After an unexpectedly fascinating shower, Noah experienced a sudden surge of vitality throughout his whole being, feeling truly alive after who knows how long.

For the first time in perhaps centuries, he had eaten something that wasn’t some weird giant animal that he didn’t even know if it was safe to eat or not. Even though it wasn’t the food he had hoped and dreamed of consuming once he had finally made his way to proper civilization, it was still civilized food nonetheless. Then lastly, he had a bath in a civilized bathroom without having to move ice cubes from the frozen zone to the superheated zone and doing more manual labor than he wanted.

And to top it all off— there were people other than the voice in his head surrounding him now.

However, what was the most beautiful thing in all this one would wonder? It would definitely be the fact that he was wearing clothes! Real and authentic clothes and not just some fur that he wrapped around his body! How amazing was this? Though it was a shame to hide his body from the eyes of the uncultured masses, he was sure that they could still appreciate him even with his veiled appearance. He was just that awesome.

The attire he currently wore comprised dark blue spandex, featuring crotch padding to prevent any awkward exposure. Leaving aside its unique fashion, the attire demonstrated an impressive ability to regulate temperature efficiently; furthermore, it freed him from any sense of confinement, as though he was not wearing any clothes at all. It was a great piece of clothing, an invention of technology from advanced races of deep space most likely.The amplitude of movement was quite large and the feeling of freedom was omnipresent. It was perfectly fitting for Noah in a sense… since he was used to not wearing any clothes and these clothes allowed him to have the same feeling while covering him up and providing him with warmth and safety.

At the end of the day, after getting food, shelter and clothing, what more could a man ask for?

Sure, everything wasn’t perfect per se. The current scene was a little… Well, let’s say it was completely different from everything he had dreamed about when he imagined how his return to civilization would be.

The food was filling but utterly tasteless and it was not in the metaphorical sense. He had spent more time nearly torturing himself with the shower than showering and the people who surrounded him wanted to kill him at a moment’s notice.

As for the clothes, while he certainly was relatively happy about not having his appendage swinging in the air whenever he did as much as move, and his feet were not being cut by ice shards at practically every instance, the way those clothes stuck to his skin was a bit disturbing. No matter how light they were, it didn’t change the fact that they were tight as fuck.

However— one should always see the good side of things, right?

This was the only thing that helped him keep his sanity during his long stay in this silent deadly world full of things that wanted to – and actually managed to – eat him on a regular basis.

— Ahem.

‘Yeah, I know, sorry. Got sidetracked a bit there. Time to focus.’

This was a bad habit he would have to fix later on. His mind liked to wander around when there was a lull in his activities. Consequences of staying silent with no reason to actually open his mouth other than to wolf down food.

He sometimes had to force himself to talk out loud regularly just to avoid having his body adapt to the lack of necessity for the larynx and evolving in a way that he would never be able to talk.

He loved speaking after all. Even if it was only to hear himself speak. The universe would face a loss if no one could ever hear his lovely and mesmerizing voice.

— Enough talking, more killing. What you eat may fill your stomach but you know very well that this is not what we really need.

‘I know. Don’t worry. How could I even forget? But let’s use them until we do not have any need for them anymore.’

Noah was very curious about the so-called ruins that he had been hearing all this time. He had vague memories of having come near such a place in the past. But those memories, as said earlier, were vague and difficult to observe.

Who knew what kind of value there could be with those useless memories?

Once he understood this, he would be able to sell the planet at the right price or continue his deal with Morgiana.

‘Speaking of Morgiana. She’s going to be utterly pissed when she wakes up, right?’

Thinking about what kind of expression she might make, Noah could only laugh quietly to himself.

“I wonder what makes you so happy?”

He nearly did not flinch when the tall woman who had given him the so-called food approached him out of nowhere.

Though she had camouflaged herself completely with whatever technology they may have, Noah had long since stopped caring about what his simple senses could share as information.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He didn’t know if something like a sixth sense truly existed, but if it did, he was sure that he had it. Sadly, not being surprised wasn’t part of his current persona so he had to show himself flinching as that would be in line with his current somewhat timid and naive persona.

All those thoughts flashed in an instant in Noah’s mind as he put on a startled expression and stepped back in fright.

“Sorry! I was a little confused by all the controls.”

“Hum… I see.”

‘How could you not see?’

Noah stopped himself from making a remark that would put him in hot water. Looking at the woman, outside of the fact that she was very tall and only had one eye blinking in the middle of her forehead, which might be quite off-putting for some…

She was quite the beauty. In an Amazonian woman's sense, she had a very healthy and fit appearance. This could be very interesting when paired in the right situation.

“Something on my face?”

“....”

‘Seriously? Is she really asking for it?’

Noah was speechless but he couldn’t quench his curiosity.

“Are you the one who gave me the food? You look so different now? You are so pretty!”

Noah decided to channel his inner child and gush at the beauty of the woman before him. Furthermore, it wasn’t as if he was lying. She was pretty in a way.

“Compliments are appreciated, but we need to go find the ruins.”

She nodded and directed him to start walking. Her voice became softer. Even when knowing that it might be nothing but empty words, few people disliked being praised.

She was mostly surprised by the way he did not seem horrified or weirded out by her appearance. Some people may call it shallow, but she understood perfectly that all races had this innate dislike mixed with wonder, confusion and repulsion when they watched something that had a similar resemblance to them but at the same time bestowed with a glaring difference. Races were innately xenophobic and it made sense for them to be repulsed by such factors.

“To make communication easier, My name is Phaeia. I am indeed the one who fed you a few moments ago.”

“So, You realized that I am not carrying any weird bacteria?”

“You most assuredly do. But it was judged that they were no danger to us.”

‘Meaning your bacteria could be a danger for me?’

Innuendo was such a beautiful thing. But Noah did not truly care about that. He already guessed they had tampered with the food. Since they did not seem shocked to see him alive, it seemed like whatever they put was slow-acting or could be remotely activated. Most possibly by the woman before him.

“Happy to meet you Phaeia.”

Noah smiled. He had always been bad at remembering the names of people who were about to die. He needed to make some effort this time.

The level of importance of this woman rose in his mind. He immediately decided that once he started killing things… She would likely be the first and most important one on his hit list.

One should always aim for the support units first, right?

Following the cyclops woman, Noah went through corridor after corridor. The destination itself was not far, as the ship was not particularly big, so it did not take long for them to reach the control room.

There, he could see the pirates or what looked like cadres discussing amongst themselves some matter.

Omid was still entirely clad in his armor. Even at first glance, this one seemed to be far more sturdy than the one worn by Morgiana. He idly wondered how many punches he would have to deliver before being able to break it apart.

‘There is also a different mode. Perhaps this is more of a standby form and there is a superior form? But does all armor have this feature? The one who got gobbled up and the other pirates didn’t seem to have one.’

He wondered if this was something unique to Morgiana or something relatively unique to higher-ups and leaders of an organization. If it was the former then he had nothing to worry about. But if it was the latter— perhaps he should make sure Omid was dead before killing anyone else.

Deciding on a list is pretty hard or am I simply being indecisive?

— Why does order matter when you are going to kill them all anyway?

I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. But this will decide whether we are going to play on easy mode or hard mode and I will be honest… Easy mode is always my goal no matter the situation. One should enjoy the story fully, don’t you think so?

Fighting to hide his grin, he advanced quietly while continuously observing everyone from the corner of his eyes and matching their silhouette with the ones he had seen fighting in armor with the Abyss Beast he had lured in.

He realized that many of them were inconsequential in terms of danger rating. But many ants could make an elephant suffer. It was important to plan so that he could crush them in the least amount of time possible.

There was also something else that was disappointing him and this was the lack of diversity in the crew. All those he observed were humanoid in shape with few differences here and there like having green or orange skin, or having razor-sharp teeth long ears, no ears and so on.

This was definitely not what he imagined aliens to be. Where were his tentacles alien? Mindflayers? What about gelatinous aliens with the right amount of acidity that only melted clothes without touching the skin?

At this point, he would have even settled for the globulous black eyes, Voldemort-like nose, and huge head with green skin that was often depicted in the old cartoons of the previous era he had watched with his friends.

They might be humanoid but they still had their sense of exotic wonder that would be screaming alien or extraterrestrial beings.

‘I guess one should never believe what they see on TV.’

His mind was still wandering until he finally reached Omid.

“Noah. I hope you are ready. We need to reach our destination swiftly. Morgiana's situation is stable but who knows what might happen if we were to remain motionless. So, tell me, where should we go?”

“I am not entirely sure but — This way!”

He pointed out, watching as they started moving.

He didn’t know if there would be a ruin at the end of this adventure. But he sure as hell would bring ruins to this greedy pirate crew.

One way or another.

— … You should first work on your wordplay.

Oh, Shut it.

And so, hiding a page of embarrassing moments, Noah went ahead toward a new page of his adventure.