Castle of Black Iron

In this age, “Lord” was not something to be casually addressed. At the very least, nobody in Blackhot City and even the Andaman Alliance was qualified to enjoy being called as such. Even the president of the Andaman Alliance Parliament——the owner of Andaman City and the head of the Andaman family, the richest and most privileged person in the Andaman Alliance, the one who had used their family name as the name of the Alliance—could only be called “Your Excellency” and not “Lord”.

Actually, Zhang Tie dared not to be involved in this event, but due to his disgust towards the Red-scarf Burglars and his commitment to the city after eight years of compulsory education, he finally chose to send a warning to the ruler of this city. That was the best he could do. As for whether the letter would cause an uproar or be thrown into the trash can, Zhang Tie didn’t think it was his concern anymore. In the worst case scenario, the city would change its ruler. The Red-scarf Burglars were only a tool used by a big figure; they would not become the ruler of the city.

Small figures were better off minding their own business!

For Zhang Tie, he felt that what he should be most concerned about was the survival training that begins tomorrow. The other matters weren’t a big concern.

A peaceful night soon passed…

When he got up the next morning, he found out that his mom and dad had already gotten up. Mom’s eyes turned slightly red and swollen. She had long prepared a scrumptious breakfast for Zhang Tie while his dad was checking his belongings again and again.

“Eat more. Only after eating will you have enough strength to finish the long trip!”

With his head lowered the entire time, Zhang Tie washed his face, brushed his teeth, and ate breakfast. Feeling depressed, he wore his protective leather armor, buckled his belt, and carried his luggage that contained the folded military shovel inside with the help of his dad and mom. Putting on a helmet, he hung the sword gifted by his dad on one side of his waist along with a kettle and hung the spearhead of his pike on the other. Additionally, the dagger gifted by his elder brother was also fixed onto the belt.

Standing, Zhang Tie shook twice to make sure everything had been prepared well. Although he was carrying more than 20 kg of goods, Zhang Tie could still move freely. Forcing a smile, he said, “Dad, mom, it’s fine. I’ll be leaving now. You don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be ok!”

“Guoguo, hold on…” Before Zhang Tie left, his mom stopped him. With tears dropping down, his mom helped him arrange his leather belt and luggage once again. Pulling at the corner of Zhang Tie’s clothes, she said in a low voice, “If you can, remember to come back soon. Don’t try to show off…”

“I got it, mom!” Zhang Tie felt like he was about to cry. If he did not leave soon, he would lose face in front of his mom and dad. Taking in a deep breath, Zhang Tie forcefully hugged his mom and dad. He then lowered his head and turned around. Pulling open the door, he strode out the house where he had received warmth for the past 15 years.

The moment he closed the door, Zhang Tie heard the sound of his mom weeping...

It was still dark outside as several stars hung in the sky. After wiping his tears, Zhang Tie strode towards school. At about 100m away, Zhang Tie suddenly felt something. Turning his head, Zhang Tie saw his mom and dad, hand in hand, watching him under the first rays of the morning sun. Waving his hand at them, Zhang Tie couldn’t help but shed some tears.

……

On the dawn of this day, such scenes could be seen throughout Blackhot City—a young boy, who would soon be at the age where they would be adults and have to part from home, leaving home with luggage carried on his back and a weapon in hand, and seeing him off would be his parents as they stood by the doorway, crying. Without the protection of the city walls, they alone would encounter many difficulties and challenges in this age.

Every year, in Blackhot City, there were teenagers that would never be able to return home again. For some, this was a departure that meant life and death.

On the way, Zhang Tie met many teenagers like him walking towards school as they carried luggage on their backs and weapons in their hands.

When Zhang Tie arrived at school, he found more than half of the undergraduates had already arrived and were resting on the training grounds. According to the plan, they were to leave at 7:30 am, thus many of the horny students had already been prepared and had arrived at the training ground before 7:00 am. Besides the uniformed luggage, they were each equipped with various equipment. Noisily, those horny students formed into many small groups according to the usual training regions on the training ground. Hearing the noise, Zhang Tie no longer felt sad.

The moment he arrived, Zhang Tie saw Bagdad and Sharwin, who had arrived earlier than him. Looking at the huge axe hanging on Bagdad’s shoulder, Zhang Tie then glanced at his own sword. He was really shocked from the difference, becoming speechless.

On the training ground, Bagdad’s style was absolutely masculine and eye-catching. With only a half-body shoulder armor on his naked upper body, the muscles under his dark skin were revealed. The armor was only used to protect his right shoulder and heart, and a shiny axe weighing at least 30 kgs was hung on his shoulder armor, giving off quite a cool appearance. In contrast, like Zhang Tie, Sharwin looked much more average—a luggage, a leather armor, a belt, a kettle, and a sword. Zhang Tie felt something was wrong with Sharwin’s equipment, as they were too old and heavily worn. Take Sharwin’s short sword as an example; the sheath showed signs of cracks and the sword within could even be seen. In addition, that leather armor was obviously smaller than Sharwin’s figure, and as for the aluminum kettle, Zhang Tie swore that he has never seen a padded military kettle like this one before. Although he knew Sharwin’s family was poor, he still could not believe his eyes. That was too excessive! Zhang Tie had already cursed Sharwin’s dad dozens of times inside.

Standing beside Bagdad, Sharwin felt embarrassed as he lowered his head and cleaned his fingernails. At the same time, Bagdad cursed resentfully.

“Your dad is too much! How could he give you such poor equipment!? Given the money you have made for your family during the past years, you could already get what you need. Take a look at that so-called “sword”. It’s already heavily rusted. It’s only shiny because it had been polished on the knife grinder at the cost of its thickness and length. It won’t function well since both the blade and the body of the sword had been ground too thin. This is too much! When we return, we must go to your house and teach him a lesson…”

“Forget it. I still have several younger brothers, so my dad might not have been able to save too much money for me. To already have this, I’m already content…” Sharwin explained weakly, looking dejected and sad.

Seeing Sharwin’s sad mood, Zhang Tie gloomily walked towards him. He said nothing as he directly pulled out the sword from Sharwin’s waist. Looking at that sword, Zhang Tie was instantly filled with rage. It really was like what Bagdad had said. Can you really call this a motherf*cking sword? It was simply a thin iron sheet! Holding it, Zhang Tie felt it was very unstable. Pits the size of rice could be seen everywhere on the blade due to it being heavily rusted. After grinding it, although it looked a bit shiny, it became much thinner than before, mostly because it was heavily rusted. It felt extremely light in Zhang Tie’s hand. One would have to slash quickly and fiercely even to kill a chicken, let alone those dangerous living beings outside the city walls.

Zhang Tie immediately undid his own sword and gave it to Sharwin. “Take mine!”

“No need, no need. I can use this!” Sharwin hurriedly refused him, intending to retrieve his sword.

Saying nothing, Zhang Tie threw Sharwin’s sword onto the ground, directly breaking it into two halves. Seeing the 2 pieces of his broken sword, Sharwin’s face turned pale. Saying nothing else, he bit his own lips tightly and looked even more dejected.

Zhang Tie patted Sharwin’s shoulder and the dagger on his waist. “Trust me, just use mine. I still have a dagger. In addition, I also have a spear head. Once I find a wooden stick and attach it, I would have a complete spear. With my spear and dagger, us seven brothers will definitely succeed this survival training!”

Sharwin finally nodded. Unknown to what he had seen, his eyes were widely looking at something behind Zhang Tie. Hearing the chaos behind him, Zhang Tie turned back and saw Fatty Barley walking towards them with a huge luggage on his back like a tortoise. The huge luggage and his equipment had caused the commotion. Compared to Sharwin’s poor equipment, Fatty Barley’s equipment was the very definition of nouveau riche…