5 Chapter 4 - Goodwill

"That's a shame. Well, Feel free to come and visit anytime then."

"I will" Alex nodded

"Alright, Bob, get the spare arm-brain in my office and bring a set M to go. You lot better get back to work and wake that idiot up or I'll shove you all in the walk-in freezer myself!" Grendel told one of the thugs to get some things and chased away the others.

Bob and the others hurriedly scrambled into the restaurant that Alex was checking out earlier.

"Oh, is it the 'place' you've just mentioned?" (Alex)

"The names Thunder Wok. MY pride and joy, the best restaurant in the station, gahahaha! " Grendel laughed with pride, showing a genuine smile, unlike his forced ones.

"Big bro, here's the spare. I'll go back to get the grub." Bob didn't take long in returning and handed the arm brain to Grendel; before going back into the restaurant.

"Here, take it. It's an old model, but it'll do its job. I'll be lending this to you. " Grendel gave Alex a bulky-looking arm-brain that had no external decoration with a grin.

"Thanks." Alex replaced the gold gilded arm brain with the worn-out one that he received. The golden Ring army's arm-brain looked like an elegant and thin bracer that goes very comfortably on his wrist. The one Grendel handed to him was too bulky, and it reminded Alex of a post-apocalyptic game he once played when he was in junior high.

The gadget intrigued Alex as he turned it on and began tweaking and taping its various features, completely forgetting about Grendel in front of him who gave him a perplexed look and found a map of the space station with a few buttons.

"Here's the Takeout you asked for, Big bro." Bob returned and gave Grendel something.

"Aye, here's the grub Mr. Alex, I'll put it on your tab." He called Alex, pulling him back from his newly found toy.

"Oh, sorry, got a bit distracted there." Alex unconsciously scratched his nose as he thought that he must have looked like an uncultured person seeing a high-tech gadget for the first time and gratefully received the takeout box.

"Well, that's understandable. The things a relic that I used when I was an active mercenary a hundred years ago. Youngsters like yourself probably won't see one of these things except for antique stores because of its rarity." Grendel handed a bucket-sized Chinese takeout box to Alex as he told him of his past exploits

" O-oh... Thank you for the help, Mr. Grendel. " Alex lowered his head, both in gratitude and embarrassment.

"Alright kid, I better get back cooking. Don't forget to come by next time you're around these parts of the station." Grendel said before turning back towards his restaurant, along with bob who gave a small bow.

Alexander waves his hand towards the two before he started walking in a certain direction.

*~~~~~*

Grendel, who was at the restaurant's door, turned in Alex's direction for a couple of seconds. Before Bob beside him asked if there was something wrong with the weird person they just met.

"Nah, not really. " Grendel answered back. Following a mercenary's creed, avoid unnecessary trouble.

To him, who had lived for a few hundred years, Alex reeked of a highly trained but naïve noble scion with his bearing. That was likely just a noble youth that ran away from home!

Little did he know that the one he just spoke to is a being who's from an era way before the age of space-faring that inherited a nobleman's memory. A man who got dragged from another dimension and time.

'People nowadays don't trust anyone whom' they have just met that easily. Especially with someone of my beastly stature, giving someone else that arm-brain would never be accepted due to suspicion of being watched through it.' Grendel thought.

Grendel closed the door and told his crew to get back to work as he walked back towards the kitchen to cook.

*~~~~*

" Hmmm, the place should be around this block."

Alexander has been walking for a few minutes and came close to his destination. He stabbed a spoon into the bucket-sized takeout box of egg-fried rice with some fried dumplings and stuffed his empty stomach at a stable pace. Uncaring about the weird looks he's getting from the people he passed by.

He then saw a ten-story building with a holographic signboard titled "Red star motel" not long after going around a few buildings and entering an alleyway.

An old-looking double door made a creaking noise as it slid open due to its owner's neglect.

What greeted him as he entered is a dilapidated receptionist droid, which is currently standing by in a coffin-like casing. The reception area is devoid of people and only has an elevator to go up to their rooms for rent. While the floor is covered in a thick carpet. There're no tables or chairs, just an open space that spanned over the entire first floor. Giving Alex the impression of the establishment on the verge of closing down.

The droid activated as soon as he entered and greeted him with a static voice.

"Welcome, how may I be of service to you."

Alex did not answer its inquiry and pressed the droids' left eye.

The droid stopped moving and its left eye retracted, showing a small chip.

Alex took the chip and the building lightly shuddered as all its doors and windows got covered with thick metal plates from the inside. He ignored the things happening around him, walking towards the droid's coffin-like terminal and inserted the chip in a hidden chip-set.

The chip-set turned and got replaced by a number pad. Alex then proceeded on inputting a string of numbers before pressing the confirm button.

The terminal hissed as it slid to the side, revealing a hidden elevator that he then entered.

He descended towards the 3rd underground level. The terminal and everything in the reception area returned to their original positions.

The elevator opened, revealing a hallway with more than a dozen vaults. Each of these vaulted doors is about a meter thick.

Alex arrived in front of a vault and opened it with another string of numbers.

This storage facility is a grey area owned by an underground organization, which caters to a common practice in the industry of mercenaries who are known as individuals of chaotic neutral alignment.

Mercenaries live a life walking on a constant tightrope, where they could end up breaking the laws and become wanted criminals. That's why hiding a few contingency plans is a must in their kind of work, whether they are of common or noble descent.

"Thankfully, Oliver is quite a diligent and deep-pocketed person. Hiding a couple of these warehouses in multiple places close to the frontier regions and sparing me from sleeping in the streets."

The vault opened with a heavy creaking sound.