The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

After bidding his farewell to Zeke once more, Zenick didn’t hesitate any longer and flew his hover car toward the merchant ship at the speed of light.

It took a little over ten minutes before he finally arrived. Even after exhausting the energy stored in the hover car, he still ended up coming late.

The harbor where merchant and privately owned ships were stationed was in chaos. In particular, the spot where his merchant ship was had been in total wreck. The wings that cost so much to make were burning like paper, with smoke already spreading far. The ship itself had holes in it, with static going haywire at some point; in no way could someone approach it.

And below it were his men. Some of them were lying on the ground, groaning in pain and clutching their bleeding wounds, and the rest were still in a deadly fight against their opponents.

Zenick’s expression had turned a stormy look as he recognized their uniforms— Susa Merchant Corps.

"Holden!!!"

Zenick jumped off his hover car before it could reach the ground, landing on his feet with ease as he continued marching forward with rage-filled eyes.

A middle-aged man with a scar on his cheek stood at the back where the fight was still going on. Hearing his name being shouted by a familiar voice, his thick lips smacked once before he smiled wickedly.

"Little Zenick! You’ve finally arrived!"

Zenick directed his murderous glare at him, chest enlarging as he inhaled as much air as he could to control his temper.

"What do you think you’re doing? Do you think you’ll get away from harming another merchant family’s ship?"

It was an unwritten law that any merchant should know already. A merchant ship must not be harmed once it disembarked on a planet. Only engage in battle when they reach the exosphere and enter outer space. Even interstellar pirates follow this rule to some extent.

It was to safeguard everyone’s time to resupply and recover from their long journey in space without any disturbance before they move to their next destination.

Holden snickered like an average evil villain, spreading his arms wide in a smug way, and said, "I had no choice. I warned your employees to station your merchant ship elsewhere, but they didn’t listen."

Zenick didn’t stop marching forward as the fighting continued around him. A crew of the Susa Merchant Corp got into his path, and he kicked them far away, resuming on advancing toward Holden.

"And why should they listen to you? They’re my employees, not yours."

Holden smiled, though he felt apprehensive the closer Zenick got to him. "The spot where your merchant ship is on was originally ours."

Zenick frowned while looking at where his merchant ship was. He found that it was indeed stationed on one of the spots the Susa Merchant Corps had bought in the harbor. Now the question was, why would his men make a mistake of descending on this spot?

He had hurried over to see his sister that he let the matter of disembarking to his Vice Captain, who should’ve realized that it was not their spot and moved it to where their original spot was.

Looking around for his Vice Captain, Zenick spotted the man engaged in a fight with one of the Susa Merchant Corp.

Going over there right now to demand answers from his Vice Captain wouldn’t be good. Right now, the most important thing he needed to do was stop this carnage from continuing and hurry to send his employees to a treatment room and get them all recovered before they set out next.

"We’ll pay for the duration we were in your spot."

It was the only solution there was to fix this.

But before Holden could respond, Zenick added, "We will pay you 0-star credits as you have burned our merchant ship and injured my employees."

Holden’s eyebrows twitched, the smug smile on his lips fading quickly as if an eraser had been rubbed on him. It was replaced by an insidious laugh that Zenick didn’t like the sound of.

"I don’t need your money, young man," Holden said as his eyes turned into slits. "I want you to pay with your life instead!"

Zenick didn’t fall for his provocation as he stared at him.

He knew Holden hated him. For a man like Holden, who he had spent most of his years trying to continue his merchant group to rise to the peak, a young and talented Zenick was an eyesore. But it wasn’t just because of that. It was because Holden had suffered several times under his hands whenever they encountered each other in space.

To be honest, Zenick also had a hard time dealing with this old fool. Holden had far more experience than he did and had more tricks up his sleeves. Thus, Zenick wanted this to be over with no more casualties.

And most importantly, he needed to go to the imperial palace and stand by Aisha’s side at the ceremony.

"Then have a duel with me!" Zenick proposed. "Captain to Captain, let’s not make our underlings fight and die for us. If you want to take my life, you can try it."

Holden should be tempted by this and accept it. Zenick could pretend to struggle with him, give him a bit of a beating so he can regret ever trying to cross him, before ending this without prolonging this problem.

Zenick doubted Holden wouldn’t accept it.

"Alright! We will fight."

As he had expected, Holden agreed easily.

"But I won’t be your opponent!"

Before Zenick could show anger at his cowardly act, a gust of wind suddenly came rushing from behind him.

Turning around to see where the wind came from, Zenick came face to face with a large, burly man sprinting toward him.

The huge man wore a Sentinel’s uniform as he barreled toward Zenick while Holden’s laughter rang through behind him.

"Let’s try and see if you can survive this, Zenick!!!"

An ordinary man like Zenick cannot fight against a Sentinel, that was common sense, and Holden should know this.

The outcome of this fight was already decided the moment that the Sentinel appeared.

Zenick watched as the Sentinel arrived very close to him, and a tremendous and overwhelming pressure descended upon him before a huge fist rammed against him, dragging his feet and leaving a deep mark on the ground as he tried to deflect it.

Unfortunately, Zenick couldn’t bear the impact nor the flames that burst from the Sentinel’s psychic power. It burned the fabric covering his arms before lapping at his skin.

"Aaaghhh!"

Zenick bellowed, struggling to keep his ground.

"Ha! That’s quite an amazing feat, stopping my fist. But can you block this?"

He heard the Sentinel laugh at him while he saw him pull back his fist before plunging forward again.

Knowing that he couldn’t block it, Zenick tried to turn his body to the side while glancing around to see if anyone would jump in to help him. But his eyes widened in shock when he realized that everyone on the field had stopped fighting at some point, watching the Sentinel come after him.

The Vice Captain, Lyr, stopped engaging with his opponent. The latter didn’t even attack him. But what lowered Zenick’s guard was the fact that even the men he had seen crawling on the ground earlier with wounds had now started standing up.

As for their wounds? There were no wounds at all.

Zenick observed this in just a second. And in that instant, he understood what was happening. They had played him for a fool.

He couldn’t even feel betrayed or angry at them for what they did because the next punch had already reached him.

Finally, darkness took over his consciousness as he heard Holden’s approaching voice speak.

"Don’t kill him. I still have other ways to hurt him."

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