Chapter 24: Mountbatten Star (Part Two)

Zhao Li turned the matter over in his mind for quite some time, but he couldn’t recall anyone ever instructing him that his service department was to remain confidential. Besides, as Overlord Wolf had explained, there were only a handful of military departments here, and nearly everyone was familiar with each other. In a place like this, surely there shouldn’t be any rules demanding even one’s own department be kept secret.

Still, Zhao Li vividly remembered what befell Qi Zhen at the training base, so he replied with deliberate vagueness, “Well, that’s not really something I can discuss.”

Overlord Wolf turned to glance at Zhao Li, scrutinizing him up and down in a way that made Zhao Li distinctly uncomfortable. At length, Overlord Wolf broke into a smile. “Not bad. Your new recruit training was effective, no wonder you came out a sergeant right away!” It seemed he wasn’t at all displeased by Zhao Li’s evasiveness.

Zhao Li let out a silent sigh of relief. At least he hadn’t offended anyone over this. As he relaxed, however, Overlord Wolf’s next words nearly made him jump out of his skin: “It seems you must be serving in the Special Prison.”

“How—how did you know?” This time, Zhao Li was truly startled. Could he have let something slip without realizing it? This could be trouble.

“Calm down,” Overlord Wolf said easily, leading Zhao Li on through the camp. “You didn’t say a word—I guessed.”

“You guessed?” Zhao Li ran through every detail of his arrival here, certain he hadn’t let anything slip after enduring that ‘battleship roller coaster.’ He remembered everything he’d said, clear and precise. Where could Overlord Wolf possibly have guessed from?

“That’s hardly difficult,” Overlord Wolf laughed, gesturing at the busy camp around them. “Everyone here knows each other. Everyone knows which department everyone else works in, clear as day. If you’re going to be stationed here, it doesn’t matter whether you say it now or later.” As if to prove his point, a passing officer greeted Overlord Wolf warmly and nodded to Zhao Li.

Zhao Li saluted reflexively, which the other returned with a good-natured smile, remarking there was no need to be so formal in this camp. Clearly, the atmosphere here was far more relaxed than at the recruit training center.

“If you can’t say, the only explanation is that you’re not stationed here. That makes it easy to guess.” Overlord Wolf continued to lead Zhao Li around the camp.

“But how did you guess at once it was the prison?” Zhao Li was still baffled. If he didn’t get an explanation, he doubted he’d be able to sleep.

“Because, aside from here, the only other place on Montbatten where soldiers are stationed is the Special Prison,” Overlord Wolf replied, making Zhao Li smile wryly. So, as long as you were a new arrival on this planet, everyone knew where you were posted. The visible departments were right under their noses, the invisible one was the Special Prison. It really was that simple.

So that was it. Zhao Li breathed a sigh of relief—it wasn’t that he’d revealed anything, but rather that this place simply had no secrets. He’d worried himself for nothing, thinking Overlord Wolf some sort of masterful intelligence analyst. But on the other hand, it meant there were virtually no classified assignments here.

“Why would an entire planet have only two places with military presence? The gravity here is about the same as Earth, so I assume the size is similar too?” Zhao Li couldn’t understand it. How could such a vast planet have only two military departments? It made no sense.

Montbatten was a planet Zhao Li had never heard of in his geography lessons, likely a military secret base. However, the actual scale of this secret base was deeply disappointing to him.

“What’s so strange about that? You really are slow,” Overlord Wolf teased, clearly enjoying himself. Zhao Li had a sneaking suspicion that this was part of how they welcomed new recruits. Still, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t figure it out, so he had to ask the ever-smug Overlord Wolf.

“Heh, it’s actually quite simple.” Overlord Wolf seemed in no hurry to reveal everything at once, speaking with measured deliberation. “To tell you the truth, Montbatten is basically a planet covered in water, with only a tiny twenty or so square kilometers of land. Tell me, how much military presence can you fit in such a small area?”

Now it was Zhao Li’s turn to be stunned. Such a simple reason, and he’d racked his brains over it. What irked him most was that Overlord Wolf hadn’t just said so from the start, making him waste all that effort. Clearly, he’d done it on purpose.

From another angle, this also explained why these people amused themselves by tormenting newcomers. With only twenty-some square kilometers of land, there really wasn’t much to guard. A landing pad and a military camp would take up about a fifth of it, and with the prison as well, there wasn’t much left.

In such a tiny place, there was nothing unfamiliar. Spending years here, life must be almost like prison itself—just with a slightly larger range of movement than the actual inmates.

“By the way, why is there an administrative center here? With so little space, is it really necessary?” Zhao Li quickly noticed something amiss and asked Overlord Wolf.

“Not strange at all,” Overlord Wolf replied, as if nothing could surprise him after so long on this planet. “All the water here is fresh—naturally pure freshwater. Soon you’ll see, we are surrounded by a vast freshwater ocean.”

Ignoring Zhao Li’s gaping astonishment, Overlord Wolf continued, “This water can help ease the drinking water crisis for all of humanity, so there’s a huge bottling plant, which means there’s an administrative center as well. In fact, the whole planet—counting the inmates—has only a few hundred people at most.”

“Would you like a drink? This is the purest water you’ll ever taste, utterly unpolluted. All our waste is taken away by warships and destroyed in outer space, to ensure nothing ever alters the taste of the water.” As he spoke, Overlord Wolf drew a cup from a nearby dispenser and handed it to Zhao Li.

Zhao Li took the cup and sipped; a fresh, clean taste filled his mouth, distinctly different from what he was used to at home. So this was what Montbatten was like—far beyond anything Zhao Li had ever imagined. He could only wonder what the Special Prison, where he was about to serve, would be like.

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Second update—just a bit late, thank you all for understanding!
Climbing the charts—please remember to recommend and support, thank you!