SOS CH 6 (Patreon)

Walk. Stay silent. Fight. Kill. Eat. Train. Do not question order— Do not even think!

Remember. You are nothing but a doll, a fucking robot. Your very existence is nothing but a whim of the higher-ups.

Fight for Earth.

Fight for Humanity.

Fight for your brethren.

Kills all the Parasites.

Erase all nuisances.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?

YOU. ARE. THE. STRONGEST.

.

.

.

— Are you finally awake now?

Sitting in the cold and hard ground of a desolate cave, Noah slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. Immediately a sense of utter darkness greeted him but he had long since reached the point where darkness was not a nuisance for him any longer.

He had been living on a planet that had been tidally locked to one side after all. Which meant that one side of the planet was in perpetual darkness and he had lived in that region for half his stay here. It would be weird if he didn’t get used to the darkness already.

‘What is the situation at hand?’

— You have depleted all of your energy as you ran with that woman and faced that monster.

‘Tch!’

Noah couldn’t help but click his tongue when he heard the voice speak. He had been careless back there. He should have not forgotten that in this icy tundra, almost anything was possible, and there was never a lack of enemies and beings that were after their lives. Though he was at the top of the food chain, mistakes could still be fatal to him. A hoard of bison was still enough to take out an injured lion.

“Ohh you finally woke up!”

Noah's thoughts were interrupted by a feminine voice that reached his ears. Moving his head, he looked at the direction the voice was coming from and then tilted his head, confusion lacing his eyes.

“You took off your armor?”

He asked quietly, watching the red haired woman who finally appeared in front of him while wearing a relatively tight skinsuit over her lithe body.

Though he could only see her face right now, she had beautiful dark skin which reminded him of his companion Leo from the time he served in the Zodiacs.

But that was all they had in common between them. Her skin had similarities to some of the African Americans and Africans in general that he knew of in the past. But as far as he remembered, black people didn’t have red tattoo-like carvings on different parts of their skin all over.

Their eyes weren’t slitted like those of a reptile and they certainly didn’t have semi-long pointed ears.

‘I was wondering if I was in front of a human or not.’

Noah kept his nonchalant attitude but his eyes were slightly moving as he observed her and observed the situation and the overall surroundings.

The last time a human met an alien, to his knowledge, it ended up in a war of survival to avoid the extinction of all of humanity.

So yeah… He wasn’t about to just stand and say that he would befriend all races that were outside the scope of humanity.

— Should we just kill her then?

In the end, he made one simple judgment. Though her prowess was still unknown, he was sure about one thing about the individual in front of him.

He could kill her in one hit before she could even react.

Thinking like this, a sunny smile appeared on his face. There was nothing wrong with being friendly to someone weaker than him after all.

‘No need for something like that.’

“Yeah, I was finally able to recuperate my body and energy a little. Though I wouldn’t dare going out without at least this skinsuit. It helps me regulate the temperature of this abysmal place.”

Not knowing how close she had come to dying just now, Morgiana sauntered close to him, which allowed him to take a closer look at her appearance.

Her tribal esque tattoos, running all over her skin, in particular, intrigued him a lot. They were clear, not just ordinary tattoos that had been engraved onto the skin.

Watching them closely, he had the vague impression that they were like rivers, where a sea of red flame was flowing inside in real-time.

Currently, the tattoos seem rather dim in color.

Noah made some deductions based on this and nodded his head.

"How long was I out?"

"For almost two hours. Hum. You might not know about the hours. Let's say you were out for a relatively long time."

Noah was speechless. This woman was taking him as some kind of barbarian who knew nothing of the world. Just who the hell did she think he was?

— You are still buck naked, you know?

'I have nothing to be ashamed of. My body is beautiful. It’s a work of art. Peak aesthetics, if you know what I mean…'

Ignoring the scoff that was leaking out of the voice in his head, Noah stood up on his feet, stretched ever so slightly, and ignored the weird looks that the woman he had saved was giving him right now as he did all of that still buck naked.

He had never known shame even when he was on Earth, much less on a desolate planet like this with no intelligent life in sight.

What did it matter to him if she looked at him or not?

'I have been pretty careless.'

Fainting for two hours was no big deal usually. At worst, he would simply wake up in the stomach of some beast and tear his way out of it in seconds.

But fainting in front of a stranger he did not know the ability of was not in line with the way he had survived till now. It went beyond the code of conduct with which he had lived by his entire life.

— Finding someone to talk to made you careless, didn’t it?

'Perhaps.'

After stretching his muscles and making himself less stiff, he finally gazed at Morgiana again who had been looking away seemingly out of respect.

"So… What do we do now?"

The atmosphere became serious as Morgiana took a seat not far from him.

"Look. I will briefly explain the situation to you so you can understand. But you will have to flee and hide with your family or clan or group fast after I am finished with my explanation."

Morgiana scratched her hair, feeling quite helpless about it all as she spoke,

"My name is Morgiana. I won't go into the details but I am currently being chased by a group of pirates known as the Forty Thieves."

"Let me guess… Because they have Forty Thieves?"

Morgiana chuckled and she tried to ruffle his hair as if he was being cute right now, acting like a smart ass.

His eyes twitched slightly and he swatted her hand aside gently, "I am not a kid…"

She laughed but once again, as if she did not know that she had nearly lost her hand.

Despite his evolution and adaptation, the top of the head was still one of his weak points as a human and he had to fight the urge to lash at her.

'This woman is either stupid or she doesn't see me as a threat or…'

But after what she witnessed, how could she not take him as a threat?

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

— Or she is playing dumb right now.

Ignoring his look, Morgiana continued on, "Anyway, you are right and wrong. The Forty Thieves aren't exactly forty rather… they represent an alliance of Forty great pirates, each with their own fleets. A minimum of 100 pirates per thief who acts as the captain of the crew of pirates."

She looked up and spoke in a grave tone, "The one chasing me should be the fleet belonging to Omid."

"Omid?"

"Yep. Ranked 7th among the 40 thieves. One of the true leaders of the alliance of pirates, so to speak."

Morgiana explained lightly. The Forty Thieves weren't all equal and even in an alliance there was a Hierarchy.

The top 7 outside of the leader were all dangerous individuals who were strong enough to destroy the entire armada by themselves.

This was one of the reasons why this operation was such a big deal.

Out of the Forty Thieves, 33 were replaceable. Only the Top 7 and the leader were the true core of the group.

"As for the leader… His name is Casim.”

Morgiana closed her eyes for a while, as if she was thinking of something but in the end simply shook her head before adding, "Anyway, Omid is dangerous and has a particular taste for enslaving people from type 0 planets like this one."

Only Type 1 planets and above were protected by the Galactic covenant and the Galactic laws that were put in place to hold the equilibrium of the entire galaxy.

Pirates would rarely attack such planets as the danger generally wasn't worth the hassle.

But for Planets below Type 1, not only were they not protected— they didn't even have the strength to protect themselves.

Easy prey, high returns.

There was no reason for them to not attack.

"So what you are saying is— some people with spaceships are coming on this planet and will try to enslave or kill us, right?"

"Yes. So you should flee as fast as you can. If everything works, then they won't find your existence."

Noah, though, had long since stopped listening to her.

He still had scruples and didn't wish to attack someone who had done nothing to him.

But this—?

'Haha…'

Glee filled his mind.

There was nothing more beautiful than food coming toward you by its own volition.

This was going to be a whole lot of fun.

But first thing first —

Growl~!

Noah looked around, while touching his stomach that was complaining.

"Where is my food?"

"Ah…Sorry. I wasn't strong enough to bring it with me."

"Noooo!"

Noah kneeled as and faced true despair.