Sky-cracking Rider

Including Cobalt Luo, three little Metallic Dragon Brothers sobbed around the dormitory's stone desk, frowning at their respective homework with a whole forehead of worry.

Academic dunces + brats = ignoring homework completely

Once caught by the eldest sister, it was almost inevitable to escape punishment.

Cobalt Luo was alright, as he often followed Yilan, and would always manage to complete his homework on time.

The other two brats were doomed. After the start of summer vacation, they played like mad and hadn't even touched a single word of homework!

Now, both were caught by Yilan's claw, academic excellence reigned supreme, while the academic failures trembled.

Thanks to the new inheritance obtained, the education for Metallic Dragons rarely required rote memorization, but rather understanding and thinking, along with various trick questions.

Merely relying on memorization would definitely not stump these dumb dragons, so what was really tested was the ability to use one's brain.

When the three little Metallic Dragon Brothers were working on their summer homework with gloomy faces, Chen Fei stole a glance.

Dragon education at the elementary stage was almost comparable to the Human Race's high school stage, complete with various Olympiad brain-burning problems.

After all, at the primary stage of human education, it's mostly about writing and general knowledge, which require a lot of memorization. But for the current Metallic Dragons, they could complete the entire learning process in just a few seconds.

Dragons tend to live much longer lives. If they were educated at the pace of humans, college graduation would only take a mere sixteen years. If these mentally immature young dragons were let loose in society, they could potentially cause catastrophic problems.

A longer period of education is mainly to foster mental maturity and the correct experience in dealing with various situations. The fundamental goal is not to create expert or scholar dragons. After all, knowledge itself is constantly being updated; it's hard to achieve higher accomplishments just by accumulating information. Studying for over a hundred years and hoping to become a master in a field often results in being a jack of all trades but a master of none, far from true expertise.

By the time these little dragon elementary school students advanced to the true high school stage, Chen Fei could only bow down to them.

The high school education of the Dragon Clan was comparable to the master's level of the Human Race.

Just dealing with Yilan's current high school curriculum made Chen Fei feel somewhat overwhelmed. After all, he was a legitimate college undergraduate and had never seen multiple college-level subjects combined into one high school course.

Not to mention dragons, even humans wouldn't be able to finish such a curriculum in a few years at that age.

Around the large stone desk were four Metallic Dragons, studying earnestly, and Chen Fei secretly snapped a photo, thinking that if one day he was no longer an army contractor, he could engage in private media. Reporting such sensational news would probably make a fortune and easily save up for retirement.

For others, close encounters with Metallic Dragons and Magical Beasts might be dangerously life-threatening. But for Chen Fei, who stepped on the corpses of Mutants as his daily work, it was simply a trifling matter.

Rare sounds of sizzling filled the cave as the smell of grease permeated the air. Chen Fei was frying up thick steaks. Little Bird was eating its freeze-dried bug ration, rice bubbled next to it in the rice cooker, wisps of steam rising, and a soup pot simmered with various mushrooms and dried vegetables.

"I can't do it! Damn studying to hell!"

The young dragon Thukadi collapsed. It had done half a jin of practice problems, already feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.

Frantically trying to tear up the practice paper in front of it, Thukadi was dragged aside by the older Cobalt Luo, causing a commotion as the whole cave shook.

After getting a good beating, Thukadi returned to the stone desk, gritting its teeth and muttering to itself,

"Studying makes me happy, without it, I can't live."

After ten minutes, the young dragon Benali couldn't stand it anymore and crumbled.

Chen Fei happily sipped his before-dinner soup, watching the big dragons thrashing the little ones.

...

Filled with renewed vigor, Benali returned to the desk and continued to tackle the remaining two jin of practice problems.

The summer homework for the dragon's first grade started at one ton, if it were translated to the Human Race, an entire lifetime's worth of homework might not even weigh half a ton.

The higher the grade, the heavier the workload. By the time it reached Yilan's high school senior stage, it was a solid three tons of homework. To get into college, at least another two tons were needed, three tons as a base, five tons for assurance.

An hour later, Cobalt Luo collapsed.

The older they were, the harder the homework, and the Metallic Dragons without spiritual power struggled on their own will.

This time, Yilan stepped in, dragging Cobalt Luo by the neck with her Tail Spear, the beating outside the cave was earth-shattering, and the nearby "neighbors" had long grown accustomed to it. With the Metallic Dragons as a neighbor, they almost had daily fights, which were incredibly lively.

By the time Cobalt Luo and Yilan returned to the cave, feeling refreshed, Chen Fei was leisurely scrolling through his phone's news while sipping tea. Little Bird had already returned to its nest, occasionally chirping contently in its sleep.

Thukadi broke down again and was dragged into a corner by Cobalt Luo for another thrashing, followed by Benali and then Cobalt Luo himself, as if stuck in a loop. The Metallic Dragons' method of encouraging study was indeed invigorating.

Unsure how many rounds of beating and being beaten had passed, the well-fed Chen Fei was already sleeping soundly in the Mobile Base Vehicle, as steady as Mount Taishan.

While fighting the corporate war with the Meman Brothers United Defense Consortium, he had learned to fall asleep quickly despite the surrounding noise.

The fact that Metallic Dragons adopted a study method akin to "hanging beams and stabbing thighs" was nothing new. The Human Race had been quite proficient at this in ancient times and had even more varieties.

Nonetheless, Yilan had never collapsed; she continued to immerse herself in study, as a born academic prodigy, seeing learning as the most joyful thing.

The following morning, Chen Fei woke up, sat up in bed, and opened the curtains. The lights inside the dormitory cave were still glowing brightly.

Four Metallic Dragons busied themselves with completing their summer holiday homework, pulling an all-nighter.

For the Human Race, enduring such an expense might not be feasible, but it was a common thing for the Dragon Clan. Compared to partying from dusk till dawn, they'd rather study through the night.

"Morning!"

After freshening up, Chen Fei greeted the dragons who were still buried in their homework while eating his fried egg.

This scene really boosted one's appetite!

"Eh? Chen Fei, you're awake? It's, um? Daylight already!" The female Metallic Dragon, Yilan, lifted her head from the stone table and finally noticed the time—it was already the next day.

Cobalt Luo said in a daze, "Ah? Another whole night of homework?"

The whole dragon had gone numb from drilling practice questions.

"No more!" ×2

Two young dragons couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground with a thud, their eyes glazed over.

The two unfortunate kids had been roughed up at least ten times, which was considered light punishment. Just out of kindergarten and into their first term of elementary school, they used to get beaten every five minutes for half an hour. As they aged and advanced in grades, they finally began to adapt to the study process.

"Want something to eat?"

Yilan turned and went to her unused pile of pebble bedding. After rummaging around, she tossed over a few rough stones, biting into one herself, crunching loudly as crumbs fell.

Despite the unappealing look, it was an ore with over sixty percent richness, largely comprised of iron, along with a smidgen of copper, zinc, and other metal elements. Sometimes, when they couldn't get pure metal ingots, having iron-rich ore was already quite good. They couldn't always have treats like titanium rods and spheres, as Chen Fei had given them upon first meeting. Each on its own might not be expensive, but given the Metallic Dragons' size and appetite, even the rich Silan Royal Family wouldn't dare let them eat as much as they wanted—they simply couldn't afford it.

"Want, want!"

The two half-dead dragons rolled over and sprang up, fighting over the food.

As long as they could get a full belly, even two tons of homework were nothing to them.

Chen Fei started taking pictures and recording videos again.

A rare look at the original state of Metallic Dragons—this was his future retirement capital.

After all, not everyone had the courage to nest with dragons.

While he was filming, his phone rang with an incoming call alert.

He hurried to answer it.

It was Boss Hana calling.

"Hello, where are you?"

Being a boss was exhausting. Chen Xiao'er was the kind of employee who would vanish without trace at the drop of a hat, sometimes slipping away to the ends of the earth.

"Cangqiong Star, Imperial Capital Delan City, Boss. Any issues?"

Chen Fei thought maybe Jiu Defense Company had run into some trouble and needed the support of a strong employee.

"No issues, just checking in. Finance just received a payment, and I verified it. Have you completed your assignment?"

Boss Hana indeed sensed through the financial status that Chen Fei had finished the commission he took on.

She thought since the accounts were settled, it was about time for him to return.

"It's possible... Emmm... not yet!"

Chen Fei hesitated, as Princess Lin Ziyu had been cursed, and there were many suspicious aspects to it, he wasn't sure himself.

Most importantly, the butler Housekeeper Mars still had the entry paperwork in his possession. Without it, Chen Fei couldn't return to Blue Star.

"I've received the money here, but you haven't finished your commission?"

Hanna Gagel was confused—the account had received more money than stipulated in the contract, a significant sum almost equal to a tenth of Jiu Defense Company's annual profits.

Was it a prepayment before the task completion? But there was no such rule!

"There might be a new commission waiting for me; I'll be on a secret standby for now!"

Chen Fei expressed his guess that the nature of the possible secret mission was yet to be known.

"The waters of the Silan Royal Family run deep. Stay away from them and don't take any unilateral action. Call me if anything comes up. I can't help you much, but I can still offer some analysis and get your brain going," Hanna Gagel said, believing that although Chen Fei wasn't a fool, he mostly couldn't handle the intrigue of human affairs.

But she was experienced; working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Apocalypse Defense Group wasn't for nothing. Perhaps she couldn't think as broadly, but it was a kind of support nonetheless. An employee of Jiu Defense cannot simply be used by others without recompense.