This new addition to their team went by the name of Lu Mu. She was one of the best aerial strategists of the Femme Fatale, and she was actually one of the inner circle members as well. What that meant was that she had a bit more influence as compared to someone who was just in an elder position. At first glance, she was not too happy with the arrangements that had been made in order for her to come and serve the Under 1 Banner group. However, as it was a personal request from the ex-leader of the Femme Fatale, she was hard-pressed to say no.

Once she made her way to Baron’s HQ, the first thing that Baron, Guan Yu, and Yue Fei did with her was to get a grip on just how well this new ally of theirs was. So, the four of them went into a round-robin simulation with each other and this Lu Mu was able to beat all of them with Yue Fei coming in second, Baron third, and Guan Yu last. Though she may have won, she only did so due to a fluke while she was facing off with Baron and won with the weather being in her favor. Luck may be an important factor in battle but how often can you rely on luck?

After everyone was able to get to know each other, the four of them plus Roxi began to train. The reason that Roxi was able to train with them now was due to the fact that she decided she needed to get away from Fu Hao for a bit due to a disagreement about what their future projects should be. Roxi wanted to go for researching and developing satellites so that they could bring GPS to this community while Fu Hao thought it best to go for the more explosive missile's route. Either way, Roxi needed to get away from matron Fu Hao for a bit.

The simulations with the 5 of them ran for about a year and there was a slight problem with their lineup. Roxi was no strategist, she was more of a fighter. Although the other 4 could be considered to have touched the realm of aerial masters, they felt that having a lineup of all aerial strategists was the way to go. Even if Roxi was a tough opponent to kill and was able to deal a lot of damage with her brilliant blue weapon, that might not be enough for the faction selection tournament that they would be participating in. What were they to do? Asking matron Fu Hao for one person to join their ranks was a pain the first time, asking twice would not bode well.

There was not that much that they could do so they just continued to train and train and train. Now, there were just under 2 decades before the start of the tournament. No one on Baron’s team knew if anyone on the other teams wanting to become an official faction were training as much as they were, but they were not worried as the progression of their team energy was steadily improving with each day. Just 15 years before the start of the tournament, they all decided to take a year break to focus on other matters.

Guan Yu and Yue Fei continued to work on increasing their elder rank, but they knew that sooner or later, they would not be able to advance without being in a proper faction. They were hopeful of the future, but neither of them had committed to one faction for quite so long before and this was indeed a new territory for them as well.

Lu Mu and Roxi returned back to the territory of the Femme Fatale to continue on their business from where they left off. As for Baron, he decided it was best for him to do a few rounds of tasks for the community to up his elder rank as well. Currently, he was not ranked, but he hoped to quite soon. The ranking system tended to change every few decades and the newest system was quite different than the one that was in place when he got here. The top 10,000 were ranked and had gotten a new salary, a better one than they had previously gotten. He worked on these tasks diligently for the next 6 months before something came of it. He was just looking at the list of new people who will be transported to planet 4 in a bit and a name he skimmed over caught his attention. That name was Jaxon Long.

Immediately he put down his name as the person who would go introduce him to planet 4. The reason that Baron did this was so that he would be able to reunite with his friend at last. In addition to Roxi who he had a strong connection with back on Earth, Jaxon could be considered Baron’s best friend. While Baron had known him, Jaxon was a fanatic of anything that could fly. Although he wasn’t great at being a strategist, he also attended the same institution as Baron and that was how the two of them met. Jaxon never went to the battlefield, but rather in safety studying the design and ingenuity of planes.

When Baron asked Roxi what had happened about Jaxon after his death, Roxi did not have the answer as Jaxon just seemed to disappear without any trace as to where he went. Not even his family had any clue as to where he might have gone. Roxi checked in with his family for a few years after that and eventually stopped and went on with her life. Still, to see him here was a surprise just like with Roxi’s arrival. Neither of them should have been strategists, so who exactly was behind all of this? It did not matter now though, Baron was ecstatic especially considering that Jaxon was likely to be of great help to Baron’s cause. Especially since Jaxon likely was able to draw many aircraft blueprints up from just his mind alone.