Chapter 04 Terra Humanis

In a dim hallway with dull gray metal wall that rusted in some spots, the exposed cables as well as pipes and ventilation shaft that were only covered by simple iron netting give the place a rugged feel, while the lights that barely lit it's surrounding giving it an eerie feeling, in that place, two people walked down the hallway corridor, meanwhile the other one walked on his ass.

"Wait! Hold on a second! Let me tell you something! Let me tell you something! Arghh?! That hurts!" Writhing with all his might along the hallway floor, Jake was dragged using sticks with a semicircular tip that emitted red electric currents that bound him like a rope.

With both his hands held down, Jake tried his best to escape, however this only made the two armored men that dragged him even more annoyed.

"Shut up! Or I'll beat you up!" the man in gray armor shouted.

"Tch! this kid really doesn't know when to give up!" the man with black armor said, activating his restraining long baton, electric shocks flowed through the red currents that bound Jake.

"God! That stings real bad! Let me go! Agh! I'm seriously going to hire a lawyer for this! This is bullshit!" dragging Jake with much difficulty even with the help of the low-tier power armor they were wearing, with a few shocks and kicks they finally arrived in front of the large iron door they were heading for.

Seeing the large, sturdy iron door that looked intense, chilling cold sweats ran down Jake's spine.

One of the armored men in grey operated a screen next to the door and with a beep and a robotic voice in a language he didn't understand, the door opened to the side with a gust of wind and a very heavy creak.

Looking inside, there was a continuation of the dark hallway without any light, swallowing his saliva, Jake spoke "Hey, you guys can't possibly throw me in there right?"

"shut up!" pulled into a dark hallway, Jake could only cry in his heart seeing the big door closing in front of him, realizing the seriousness of the situation, Jake winced.

I'm starting to think this isn't a prank... if so, they must be human traffickers! What the hell?! My luck is really minus! Even though I never felt like I used it that much!

"Hey, Hey, let's talk, I have some savings, no need to go to all this trouble, I-"

"that's enough" his words were cut off by the pain on his face as one of the black armored men hit him in the face, feeling his consciousness slip away for a moment, Jake couldn't feel half of his face before the stinging pain came.

"O-ow..." Lying in the darkness, Jake groaned with his hands still held by the strange devices.

"fucking annoying!" another man in gray spoke from beside him, then with an unpleasant crunchy sound, Jake felt a painful impact on his ribs.

"GAHHH!" feeling a great pain that pushed out all of the air in his lungs, this was the first time he heard the sound of bones breaking, unfortunately he heard it from inside his own body, writhing and crying in pain on the floor but his voice didn't come out because of the excruciating pain.

"Ah... you did it, didn't the captain say to protect the sample?" the black armored man who punched Jake in the face spoke to the man who kicked Jake with his iron boots.

"What do you care? There's 7 billion more down there" the man in gray armor replied in an uncaring tone.

"Haha, guess you're right" the man in black armor replied and brought his fist down again on Jake's face who was curled up on the floor.

"AKHHH!"

"damn pathetic, this Terra Humanis, we should have caught a girl, it would have been more fun, we're just unlucky!" the gray armored man said annoyedly and kicked Jake hard in the stomach.

"Oh? He passed out, just like that" seeing the unconscious Jake, the man in black said in disgust.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Let's kill him" the man in gray armor suggested.

"Let's not do that, the captain might get angry, just throw him in the cell, if he dies we can just wash our hands of it"

"got it"

####

Throwing the unconscious Terra humanis into one of the glass cells, the two armored men relaxed their shoulders tiredly.

"Hmm, Is it okay to let him share a cell with that weird shit?" the man in gray armor, Krenel, asked

"He might get eaten" the man in black, Torain, shrugged. "Oh yeah, turn on the lights, let's do a cell check now, I don't want to go down to this disgusting place again tonight"

Pressing the console in the corner of the room, the room immediately lit up with bright light followed by a slight vibration from the surroundings.

"let's see" Torain casually spoke looking around the room, on either side of the room, many cells were neatly lined up along the hallway and the vibration earlier was because the occupants of the cells were surprised by the sudden bright lights, most cells were protected by airtight glass however some were also walled with thick iron walls build with special kind of material and very strong electrical currents that strengthened with magic, the iron ones were for the more dangerous creatures, checking the cells one by one, the two men made sure everything was safe.

"all good" Krenel gave a thumbs up after checking the data on the console.

"All alright then" Torain replied while staring at the glass wall where the Terra humanis lay unconscious.

"he's still sleeping? Heh! I guess my kick is too strong" Krenel spoke proudly.

But Torain just ignored Krenel's usual wit and stared at the other creature inside the cell "Look at that shit"

"wow, it's still alive, and I still don't even know what this creature is" Krenel tilted his head.

Inside the glass right beside the Terra humanis, a strange disgusting creature that they had never seen before was writhing gently staring at them without blinking.

"look at that, is it even sentient" Krenel spoke hesitantly trying to avert his gaze from the gaze of the creature inside the glass wall.

"I don't know, but this creature makes me uncomfortable even more than Gahariana" Torain spoke expressing his discomfort while referring to the human-like creature behind them, ever since this strange creature came here, everyone felt very uncomfortable to come to the cells holding area, There was something about this creature that was unusual, but the most interesting thing was the fact that they got after a big fleet battle, as they ambushed a capital ship just to take this creature.

"This thing is probably very expensive," Torain said.

"What? Who would buy it, for what? I don't think such a disgusting creature could be kept as a pet." Krenel shuddered at the thought of the creature roaming around.

"Well maybe some rich people would want it as a collection, what's more important is that guy" Torain turned his gaze to the Terra humanis "We really hit a giant jackpot"

"Oh yeah! This is really amazing isn't it?! A humanist planet with such a high level of technology and numbers! Just imagining the price makes me dizzy!" Krenel said with excitement in his voice.

"Ahaha, has it been several hundred years since such an ideal human planet was discovered?" Torain smiled behind his helmet, it was an untold fortune for them to discover such a great humanis planet, and from what they knew this was the biggest discovery for the Empire in a few hundred years, all the Nobles would want it and this news would definitely spread to the Capital, and if they were lucky the captain would be kind enough to give them a small share of the sky-high profits that he would gain.

"Hey, do you think I can buy a new armor with the bonus?" Krenel asked while looking at his armor that looked quite worn out, because this armor was once owned by his retired father.

Hearing his question, Torain laughed "Are you stupid? Even if the captain gives just a little bit of his pity to us, it will at least be more than enough to live for a year without working"

"Is that so? But the captain doesn't strike me as a very generous person" Krenel said hesitantly remembering his captain who could throw away someone's life as easily as trash.

But Torain nodded his head in confidence "he will and after this we won't even be able to work for him anymore, not like this"

"What? Why is that?" Krenel was confused to be told that he would lose his job after such a great fortune.

"Did you know? The fortune he would gain would be enough for him to live as an upper class in the capital for the rest of his life and that's what he would do, there's no reason to risk his life as a criminal on the edge of space anymore, maybe he would marry a lower class noble's daughter to make himself a noble and enter the circle of nobles" Torain explained, out of all the people who received such a blessing, all of them would definitely choose this path without exception "That's why he would give just a little of his fortune to us as a hush money and rebuild this fleet into a legal fleet so that it can operate freely in the Empire"

"I see, everyone wants to be a noble, Hah! I also want to marry me some noble's daughter!" Krenel said, feeling envious of his captain who would soon have wealth that rivaled that of a lower noble.

"Well, everyone can dream, right? Besides, the captain might bring considerable numbers of the crew to work for him after this"

"Seriously?! Could I will be invited too?!"

"Keep dreaming kid, you're still young after all, but there is no way captain wants to bring a greenhorn like you to the Capital"

"who you call Greenhorn, old man?!" with laughter and lively conversation the two walked away leaving the strange creature and Jake inside the glass cell.

Without them realizing it, the strange creature was watching them from behind and stared at them until they left the prison area, with the lights turning completely dark again, the creature turned its gaze to Jake who was passed out in sweat while groaning softly on the floor.

And started walking towards him...