Task Force Predator departed the Cinach System with incredible momentum. Numerous light carriers, combat carriers and some swift logistics ships moved in unison towards one of the nearest Lagrange points.

Once there, the fleet practically transitioned into FTL in unison. With over 40 carriers of different shapes and sizes making up the bulk of its composition, it didn't take much of a guess that the Larkinson Clan was about to go off on an expedition to the Nyxian Gap!

A lot of observers in the system immediately sent messages to other parties. As one of the most prominent Journeymen in the star sector, Ves already knew that his movements would be tracked.

There was no way to stop it as long as he and his fleet remained in civilized space. If he wanted to shake off pursuers, his task force would have to enter within the realm of the Nyxian Gap.

That would take a while. Until then, Ves could spend his time on numerous matters.

The first issue he addressed was setting some solid goals for his excursion.

Once his implant connected to the Rim Exchange, his consciousness entered Granada Prime, a virtual city set aside for associates originating from the nearby star sectors.

A butler-like android with a curly moustache immediately greeted his arrival.

[Welcome back to the Rim Exchange, Apollo Radiant.]

Having entered the virtual portal of the Rim Exchange a few times before, Ves had grown used to Gamma-Gamma-Hogan's presence. His personal attendant actually provided him with numerous useful functions.

"Have I received any mail?"

[You have received 351 messages. Of these messages, 351 of them have failed to go past the filters that you have configured. The total amount of messages that await your perusal is 0.]

That was to be expected. During his previous visits, he couldn't resist spending some time to tweak and update his Apollo Radiant avatar. Its ornate, clockwork-like bronze shell became even more exquisite. His raised mech affinity elevated its quality further, allowing him to stand out from other low-level associates!

There were hardly any stupid people in the Rim Exchange. The Rim Guardian Fraternity specifically approached the best and most promising professionals in the galactic rim to take part in the Rim Exchange.

Combined with the fact that Granada Prime was filled with associates from the Komodo Star Sector, it did not take long for some of them to equate the Apollo Radiant avatar to the male half of the Miracle Couple!

Ves had no intentions of hiding the connection. His avatar advertised his current design ability, and conveyed his distinctive design style. On top of that, it also carried one of his characteristic glows. As the only mech designer able to incorporate them in mechs, the evidence was rather conclusive!

Previously, Ves deliberately flaunted his avatar on the streets of Grenada Prime in order to attract attention and solicit offers.

It was too bad that most associates sought to leech from him or take advantage of him. This was why Ves did not react with surprise when Hogan filtered out all of the 351 messages his Apollo Radiant avatar received.

"Hogan, please convert to my second avatar."

Within the snap of a second, his artful appearance as Apollo Radiant disappeared. In its place was a humanoid avatar that looked anything but elegant.

Consisting of rusted steel and other garbage materials, Junkyard Joe was the antithesis of his former Rim Avatar. It looked like a shambling mess and every movement caused something inside to rattle or squeak. Its construction was so poor that it was already at risk of falling apart!

If that wasn't enough, a ratty, oil-stained piece of canvas covered the avatar's form, making it seem as if he was some kind of beggar in some neglected space station!

No one should be able to associate Junkyard Joe with Apollo Radiant. The differences were night and day. Even the worst Novices would have been able to cobble up something better!

The ugly lips of his avatar bent into a crooked smile. "I won't be disturbed this time."

There were no limits to how many Rim Avatars an associate could make. The way the Rim Exchange was set up, it was easy to maintain anonymity. Ves did not wish for other associates to learn which missions he wanted to pursue.

"Stay here Hogan and continue to monitor my messages. Please continue to monitor any announcements relating to high-priority missions."

[Very well, sir.]

When Junkyard Joe stepped into the public areas, the avatar hardly attracted any attention. Those that did study its construction only became repulsed by what they saw.

Ves had practically taken every lesson he learned from Gloriana and performed the exact opposite! His mech was crooked, unbalanced, asymmetrical and filled with so many flaws that it would have constituted as torture to his fiancé!

What he found amusing was that he was hardly the only associate who played this game.

Multiple associates designed ugly and misleading avatars to obscure their identities and avoid attracting attention. Other people already knew that there was no point in approaching these kinds of people.

Ves even received some accolades from fellow connoisseurs!

"I love your creativity, Junkyard Joe." A crab-shaped avatar made out of rotting wood raised its malfunctioning claw. "You're in my top 10 list!"

"Thanks."

A human-sized cleaning bot stumbled upon his path next. "Wow, you look like you crawled straight out of a pirate dump. Can you teach me how you're able to keep your avatar working at such horrible quality?"

"Get lost!"

Okay, maybe Ves had overdone it a little. Fortunately, he didn't encounter too many interruptions before he reached the Merit Hall.

Hundreds of associates, some of them accompanied by their android attendants, looked up at the huge projected bulletin boards. Numerous missions issued by the Rim Guardians blinked on it. Ves immediately approached the section of the hall that allowed him to view the missions related to the Nyxian Gap.

A very small number of avatars lingered in this section. Among the elites who managed to earn the acknowledgement of the Rim Guardians, hardly any of them possessed the stomach to venture in a region filled with danger and death!

"That's all the better for me." Junkyard Joe smirked.

The Merit Hall operated according to supply and demand. Easy missions and those that attracted a lot of associates offered little reward. The ones that were difficult, risky or cumbersome had to offer a lot more merits in order to solicit interest.

While there weren't that many missions that took place in the Nyxian Gap, almost all of them offered rewards that were well above average!

The ones that took place in the periphery already provided two to four times as much merits as an equivalent mission in civilized space.

Meanwhile, the missions that required the associate to travel a little deeper could easily earn an associate ten times as much merits as normal!

His Junkyard Joe avatar raised a rusty finger and rubbed its rough, rust-stained chin. "Many of the same missions are still on the list."

A lot of listings consisted of deep, latent missions. They essentially demanded the associate to take a huge risk in order to travel deeper into the Nyxian Gap. Since hardly anyone was crazy enough to accept them, these missions had been languishing on the list for years, sometimes even decades!

The longer a mission remained unfulfilled, the greater the rewards. As long as the Rim Guardians refused to delist the mission, the amount of merits and other benefits they yielded continued to balloon!

None of the missions were easy, though. Ves spotted nothing that sounded easy.

Right now, Ves just wanted to check if anything changed. He memorized every outstanding mission, but accepted none of them. It didn't matter if he did because they were open missions, which meant that anyone could fulfill them at any time.

Some consisted of bounties. Others consisted of retrieval missions. A fair number even directed the associate to travel straight to a hazard zone and scout the life-threatening circumstances!

Ves just took note of them all, especially the ones that he might encounter along his planned route. He adopted an opportunistic mindset towards these open missions. If he could fulfill them along the way, he didn't mind doing so, but the odds of that happening was rather slim.

"I need to set a solid goal for myself."

He browsed the list until he found the mission that he had been eying for a time.

[Rescue Mission

29 years ago, Solok Reyva, a talented Journeyman and a member of the Rim Guardian Fraternity, ventured into the Nyxian Gap with a small but powerful fleet. Ten months into the journey, the MTA has lost contact with the entire fleet.

Solok Reyva was presumed lost.

Several years later, small batches of high-quality mechs began to circulate among the Nyxian pirates. Rumors have emerged that the Krella Alliance, a minor but elusive pirate group in the Nyxian Gap, has captured a very capable mech designer and coerced him into working on commissions issued by various pirate clients.

The Rim Guardians have reason to suspect that the Krella Alliance has captured Solok Reyva and are exploiting him to this day. The design characteristics of the commissioned pirate mechs bear at least some resemblance to Solok Reyva's prior work at the MTA.

The Krella Alliance is a fleet-based pirate group that is often on the move. It is well-connected in the deeper portions of the periphery of the Nyxian Gap and is always able to evade pursuit.

Track down the Krella Alliance and retrieve the mech designer that is responsible for designing the commissioned pirate mechs. If the identity of the mech designer is Solok Reyva, then he must be brought back to MTA custody alive and as healthy as possible.

Due to prior failed rescue attempts, the Krella Alliance is on guard. Its fleet has become much more difficult to track, and the mechs its captive mech designers have designed no longer bear the design characteristics associated with Solok Reyva.

Reward: 2,500,000 MTA merits

Bonus: 2,500,000 MTA merits and 1 level associate status promotion if the rescued mech designer is Solok Reyva and alive]

This was the big one. Considering the composition and capabilities of his task force, Ves believed he had a decent shot at fulfilling this particular mission.

Rescuing Solok Reyva not only awarded him with a huge amount of MTA merits, but also elevated his associate status by an additional level!

The latter was pretty rare! It took a lot of effort to promote his associate status. While Ves had already gained one level due to receiving a masterwork certificate, that was just a one-time deal.

Each level after 1 granted him a 5 percent bonus in every good and service offered by the Rim Guardians. If Ves was able to rescue Solok Reyva, then he'd be able to gain a 10 percent discount in total!

Compared to his old situation, Ves effectively had to pay 5 million merits less for a second-class fleet beyonder ticket.

Therefore, while the rescue mission only awarded him with 5 million merits on the surface, he effectively gained double if he obtained the additional discount!

Putting him one-tenth closer to fulfilling his great ambition was well worth it in his eyes!

"Six months. I'll spend six months at most."

If Ves failed to track Solok down, then he was ready to cut his losses at that point.

One thing was for sure. It wasn't going to be easy for Ves to close in on Solok and the Krella Alliance.

The pirates covered their tracks so that Ves effectively had to trace them by following the breadcrumbs in the form of the commissioned mechs they sold.

Ves would have to access and inspect these mechs in person in order to ascertain whether they were Solok's handiwork. This was incredibly arduous and required a mech designer of high skill in order to make this determination.

The reason why it wasn't possible to determine whether any mech was designed by Solok was because he was actually a rational mech designer!

The man was able to emulate multiple specialties!