Chapter 24

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Translator: Silver Dragon

Chapter: 24

Chapter Title: Scam Planet (1)

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A woman crawled out from among the corpses and waved at me.

She was incredibly tall.

Tall enough to meet my eye level, in fact.

She had to be at least 170 cm, no doubt.

"R... Ragna Rothburg?"

Her blue eyes sparkled.

Because of the glass helmet, her long golden blonde hair was tied ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back in a ponytail.

It looked a bit stuffy, but...

Her elegant beauty and refined poise were impossible to hide.

"I was wondering who might come to rescue me. Never thought it'd be the newbie. This is a nice surprise."

Ragna smiled with her eyes as she walked toward the bathroom.

Her tight spacesuit hugged her figure perfectly.

She left the bathroom door open as she stepped inside.

Grabbing the showerhead, she washed the blood from her body.

Even then, her eyes in the mirror stayed fixed on me.

"Wait just a sec. It's our first meeting with the newbie, after all. Can't have it covered in blood, right?"

Once the blood was rinsed off, she approached me.

Bold as brass, she thrust her face right up to mine.

Her blue eyes filled my entire field of vision.

"Hmm... I'm curious what you look like. Can't see with the helmet. Wanna take it off? Wait, why not strip completely while we're at it?"

"Ma'am... we're on standby here, so taking these off would kill us?"

"So it's fine elsewhere? Where'd you park your ship? Shall we head there?"

"Keep this up, and I might just bolt."

"Bolt? No one's ever run from me and lived. Think you can?"

Ragna didn't yield an inch.

No, at this point, it was starting to get scary.

As I shrank back into a defensive posture, she burst out laughing.

"Aw, just kidding. Kidding. You think I'd eat you or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something?"

But... you totally look like you would.

Best not say that out loud.

"Anyway, enough joking. You see the news about me?"

"I was on the news?"

"I saw it and realized you were here. The Xenos thought you were a Chiltoom."

"Oh, that. I was gonna say I was human, but they seemed to be hiding something. Pretending to be Chiltoom scared 'em into being nice."

She flashed another eye smile.

"Good call. Made things easier for me."

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠asked her.

"What the hell happened, anyway?"

After she suddenly vanished from the Gallery.

She hadn't logged in for a while.

If she couldn't access the Gallery, that meant it was serious.

But she looked relatively fine now.

"I'm fine, but my ship's totally wrecked."

"Isn't your ship super tough?"

As far as I knew, her ship was insanely powerful.

Top-tier in the entire Gallery.

Hard to believe she'd been taken down.

"How'd it happen?"

She answered my question.

"I got kidnapped."

"Kidnapped? By who?"

"Call it a collab between Anomalies and shady Xenos."

Interacting with Xenos builds Anomaly stacks.

Manageable levels aren't dangerous.

But loose cannons like Ragna always rack up a ton.

"So I wasn't planning to deal with any Xenos."

But then something weird happened.

Her Anomaly stack started spiking out of nowhere.

She didn't notice at all.

Eventually, the stack blew up.

Her ship turned into chaos.

Anomalies appeared and attacked the ship,

leaving it completely inoperable.

"Shields down, engines dead. Total nightmare."

She started fighting the Anomalies trying to take over the ship.

While she battled alone in orbit,

another enemy showed up.

"Eight pirate escort ships appeared outta nowhere."

Eight pirate ships, sudden as hell.

They hit her unshielded ship with a tractor beam

and forced it to crash-land on Lota Planet.

After the crash,

the Waka tribe and pirates teamed up to board.

They seized the ship and captured Ragna.

That's when I remembered all the missing ships in this system.

They weren't caught in ether storms.

Pirates had kidnapped them.

"So that's why they seemed shady? Scared their kidnapped warship might be Chiltoom?"

"Likely."

Knowing the truth made their attitude click.

Thought it was some puny nation's ship, easy pickings.

Turns out it's a U.S. destroyer?

I'd be shaking too.

"How'd you escape?"

"Their mistake."

Right after crash-landing,

she killed the guards and slipped away.

Pirates chased once they realized a survivor,

but got slaughtered instead.

She hid until rescue,

then saw me on the news and headed here.

"What a ordeal. Good work."

"Feels nice getting praise from the newbie."

"Now that you're safe, gotta tell the Gallery."

"Sounds good. Proof pic together?"

I prepped to take a photo.

She hooked her arm in mine and pressed close.

Our pose made her chest brush mine a bit.

"H-Hold on."

"Why?"

"D-Doesn't this feel awkward?"

"Nah? Feels fine to me."

Our eyes met.

She showed zero signs of letting go before the shot.

"Better snap it quick. Stay like this too long, and my Anomaly levels shoot up."

I took the pic as-is.

– Click!

I was a bit flustered by the Gallery reactions.

Ragna, peeking over at the Gallery beside me, spoke up.

"Oh right. They don't know I'm a girl? Never said except super early on. Most won't know."

"Oh yeah?"

Felt like shit was about to hit the fan.

But couldn't lie,

so time to reply.

Soon, the Gallery exploded in historic chaos.