Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 127 - 31 Mechanic

Chapter 127: Chapter 31 Mechanic

Aske opened his eyes, feeling pain all over his body.

It was a terrible encounter, having met someone from the Upper Sequence... he thought with self-mockery.

The so-called Upper Sequence referred to an enemy whose Sequential Ability was nearly identical to yours, but whose Level Rank was higher than yours.

In other words, he had every Extraordinary Ability you did, you couldn’t ambush him, and you couldn’t defeat him head-on, which naturally made for an exceedingly tough fight.

White-clothed Assassins were among the few professions that could be considered close to the Weapon Master Sequence, and although they could still put up a fight using the Star Nine Forms, the price paid was no small matter.

Even the narrow victory of ultimately killing the opponent in a counter-attack was achieved by leveraging the environment and the mercenary’s professional consciousness and operation, trading blows with the enemy until blood was drawn.

"You are still very weak," the boy said as he walked in with a medical kit. "Don’t move around, be careful of the wound getting infected."

"Is this your room?" Aske looked around.

The walls were plastered with various mechanical blueprints, there were orthogonal views of hydraulic components, as well as circuit diagrams with various symbols. A computer occupied the desk, the bulkiest kind with a box monitor, and next to it was a thick stack of manuscripts.

"This is the subway maintenance room," the boy said. "But since I’m the only mechanic here, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it my bedroom."

"What about that White-clothed Assassin?" Aske asked.

"He was taken away by people from above," the boy replied. "A nuclear fusion battery explosion is an accident that cannot be hidden from anyone. If you hadn’t killed him quickly, we might have been exposed."

"We weren’t found out?" Aske asked.

"My Power Armor was discovered!" the boy said through gritted teeth.

"Why did you keep a Power Armor in the warehouse anyway?" asked Aske.

"Because my lifelong dream is to create the strongest Power Armor in the world! However, Power Armor is military equipment and can only be brought in through smuggling," the boy wailed. "It took me six years to get one, and you wrecked it just like that!"

"You could buy one from the Holy Solomon Empire," Aske suggested. "It’s legal to buy and sell Power Armors there, and it probably costs only about 200 pounds."

"Where would I get 200 pounds from!" the boy sobbed. "I only earn 10 pounds a year right now!"

"Hmm, you seem to have Mechanic bloodline, don’t you?" Aske asked. "Why not make Extraordinary Items for people to earn money?"

"How did you know that?" the boy asked curiously.

"You’ve got the formula for Mechanical I posted on the wall," Aske said.

"Cough," the boy covered his face embarrassingly. "Olympia City has a Craftsmen Association, and the major clients would rather choose a legitimate craftsman. For a rogue craftsman like me, clients worry about production failures or the materials being embezzled."

"Is it hard to get into the Craftsmen Association?" Aske asked.

"No, the Craftsmen Association only recruits adults..." the boy said.

"Have you considered becoming a mercenary?" Aske asked casually. "Mercenaries make money faster."

"Am I crazy? Instead of being a mechanic, I should become a mercenary?" the boy said disdainfully but quickly seemed to realize something. "Wait, you mean you’re a mercenary?"

"I’m the Squad Leader of a Mercenary Group," Aske said.

"Then you must have the money to compensate me for the Power Armor!" the boy said excitedly, clenching his fists.

"I didn’t say I wouldn’t compensate you," Aske said. "I just have a proposal, since saving up money this way isn’t a solution. Our group has a Military Nun, but she is primarily a Healer, and mechanical maintenance is only part-time."

"I think we can offer a position for a Mechanic... wait, you are male, right?"

"Which eye of yours saw me as a girl? Do you need to visit the hospital for an ophthalmology checkup?" the boy said with disdain.

"That’s great," Aske said with relief, reminded of the painful mistake he made with Sigrdrifa.

And yet, she ultimately proved herself to be a qualified Armor-breaking Output.

"What’s so great about being a guy..." the boy blurted out subconsciously, suddenly realizing something and his look towards Aske changed.

"A monthly salary of two pounds, food and lodging included, travel with the group, how about it?" Aske invited him. "If there are earnings, you get a commission too. I estimate that in four or five years at the latest, you could save up enough money to buy a Power Armor."

"The price sounds high, but my ass isn’t for sale," the boy said firmly, shaking his head.

Aske gave him a peculiar look and couldn’t help but chuckle,

"Don’t get the wrong idea, my preferences are quite normal... It’s just that we have a higher number of girls in our group, so I wanted to confirm your gender first."

"More girls?" The young man was somewhat surprised, "Aren’t you running a mercenary group? Shouldn’t mercenary groups be full of burly guys?"

"Ah." Aske felt a bit awkward upon hearing this and responded, "It’s all an accident, let’s not talk about it."

"How many people are in your team? And how many women?" The young man asked.

"There are about nine of us including myself. As for females, not counting me, there are about eight," Aske replied diplomatically.

The young man was stunned for a moment, then his eyes shone with admiration,

"Awesome!" he exclaimed sincerely, "Hanging out with eight women, those who know you call you Squad Leader, those who don’t think you’re the president of some social club."

"President of a social club?"

"Yeah, like a boss of an entertainment company!" said the young man, "Which mercenary group would recruit so many women?"

Aske: ...........

"Stop talking nonsense," he said impatiently, "Are you going to join or not?"

"I won’t," the young man said, "Who’d want to be a mercenary? I’d rather enjoy being a subway maintenance worker."

"I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that job anymore," Aske remarked casually.

The young man didn’t understand what he meant until he was startled to see the door being pushed open, as a large crowd of people rushed into the room.

"Mr. Aske," the noble officer Quintus, who entered last, confirmed his appearance with a smile, "You’ve been quite hard to find."

"I had no choice. I fainted for a while after the fight and this kid saved me," Aske said, pointing at the young man.

The young man: ????

He looked at Aske, then at Quintus, at a loss for words.

"Thank you for killing that Ilania White-clothed Assassin," Quintus said with a smile, "Otherwise, the city’s officials would have been on edge again."

"I see," Aske nodded.

"Anyway, now that we’ve found you, I can report back to the Spartans," Quintus gestured with his hand, his gaze falling upon the young man, "Did you save him?"

"It was me!" the young man instantly became excited; he recognized this man as the head of public security in Olin City, Quintus, the son of the City Lord, definitely a big shot with plenty of money.

Could this be a reward for me? Can I ask for a Power Armor?

"For your righteous act of saving him, you should be rewarded," Quintus spoke slowly, "However, you illegally purchased smuggled military Power Armor, which is in violation of the ’Olympia City Security Law,’ so your good deed cancels out the punishment. You won’t be penalized."

The young man’s excited face instantly turned sullen and dismayed.

"Who’s in charge of this section of the subway? The Turin manager?" Quintus turned and asked.

"I am here, my lord!" A chubby man squeezed out of the crowd, nodding and smiling obsequiously.

"There’s a Power Armor in the subway maintenance warehouse, and you had no clue? If instead of Power Armor it was high-quality explosives, would you have to wait for the subway to blow up before your people noticed there was a problem?"

"My lord, that’s my mistake..." the chubby man quickly pressed his chest with his hand, humbly bowed his head, and said nothing.

Quintus waved his hand again; punishing a minor figure like the subway manager didn’t require his personal attention, his subordinates would naturally handle it.

He looked at Aske once more, then suddenly seemed to lose interest.

"That will be all then," Quintus turned and said, "Mr. Aske, your companions are looking for you; I’ve already asked them to come here."

"Thank you," Aske said.

The group left as swiftly as they had arrived, with the chubby manager nodding and bowing, following at the end without sparing a glance at the young man.

The latter stood there, soul-crushed with a pale face—he knew his job was definitely gone.