Today was registration day, and Lansi had to head to the lower district to enlist.
Early in the morning, Lansi packed his small amount of luggage and prepared to leave.
In truth, there was barely anything to pack.
Two changes of underwear, a bottle of moisturizing spray, and the healing spray someone had given him.
That was all.
Carl came to pick Lansi up from Wen Yu's villa. Watching Lansi prepare to enlist, Carl suddenly looked like an emotional old father sending his child away. He nearly cried on the spot.
"Waaah… I still remember when Lansi was just a little fish… and now he's all grown up… going off to enlist on his own…"
Lansi completely ignored Carl's dramatic performance.
Instead, he turned toward Wen Yu with slight concern.
"While I'm gone, take good care of the little octopus."
Wen Yu paused briefly before nodding helplessly.
In reality, according to his original plan, he had intended to eat the little octopus after Lansi left.
After all, technically it belonged to him.
"When I get there, how am I supposed to replenish water?"
Although Lansi could maintain human legs for longer and longer periods now, his body structure still required regular hydration. At minimum, he needed to soak in water every other day.
Reserve soldiers lived in communal dormitories. There might not even be proper bathing facilities there.
So how was he supposed to stay hydrated?
"I already told you."
Wen Yu reached over and rubbed Lansi's head.
"You're my orderly soldier."
His tone carried deeper meaning.
"When the time comes, you'll understand."
By this point, Carl had finally finished mourning dramatically. He stepped forward and said,
"It's almost time. We should go."
Lansi nodded.
The distance to Zone C42 was too far for him to walk, so someone had to drive him close to the registration point.
And Wen Yu absolutely could not take him there personally.
Otherwise, before Lansi even completed registration, the chaos caused by Wen Yu's appearance alone would probably overwhelm the entire enlistment center.
To avoid attracting attention, Carl deliberately drove a modest, low-profile vehicle.
After Lansi got into the car, Carl began talking nonstop about funny stories from when he had enlisted and offered all sorts of advice on how to get along with people.
Lansi quietly listened without interrupting.
As he stared out the window, he silently watched the scenery of the wealthy district pass by.
The closer they got to the lower district, the fewer green plants appeared along the roadside.
Even the originally blue "sky" gradually faded into a dull gray.
About one kilometer away from the only entrance to the wealthy district, Carl stopped the car and let Lansi out.
"The rest is up to you now."
Before leaving, Carl looked at Lansi reluctantly before finally offering his blessing.
"I wish you the best."
"Thank you."
Lansi smiled in response.
Then he took a deep breath and strode toward the massive iron gate he had seen before.
The guards stationed there noticed him from afar.
They exchanged glances before looking at Lansi with playful expressions.
Their gazes resembled wolves staring at a clueless little lamb—
A lamb that knew nothing and was unknowingly walking straight into a wolf pack.
This iron gate existed to separate the wealthy district from the slums beyond. At this hour, many workers from the lower district were entering for work, and because the gate only allowed one-way traffic at a time, Lansi stood out especially clearly as someone entering alone.
After one of the soldiers scanned Lansi's identity chip, he glanced at the information displayed on his device and raised an eyebrow.
"District 25?"
Ever since Wen Yu had openly patrolled the wealthy district with a reserve soldier beside him, rumors had spread wildly throughout the city.
Everyone wanted to know what kind of person could remain at Wen Yu's side.
Did he come from an influential family?
Was he Wen Yu's lover?
People had speculated endlessly.
But today, beneath this iron gate, the answer finally appeared before them—
That little reserve soldier came from District 25.
And he was still just a young rookie.
If people said Wen Yu favored him, then that was clearly true. After all, Wen Yu had personally brought him into the wealthy district and patrolled publicly with him.
But if they said Wen Yu did not particularly favor him, that also seemed true.
After all, Lansi still had to participate in conscription like everyone else. Wen Yu clearly had not given him any special treatment.
Lansi had no idea that his identity information had already sparked countless guesses among the soldiers.
Right now, he was far too nervous, terrified that the fake identity chip he had bought might be discovered.
So when the soldier questioned him, he nodded stiffly and stammered,
"Y-Yes."
"That's unusual."
Although the soldier said this, he still opened the gate leading into Zone C42.
As he looked at Lansi, there was even a trace of pity in his eyes.
"I've never seen someone leave the wealthy district just to come to C42 and enlist."
The soldier paused before adding,
"Kid… be careful out there."
For people living in the wealthy district, enlistment was an extremely dangerous and utterly unnecessary choice.
Therefore, during every recruitment season, the soldiers guarding the gate were used to seeing rebellious rich kids making a scene at the entrance and shouting that they wanted to enlist.
But someone like Lansi—
Someone who had genuinely crossed the iron gate alone to register—
That was something they had never seen before.
Completely unaware of what the soldiers were thinking, Lansi hesitantly glanced back at them.
The moment he turned around, he was met with a group of deeply emotional gazes, as though the place he was heading toward was not a registration center, but the gates of hell itself.
Lansi: "..."
Expressionlessly, he turned back around, stepped through the iron gate, and walked toward the registration office without looking back again.
After walking for nearly half an hour under the strange stares of countless passersby, Lansi finally reached the registration center.
And the moment he saw the crowd gathered there, he instantly understood why everyone had been looking at him so strangely.
The recruits were still in the registration process.
Which meant—
No one else was wearing reserve soldier uniforms yet.
Lansi suddenly felt deeply grateful for the helmet covering his face, because otherwise everyone would have seen his horrified expression.
At this moment, he was absolutely certain that someone had tricked him.
Seriously.
Nothing had even started yet, and he had already become the center of attention just because of a single uniform.
But in truth, it really had not been intentional.
When Wen Yu helped submit Lansi's application form, he had simply handed it in directly.
And because of his special background, Wen Yu himself had never gone through standard recruitment procedures before. He genuinely did not know that reserve uniforms were only distributed after recruits met their instructors.
After hearing someone casually mention that uniforms would be handed out later, Wen Yu had paused briefly to think.
Then he decided it would be good for Lansi to adapt to reserve soldier life early.
So after greeting someone in advance, he had taken a uniform beforehand.
And just like that, completely unintentionally—
He坑ed Lansi badly.
Under the countless strange looks directed at him, Lansi stiffly walked forward and reported his name to the registration staff.
"Lansi?"
The admissions staff seemed entirely unsurprised by the situation.
In their eyes, someone this clueless about procedure was obviously some kind of privileged connection. Most likely, he would not survive long enough to remain in the corps anyway.
So the staff member merely nodded calmly, handed Lansi a number plate, and said,
"Go wait in Area A until your instructor arrives."
Completely confused, Lansi took the number plate anyway and obediently left the line.
The moment he walked away, loud protests erupted behind him.
"Why does he get to go straight into Area A while we still have to do all those damn tests?!"
The crowd instantly grew noisy.
Lansi could only: "..."
Fortunately, the small commotion was quickly suppressed.
Unfortunately, Lansi's own situation did not improve much.
He had never been to Zone C42 before.
He had no idea where Area A was.
He wanted to ask someone for directions, but because everyone already assumed he was some privileged insider, most people only glared at him coldly whenever he approached.
Each failed attempt earned him another eye roll.
At this point, Lansi was speechless.
Internally, he politely greeted Wen Yu several times.
Meanwhile, back at home, Wen Yu suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason.
And so, despite receiving his number plate early, Lansi still wandered all over Zone C42 like a lost fly, circling around aimlessly and wasting an enormous amount of time.
After receiving yet another irritated glare from someone, Lansi finally could not take it anymore.
His feet had already begun aching slightly.
With no other options left, he sat down on a stone step in the distance and stared toward the registration center with a lonely expression.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he suddenly heard a voice beside him.
"Have you finished registering?"
Lansi hurriedly looked up.
The speaker was wearing the same reserve uniform as him.
Instantly, Lansi became energized.
"No, not yet."
Embarrassed, he lifted the transparent visor of his helmet to reveal his face and explained awkwardly,
"I got my number plate already, but I still haven't found my assigned area."
After speaking, he lowered his head in frustration.
"No one's willing to tell me where Area A is."
The reserve soldier beside him stared at Lansi quietly for a moment before sitting down beside him.
"You're assigned to Area A?"
The man sounded surprised before comforting him.
"They're probably just jealous. Don't mind them."
After registration, recruits were required to undergo a series of physical and psychological evaluations.
Based on the results, recruits would then be divided into three ranks: A, B, and C.
Area A contained those with the strongest physical abilities, while Area C held the weakest.
Afterward, recruits would report to the corresponding area according to their assigned classification.
Lansi forced out a weak smile.
"Probably…"
Then he asked curiously,
"By the way, why are you already wearing a reserve uniform?"
Lansi figured it was embarrassing enough for one person to misunderstand the process. Surely the other guy could not be just as clueless.
"I already went to my assigned area and met my instructor."
The man explained.
"I'm in Area B."
Then, smiling enthusiastically, he grabbed Lansi's hand.
"I know where Area A is. I'll take you there."
The instant their skin touched, Lansi suddenly felt something like an electric current surge through the contact point.
It shot up his arm and straight into his heart.
Startled, Lansi immediately jerked his hand away.
Then he looked at the man with suspicion and confusion written all over his face.
Lansi did not understand why he reacted so strongly to this person.
At this moment, he even felt a vague sense of fear, instinctively worried that the other party might pose some kind of threat to him.
Seeing Lansi's unusually intense reaction, the man was stunned as well.
He stared at Lansi for a long moment before finally sighing softly.
"I didn't mean any harm."
As if to prove his sincerity, the man lifted the transparent visor of his helmet and revealed his face.
"My name is Will."
The moment Lansi saw the face of the man calling himself "Will," he nearly screamed.
"Winsor?!"
If Wen Yu resembled Winsor by six or seven points—enough that Lansi constantly wondered whether the two were somehow related—
Then the man before him looked eight points similar to Winsor.
At first glance, it almost seemed as though the black-tailed mermaid had suddenly followed him ashore and transformed into a human.
Lansi's gaze immediately dropped toward the man's legs.
Were those really human legs?
"What did you say?"
The man blinked in confusion. He crouched down in front of Lansi and repeated patiently,
"My name is Will."
As the man moved closer, Lansi clutched his wildly beating heart and stared carefully at his face without blinking.
Only then did he notice the biggest difference between them.
Winsor's eyes were black.
Wen Yu's eyes were black too.
For both of them, black almost seemed to symbolize their very existence.
But the man in front of him had clear azure-blue eyes, completely different from theirs.
If he had to describe it, aside from the similarities to Winsor, the rest of this man's features actually resembled the "Earl Vale" Lansi had seen long ago.
Especially those hollow-looking blue eyes.
Even the name sounded similar.
He was not Winsor.
Nor was he Wen Yu.
Lansi finally came to that conclusion.
After realizing this, he quietly let out a breath of relief. Embarrassed, he smiled awkwardly at Will.
"Sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
Across from him, Will smiled faintly.
It was an impeccably controlled smile—the corners of his lips curved at exactly the right angle, neither too high nor too low, making his emotions impossible to read.
"It's alright."
Will extended his hand toward Lansi once again.
"I'll take you to Area A, okay?"
Lansi hesitated.
He glanced at the sky overhead and finally realized it was already getting late.
In the end, he had no choice but to nod. He cautiously reached out, took Will's hand, and thanked him.
"Alright. Thank you."
The moment Will held Lansi's hand, his blue eyes noticeably brightened.
Then he carefully held onto Lansi's hand as though he had finally recovered some long-lost treasure.
"What's your name?"
Lansi did not think much about it and answered honestly.
"My name is Lansi."
The person across from him suddenly tightened his grip slightly and gently stroked the back of Lansi's hand twice.
Those azure eyes carried a strange tenderness.
"Lansi? That's wonderful. I finally know your name."
Lansi: "..."
A strange feeling instantly rose in his heart.
Unable to hold back any longer, he asked,
"Have we met before?"
Will held Lansi's hand as they walked eastward together.
After hearing the question, he turned his head and smiled lightly at Lansi.
"My father once spoke about you."
"Your father?"
Lansi could not help frowning.
"Who is your father?"
He had only been ashore for a short time and had met very few people.
He definitely did not remember meeting any older man who could possibly be Will's father.
After all, if someone were old enough to be Will's father, they would probably already be in their fifties or sixties.
"He was just a pitiful, disabled creature."
Will's tone remained calm.
"He's already dead. There's no need to mention him."
After saying that, Will turned to look at Lansi again.
"You're very beautiful."
Lansi: "…Thank you."