The group sat at the rest area in the Mercenary Association, despondent. They were waiting for Becky to complete the registration process. After a long period of silence, Nangong Wuyue could not stand it anymore. She nudged Hao Ren's arm and said, "Landlord, I think we still have one last chance to change the name before it's too late."
Looking sadly at the documents in his hands, Hao Ren had been mentally struggling these registration forms for the last one hour. He was too exhausted to move a finger at this point. "Do it yourself. I can't think of more names; you can't use numbers, special characters, names of politicians in the Kingdom of Holletta, names of Royalty, names of the administrative institutions or names of any geographical locations. Even 'Oh Sh*t What the F**k' is taken. What else can we name our group?"
Vivian held her head. "But, 'Dogs Have Gotten All The Good Names!'? You can't be serious! It's so humiliating."
The Blood Clan maiden, who was always proud of her noble bloodline, was facing one of the greatest blemishes in her life. She was going to be the chief combat wizard of Dog Have Gotten All The Good Names! Mercenary Group. That made her want to dig a hole and bury Hao Ren alive: he was the one who made up the f**king name.
"But amazingly, the name's allowed." Lily was the only one not feeling one bit of mental stress. She was even proud of the name. "I thought uncommon words would be struck out. But hey, we never thought it was possible. In fact, the name's pretty cool. It means we've got a good name. I feel like I'm becoming the president..."
"Bullsh*t! You know you're a pupper." Vivian shot Lily a glance. "Those who are uninformed may think that the group was named after you."
Right. Just like what most people might have thought, this ersatz mercenaries had ended up with a name which could only be found in performance arts. Of course there was another reason; aside from exhaustion, the provisional nature of the mercenary group was another factor. Besides, Hao Ren had also read from the brochures he picked up from the mercenary association about other mercenary groups such as Pink Bunny Mercenary which had successfully slain a dragon, and One Big Prosperous Family Mercenary which had once pursued the devil. All these had further reinforced his notion that the most ordinary's the most versatile.
No-one knew for sure how the dragon and the devil felt during their final moment. Perhaps they broke down completely when they heard the names of the mercenary groups .
"Sorry for the long wait!" Becky's voice woke them up from their thoughts. The mercenary girl ran excitedly towards Hao Ren. "All's done.... what's going on? You lot look gloomy."
"Oh come on, don't you feel 'Dog's Gotten All The Good Names' wasn't right?" Nangong Wuyue looked at Becky and couldn't understand why Becky could still be so happy and how could she be so insensitive and unapologetic.
"It's just a name. People're using all kinds of name nowadays, you'd be laughed at for your lack of creativity if you name yourself with name such as 'Silver Hand'." Becky waved as she continued. "Now let's head over to the task information counter to get some info about Beinz Blood Lake. Too many accidents happened there, only mercenary groups are allowed to go there."
It seemed the locals in this world didn't really care about names of mercenary group.
They cheered themselves up before heading over to the task information counter. Hao Ren forced his curiosity on the Beinz Blood Lake and forgot about the goddamn name for now. Standing behind the task information counter was a boring female with eyes of a dead fish. She seemed dislike talking. She looked impatient when she learned that there was yet another group coming for Beinz Blood Lake. "Another over-optimistic bunch of fellows... good luck if you could come back in one piece, if at all."
Hao Ren ignored what she just said, he passed the completed registration documents to her. But he got a shock when he heard: "A newly registered group? No, no, you're not going there. No pass for you."
"Why not?" Becky shouted. "Haven't there been many temporary mercenary groups going there for the last couple of days?"
"That's exactly the problem. The top has ordered to halt all expeditions by beginners." The dead-fish-eyed female spoke in a mono tone of voice. "Those ersatz mercenaries, who formed a temporary group and tried their luck, had been beaten black and blue half way to the blood lake. It's for your own good. The blood lake's dangerous place, getting across the area was nothing like a walk in the park. Without team work and experience, getting in there's as good as dead."
The dead-fish-eyed female wasn't particularly polite. Perhaps she was frustrated from repeating the same narrative over and over for the last two days. Hao Ren knew what she said was the truth, but he wasn't going to give up just like that. "Then how could we—"
"You're a Tier Five group, individual ranking notwithstanding. You've got to move up to Tier Four."
In short: no professional qualification, no pass!
Hao Ren didn't expect to encounter the same credentialism in the foreign world. 'Reality' was indeed a b*tch. He muttered to Becky. "What Tier Four and Tier Five mercenaries are all about? Mind explain to me everything about that?"
"There're two categories of gradation: individual and group. Both categories are ranked accordingly from Tier Five to Tier One—Five being the lowest while One the highest. Above this are people with great contribution who would be conferred with honourable titles conferred by the Royalty or the church. For group, Tier Five to Tier Four is quite easy with only twenty-mission requirement; Tier Four to Tier Three has higher requirement; Tier Three to Tier Two requires mission evaluations as well as vocational skills reevaluation and political review by governmental organisations; Tier Two to Tier One requires test of three common foreign languages and military strategy written examination, written test of the dogma of knighthood, and personal cultivation and conduct interview. All in all, apart from combat ability, you need to be top notch in look and thinking in order to be the best of the best mercenaries. Individual tests are similar with some subtle differences. I've passed the political review but not the tests of dogma of knighthood, and personal cultivation and conduct. So I'm stuck at Tier Two."
Hao Ren's expression became stiff as he thought quietly: reality's really a bitch, even mercenary here requires the same kind of professional examinations! Come on, it's a foreign world, could you just tell me where and how many to kill? Even public service examination's easier than this!
"What would happen if one goes to the blood lake without a pass?" Hao Ren wasn't inflexible, he was asking this trying to get round it.
"You better not. Other places might be alright, but not Beinz Blood Lake—it's a sacred land. Though it's not yet a restricted zone, the situation's abnormal, there are many knights from the church as well as the kingdom there." Becky glanced at Hao Ren. "You'll get yourself into trouble without a pass, especially when they thought you're a pagan looking for trouble."
"Twenty missions... after completing twenty mission we'll be rookies no more, right?" asked Hao Ren. The dead-fish-eyed female behind the counter replied with a resounding yes.
"What about mission issuance? Process?"
"You get it done here. For simple job, you submit your job description and reward upfront. The lowest reward amount is one gina, no upper limit though. For job reward of more than ten gina, the association will take one-tenth as commission. Reward amount less than ten gina will be paid in full to mercenary, no fees. Of course, don't expect there's a taker if the pay's to low. You've got to be sensible. Do you want to issue any job?"
Hao Ren turned to Becky. "Do you have one gina?"
"One? Of course..." Becky was puzzled but she still took out a coin and gave it to Hao Ren.
Hao Ren slammed the metal coin on the counter. "I hereby issue a job to find someone. One gina reward. Mission target: Nangong Wuyue."
Everyone was dumbstruck.
The dead-fish-eyed staff didn't know what happened, she immediately filled up a form. Then Hao Ren shoved Nangong Wuyue in front of the counter, said, "Dog's Gotten All The Good Names Mercenary accepted the job. Here's the subject we've found."
Ten minutes later. At the entrance of the mercenary association.
Squatting on the steps, Hao Ren and his four 'bodyguards' with a wonderful expression on their face stared at the pedestrians on the main street. Becky was in her half dementia state for like half a day before she uttered, "...I guess they're going to issue a new regulation by tomorrow."
Hao Ren turned his head around and looked at the entrance of the mercenary association which was shut. "Do you think they're going to kill me the next time I go in there?"
"Absolutely."