Is It Time To Leave?

As I lay in bed after another rather intense sex session with Mara and Amber, I was considering what I could do now.

My thoughts must have shown on my face because Amber pushed herself up on an elbow beside me, "What are you thinking about?"

"Mmm… Just what we should do from now actually."

"You mean aside from sleeping? I think you came like what? Five times? I'm surprised you aren't tuckered out."

Mara snorted from my other side, "You're welcome."

Amber rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes. We all know that you're the one who spliced the mod, no need to keep bragging about it."

"Seeing as how I am literally the one who helped to ensure you get laid, I think if I wanted to brag, I can very well brag however and whenever I want."

"Sure, sure. So what did you mean about that, Tera?"

I hesitated, "What I meant to ask was what we should do in the long run? I'm not going to lie, the station was comfortable enough for us to live in but… You already know what I want to do."

Amber nodded, "Yeah, to find Earth, right?"

"Yeah… I don't think staying here would help with that."

Amber then tapped a finger on her chin, "In that case… I suppose it's time for us to leave this system?"

I turned my gaze towards Mara and the doctor gave me a smile.

"There's no need to ask me, Tera. I'll be fine on my own here. Besides, we can still send messages and call each other through our terminals so it's not like we'll be separated for good. In fact, I would like to maintain contact since that little bitch beside you doesn't have a habit of answering or sending messages."

Amber bristled, "Hey! I'm busy ok?!"

"Mmhmm, busy with what I might ask?"

"... Shut up…"

"That's what I thought. Now this time you have Tera taking care of you so I'm not that worried at least. Be sure to be nice to her, ok? You've already used up your entire life's worth of luck to met her."

"Nnghh! I can take care of myself just fine! And I don't need luck to survive!"

"Remembering how many times you had close encounters with death, I doubt it. Please take care of her, Tera. She may be a little rough but she's at least a good girl. If she ever bullies you, just let me know and I'll smack her for you."

I chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll take care of Amber. She's my girl after all."

Amber sputtered at my words and hid her blushing face in the pillow.

So cute.

I then laid back down on the bed before asking, "On that note… Where should we go from here? Is there a place that we can go to find out more about Earth?"

Amber peeked out from her pillow, "We could just take the Warp Gate to the next system and look around there or even just travel straight to the inner circles of civilised space. If you're not that picky, we could also just take a hustle to escort someone to another system. We get to travel and get paid at the same time, win-win in my book."

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea. Let's see what they have then."

I picked up my Codex and navigated the menu to the job board, scrolling through the list to see if there were any escort jobs for us to take.

Both girls leaned on my shoulder to peek at the screen and I projected it out in front of us so that we could get a better view.

Amber hummed, "Hmm… There's not a lot huh? And most of them are just within this system instead of travelling out of here… Oh wait, that one!"

She pointed at one of the listing with a finger and I tapped on it to open it.

"Err… Escort job to the Denibi system. Will be making a stop at Cietai Trading Hub in the Cietai system. Upfront payment of one hundred thousand Credits, additional completion reward of four hundred thousand Credits upon reaching the Denibi Trade Station," I read aloud.

Mara smirked, "The Cietai system and the Denibi system? I suppose you would have your hands full."

I turned to her, "Why? What's wrong with those places?"

"The Cietai system is notorious for being a pirate's hunting ground because of the nebula clouds hanging around there. Most sensors get scrambled while within those clouds so they can ambush unsuspecting convoys before they even have a chance to react. As for the Denibi system…"

Amber spoke up, "That place is a Free Trade zone, anything is legal to trade there so if there's something you want but you can't get your hands on through legal channels, you might be able to get one there."

Oh~ Does that mean I could also pick up a stealth module for my ship too?

"But… I'm assuming that also means there's a lot of outlaws there?" I asked.

"Ahaha~ That's right! The streets here would seem like paradise compared to that station! Walking outside unarmed is practically telling others to rob you!"

"In other words, it's basically a hunting ground for Mercs like us, isn't it?"

"Heh heh~ That's right~ But that also means there's other Mercs there too so we'll not only need to watch out for outlaws but also other Mercs as well."

Right, because just because we're all Mercs it doesn't mean that we're friends.

"Hmm… I don't mind taking this job. Seems like they'll be setting out from the station in four days so we still have time to prepare for it. Shall we take it?" I asked.

Amber shrugged, "I'm fine with that. I don't even mind spending the next four days just lounging around and getting pampered by you either~"

"Actually, I want to take a look at the black market around here to see what they have before we go."

Mara perked up at that, "Oh. Is there something in particular that you're looking for? I can give you a good price for any information that you might want. I'll even throw in the location and how to enter it for free."

I keep forgetting that Mara was also an information broker too.

"Ah… About that… I already know how to enter it," I told her.

I extracted that information from Yirfa after all.

Mara grinned, "I see you've done some homework for this. Very well. Just let me know if you need anything else."

Amber then cuddled closer to me, "Are you just going there to browse though? Or are you looking to buy that stealth module from there? Because if we're going to the Denibi system, it'll be much cheaper to buy from there than it is from here. Actually, it'll be way cheaper to buy the things that are sold in the black market here over there instead."

"I'm just going there to browse. I've not been to one after all so I'm quite curious how the place looks and works."

Well, that wasn't the whole truth.

As I had mentioned before, the black markets are the easiest way you could get rich quickly if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty and don't have strict morals.

I want to find out what the prices of the things are so that I have at least a standard to reference when buying stuff from Denibi that I could later sell off.

Buy low, sell high, the most basic rule for merchanting~

And when there's a black market, that means there's a demand for stuff that isn't usually obtainable and people would be willing to pay more just to get them.

That's why doing my market research is a must.

Amber tapped a finger on her chin, "Hmm… I suppose we could just go and take a look at it tomorrow… You have a recommendation right?"

I tapped on my Codex to show the recommendation I managed to extract from Yirfa.

"Is that good enough?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yep. That's good because I most certainly don't have one so I can just follow you in with that~"

"Eh? You don't have one? Then how do you know about it?"

"Pfft~ There's other ways to get into the black market than just walking through the front door, Tera~ It's a black market, its existence is already illegal so the last thing they are going to complain about is someone managing to sneak in there. Besides, the sellers there don't care how you get in as long as there's Credits to be made."

Ah… I suppose that's true…

I thought the recommendation thing was to prevent the black market from being leaked out to the authorities but I guess it's just a deterrent and not an ironclad rule or something.

Whatever, as long as I get to go and take a look around, I'm not picky.