20 I'm A Merc Now

The group was arguing in front of one of the Mercenary guild counters and the interesting thing was that the guy sitting behind it didn't even seem that bothered by the sight. It's as though this was something that happened often around here.

I counted three men surrounding the female Merc and all of them wore unfriendly expressions on their faces.

There were also others in the guild but most of them seemed content to watch the scene from a distance while the others were not even paying attention to it.

"You sure you want to do this, Amber?" One of the men growled.

The woman leaned against the desk casually, "I should be the one asking that question. Are you sure the bunch of you Silvers are up to the task? Because I believe there's a reason why you losers are still stuck at Silver."

A snicker came from my side and I turned to see Yirfa laughing to herself, "You Mercs aren't all that different from pirates aren't ya?"

I'm not in a position to answer that since I don't know if this was the norm in the first place.

The male Merc growled, "Oh now you've done it! Don't blame me for this then!"

He tried to grab that blonde haired Merc's neck, but I saw her hand move in a blur before the man was suddenly sent flying away.

I had to step aside as the guy crashed near me and skidded past where I had been standing earlier.

The other two watched their friend fly in a stupor, needing a minute to comprehend what had just happened in front of them.

"What… What did you do, you bitch?!"

"You're finished!!"

The one on her left also tried to grab her and it was her foot that moved this time.

There was a loud 'crack' before the guy doubled over, his hands clutching in between his legs and falling onto his knees.

He even let out a rather high pitched wail before curling himself up into a ball on the ground.

She casually turned to the last guy, "Do you still want to try? Or do you want me to break something of yours too?"

He raised his hands and backed away from her, "Alright, alright… Fuck, fuck, fuck… I get it ok? I'm leaving!"

She watched him leave with dispassionate eyes and only after the guy picked up his buddies and ran out of the guild did she turn her attention to me.

"Hey, sorry about that just now. You alright?"

I waved at her, "I'm fine, don't worry about it."

She stepped aside and gestured towards the counter, "You're turning in a bounty aren't you? Go ahead."

Well… I guess it might be rude to turn down her offer so I went towards that counter in particular.

The man behind the counter was a middle aged man with a receding hairline and sharp eyes.

He spoke gruffly as soon as I stepped up to the counter, "You're not a registered Merc."

That made the blonde haired Merc raise an eyebrow but I ignored that and nodded, "I want to register as one. Is there a rule against someone capturing pirates before registering as a Merc?"

He shrugged, "There's none. Whatever… Let's see now…"

His eyes shone red and both mine and Yirfa's profiles were projected in the air in front of him.

"Fucking hell… Holoface Yirfa in the flesh. Were you a retired soldier or something?" He asked.

I raised an eyebrow, "No? Why?"

He nodded at the pirate beside me, "A Silver ranked Merc team was sent after her and they not only lost their ship but needed someone else to come by and rescue them since they were left stranded on a derelict ship."

I shrugged, "I got lucky."

"Damn right you were," Yirfa growled. "Bitch was just in the right place at the right time… Fucking hell."

I honestly won't deny that. The first encounter with her pirate crew was indeed pretty lucky for me and the fact that I managed to sneak into the base and out of there was also quite lucky on my part.

The guild guy then tapped a few buttons on the side and two guys wearing full body armour trudged towards us. Their helmets had a dark visor that covered their entire face, hiding their features from view.

Yirfa seemed to know what their presence meant since she let out a sigh and did not resist when the two grabbed her by the arms and led her away.

I guess they're the police or whoever was in charge of taking in these criminals.

The guy behind the counter then tapped the side of his head, which made Yirfa's profile disappear while mine remained in the air.

"I'll just go ahead and register you as a Merc before I credit her capture to you. I assume you have a ship of your own or are you land-bound?" He asked.

I blinked at him, "Land-bound?"

"That's a term we use to call Mercs that don't have ships and only operate within station or planetary confines."

"Ah, I have a ship of my own in that case."

He hummed and made no other comment.

On the holographic screen, I noticed a few new lines being inputted under my picture but since it was backwards and the font size was quite small, I didn't make out what it was saying.

"Right, name of the ship?" He asked.

"Do you mean the model or…?"

"The name you've given her."

Ah… Well shit… I mean… I've never really been good with names and I don't really bother naming them in the first place… I especially didn't feel the need to name this one because come on, it's literally the starter ship.

Once I get a new and better ship, I'll probably just keep it in a hangar somewhere or sell it off.

He noticed my hesitation, "No name? That's fine too. Any prior affiliations we should know about?"

"Err… Like what?"

"Whether you've worked for any Corps, private or otherwise."

I shook my head.

"Right… There, you're a Merc now."

I blinked a few times, "Just like that?"

"What? Were you expecting me to roll out a red carpet and start a light show for you? You're starting as a Copper rank one. That's it."

"Ok… Do I get an explanation of the ranks?"

The blonde haired Merc who had been standing beside me the whole time leaned against the counter, "Were you living in an asteroid this whole time? You don't know how the Merc system works?"

Is it supposed to be common knowledge or something? Time to bust out my excuses in that case.

"About that… I was actually caught up in an anomaly and my memories were quite messed up. I remember some things though I also seem to have some incorrect knowledge as well."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that my home is supposed to be Earth."

The guild staff and the Merc shared a look before turning back to me.

"You still managed to catch that pirate with your memories like this?" She asked.

"As I said, I got lucky. Her crew found me floating out in space while I was trying to do repairs, mistaking my ship as a derelict. I got the jump on them and then found the location of her pirate base through them."

The blonde haired Merc beside me whistled, "That's still impressive. What did you do? Sneak into her base and bag her?"

"Nah, I blew up her base."

I didn't really feel like explaining the whole mining station thing so I decided to just give them the summarised version of what happened.

That was when her hand shot out and grabbed me by the shoulder, surprising me.

"Wait! You went to a pirate base alone and blew it up by yourself?!" She cried out.

I winced a little, she had a pretty strong grip.

"Yes? Not really a big deal, her crew wasn't even that big. Plus they had their guard down since they thought the system was too remote to have any Mercs hunting for them."

"You're crazy, you know that?"

I was about to refute her again when she suddenly leaned in and whispered beside my ear, "I like crazy~"

I felt my spine shiver as she pulled back, the woman now looking at me with a rather hungry look. She even licked her lips like she was looking at some piece of meat.

Ok… That was weird.

She then stuck out her hand, "Name's Amber by the way. Guy behind the counter is Ges. He may look like a tough, mean old man, but he's really just a tsundere."

"Who the fuck are you calling old? I'm only in my forties, ok?" He protested.

"With a receding hairline that you don't want to mod out for some reason."

He grumbled but said nothing.

I shook her hand, "Tera. Nice to meet you?"

"Ahaha! Very nice to meet you too, Tera! Now since you're obviously new here, how about I show you around? It's not everyday you get a Gold rank Merc being your escort you know? I can even give you the introduction to Merc life instead of listening to Ges over there!"

…

Actually, why not? Let's go then.