the people that enrolled. The only way to graduate is to either survive for 10 years or to graduate early, you need to be that last person standing.” Hearing this, everyone’s guns started lowering because they were far too shocked about this.
Because what happened in the Garden of Eden was a complete mystery, it sparked a lot of theories on how they were taught but none of the theories came even close to the truth it seems. George also looked at the young man stupefied but before he could say anything, the little boy said, “So, that place is not as glamorous as you all think. To people that actually go there, it is a living Hell. You can trust no one because at the end, maximum of three people will be allowed to survive. So, if in your year are over a hundred people, tell me, who doesn’t want to survive?”
This made everyone deeply think about their actions just now. Also, this kind of an environment would explain why every person that graduated the Academy was so strong, cunning and indifferent to human life. One of the surrounding people asked, “Why do you not make a non killing pact amongst yourselves?” The little boy looked at the man who said that and answered, “I said, only three people would be allowed to survive at the maximum. They are the three people that have the highest kill count, if by the end of ten years, there are more than three people surviving, the three with the highest kill count will be spared, the rest will be killed.”
After hearing the explanation, everyone gulped again. In their minds however, they were screaming, “What kind of a bullshit environment is that?! Only three people are allowed to survive? Is this some kind of a joke?” George calmed down his fast beating heart and asked, “So, the reason that the flagship of an entire fleet was separated like that was because of you?”
The little boy just spread his arms out like he was giving a hug to someone and said, “Yes, I, Jack Lumi, am the first person in the history of the Academy to successfully escape from it before the Graduation. Well, five years before Graduation to be exact.”
Hearing this, everyone’s faces changed. Hearing about the true face of the “Prestigious Academy” was something that made their backs be covered in sweat. All of them had been through bloody battles and had killed more than once. However, none of them had been as young as him when they first killed. They had already been adults by the time but Jack, the little boy in front of them, had been only 5 years old at the time. Suddenly, Jack swayed as he gave a bitter smile, “Well, seems like it is time for me to go to sleep, thank you for your help.”
As he said so, his eyes lost focus as he toppled over. Seeing him fall to the floor, everyone started scrambling towards him to catch him. However, the one who caught him was the silent maiden with long green hair who said, “I will take care of him.” Hearing this, everyone backed off and George looked at her with a suspicious glance as he asked, “Sandra, you wouldn’t happen to know something about the Academy, would you now?”
Hearing this, everyone’s faces were painted in confusion. Sandra looked towards George coldly and said, “I do know and I can also tell you that everything he said was the truth. That place is a dog eats dog world.” Hearing this, everyone looked at Sandra weirdly. Not much was known about her other than that she was extremely strong and that she was an extremely cold person. She was picked up by the Captain but no one knew anything about her origins.
She never spoke about it either and every time someone asked her about it, she would either leave, give the cold shoulder or change the subject. George’s face flickered as he asked seriously, “Are you someone who graduated from the Academy?” This question tensed everyone up. Too many things had happened one after another. First of all, they had to raid a flagship by themselves with this small ship, which was akin to suicide, then they ran into Frost and then there was also Jack, and now it turned out that Sandra was also a person that had graduated from the Academy.
Finally, one of the people that had been in the surroundings, clapped with his two hands and said, “Okay, let’s stop now. This is too many things happening one after another. Lets all just calm down and go rest now that we are all out of danger, also we need to make a full report of expenditures and damages. Those that are injured will head to the infirmary. Lets go, lets go.” Everyone looked towards the slender middle aged man that said that and just started heading towards either towards their positions, quarters or the infirmary. The slender man was wearing a pink tank top, purple vest on top of it and long white, skinny pants. Also, his nails were painted light blue and his expression was quite queerish. He looked at Jack and then turned his sight towards Sandra, “What are we going to do with him? His injuries look quite bad but we don’t have enough room inside the infirmary either.”
George looked towards the queerish man in surprise and asked, “So many injured?” The queerish man just nodded his head and said seriously, “Commander Frost himself injured a lot of our guys and if others hadn’t intervened fast enough, we would be having dead bodies instead of patients. All the beds are full, the entire floor is full and the hallway is also full. We have no place to put him.” As the man slowly and helplessly shook his head, George also shook his head. It was then that Sandra said, “I will take him to my room. I am probably the only one he would not be so wary of after he finds out that I am also from the Academy.”
Hearing this George was surprised and asked suspiciously, “Wouldn’t it be better to put him in my room? He seems to trust me.” Sandra let out a rare smile as she said, “Do you honestly think that he trusts you? At best, he is wary of you but that doesn’t mean that he trust you. It just means that he doesn’t expect you to kill him when he turns his back.”
Hearing this, the two were puzzled and Sandra shook her head, “It is extremely hard to explain what you went through in the Academy, no one is able to do so. All I can say is that you have a better chance of becoming sworn brothers with the Kriegrich Emperor than have someone from the Academy trust you.” Hearing this, the two of them looked at her with a complicated face.
The queerish man said, “Okay, take him to your own room. I will send a doctor to your room to take a look at him.” Sandra nodded to him and said, “Thank you Captain.”
The queerish man just shooed her away with his hand and seeing this, Sandra smiled as she took Jack into her arms and carried him to her room.