“Ou. If it ain’t the lad from yester… day…”

The moment the receptionist uncle saw Mimi’s cute visage peeking over from behind me, his expression stiffened.

“A lot of stuff happened yesterday and this girl ended up boarding my ship as a result. I’d like for her to train in the basics of being a ship operator so we came here to see if you had any resource materials or training apps we could use.”

“P- Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir…”

The uncle’s hands grabbed me by the shirt with incredible momentum and forcefully raised me up. Your expression looks hella terrifying uncle!

“The hell d’ya mean by this huuh…!?”

“I get it! I get it! I’ll tell you everything so please let me go, uncle! Your face looks really scary, man!”

“What about my face!?”

“But it really is scary, uncle! Look, even Mimi’s terrified.”

“Ku~h…”

The receptionist uncle released me while sporting a deadly serious expression. He plopped down on his seat, closed his eyes and took deep, long breaths in order to calm down. I also let out a sigh of relief. I was about to piss my pants there, man.

“It’ll take quite a while if I start from the beginning.”

“Just start from the beginning, kid.”

“Yes!”

I ended up telling every detail about how Mimi came to board my ship while being glared at by the uncle with a terrifying scowl on his face.

“This guy just started out as a merc and managed to land himself such a wonderful encounter in the span of a day while I’ve been slugging it out for fifteen years in this business and have absolutely nothing to show for it!? Isn’t this unfair!?”

“Is this the gap between our destinies!?” the receptionist uncle lamented towards the heavens and slumped powerlessly on top of his desk right afterward. He then began crying buckets of tears. They were manly tears filled with the bitterness of defeat. Mimi and I could certainly feel the intensity of uncle’s emotions.

Another staff member of the Mercenary Guild came out in order to ask what the fuss was all about. When she found out the situation, she had the uncle escorted back inside the staff room. Farewell, uncle.

“E~tto, I apologize for our staff’s rude conduct earlier, sir,” the female receptionist said with a troubled smile on her face as she cleaned up the tear stains uncle left on the desk. I bet I’d also have the same expression if I were in her shoes. Bet anyone would, actually.

“Uh, I better explain the reason why we came here again, I guess.”

“I’m sorry to trouble you, sir, but I’d appreciate it if you did so,” the lady replied as she bowed her head apologetically towards me. I started going over our circumstances.

“Understood. So you came in order to register this girl as an official crewmember and to obtain training materials and apps for ship operators, correct?”

“That’s about it.”

“Thank you for your help, ma’am.”

The new receptionist lady efficiently took care of all the related procedures and prepared the training materials. The training app was installed on Mimi’s tablet terminal so she could use it right away. It was a great program where an AI training instructor would impart the know-how of being a ship operator starting with the basics. It was also bundled with an app that would display the ship’s status and the total available assets in an easy to understand way.

“I’ve also included an info-gathering app, so please do your best, okay.”

“Y- Yes!”

“It would greatly help me if Mimi gets to learn all this stuff. Give it your all, kay.”

“I understand.”

Mimi immediately began to go over all the installed apps with a serious demeanor. Yep, go for it, girl. It’ll make my life easier too. Different from the game, it seems you have to go through a lot of complicated procedures as you go around this world.

“Oh yeah. I was wondering if it would be better if this girl can also train in some self-defense techniques, or maybe get a self-defense weapon for her personal use.”

“Hm. That would be a bit difficult sir. You can’t really master self-defense techniques in just a few days, after all. It’s the same for handling weapons.”

“So that’s the case huh.”

“That’s the case, sir. But it would be good to let her have a laser gun in any case, even if she doesn’t actually use it. It will serve as an effective deterrent and prevent most shady folk from getting any ideas.”

“I see.”

“Shall I prepare one, sir?”

“Please do.”

So the Mercenary Guild also distributes weapons, huh? Come to think of it, I didn’t manage to find a gun shop when I was doing some research yesterday. So things like this were regulated by the Guild or related government organizations, huh.

The laser gun for Mimi’s use was soon prepared, and we were then guided to the Mercenary Guild’s shooting range in order to perform test shots.

How good is Mimi with a gun? Well, if she doesn’t stop closing her eyes whenever she shoots, she wouldn’t be able to hit anything.

After the shooting practice, we returned to the ship and decided to take it slow for a few days. Mimi was still fatigued from her time in the back alleys, so she had to take ample rest. Fortunately, we wouldn’t run out of funds anytime soon even if we don’t work for some time.

I was also interested in the major pirate subjugation operation Elma mentioned. It would result in a pretty large-scale battle once they attacked the pirate’s main base, and those kinds of events in the game would provide a great number of rewards proportionate to the number of enemies you manage to defeat.

I honestly didn’t want to miss such a golden opportunity.

And so I spent my days working up a sweat in the training room in the mornings and taking a quick shower afterward. I studied together with Mimi in the afternoon (There were lessons useful for mercenary work available on the training app as well), searched the net for useful info, exchanged messages with the disappointing space elf and sometimes flirted around with Mimi as well.

Finally, the long-anticipated pirate subjugation operation was officially announced by the Termaine System Armed Forces. The Mercenary Guild was solicited for assistance as well.

“It’s really convenient that briefings can be done remotely no matter where you are without the need to gather in one particular place.”

“Yes, it is.”

I sat on the pilot seat inside the cockpit while Mimi sat on the operator seat behind me. We were both waiting for the briefing to start.

I think it’s great that we didn’t actually need to come to the army base or the guild office for this briefing. You can even order food from inside the ship anytime, so you really didn’t have to take one step out of your starship if you wanted to. The starship interior may actually be the ultimate hikikomori paradise.

Multiple window screens popped up on the cockpit display; right on schedule with the briefing start time. The names of each participating party were displayed on top of each window. Among them were the disappointing space elf Elma as well as Serena – the lady soldier I met soon after I arrived at this Termaine Prime Colony.

“Huh!?”

I suddenly felt cold sweat run down my back the moment my gaze met with Serena’s for some reason. What the heck? Weirdly enough, it somehow felt like an unpleasant premonition but at the same time not. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be more careful of this lady from now on.

While I was thinking such things, Serena’s window widened and moved to the center of the cockpit display.

“Well then, let us start the briefing. I am Lieutenant Serena Holz, the designated commander of this entire operation. Please address me as Lieutenant Serena.”

“Understood, Lieutenant Serena.”

Each participant expressed their agreement.

“I will now explain the overall outline of this operation. That said, it’s actually not that complicated. The place the pirates are using as their base of operations is located on an asteroid field in the Gamma Sector,” Serena began as a map of the sector popped on-screen with a part of the asteroid field highlighted in red.

“The strategy for this operation is simple. Our System Armed Forces’ starship fleet will sortie first and then proceed to destroy their base through naval bombardment. Even if it’s their main base, the ones manning it are only mere pirates after all. I assume they’ll get routed without putting up much of a fight.”

A number of the mercs participating in the briefing nodded in agreement with Serena’s statement. There was no way for bootleg pirate ships to oppose the Military model heavy cruisers and battleships of the armed forces. They’re outclassed in both defensive strength and overall firepower.