He entered back to the vehicle which the ferry system asked.

“What will be your next destination?”

Ubel mulled for a moment, then he felt his stomach grumbling.

“Before answering that, do you provide security for your ferry services?” he asked.

“Yes. Our security measures are a part of our ferry services and apply to all passengers.” the system replied.

“Then get me to…” Ubel opened up the map from his Holo and looked around. He wanted to maximize his time on this station before leaving. Then he closed it, wanting to test the quality of the ferry services. “Do you also provide recommendations?”

“What services do you require?” the system asked.

“Do you know any high-class restaurants in the station? Something that offered meat and good drinks.” Ubel elaborated.

“I recommend the Star Goddess Circle and the Pearl Rise.” the system replied. “Star Goddess Circle provides top meat dishes and buffets which our agents usually visit. Pearl Rise is known for its high-quality night services and drinks.”

“I’ll take your first recommendation.”

The car then elevated from the ground and took off. Ubel realized that he had been in the establishment for too long and that the station was already on its dark morning beginning. He gazed at the clock it was already 2 A.M.

Then he saw the sheer size of the cityscape of the station as he found out that, where he was in right now was just the center of the station. The outer part of the station was glowing in their morning light. His eyes moved towards that part of the station and scanned for more information. The public details that he got were that the outer portion of the station was on the opposite cycle from the time of the center. Ubel assumed that this was probably done to make the station “awake” at all times as possible.

They arrived at the several-story high building which Ubel could misunderstand as a tower. This time, he was welcomed by two droids as the car landed and opened its doors.

“Welcome to the Star Goddess Circle.” the two droids, a built-in feminine structure, gestured towards the entrance of the establishment.

The system notified him again that the car would await him later as he entered the restaurant. Unlike the arms dealer shop before, this establishment was full of vibrant themes, chill music, and people talking to each other.

Not with the expected people of the wealthy status but still by outlaws and gangsters, but seemingly in good manners. Same characters that he saw on the streets and the alleys but they were more civil in their tables. He assumed that the restaurant either had very strict rules and sent out heavy repercussions that ruined the peaceful setting or this was owned by someone, people never wanted to trigger.

He sat on one of the tables and a droid waitress came to him.

“Here is our menu.” it handed him a digital menu with the list of all refreshments, which he took after nodding and went to another table to cater their orders.

“What’s the purpose of these when customers can just send their orders through holos?” he whispered in his breath as he laughed at the unnecessary digital menu he was given. Then he looked around and a thought entered his mind. “So it's all about immersion huh? Humans are truly masters of keeping up the fantasy. Well… I can't blame them when I am of the same.”

His gaze went back to the menu and scoured for the delicious-looking dishes. The prices were truly for those who could afford to waste money on food. Then he spotted a familiar-looking meat dish.

“Please give me one plate of Scarlons and a bottle of Estevans.” Ubel handed back the digital menu.

“Thank you. We will deliver your food shortly. Please do enjoy today’s specialty drink while you wait.” a glass of wine popped up slowly from the center of his table with a short bottle.

He looked around as he swirled his glass, he saw more smugglers in their trade, and probably powerful syndicates making deals. He increased his hearing senses to eavesdrop on those around as an appetizer to his wine while he waited.

“There’s an upheaval in Mars, riots are increasing with intensity after the arrest of a martian by a UGTR military police.”

“Not much change in the market, but Haltide alloy had been a good investment as of late.”

“Did the value of gold drop?”

“If it did, I would probably be an immortal tomorrow.”

“I was asking a legitimate question idiot!”

“They don’t ask stupid questions to get a stupid answer idiot!”

“Fuck, my debt… I may have to sell my ship this time. Fuck!”

“The guild had recently opened up a bounty for an escaped death row that was spotted in Truseaint System.”

“You’ll take it?”

“It’s worth a try.”

“We may need more information for this part of the planet before we could land. I don’t want to get ambushed when we drop.”

“This deal is not something you will see every day, I suggest you take it now.”

“I may have to change our cargo from ice to slaves at this point. The price of ice had been plummeting two days ago and I am already at the point where I couldn’t risk another loss.”

“I’ll talk to a slavemaster if they have a job for us.”

“I want to kill that fucker who sold me this gun. It doesn’t even work!”

“Boss, that’s because that’s an energy pistol. You have to replace its battery every week.”

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“Fuck! Really?”

“I heard that there’s a new ship in the dock that grabbed every boss's attention.”

“I could send the boys but… even Father doesn’t want us to get involved.”

He was already fully immersed in his eavesdropping when the droid finally arrived with his food.

“Thank you for waiting, please enjoy your food and don’t hesitate to ask for any orders or assistance.” the droid left and he was in front of a steaming plate of cooked beef, or something that has a similar appearance to beef. He tried scanning it if he could find some data on what type of food it was but got nothing. It was as large as the plate but his stomach started groaning in hunger that he felt he could eat several plates of this dish.

It was ten times as fragrant as he had expected it. He let himself enjoy the smell of a beef-ish dish with its fat before slicing and taking a bite in which various flavors flooded his mind, causing ecstatic chaos in his neurons.

Then an individual suddenly sat on the other chair of his table.

With a raised brow, Ubel asked.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine. You?” the man replied with his question in a playful tone.

“I’m not, especially when someone I don’t know was sitting on my table and disturbing my quality time alone to enjoy this good wine to start my morning.” Ubel directly said he got annoyed that he was disturbed in his enjoyment.

“Heh.” the man just smirked. “You’ve got guts, kid.”

“For what?”

“For talking like that, to someone you don’t know yet, much more in a station you just recently appeared in.” the man then leaned closer to Ubel, whispering a subtle intimidation. “You’ve got no connections yet, no one to protect you… yet you have either the stupidity or just brave balls to speak to strangers.”

“Okay…” Ubel just took it indifferently as he sipped on his wine. But before he could refill his empty glass, the man swiped the bottle and drank from it. Now he was interested in the intention of the man in front of him.

“You shouldn’t be drinking at your age kid. Your mama will get angry.” he laughed and drank again before continuing. “I still can’t believe you a commander of a pirate fleet. How old are you kid? 17? 15?”

Ubel could hear some snickering behind his back which he could sense to be a few tables away from them. Then the man leaned closer and said directly.

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. To be honest, I’m impressed with your achievements. So let me get this straight… I want your ship.” he said as he gulped Ubel’s wine and showed a toothy grin that had several gold teeth. Ubel realized what kind of man he was and subtly scanned him while showing his indifference.

“Ship?”

“Stop acting dumb, your massive ship on Dock 131. I want it.” the man drank again and wiped his mouth with his elbow. “745 billion credits. Straight. It's already more than enough for that ship of yours, I’m sure. And you can buy a fucking battleship or two for this amount of money. And you will never get this chance again to get such a large amount of credit in one trade deal. You probably stole or found it floating in space anyway so these 745 billion credits are an untouched profit for you and your pirate gang. And knowing how you pirates do your thing, you’ll probably just ruin such a good ship in your hands.”

“…” Ubel blinked two times and took the glass back to where the table gave it to him. Then he leaned closer also to the man. “Elpano Si Gablen… as expected from the so-called, Judge.”

“You know me.” the man frowned but was not surprised.

“Only an ignorant wouldn’t want to know of those people that roam this station,” Ubel replied.

He inwardly thanked himself and Gold for such a detailed 10 years of Historical Archive of their part of the galaxy, as he found out the identity of the man in front of him from the archive with a quick scan. Elpano Si Gablen was never part of the game and Ubel assumed that he was probably one of the procedural generated NPCs by the vanilla game system.

“True. What a very smart kid.” the man nudged Ubel’s forehead with his index finger, teasing the young boy. “But as I’ve said, that ship is too much for you and your crew. By the way, I just realized that your ship looked like a massive dick if seen from its sides. Hahahahahaha!”

Ubel didn’t bite his obvious mocking and instead showed a disturbed face.

But he was still secretly scanning Elpano using the reflection of his plate. Then was surprised to see that he was protected by several thick layers of anti-hacking measures.

It seemed that he could only dig out the public ID of the man. But he felt like this was not installed but instead seemed like he was being jammed from scanning the man in front of him. Ubel was now interested but showed nothing to the man for now.

“Geez… I only see these in novels or cowboy movies but I didn’t expect to see one personally. This feels so cringe…” Ubel mumbled as he ate his food which was heard by the man who sat at the same table with him.

“What did you say kid?” the man asked in an intimidating tone. However, Ubel just silently ate his food and ignored him.

“Nothing...”

Probably seeing through the kid’s attempt to not give in to his tactic of scaring or bribing him, Elpano sighed heavily and juggled a gold coin between his hands as if he were thinking. After several tosses, he stopped and took back the coin to his pocket.

“Once again kid. Maybe you can see from the poetic view of things, that you are still not a man yet to command such a ship.” the man drank once again from his bottle. “745 billion credits are enough also for you to start a new life on a pleasure planet for the rest of your life, living like a harem king.”

“No, my ship isn’t for sale. At least I am a man enough to command a crew to capture such a massive ship.” Ubel grinned at his food, without even looking at the man. Then he sent another silent order to the waitress using the Holo for another plate of his meal.

With those words, the man’s demeanor suddenly changed from playful and teasing to a face that he felt insulted.

“You truly don’t know shit kid. Anyways. Enjoy your drink.” the man put back his bottle of wine which was now emptied, then he left.

Ubel looked firmly at the empty wine bottle for a long time in silence then several seconds later, he continued his enjoyment of his next plate which arrived minutes later. He asked for another bottle and immediately noticed something around him. Gazes of some people.

He still couldn’t sense if they were hostile or just observing him. Yet he continued his meal then his bottle of wine arrived. He immediately sent his digital payment through the droid waitress.

His tongue swirled again with the tastes that he had never tasted even when he was still Kiryu. His tastes seemed to have been passed along also as he could still feel and sense the smell, heat, and taste of the cup noodles he would take for breakfasts and grocery meals that he would heat for dinner. It tasted like no other meat steak he had ever before.

This made him able to quickly compare the food he was now eating with the food he formerly consumed.

“Fuck. I am loving this new life even more!” he exclaimed within himself. Then started greedily eating his dish. It took him several seconds to finish the entire plate then he ordered another, and later another until he finished fourteen plates in total and four bottles of wine.

It was a long time since he had truly enjoyed food. The last time that he did was when he was still under the care of his aunt who would cook delicious food for him. And his favorite among her dishes was beef steak. He would also pour warm liquid cheese over it. The sweet, sour, and oily tastes of the dish would send him to heavenly fantasy as his tongue rolled on each bite.

He patted his bloated tummy as he felt so full for the first time. Then he decided to buy another bottle which he would drink on his way back to the docking bay. He sent a tip directly to the droid who served him with a message that thanked the establishment for the food and exited the restaurant.

The daytime was starting to begin with its speck of light shining upon the tallest buildings, but due to the overcrowded area he was in, anyone could misunderstand that it was still nighttime if they didn’t gaze upon the sky.

Then he felt someone was watching him and turned around, checking for anyone trailing behind him but found no one.

He shrugged and opened up his bottle of wine using his sharpened nano-finger tips and drank heavily. Enjoying an aftertaste as it entered his esophagus.

Then he felt something hot behind him. He stopped his drink touched the nape of his neck and realized it was wet with something.

Only to realize it was blood red.

His blood.

“Fuck… again?” His last words as he was taken by the darkness and blacked out.