Titan's Tomb
Venturing into the Grey Wasteland to hunt for a gravity damper was suicide in the making.
First things first— I needed to secure some means to protect my own body.
Handing over my mecha for full-scale customizations by Scarlet could wait until after I found the damper.
Right now the only urgent priority was to restore enough combat capability to keep me alive.
I turned the Bugbear around and headed back deeper into the scrap-metal alley.
Not long after, I spotted a relatively quiet district packed with twenty-four-hour self-repair bays operated by multiple mechanics.
You paid per hour and got access to basic tools plus a lift.
I rented one empty bay by the hour for four hours, had the Bugbear lifted from the hangar, and driven it here for repairs.
Then I opened the system window and activated the shop interface.
I shelved any romantic fantasies about pile bunkers for now and focused on what I actually needed.
‘I need at least one close-quarters weapon, and something to keep the incoming threats in check at a minimum distance.’
I carefully scanned the part list.
[Item: Standard Plasma Blade (Grade D)] Purchase complete. -4000 CR
[Item: Small Evasion Missile Pod (Grade D) x 2] Purchase complete. -5000 CR
[Item: Reinforced Armor Plate Set (Partial) ] Purchase complete. -3000 CR
[Item: Enhanced Combat Sensor Suite (Base Model)] Purchase complete. -3000 CR
Total credit expenditure: fifteen thousand.
I had just burned through almost every credit I still had.
The purchased parts appeared on one side of the repair bay and I immediately began installation.
Basic equipment was second nature to me—I had learned the fundamentals from the mercenary guilds.
A few hours later the upgrades were complete.
A gleaming plasma blade at my hip and missile pods on my shoulders.
The patched armor made the Bugbear feel noticeably sturdier.
Of course it was still nowhere near the level of Silvera or any cutting-edge frame, but I now looked like something that wouldn’t wander into trouble in the back alleys of Terminus Station.
I climbed into the cockpit, ran a fresh system diagnostics, and checked the new weapons and sensors.
They registered normally. Energy distribution was stable.
The reactor booster still had full output.
“All right. This should keep my body in one piece.”
I checked the bay rental timer and spent a few minutes moving the mecha around just to get a feel for the new gear.
The sense of swinging the plasma blade, the targeting feel of the missile pods.
It still felt awkward, but I would get used to it in no time.
I drove the Bugbear out of the repair bay.
*******
In the dim corner of a rundown tavern called Rusty Tankard, I sipped cheap beer and listened to the surrounding noise while waiting for the right moment.
I had a good idea where a damper might be found, but I wasn’t about to walk in blind.
I was doing undercover work here in the lawless hub where plenty of mercenaries came and went.
But aside from the slow passage of time, all I heard was the usual bragging and complaining of underfed mercenaries.
Then, just as my beer glass was nearly empty, loud voices erupted from the table right beside mine.
Two rough-looking men in work clothes, clearly drunk, were shouting at each other and pointing fingers.
“So I told you! You shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Titan’s Tomb! I went there just to grab a few scrap chunks and lost half my crew! What the hell did we even get? A couple weird energy signals and some busted circuits!”
One of them shouted, face flushed with rage.
The other slammed his glass down hard on the table.
“Mark, we were almost there! If those damn auto-defense drones hadn’t been everywhere, we’d be sitting on a fortune! I’ve never seen anything like those energy signals before. It had to be something huge!”
“You were drunk and hallucinating!”
Titan’s Tomb.
My game knowledge kicked in the moment I heard the name.
‘That’s it.’
I couldn’t just walk away from here.
I needed more details from them.
I pulled out a one-hundred-credit chip, closed my fist around it, and walked straight to their table.
Both men, who had been shouting, turned to look at me at the same time.
Red-faced from alcohol, eyes full of suspicion.
Any sudden move from me could start a fight.
“Excuse me.”
I set the credit chip on the table and spoke calmly.
“I overheard you talking about Titan’s Tomb. I want more details about it. No payment required.”
The two men alternated glances between the chip and my face.
Mark, the one who had shouted first, narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“Who the hell are you? Suddenly showing up asking about that hellish place? That’s not a spot for amateurs.”
The other man slid the chip toward himself and tried to shut Mark up.
“Calm down, Mark. The money’s right there.”
He grinned at me, reeking of liquor.
“So what exactly do you want to know? Planning a sightseeing trip? You must have multiple lives.”
“Coordinates, the dangers waiting there, and everything you said about those strange energy signals. Tell me everything you know and I’ll give you another two hundred credits.”
My offer made both of their eyes flicker with interest.
Especially the one who had been excited about the energy signal, he looked like he was about to spill everything.
Mark hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.
“Fine. I’ll talk.”
The energy-signal guy started first.
“Titan’s Tomb is the deepest canyon district in the Grey Wasteland. The coordinates are…”
He fiddled with his old terminal and pulled up the location for me.
“Here’s the coordinate. The problem is the defense system. Murky killers pop up from nowhere. We lost four reconnaissance drones and two armed vehicles. The rest of the squad… damn.”
He took a swig of beer.
His next words instantly brought to mind the gravity damper’s signature and dangers as described in the game.
My odds of actually finding one here had just jumped even higher.
I nodded while organizing the info when Mark, who had been quietly sipping beside me, suddenly fixed a sharp gaze on me and asked.
“Say, since earlier… I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere before. When did you get to Terminus? Fresh meat?”
I hesitated for a second.
“Wait a minute…”
Mark’s eyes suddenly widened.
He pointed at me and shouted.
“You’re not the idiot who went up against Icarus’s Silver Witch with a beat-up Bugbear from a scrap heap at the Kronos mercenary base a few days ago, are you?!”
The rumors had already spread this far?
Terminus was a place where every scrap of information leaked, so it wasn’t strange.
But revealing my identity this early was never a good idea.
It could invite unnecessary attention and danger.
The other man also looked at me in surprise.
“Eh? You’re the…?”
I placed the promised two-hundred-credit chip on the table and spoke as if nothing had happened.
“I got the information I needed. Much appreciated.”
Once everything was ready, I returned to landing bay seven and climbed back into the Bugbear.
The moment I sat in the cockpit I entered Titan’s Tomb coordinates into the navigation system and pointed the nose toward the most dangerous stretch of the Grey Wasteland.
Surprisingly, obtaining transit permission from Terminus station control had been easy.
Perhaps the station’s unwritten rule was to leave lunatics heading into danger zones alone.
I completed the short takeoff sequence and soared once more into the hazy sky of the Grey Wasteland.
How long had I been flying?
Finally the navigation announced we were nearing the destination.
Before me rose the remains of a colossal mountain-range-like structure, its peaks stabbing into the clouds.
It had been named Titan’s Tomb because it looked like the grave of some gigantic titan that had collapsed and fallen asleep.
Exactly the same scenery I remembered from the game.
I entered the canyon entrance visible ahead with extreme caution.
‘As expected… it’s exactly like the game.’
I was tense, yet a strange sense of confidence surged through me.
This was one of the rare-part farming dungeons I had traversed countless times back in Galaxy Titans World.
Of course the reality and the game were different, but the basic layout and mechanics were bound to be similar.
As I ventured deeper into the canyon, the first obstacle appeared.
An energy barrier blocking the passage.
In the game it could only be deactivated by operating surrounding control consoles in a specific order.
The idiots Mark had mentioned probably wasted time here or tried to break through and triggered the defense system.
But I remembered the exact sequence.
‘Delta, Gamma… three-second delay… Alpha bypass…’
I guided the Bugbear to fire low-output energy pulses at each console in the precise order and timing.
With a sharp ping the energy barrier vanished like it was never there.
“Still exactly like the game.”
I let out a short fart and moved on to the next section.
This time we had entered a wide open chamber.
Hidden pressure panels dotted the floor and automated turrets were dormant on the ceiling.
A notorious trap zone: step on the wrong panel or fly too high and you’d be swarmed from every direction.
Those were almost certainly the killer drones they had mentioned.
I had memorized the safe routes from the game.
I stepped only on the designated platforms and crossed the chamber with the minimum necessary movement.
The ceiling turrets remained completely still.
I had pre-heated the missile pod targeting system as a precaution, but thankfully I didn’t need it.
After clearing every early trap, we reached a massive steel door leading into a vast interior space.
In the game this door hid the proper dungeon and powerful boss entities.
And the Atlas V gravity damper was inside.
My sensors picked up an energy reaction beyond the door.
I took a deep breath.
Up to this point the game knowledge had carried me smoothly, but now we were entering unknown territory.
Reality could be different—and far more dangerous.
I pulled out the plasma blade and approached the colossal steel door.