Four people stood in front of me, these were Diper, Rayco, Moneiba and Gaus.
Their race had certain interesting qualities, they had a humanoid shape, scales on various parts of their body, similar to armor, the exact position differed with each one, but they were usually similar; their skin meanwhile was quite soft and elastic, very similar to human skin, but it differed in their purplish blue color. On their head there were several horns, the number usually varied from 2 to 5, they had 5 fingers on both hands and feet, but these were pointy and had small claws, along with sharp teeth at the front of their mouth, at the back there were blunt teeth for non-meat foods.
I could tell that the number of scales was reducing, and their skin was becoming less tough as their body evolved in the safety of a civilization.
They were not really unpleasant to look at, in fact, I am absolutely certain that many people in my former world would want to be with a member of this race.... Although I'm sure they'd also wanna be with any other race.... But I meant a large number of people and not your usual depraved nut job.
Diper had a light blue hue, while his scales were dark blue, he had two horns on his head and violet eyes, he had small strips of scales on the back of his arms, spine, some small ones on his face along with four horns on his head.
Rayco had an even lighter shade of blue than Diper, with a distribution of scales similar to his, although the amount was smaller; his eyes were dark blue, he had two horns on his head too.
Moneiba had a darker color and close to violet, her eyes were a dark violet, and she had five horns on her head, there was nothing unusual in her scale distribution.
Gaus had a rather dark color, more than the previous ones presented, he almost looked completely violet, his eyes were dark blue, he had several scars on his body, for example one that ran from his right eyebrow to his left cheek passing by the eye, it was rather large, so it probably was made by a claw — Other scars were present like on his chin, one in cross on his right cheek and many others on the rest of his body, it was noticeable that he was an army veteran with great experience.
Leaving that aside, there were obviously more differences between them, for example how big the eyes were and their position, among many other things, but they really didn't have anything very out of the ordinary or worth mentioning besides what has already been said and Gaus' scars.
A beep rang and immediately the situation around me changed melting into an absolute void before I opened my eyes and the cold gray metal of my ship greeted me.
Previously I was on my mental palace, but the beeping of my ship alerted me, that meant that one of the groups under my command had arrived at their destination.
Two weeks had passed since I helped the Calar civilization start their reconstruction, after gathering knowledge we managed to create a reasonable and steady way of increasing production of drinkable water and food, these were produced on planets in a relatively nearby system, I helped in the planning, the construction of various machines and bought several worker ships, these were used to quickly create a larger fleet of worker ships and cargo ships used before by the Calar civilization, evidently they were much more efficient.
My name was made public, and I became what could be considered a celebrity, officially turning into a special member of the government, needless to say that the affection with the civilization far exceeded 50,000.
After that I let them slowly but steadily stabilize while I went to one of the main HQ of Frieza's army, obviously the mission I was carrying out was already completed.
I immediately received a great compensation, I had informed the troops that I had captured an entire system ruled by a civilization.
I informed them in great detail about how I had taken it from Cooler's army, officially Cooler's army was a faction within Frieza's army, but in reality both were constantly fighting to conquer planets, making skirmishes and wasting material in the process, so taking an entire system from them was something for which I would be greatly compensated.
Despite this, they still complained about how it'd be something that will affect us in reputation, having wiped out an "advanced" civilization, after all a lot of the army management were not as ignorant as Frieza, who thought his strength would fix everything.
However, I had already prepared for this situation, Cooler's army had sent an even larger army into the system to eliminate me, I stayed with my ship on a planet while I left a recording device, it was the size of a small ship — And it managed to record how a relatively large fleet came into the system and began bombarding planets.
And although they could accuse us of faking the video, the technology required to review videos in order to determine if they're fake or not is incredibly effective, so they would have no problem confirming what was real.
With all this said, the administration officers were left with their mouths open, they immediately told the higher ups until it got to Frieza, this wasn't something really hard to do, he was constantly watching us saiyans to keep us under control after all.
When he found out about this, he immediately called me while the administration sent a fleet to officially make that system ours — Cooler's army meanwhile had no choice but to surrender, Cooler was someone smart, he knew that sending more ships would only make him lose more men and material.
I presented myself to Frieza showing my utmost "loyalty", he rewarded me with a lot of money from the army and a big promotion, anyone you ask would say that what Frieza did was crazy.... And it was.
Frieza is nothing short of an idiot when it comes to running an army, as I said, he thinks his strength is everything needed, he kills even the messengers when they were give him bad news, that would only make them tell him that everything is fine, and eventually he would end up only realizing the problems when it's too late, even in my previous life Frieza offered Vegeta to be the supreme commander of the army if he betrayed Goku.... He offered him that while knowing he is an enemy, he could easily destroy the entire administration then leave, but he still offered it to him.
As for me, he immediately promoted me to lieutenant colonel.... The promotion was much higher than had expected, I had certainly overestimated Frieza's management ability.... How easy it is for power to take over your mind...
This new position allowed me to have several battalions, these were formed by a thousand soldiers each, these were divided into companies controlled by another person of lower rank and so on until returning to the platoons, I had chosen three battalions judging the talents and skills of the leaders and promising soldiers, meanwhile, I had the saiyan team under my direct orders, the difference was that finally Vegeta was promoted to major general, while the others were generals, this increased considerably the number of people under my command.
I was currently trying to increase my rank even more, I was using my companies as a way to increase the number of people under my command, in other words, out of Frieza's.
I would use my companies to conquer objectives, but this time we were not going for a few stupid people on the surface of a planet, this time we were after civilizations at world or star system level, these were usually not joined to any association, so no one would tell us anything for attacking them.
Although they were more dangerous, I focused on constantly sending the formations of ships and even the troops on the ground, anyone who refused would be labeled as a traitor. This sounds completely unreasonable for the soldiers themselves, but before their doubts and complaints reached a high level they quickly understood how useful these strategies were, they immediately showed their bootlicker side respecting the strong.... I could only sigh with irony, fortunately or unfortunately this was something that happened everywhere....
These strategies were created by Zak, he would change them in real time with amazing ease while I tried to learn everything he did.
Thanks to this tactic, I was able to accept lots of missions at a time and finish them even ahead of time, I would offer the troops higher pay than the other commanders or lieutenant colonels did, this would all be based on their performance, I would let them participate in many missions, but if they didn't join any of them, they would not receive any pay — Thanks to this system they immediately started going on many more missions without even asking for a break, meanwhile after doing double or even triple of what they would normally do they would take their well deserved rest before jumping back into another battle.
This was all due to the generous rewards, the easy victories with hardly any deaths due to Zak's strategies, and the large amount of merits they got for their good performance thanks to Zak and me, basically they had a perfect place to earn quick money and enough fame to advance in rank easily How could they not accept it?
Meanwhile, I was benefiting even more, after all I was keeping most of the money while demonstrating my great leadership skills to my superiors and how I greatly increased the performance of the troops under my command, many of them even talked and spread the word of my generous rewards and plentiful victories, after all who doesn't like to be a target of envy?.... At least those proud troops were enjoying it to the hilt.
Frieza's Army's missions are categorized in the system as missions, so I gained a steady stream of experience, however by not actively participating and just being the mind controlling the situation, the rewards were mediocre at best, but they weren't as bad as if I stood still while watching them do all the work, and with the relatively large amount they did I gained a lot more, although even with such speed I could only wait to complete 3 or 4 missions if I wanted to level up [Ki Control] or [Ki Detection].
The missions done by my subordinates didn't give me any stat points, but still there was something very worthwhile, apart from the experience, this would raise the affection within Frieza's army.
Besides, I had a large amount of free time, I only had to send the tactics through my ship or a computer, and it would reach the communicators of those who led the small battalion divisions, I could focus on training my techniques non-stop and checking the Calar civilization.
To the latter I told them we would sell technology, however I have much more planned, I didn't tell them too much though, even with my status within the Calar, the affection that has been won a short time ago can be lost just as quickly, even though they are likely to be in a doubt, since deep inside they think well of me, they might refuse and even lower their affection for me.
My speed in earning money, gaining promotions and even training was faster than any time I have ever experienced..... You could say... "Higher Than Heaven"... Too bad I can't listen to the music of my former world....
I shook my head, enough rest for now, I walked over to the beeping computer and started drawing lines with my finger on a screen while pressing some buttons, despite all the thinking I did earlier only a few seconds had passed, this was one of the great benefits of the intelligence stat.
Zak: "Ok, so out of the 10 ships carrying that group take 10 people each and split them into two groups of 5 ships, one must go 5'670 million kilometers (3,523,000 miles) from the small ice planet in the infiltration formation you already learned, and the other must have to go around this red planet, they should draw the attention of the civilization, let 3 of the most defended ships go in that group while 2 attacking ones stay behind, if you send troops from behind make sure to give them time before they receive a pincer attack with the other group, meanwhile send the remaining troops to the planets in groups of..."
Zak kept talking as I went about sending everything out, it was an exhausting task.... But in a way it was a great way to raise intelligence, which made the task easier, currently I could already keep up with Zak's fast pace as he spoke, and I tried to understand the reasoning behind his orders.
The ships of Frieza's army, and even more at the battalion level, were much better than the ships of any other terrestrial or star system civilization, they would at most have a fleet of 100 armed ships, and most wouldn't have the weapons tech used in space wars.... Concentrated fire would still be very dangerous, but that can be fixed with a good strategy.
When I finished I let out a sigh of relief as I returned to my mental palace.
An absolute void with a sharp-eyed white-haired man greeted me, this was Zak, after so long I completely gave up my enmity with him, it was a help I couldn't deny even if I wanted to, I even started to like him.... I understood that one of his ways to make me better was to make me feel at the bottom of the world, so I would want to get out of there.... After all it wouldn't suit him if I became a depressed fool.
Zak rolled his eyes as he lunged at me trying to hit me, I turned my body to the left dodging the attack completely.
Zak: "You know damn well I'm not going to wait for you to finish thinking just to start training.... Now, bad dodge, you had to rotate your body 75° while leaning back 10°, this way you could counterattack, and they would avoid a hit on your face or..."
Zak immediately explained my mistakes, down to the smallest detail.... Although, in fact, I could tell he was being "nice" to me, he couldn't start with something too advanced, and started with something simple like using exact degrees.... It may not seem simple, but to him, it is.... If he really wanted to fuck with me, I'm sure he would start using decimals.
Zak: "Look... Let's do something different, shall we...?"
Zak started to think of something and a few seconds later a system message popped up to me, he was asking for temporary permission to alter things in my view.... I immediately looked at him.
Baël: "What the hell is this?!"
Zak: "Accept, dumbass!"
I sighed as I press accept, the permit said it would only last two hours, so I didn't really have anything to lose.
Suddenly blue lines like data and system messages appeared in my view, a red border bordered Zak making him much more visible, suddenly he came to hit me, lines indicating angles appeared on several sides while a translucent red figure representing Zak moved, this seemed to be the movement Zak would make, while a blue figure representing me moved in the same way the lines indicated, thus giving a graphical representation.
At the time I failed to fully understand it, but still the only thing I knew was that I had to follow the lines and the blue man of my size.
Following the instructions I dodged the attack in a similar way as Zak said before, then I followed what the lines told me by counterattacking with a punch on his back, but he blocked it perfectly while throwing a punch to my face, I turned my head to dodge it when a stabbing feeling appeared in my stomach, it was a knee strike, immediately my body went backwards, but the punch I dodged grabbed the back of my neck and directed my head towards my knee hitting me.
The fight was over, needless to say I had been wrecked, however this was just my mind, I had no real damage and was immune to pain.
Zak: "You still lack practice, had you done it exactly as the lines said and didn't have so many excessive movements, this situation wouldn't have come, leaving that aside, you have to look for other attacks and not only for the one that is more obvious, if you had detected my knee strike you could even throw me to the ground avoiding the punch and gaining advantage."
Zak spoke shaking his head in disappointment.
Zak: "Do we have to train like this for much longer? The more you advance, the less help I'll give you, all until you can do it on your own, then I'll make it more complicated by giving you that help again, do you understand, you shit for brains?"
Baël: "Of course I understood, dickhead."
Zak: "Whatever you say, gonorrheic bespawler".
We got used to insulting each other a lot... It was like a lot of friendships I had a long time ago...
...
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