Chapter 1365: A Pirate’s Appraisal

"W-what did you say?"

"Haah..."

The pirate let out a deep sigh, raising a hand to massage his temples as he stared at the face of that punk who’d just tried billing him 100 billion Star Coins.

He’d been rather abrasive upon waking up. After all, who wouldn’t have their hackles raised after being woken up like that?

But even he was finding it difficult to maintain his usual menacing demeanor when the cadet before him eventually began looking as though he couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of his own mouth...

This kid had started out looking so confident, yet now, it was almost like watching a small critter timidly asking for scraps.

The newly roused man simply couldn’t find his footing, especially when he couldn’t sense even an ounce of malice from the young man, nor could he get a read on his thoughts at all.

It was rather disconcerting, but without his usual means of gauging someone’s intentions, he had little choice but to rely on what he could observe for himself.

And the more he considered the young man’s demand alongside his own circumstances, the more he began to realize something rather absurd.

That 100 billion Star Coins was simply too...

Little.

Yeah, dammit.

Too little.

Sure, he’d been called a pirate for as long as he could remember, and he was well aware of how such a derogatory designation could be deliberately used to corner someone during negotiations.

After all, once someone had been painted as a criminal, practically any demand they made afterward could be dismissed as unreasonable or excessive, leaving them with little choice but to compromise under unfair terms.

But the man who’d long since recognized such tactics and prepared his own ways of dealing with unscrupulous negotiators hadn’t risen to his current position by being a first-class idiot.

If anything, he was someone who knew how to appraise things properly.

Perhaps even a little too well.

And so, after taking a moment to confirm that all his limbs were still attached and properly accounted for, he finally managed to conduct a quick assessment of his own body.

Only, the results were so unbelievable that he actually had to check again.

Because...

Wasn’t he feeling a little too good?!

"..."

"...?"

Of course, that wasn’t counting the fact that his back would probably ache from lying on the hard ground for who knew how long.

But setting that aside, wasn’t he breathing far more easily than before?!

His body no longer felt as though it was constantly growing colder, and neither his vision nor his mind was nearly as murky as he’d grown accustomed to!

"..."

Something had fundamentally changed between the moment he lost consciousness and the moment he woke up in this cavern.

And whatever it was, it had been life-changing.

Not that this was the first time.

Nor even the second.

After all, even as he stared at the cadets standing before him, his thoughts couldn’t help but return to another occasion when he’d woken up faced with a bunch of weeping men and women—and a single bag of that thing called banana chips.

"..."

And now, for some reason, here he was again, facing the very people who most definitely had something to do with his current lease on life.

See, Veeka, that woman with an absolute death wish, had claimed she’d stolen it. Such casually spoken words, yet they’d conveniently allowed her to keep the actual source a secret from all those hungry, waiting maws.

And as expected, people believed her, readily accepting her explanation because it aligned perfectly with their natural assumptions.

After all, how else could someone like her have gotten her hands on such an extraordinary item?

Amusingly enough, he probably would’ve believed her too. Given his condition back then, someone could’ve told him the stars were in disarray, and he wouldn’t have had the energy to argue, much less question it.

But that day had been different.

He would’ve believed her if not for the fact that her thoughts, which he’d suddenly gained the ability to perceive, had been in complete conflict with her words.

Because according to what he’d managed to glean, there had been something else before those banana chips.

Something she’d been desperately praying would work.

’Please.’

’Please.’

She’d repeated it like a mantra, making it rather difficult to ignore.

But perhaps it was precisely because of that that he hadn’t dared press her about it, especially when it was clear that she either didn’t want to talk about what had happened or simply couldn’t, insisting instead on changing the kinds of missions she was willing to accept.

If that hadn’t made things obvious to someone who’d worked with her for so long, then what else possibly could’ve?

Then, as time passed, the rest of the universe gradually learned more about the people responsible for all those controversial goods.

And the pirates of the Outer Rim began to realize exactly what kind of group they were dealing with when they couldn’t even manage to redirect a single shipment their way...

It didn’t matter how much they tried to escalate their activities. From outright theft to covert operations, none of their plans went as intended, and their efforts failed to attract even fifteen minutes of attention, almost as though their schemes had never existed in the first place.

With every failed attempt by those daring crews, he’d become increasingly convinced that something extraordinary must’ve happened when Veeka disregarded every warning she’d been given and did something she knew she shouldn’t have.

And now that he was sitting right here, surrounded by these people, he was absolutely certain of one thing.

There was no damn way Veeka could’ve stolen anything from them.

Because even he wouldn’t dare attempt to steal from someone possessing such a monstrous presence.

And despite how stunned, harmless, and even a little pitiful this particular cadet currently looked, the captain of one of the largest companies operating in the Outer Rim was certain that crossing him would be tantamount to signing his own death warrant.

So when Luca Kyros, heir to House Kyros, asked him to clarify what he’d said earlier, the pirate didn’t dare lie.

"A transportation hub," he grunted, his voice echoing through the damp, familiar chamber. "Several companies have started using this in place of traditional wormholes."

"..."

What he hadn’t expected, however, was for those words to be met with a bone-chilling, suffocating gaze from the young heir, whose entire demeanor had suddenly shifted into something terrifyingly cold.