Mercenary Guild

"Ahn? The hell do you guys want?"

"He's a newbie. This guy's going around Underground without registering

with the Guild."

"Huh? Underground? I sometimes hear about guys like that, but it's my first

time seeing one in person. C'mon over and take a seat bro."

"Ah, yes."

I sat down in front of the counter like I was told. This guy was pretty

intense man. If I met someone like him back home in Japan, I'd never want

to get involved with the guy at all. He really looks like someone from a

rather "dangerous and illegal" profession.

"Even if you're unregistered, you do own a ship right? Tell me your ship

name and I.D. It's parked in the hangar bay right?"

"Yes."

"Pfft. You really seem like a frightened little kitten. So interesting."

"Shut up."

I glared at Elma, who had one hand over her mouth while trying to stifle her

laughter but didn't seem to be able to. Dammit! I can't help it okay! This

uncle's just hella scary man!

The receptionist uncle with a terrifying face inputted the ship name and I.D.

I gave him on a tablet terminal and fiddled with it for some moments.

"The hell? What's up with your ship kid? I've never seen a model like this

before."

"Although I can't exactly disclose the source, I guarantee I didn't get her

illegally."

"Nah, y'know… Well, it's a breach of manners to ask about a mercenary's

past. It says here you engaged three pirate ships in battle four days ago and

managed to win, but that's about it. Rather, you don't have any other

activity records kid."

"I seem to have gotten involved in an accident while my ship was on

Hyperdrive and got thrown out somewhere near this colony. Because of that

accident, I seem to have lost most of my memories, and I currently have

absolutely no idea where I am."

"You serious? Ah… Well, that's fine. You don't have a bounty on your head

anyway. Oh yeah, could you stop it with that polite language thing? If the

other guys hear you talkin like that, you'd get looked down on y'know."

"Y- Yeah."

Man, it sure takes some serious balls to talk in a casual manner with this

grim-faced uncle…

"That's true. It's more or less over for a merc who's underestimated, so

watch how you act from now on. However, you're still as lax as ever, aren't

you?"

"You're also aware of the rules, right missy? There's no merit for probing

about a merc's past. If they've got no bounty on their heads and properly

earn their keep, then there's absolutely no problem."

A question suddenly popped into my head while the two were having their

conversation. So I decided to just blurt it out right away.

"Um, a starship's not exactly cheap, right? So I'm sure there aren't that

many guys who go like [I got myself one, so I'll be a mercenary starting

today!] just like that yeah? How do you even manage to recruit enough

members then?"

I think my question does have some merit. I've investigated the general

market prices in this world these past few days, and in order to purchase a

properly armed ship, you'd need to fork out at least 50,000 Enel. If you

convert that to Japanese Yen, you'd end up with 5,000,000. I haven't

managed to investigate the average income of people in this world, but I'm

sure that's still an astronomical amount of money for the average joe.

"Well, there are actually lots of guys who're formerly from the military

active in this business y'see. They're pretty high leveled and have great

skills. There are also some who just plain love fighting and chose to

become mercenaries as a result. There's also them extremely greedy,

money-obsessed types."

"There are also those who graduated from the Mercenary Training Institute

right?"

"Yeah. But there's none of those types in this particular star system."

"Those still seems to be a bit lacking as sources of 'fresh blood' though."

"Guess so. But the galaxy's a friggin huge place kid. We've managed to get

enough members to fulfill most of the requests sent to us."

Hm. In other words, there are lots of prerequisites, so they've managed to

gather up only the folks who fulfill those conditions. Or maybe there just

isn't a lot of mercenary work in this world? Hm. I don't get it. I don't get it,

but I'll just go with the flow anyway.

"I've finished setting up your registration. The only thing left is the test."

"Test?"

"Yeah. If we don't know how skilled you are, won't we have no idea what

type of jobs you'd be able to take up?"

"That's reasonable. But how are you gonna test me?"

"Training course. There's a simulator here for that purpose. I'll have you

undergo that."

"OK."

The receptionist uncle stood up from his seat, called out towards the back of

the office and guided Elma and me to another room. Why'd Elma follow

me anyway? Elma grinned mischievously at me when she noticed my gaze.

"Don't you think I have the right to see just how skilled the rookie I brought

with me is?"

"You do?"

Well, I did manage to smoothly proceed with my mercenary registration

thanks to Elma, so I don't really mind if she observes my moves. Moreover,

the opinions of a veteran merc with five years of experience under her belt

would be valuable. If I have her evaluate me, I'll be able to more properly

judge my overall skill level.

"It's right here."

The room with the simulator was surprisingly bigger than I expected. Lined

up within it were simulator machines that looked a bit like small-sized

trucks. Or rather, they seem to be mimicking just the cockpit block of a

ship.

"Chose something which resembles the cockpit model of your ship and get

in."

"Gocha."

The overall look of a ship's cockpit is largely influenced by its

manufacturer. That also goes for the cockpit controls. So most ships are

made to be compatible with most cockpit blocks available on the market.

This essentially means that it's possible to detach a cockpit block and install

it onto another ship. This function was also available on Stella Online, so

I'm quite used to it.

"Guess it's this one."

"Hoh. Ain't that a high-end military model? Alright. I'll have it prepped

straight away."

The uncle, who seemed somehow impressed when I chose my cockpit

block, went away somewhere. I'm sure he's going to the control room for

the simulators. Elma's figure was also gone. Guess she's spectating from

somewhere else.

* * *

"Well then, let's start the evaluation test."

"Roger that. What about the operating data of this test unit?"

"I'll upload your ship's data on it. You should be able to control it like you

usually do after... Oi, oi. What the heck is this?"

"What's up?"

"You really askin me? This unit's data… Can you really use this thing?"

"I think I'll be okay if it's Krishna's data."

Was there something strange about the data. Well, I don't really know how

Krishna would be evaluated in this world. It was a pretty strong unit back in

Stella Online though.

"Oh well. This is a test to evaluate your skills after all. The objective of the

test is pretty basic. Destroy all enemy units. All ships except for you are

enemies. They'll be few in number at first, but they'll be coming at you in

waves. The difficulty will increase as their numbers go up."

"Got it."

"Then let's start the test. Activating the unit."

The cockpit interior dimmed; only a minimal amount of illumination

remained. So it accurately simulates even a ship's dormant state. I fired up

the main generator with practiced motions and brought it up to battle level.

In response to that, the simulated Krishna activated, and a space

environment gradually unveiled itself before me. It was a pretty realistic

view. This simulator's extremely detailed.

[Unidentified ship detected. Its weapon systems are online]

I also activated my weapon systems and quickly set course for the location

of the enemy ship displayed on the radar. I accelerated all at once. I felt my

body being strongly pressed down onto the seat.

"Whoah. This thing even simulates the Gs."

What kind of tech did they use to make this thing? Well, if this world really

was the same as Stella Online, then a gravity generating device should have

been developed. This machine must be using something like that.

A figure that seemed to be the enemy ship was cruising in the distance and

carefully approaching me in order to mount a surprise attack. I've already

managed to get a lock on the slowpoke. The four manipulator arms

deployed from the hull and immediately aimed at the enemy ship. The

moment I pulled the control stick's trigger, four beams of light fired straight

at the enemy and tore it open. I managed to shoot down the enemy in one

attack.

"How fragile."

Not to mention slow as heck. Judging from its appearance, it was a small

transport ship with a high carrying capacity. Just this huh?

More enemy ships appeared after that, but all of them were pretty weak.

Slow. Fragile. They're no different from live targets. I don't think they

would be able to properly gauge my abilities with these.

"Ah, looks like the evaluation program for new recruits just won't cut it."

"Hey. Isn't the difference in unit specs too lopsided?"

"Well, you're right but… Let me change to a different test program."

"Roger."

I tried out the new program. It was definitely better than the first, but the

enemies were still quite slow. Damn weak. They're no different from those

suckers I shot down a few days ago.

"They're so weak. I can't feel any sort of pressure."

"The hell kid… This is an evaluation program for veterans y'know."

"Wha— You're joking right? Isn't there anything more difficult?"

"There is… But I think this one's a bit of an overkill."

I finally felt some pressure this time. More than ten pirate ships attacked all

at once, and their weapons were also quite powerful. But if I keep a close

eye and take timely evasive actions whenever they fired their high-powered

ballistic weaponry, I'd be fine. Their laser cannons can't even penetrate my

shield, so they're practically no threat. The light cruiser model that came

out at the end was pretty tough. But once I managed to get to its blind spot,

it became a done deal.

"That did make me sweat a little."

"You can't be serious kid!?" the uncle cried out in exasperation. Huh? Was

that actually the highest difficulty?

"Uh… Well. Damn. The test's over, kid."

"Roger that."

That was easier than I thought. I wonder how they'll evaluate me…? Well,

judging from that uncle's reaction, it'll probably be alright. I cut the power

flow from the generator, stopped the simulator and stepped out of the

cockpit. When I went out of the simulator hatch, I found the receptionist

uncle and Elma staring at me with hard to describe looks on their faces.

They could probably be described as disbelieving expressions.

"Um, what's my evaluation results?"

"Ah, let's get back to the counter and talk there."

They sure are acting strange. I think it would've been fine even if they told

me the result here. For some reason, Elma also kept staring at my face. Just

what's with all this man?

I followed the two of them back to the lobby with my head tilted in

puzzlement.

"Uh… First, about the exam result."

"Yeah."

"You passed."

"That's great. But what's with those strange expressions?"

"Well y'see, we mercenaries have a ranking system in place."

"Hm?"

Was it something similar to that adventurer ranking thing used in a lot of

those isekai themed webnovels? Would this lead to a development where I

suddenly get promoted to A or S rank?

"It's called a Combat Rank, and it serves to objectively represent a merc's

combat capabilities. The five ranks are as follows: Iron, Bronze, Silver,

Gold, and Platinum. Iron's the lowest and Platinum's the highest."

"I see. So?"

"The last test you tackled was the one for promotion to Gold Rank."

"Okay?"

"But y'see, even though you did pass the Gold Rank promotion exam, I

can't just suddenly promote you to Gold right from the start."

"I understand."

I'm not too hot on the idea of getting promoted to the second-highest rank

just like that either anyway. This was something not present in Stella Online

after all. I want to savor the pleasure of ranking up step by step.

"You don't have a solid track record yet. You understand, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"So for now, you'll be ranked Bronze. Temporarily, of course. I'll pass the

data from the simulation you took earlier to the higher-ups and have them

confirm your ranking."

"Spare me from suddenly ranking up to Gold, will you? I'd miss out on the

fun of steadily raising my rank."

"I— Is that so?"

It somehow felt like I'm drawing too much attention. Elma kept painfully

staring at me from the side while sporting a especially grumpy expression.

What? Please stop that. I'm just a newbie here, y'know. Please cut me a

little slack ma'am.

"For now, the rank's tentative, but you're already officially registered as a

mercenary. You'll have the backing of the Mercenary Guild from now on.

And at the same time, you'll also be carrying the name and reputation of the

Mercenary Guild with you. Please try not to forget this fact."

"Aren't you supposed to explain the rules and regulations for new members

or something?"

"It's a pain, so just read the manual yourself. I'll send it to you via e-mail."

"Now that's just plain lazy."

"It's not like you need to read it right away. Just run through it slowly

tonight or something."

"Now then, why is my great Elma-senpai so upset, I wonder?"

"Silver."

"Eh?"

"I've just managed to reach Silver after five years worth of effort y'know."

"Ah. Eh. Um…"

When I looked towards the receptionist uncle for help, he quickly turned his

gaze away from mine.

"You'll probably make it to Silver yourself soon kid."

"Ah… Mmm."

"Grrr…"

"No matter what my rank turns out to be, Elma-senpai will always be my

senpai! Look, if I didn't meet Elma-senpai, I'd probably remain

unregistered until now. I still don't know left from right and need your help.

I'm the pathetic scrub who doesn't even know where the convenience store

is. I'll always be counting on Elma-senpai. It's true!"

"I— Is that so? T— That's fine then. Let's go to the convenience store next.

This 'senpai' will properly guide you."

This disappointing space elf quickly regained her mood after my

unrestrained bootlicking spree. How easy.

"Amazing~ How admirable~"

"As for this colony's map..."

"We'll be going ahead then!"

The receptionist uncle looked like he kinda wanted to say something but I

stopped him with my gaze. Just stop uncle. It'll be troublesome if her mood

drops again okay.

Hold on? Y'know, I probably wouldn't have any trouble going around this

place if I managed to obtain a map. But let's just stop that train of thought,

shall we? Yeah.