Mob #12 “Bro, this time it’s 2 o’clock, 20 degrees down, distance 500.”
The Adventurer’s Guild I came to hoping for work was fully booked again today.
And as usual, the line for the hot receptionist is a long snake.
So I head to old man Roans’ counter where there’s never anyone lined up.
“Yo.”
“Oh, you enjoy your day off?”
“Here and there I guess.”
I can faintly hear the din over there in the background.
With that as BGM, old man Roans and I have our daily work consultation.
“By the way, it’s not just my imagination that gate-related requests have strangely increased right?”
Checking the bulletin board, most were gate-related requests, an abnormal situation.
“Yeah. See, that demonstration I told you about. Thanks to that, requests have been flooding in from gate management branches all over. They’ve been asking our branches everywhere to spread them around.”
Old man Roans sighed, holding his head.
“And the top priority is security. Starting with places where demonstrations are happening.”
“I’ll pass.”
I reject it outright, cutting off old man Roans’ words.
“Figured.”
My response was within old man Roans’ expectations, it seems.
“I’ll take this one.”
So I boldly hand over the request I picked for myself.
“Security during replacement of the deteriorating gate stabilizers at the Sadal star zone gates furthest from that place huh. Well, you’d pick that request.”
Old man Roans starts the paperwork with a resigned expression.
By the way, there are also points for the receptionist side when adventurers take and complete jobs, becoming material for judging their promotions and raises.
I heard some ill-natured receptionists deliberately process difficult quests, forcibly sending adventurers to them to earn points for themselves.
Old man Roans boasts he absolutely never does that.
So when old man Roans isn’t around, I don’t take requests.
And if I do take them, it’s only ones old man Roans has stamped his seal of approval on.
None so far though.
With the paperwork finished, I leave the lobby with the reception desk behind, immediately boarding my ship at the dock, and head to the gate for transport to the Sadal star zone.
Gates are circular in their natural state but fluctuate unstably in shape.
So stabilizers are used to stabilize them, with the pedal-shaped stabilizers arranged in a pattern earning them the alternate name [Sunflowers].
Beside them there is always a cylindrical colony for management, directing the order of entry into the gates from there.
The toll for this job was covered by the client, with roundtrip tickets prepared.
Entry order was first come first serve.
Of course nobles might cut in line but this time I had no issues, smoothly making the transfer.
Incidentally, my workplace is a different gate than the one I used to come here.
And the job details are like this:
Work Details: Guarding during replacement of wormhole stabilizer platforms.
Work Period: 48 hours in Galactic Standard Time.
8 hour shifts in 3 rotations, 16 hours of standby break.
Work Environment: Free use of accommodations in the management colony (capsule hotel-style) – Free meals provided.
Spaceship fuel provision.
Work Conditions: Must bring own spaceship.
Repair costs for any damage to brought spaceship paid out of pocket.
Must respond and sortie even during standby break in emergencies.
Due to above, cannot leave colony during standby break.
Compensation: 240,000 credits – Fixed.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Frankly, it’s plain with a questionable balance between frugal and generous.
Also, if you get the last shift of the 3 rotations, you have a whole 16 hours of free time.
Well the pay is low for 48 hours of confinement, you can’t leave the management colony during standby break so it’s bound to be boring.
Of course, besides me there were over 40 other adventurers who had accepted this job from various places.
If it was a protagonist-type, they’d probably
[No way I’m doing such a plain job!]
[This isn’t work an adventurer should do!]
say crap like that, break their contract, and arbitrarily go pirate hunting or something.
Then that causes some incident and clean-up falls to us mob characters, that’s the standard pattern.
But you gotta understand, it’s because 999 plain jobs exist that 1 flashy job can be supported!
Not that they’d understand if I said all that probably…
Anyway, after getting briefed we luckily got the first shift.
But even if it’s guard duty, at a gate in the boonies connecting only rural areas, there’s no way pirates would come.
Instead, debris cleanup suddenly came up.
The reason is this replacement is necessarily a rush job due to the facility’s nature.
Originally there are object barriers deployed around the stabilizers, but they can’t be left active during the replacement.
While the stabilizers and all ships including mine, colonies, etc. wouldn’t be damaged by micro debris, apparently it’s still safer to collect it.
Additional collection ships were prepared for the wide range but suddenly became unavailable thanks to that demonstration, so they requested additional job orders from the guild while we were en route, it seems.
Of course it was still an optional side job only for those with ships capable of assisting.
Luckily my [Patchwork] could handle it.
So the first order of business was coating my ship in a special polymer and attaching debris collection containers under the ship.
No need to mention the containers, but the polymer coating was to prevent damage to the ship hull from space dust while also collecting and adsorbing micro debris so it doesn’t impact the stabilizers.
Of course we don’t coat places like the thrusters, check cameras, or around the cockpit windows.
After finishing that task thoroughly, I could finally start the request for stable security and debris cleanup.
“Hey, now it’s at 2 o’clock, descending 20 degrees, distance 500.”
“Got it.”
I maneuvered at an almost landing-like ultra-low speed according to the man’s instructions.
In that location, there were large pieces of metal, probably part of the ship’s hull, and small fragments drifting gently.
“Well, I’ll go collect it, so please assist when it starts to drift.”
“Understood.”
With that, the debris collector’s man equipped with a propulsion nozzle on his spacesuit and a debris collection work style attached to the ship’s lower body soloed out, jetted the nozzle, and approached the debris.
Then, he slowed down and carefully collected tiny debris like screws and fragments while approaching the largest part of the ship’s hull.
Space dust seemed to be drifting gently, but in reality, it was moving at a considerable speed.
Unlike ships and buildings I mentioned earlier, it could easily penetrate a spacesuit.
So, careful attention was required for retrieval.
“It’s hard to grab… Can I push it over there a bit?”
“Aye aye, sir!”
I caught the tiny debris flowing in from the front with the ship’s polymer-coated hull.
“Alright! I got it!”
The man held onto a part of the ship’s hull firmly, briefly blew the nozzle, and skillfully returned to the container.
It had been three hours since we started this task, and it was going quite smoothly, and I was getting used to the work.
Above all, I synced well with this debris collector.
Of course, for the security aspect, I was making good use of my radar.
With this setup, the two days until completion seemed like they would be an enjoyable work,
If nothing happens to me, that is.
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