The Bustling Streets of Keren
"Woooow…"
Stepping out of the elevator from the port district into the living district, Calsira let out a long, breathless gasp of pure wonder at the glittering cityscape and the vibrant pulse of everyday life surrounding her.
Slightly grimy streets thronged with countless people coming and going. Spherical robots floating along one side of the road, projecting advertising holograms above their heads. Swarms of self-levitating vehicles zipping through the air overhead. For a woman who had spent her entire life sealed away from the outside world, this was a breathtaking spectacle she had only ever glimpsed through her Bio Device.
"Haaa… I never thought I'd actually get to see this with my own eyes while I was still alive…"
Jincheon himself wore an expression of genuine awe, as though he had just stepped into the real-life version of This Is the Future World!! Hope Edition.
Heliane watched the two of them gawking like complete country bumpkins and quietly steeled herself, ready to intervene the moment either of them tried anything too ridiculous.
"We should head to the commercial district first, right?"
Keren was divided into four districts in total: the living district, the commercial district, the industrial district, and the guild district.
The living district housed the lodgings and the homes of the city's permanent residents. Most travelers simply returned to their own ships when it was time to sleep, so the accommodations here leaned heavily toward high-end convenience.
The commercial district sold goods shipped over from the industrial district. Repairs and modifications were ordered at the shops and then carried out back in the industrial zone. Occasionally, merchants in special circumstances would even request custom processing of their wares there.
The guild district was the smallest of the four, yet it was packed with guild halls and mercenary company headquarters. Any mercenary or merchant worth their salt made a point of stopping by at least once.
"Don't rush me. We finally made it to a proper city—can't we enjoy ourselves a little first?"
"That's exactly why we go to the commercial district before we start enjoying ourselves. Didn't you say you were going to modify the mechas?"
"Hmm… Fair point. If we're going to waste time, better to get the modifications booked first."
Jincheon had to admit she was right. He set off toward the commercial district with the two women in tow.
Whispers rose around them the moment they appeared.
Every face that turned their way wore the same strange expression—shock, as though they had just witnessed something that simply should not exist.
"What the hell are those guys?"
"Why's a Zabalcan here?"
"There's an Orobece with her too."
"Don't those two races hate each other's guts?"
The distance between here and their home systems spanned more than a dozen star systems, yet in an age of free interplanetary travel that felt about as far as the next town over. Everyone in the area knew the warrior culture of the Orobece and the brutal reputation of the Zabalcan people had long since soured into mutual loathing—bordering on outright hatred. Seeing women of both races walking side by side was enough to leave any outsider stunned.
"Tch. Filthy Zabalcan bitch… who the hell does she think she is, showing her face here…"
"Cool it. Start a fight here and the fine'll bleed you dry."
"I know. That's why I'm holding back."
Those who harbored a grudge against the Zabalcan growled under their breath, but none of them actually picked a fight. Keren had earned its fame as a commercial hub precisely by maintaining ironclad public order and keeping conflict to an absolute minimum. If security ever slipped, the mercenaries would turn into lawless thugs overnight, and even the most strategically located trade city would watch its merchants vanish. High-grade security kept the merchants feeling safe—and that was how Keren had become one of the galaxy's premier commercial cities.
Heliane heard the naked hostility directed at Calsira and glanced over in concern—
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~"
—only to find the younger woman cheerfully humming to herself, utterly unfazed by the stares.
"Hm? What's wrong, Unnie?"
"Ah—no, it's nothing… just…"
Heliane suddenly felt like the strange one for worrying. She mumbled and looked away.
"I don't care what strangers say. It's still a hundred times better than having people jab their fingers in my face and scream that I'm a bastard who dirtied the imperial bloodline."
"…"
The insults of random passersby were nothing compared to the contempt Calsira had endured her whole life. Realizing that once more, Heliane silently vowed she would protect the girl no matter what.
They downloaded a map of Keren onto their Bio Devices and made for the commercial district.
The moment they arrived at the commercial zone that bordered the industrial district, a wall of noise and light slammed into them.
Countless holographic neon signs and promotional projections blasted their slogans while sweat-soaked mercenaries thronged the streets in a constant, restless tide. The sheer chaos of it all greeted Jincheon's party like a physical force.
"Uwaaah…"
Calsira had never in her life seen anything so dizzying. For the first time she understood, with her entire body, what it meant for one's eyes to spin. Information poured in without pause until she staggered; Jincheon immediately slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
"Don't try to take everything in at once. Most of what you see here is stuff you can safely forget by tomorrow morning. Don't look at the distant stuff—start with what's right in front of you and work outward."
"Huu… thank you…"
The warmth of his body and the scent of him settled her nerves. Calsira drew a deep breath and followed his advice, focusing only on what lay immediately before her. Once she looked at it calmly, she realized he was right—nearly everything would be forgotten by morning. The only things worth remembering were a rough map of the commercial district and which shops were where.
"They're selling personal firearms too. Want to grab a few self-defense weapons?"
Jincheon asked Calsira and Heliane whether they wanted to buy sidearms. The ship already carried laser rifles, but those were hardly practical in a sudden emergency.
"We already have these. Do we really need self-defense weapons?"
"I trained in close-quarters combat for exactly the times I'm empty-handed."
Both women were wearing top-of-the-line Calsorn Empire nano-suits beneath their clothes; they saw no need for extra weapons.
"True enough. Once you learn martial arts, bare-handed brawling will be several times simpler and more powerful than fumbling with half-assed weapons anyway."
He took the opportunity to remind them once again that, while neither of them could yet sense qi, Kunlo clearly possessed talent for it.
Pushing through the crowds of mercenaries, the three of them eventually reached the shop of the Calzeran Corporation—specialists in mecha repair, modification, and sales. According to Kader, this place employed plenty of skilled experts, so they had decided to trust the recommendation.
In a fantasy or murim setting the classic story would have been a tiny workshop run by a solitary master craftsman of unmatched skill. Keren, however, had only limited space; every shop here was a branch or dealership of some already-recognized megacorp. That particular storyline was never going to happen.
"This is the place."
Jincheon stepped through the open doors of a high-rise that looked to be forty or fifty stories tall.
Definitely different from the twenty-first century.
Normally the ground floor of a skyscraper would house a reception desk and staff. Here, instead of employees, rows of unmanned reception terminals stood waiting. Despite the throngs of mercenaries, a single tap told each person exactly where to go, and the lines vanished almost instantly.
Jincheon joined a queue and immediately understood why one tap was enough. The only options displayed were Repair, Modification, and Sales. The moment he lightly touched Modification—
> Please inquire about modifications on the 30th floor.
—a simple message appeared.
They rode the elevator to the thirtieth floor. Another unmanned terminal waited, this one more thorough: it required confirmation of which dock held the mecha to be modified, plus verification of the account number. Once the registration was complete, a new message appeared:
> Please proceed to Room 27 on the 33rd floor.
Heliane and Calsira, who had always simply requested supplies and received them, had never seen a shop like this and could not understand why they were being sent to a private room. The moment they entered Room 27 on the thirty-third floor—one of many identical chambers lined up in neat rows—they understood.
"These are the mechas loaded on our ship."
"Looks like every dock has internal scanners."
"What if a ship has anti-scanner plating on the outside?"
"Then they'd contact us separately, I suppose."
After that brief exchange, Jincheon carefully tapped his Gareld.
Ssshk—
The image of the Gareld expanded, and a column of options appeared on the right: armor, engine, reactor, coating, and every other conceivable category. When he selected Engine, a list of engines, descriptions, and prices filled the display. Out of curiosity he dragged a random engine onto the rear of the Gareld; the total modification cost updated instantly and the engine appeared on the machine's silhouette.
"This is actually fun."
It felt exactly like customizing a mecha in a video game. Grinning, Jincheon began poking around at everything.
"More products than I expected."
"I've got a lot to check myself."
Heliane tapped her Saisalas; Calsira tapped her own Gareld. Both settled into chairs and began attaching and removing parts in endless trial-and-error.
"If I put this here… ah, that would throw off the airframe balance…"
"Mmm… to improve turning I'd need thrusters with a bit more thrust…"
These were the machines they would keep using until they could afford new ones. Higher-class mechas started in the millions—or tens of millions—of credits, so barring something extraordinary they would be flying these for a long time. Heliane and Calsira fretted over every decision, carefully planning upgrades within their limited budgets.
Jincheon, however, knew his own capabilities perfectly. His modification plan was brutally simple.
Add extra engines and boost thruster output.
Everything went into speed and turning performance. By his calculations the machine would become at least 1.7 times faster. Only someone who could offset the crushing g-forces with martial arts could even attempt such a build.
And the color has to be fucking red. Fast things are always red!
Paint jobs counted as modifications too, so he painted the entire Gareld a blazing crimson.
I'd love to stick a horn on the head too, but that might be a little too on-the-nose.
Painting an already-fast machine bright red was already pushing it.
Come to think of it, I wonder if this universe even has something like Gundam.
He wanted to check on his Bio Device, but Terra was so distant that any search took forever; detailed results were nearly impossible. For a Korean like Jincheon, waiting five full minutes just for a search window to appear was pure torture.
In the end he added engines, strengthened the thrusters, and spent a total of 470,000 credits. While the others finished, he browsed the product catalog—part customer service, part sales tactic for anyone tempted by extras.
The 95 mm machine gun we bought off the pirates isn't exactly high-performance. It's fine when you're fighting other junk, but…
He considered swapping it for something better, yet he doubted they would suddenly run into an enemy tough enough to shrug it off. Instead he decided to recharge the laser power packs they still had left. He had carefully saved every spent pack precisely because they could be recharged this way—far cheaper than buying new ones. As the party's leader he footed the bill; another 53,000 credits vanished.
Let's see… 295,000 credits left. No point blowing everything. Better keep a reserve.
Having money did not mean spending every last credit. You never knew what might happen next; a cushion was always wise.
"I'm done."
"Me too."
The Saisalas was already a B-class machine with excellent built-in weapons, so Heliane had simply upgraded the thrusters for better turning. Calsira's Gareld was already so well-balanced that further raw upgrades were hard to justify; as a gifted pilot she followed Jincheon's lead and focused purely on speed—though far more modestly, only about 1.15 times faster rather than his outrageous overhaul.
Saisalas: 210,000 credits. Calsira's Gareld: 240,000 credits. Both women transferred the amounts to Jincheon, whose account had been used for the entire order.
Once the holographic modifications were finalized and submitted, the credits left their account and a message arrived on their Bio Devices: a transport vehicle would be sent to the dock in five hours—please return to the ship.
"Five hours, huh."
"We can play around a bit, then."
"What about joining a guild?"
"We don't even know how long the modifications will take. Joining a guild right this second is pointless."
Calsira, already fully in vacation mode, shot down Heliane's diligent suggestion without hesitation.
"Haa. Fine. Just stay out of the slum district, got it?"
"I know."
According to Kader, Keren hid a fifth, unofficial zone. A slum district filled with washed-up mercenaries, pilots who could no longer afford dock fees after failed missions, people abandoned by their companies, and the like. Even Kader had never been there and did not know its exact location, but he had warned them that security did not reach that far—stay away.
They finished the transaction and stepped outside the shop. Instantly Jincheon's Bio Device exploded with an avalanche of incoming messages.
"Huh? What the—why so many all of a sudden?"
Startled, he opened them.
Messages from countless mercenary companies and guilds flooded in. Every single one spent paragraphs explaining how trustworthy and excellent their organization was, then ended with an invitation to work together. It would not have been an exaggeration to say that every mercenary company and guild in Keren had sent something.
"Looks like they broadcast the scan of our ship to every guild and merc company in the city."
"So that's what Kader meant when he said we'd get a flood of love calls the moment we arrived in Keren."
"What are you going to do?"
Heliane and Calsira watched him with open curiosity, waiting to see how he would answer the deluge. Knowing full well how vicious his personality could be, both wore expressions that silently begged him not to say anything too outrageous.
"Heh. I'm a functioning member of society now. I don't do barbaric things like ignoring messages to people's faces."
The two women looked stunned that Jincheon—the living embodiment of arrogance, violence, and cruelty—would actually respond…
…until he fired off a single mass reply to every last one of them:
> We will give your proposal positive consideration.
"Haa."
"Ugh."
The complete lack of sincerity in the blanket response made both women sigh in perfect unison.
"All right—time to go have some fun!"
Having handled the annoying messages in a thoroughly "professional" manner, Jincheon set off toward the living district, eager to sample the entertainment culture of this future world.