That was a little satisfying, Von thought. Finally, a decent fight. Was that the most difficult level? Surely there is more.
"You gotta be kidding me!" the receptionist exclaimed. "Uh, well… okay. Test's over."
"Understood." That had been easy. How would they evaluate him, though? It definitely didn't seem like he'd failed, judging by the receptionist's reaction.
Von swiftly cut the generator's output, stopped the simulation, and hopped out of the cockpit. The receptionist and Mia waited for him at the entrance, their mouths hanging agape.
They blinked at him as if they thought von might be a simulation himself. "How'd I do?" Von asked.
"Let's talk about it back up front," the receptionist replied. That was vague. Why couldn't he just tell Von the result?
Mia probably didn't know either, but she kept staring at him with a strange look. Confused, Von followed them back into the lobby.
"Uh, so let's start with your test score," the receptionist began. "Yup."
"You've passed."
"That's a good thing, right? Why the long face?" Von said.
"Mercenaries are given ranks," the receptionist explained.
"Oh?" This piqued Von's interest. Was it like those adventurer ranks people got in isekai novels? Was he about to get an A-rank or S-rank here? Nice.
"So, there are combat ranks that give straightforward evaluations of your strength as a merc. We have iron, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Iron's the lowest, platinum's the best," the receptionist said.
"I see. And?" Von urged.
"The test you just took is the gold advancement test."
"Go on."
"And you passed it, but we can't just give you gold right off the bat."
"That makes sense." There was no fun in starting at the very top. This ranking system wasn't part of Astria Online. Von wanted to take his time and actually enjoy it.
"You can't hit gold rank without some kind of achievement," the receptionist continued. "Are you picking up what I'm putting down?"
"So far," Von replied.
"We're gonna start you off with bronze, provisionally. Basically, think of it like we're giving you your real rank after you replicate what you did in that simulation."
"Forget gold," Von said. "If I start that high, I lose all the fun of climbing the ladder."
"O-oh, okay." The receptionist looked a little weirded out, while Mia was glaring intensely at him. What's the big deal? Von thought. Cut it out and start being nice to me. I'm just an innocent little newbie!
The receptionist continued, "Anyway, the rank is temporary, and you're formally registered now. The guild acts as a backer for you, and you act as a draw for the guild. Don't forget that."
"You're not gonna explain the bylaws to me?" Von asked, a little annoyed.
"Nah, too much effort. Read 'em yourself. I'll send you a message."
"What a hard worker you are," Von muttered. Whatever. It probably wasn't urgent, and he'd get to it eventually.
"And why is the Great and Wise Mia in such a poor mood?" he asked.
"Silver," she said curtly.
"Huh?"
"I've been doing this for five years, and I'm silver."
"Oh, uh..." Von glanced at the receptionist.
The receptionist looked away and said, "You'll probably get bumped to silver after one mission."
"Ah. Mmm." This was awkward.
"Grr..." Mia grumbled.
"No matter what rank I get, you're still the senior!" Von quickly added. "Remember, Mia, I'd be unlicensed if not for you. I still don't know left from right. I'm just a slug who doesn't even know where to get groceries! Mia, I'm counting on you!"
"R-really?" she said, her mood lightening. "Then fine. Let's actually go get those groceries now. As your senior, I will teach you where they are."
This poor little space elf was so easily fooled by his empty, obvious praise. Hook, line, and sinker.
"Yaaay. You're so cool," Von said, laying it on thick.
The receptionist cut in. "If you want a map of the colony—"
But Von interrupted him. "We're off!" He made a hasty escape with Mia in tow. Careful, guy! Don't put her in a bad mood again, or I'm lost… Although, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about that if I had taken that map he offered.
Eh, whatever. Better to just go with the flow. As they headed back out into the colony, Mia explained everything she knew about being a mercenary in the Nexus System.
Tons of pirates set their sights on merchant and resource-mining ships here. Being close to the border of the Barbelon Federation also made it a hot spot for mercenaries.
"Also," Mia added, "they've been talking about large-scale pirate crackdowns lately, so mercs are flocking to this star system. And you came here without knowing that?"
"Yep. Like I said before, I drifted in because of an accident. I guess even my life support system was throwing up errors because my memories are super fuzzy. Thank goodness my ship was safe."
Of course, the memory thing was a lie, but Mia would think he was crazy if he claimed to be from another dimension. Besides, this would explain why he didn't know the basics of this universe. It was a solid cover story.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Mia sounded concerned. "I hear some people up and die out of nowhere after accidents like that. Maybe you should get examined at a medical station sometime soon."
"Whoa, really? I should look into that," Von replied. The accident was a fabrication, but a thorough medical checkup could still be a good idea. After all, he had no idea how he'd ended up here. He decided to add "go to a medical station and get examined" to his long to-do list.
Mia pointed ahead. "Oh, there's the grocery store!"
"That's it?" Von asked, noticing a big sign on the front of the shop proclaiming
....
it "shinsen Mart." It was a strikingly... blunt name. It's just the Japanese word for "fresh!"
"That's a lame name," he commented.
"Really? I hear it's from an old language," Mia responded.
"Is that so?" Von wondered which part of the name was from the old language but decided not to probe too deeply. It had to be the "shinsen" part. This universe didn't seem to use Japanese anymore. Wait, wait, wait. I'm speaking Japanese right now. How am I able to communicate with these people?
Von asked Mia about it, and she explained that all intelligent life carried around devices that let them understand each other. According to her, it was just a totally normal part of life.
"Did you really forget that? Your amnesia must be bad," Mia said.
"Seems like it," Von shrugged.
"Seriously, are you okay? I'm actually getting worried about you." The poor little space elf looked genuinely concerned, which was a bit of a wound to Von's pride.
"Just be careful. Let's go on in," Mia said.
"Sure," Von replied.
And so they went into the grocery store.