…
…
"... Bleeuuurrgghhh…"
"Oh come on, is it really that bad?"
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand after I heaved again for the umpteenth time.
Meanwhile, Amber was leaning against the wall in the alley's entrance while I was suffering over here.
I turned to her, "How could you even eat that so calmly? It felt like I was eating worms dipped in toilet water or something… Bleuuugh…"
She gave me a look, "I'm more surprised you even know what worms taste like. Come on, it's not that bad is it? What the heck have you been eating so far for you to even think this is that bad?"
"I dunno? Normal food? Fuck… Even that packaged food didn't taste as bad…"
Truth be told, those don't taste bad more because they don't even have any taste in the first place.
What's more, that slop the miners made and the food they cooked up during the party tasted way better than whatever I ate inside there.
Calling that thing ramen was an insult to the actual thing.
Amber rolled her eyes, "I'm now convinced you're probably some rich girl who ran away from home thinking you could do better out by yourself."
I turned to her, "If you actually think that… That thing is actually food, you've never eaten real food before. Holy shit, that was so bad…"
"If you're going to tell me that 'real food' consists of using organic ingredients, I'm just going to stop you there."
"Ughh… Please. I ate better food when I was with some miners in an Orbital Mining Station… Does that tell you how bad this is?"
She seemed quite annoyed by my words, "Well, then I can't wait to taste this 'real food' you're talking about. Why don't you let me taste one?"
I raised my finger at her, "I will… Give me some time and I'll let you see how much you've been missing out."
Back when I was with the miners, I thought that the packaged food was already the lowest the food can go. Now I know it's just a matter of the miners actually having a competent cook that could make actual good tasting food.
I had asked around during the party how they prepared the food and they said it was basically them taking those packaged foods and turning them into actual meals instead of bland sustenance.
Which means I should be able to do it somehow as well and all I need is some time to experiment with it on my own.
Now I'm regretting not asking them how they made it…
I'm not going to lie, one of the most important things in my life was eating actual good food. I can deal with pretty much anything as long as I have good food to eat.
"Sure, sure. I'll be waiting for it patiently. Are you done yet?"
I swallowed my saliva before straightening myself, trying my best to ignore the aftertaste of the disgusting food I just ate.
"Yeah… Yeah, I'm good now."
She turned to leave and I followed her out.
We were now heading back to the Guild so that I could collect the bounty on Yirfa and also get the Mercenary Points that I would have received from dealing with that pirate base and capturing their boss.
She was also following along because she had nothing better to do, according to her.
Amber spoke up along the way, "I think I have yet to ask this, but are you actually operating solo?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I know you don't belong to a group and you only have one ship, but do you have anyone else on your ship or are you flying alone?"
"I'm flying alone."
"Hmm… I see. In that case I should warn you ahead of time about letting people join your ship."
I raised an eyebrow at her, "What do you mean?"
"You're still new and other Mercs also know that. Just so you know, ships are expensive and not everyone can afford one even when you're a Merc. Do you get where I'm coming from?"
I frowned, "You're saying that there may be a Merc who might offer to join my ship as a crewmate but then betray me and steal my ship?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"But… Wouldn't that make them criminals?"
She shrugged, "In space, no one can hear you scream. Who can refute them if they were to claim you died somehow and they had to take over your ship? Do you have someone who would question that guy if they were to return to the station on your ship without you?"
I shook my head.
"Exactly. That's why from a solo Merc to another solo Merc, be careful of who you let into your crew."
I raised an eyebrow, "You sound like you are speaking from experience."
"I am."
Oh. Ok…
I looked at her with a neutral face, "Should I ask?"
"Nothing to hide. Needed a second gun for a raid and a Merc offered his. Tried to rape me after we had completed the hustle so I put two bullets in his crotch and one in his chest. Then I vented him out into space while he was still alive."
I whistled, "Too easy if you ask me."
She grinned, "In hindsight, yeah. But I was still new back then so I didn't think about it that much."
We crossed the intersection again to reach the side of the street where the guild was located.
Walking past the door again, the two of us went to Ges whose counter was the only one that was empty.
He looked up when we approached him and nodded in greeting, "Tera. Amber. I'm assuming you're here to collect the bounty?"
I nodded.
He gestured to the top of the counter, "Right then. Let's register your personal terminal and I'll deposit the Credits directly to you. Any future rewards would also be automatically credited directly to your account."
"Hmm… Any reason why this wasn't done when I first signed up?"
Amber grinned, "Just in case you're one of those Mercs who dies before they even get their first pay. It's more common than you think and it's now become a tradition."
Ges sighed, "There's an administrative reason for that but I won't bore you with the details. Just that it was quite a problem to have so many registered personal terminals that had zero transactions in the past."
I decided not to comment and placed my Codex on the counter.
A green light shone on the counter and I noticed my screen light up, showing five hundred thousand Credits being transferred to my account.
Damn, I'm rich.
Well, not that rich, but rich enough.
He then tapped his table and a screen appeared in the air, showing my ship.
"Is this your ship?" He asked.
"Yes?"
I wondered why he was asking until another screen appeared and I realised it showed the pirate ships that I had destroyed while flying my ship.
"Hmm… No bounties on those ships so you'll get the standard rate for each of them. Five thousand Credits for A Class ships and fifteen thousand for B Class Ships. You've got eight A Class and four B Class ships taken down so that's an additional one hundred thousand Credits."
Just as he said those words, another hundred thousand Credits was transferred into my Codex.
Hot damn, being a Merc is pretty profitable huh? I'm already more than halfway to having a million. Too bad they weren't counting those two docked B Class ships in the base that I blew up along with the station.
He wasn't done yet either, "Capturing the pirate Yirfa gives you fifty Mercenary Points right off the bat… A Class ships give two points and B Class ships give five points… So that brings it up to a total of eighty six Mercenary Points, you're cleared for Copper rank level two."
"Hmm… That seems a little low doesn't it? I don't think a Copper rank could have done all of that on their own," I pointed out.
Ges shrugged, "I do not disagree, but I can't allow you to skip ranks since sometimes Mercs get lucky and rise up the ranks too quickly. Then they end up stuck with quests that are out of their league and they end up being put in a worse position."
I guess that makes sense.
Oh well, I've already earned quite a bit of money from them and I've still yet to collect the pay from Marten too. I'll send him a message to let him know that I'm a Merc and he should be able to get his company to pay me an extra reward on top of what I've gotten from the Mercenary Guild too.
I don't know how much they are going to pay me considering I'm actually just a Copper rank Merc but hey, money is money.
I'm pretty sure no other Copper rank Merc has earned as much money as I have within the first day of joining the Mercenary Guild so I'll take it.
Making money feels good.