The place she led me to was a rather modest sized six story building beside the main street close to what I assume was a monorail station.
Apparently it was supposed to be an inn but I didn't see any signboards at the front of the building so I don't know if it even had a name or not.
In fact, there wasn't even a counter or a front desk either and entering the building led directly to a staircase that led up to the rooms on the upper floors with the elevator at the side.
Instead of using the elevator, she went towards the stairs and started climbing them so I followed her along.
And since I was behind her… Well… I had a hard time not staring at the very attractive rear swaying in front of me.
Ahem… What were we doing again?
Oh right.
She continued to climb until we reached the fifth floor, going to the room located all the way at the end of the hall.
She placed her hand on the door handle and an audible click could be heard as the door unlocked itself.
I then followed her into the room and I realised that while the place was simple, it still felt rather comfy. There was even a living room at the front, though there did not seem to be a kitchen.
"Make yourself at home," She gestured, unzipping and taking off her leather jacket to reveal a tank top that did nothing to hide her bust.
I must have been staring because she smirked and struck a pose, "Like what you see?"
I decided not to answer that and just switched topics instead.
"So what's the job?"
Her smile widened slightly before she plopped herself down on the couch, lifting her feet to rest them on the coffee table without bothering to take her boots off. She then gestured to the seat opposite her and I sat myself down as well.
Amber then looked at me seriously, "Before I tell you about the job, I need to have you promise me that if you decide not to help me, you don't share any of the information I am about to tell you with someone else."
I raised an eyebrow, "Not that I plan to do that but… Out of curiosity, how are you going to make sure I keep my word?"
The corner of her lips raised slightly, "Well… Let's just say that I have already made some arrangements ahead of time and there are a few people who owe me favours that would happily hunt you down if you were to start spreading it around."
"And those guys couldn't be called to help you with this job?"
"Yes and no. It's complicated."
"Then how do I know I can trust you? I literally just met you today."
"Awww~ Was the ramen treat not enough to establish my trustworthiness?"
I blanched, "You mean the thing that can't even be called food and made me hurl in an alley?"
"Touche. Alright then… I'll just tell you the plan and you can decide if you want to trust me."
"That doesn't really sound like it would help your case but fine."
She waved her hand in a certain motion and a screen popped up in front of me, showing me what looked like the details of a certain organisation.
More specifically, it was details of a gang.
"The Underdogs, a rather small gang in the city that usually do some small-time crimes to support themselves and its members are usually the absolute losers of society. Don't ask me why they named themselves that but they are our target."
I quickly glanced through the details where it showed that they have been doing things like petty theft, robbery and some vandalism.
They're basically neighbourhood crooks I guess?
I blinked at her, "Ok… What? Do you need to go wipe them out or something?"
She shook her head and swiped her hand to the side, prompting the screen to change to a picture of a man that was staring at the viewer.
He had messy, blue spiky hair and his eyes were clearly metallic implants with one of them being red and the other being blue. He was also wearing a very striking red jacket and I would dare say that he had this cool air about him.
"This guy calls himself Voidshade, he's a former Gold rank Merc that turned to piracy and for some reason, he chose to take the Underdogs under his wing. They managed to steal an entire freighter ship and flew off the station about a day or two ago. No one even knew they had stolen it until a day later."
How the heck do you even steal an entire ship without tipping anyone off until a day later?
She continued, "So basically, I took the hustle to bring back the freighter in one piece. But I was only told that the Underdogs were the ones who stole it and found out about this guy's involvement later on. I'm confident of taking the Underdogs on my own and securing the freighter, but this guy complicates matters."
Amber then swiped her hand again and I was shown a ship.
More specifically, it was an A Class Interceptor and just by looking at the specs, I could see that it was built for speed and defence.
"That's his ship," Amber explained, her face turning sour like she had just eaten a lemon. "High speed, high defence and he even modified it to have an active cloaking device. In order to secure the freighter, I will need to board it and he could wait until I was on board to deactivate his cloak and destroy my ship, trapping me in the freighter. I need someone to keep watch in case he tries to do that."
I nodded, "Right… I see now. So you'll be quite literally putting your life in your partner's hands, aren't you?"
She smirked, "Yes. Does that show my sincerity enough for you?"
I looked at the screen that still showed his ship, "He can't maintain his ship's cloak when he wants to attack?"
"That's right, his ship's generators aren't powerful enough to power his weapon and shield systems if he were to use the cloaking device. So he has to switch the power allotment which drops him out of cloak when he wants to shoot at someone."
"I see… He's wanted, right?"
She nodded, "Not as big of a bounty as Yirfa since he hasn't really done much yet, but he has a hundred thousand Credit bounty on him that we'll split. What's more, we're being paid one million credits to return the freighter and its contents intact."
"One million just for that?"
"It's the price they need to pay for hiring a Gold rank Merc for the job."
"Hmm… And how will the split be?"
She smiled at me, "Can I count on you to help me clear the freighter as well?"
"Sure?"
"Then we can split this fifty-fifty. Otherwise, we'll do it seventy-thirty for the job and fifty-fifty for Voidshade's bounty. Sounds good?"
"Fair enough. Where is the freighter?"
She swiped her hand again and a map of the system showed up, zooming in on the asteroid belt that circled around the system's star.
"The ship's last known location was around here before it stopped moving. So either the ship encountered some problems and could not move or they managed to get rid of the tracker that the owner had placed on the ship. Either way, we'll start our search there. It'll take around a day or so to reach there via travel speeds."
"What if the ship had already run off and got out of the system?"
"Then I'll just report that and accept that as a failed mission. You don't need to worry about it staining your records and I can just blame it on the fact that the client neglected on telling me about Voidshade. So you in?"
I nodded, "Alright, I'm in. When do we set off?"
"Right now of course. No time like the present right? Don't want to give them more time to make their escape after all."
"Ri… Right now? Hmm… Fine, let's go."
She then suddenly clasped her hands together and bowed her head, "I have just one tiny request…"
I raised an eyebrow, wondering just what else she could want.
"What is it?"
"Please let me sleep on your ship!! I'll attach my ship with yours and we'll travel there together, but I really, really don't want to sleep on the pilot seat, please! I'll even pay you for letting me stay there if you want!"
Oh geez, is that the real reason why she wanted me as a partner?
I mean… I guess sleeping on the pilot seat is really quite uncomfortable so it made sense that she would want to sleep on a bed if she had a choice.
Well, I have an extra room anyway so I guess that it isn't a problem.
Alright, you can stop bowing now, I can see your cleavage from here and it's quite distracting…
Captain's Log:
What do they call these contacts again? Hustles? Right. First hustle as a Merc, steal back a freighter ship from some wannabe pirates. At least I have another Merc as backup.
Amber stepped past the doors and entered my ship.
Right now we had just started up our ships' travel drives and we would be flying in the direction of the asteroid field.
I also got a good look at her ship while she was trying to dock with mine. It was a B Class Heavy Fighter that specialised in speed.
It seems like she had equipped her ship with two short range ballistic cannons and one medium range laser, which pretty much told me she was a hit and run type of pilot. Not to mention the fact that it was even painted in a strikingly conspicuous red.
In other words, she's the all or nothing kind of person.
The Merc in question looked around my ship's interior with a face of wonder, "Oh wow… How much did you even pay for this ship?"
I shrugged, "Don't remember. Memory's a bit hazy after that anomaly."
"Right… Oh damn, you even have a storage room? I am so jealous right now."
"It's not even that big…"
She gave me a pointed look, "Do I really need to point out how small my ship is compared to yours?"
"But yours is faster and more manoeuvrable."
"Heh heh~ That is true, got me to Gold rank all by herself she did. Named her Lightning Lotus. You got a name for yours?"
I shrugged, "I just call it by the model name, Verlandi."
"Oh, are you one of those people who think that naming their ships is a bad thing?"
"Eh? There's such people?"
"Yeah, there's captains out there who think that naming their ship will make them too attached to it and make the decision to die with the ship instead of running away when they have the option to."
"I don't actually care about naming honestly…"
Truth be told, I do name my ships but that's after I get a ship that I really like or it's some kind of legendary ship. Since trading ships was something that you could do in the game, there's not really a point to name a ship that you'll just trade away anyway.
And since this was a starter ship, I wasn't expecting myself to keep it for long anyway, especially with how much money I might be making in the future.
The average B Class ship should cost around a million Credits so three million should net me a pretty decent upgrade from my current ship.
But then again… I would also need to worry about supplies and stuff so I won't be able to use the full three million anyway so I'll hold off on buying one so soon.
Amber grinned at me, "Well, there's people on both ends of the spectrum anyway. I like my ship, but I like my own life more so yeah~ Anyway! Where's the bedroom? That's what I'm here for!"
I tapped on my Codex to display the time, "But… It's still early? You already want to sleep?"
"No, no, I just want to see the room! Come on! Show me, show me!"
"Why are you even that excited over a bedroom? It's literally just a small room with an attached kitchenette and bath."
She froze and stared at me with wide eyes and her mouth agape, like as if I had just told her I was an alien.
Oh wait, aliens are normal here, so I dunno why she's making that face.
"You… Your ship has baths… And a kitchen? Is this some kind of luxury ship or something?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Is that not normal? I travelled here with a freighter and they had the same setup too."
"Not on a Heavy Fighter it's not! Who the heck even designed this ship to fit these amenities in here?! StellarTech?! No wait… Definitely not them… Then who… Who did you get this ship from?"
I shrugged, "I don't remember, sister."
"Damn… You're not from another Universe, are you?"
I chuckled, "Maybe I'm not, who knows? Maybe I transmigrated here from another World and lost my memories in the process."
She rolled her eyes, "Sure. Alright, let's see that room of yours!"
I pointed to the room in question and she practically sprinted towards it, almost squeezing herself through the gap before the door could fully open.
"Oh my gosh!! A bunk bed?! I thought you might only have a single bed but wow! Ohhhh!! A kitchenette! And is that… Waaahh! It's an actual shower!! This is the best!! I don't need to just be content with dry scrubs anymore while travelling!!"
She then turned back to me with sparkles in her eyes, "So!! Which bed is yours?! I don't mind taking either the top or bottom bunk!"
I blinked at her before pointing to the side, "My room is over there."
She went back to being surprised as she took about a minute to comprehend my words, "You… Have two rooms?"
I nodded.
"Can I see?"
I stepped aside and she stepped out of the room and followed me to mine.
My door slid open and instead of rushing in like she did before with the other room, she slowly walked inside as though she was afraid that she might break something.
There's nothing inside this room anyway since I haven't been here long enough to have any personal effects, so it's not like there's anything here for her to break in the first place.
She looked around the room silently, first inspecting the bed, then the kitchenette and then the bathroom.
Once she was done, she slowly turned to me and asked me with a serious face, "What kind of alien ship is this?"
I raised an eyebrow at her, "What's weird about it?"
"I don't get it?! How does this ship have so much room?! It's only a B Class ship right?! Yet you have space for two rooms and a storage yet still have enough space for your engine and generator?! Just how?!"
I shrugged, "How should I know? I wasn't the one who built it."
"Ugh, I'm so jealous right now… If this ship had been in the market, I'd buy it immediately without a second thought…"
Now I'm a little concerned that the ships in this universe might suck…
She then continued with a sigh, "I guess you must have gotten your ship from one of the colonies nearer to the centre of colonised space. That's where all the good stuff is."
Ah, I guess maybe that might really be the case.
Perhaps models of my ship are more common there instead of out in the fringes here.
I scratched my head, "Maybe. I don't know for sure though, I don't even remember what those places you mentioned look like."
She gave me a look, "At this point, if you told me you're actually some daughter of a noble family, I'd believe you. Hey, promise me that you'll give me some benefits if you actually turn out to be one?"
"I'll err… Be sure to let you know if I remember that."
She chuckled, "I'm just kidding. So… I don't suppose you have an entertainment room in your ship either?"
I rolled my eyes, "Oh sorry, that room is still under construction, come back next time and maybe it might be completed."
Unexpectedly, Amber stepped close to me and leaned in, "Oh~ Is that an invitation to come on your ship again? Or maybe… That was a proposal for a permanent partnership? Because I'm not going to say no to that~"
I couldn't tell if she meant the Mercenary kind of partnership or the other kind of partnership.
I cleared my throat, "Ahem… Putting that aside, how about I make us some food?"
She seemed quite surprised by my proposal, "You can cook?"
"What? Why is that so surprising? What did you think the kitchenette was for? And didn't I mention that I'll let you eat something after that horrible place?"
I mean… I haven't exactly tried to actually cook something in this universe yet, but I have at least cooked for myself in my original World before.
I live alone after all, so that was unavoidable since eating out can get tiring sometimes.
Besides… I'm pretty sure that cooking should remain the same even in another universe right? Especially when the things here all look pretty much the same.
Look, I see the frying pan, the pot and there's even a wok. I could probably do something with that just by using my old knowledge.
"I mean… I thought you were joking and that stove might just be to heat up the sealed food or something? I dunno? These are like luxury stuff on ships, you know? Most of the time I just eat those packed foods cold while I'm on my ship."
"Well, why don't you go take a seat and I'll see what I can whip up for us to eat?"
She giggled, "Oh wow~ I get to have my date cook me a meal on our first date out~ How romantic."
I know she was just teasing me so I just ignored her and shooed her away, making the blonde Merc giggle as she sauntered into the room to take a seat on the bed.
Now… Let's see what I'm working with here…
Captain's Log:
The ships of this place sounds pretty spartan. I guess that's one thing I need to consider if I were to go and buy another ship in the future.
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