Both Amber and I continued through the station and while I was busy keeping track of our location and being wary about potential ambushes, Amber did not seem to be concerned at all.

In fact, she seemed to be navigating through the pirate base without any issues at all.

“Have you… Been here before?” I asked the blonde haired Mercenary after catching up to her.

“Why would you even think that?” She asked.

“Because you look like you’ve been here before.”

She snorted but said nothing more, only continuing down the corridor and making a right turn at an intersection without stopping to check anything.

That pretty much confirmed my guess but left the question of why she had been here before up in the air.

Was she a former pirate and this was her previous crew? Or was she a prisoner of these pirates before she managed to free herself?

I know my common sense is quite limited in this particular World so I’m not sure how much of the things she had told me about pirates is common knowledge and which ones are things that only a pirate might know.

Maybe everything was common knowledge and even the layout of every pirate base is the same?

Yeah, no way.

The thought that she might be leading me to a trap or even deceiving me crossed my mind for a moment but I found it very improbable because there’s better ways of doing this.

If she wanted to take my ship for herself, she could have done so anytime when she had come over to my ship. She did not need to bring me all the way out here to fight some pirates before stealing it from me.

Anyway, it’s not like she could since the ship was locked and unable to be flown by anyone else except for me.

And since she obviously did not want to talk about it, I simply just kept my mouth shut and followed behind her, keeping my eye out for threats.

Just as we turned the corner to reach a rather large corridor, the sound of static came from above us before a distinctly female voice filtered through.

“Who are you fuckers coming in here to mess up our things huh?! Are you Mercs?!”

That voice seemed to surprise Amber but she quickly looked up at the ceiling and scowled, “Hell yeah we are, we’re here to collect the bounty on your fucking head you bitch.”

There was a moment of silence before a bark of laughter came through, “Ahahaha! Is that you Amber?! Holy shit you’re actually still alive?! You fucking crazy ass bitch. I’ll give you a chance to walk out of here right now and never come back. I suggest you take it before you regret it.”

“Not a chance. I’m here to kill you, you little piece of shit.”

The voice ignored her threat and addressed me instead, “I see you brought a friend too. Does she know about your past? Hmm? I don’t think they do or else they wouldn’t have agreed to come here with you, right?”

“You shut your mouth, bitch.”

“Oh, let me guess. Someone else you’ve duped into your little crusade? How many does that make, Amber? Did you tell them what happened to the others you brought along?”

Amber growled, “This time is different…”

“Hahahaha! Sure, sure~ We both know how this is going to end, Amber. I know you know about our operation here, but for this one I’m not letting it go that easily. I’m going to take our past… Hmm… Partnership… Into account and let you go. I’ll even let you take your little friend with you too, aren’t I generous?”

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“Fuck you, you fucking bitch. I said I’m taking your head today and I’m doing it!”

There was another moment of silence from the other side of the speaker before she screeched, “You fucking ungrateful bitch!! Did you forget how you even got to where you are?!! It was because of me! Without me, you’ll be nothing! Nothing, you hear me?!!”

“Stop giving yourself that much credit, you threw me to the wolves and watched me get eaten up. Only after I’ve beaten the wolves did you think I was worth your time to exploit!”

“Hmph! If you really think you can afford being an enemy of us, then I welcome you to try. But know this… You’re going to lose and I’m going to kill your little friend slowly in front of you before kicking you out again, you hear me?”

There was an audible click and the other side went silent.

I looked at Amber, “Sooo… Should I be worried now?”

She hesitated, “I… I’m sorry, Tera. I did not think that she would be here…”

“Let me guess… Your ex-girlfriend?” I asked.

She shook her head, “No. She… She was my mentor… I guess. If a mentor is someone who physically and mentally tortures you for fun and then betrays your trust time and time again, that is.”

“So you were a former pirate.”

“Technically… No. I was… An associate. The inside woman if you get the idea.”

“She had you join the Mercs and then supply them with information?”

The blonde woman nodded, “I didn’t know any better back then and… No… I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything after this… I truthfully did not know she was here, but I admit that I knew this place belonged to her group. Which is why I know about its layout and everything… If… If you want to leave now, Tera, I won’t hold it against you… But I won’t get another chance like this.”

Right… So big question time…

Do I like her enough that I am willing to put my own safety at risk to help her?

Hmm… I suppose she did show me the ropes and guided me even though there was no need for her to go that far.

But obviously, this and that are kind of two different things…

Then again… I’ll also be lying if I said I did not have some ideas about her as well…

Hey, she’s hot. Can you blame me? Plus she already admitted that she was also interested in me so I actually wouldn't mind tapping that if I was given the chance.

I sucked in a breath before breathing out slowly, “I already came all the way here… If I leave now, wouldn’t I have just wasted my time? Although… I expect another bowl of ramen as an apology for tricking me.”

She grinned, “Tell you what, when we get out of here, I’ll give you more than just a bowl of ramen. I’ll pay for your mod.”

I blinked at her, “Wait… Really?”

“It’s the least I can do and I do have some money saved up so it’s not a problem for me. And if you don’t mind… I am serious about our partnership.”

“Uh huh… And what happened to the others that you have brought with you?”

“... I’ll tell you about them later… But I am serious when I say that this is different from them, Tera.”

That really got me curious but I doubt she would tell me even if I asked again.

I shrugged, “Alright, then where should we head to next? You want to kill whoever that is right? Actually, who is she even? The leader of this pirate crew?”

“You can say that… Let’s just say that these pirates belong to a faction of pirates and she’s one of their lieutenants. I’ve been trying to undermine any operation related to her whenever possible. Most of the time she never involves herself directly so I was not expecting her to be here either. I promise I’ll tell you everything when we get out of here after killing that bitch.”

I don’t know if I should be glad that she’s really confident that we will succeed since she’s saying ‘when’ and not ‘if’. Though I wonder if that confidence comes from her own abilities or because she had me here.

“So… Shall we?” She asked, gesturing to the large metal doors that lay at the end of the corridor.

“What’s behind there?”

“That should be their warehouse. I was intending to look for whatever they are storing there and either steal it or destroy it before we rig this base to self destruct. Oh, just so you know, the Mercenary Guild has a pretty good payout for destroying a pirate base, so there's that too. And if you have recorded kills of pirates, those are also awarded too and count towards your Merc points for ranking up.”

“Well, say no more, let’s go earn ourselves some money!”

She grinned and led the way towards the end of the corridor, the double doors hissing open the moment we came close to it.

Behind the door was, as she had said, a large warehouse with rows upon rows of shelves. There was also a large open space in the centre with a single thing standing in the middle.

Which was the main problem…

A single power armour with a person piloting it…

The pilot spoke with the same voice as the one from the intercom before, “Welcome to the pain house Amber!! Time to get fucked!”

Well fuck…