The next day, Rocky noticed the heavy atmosphere in the dismantling center upon his arrival.
Workers were huddled here and there, whispering to each other.
“Rocky!”
Jack ran toward Rocky, grabbed his arms, and pulled him to a corner.
“It’s bad news!”
Uneasiness was apparent in Jack’s voice.
“What happened?”
Jack quickly looked around them, confirming it was safe to talk about this matter in this place first.
“The Director died in an accident on the way back to the city,” said Jack.
Rocky froze when he heard this.
The Director of the dismantling center was the one who agreed to hire Rocky despite him being part of the Carvian race.
She was a benevolent woman who didn’t believe that Carvians were devil spawns, like the majority of people believed them to be.
She was the older sister of the current Mayor, too, granting her a degree of power within the city. She was basically the shield granting Rocky protection against people like the Manager.
“…She, she’s dead? What do you mean she’d dead? Jack!”
Jack rubbed his brows.
“Their convoy was attacked by monsters three days ago, near Aledora Plains. According to investigations, it looks like they met the Butcher!”
The Butcher was a Named A-ranked monster that roamed the Wastelands.
It was a monster so notorious even Rocky was aware of its existence.
“It’s all over the news this morning, look at your terminal!”
“…I don’t have one, Jack.”
Jack palmed his face and groaned.
“Ah, that’s right. I forgot. Here, look.”
Jack took out his terminal, which was around the size of his palm, and handed it to Rocky.
The local news section was filled with articles regarding the recent attack of the Butcher. In the headlines, the name of the Director of the Fifth Dismantling Center was written in large, bold letters. According to the articles, the Director of the dismantling center had died, along with her nine subordinates.
Rocky shuddered when he saw the image of what seemed to be the bloody remains of the group. And beside the image was the bounty poster of the Butcher – a mutated, five-meter large Orc with two heads.
“The corpse…,” muttered Rocky.
The remains of the Director looked like mangled meat rather than a body.
Rocky even wondered if it was right for the news to upload that image.
“…Director—urk!”
He felt his stomach churn. He resisted the urge to throw up.
The Director of the dismantling center had been kind to him. The mere thought of how much she’d suffered before her death made Rocky’s entire body shudder.
“It must have played with its meal. The Butcher is known to eat humans alive,” said Jack grimly. “How many people had it killed by now? At this point, the military should send another expedition to kill that bastard. Gather the rankers and end its life for good!”
There had been numerous attempts to subjugate the Butcher before, but all of them failed.
Not only was the Butcher strong, it was also highly intelligent, making it quite elusive despite its size.
Whenever the Butcher felt danger, it would always run away into the deeper parts of the Wasteland to shake off its pursuers.
“Director… Damn it!” said Rocky.
“Rocky, what do you plan to do?” said Jack. “Manager Craug will soon become the Head of the Fifth Dismantling Center.”
Rocky frowned. He already knew what would happen if that man rose to the highest position within the center.
“…Manager Craug—”
“—And what about me? hm?”
Rocky and Jack looked up and saw the Manager leaning on the railings, peering at them from above.
“M-Manager!”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“That’s Director Craug for you, Jack.”
He hadn’t even been inaugurated as the new Director yet, but he was already acting like he owned the Fifth Dismantling Center.
Slowly, Manager Craug went down the stairs and walked toward the two. Behind the Manager were several workers who’d decided to suck up to him now that the previous Director was dead.
“Rocky, you heard the news, no? Tsk, tsk. This is why you shouldn’t go outside the city with very few escorts. If she’d brought at least thirty soldiers with her, she might have survived the Butcher.”
Rocky clenched his fists. He could see within the Manager’s eyes that he was pleased about the Director’s passing.
“What’s with the glare? You damn Carvian, know your place. Once I’m officially the new Director of this center, the first thing I’ll do is kick you out!”
The workers behind Manager Craug chuckled. They tried their best to cajole him.
“As expected of Director Craug.”
“A wise decision. It’s hard to work here knowing that a Carvian is around. Who knows when he’ll suddenly start turning into a monster? Just the thought gives me the chills!”
“Go back to the slums! That’s where trash bastards like you belong!”
“You damn Carvians should have never been born!”
Jack snarled, “What did you say!”
Rocky grabbed Jack’s arms before he could even have the chance to pounce at the workers behind the Manager.
“Don’t do it, Jack!”
“Let go of me, Rocky! I’ll teach them a lesson for you!”
The workers sneered at Jack. They knew that although he was massive, he was also just an F-rank.
“Huh? You wanna go?”
“This Jack finally lost it, huh!”
“Come here, little pup! I’ll pluck your teeth out!”
“Hahaha! How amusing,” said Manager Craug, his eyes turning into crescents as he smiled.
The Manager thought of a way to make this even more exciting.
He knew that Jack was the only friend Rocky had in this center.
What if he took him away from Rocky, too?
“Jack, in recognition of your skills as a dismantler, I’ll give you a chance. You have two choices.”
Manager Craug raised two fingers.
“First, abandon that Carvian and come under my wing. I’ll personally make sure you’ll be promoted to Assistant Manager before the year ends.”
One of the workers behind protested, “B-But Director! You said I’ll be given that position!”
“Silence!”
“Y-Yes.”
“The second option,” said Manager Craug. “Decline my offer and be kicked out of this dismantling center, together with that devil spawn over there.”
Jack did not even ponder over the offer. Without hesitation, he roared.
“He’s not a devil spawn! You stupid fatass! Do you think I’m afraid of losing this job? Go on then, kick me! I’d rather leave this damn hellhole than come under your wing!”
“Jack, what are you doing!” said Rocky.
The veins on Manager Craug’s forehead started bulging from anger after hearing the word fatass. His face flushed from rage. The workers behind him slowly moved closer to Rocky and Jack, ready to beat them up the moment they received the order.
“Should we teach them a lesson, Director?”
The workers started cracking their knuckles.
“Please give us your orders, Director.”
Like a criminal organization, Manager Craug immediately started exercising his authority the moment he heard of the Director’s passing.
His first target was the Carvian before him.
“It seems having a crippled father isn’t enough for you,” said Manager Craug to Rocky. “Boys! Break his—W-What?”
Before Manager Craug could complete his order, a loud grating sound rang throughout the entire city.
It sounded as though a massive metallic cauldron was being scratched by a giant fork.
“Urrgh! What the hell!”
“Ahhh! My ears!”
“L-Look! The window! Outside!”
Everyone looked up, toward the glass windows of the dismantling center.
And they saw it.
“W-What… what is that!”
Everyone was stunned upon seeing a massive ship floating above the sky. By size alone, it was probably comparable to several cities combined.
Half of the ship’s body was crackling with lightning, and the lower hull was burning. Below it, numerous force fields were being generated one after another, reducing the impact of its landing as much as possible.
Everyone in the city – including those from the dismantling center – went out to the streets to watch the colossal figure from a distance.
With bated breaths, they watched as it slowly descended.
After what seemed like an eternity, it finally landed with a deafening thud.
The impact of its landing created a shockwave powerful enough to trigger the activation of the defensive shields of the city.
The alarm bells of the city rang as the shields started fortifying the walls. The turrets on the walls, meant to shoot down flying monsters, started gathering energy for its ammunitions.
Rocky mumbled, “This direction… the Wasteland?”
“Ah, look,” said Jack. “It’s disappearing!”
To their utter surprise, the massive ship started to turn transparent, eventually disappearing from sight.
On that day, the Mayor suspended all activities in the city that were unrelated to the military.
After declaring that they would not be collecting taxes during this period, the Mayor started coordinating with the Central Government, asking them for their next course of action.
No matter how anyone looked at it, this was no ordinary matter. The thing that appeared might even pose more danger than the monsters coming out of the portals.
According to the Mayor’s decree, activities would be resumed again only once they’d deemed it was safe to do so. Of course, this also meant that Manager Craug’s promotion to the position of a Director was also postponed.
***
[Emergency landing successful.]
[Admiral Isaac, welcome to Planet EA908-XRV of the LY78 System.]
[Suggesting Veil System deployment.]
[Request timed out.]
[Initiating Veil System.]
[Suggesting primary defensive shield deployment.]
[Request timed out.]
[Deploying primary defensive shield.]
The dreadnought-class battleship, Aravark, had finally landed on the planet where Rocky lived.
Three hours after Aravark landed, Isaac finally regained consciousness.
“Ugh… this is….”
Isaac realized he was inside a capsule in the Medbay. After blinking several times, memories of the tragedy that befell their crew started pouring into his mind.
Memories of how their fleet fell into a trap, how their flagship and its escort ships were bombarded into oblivion by the space pirates, and how only the dreadnought-class battleship managed to survive.
“Ugh! N-No, it can’t be!”
Isaac touched the internal switch of the capsule, opening it. Smoke oozed out of the capsule as Isaac stepped out, fully naked.
“Captain Yris! L-Lieutenant Marco! Admiral Josiah!”
The emotional pain he was experiencing was so severe it felt physical. His entire body was trembling from denial.
Before he’d lost consciousness before, he’d been informed by the ship’s system that he was the only remaining survivor.
But, how could this be?
Why?
Why did it have to be him?
Why was it that out of all the people in the ship, someone as insignificant as him was the sole survivor!
“I should have died back then,” muttered Isaac. “Admiral… no, even if it’s just the Captain! They should have been the ones to survive, not me!”
Although he was a mechanic, he was a mere Petty Officer that had been serving the Galactic Federation for only seventy years. Compared to the Admiral who’d been pioneering planets and fighting space pirates for several thousand years, he was disposable.
Isaac was ready to lay down his life for the sake of the Federation.
He would willingly die if it meant he could save the ship’s high-ranking officials.
But alas, fate had different plans.
“Why me… Why me!”
Isaac knelt on the floor and started pounding it with his fist.
“Damn pirates! I won’t forgive you for what you did to my comrades! I’ll return to the Galactic Federation and report about this, no matter what!”
When Isaac was about to slam his head on the floor out of anger, the System AI finally spoke.
[Admiral Isaac, please refrain from inflicting self-harm.]
Isaac flinched.
That’s right.
He almost forgot about it out of anger.
By some sort of miracle, the System AI of the battleship was still functional.
“…Aravark.”
[Yes, Admiral.]
“Wait, why are you calling me Admiral?”
[It’s because this is the only surviving ship of the fleet. And everyone in the battleship, aside from you, has perished. As per the Galactic Federation’s Emergency Fleet Succession Law –”
“—No, no, stop. I get it.”
Isaac deeply breathed in and out.
After calming himself, he asked the most crucial thing.
“Aravark, how much energy do you have left?”
[The current energy left in the ship is exactly 0.83%, Admiral.]
“Only that much?”
Isaac’s head started aching when he heard it.
“Aravark, is the spare thermal reactor intact?”
Before he lost consciousness, he was in the middle of fixing the spare thermal reactor. As far as he remembered, although it was malfunctioning, it was in a relatively good shape compared to the rest of the ship.
[It is intact, but non-functional, Admiral.]
“And the golems?”
[Currently, there are 738 golems remaining in the ship.]
There used to be thirty thousand golems in the ship, serving various purposes. The majority of them must have been destroyed during the space pirates’ attack.
Isaac understood why the System didn’t fix the spare thermal reactor despite the presence of golems.
It was under the Federation’s law that the AI governing the system of battleships shouldn’t interfere with the sources of energy.
This was the reason why Isaac was tasked to fix the thermal reactor in the secondary engine room while they were under attack by the space pirates.
The mere fact that the AI didn’t attempt to fix the thermal reactor despite almost running out of energy proved that the AI was functioning perfectly.
The System AI prioritized orders over its survival.
“As the Admiral of the ship, I hereby grant you authority to access the secondary engine room and fix the spare thermal reactor.”
[Affirmative.]
Upon receiving permission from the newly appointed Admiral, the System immediately mobilized the golems to fix the spare thermal reactor.
[Emergency repair of the spare thermal reactor complete.]
“And the energy?”
[Energy remaining: 5.83%]
Hearing this, Isaac heaved a sigh of relief.
Fixing the spare thermal reactor granted them an additional 5% energy.
With this, it should be possible to maintain the ship somewhat.
Isaac immediately decided on his next course of action.