Ch.303Berjan 02(2)

A luxurious reception room adorned with elegant decorations.

Various sentient beings sat around a Cult-style table with overlapping geometric shapes.

There was a male Cult with yak horns, a being covered head to toe in black reinforcement suit similar to Star Union workers, and others. Most were human, with a few exceptions.

They were listening to a report from a human male holding a pad.

“Thanks to Captain Nern’s connections, we’ve secured a new personnel supply route. We’ve replaced 67% of the personnel lost at Jax-01…”

Siheyon Yujin, a black-haired woman sitting at the head of the table, checked the contents of her subordinate’s report using her own pad.

Originally, she had no intention of coming to Beryan02.

After acquiring the formidable artifact “Deep Destroyer” from Gallergorn’s planet, she had focused on deciphering another record left by Bumho. Thanks to her efforts, she discovered it was a kind of navigation chart.

However, she couldn’t make further progress due to practical issues she was facing.

Contact with her subordinates planted in Star Union’s capital Jax-01 had been cut off. According to intelligence obtained through other channels, the Grand Sovereign had ordered a purge of spies and dangerous elements across all planets under Star Union control.

Because of this, half of her forces had disappeared overnight.

Even with powerful weapons, activities become impossible without supporting forces. She had no choice but to focus on rebuilding her forces instead of investigating the artifact.

‘Originally, I planned to recruit mercenaries from Kesha Arma…’

The space fortress “Kesha Arma” occupied by Space Dog.

It was the perfect place to find skilled mercenaries, valuable information, and rare creature genes. In fact, before being revived as a clone, the original Siheyon Yujin had visited Kesha Arma’s auction house several times.

Moreover, rumors circulated that numerous rare documents and navigation charts would be featured in this auction. From her perspective, it was an opportunity she couldn’t miss.

But what they found upon flying to the space fortress was “nothing.” The Kesha Arma, which had been intact when they heard about the auction, had completely disappeared.

Even she, with all her experience, couldn’t have imagined a space fortress vanishing in an instant.

In the end, her plan to acquire mercenaries and navigation charts failed.

At that time, the one who helped her was former Imperial Mothership Captain Nern.

He suggested going to Beryan02 to find the necessary personnel. He added that his successor was there, so they could request assistance.

That’s why they came to Beryan02 a month ago.

“Personnel recruitment doesn’t seem to be a major issue, but equipment remains problematic.”

“That can’t be helped. There’s occasional talk of rearmament in the council. It won’t be easy to acquire weapons here.”

Nern, who cooperated with Siheyon under the pretext of avenging against monsters, continued to help after arriving at Beryan02. Even Minseok Yujin, Siheyon’s butler, who had dismissed Nern as a Cult before coming here, had completely changed his attitude now.

“?”

During the meeting, a short message arrived on Siheyon’s pad.

“I’ll meet with the Innovatives and try to acquire the necessary items. They oppose rearmament, so they might sell weapons.”

The message was from Lila Chamberlain, a woman wearing a black life management suit.

‘…Innovatives.’

T&C, which Lila belonged to, was a house that frequently interacted with the Cult. Using T&C’s name would make it not difficult to acquire Cult weapons.

The problem was Lila’s status. She was known to have disappeared when the T&C Special Trade Center collapsed. If she contacted the Innovatives under Noble Capital’s name in this situation, the news would leak to Megacorp.

‘Akira must not know about this.’

It would be difficult to escape if pursued by the Megacorp CEO while in a weakened state.

‘Contacting the Innovatives is good, but I can’t use Lila.’

After contemplating, she finally spoke.

“We’ll postpone equipment acquisition until appropriate personnel are recruited. And Captain Nern, I’d like to meet your successor. Would that be possible?”

“Meeting him wouldn’t be difficult. But acquiring weapons would be challenging.”

“What about opening another route through him? For instance, the Innovatives?”

“That… hmm. I think we’d have to ask him directly.”

“Then we’ll decide what to do next after meeting him. This concludes the meeting.”

The path she chose was postponement.

–

“This street is much more bustling than I expected.”

“I know. It wasn’t this scale in the game.”

Above was a transparent barrier, and on both sides were buildings with clean designs modeled after geometric shapes. The ground was paved with blocks made of special material that left no footprints regardless of who walked on them.

Numerous sentient beings were busy going about their business in this arcade-style street with an exotic atmosphere. Though I called it an arcade, it was incomparable in scale to any arcade that existed on Earth.

That’s because the entire street was one building.

This place, named “Street of Light,” is a kind of bio-dome modeled after arcades. It was built this way to block sandstorms and heat from the red desert, providing visitors with the optimal environment.

Currently, I’m walking through this high-tech yet classically styled street with the Sky Mother.

Thanks to “Unknown Creature’s Fur” and “Mimicry Organ,” no one could see my true form. Beings capable of detecting pheromones would perceive me as a Cult cannon gunner from an elite surveillance ship. Cameras wouldn’t detect me at all.

‘Without these two traits, I wouldn’t have considered coming here.’

Anyway, the reason we came here is because the 22nd ranker’s communicator was detected in this area. Unfortunately, we couldn’t determine exactly which building it was in. From here on, we needed to search on foot.

“Was there originally a bio-dome here too?”

“No. This is newly built. The Street of Light was famous as an equipment trading center, but it didn’t have facilities like this.”

“You know quite a lot about it.”

“If someone hadn’t crashed an Imperial Mothership here, I wouldn’t have remembered.”

Her sarcastic remark reminded me.

Just before the all-out war with the Cult, I had invaded Beryan02.

At that time, Beryan02 was renowned as an impregnable planet, making it difficult even for me as an adult to conquer. The method I chose was to exploit the enemies’ own weapons. I lured Imperial Motherships to the planet and crashed them to break through the defense line.

The players defending the planet didn’t seem to expect the Imperial Motherships to crash and failed to respond properly. Many died from the impact, and the rest were picked off one by one.

“As far as I know, this wasn’t your base.”

“This was the base of the clan that made my equipment. Until it disappeared because of you, that is.”

“Well. I have nothing to say to that.”

I’ve heard that many rankers suffered great losses due to the fall of Beryan02. It seems Sky Mother was one of them.

Chatting about various things, we entered the district where slaves were mainly traded.

Despite being a slave market, the surrounding scenery didn’t change much. This was because all the merchandise for trade was inside the stores. Instead, advertisement boards were set up in front of each building.

Some boards listed the specs and physical conditions of available slaves, while others detailed rare creatures for sale.

Besides the advertisement boards, there were many individuals wearing silver necklaces in this district.

Those silver necklaces are proof that the wearer is a slave. Inside each necklace is a code indicating the slave’s owner.

It’s better than Megacorp, which frequently kills employees or treats them as test subjects, but that depends on the situation. A slave’s fate varies drastically depending on the owner’s character. Jason, when alive, treated female slaves as sexual toys.

The slaves on the street were busily moving around, carrying out orders from their masters.

‘The scale is enormous.’

Looking at the advertisement boards, it seemed that not only slave trading but also creature trading was active.

‘I might be able to find traits to give to the kids.’

Even with just a brief look, I spotted several creatures with useful traits.

‘I need someone familiar with the market.’

Going around and searching one by one is cumbersome and time-consuming. It would be more effective to control a local and make them bring offerings.

“That store looks big. Shall we check there first?”

“Good idea.”

I entered a building that stood out due to its size, accompanied by Sky Mother.

Passing through the luxurious entrance, an insect-man clerk at the front desk greeted us.

“Welcome to our store… ahem, excuse me.”

The silver-necklaced clerk sneezed briefly while trying to greet us. It was due to the pheromones emitted from my mimicry organ.

As long as the insect-man is a creature affected by pheromones, he cannot escape the effects of the mimicry organ. His bodily organs would recognize me as a cannon gunner serving on a Cult battleship.

The clerk, seemingly embarrassed, stroked his antennae and greeted us again.

“Welcome to our store. Is there something specific you’re looking for?”

“I’d like to inquire about Coldblood.”

“Please wait a moment.”

While waiting for the insect-man clerk to check the slave list, someone approached the desk.

“Hey, you.”

“Hm?”

I thought they had business with the clerk, but that wasn’t the case. A Volf with a leopard head, dressed in something resembling a suit, addressed me.

“How much for that slave?”

“Slave? What do you mean?”

“The female beside you. Seeing her naked, she must be a slave. Aren’t you here to sell her?”

Only then did I understand what the Volf was talking about.

“She is not a slave but a member of a tribe. She is not for sale.”

“That’s ridiculous. Primitives coming all the way to Beryan02? And naked at that? Don’t lie to me when you’re clearly using her as a porter.”

The Volf pointed at the backpack Sky Mother was carrying.

Meanwhile, Sky Mother, who belatedly realized the leopard-headed Volf was treating her as a slave, silently reached for the short spear in her backpack.

“Wait.”

“……”

She hesitated at my words.

Perhaps it was because she was insulted in an unexpected situation. The fur all over her body stood on end. This is the first time I’ve seen her this angry since she condemned Muriel.

“She is my friend, not a slave. I will not sell her to anyone.”

“My master is willing to pay a price beyond your imagination.”

“I won’t say it twice.”

“…Tsk. Stupid fool. You’ll regret this.”

The leopard-headed Volf clicked his tongue and retreated. He approached a Cult male in elegant traditional clothing in the distance and said something.

‘This is a first for me.’

Whether in the game or in this world, few have been disrespectful to me. None at all since becoming a ranker.

Because of this, I found it refreshing rather than angering.

“…That bastard.”

Of course, Sky Mother, who was openly treated as a slave, was extremely angry.

Her cold amber eyes were fixed on the Cult and the leopard-headed Volf leaving the store. If I hadn’t stopped her, the Volf would probably have a hole in his head.

At that moment, the insect-man handed me a small pad.

“You can check the Coldblood trade list through this.”

“Thank you.”

I scanned through the Coldblood slave list provided by the clerk.

‘Fewer than I expected.’

Either this place doesn’t deal with Coldblood slaves, or they don’t have many for sale. Looking at the slave trade status at the back of the list, the number of transactions was low.

After checking everything, I passed the pad to Sky Mother. She, having calmed her anger, quickly checked the list.

“It’s not here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. That child is much smaller than regular Coldblood. She would have grown by now, but she’d still be small.”

She also checked the names and personal information in the trade status but ultimately shook her head. Unfortunately, this place seemed to be a dead end.

I returned the pad to the clerk and asked:

“Where is the store that deals with the most Coldblood?”

“There are a total of three places in this street that handle Coldblood, including this one. If you’re looking for a specialized store, you’ll need to go to another city.”

“What are the names of those stores?”

“One is nearby. You can enter the building on the opposite side. The problem is the other store…”

The insect-man clerk trailed off, eyeing me cautiously.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, the owner of the slave you just spoke with sells Coldblood.”

“Ah.”

“That person handles the most items in this street. But as you’ve seen, he’s quite difficult to deal with…”

He had witnessed the entire scene. He also realized that I now had a poor relationship with the leopard-headed Volf’s owner.

‘Well, that’s an unnecessary worry.’

“Just tell me the store name and location. I’ll handle the rest myself.”

“Understood.”

The one who handles the most items in this street.

I really want to meet him. Even if he doesn’t want to.