The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

Theon’s message revealed to her where Zenick’s crewmates were staying. They were scattered across the lower and middle sectors, staying at bars and pleasure districts. What he had sent her wasn’t all of Zenick’s crewmates.

However, from their locations alone, Aisha could deduce that either these crewmates truly had no idea about her older brother’s whereabouts or... they knew and didn’t care.

Whichever it was, Aisha had to uncover by the end of the day. Time was already ticking—starting on the day she last saw Zenick—and danger waits for no one.

"I’ve already met them earlier today. Why do you suddenly want their locations?"

Theon had wanted to call her, and given the dire situation, Aisha did not hesitate to pause whatever bad blood had formed between them.

Aisha walked over to the shelf and picked up a jar of miasma. As she turned it, the liquid sloshed and squirmed inside like a living creature. But the moment she pressed her face closer to peer through the glass, the miasma recoiled as if burned, squeezing its gooey form against the opposite wall.

"Aisha... what do you really plan to do by knowing where Zenick’s crewmates are?"

Theon hadn’t heard a response come from her. He tried to be patient with her, but the silence only gnawed at him.

"Wait..."

Aisha casually said just as he was losing his patience. She turned the jar slightly, the miasma squeezing on the other side again. Smart. She couldn’t help but praise it in her head. Though it possessed no brain, the miasma had its own instinct. A consciousness that recognized her as someone it couldn’t beat. Or perhaps, someone who could purge out its existence.

"Who did you talk to earlier?" she asked.

"A guy named Marlon and Styx, the third mate and bosun."

Aisha glanced at her terminal. She found Marlon and Styx on the crewmates’ location that Theon had given her. They were both inside a pleasure district in the ninth sector.

"Alright," Aisha said.

Frustrated at her avoiding his questions, he huffed loudly. "What the hell are you really planning to do? Do you plan to meet them? Don’t. I’m telling you this, but they’re not some men who will treat you gently, Aisha. They’re rough men who have lived their entire lives as stellar merchants!"

The lives of a merchant outside space weren’t all that glorious. They stay outside their planets for years, and the possibility of even returning relied on their own ability to survive. People who had stayed in the space for so long aren’t simple and ordinary citizens.

Meeting them when they had just arrived in Gaia could be disastrous. Their savagery still cloaked their bodies like a second skin. If Aisha were to meet them now, who knows what they’d do to her.

"Theon," Aisha called his name, snapping him awake from his musings. "You’re the last person I want to worry about me."

Theon was startled. "I—"

"I’m hanging up."

***

Aisha stepped out of the gate and locked it behind her. Her hair was still tied in a braid, though she had rolled it into a bun and held it up by a couple of needles, carefully keeping it out of sight.

She chose loose dark pants, fitting her slender legs. They made it easier for her to kick, and the fabric used was flexible enough that she didn’t need a time-out between fights for a wardrobe malfunction. The storage bag she tied around her belt also made her think of it as invisible armor.

Never one to leave her house unarmed, Aisha paused to look at the house.

If things went down tonight, she might never be able to return to this place.

With that thought, Aisha contemplated sending Zeke a message. He ought to know that she might not return.

But...

"He might not even see it by the time everything is over."

With her messages to him still unread, she no longer thought about messaging him again.

Her black boots kicked up some dust as she walked on the gloomy street.

Armed and dressed to kill, Aisha went to ride on a railway from the Sector Crossing Hub. It would take several minutes for her to reach the ninth sector, and a couple more minutes on foot to reach the pleasure district there.

The Sector Crossing Hub connected different sectors. By just riding in one of the shuttles there, anyone could cross miles and reach their destination. The only rule there was that the citizen must present their badges and pay their fees before they could hop in.

On the shuttle heading to the ninth sector, there were already six people inside. Two elderly sat on one side while four were younger and able-bodied. Unlike the refined clothing of the people inside the higher sectors, they wore far rougher and stiffer clothing with obvious frays here and there.

When Aisha walked inside the shuttle, their gazes immediately fell on her figure. There was no hostility, just a slight curiosity, like how one would point at a stranger in the same space as they were in.

Their eyes landed on her face, but they couldn’t tell what she looked like with the scarf she wrapped around her neck and covering the lower half of her face.

Eventually, their curiosity vanished, and nobody spoke. They no longer looked at her and waited for the announcement of their departure.

[Good evening, passengers. We’re bound for Sector Nine in sixty seconds. Please make sure you have verified your biometric pass with your citizen badges before we leave.]

[I repeat. Verify your biometric pass with your citizen badges before we leave. Anyone who hasn’t will be ejected promptly without warning. Thank you for traveling with Sector Crossing Hub.]

The passengers, aside from Aisha, moved. They looked at their own badges and swiped them. Aisha observed them briefly before copying them.

[Sixty seconds have passed.]

Aisha quietly placed her badge back inside her storage bag when suddenly a scream tore through their shuttle.

A middle-aged man with a pot belly and balding head was trembling so much that his eyes rolled back into his head. His scream rang into the tight space of the shuttle, making the other passengers shudder at the sight of him being electrocuted on the spot.

"A stowaway..."

Aisha looked at the only young woman aside from her standing a few feet to her left.

The person noticed her staring and said, "Shocked? That’s what happens to passengers who sneak their way in without a citizen badge and fair pass."

She looked back to the middle-aged man. He was still writhing on the ground, drool and tears oozing out of his eyes and mouth. A strong smell of ammonia rose in the air while a wet puddle started to spread between the man’s legs.

"Shit!"

The other passengers scrambled to the opposite side.

Aisha looked away and closed her eyes. Her calmness seemed to have piqued the young woman’s interest.

But Aisha ignored her and kept her silence, thinking about what she’d need to do to pry Styx and Marlon’s mouths open and have them spill whatever they knew about Zenick’s disappearance. If they refused to tell the truth, then she would have no choice but to use violence.

Thankfully, the young woman didn’t try to bother her with needless talk.

However, Aisha wasn’t aware that as the shuttle she was on had just started moving, three figures had also hopped on one of the shuttles heading toward Sector Nine.

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