“I did tell you there wouldn’t be anything worthwhile,” Amber chuckled.

She was right about there being nothing worth scavenging amongst the debris… All I got from sifting through the wreckage were some spare parts and energy cells.

The good thing was that at least I wouldn’t need to restock on those when I dock back at the station.

But still… I was hoping maybe they were carrying some rare metals or data that I could sell… Guess I expected too much.

She slapped me on the shoulder, “Cheer up! Let’s go celebrate your first quest completion! First round’s on me, what do you say?!”

“I don’t actually like to drink,” I admitted with a slight wince. “Anyway, I need to see that Trader Union representative first.”

She turned to me, “Oh you haven’t already? Well what are you waiting for?”

“I thought that I could at least scavenge some stuff to sell on this quest… I might even get a better price for selling more at one go.”

“Ahahaha! You’re greedy huh?! I like that! It’s good to have a little ambition! Well, let’s go!”

I followed her lead out of the hanger to what looked like a street side stall. A single person was standing inside and the room was filled to the brim with screens displaying a variety of different things on every available surface of the wall.

We reached the stall just as another group of people were leaving, most probably having concluded their business there.

“Yo, Kale,” Amber greeted.

The guy inside turned at the mention of his name, revealing himself to be a young man with light blue hair with quite a number of cybernetic implants on him.

He had an eyepiece that projected a holographic screen over his left eye and mechanical parts peeking out from under his jacket.

“Amber,” He greeted back. “I assume you have more loot to sell?”

She jerked a thumb at me, “Not this time, got a new girl. Say hi to Tera. Tera, this is Kale. He’ll be your best friend while you’re operating as a Merc here.”

The guy stuck out his right hand, revealing that the arm was completely metallic.

He nodded at me, “Hey, nice to meet you. Kale, representative of the Trader Union.”

I grasped his hand, “Tera. Merc.”

He took back his hand and rolled up his sleeves, showing that even his left arm was also cybernetically augmented. His arms lit up, prompting a holographic keyboard to appear in front of him.

“So, what can I do for you today? Looking to buy or sell?”

“Sell, please. I have a captured pirate ship and a few weapons and supplies that I have obtained from them.”

“I see. I take it that it’s the ship at landing bay seven?”

He tapped a few keys and one of the monitors on the wall changed to display the ship in question.

I nodded, “That’s right.”

“Hmm… Got it. I’ll register that as for sale. How long do you want the sale period to be?”

I pursed my lips, “What’s a sale period?”

Kale raised an eyebrow at me but explained anyway, “The period of time you want to put your items on sale. Longer periods may allow your item to get higher bids but a higher percentage of the sale would go to the Trader Union. The lowest is a one percent fee at one day of listing and it caps out at twenty five percent for public listings like these. Do note that if there isn’t a buyer, the item will be delisted after the sale period ends and you will need to list it again if you want to sell it again but we won’t charge you a fee for it.”

I tilted my head, “What’s stopping me from just listing it at one day and continue to do so until the item is sold?”

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He looked at me with a serious face, “Nothing.”

Amber let out a bark of laughter, “Ahahaha! But that also usually ends you up with the lowest sale price too!”

Kale did not bother affirming or denying Amber’s words.

I shrugged, “Alright, then can I just list it for one day first?”

“Very well. Let me scan your personal terminal.”

I wasn’t sure how it worked so I just showed him my SC that was strapped on my arm.

Kale tapped on his eyepiece and my SC let out a soft beep before he typed something onto the keyboard. The monitor closest to him fizzled for a moment before it showed the pirate ship and a “For sale” icon on the picture.

Woah, wait… That worked? Ok…

“I’ll set it at standard market price to start off with, alright? That means ten thousand Credits. Any problems?”

That’s what Amber said so I guess that isn’t a problem and nodded.

He continued, “I assume the weapons and supplies you’re selling are also on the ship?”

I nodded again.

“Alright, I’ll have someone check them out in a bit. Would you allow them all to be sold as a set or separately? If sold as a set I can bump up the price to start at fifteen thousand Credits instead.”

“Umm… I guess I'll sell them together then.”

“Alright, in that case we’re all done. You should get a notification about this in twenty four Standard Hours. Thank you for doing business with us.”

I didn’t even get to say anything before Amber started to pull me away, “Alright! Thanks a bunch Kale! Now let’s go get something to eat at least! I’m starving!”

The Trader Union rep merely waved at us before turning his back to us, returning to doing whatever he had been doing before.

“The two of you seem close,” I noted, referring to Kale and her.

She scoffed, “Close? Nah. It’s more of a business relationship. If you haven’t noticed, there’s not a lot of Mercs here so I’m one of the few ‘loyal’ customers he has. Why do you think the guild branch here only has one guy manning the counter?”

“Huh? How many Mercenaries are there?”

She turned to gesture at herself, “Girl, you’re looking at them.”

…

I held up my hand, “Wait… Why aren’t there any other Mercs?!”

She pointed to a building at the side, “Let’s talk over some food, alright? Like I said, my treat, since I doubt you have much money on you right now anyway.”

I looked at where she was pointing at and realised it was some kind of… Ramen restaurant? At least I think so, considering the bowl and noodles picture at the front of the store.

Now that she mentioned it… I haven’t eaten anything since trying out that space food I found in the pirate ship and those were really bland.

I’m hoping that there’s at least some good space food or else I’m going to be so disappointed.

Hey, one of the primary joys of my life is eating good food ok? If you have good food to eat, you’re already halfway to happiness.

Stepping inside that store, I quickly realised that this didn’t just look like a ramen store… It actually was one. It even had the counter type of seats where you could eat facing the kitchen area.

Well… Ignoring the futuristic monitors and holograms around of course.

There were a number of people inside but it was not overly crowded at least.

Amber raised her hand and shouted at the kitchens, “Yo boss! Two signature bowls please! And I’ll take a bottle of cold one too!”

The man at the kitchen, whom I assume was the boss, gave a nod and started preparing our order, letting us sit at one of the empty tables near the entrance.

Amber sat down and grinned at me, just as what looked like a drone hovered over and deposited a bottle in front of her before floating away.

The Merc grabbed at the mouth of the bottle and pulled, the cap opening up easily with a ‘pop’ before she took a swig from it directly.

“Ahhhh~ That hits the spot. Anyway, to answer your question. I suppose it’s a little incorrect to say that I’m the only Merc around here and that’s not just because you joined. To be more specific, aside from you, I’m the only active Merc around with a combat ship.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Well, ships aren’t cheap, you know? If you want a brand new corvette class combat ship, you might be forking well over a million Credits to get one. In this part of the galaxy? That’s not an amount of money anyone can pull out.”

I frowned, “Then why is that ship I brought in only going for a maximum of a hundred thousand?”

She started lifting up her fingers to count off, “Well first, the ship has been used, so that’s going to take away some of the price. Next, that ship was meant to be a civilian ship but the pirates modified it into a combat vessel. The modifications aren’t going to be the best either and it’s hard to say if it can even be modified or upgraded in the future. To put it bluntly, you don’t even know how close this ship is to blowing itself up. Do you want me to continue?”

Ugh… I shook my head. I guess I understand why it’s like this at least…

She grinned, “Cheer up, the ramen here is actually good. And as long as you don’t expect too much, living here isn’t too bad. Plus, now that you’re here, we can take more jobs together!”

I see what Ges was trying to tell me now…

Oh well… I suppose my situation could be worse so I have nothing to complain about.

I will admit that the ramen was actually good though.