John stepped outside the guild thirty minutes ter. He had a lengthy discussion with Jahred about rates of pay for mercenaries, both free ones like Ash and IDS ones like Niki. It was significantly less than he had expected, but he was aware that he had a small bias due to the contract that INP had given him. Despite his low rank, having a ship like the Phoenix Hawk put him in a different league than the average mercenary.

  I will have to remember that when my contract is over. I also need to raise my rank, unless I want to continue working for the INP. Being a Copper Rank won't let me get the lucrative contracts from the guild.

  The burger guy was there now, and John made his way over. He wanted to grab a bunch of food, so he didn't show up to the Dwarves' pce empty-handed.

  "Hey, can I get twelve burgers, please?" He asked the old man.

  "Cad a rinne tú leis an gcustaiméir is fearr liom, a phíosa bruscair." The old man said, almost growling at John.

  "I have no idea what you are saying, old man. Is my transtor broken?" John replied. He hadn't noticed it the st time he was here, but after he had talked with Ash about nguage impnts, he was curious about why he didn't understand what this man was saying.

  "ó, tá tú ag fáil é faoi dheireadh. Tá sé seo níos luaithe ná mar a raibh beartaithe." The man said, drumming his fingers on the cart.

  "Nope, still no idea what you are saying. This is so weird, I can understand everyone but you. Are you special or something? Hah, I bet you are some weird god watching over this pce. Anyways, can I get those burgers please-" John asked, but then the world went silent.

  He looked around, and everyone and everything had stopped moving. Crowds of people in the Atrium, all standing still, the constant drone of equipment in the station was now silent. It was eerie. He turned back to the old man, who was still drumming his fingers on the cart, his eyes turning completely bck. "Well, I was just joking, but I take it you're actually a god of some sort?"

  A god flipping burgers... why not. Not the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

  "Of some sort. Just call me... Tim. This is an unexpected encounter." The man said, now in perfect English. "Something is different about you. In the other timelines, you looked different, and didn't confront me about the nguage problem until... well, until much ter. Mags didn't say anything about this."

  Mags? Who is Mags?

  "Mags is just her nickname. She is Maguaywen, the Goddess of the Ocean. You... wait, no, not you... The one you repced had saved one of her shrines from being defaced back on Earth when he was younger. Coming to this world was supposed to be his reward. The question is, why are you here instead?" Tim said, staring John down with now solid bck eyes.

  "Well, have you heard of DEN?" John replied, standing his ground. It seemed like that in every world he went to, some supernatural being had taken an interest in him.

  "DEN? Seriously, those beings are hijacking yet another universe I am overseeing for Maguaywen for their own entertainment." Tim said, then went silent for a few minutes, staring somewhere into the distance.

  John didn't know what to say. If he were back on Earth, he would have been impressed meeting another deity or whatever this guy was, but after all his encounters so far, it was almost becoming normal to meet god-like people out of the blue.

  "Okay then, well, it cannot be helped. Nick is still there in the multiverse, so he is still getting his reward from Mags. As for you, well, there isn't anything I can do to change things if DEN is involved. So go ahead and live your life, give those beings some entertainment so they don't make the rest of us miserable instead. I won't interfere with whatever you do here." The old man said, his gaze focusing on John again. "Oh, Mags had left a note on your ship's computer for Nick. You don't need to follow the directions on it, but it should give you an idea of what is happening in this world. There is no rush; the evil here is still gathering its strength. Read it, and if you have further questions, just find me here, and I will answer what I can."

  "That easy is it? Hey, since you know about DEN, do you know about all these worlds they send us to, right? What is this world based on?" John asked.

  "Based on? Well, it was based on a video game called Infinite Frontiers from Nick's version of Earth. In the game, you lived in a universe like this, and could do almost anything you wanted to do, such as mercenary work, become a soldier, a merchant, a miner, or hundreds of other professions. You would hire crewmembers through a gatcha draw, improving your ship and fleet with their expertise. In this universe, it transtes to getting sves as part of your crew. Going through your memories, you really don't have any frame of reference for what I am talking about, do you?" The man said, his eyes burning a hole into John's mind.

  "No, not really. Honestly, I only arrived at DEN by accident, saving a couple of kids from a truck. I have no idea what any of these worlds are about, and have just been winging it since I arrived."

  "Sounds like them. Listen, I won't ruin their (DEN) fun directly, but if you are ever back on an Earth world, go and search for the worlds you have been to in manga or video games. You might be able to get some insight into the future of the worlds you are visiting. Not knowing about what is going on has to be tough." Tim told him. Suddenly, the world reverted to normal, his eyes becoming white again. "Now, let me get you some burgers, John. I think you have to be somewhere shortly, or else one of your friends will be in trouble."

  "What?"

  "Back off! I already paid my protection fee this month!" Chris said to the woman in front of her.

  "Now now, you paid the old fee. Due to the increase in violence on the Third Ring, Cami and Timur have raised the protection fees to reflect this new reality. We would hate to see something happen to you or your business because we couldn't afford to maintain the security of this area. I am sure you understand." The woman said. She was tall, much taller than Chris, and had two other women with her, all of them carrying stun batons. They were all rough-looking, with dark hair and scars on their exposed skin, showing that they lived a life of violence. That wasn't enough to make Chris back down from them.

  "Oh, I understand alright. You thugs, have been causin more shit than normal and hoping to extort more money out of us because of yer own problems. I ain't havin it! Now get on wit ya, before me brother and sista show up and decide ta put ya down fer good." Chris replied, hefting a rge wrench she was carrying on her shoulder. That woman might be bigger than her, but she was a dwarf, and in a contest of strength, she wouldn't lose easily.

  "Listen here bitch. Pay us, or you are gonna be taking a long ride on a slow ship to somewhere special, with a crew of lonely pirates to keep ya company, ya get me!?! And since you kindly mentioned your siblings are not home, it will make this all the easier." The woman replied, threatening Chris.

  "Fuck you," Chris said, swinging her wrench at the thug.

  "Oh, I will be fucking you shortly. Get her girls!" The leader said, leaping back from Chris's swing.

  Somewhere Nearby

  John was walking down a wide passageway, following his Link to the dwarves' shop. It was much the same as most of the other passageways he had seen so far on the station, with a massive conveyor belt moving down the center of the hall, with walkways on either side for pedestrians. Several vehicles were being moved down the conveyor belt, both fighter craft and power armour. Every once in a while, one would be diverted into rger doors on the side of the passage, which appeared to be different workshops of some sort. He didn't pay too much attention to that, as he was moving on autopilot right now, going over the conversation he had with Tim.

  So there is a message for the original protagonist on the ship's computer... I will need to go and look for that ter. Damn it, I need to be thinking about my finances, not worrying about some random god's bullshit right now. Hopefully, there is some guidance for this world in that note.

  Lost in thought, he didn't notice the confrontation happening in front of him until he was almost on top of them. A woman nded at his feet, bringing him back to the present. He gnced at her, but once he realized she was unconscious, the fight in front of him kept most of his attention.

  "Let me go, you Ogre!" Chris shouted, being picked up by the tallest woman he had ever seen. She was nearly a head taller than he was and had muscles as thick as Terra's were from The Great Cleric. Another woman was picking herself up from the ground, her face bruised and bloodied. He felt his blood pressure begin to rise.

  "Naw, I think the bosses will want to deal with you personally. Not to mention these two will want to get their revenge. Now, be a good girl and stop resisting. It's time we go for a walk." The tall woman said. John drew the Sword of Truth.

  I probably shouldn't use my pistol; I might hit Chris by accident.

  He ran forward and hit the bloodied gang member on the head with the pommel of his sword, knocking her out. He then pced the bde on the neck of the woman holding Chris. "Put her down gently, else you will suddenly become a head shorter." He growled, his voice emanating anger.

  "S-S-Sure. Easy, I am putting her down." The woman said, slowly setting Chris down.

  "Are you okay, Chris?" He asked, pushing the tall woman away from the dwarf once she was released.

  "Just fine, Hon. Thank you," Chris said, picking up an ungodly rge wrench from the ground.

  "Do you want them dead?" He asked, grabbing the hair of the taller woman when she tried to pull away from his bde.

  "No, I don't want to deal with the headache of dealing with their bodies. Let her go." She replied, then stepped up to the woman. Once John moved his sword from her neck, Chris swung the wrench again, hitting the woman in the stomach. She doubled over, the wind knocked out of her. Chris grabbed her by the hair, then punched her in the nose. A sickening crack echoed around the corridor, the gang member's nose being crushed by the power of the small woman's strike. She started screaming in pain, but Chris didn't let her hair go.

  "Get out of here! And take yer friends with ya. Tell yer bosses they get what we originally agreed to and not a credit more." Chris said to the woman, then tossed her to the side, the small woman showing off a surprising amount of strength.

  The woman just nodded and grabbed the other two, and they slowly started to move away from the shop. John watched them stumble away until they were out of sight, then turned back to Chris. She was fuming; the white-knuckle grip on that wrench made him think she wanted to run after them and beat them down despite what she said earlier. He sheathed his sword, then put his hand over hers. "Chris? Are you okay?"

  She jumped a little bit at his touch, then shook her head for a moment. "Yeah. Sorry about that. The gangs have been getting more ballsy tely. Thank you for the assist, John. What are you doing here?"

  John told her what Ash had said, and she nodded along. "Figures that Tanya didn't bother telling me you were coming. She and Greg will be back in a bit; they were just finishing up a few things with Serena before she heads out to the race course. C'mon in and make yerself at home."

  They moved inside the shop through a normal-sized door next to one of the rger bay doors that he had noticed on his walk here. Inside was a rge, rectangur room, filled with tools and a couple of fighters. On the side wall was a staircase that appeared to go up to a loft on the far wall.

  "Nice garage. What do you typically work on here?" He asked, looking around the pce.

  "A little bit of everything. I specialize in spaceship powerpnts and engines, but living out here, I take whatever work I can get. For the most part, it’s maintenance on power armour or repair work on small craft. Sometimes merchants hire me to do maintenance on their ships while they are in port, too, but for the most part, it’s the smaller jobs that keep the lights on here." She replied, gesturing to several different vehicles on her shop floor.

  "I see. Is that fighter over there in for maintenance, too? It looks impressive." John asked, looking at a craft that was sitting on the back wall. It looked like a B-2 Bomber, except it was glossy, almost like it had been crafted out of polished onyx.

  She ughed. "Hah! That door stop? Naw, it is Tanya's pet project. She picked up the frame and some pieces of an Imperial Bdedancer at an auction a decade ago. She wants to modify the original design and make it her new combat ship. She has sunk enough credits into it to make even a noble cry. It's still not ready yet; she needs a proper sub-light engine, and she won't let me jury-rig something that isn't powerful enough in her opinion.

  John nodded, understanding that. He had a couple of project cars back on Earth that he had deyed working on until he found the parts he wanted to put in them. "I get it. It's nice to be able to put what you want when building something custom... It's almost like it's the most satisfying part."

  "Yeah. The thing is, I could rip the engine out of her current fighter, install it, and this ship would be able to do circles around her current ship. That powerpnt has a ton of extra juice to feed the sub-light engine. Ah, well, it's her baby, I am just helping her out. Let's head upstairs, we have our apartment on the second level." She replied.

  "Sure," John replied, and after one st gnce at the B-2 look-alike, the pair of them moved upstairs.