Book 4 Chapter 12.4 - Reward
Curtis walked over to the storehouse he lived in, and soon after, he produced an old fashioned portable intelligence system. This thing looked like an antique from more than ten years ago, far inferior to the dragonrider standard intelligence system. It only supported voice in long range communication with no image, let alone a three-dimensional image.
Curtis fiddled with this thing a few times, and then he roared towards the screen, "Old partner, get up, there's business knocking! You need to send two fellas over north, a place a bit north of the northern base."
"Damn black devil, making me go to that blasted place! Are you asking me to throw this old life away?" A roar that was even louder and more resounding than the captain's sounded from the intelligence system.
"There is compensation." The captain's voice was calm.
"Talk!" Flying Bear on the other end of the intelligence system didn't seem all that interested in the captain's words.
"A bottle of olden era alcohol. Oh? Let me see, it's whiskey."
The olden era intelligence system became momentarily quiet, and then Flying Bear's voice sounded. "Definitely not some good alcohol, or else you wouldn't have brought this up! Who is it that wants to go north?"
"O'Brien and…" The captain gave Alan a look, and then he added, "And his servant."
"O'Brien…" Flying Bear's deep and heavy voice sounded from the other end of the intelligence system. "Have him and his servant come over then. I'll be waiting at the usual spot."
O'Brien had long opened up his own intelligence system, the one in his hands of the latest technology, of course. It was even several grades higher than the dragonrider standard issue one, so producing a map of Dragon City and its surrounding region was just a trifling task.
The captain tapped on the map and said, "You can find Flying Bear and his treasure here."
"Thank you." O'Brien gave his thanks, and then he brought Alan towards the the off-road vehicle parked a bit further out. Behind him, Flying Bear's loud and clear voice sounded from that obsolete intelligence system again. "Hey! Have that brat bring the alcohol over. After drinking a few glasses, my treasure will fly even faster!"
Even with O'Brien's current reserved temperament, when he heard this sentence, the smile on his face still immediately went rigid.
Fortunately, the Captain's next words restored some of his confidence. "Alcohol? What alcohol? I don't know what alcohol you are talking about."
Flying Bear began to roar, "That's my compensation…"
O'Brien and Alan began to walk quickly towards the off-road vehicle, ignoring the captain and Flying Bear's bickering. As for that bottle of whiskey, it was tacitly understood between the two of them to selectively forget about it.
Alan's face became a bit strange. "What do you think? Could that big guy have realized something…"
"Quite likely!" O'Brien's confidence wasn't that great either.
An hour later, a roaring old-fashioned propeller plane got off the ground with great difficulty, then it stuck close to the clouds as it headed north. Two engines that continuously trembled released two alarming streaks of black smoke, the creaking wings and aircraft frame seeming like it might fall apart at any moment. The airplane fluctuated sharply, entering the clouds full of radiation from time to time, but sometimes flying so low it could shave off treetops. It was like a fat, drunk crane, one that might fall at any time. However, it flew tenaciously just like that as it headed north.
Two hours later, this old-fashioned aircraft appeared in the designated northern region. The fact that this aircraft was able to last two hours of shaking without falling apart left even O'Brien a bit shocked. The way they were sent down left him even more speechless. Without any warning or even half a sentence of a reminder in advance, the belly of the aircraft opened on its own, tossing O'Brien and Alan out. Even though Flying Bear's skill really was enough to leave one shocked, in the end, they were still a hundred meters high in the air, and the aircraft was still circling above at close to 200 kilometers per hour. As he looked at the ground that was roaring closer and closer, apart from a bitter smile, O'Brien could still only keep smiling bitterly.
From the departed aircraft that was still shaking about, he seemed to have vaguely heard Flying Bear's roaring voice. "Young lads, I wish you both good luck!"
O'Brien's luck really wasn't bad. When he propped up his defensive force field and landed steadily on the ground, he suddenly sensed something, and as such, he turned around and looked out, just in time to see two people staring over with shock. That was an extremely young man and a woman that still had a bit of attractiveness. Almost the instant he saw them, O'Brien found the information he was looking for from his memory; numbers one and four!
He couldn't help but laugh. It really was like Flying Bear said. His luck this time didn't seem bad.
With a putong sound, Alan landed heavily several dozens of meters out while carrying an enormous combat bag. Even though he smashed rigidly into the ground and produced a shallow crater, he still stood up as if nothing happened. He carried the combat sack as he walked over to O'Brien. While giving numbers one and four a look, he said, "These are the only two here, right?"
O'Brien fetched a pair of dark colored leather fingerless gloves. He slowly put them on and then said, "At the very least, within my range of exploration, these two are the only ones. I don't know where the other four are hiding. Who knows, they might have already been killed by older sister."
As he watched numbers one and four that were slowly closing in, Alan revealed a lazy smile. He opened the combat sack and fetched piece after piece of superalloy forged armor plates, placing them on his body. They covered all of his crucial areas, the armor set even including a rather cool looking pair of protective glasses. Finally, what he took out were eight pieces of alloy plates. When they were pieced together, they formed a meter tall alloy tower shield.
Number one's somewhat sinister eyes slightly narrowed. He stared at O'Brien and said, "That fella looks quite similar to O'Brien. However, why did he appear here?"
"Regardless of why he came, as long as we capture him, Persephone will likely become extremely obedient! If she dares to act disobedient, then I will sever O'Brien's limbs in front of her face!" Number four said cruelly.