After destroying a space pirate base and selling the loot in the Mishyltia station, we had to meet with a prince of the nation that built Tortilla Double.
It was mostly about clarifying a few things to Van, so now we’re going to another star system to sell the rare metals, iron, and base metals like titanium to keep saving money for a mothership.
We said goodbye to Van, who went back to the VIP room with the eighth prince, so we can leave at any time. We can, but where are we going to sell this stuff?
We paid a parking fee, so Tortilla Double is still in the station’s dock, and we’re chatting in the living room, sitting on couches and pillows like always.
“I figured as much, but Van really had no interest in buying base metals or rare metals.”
“He has a planet full of them, so he doesn’t need them~.”
“So pirates are here, but it’s hard to make puni.”
“Hm, I checked the prices of metal in colonies we previously visited, but things are crazy in one of them.”
Suzuri puts the prices of iron on the living room monitor. Iron is very cheap in this galaxy. It’s usually bought by the ton.
There’s nothing I can do about that, but iron extraction technology is really advanced. They extract it in space, and there is a lot of scrap out there waiting to be collected. There’s a long history of war in this galaxy.
I’d guess iron is worth between a tenth and a hundredth of what it was worth in Japan.
One stands out as crazy, like Suzuri said.
“Uwah~!? Why are prices soaring in Zadar’s Mishun colony~!?”
“Eh? Ah!? It’s more than double of what it was! Isn’t mining their main industry!?”
“I saw on the news that Zadar is going through a tough time and mercenaries are leaving.”
“We could fetch a good price there, but I feel like we shouldn’t go in the first place!”
“It’s crazy…”
Prices are kind of high in the ring structure Huang too.
“It seems Huang needs metal to repair the parts of the ring structure that were destroyed, which made prices rise. It seems solid, so I would recommend this.”
“Oh~. But they won’t let us on the surface~. It’s not like I’m sick of being in the ship, but I want to see other places~.”
“If we’re thinking about resting after a battle, I wanna stop by another colony too.”
“Ah, true! Pokapoka seems nice. Their iron prices shouldn’t be bad either!”
“Pokapoka… Well, it seems safe. There are a lot of asteroids, but I feel like they make more money collecting than mining.”
“Yes, and it was also in Pokapoka that we uploaded to the video site.”
Yeah, you did that, Iris…
“But I want to explore other colonies. It’s a vast space out there.”
“I have some recommendations near Mishun Prime.”
Iris then calculates the days it would take to travel to nearby star systems through hyperlanes. Iron prices are all over the place.
I was thinking about a place two days away with not so bad metal prices, and find just that. Apparently there are a lot of space monsters there, and they have materials that go well with iron.
“Brefilmora Prime. How about it?”
No one objects, so that’s where we’re going.
▽▽▽
After two days traveling in a hyperlane, we’re ejected near a colony of Brefilmora Prime, Lumomo Fourth.
Brefilmora Prime is a place with high property values. It has two of what they call ocean planets with over ninety percent of them being ocean within habitable zones.
By the way, Earth is seventy percent ocean.
There’s also a large asteroid belt beyond the snow line. There are many composed of salt, or I guess rock salt, and many ice ones. And of course, metal.
Maybe it’s because they have a lot of ice and minerals, but many of the stations and colonies in this prime focus on food cartridge production plants.
And I guess it makes sense that so many space beings live in this space, because of the ice.
Lumomo Fourth is composed of eight balls stuck together in a ring. It’s just like those chewy donuts, and it looks green on the outside.
“Lumomo Fourth is too close to the asteroid belt. There’s going to be a collision in a year, right?”
“Yes, that’s why they put out quests in the Mercenary Guild. I used to come here all the time and make money with power armor. The ice itself is pretty cheap, so it was hard to make money just mining.”
“Hm? Ah yeah. Asteroid destruction quests… And monster hunting quests.”
Saratha says to Vasilisa.
“Can we make money here too~?”
“Space urchin… Perhaps there are not many profitable monsters.”
Space urchin?
“Iris, are space urchin ovaries edible?”
“You ask, but you already know, do you not? Yes, they are edible even raw. In the Lumomo Fourth colony, urchin gonads are seen as a delicacy, and are often sold processed or frozen. But that is the only edible part. Also, their spines are sold as materials, but are quite cheap.”
Gonads… So ovaries and testicles! The auto-pilot is docking, so I use my free arms to strike a pose. Of course, the girls are all exasperated, but you can eat testicles.
“That’s fine that you can eat them, but what do they eat?”
“They mostly feed on moss and algae stuck to the exterior of the colony. It is covered in them.”
“So the ones they call space moss and space algae~. I used to scrape them off as a part of a cleaning job~.”
Is someone going to say something like ‘actually this space isn’t a vacuum muhaha’?
“Ah, boss, you might be misunderstanding, but space moss is huge. Like the stems and leaves of the strawberries we grow.”
“Sounds like a pain to scrape off… By the way, why doesn’t anything grow on Tortilla Double? It feels like it should, but we’ve never had to do that kind of work.”
“It moves too fast for anything to latch. The same would be said for the colonies if they were spinning, but most use gravity magic, so things don’t stick to them.”
Says Suzuri, proud of her studies, and Kori pats her head.
So it’s because of magic.
▽▽▽
Tortilla Double has safely docked in Lumomo Fourth. The idea is to rest here for two or three days, and then go back to hunting space pirates in Mishyltia Prime.
And I’m thinking about selling all the piled up metal to the port authority right away.
“I will do it, you can go to the colony to satisfy your desire for urchin right away, Genma.”
“Thanks Suzuri, I’ll bring you something!!!”
“Master, I am curious about some things, so I want to look them up.”
“Then I’ll stay here guarding Suzuri. Have a nice rest.”
So I’m going to the colony with Kori and Saratha. Suzuri didn’t seem too interested in urchin, so I need to do my best to spread that faith.
With the food printer, what we eat always ends up becoming standardized. I have curry every seven days, but I don’t really feel like replicating and eating delicacies.
It’s not like I only eat out of necessity, but I don’t really get the drive to eat seafood bowl or something like that. I didn’t have the option to have urchin cream pasta either.
When I’m offered the chance to eat what I want in my three meals, I tend to become partial to specific things. Judging by my meal history, I think it’s time to test the randomizing feature.
“He’s excited like a kid.”
“Like a kid~.”
“Nah, I’m in a good mood. Urchin was expensive on Earth, although I don’t know how much it costs here!”
I end up running on the dock towards the door that leads to the colony.
I feel like since my body was rejuvenated to about twenty years old, my mind is following suit. Don’t tell me I didn’t have the mental age of someone in his thirties in the first place, that hurts a lot.
Things are as they usually are outside the dock. There are moving pathways that go around facilities.
The interior seems flat, and I can see uniformly shaped buildings up ahead. To the left and right are arched entrances that I assume are the connecting points to other spheres. They’re huge.
I look around as Kori and Saratha follow me, and wander into the business district.
Most colonies have a business district in the outer edge tailored for people who come on spaceships. General stores structured like convenience stores, and many places like fast food restaurants where people eat at the counter.
Apparently they deal with progressively more expensive stuff the further in you go… Ah, something caught Kori and Saratha’s attention. An accessory shop that deals in pearls.
“Let’s do our shopping tomorrow when we’re all here.”
“I want to see now!”
“Accessories are once in a lifetime~!”
I have a harem, so I’m attentive about this stuff…
“Ouch!”
“Hey, careful.”
A kid runs into me and falls back, rolling in the opposite direction, while I’m sent flying diagonally up.
What happened?
The accessory store is on the first floor, and it seems there are offices on the second. I can see desks, information terminals, and floating people through the window. And with my implant enhanced vision, I can see balls of liquid floating in a glass.
Did the magic artificial gravity stop working? Am I pretty high up?
Suddenly, my vision is painted black. At the same time, my Ether Tactical eyes show me a notification telling me light and shadow adaptation and night vision were activated, and that communications have been cut.
Once the night vision kicks in, the world around me is blue.
There are people and things floating around, and some hanging on. What happened to Kori and Saratha? Are they okay because they were indoors? I don’t see them near the entrance, but can they hear me if I yell?
What happened with Tortilla Double? The interior has artificial gravity, but it could slide under zero gravity and crash against a wall of the colony. Would the three inside it withstand that? Have they noticed something is wrong?
What about me? I can now look at the third floor, but I’m moving away from the building. I have nothing to hold on to, but I guess it makes sense considering I was in the middle of the path.
I take out my smartphone to check if I can contact someone, but it says communications have been cut.
This colony doesn’t rotate on its own, and it has an artificial light source like LED or something.
It makes sense for a power outage to lead to this situation, and I’m now picturing the worst case scenario.
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