I looked at my Codex with a frown while back on my ship.

“Are there no better paying jobs out there?” I asked, feeling a little frustrated.

Amber looked up at me from her own personal terminal, “Where do you think we are? The inner core systems? We’re all the way out in the middle of nowhere, Tera. The earning prospects of this place are abysmal.”

“Then how am I supposed to earn the money needed for that mod?!”

Amber suddenly sat upright, “Well… If your morals are a little loose, we can resort to some unsavoury ways to earn that money.”

I raised an eyebrow, “You mean ‘illegal’ means?”

“Hey, this place is pretty much lawless. The lines between what is legal and what isn’t is pretty much blurred so as long as you don’t get caught, anything is fine. So what do you think?”

Well… It’s not like I’m a paragon of virtue or anything like that.

I’ve done my fair share of smuggling and even thieving while playing the game when I first started out. It was the easiest way to earn credits despite the risk involved after all.

But now I need to consider the fact that I cannot just save and load my game right before making such decisions anymore and whatever I do, I’ll need to live and deal with the consequences of my actions.

Before I could give Amber my answer though, she leaned forward and traced a finger along my jaw to rest on my chin, her face close enough that I could feel her breath on my skin.

“Well, even though I say that, the prospects of that aren’t high either since the people around here can’t afford such luxuries anyway. But I have another suggestion for you if you’re interested in doing something really crazy.”

I gulped, “What… What is it?”

She flicked her finger past my chin, “You got the coordinates to the pirate base right? I say we go in there and assault it~”

… Err… What?

“Wait, just the two of us?”

“Yeah, I think we can do it. I already know you can handle yourself better than any average pirate so we definitely stand a chance. And with how much the pirates here have been looting this system, they would surely be loaded with at least a few hundred thousand Credits worth of stuff. Coupled with the bounties for eliminating those pirates, I think you can get enough for that mod you are eyeing~”

“That much?”

She shrugged, “I’m just guessing but there’s a very good chance that my predictions are right. So how about it?”

“How many enemies are we expecting to face?”

She thought for a moment, “Hmm… I guess from the activities I’ve seen… I’d guess we’re looking at an operation of maybe around fifty or so pirates? Probably about a dozen or so ships at least and that’s after considering we’ve already beaten those guys from our earlier quest.”

I raised an eyebrow, “You expect the two of us to clear out a den of fifty pirates with just the two of us?”

“Heh… We could always post a request of our own to get a few more Mercenaries but that would mean less reward for us and potentially tipping the pirates off of our plans. But I do believe we can take them though.”

I made a face at her, “As long as those pirate ships are the same as what we’ve faced so far, I’m confident of winning a space battle with them… But I’m not that confident in a CQC fight though.”

“Really? How many pirates did you beat to secure that ship again?” She asked with a coy smile.

I rolled my eyes, “That was different, I had the drop on them and they weren’t expecting me.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

She nodded at my belt, “Is that personal shield just for show then?”

I looked down at the device at my waist, almost forgetting about its existence until she pointed it out again.

“I took this off one of the pirates I killed, ok? And I would have died to another one if it weren’t for it saving my life. So I really don’t have the confidence to fight several of them head on.”

She scowled at me, “Really? The one who did all those crazy stunts in the simulator is being so overly cautious right now? I expected more from you, Tera.”

“I’m not suicidal at least, not for money.”

Amber leaned her chin on her palm and tapped her cheek with a finger, “Hmm… So how much did your sale of that ship net you?”

I knew what she was trying to do but I brought up my Codex to check anyway.

Navigating to the menu, I found my sales list soon enough and…

“I got fifteen thousand Credits…”

Ugh… That was the lowest price possible…

Amber laughed aloud, “Bwahahaha!! Only the scrappers were interested huh? Well that’s not surprising!”

I clucked my tongue at her, “Why? Don’t the other Mercenaries on this station want their own ship too? I think this would have been a bargain for them to get started.”

She leaned back on her seat with an arm draped over the backrest, “Oh yeah, getting the ship would be cheap for sure, if you’re desperate enough that is. But then they will need to refit the ship including obtaining a new ID for the ship so it doesn’t appear as a pirate vessel in scans, get rid of any illegal mods the pirates may have put in, then maybe pray that it doesn’t blow up while they’re cruising in space.”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, yeah… I get it… Fuck… Alright, fine! Let’s go assault this pirate base! Fuck this!”

She slammed her palms on the table and stood up with a wide grin on her face, “Alright! That’s what I’m talking about! Let’s do this! I’ll meet your ship outside the station!”

“Wait, right now?”

“Yeah? When else do you want to do it?”

“I… I don’t know? Maybe after we made our preparations? You know, get some gear and what not?”

She gave me an incredulous look, “What other preparations do you need? Your ship is stocked, your weapons are also stocked and we don’t have anyone to say goodbye to, do we?”

“Err… It doesn’t hurt to be more prepared?”

“Tera, come on. We can’t be more prepared than we are right now. What are you gonna do? Buy more guns? Get yourself a power armour?”

Ok, there’s power armour in this place? I definitely wouldn’t mind having one in that case.

A power armour is, as the name implies, an exoskeleton suit that one could wear which effectively turns you into a walking tank.

In the game, these equipment were considered essential gear that you would need to get past several of the game’s contents so every player pretty much knew how to at least pilot a basic one, myself included.

I even had multiple variations of it for different purposes including a few that were outfitted with autonomous AI tech which allowed them to function without a pilot.

If you were to face a power armour out in the field without possessing one yourself… You better hope you packed some anti-armour capabilities since normal bullets would just bounce off most power armour surfaces.

The thought of buying one must have shown on my face because Amber quickly added, “There’s no shops selling power armour here and it’s not like you can afford one anyway… And we won’t need one either because the pirates sure as heck wouldn’t have one too.”

“How are you sure about that?”

She rolled her eyes, “Considering the fact that no one around here can afford one, there wouldn’t be any for them to steal or purchase unless one of them brought one from another system. So I would be quite surprised if they had one in their base.”

Well… Since she’s the veteran here, I guess I’ll just trust her judgement on this.

And she does have a point anyway… There’s not really much reason for us to stay here for long unless I intend to take even more mundane jobs like the one before.

The pay is not only subpar but I don’t even feel fulfilled from accomplishing it… I guess that’s just what a bottom rung Merc has to deal with in order to survive around here.

“Fine… Let’s go then. Do you have a plan on how to take out those pirates?”

She raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“Like you know, our vector of approach, how we’re going to engage them or even which part of their base we should hit first?”

She blinked at me, “What? We’re just going to charge in, blow up any ship in the way, board their base and shoot the crap out of them. There’s no need for such plans for idiots like these.”

…

I’m starting to wonder if she did not just survive being a Merc by pure luck all this while…

Is it because I’ve been modded the game to be harder than normal I’m used to so whatever I’ve experienced in the game was something abnormal compared to here?

Then again… I guess giving enemies superpowers and shit probably contributed to that factor…

Alright, fuck it, let’s just do this.