"Sir! There is a space-time fabric disturbance at Planet K-19S yet again!"
Rerir shouted through the communication device, his voice coming out louder than intended, but he didn't seem to care. He stood near the main console, gripping the communicator tightly, his expression already showing irritation.
He is the latest member to join the patrol force young, only twenty-one, and quite inexperienced compared to most others. Still, despite that, he somehow managed to get the position of team leader.
Rerir wasn't the calmest person in the batch. In fact, far from it.
He was around five foot ten, with black hair and a medium build - not too thin, not too bulky either. Nothing about his appearance stood out too much at first glance, and he wasn't particularly appealing either.
But that didn't matter here. What mattered was strength.
And Rerir had plenty of it.
He had high combat ability and battle tactics that rivaled those of the Six Commanders—beings who had lived for over five hundred years. That alone was enough reason for others to follow him, even if they didn't always like how he acted.
"Hey, don't shout at the captain like that. You might get suspended."
Emma said from behind him, her tone casual as always. Rerir turned slightly, clearly annoyed.
Emma stood there with a relaxed posture, like none of this bothered her.
She was a small girl, around five foot four, with black hair and a light build. Compared to others in the force, she looked almost fragile, and honestly, more like someone who wandered into the wrong place by mistake. But she wasn't here by chance.
She was here because of her piloting skills.
"I don't care anymore," Rerir replied, his irritation not going down at all. "It's the third time the signal appeared, and yet we have neither orders to take action nor to go there and check what's the matter."
A calm voice responded through the communication device.
"Rerir, I already told you. It could be an entity. I analyzed the signals; the rupture there is quite strong. It's not something any low-grade mortal civilization could be responsible of."
Entities - beings made purely of energy, without a fixed physical form. They are formed when massive amounts of energy, sometimes on the scale of entire galaxies, get compressed into a single location, eventually giving rise to a kind of consciousness. Because their bodies are just energy, they can manipulate it freely, and till date the mortals have never known a sure way to kill them.
But Rerir showed no signs of calming down.
"So, Captain Gazel, you want us to just sit here and let the most precious possession we have be tampered with? We barely got that planet handed over to us because Nyer himself was involved in this matter, and now we are giving up on it without a fight?" said Rerir in a sad yet angry tone.
Planet K-19S, a planet located at the far edge of the Milky Way, was a newly formed world. Harsh, unstable, and mostly lifeless—but it was also home to one of the most important metals known to any civilization in the entire universe.
That alone made it worth everything.
After a minute of silence, Gazel finally responded.
"…Fine. Go check it out. But know that if your team dies, it happens by your own decision."
Rerir's mood changed almost instantly. He looked visibly satisfied.
The communication ended right away.
But on the other side of the device, Gazel had one more question.
"My lord… is this really okay?"
"It's perfectly fine, Captain Gazel." - Ragnor, the Sixth Commander.
K-19, the most powerful and advanced civilization of the Milky Way galaxy. And the 6 Commanders are the ones who have absolute authority over it.
Among the six commanders of K-19, he was the second youngest, and his ideology was quite different from the others. Because of that, even the First Commander remained wary of him.
"Emma, get the ship ready. We are going to Planet K-19S."
"I refuse."
Rerir turned immediately, his expression darkening.
Emma didn't back down.
"It will only be the two of us going," she said. "Until you accept that condition, the ship will not start."
Emma was a bit airheaded at times, a cute girl if one had to describe her, but she wasn't careless when it came to missions.
She didn't suggest this because she liked Rerir or anything. It was simply because she cared about her team members a lot. Unlike Mr. Rerir.
Rerir stared at her for a few seconds, clearly understanding what her intentions were. In the end, he just wanted to get there as soon as possible.
"…Fine."
They got into a mini spacecraft and started off soon after.
Though it was a mini craft, it still had quite a few features, with multiple chambers and small rooms designed for short missions. It wasn't luxurious, but it was more than enough.
On the way, Emma asked him something that had been bothering her.
"Why were you so adamant about Planet K-19S? Even though it's the most dangerous one?"
Rerir answered immediately.
"Our civilization has been stuck in the Grade B category for over eight hundred years, and Planet K-19S is the only way we can manufacture high-output weapons and move up in rankings. The mineral available on that planet can help us develop our capabilities even more. That is the only way we can make sure the same incident doesn't repeat again."
He paused briefly.
"We got that planet into our possession by pure luck. If Nyer wasn't present in this universe that day, there is no doubt our whole civilization would have been sent back to the stone ages over the issue of who gets their hands on Planet K-19S."
Emma's eyes widened with curiosity.
"Whaat?! We came that close to extinction, and we common people never knew about this? And who is this Nyer? Why is Planet K-19S so special? What incident are you talking about? Why did we—"
"Just shut up and drive the damn ship."
Emma puffed her cheeks slightly before trying again.
"Eeehh… at least tell me who this Nyer is, please."
Rerir looked at her for a moment, clearly annoyed, but still answered.
"Nyer is the strongest mortal in this entire multiverse. His existence alone shifts the favor of power into mortals' hands from the gods. He is the sole reason entities don't attack mortals just for fun."
Emma still didn't look satisfied.
Her expression didn't change at all.
Rerir simply ignored her and went to grab a drink from the freezer.
They arrived at the destination after few hours of travel.
The ship was parked a bit far from Planet K-19S.
Rerir checked for any signs of entities nearby, scanning carefully, but he found none.
"Emma, I see no signs," he said. "It must be some mortals stealing the mineral. I was right."
He sounded confident.
"Let's go check which civilization dares to trespass on our property."
Emma wasn't so sure.
"Then what about the space-time rupture signal?"
"It must just be a decoy to frighten us, obviously," Rerir replied. "And all our higher-ups fell for it. Those darn fools… even the commanders are so useless sometimes."
Emma immediately punched him on the head.
Then quickly covered her own head, expecting retaliation.
But nothing happened.
"Hey, why the hell did you punch me, you little.."
"Don't be disrespectful towards our commanders," she replied. "How many times have I told you?"
Rerir clicked his tongue.
"Just follow. I pinpointed the location of the signal. It's still active. We are landing about five miles away from it."
They landed safely on the dark planet.
The place was barely lit by its distant orange dwarf star, which was too far to provide any real light or warmth.
No matter where they looked, there were hundreds of massive rocks, many over five meters tall, scattered across the terrain.
The environment felt dead.
Cold shivers ran down Emma's spine even with the protective gear on.
The visibility was poor due to the thick fog and the uneven terrain filled with rocks.
Then
A loud sound echoed from the direction where the signal had appeared.
It was the sound of two massive rocks colliding.
Both Rerir and Emma immediately moved toward it, carefully making their way while hiding between the rocks.
What they saw when they got closer…
…was neither an entity nor a group with heavy machinery trying to mine the mineral.
It was a single man.
He sat on a rock that had been broken in half, completely exposed to the harsh environment. No shirt. No protective gear. Nothing.
He looked like a normal human.
Around six feet tall, he had black hair that fell in slightly messy, effortless strands, framing his face in a way that felt natural rather than styled. His eyes were a clear, striking amber, calm yet difficult to look away from, and with a body that was in perfect condition, muscles clearly defined in a way that didn't feel natural.
Rerir was shocked.
No magic signals.
No energy presence.
No gear.
And yet, he was alive here, in a harsh climate with temperatures below -229°C (-380°F).
"…Emma," Rerir whispered. "What do you think about that guy?"
"I want to marry him."
Rerir almost lost his sanity hearing that.
Emma, meanwhile, was just staring at the man without blinking, completely ignoring the situation.
No fear nor caution.
Rerir took a slow breath.
His mission was only to check what was causing the issue.
That was it.
But right now…
He couldn't ignore this.
Thinking he was capable of handling whatever this was, even without proper gear, Rerir stepped forward and began walking toward the man, completely unaware of what he was about to face.