Ch.381Wanderers (1)

Frank’s joining of the Shinomitsu (しの三) Cartel was purely coincidental.

Originally, he was a low-ranking executive of the Martio Cartel, a massive pirate organization that operated a space fortress.

His job was to capture debtors who had stolen the cartel’s credits and fled. For this purpose, he would periodically leave the fortress leading a pirate ship.

The problem occurred a few months ago when he returned after completing a job. He came back with a captured debtor as usual, but the fortress was nowhere to be seen.

Like a ghost story circulating among crew members, his cartel and its base had vanished overnight.

All that remained was a pirate ship converted from a patrol vessel and about a dozen subordinates.

Having lost most of what he had, Frank was left with two options.

Either create a new cartel and continue piracy, or join another cartel.

Frank was a villain, but not a fool. The reason he could easily capture debtors was entirely due to his backing.

The Martio Cartel, one of the top five Space Dogs in size, possessed enormous intelligence capabilities. Without their information network, it would have been impossible to easily catch fugitives.

Therefore, Frank chose the latter option.

He requested to join the “Shino Alliance,” a pirate group that had recently grown rapidly in power. As it happened, a pirate named Shinomitsu from the alliance was recruiting members, so Frank and his subordinates joined the Shinomitsu Cartel.

The mere fact that he had a ship was a merit, so he was promoted to deputy leader as soon as he joined the new organization.

From a low-ranking executive to the deputy leader of a famous cartel. When the fortress disappeared, he thought he was ruined, but in fact, it was a turning point.

Now, hundreds of subordinates and two vessels follow him. And attractive women too.

“Deputy leader, are you there?”

Frank, in the captain’s quarters, ignored his subordinate’s communication. He didn’t want to be disturbed while enjoying a pleasant time with a cyborg slave.

“Deputy leader?”

“…Ah, shit.”

But the repeated voice of his subordinate ruined everything. He pushed away the slave between his legs and answered the communication.

“You bastard, I told you not to contact me when I’m busy, didn’t I?”

“Well, it’s an urgent matter.”

Currently, the vessels under Frank’s command were carrying out reconnaissance missions in an ownerless star system. This was because they had received information that a very rare creature would appear here.

Not only Frank but other cartels belonging to the Shino Alliance were also waiting in places where rare creatures were expected to appear.

Although it was a boring mission from the pirates’ perspective, it didn’t matter much. That’s why they deliberately brought sex slaves along.

“What urgent matter could there possibly be in our job?”

“Please look at this.”

Along with his subordinate’s words, a small holographic map appeared on the desk.

“Why suddenly a map… huh?”

He saw something unfamiliar in the hologram modeling the star system.

Numerous particles were clustered in one place. Seeing that they were all moving in the same direction, it wasn’t simply depicting an asteroid field. Frank looked closely, wondering if this might be the rare creature.

And a moment later.

“What the fuck?!”

Frank, his face turning pale, jumped up from his seat. He adjusted his unbuckled pants and shouted.

“Wake everyone up and prepare the drones! Now!”

Frank knows what the strange presence marked on the map is.

It’s something that anyone aboard a spaceship would inevitably fear. Even notorious pirates.

‘F-fuck! Why are there swarms of Metallic Gremlins here?!’

Tens of thousands of marauders are now approaching where Frank’s ship is located.

–

Obviously, this world is very different from the game.

There have been many cases where characteristics that were insignificant in the game show unexpected performance when they become reality.

The auxiliary organ below the jaw is a good example.

In the game, it was limited to providing a vision advantage by implementing the surrounding environment in mini-map form. But in this world, it’s used for various purposes such as detecting and avoiding enemy attacks or sensing invisible enemies.

Many other characteristics have changed from what I remember in the game.

However, perhaps because these differences have mostly worked in my favor so far, I unknowingly made a mistake.

While flying toward the ice planet where Adhigh’s family stays, I felt something different about my body.

It was hunger. The emptiness that I normally didn’t feel during FTL travel started to bother me.

I quickly identified the cause. It was due to the trash trait “Hunger” that I acquired after catching the Pyromancer.

When I was on the planet, I ate prey so frequently that I didn’t have time to feel hungry. This is the first time I’ve experienced the risk of hunger.

‘At least I’m not lacking energy itself.’

In my main body, the dragon’s heart is pumping energy. There’s also plenty of residual energy left in the ship.

‘Rather, should this be considered a mental issue?’

The emotion I’m feeling now is similar to when one’s nerves are on edge due to hunger.

‘This is more annoying than I expected.’

In the game, if energy ran out while having the hunger trait, you would lose control over your body. So I thought there wouldn’t be a problem as long as energy didn’t run out.

I didn’t know there would be side effects like this that cause irritation.

‘I need to eat something on the way.’

As long as I have the dragon’s heart, the possibility of me losing my mind is slim. Still, it’s not good to continue in this irritating state for long. I even feel anxious, as if someone is chasing me.

I should stop briefly on the way and take a rest.

‘While at it, I’ll feed the Mountain Crawler too.’

There’s a small amount of meat stored in the ship, but no separate food for the Mountain Crawler. It can survive without eating minerals for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it likes to starve.

‘I can give it rock fragments floating in space.’

I need to look for any pirate ships or merchant vessels wandering nearby.

When I stopped the FTL travel, the pressure weighing on me instantly decreased.

“AMorph? The engine seems to have stopped, is something wrong?”

“I’ve confirmed that FTL travel has been halted before reaching ‘White Stone’. Is there a problem?”

“Big baby tired? If tired, should sleep. Sleep makes better!”

“That monster wouldn’t be tired from something like this.”

“Rest?” “I” “Outside” “Can I go out?”

When the ship stopped, everyone who was spending personal time said something.

[Zzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzz(Just taking a break. You can go out if you want)]

“I” “Pretty child” “Together” “Flight” “Training” “Will do”

“Huh? Wait. You want me to join too?”

“Pretty child” “Weak” “Training” “More” “Much” “Need”

After informing everyone that I would rest, I called PS-111 and Sechan over.

[Zzzz zzzzzzz zzzzz zzzz(Are there any pirates operating in this area?)]

“This star system has no owner. Research shows that 1.2% of merchant vessels registered with Megacorps have passed through this system. There is an 82% probability that criminals are active here.”

It seems ships do pass through, but not very frequently.

Actually, places with too much ship traffic aren’t good for Space Dogs either.

‘Because it’s over if we catch the eye of the great powers.’

I turned my gaze to Sechan.

“There’s no cartel that uses this place as a base, but I’ve heard that small cartels conduct raids here.”

The man who had half his brain taken by a parasite answered while staring at my main body with vacant eyes.

‘So pirates are active here.’

That works out well.

Currently, I’m infiltrating and controlling the ship. Thanks to this, the detection system shows it as a regular vessel. The exterior also looks exactly like a Megacorp warship, except for its black color.

To pirates’ eyes, it would look like a tempting prey.

[Zzz zzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzz zzzz(Is there anything else I should be cautious about?)]

“After analyzing the ship data, I’ve confirmed there are no other risk factors besides pirates.”

[Zzz(Really?)]

Then it should be fine to move around a bit.

[Zzzzz zzzz zzzz zzzzz(I’m going to move, everyone come back)]

After calling back those who were outside, I slowly began to move.

This place felt very different from the star system where Askha44 was located.

The scenery of the Dorane system was very splendid thanks to the red giant Olga. The blazing red star and the pitch-black spaces contrasting with it. It reminded me of space photos and illustrations I had seen in my human days.

In contrast, the atmosphere here is very static. There are no impressive stars or beautiful nebulae. Just endless darkness continuing on.

‘I guess most of space is actually like this.’

While thinking that and moving, the black mucus covering the exterior of the ship detected something. Some movement occurred in a space quite far away.

‘A pirate ship?’

The movement feels increasingly stronger. It’s flying toward us.

‘I thought it would take longer… huh?’

Just as I was about to think this was fortunate, I felt something strange. The movement of the pirate ship approaching me was different from other vessels.

I focused my senses on the ship’s outer wall. Like when I linked with the nest, my sensory range expanded, and parts that couldn’t be detected by auxiliary organs alone were transmitted to my brain. The movement of the entity approaching from afar feels more distinct than before.

‘Three large ones, and…’

Small objects too numerous to count even with developed senses. The large ones were surrounded by countless tiny objects like grains of sand.

The large ones are definitely ships. The problem here is the identity of the small objects surrounding the ships.

‘Metallic Gremlins?’

Tens of thousands of silver monsters were gathered in one place, attacking the ships.

All three ships were flying quickly in this direction, so I thought they were attempting a surprise attack, but that wasn’t it. They weren’t attacking but seeking help.

‘Why are they here?’

To intelligent beings who have ventured into space, swarms of Metallic Gremlins are nothing short of a living disaster. That’s why Megacorps or the Star Union always record locations where space marauders appear.

The fact that PS-111 couldn’t find any special records means one of two things.

Either they came here from another star system, or there were no survivors from ships that had been attacked by them.

‘Either way, this works out well.’

I was feeling quite hungry anyway.

Three ships and Metallic Gremlins.

This much prey should be sufficient to satisfy my hunger.