Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, he slung his Type 95 automatic rifle over his shoulder, carried his mountaineering pack, and dragged his large suitcase, continuing on his way.
There was actually no path on the ground, but where many people had walked, one had formed on its own.
The mountain school where Shen Fei worked was connected to the 911 Aircrew Base by a sheep trail that wasn't shown on the electronic map of the phone, but in reality, it was clearly there. As long as he followed the trail, he had no worry about getting lost.
The nearby "tricycle" driver who dropped off Chen Fei—who didn't know whether to call him Karzai or Muhammad—did have some conscience after all, sparing him from taking a wrong turn.
The last glimmer of sunlight finally vanished behind the mountains' ridges, and Chen Fei finally reached the 911 Aircrew Base, situated on high ground, just before sunset. Glancing at the health bracelet on his left wrist, he had taken a total of 42,531 steps that day, which was about 21 kilometers.
The small peach-wood fish hanging on the gun's sight seemed to be more convincing than an ID card and he breezed through the gate without any trouble.
The personnel manager of the aircrew base was a guy who sported dark circles under his eyes every day. His name was Takar, a man of high caste but with the brown skin of a lower caste.
Takar was enjoying his dinner, coffee chicken rice, and a small dish of lentil sauce, and he believed that eating with one's right hand while picking one's bum with the left was traditional, environmentally friendly, low-carbon living, and that it saved toilet paper. He thought it was worth promoting and popularizing.
Hearing the knock, he said without looking up, "Come in!"
Noticing the person who had pushed the door and come to his desk, Takar looked up, slightly surprised, and said, "Uh, want a bite?"
A standard language proficiency rate had already exceeded 80%. Except for primitive natives who had never encountered civilized society, anyone with a basic education could understand and speak it, and even write it to some extent, though the intonation might be a bit odd, creating a new dialectal accent.
The room was filled with the pungent smell of curry, the insanely spicy kind that almost made Chen Fei instinctively want to cover his nose, but out of politeness, he resisted the urge and said, "No thanks, I'm here to report for duty."
After speaking, he handed over a set of paper documents across the table.
Chen Fei didn't mind spicy food, but this particular spicy curry made him feel vaguely uncomfortable, as if it were heretical and should be put on a burning stake.
"Let me take a look."
Takar pushed his food bowl aside and, without even wiping his hands, took the documents, leaving several shit-yellow fingerprints on the paper.
"Chen Fei, 22 years old, undergraduate in Economics, has an older brother and a younger sister at home, not too bad. We never hire only children here. Let me see... weak Magical Elemental Affinity, no talent in spiritual power, unable to condense a Battle Qi Seed, no martial arts training, no Ability Awakening, a standard commoner. Why didn't you continue your studies? After all, it's a way out!"
Takar muttered to himself as he flipped through the pages.
Magic Elements and Battle Qi were imports from the Cangqiong Realm, and on Blue Star, people's potential in these areas were sharply divided. Either they had Affinity for more than one element with high activity or they were dead wood with absolutely no response. It was the same with Battle Qi.
Although people qualified to learn Magic and Battle Qi were a minority in any realm, given the population base of Blue Star, the proportion of lucky individuals was still not as high as in the Cangqiong Realm.
It wasn't only the 911 Aircrew Base that refused to employ only children; after all, this was a privately contracted military base under civilian operation—both water and fire were merciless, as were bullets. In the event of combat or accidents, casualties were inevitable.
For families with only children, the death of the sole child could equate to the end of the lineage, bringing immense social pressure that money couldn't simply resolve. Thus, many industries and companies followed this unwritten employment practice.
These days, you had to rely on your savings for retirement and if you didn't save enough retirement funds, the death of your offspring was a disaster for your later years.
"This employment contract grants you temporary worker benefits here: five insurances and one fund, including pensions, medical insurance, maternity insurance, disability insurance, personal accident insurance, and war solatium. There's a probation period of six months, with a monthly salary of 10,000, which goes up to 50,000 after probation.
95% of that will be deducted for the credit company, and you actually take home 5%. Huh? Your contract is very strange!"
Takar looked at Chen Fei with confusion. The young man looked sharp, having reached the 911 Aircrew Base on his own, not like an idiot at all. How come he signed such a blood-sucking contract?
Fortunately, the aircrew base provided board and lodging, as well as work uniforms and some daily necessities; otherwise, the remaining 10% of his salary truly wouldn't cover the basics of living.
"I took out a personal loan."
Chen Fei gave a bitter smile.
He didn't travel thousands of miles to this godforsaken place because he wanted to; it was out of sheer necessity.
The Chen Family was a commoner family, with the eldest son, Chen Shi, preparing for marriage. He had to purchase a marital home, borrowing from every relative and friend they knew, scraping bits from here and there. Finally, after draining both elderly family members, they barely scraped together a down payment for the mortgage.
Just as the family tightened its belt to the last notch, Chen Meng, the naive younger sister, was sweet-talked by a high school classmate and close girlfriend into guaranteeing a large loan for someone else at a credit company for liquidity reasons.
However, the classmate, who had sworn to repay the debt quickly, shockingly ran away with her family without a trace, leaving the debt to fall naturally upon the guarantor's shoulders. Chen Meng wasn't the only one scammed; several unlucky kids together had guaranteed a sum that became a staggering amount of money.
For the already financially tight Chen Family, this was like a bolt from the blue.
It's only natural for a debtor on the run for the guarantor to be pursued for the debt, and crying foul was no use; such financial disputes are protected by law.
Even if the guarantors went to the police, only heaven knew when the police would be able to catch the escapees.
Even with the net of heaven wide cast, once sentenced, that money would probably never be recovered. The other party could very well be like a yellow weasel warming itself by a fire—clean of any assets—completely indifferent to being scalded like a dead pig.
Even paying for enforced execution might not be effective; they could be detained a few days only to be released to continue their carefree life, that's how shameless they are.
But once the younger sister is labeled a dishonest person and a deadbeat, it's not just her own misfortune. It would also bring disaster upon her family members, with the elder brother's loan for the marital home consequently going nowhere.
Unable to afford a marital home, the wedding would be off!
If the debt guaranteed by the younger sister was to be repaid, clearing the crisis of being a dishonest person, the down payment for the mortgage they had barely managed to pool would inevitably be drained.
The result would still be the same.
Unable to afford a marital home, the wedding would be off!
When the entire family was out of options, Chen Fei, the second child, had to take the initiative to sacrifice himself.
Lacking a formal job as collateral, he had no choice but to borrow 5 million Star Yuan from the credit company, conducting a loan transfer business. By turning the guarantor's loan into a personal loan, he didn't pay any less in service fees. This briefly resolved the pressing problem of the Chen Family.
To repay this debt, Chen Fei had to give up his plans for postgraduate study, pack his bags, and come to this desolate place where not even the birds would defecate to work to repay the debt, deducting the principal and interest from his salary.
The time frame was... a lifetime, whenever the debt was paid off, that would be the end of it.
The original plan for postgraduate studies obviously went up in smoke, as the family no longer had the time nor the extra money for Chen Fei to continue his education and studies.
The so-called five insurances and one fund were actually life insurance. In case of any accidents, the personal accident insurance and the war reparations just happened to amount to the principal of 5 million Star Yuan. The creditor wouldn't lose a penny, a true case of 'debt dies with the debtor.'
Every day Chen Fei lived meant one more day of interest for the credit company.
Such loan businesses were only available to young people fresh out of school. Companies having difficulty recruiting could get the workforce they needed while presenting it as a win-win for all parties, fulfilling everyone's needs.
But, for such a huge amount of debt like Chen Fei's, only graduates from prestigious universities qualified.
Takar shook his head. He didn't know the full story behind it but could understand the miserable situation of being pursued for debt.
After looking over the contract in front of him, he leaned back lazily and said, "Alright then! You've passed the interview!"