Chapter 107


    rantor: SFBaka


    Editor: Thor’s Stone


    “Man, I just can’t stopughing.”


    “Okay, okay. It’s great that we made a profit huh.”


    “As expected of Master.”


    After arriving at the Dexer star system, which was the home system of Earl Daleinwald, we entered the Dexer Prime colony and finallypleted our bodyguard mission. We just got our rewards for the job. We would be paid 250,000 Enels per day, and the time it took to arrive at the Dexer star system was a total of 22 days. The battle we went through and our time resupplying at the Comatt system was also included in the calction. The time we spent getting the fleet repaired and hospitalizing the injured crew was also taken into ount.


    And we also got a bonus for stopping Balthazar’s rampage. The initial reward was 5,500,000 Enels, with a bonus of 2,500,000 Enels. That’s a grand total of 8,000,000 Enels all in all. As expected of Earl Daleinwald! He’s filthy rich!


    TOP ARTICLES1/5Mercenaries in Apocalypse Volume 1Chapter 29


    Since Mimi’s share was 0.5% of the total rewards, she’ll receive 40,000 Enels. Elma’s was 3%, so she’ll get 240,000 Enels. The remaining 7,772,000 Enels will be my share. My assetsst time was 24,400,000 Enels, so I now have a total of over 32,100,000 Enels. I have to subtract about 10,000 Enels or so for the maintenance and repair fees as well as restocking ammunition and supplies.


    “M-Mm……”


    Mimi’s face froze when she saw the numbers disyed on the data terminal. Fumu…? Was the pay she got not enough? But, yeah. 0.5% was really too little. Yosh.


    “Come to think of it, you’ve already ustomed yourself to being our ship operator, right Mimi?”


    “Eh? Um… I guess so?”


    Mimi got surprised when I suddenly called out to her and nodded reflexively.


    “That’s right. I guess it’s about time for her to graduate from being a trainee huh.”


    It looks like she already knew what I was getting at, so Elma backed me up. Un. It really is the case though.


    “That means it’s also about time Mimi gets a raise, right?”


    “Eh…… N-N-No! I’m fine! I have enough money!”


    Mimi started panicking after hearing our exchange. What are you getting flustered for, girl?


    “That won’t do. Once you get promoted to a full crew member, it is a standard procedure that you’ll get a pay raise. After all, you’ve already mastered all the necessary procedures, resupplying, selling loot, as well as keeping watch on the radar. Since you’ve raised your skills, you should be rewarded an appropriate amount.”


    “That’s right. The 0.5% share is just the very minimum after all. Should we raise it to 1%?”


    “Yeah, that sounds good. Alrighty then. Instead of 40,000 Enels, you’ll be receiving 80,000 Enels for the job this time…”


    “I-It’s fine! You can raise itter! Later, okay!”


    “No, well, we made an unexpected killing this time, so it’s better to raise your sry now, right?”


    “I won’t be able to use up that much money though!”


    After hearing Mimi shout, Elma and I exchanged gazes.


    “80,000 Enels won’t be enough to customize a cheap Zabuton ship though.”


    “Yeah. You can probably purchase a second-hand generator, but that’s about it.”


    The Zabuton is the nickname SOL yers gave to the cheapest ship in the game – a so-called noob ship. It was squarish and t, so it got the nickname zabuton. Zabuton is an in-game ng used by SOL yers, but Elma was actually familiar with it for some reason. It’s things like this that make me question if this was really another dimension or not.


    “But I don’t have the samemon sense for moneypared to Elma-san and Hiro-sama. I just can’t keep up. I’m just your regr citizen, okay. 40,000 Enels is enough for us to livefortably for a year, you know?”


    “Is that so…? Hm. Come to think of it, it does seem like that huh.”


    If you convert 40,000 Enels to Japanese Yen, you’ll end up with 4,000,000 Yen all in all. If you don’t include taxes and insurance premiums, it does seem that it would be enough for an average family to live off of for a year.


    “But that is that, and this is this. If you really insist on it, then I’ll keep your share to 0.5% this time, but you’ll need to receive 1% the next time weplete a job, okay? That’s final.”


    “Uu… Okay.”


    Mimi still looked quite troubled and let out a sigh. Anyway, that does it for the sry talk.


    “I mentioned this before, but I’m nning on buying a mothership with the money we received.”


    “A mothership huh… How much do we have on hand again?”


    “About 32 million.”


    “Nn… If we have that much… But we’re barely scraping it, don’t you think?”


    Elma inclined her head and raised her eyebrow. Well, it’s true that 30 mil would be barely enough to cover purchasing the ship, customizing it, and setting aside an emergency fund for the possibility of getting shot down.


    “We’ll just take on most enemies with Krishna. It doesn’t have to sport high firepower. It would be okay if it has a tough enough shield and hull, arge cargo space, and sufficient speed and maneuverability for its size so it can escape if need be. Besides, Krishna would be more than enough forbat purposes anyway.”


    “I see. So a support mothership that won’t participate actively inbat huh. I guess we could make that work. But our budget would still be barely enough.”


    “Yeah. That’s why I’m nning on purchasing one directly from a ship-maker to get it as close to the factory price as possible. We’ll have to go to a system with lots of ship makingpanies for that. We’ll have to choose the ship maker and model carefully though.”


    I then fiddled with my portable terminal and connected with the holo-disy inside the dining area.


    “I’ve managed to list some prospects already.”


    The first one I showed on screen was Recon Industries’【RIMS – 013 Night Hawk】. This ship was designed for speed. Although the armor, shields, and cargo capacity suffer a bit due to that, it was still a top-ss mothership with great speed and maneuverability. And even if the shield and armor strength, as well as cargo capacity, were a bitcking, that’s onlypared to ships of its ss. It only loses out to medium-sizedbat starships, but it’s way tougher than those repurposed civilian ships that the pirates use.


    “It’s a really cool-looking ship, Hiro-sama. But it doesn’t hold a candle to Krishna though.”


    “It has a sharp and streamlined feel to it. Having great speed doesn’t sound bad at all.”


    “That’s right. But it doesn’t have enough synergy with Krishna, I think. Wouldn’t something with greater defense be better in order to take advantage of Krishna’s firepower?”


    “I think this is a good choice though. Anyway, next is this one.”


    The next unit I put up on the holo-disy was the mothership model【SDMS – 020 Skizbrazunil】manufactured by Space Dwerg. It’scking in the speed department, but it has powerful shield output and thick armor. It has arge cargo capacity so it’s used as a mercantile ship often, and since it is fairly easy to customize, it can not only serve as a mothership and transport ship but also as a mining or research ship, depending on the customer’s needs.


    But due to the heaviness of the ship, its speed and maneuverability suffer a lot in exchange. It may fall prey to things like interdictors quite easily, and its FTL Drive speed was mediocre as well. The Hyperdrive doesn’t seem to suffer too much though.


    “It’s tough-looking and really big!”


    “I have noints about its specs, but the style is just not for me.”


    “This ship would make good use of Krishna’s abilities, I believe. It may be weak to interdictors, but Master would actually prefer it if we engage with pirates often, right?”


    “Well, that’s right, I guess. But I kinda have reservations on it being too slow for my tastes.”


    I put up another ship model on the holo-disy. This is a mothership manufactured by Ideal Star Way; the【ISMS – 007 Chrome Elephant】. This ship is in the middle ground when ites to performance and overall specspared to the two earlier models. It’s slower than Night Hawk, but it has a tough shield and thick armor. Its cargo capacity is also quite satisfactory. It’s faster the Skizbrazunil, but its armor and shield don’t measure up to it. The cargo space also isn’t quite asrge.


    “Doesn’t it kinda resemble an imperial military starship?”


    “Well, the official manufacturer of imperial ships is Ideal Star Way after all. Looking at Ideal ships kinda brings back some bad memories though…”


    “It’s not good to be half-baked. It won’t be able to outrun enemies the Night Hawk can outrun, and it won’t be able to defend against attacks the Skizbrazunil will be able to easily take on. That isn’t good enough, in my opinion.”


    “So this is a bust as well… The specs look fine though.”


    Mimi didn’t have a problem with it, but it looks like Elma was getting goosebumps just looking at it. May was against it as well, so I guess Chrome is a no-go.


    “Okay then. We’ll remove Chrome Elephant from the list and choose between Night Hawk and Skizbrazunil.”


    “Agreed.”


    “Alright.”


    “I-I think either is fine… I’ll leave the choice to you, everyone!”


    Mimi hurriedly bowed out of the discussion. Well, Mimi still didn’t have enough knowledge about ships after all. In any case, it looks like Elma likes Night Hawk while May is in favor of Skizbrazunil. In the end, it’ll be up to me to make the choice huh… Decisions, decisions.