Wait, this was actually real. That posed a problem. Why was this happening to Koji? He couldn't think of a single good reason, yet here he was.
"What did I do yesterday?" Koji wondered. He went to work as usual. He came home from work as usual, ate dinner as usual, showered, gamed for a while, and went to bed—as usual. None of the clichés held true.
There were no weird messages creepily appearing on his computer screen, no isekai trucks decking him to transport him to another world. It was just a regular day—well, aside from this. "Completely bizarre," he complained. But complaining wasn't going to do any good. Gotta be positive. If this was real life, then he had somehow made his way into Astria Online, and he just had to accept it.
Did that mean he could live the mercenary life he enjoyed in the game? Bound by no obligations, rising up in the universe by his own strength. Yeah, that sounded great. It was a hundred times better than being stuck in a network administration job with no hope of advancement. Besides, he could make use of his specialties here.
"Nice." Suddenly, he was in a much better mood. If he was stuck here, he might as well enjoy it. Yeah, that sounded good to him! He still had a few concerns, but there was no sense dwelling on them if he was stuck either way. With that settled, he had to figure out where the heck he was.
The Galaxy Map should have confirmed his current location, but when he opened it, all he got were the words "NO DATA" in huge, heartless letters.
Well, that wasn't good. The vast frontier of this universe presented a major navigational hurdle. He couldn't just wander around blindly and hope things worked out. In the four years since Astria Online launched, no one had managed to reach the center of the galaxy.
He couldn't be sure this place was identical to the game, but he had to assume it was close, which meant it was massive. He gave up on ascertaining his current location and checked on the status of his ship. He didn't have a bounty set on him; that was a relief. At least he wouldn't have to worry about getting caught by the galactic police and sent to jail right off the bat.
Next up was checking on his affiliation and belongings. It looked like he was nothing special, just an ordinary guy. He didn't even belong to a mercenary guild. His name hadn't changed from when he played Astria Online, though.
Meanwhile, his current funds stood at a whopping zero Vetra. Seriously? He was broke?! What about all the money he saved up while playing? His heart dropped as he went to check the ship's cargo, his last hope.
It looked like he had a small amount of food and water stored among the ship's cargo. How considerate of… whoever prepared all this. He didn't have the faintest idea who his anonymous benefactor might be, but at least he wouldn't starve.
Apart from the food, he had a small cache of flak ammunition and two spare energy packs. "Rare Metal too, huh? And quite a lot of it. That's pretty sick." The universe of Astria Online had abandoned paper and coin currency long ago. Everyone now used a digital currency called Vetra.
Not only did this make transactions easier and more convenient, it also left an electronic record of every interaction. One of the best ways to get Vetra was Rare Metal, a scarce but necessary commodity throughout the galaxy. Finding Rare Metal was like digging up silver or gold back on Earth—precious, in small supply, and valuable just about anywhere.
Space pirates and others who preferred to stay off the books especially loved Rare Metal. It was a physical good, which made it harder to track than electronic currency. Of course, this meant that cruising around with a ship full of Rare Metal made one a tasty target for pirate NPCs and other less savory sorts out there in the universe.
In game terms, those NPC encounters would get much more frequent if Rare Metal was on board. "Warning! A vessel of unknown affiliation is scanning this craft," the support AI blared.
"That didn't take long," Koji thought. Being scanned by another craft didn't necessarily mean he was being targeted by space pirates.
Maybe there was an issue with the ship's frame? It was entirely possible the scan came from a benevolent third party just trying to help. The far more likely possibility, though, was that he simply looked suspicious as heck.
Why would a ship carrying so much metal—something used for anonymous transactions—be parked in an empty sector of space? It was just too sketchy. It would be completely reasonable to believe he was there to make illegal bargains with space pirates.
"A vessel of unknown affiliation has brought its weapons systems online," the support AI droned. Welp, it looked like the goddess of fortune would not smile upon Koji today. He didn't have a bounty, so those weapons had to belong to space pirates.
"Hey, bro. Whatcha doin' out here? Funny place to take a nap," came a voice over the intercom. Koji didn't recognize it.
"Ha ha ha! Nothing in particular. Don't mind me," Koji replied.
"Heh heh heh. Don't be like that, bro. Here we are, meetin' each other by chance out in space. Say, how 'bout you let me have some of your cargo? Then I might let ya off without any funny business."
Koji spoke calmly, "I'll have to refuse, but I'd be happy to sell it to you for a reasonable price." As he spoke, two more unidentified ships exited faster-than-light travel with loud bangs. All three ships activated their weapons systems and prepared to fire. The new ships appeared as models on Koji's display.
Their builds were a mess. The haphazard frames bore sloppily installed weapons that hardly looked battle-ready. Their hulls each had different cargo sizes. The frames, the weapons—everything about them was completely uncoordinated. In stereotypical space pirate fashion, dents and scratches marred the ships.
"Heh. Ain't never seen a ship like that before. Who d'ya belong to, buddy?" their leader asked.
"No comment," Koji replied as he scanned the unidentified, jet-black ships. Each one held somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 Vetra.
"Heh heh heh. So you're checkin' us out too, huh? Guess we can't help that. Hand over the cargo, buddy, and we'll spare yer life."
"Oh, all right. I suppose I have no choice," Koji said, steeling his resolve. He carefully raised the main generator output from normal to battle-ready and took a breath. He might really have to kill fellow humans to get out of this, but the Rare Metal in his ship could mean the difference between life and death for him.
Without money, he wasn't going to last long out here. If someone wanted to fight him for it, then he had to protect himself—even if that meant crushing these space pirates.
"That's enough, buddy. Don't wanna die, do ya?" one of the pirates taunted.
"Of course not," Koji responded coolly.
There was no question about what would happen to someone who lost their cradle—their spaceship—in outer space. Though, they would probably die in the explosion long before suffocating.
Maybe Koji should have been afraid, but as he prepared to fight for his life, he felt oddly calm. Perhaps that was because his vessel was the Warhawk.