After finishing explaining those matters, Long Yuxue was about to leave when Gu You called out to her.
"Officer, where should I eat?"
Long Yuxue said, "Didn't I already tell you about the cafeteria?"
Gu You gave a bitter smile. "No, you didn't!"
Long Yuxue replied calmly, "Do you know the rule that new recruits don't get food?"
"Ah?" Gu You stared at her in shock. What kind of army was this? Not giving food?
Hadn't the Blood God Legion already been half publicly recognized? Logically, the Federation should strongly support it with supplies.
Long Yuxue said flatly, "Here, everything must be earned by yourself—including food. You have to use military merits to pay for meals in the cafeteria. However, recruits are allowed to borrow temporarily, and the amount will be deducted from your future military merits."
The corner of Gu You's mouth twitched. This was really bizarre!
"Officer, can I borrow from you?" Gu You asked tentatively.
Long Yuxue replied, "Sure. Ten percent monthly interest."
Gu You was speechless. That high?
But not being able to repay now didn't mean he couldn't repay later. Besides, he also wanted to try the food of the Blood God Legion to see how it tasted.
"Alright, then I'll borrow a little from you first."
"Come with me. It's just about dinner time."
The two of them walked out of the barracks together. Sure enough, the cafeteria wasn't far away. When Gu You followed Long Yuxue inside, he saw more people than he had seen anywhere else since joining the Blood God Legion.
The cafeteria was enormous—several thousand square meters. At a glance, at least two thousand people were eating there, with even more continuously entering.
There were more than a dozen serving windows, each marked simply with numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.
Long Yuxue explained, "The smaller the number on the window, the more expensive the food—but it's also more nutritious and better for the body."
Gu You thought to himself that this was just like the ranking meal systems in junior academies—A, B, C tiers. In the army it was even simpler: just numbers.
Long Yuxue led Gu You to Window No. 6, where they lined up.
Gu You noticed something else: the smaller the number of the window, the fewer people were in line. Windows 1, 2, and 3 had practically no one queuing at all. Hardly anyone went there for food.
Inside the cafeteria, the most common rank was lieutenant. Gu You hadn't seen any privates yet. As for himself, he hadn't even changed into his uniform. With Long Yuxue leading him, no one had checked his identity yet.
Gu You was actually very curious about what was served at the first three windows, but his pockets were empty, so there was nothing he could do.
While waiting in line, he quietly asked Long Yuxue,
"Officer, does our legion need blacksmiths?"
Long Yuxue glanced at him. "Of course. Things like repairing mechs require them. Why? Are you a blacksmith?"
Gu You nodded. "Yes, I am. If I do forging work, can I earn military merits?"
"You can," Long Yuxue replied, "but the reward is relatively low."
"Low, huh…" Gu You muttered.
Long Yuxue said, "Are you worried about not having food to eat? Didn't I lend you some? Once you accumulate military merits later, just pay me back."
Gu You didn't explain further. He couldn't exactly say that he simply wanted to eat better food, so he just nodded.
"Yuxue!"
At that moment, a pleasant voice sounded.
Gu You instinctively looked toward the direction of the voice.
A female officer with a ponytail walked over. She wore the rank of Captain, and the crisp military uniform made her look especially heroic.
In terms of appearance, she was no less beautiful than Long Yuxue, but her facial features were softer. Her big eyes sparkled with a mischievous intelligence.
"Qiyue," Long Yuxue said with a rare smile.
Jiang Qiyue's gaze fell curiously on Gu You.
"Civilian clothes? Is he new? Pretty handsome!"
Long Yuxue nodded. "He arrived today. Passed the assessment. I brought him to eat."
Jiang Qiyue laughed.
"You're too kind again, lending him money at low interest, right? I told you before—if you keep breaking the rules like this, people will complain. Everyone else charges 100% monthly interest, and you lend at 30%. If it weren't you, the others would already have objected."
What?
Gu You widened his eyes.
100% monthly interest?!
And Long Yuxue didn't even lend him money at 30%—it was only 10%.
But being clever, he certainly wasn't going to point that out now.
Long Yuxue glanced at Gu You, her face slightly flushing.
"New recruits have it tough. We all went through it ourselves. Helping a little is fine."
Gu You thought silently:
Whoa. This girl might actually have a thing for me. If she keeps doing this, it'll be awkward for me to object.
Also… women can get such high ranks in this army? What are the men even doing?
Jiang Qiyue turned to Gu You, her smile becoming somewhat teasing.
"Handsome guy, my name is Jiang Qiyue. What's yours?"
"Gu You," he replied with a gentle smile.
Seeing his smile—and those deep, unusual blue eyes—Jiang Qiyue froze for a moment.
So handsome, she thought.
The Blood God Legion had the highest ratio of handsome men among all military units, and she had seen plenty of them. But compared with the man in front of her, the others seemed to fall far short.
With her picky standards, she couldn't find a single flaw in Gu You. That had never happened before.
She tilted her head and looked at Long Yuxue.
"Interesting. How did he do in the assessment?"
Long Yuxue glanced at her. "I don't know."
Jiang Qiyue was surprised.
"You brought him here to eat, so you must have supervised his assessment. How could you not know?"
Long Yuxue said calmly, "His results need to be evaluated by higher authorities. I can't give him a score."
Jiang Qiyue was startled.
"He's that impressive?"
Long Yuxue replied, "Even more impressive than you think."
Just as Jiang Qiyue was about to say something else, a deep, booming voice sounded from behind them.
"I don't believe it."
The three of them turned around.
A tall male officer had already walked up behind them.
He looked somewhat similar to Jiang Qiyue, with a sturdy build. He was only slightly shorter than Gu You, but extremely muscular—especially his arms, whose bulging muscles looked almost terrifying.
"Brother!" Jiang Qiyue called out, immediately hugging her brother's arm in a spoiled manner.
Gu You also noticed that this man wore the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Finally, a man with some backbone, Gu You thought to himself.
Long Yuxue nodded to him.
"What don't you believe?"
The lieutenant colonel's gaze…
(End of Chapter)