# 001- First Battle

I couldn’t wake up even after repeatedly pinching my cheeks, which hurt as expected.
The resulting Gs from speeding up and slowing down made me suffer, and I managed to completely wreck an asteroid using heavy laser cannons.
Its fragments rained down on the ship but were blocked by an energy shield.
From all these crazy things that happened to me so far, it seems I have no choice but to acknowledge my present situation.

But once I do, It’ll bring a whole host of other problems.
Just why did all this happen to someone like me? I don’t understand at all.
I can’t think of any possible reason how I managed to get myself wrapped up in this kind of crazy situation.

“Just what did I do yesterday anyway?”

I should have gone to work like usual, came back from work like usual, ate my meal like usual, took a shower, played some games and went straight to sleep.

I didn’t get hit by the ever omnipresent truck-san or receive a mysterious message on the computer I use to play games.

“I really don’t get this.”

But there’s really no use complaining.
Let’s think positive.
If all this is true, then it seems I managed to get myself transported to the world of Stella Online.

So wouldn’t it be possible for me to live freely as a mercenary just like when I was playing the game? To not be tied down by anything and only relying on ones own power.
Yep, sounds pretty good.
It sounds a hundred times better than a network management job with next to no prospects of promotion.
Seems I can make pretty good use of my gaming skills too.

Great, I’m feeling much better already.
Sometimes, you just gotta enjoy whatever jam you find yourself in.
Yup.
Let’s do just that.
I’m a bit uneasy, but let’s try ignoring that feeling as much as possible.
Ignorance is bliss.

Well then, since that’s decided… where the heck am I anyway? I tried to confirm my coordinates on the Galaxy Map only to find the words NO DATA being displayed.
I totally have no clue about where I am and what’s out there.
Man, this is real bad.

Anyways, the universe is quite vast.
It wasn’t a place where you could simply wander around while expecting things to somehow go your way without any definite info on hand.

In the Stella Online MMO, players still haven’t managed to reach the center of the galaxy even though four years have passed since the game went live.
I don’t know if the situation was the same in this universe, but I think it would be safer to assume it had the same scale.

I temporarily gave up on confirming my current location and proceeded to check on the status of the ship.
I didn’t really have any bounties put up against me.
Guess that’s a good thing, considering my current circumstances.
I won’t be suddenly caught by Sector Patrol and forced to eat rotten food in jail or anything of the sort.

Next, I checked my current registered affiliation and available funds.
I was apparently unaffiliated.
I was an out and out civilian who doesn’t even belong to the Mercenary Guild.
My registered Captain Name seems to be the same with the one I used in-game.

And my total wealth was a whopping 0 Enel.
What the heck? I sure am one dirt poor sob.
“All that money I painstakingly saved…” I muttered in despair as I proceeded to check the ship’s cargo.

“Let’s see how much food there is available…”

When I operated the touch panel display, I was able to confirm that the minimum amount of food and water have been safely stored inside the cargo hold.
How conscientious.
Just who prepared this for me, I wonder? I had no idea.

There were also a few rounds of scattershot shells and two spare energy packs for the ship.

“And there’s also some rare metals huh… That’s quite a lot.
This is bad.”

What’s wrong with this stuff, you ask? Well, first I’ll have to explain about Stella Online’s in-game currency.

In the world of Stella Online, physical banknotes and coins have been long obsolete, and an electronic currency called Enel was the trading medium widely used all throughout the galaxy.
Enel exchange was pretty simple and convenient, but since it’s an e-currency, there was a need to keep track and regulate all transaction records involving it.

Let’s go back to the topic of rare metals.
Rare metals were, as the name implied, valuable resource materials which were extremely scarce in amount across the galaxy.
They could be exchanged for lots of Enel at almost any colony or space station.

In short, they were just like gold, silver or precious jewels on Earth.
Since trading directly with materials involved a whole lot of trouble, this method was only used by shady folk who wished to avoid being traced back through conventional Enel exchanges.

So I think you guys already have an idea after me telling this much, but let me spell it out for you anyway.
Carrying this much rare metal would make me a pretty tempting target for folks engaged in a particular line of ‘work’.
In game terms, the encounter rate for hostile NPCs would shoot through the roof.

[Warning.
We are being scanned by an unidentified ship.]

The support AI installed on Krishna gave out a warning.

“Well, that was fast…”

Just because I was scanned without warning didn’t mean the other party were definitely space pirates.
It may be that it was a mistake due to my ship having a malfunction.
Or maybe the other party was just someone who’s passing by and just happened to scan me.

Right.
Let’s not kid ourselves.
I’m most probably being scanned because I was hella suspicious.

An unknown ship containing a boatload of valuable and difficult to acquire materials moored in the middle of a desolate space sector was definitely suspicious as heck.
They were probably suspecting me of being in the middle an illegal trade with criminal elements using rare metals or something.

[The unknown ship has brought its weapon systems online.]

Ah, how heartless Lady Luck is.
Looks like she wasn’t inclined to bless me with her smile this time.
The odds of suddenly getting threatened with weapons at the ready by an opponent who doesn’t even seem to be a bounty hunter right in the middle of nowhere was supposed to be a low 1 in 10 chance, yet here we were.

“Hey there, brotha.
You taking a nap in a place like this?”

“Ha- Ahahaha.
There’s actually nothing of interest here folks.
Now please don’t mind me and hurry along.”

“Huh? Don’t say that brotha.
Isn’t it a good thing that we’ve luckily managed to meet each other within this vast universe? How bout ya share some of the cargo ya have there with us poor folk.
Ya do that and we won’t give ya much trouble, kay?”  

“I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse.
How about I sell some off to you for a good price?”

In the middle of our negotiations, three other unidentified ships suddenly warped out and arrived at the sector we were located on.
All of their weapons were already deployed and were primed for firing at a moments notice.

When they closed in enough, info on the three unknowns appeared on my monitor’s screen.
T