17. Drop It!
[Item: GX-Final Impact Pile Bunker (S Grade)]
[Price: 250,000 CR]
I stared at the enormous number floating in the shop window and swallowed a dry lump in my throat.
Two hundred and fifty thousand credits.
Even adding the reward from defeating the Aegis to the money I already had, it was still an amount so absurd it defied imagination.
It was probably the price of an entire small warship.
Scarlet had every right to call me a madman when she laughed.
After all, without the system shop this weapon would have been far beyond the reach of a lone mercenary like me.
‘Damn… it’s insanely expensive.’
But I couldn’t give up.
The pile bunker was the core and the dream of my close-quarters build.
With it, my Bugbear would no longer be just scrap metal.
I closed the shop window. I had no way to buy it right now. But I wasn’t completely out of options.
My eyes naturally drifted to Yuna, who was still standing between Scarlet and me, watching us.
The ace pilot of Icarus Technology. If it was her…
Noticing my obvious stare, Yuna frowned slightly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
I hesitated. Two hundred and fifty thousand credits.
We’d barely met. With her complicated ties to Icarus, asking her to lend that much was too much.
If I worded it wrong, she’d think I was scamming her or just push her suspicion higher.
But right now, did I have any other choice? Scarlet had made it clear I had to handle the parts cost myself.
Gathering that much money by taking gigs in Terminus would take who knew how long.
Meanwhile, Admiral Belzero Karmail might find me.
The risk was high, but the value was worth asking.
She hadn’t said she came all this way out of worry, but she had mentioned Icarus might invest in my potential.
I steeled my resolve and spoke.
“Yuna… could you lend me some credits?”
“Credits?”
Yuna asked, surprised.
Scarlet watched us with interest too.
“Yes. As you can see, my mecha is in bad shape and I’ll need a lot of funds for proper upgrades.”
I answered as naturally as I could.
“But the amount is pretty big. Around two hundred and fifty thousand credits.”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand?!”
Yuna’s eyes widened, and Scarlet, who had been listening beside me, gaped too. Scarlet jumped in first.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand credits is the price of a decent used mecha mechanic! What the hell are you even planning? You gonna pay pure gold for that scrap heap of yours?”
“I’m trying to buy the pile bunker. Don’t you see?”
Yuna cut Scarlet off and glared at me. Her eyes had turned ice-cold again.
“So the GX-Final Impact you mentioned before is that expensive?”
“It’s expensive and hard to get, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
I answered shortly. There was no need to hide anymore.
Yuna stared at me silently for a moment.
It looked like she was running quick calculations in her head. Two hundred and fifty thousand credits.
Not a small sum even for an ace pilot, let alone a normal mercenary group.
But she said she had way more than enough.
I watched her expression carefully and added carefully.
“Of course, if it’s a burden, that’s fine. I’ll find another way.”
It wasn’t about pride; it was to test her feelings.
Yuna’s expression shifted subtly.
“What do you think I am?”
She looked at me as if she’d been insulted or my words had wounded her pride.
“You think I’d feel burdened by such a small amount? Money? There’s plenty of that.”
She pulled out her personal terminal as if to prove it and started manipulating it.
A moment later, a deposit notification appeared on my terminal.
[+250,000 CR] / Sender: Yuna
“…!”
My eyes flew open as I checked the deposit.
She had sent the two hundred and fifty thousand without hesitation.
Whether it was for her pride or because she was investing in me or some other reason, I couldn’t tell, but the result was shocking.
“Is this enough?”
Yuna lowered her terminal and asked coolly.
“Y-yeah. Thank you, Yuna. I’ll definitely pay you back.”
I gave her a grateful smile in a daze.
“Paying back is only natural.”
She answered bluntly, but the tips of her ears turned a little red.
Now I had the money for the pile bunker.
I turned to Scarlet.
“Then I’ll bring my mecha here. I’ll come back when it’s ready.”
“What? You’re leaving already?”
Scarlet looked disappointed. But her gaze was on Yuna, not me.
Her eyes began to sparkle like a child’s.
“Hey, Yuna!”
Scarlet suddenly rushed toward Yuna as if she wanted to embrace her.
Yuna recoiled a step backward in disgust.
“I have a request, but it’s not about borrowing money like that guy. Silvera! Can you just let me see Silvera once? Please! I’m dying of curiosity!”
Scarlet clung to Yuna’s arm, ignoring all dignity and starting to beg.
Her eyes were filled with curiosity and longing.
It was only natural for a genius mechanic to want to see the ultimate embodiment of cutting-edge technology up close.
“W-would you stop?!”
Yuna tried to push Scarlet away in disgust, but Scarlet stuck to her stubbornly.
“Please! Just once! Even a little!”
Her sweat-soaked, oil-stained work uniform nearly touched Yuna’s pristine white suit.
Yuna’s face twisted with pure revulsion.
“You said drop it!”
Yuna finally snapped and shoved Scarlet hard. But Scarlet refused to let go and tried to cling again.
“Then I’ll head out.”
I waved to them and slipped out of the workshop while they were distracted, heading straight to the landing bay.
[Would you like to purchase the GX-Final Impact Pile Bunker (S Grade) for 250,000 CR?]
“Yes, buy it.”
[Purchase completed. 250,000 CR deducted.]
With my command, the massive object summoned in front of my Bugbear.
It was a siege hammer-like pile bunker, huge and heavy.
Blackened reinforced frame, enormous hydraulic cylinders, and at the end, an insanely thick super-alloy stake.
Just looking at it sent an overwhelming sense of destructive power.
The weapon I’d only seen in games had now appeared before my eyes in reality.
“Hah… finally in my hands!”
After a moment of awe at its majesty, I headed to the landing bay management office, paid the extra credits, and rented a small anti-gravity transport pallet.
I carefully fixed the pile bunker and the gravity damper onto the pallet.
Everything was ready. I climbed back into the Bugbear, pulled the pallet with the anti-gravity thrusters, and headed toward Scarlet’s workshop.
#
Deep in the command room of the massive pirate flagship Crimson Tide, the admiral’s office was decorated with expensive carpets, antique furniture, and walls covered in trophies.
At the same time, cutting-edge holographic displays and tactical status boards flashed, and in the commander’s chair sat a woman buried deep in it.
Long black hair flowed over her shoulders, and her skin-tight dark-red uniform only enhanced her charisma.
It was none other than Admiral Belzero Karmail, the infamous head of the Red Veil Pirates.
In front of her, the holographic replay of the battle that had just ended was playing.
The final moments her elite pirate fleet had endured inside the Titan’s Grave zero isolation chamber.
In the screen: one dilapidated Bugbear and the even more horrifying wreckage of the XG-01 Aegis.
Then the scene where the Bugbear pilot pulled something from the wreckage, followed by the pirates’ attack, and finally the pitiful explosion of her own subordinates by a blue laser beam that appeared from nowhere.
When the video ended, Belzero said nothing and turned off the hologram.
On her beautiful face, there was only cold, sharp analysis instead of anger or disappointment.
‘So the Aegis was definitely there in front of me…’
She tapped the armrest of the chair slowly with her slender fingers.
‘How did a third-generation Bugbear take it down? That pilot… not an ordinary guy.’
Her gaze moved to the energy analysis data recorded on one side of the screen.
‘Unknown modification? Or the pilot’s own ability?’
Either way, the result was clear.
Her subordinates had failed, and the target had fallen into the hands of that unknown Bugbear pilot.
‘Then… the Atlas V gravity damper is in his possession.’
A faint, cruel smile appeared on Belzero’s lips.
Her stupid subordinates had given their lives to pinpoint the target’s location and owner.
Of course, the unexpected interference that appeared at the last second was annoying.
‘The Silver Witch of Icarus has joined the fray. Annoying.’
But she didn’t become agitated.
If Yuna or Icarus got in the way of what she wanted, she would simply remove them.
The important thing was that she now knew the whereabouts of the gravity damper.
Belzero leaned back deeply into the chair and took a long, black cigar from the elegant case beside her.
She lit the cigar and slowly exhaled the smoke.
The bitter yet fragrant smoke spread softly through the darkness of the admiral’s office.
Through the smoke leaking from her red lips, her eyes, cold and deep in thought, glowed.