Noah was simply beyond excited right now.

How long had it been since he actually had a discussion with someone? It had been so long since he had talked that he even forgot who he had his last conversation with by now…

– So I don’t even exist now, do I?

You are different.

He dismissed the voices in his head and focused on the woman before him.

“I am sorry for the current circumstances, but as you should be able to intuit by now, I cannot really afford to put my guard down in front of a geared stranger.”

The armor that the woman was wearing was something he had only ever seen in sci-fi video games and movies till now. They were different from the bodysuits he was used to seeing on Earth. Even he, who had access to the latest bodysuits for battle, had never seen an armor of this caliber.

‘Well. I am pretty sure a very long time has already passed since I was last on Earth. Everything’s bound to change…’

He sighed to himself at that morbid thought.

“Hello…”

Noah tilted his head as he heard her next words, “You can speak… English?”

Was she really an Earthling then… was the thought that went through his mind almost immediately. His eyes twinkled as he nearly shook her by the shoulders but he managed to stop himself from doing such an irrational act.

Simply because she was from Earth didn’t mean that she would be friendly and hospitable, especially to someone like him. He didn’t know what kind of weapon she had on her, so it was better to stay as vigilant as possible at all times.

“My name is Morgiana. I am a mercenary, per se. You might not understand what this means but you need to free me as soon as possible and go into hiding. Warn your tribes or anyone you know to hide and not go out for as long as possible.”

Noah had no time to ask more questions as the woman started to talk to him.

– She believes that you are an aboriginal.

Noah looked down at himself thoughtfully. Here he was, looking like some teen, butt naked under the chilling temperatures of this side of the world, his appendage swinging around, and even had a giant snake-like beast dead behind him right now.

‘Yep. Definitely looking like a barbarian at the moment.’

He contemplated his lack of embarrassment for a moment before realizing that his body was perfect and there was nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, he was sure that even a Greek sculpture would pale in comparison to him. Hence, he should just opt to show it as much as possible. In the first place, that reasoning itself was what made him not seek out any sort of clothes over the years.

– Narcissistic much?

‘It’s not narcissistic when it’s the truth.’

He sighed and dismissed the Voice who could not understand the beauty of his rippling muscles and perfect body. Hence, he focused on the one who seemed to be worried about something like that.

Telling her that he was the only living intelligent being in this —

– Hey!

Telling her that he was one of the two only living intelligent beings on this whole planet would surely make her more wary of him than anything else. He didn’t need that and he certainly didn’t want to enter a death match with the first person he could really talk to in a long while.

Listening to a voice that actually didn’t come from his head felt so nice and peaceful. He felt like he could hear her speak for hours on end and not be tired for a single second throughout.

In fact, he wondered if he should simply keep her imprisoned for a longer time and have her talk some more nonsense or some shit. Even something meaningless or useless would be appreciated right about now.

Sadly— he could not do so right now as it seemed like the incoming situation was quite complicated and probably dangerous.

“I do not understand what you mean exactly but… shall we move?”

Noah decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. The way she asked him to flee and hide despite him looking like a barbarian – albeit a very handsome one, an extremely handsome one to boot – showed a caring heart and someone that was worth giving trust to even if partially.

Either way, if things take a turn for the worse then…

– We eat her!

He approached and grabbed her by the shoulders to her bewilderment and then—

Hmph!

Grunting, he slowly lifted her up and broke her out of the hole she was previously imprisoned in.

“Oh…”

She seemed surprised but he didn’t have time to spare, “Can you walk?”

“I am currently low on energy. Moving inside of this armor is very complicated.” Morgiana spoke. She did not want to appear weak but she didn’t want to lie.

“Yeah, it seemed slightly heavy when I carried you.”

“…Slightly?”

“Let’s go.” Noah ignored her surprised look as he lifted her.

———

Morgiana was bewildered beyond doubt.

No. She wasn’t just bewildered. She was positively astounded at this point and was trying to keep a very open mind about the current situation.

Just how?

All the events that had happened to her one after another in a very short time frame had been way too stressful, to say the least.

Acting like bait, fleeing to an unknown solar system in some recluse part of the galaxy.

Nearly dying.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Waking up buried and in pain and in a place with no one else but her was supposed to be.

Finally meeting a young boy who was walking naked despite the chilling temperatures of this world.

What is the current temperature outside?

[Measuring: – 50 °C on the Imperial Scaling Measurement]

Aren’t the people from Sol-III supposed to be carbon-based life forms?

[That indeed seems to be the case. Sol-III: Predominant species— Humans. Moderately intelligent races. Abysmal physical strength. No special talent. Moderately high adaptation ability.]

She mused even as she was being piggybacked like a child by someone who was slightly shorter than her in height.

This was very uncomfortable but this situation made Morgiana wary of the person that was quite possibly her benefactor.

The boy was way too strong.

The armor she was wearing had a lighting system included which helped her move fast and precisely without wasting any energy. But that system was partially disabled at the moment as she did not have enough energy to maintain it.

Currently, the armor should weigh around 100kg at the very least but he was hoisting her as well as the dead creature on his shoulders while moving rapidly through the terrain. It was as if they weighed nothing at all, or simply… their weight was nothing to the boy.

She also noticed that though he was walking on the hard and cold ground, his naked feet showed no signs of tears or any form of wounds. His skin was in fact so pristine that she was even slightly jealous of him. His breath was not hurried and it seemed like the cold did not affect him in the slightest.

‘Dangerous.’

The boy was very dangerous. He was an entity she could not understand and he was nothing but a mere child. At most in his teens.

If the rest of the people on this planet were on the same level as him— things might be complicated for her.

But the most problematic thing was…

How long do I have approximately before the 40 thieves find me?

This was the question that had been plaguing her mind.

[Analyzing: Estimation, 72 hours. Remaining Time: 52 hours. Error Margin: 30%]

‘Ugh. Next time I should really keep my greed in check.’

She sighed and decided to close her eyes while making sure the AI of her armor was keeping guard.

She still needed to harness more energy. Even the slightest bit more could be the difference between life and death in the incoming conflicts.

She also needed to make sure the people here never got found out by those thieving bastards. She didn’t need more weight on her mind and causing the death of an aboriginal tribe was not the kind of weight she wished to carry.

***

The run through the abysmally cold and desolate landscape of the exoplanet continued, fast and steady in gait…

“Hey. Don’t you get tired?” Morgiana asked the running Noah. She didn’t know exactly how long he had been running at this point, but it had already gone on for several minutes by her estimates. And during that whole duration, he had her, with her heavy armor on, in one hand and the large snake-like monster in the other.

It was a mystery how his skin wasn’t becoming red or bruised from all the heavy lifting that he was doing here.

“I am not really hurt. I am just famished. Speak less or I will eat you.”

Morgiana laughed at Noah’s joke but still stopped bothering him any longer. She knew that this situation must be quite strenuous for him after all, even if it didn’t look like that from the outside.

‘If only I had my strength back.’

She sighed to herself as she thought up that possibility.

Meanwhile—

— We should really eat her, to be honest. I found the core of her ship already and her energy reserves are extremely large and plentiful. If you eat her then we can finally leave this desolate run-down place for good.

‘Shut up.’

Noah was hungry. Very, very hungry right now. He had been trying to build up the special energy by himself without relying on the voice in his head,,but the result until now had been worthless and dissatisfying.

His body still had yet to properly adapt to this mysterious energy and the beasts on this planet had rather weak energy themselves. He was not able to do much about it by consuming them either.

— If we eat her right now you will finally be able to adapt fully to this energy. I can also finally call ‘it’ from beyond the event horizon.

‘You still haven’t found the coordinate after all this time… Don’t spout that bullshit speech to me.’

— It’s because you are too weak for me to do that.

‘I am the strongest. So, shut the fuck up already…’

Noah scoffed in his mind and ignored the mocking laugh of the Voice in his head. He had been fighting and discussing with her for so long that it was second nature to him now.

As for whether he should eat the woman on his back or not.

Hummm… well, it’s ultimately useless. I feel like she is a big bait.

— So you really considered eating her then?

I, Noah, am an upright and gentle man. Stop saying eating this and eating that right in my face, you gluttonous pig…

He stopped short when he felt a certain pressure registering in his senses not far away from their location…

‘Hum… Ugh… A beast. Great, just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…’

Noah frowned and sighed to himself, lamenting his accursed fate. The existence of beasts and the like on this planet had always made him curious. After all, if he was right, this planet should be in the Alpha Centauri System. This was an Exoplanet relatively similar to Earth but with no life on it due to some troublesome conditions. Or at least that was the consensus they had reached back then and they were definitely wrong.

Either way, the situation was a pain. The beast incoming wasn’t too dangerous for him all things considered, but in his current situation, fighting it would make him even hungrier than before.

“Something big is coming.”He warned the girl on his back.

At the same time,

[Warning: Large life source detected.]

[Danger Rating (In Current Condition): High]

[Immediate retreat is advised.]

Morgiana was surprised not only because of the incoming danger, but mainly how this young kid had managed to notice it even before the AI was able to recognize and warn her about it.

Slowly, the silhouette of the monster began to appear and she was able to get a better view of it. And, she could only gasp at what she was seeing with her own eyes.

She didn’t know what kind of food those monsters devoured but the thing rushing at them was ginormous. Nearly as huge as some small Mechas out there around 4.5 to 6 meters in terms of height.

Unlike the previous snake-like monster, this one had a twisted appearance, as if it were the result of many changes and additions over centuries of evolution…

“Abyss Beasts? Kid! We need to leave fast.”

She didn’t understand why a monster from the abyss was on this deserted planet and she didn’t want to know either. In her current situation she was nothing but cannon fodder for something like that and even without her injuries, taking this monster on without her Mecha would be a difficult task for her.

She shouted a little hurriedly, fearing that the kid would be frozen stiff in fright. After all, the abyssal beasts could not be compared to normal animals, no matter how big they were, unless the latter was rich in energy.

Despite the situation though, Noah showed nothing but a somewhat disinterested expression on his face.

“Running is useless. This guy is fast and he is after my Prey.”

Morgiana had no time to answer as she felt her vision blur, and then, all of a sudden, she found herself high in the air as if she had been launched by a cannon.

Bang!

The ground shook as a large paw descended and struck it at full power, leaving an imprint.

The ice broke in the air, creating a magnificent sight but she didn’t have time to focus on the wonderful phenomenon now. Her savior was in danger.

“Noah!”

She was still high in the air and as she looked at the ground where Noah was, she realized that the paw had been unable to crush whatever was below it.

What happened next was nothing but a blur to her eyes. Her body only made one rotation, she only turned for a few seconds\…

But it was at that very moment — Crunch!!

The sound of something being crushed filled her ears. When she finally landed, she silently watched, her eyes opened wide in surprise as half the body of the monster was crushed completely and the other half completely gone. “What… What the hell just happened?”

She was a mercenary and she had seen many rare and somewhat secretive things while exploring the galaxy and doing missions on different planets, but even for her, this was a first.

“Take me and continue running south.” Noah spoke with a sleepy voice.

“Huh?”She was interrupted by the tired voice of Noah,“Noah, are you alright?”

She looked at him and sighed when she saw his chest rising up and down. At the very least, she knew that he was alive right now.

Finally standing, she looked all around her, but her eyes kept going back to the crushed half of the abyss monster.

From her position, it looked like something had completely gnawed at it.

“We need to move to avoid the corrosion.”

Frowning at the black blood that was flowing and tainting the ground, she took the young boy on her shoulder and started to walk slowly and steadily.

Did you record everything?

[Negative: All functions are currently focused on survival. Would you like to switch modes?]

Nevermind.

She sighed and looked at the young boy.

Someone very mysterious.

Someone very dangerous.

She simply hoped the people of his tribe wouldn’t kill her at first sight.