Rumor found the food stall Anakin mentioned easily enough. The owner was a blue, fat alien with three eyes and four arms, wearing a greasy apron.

  Rumor ate the recommended item of the day. He had no idea what it was, and he didn't want to know, but it filled his stomach and cost only 30 wupiupis, leaving him with 177 of the currency to his name still.

  And the taste wasn't half-bad. Rumor had eaten literal trash before, and not just once, so he was more than happy with what he got.

  While he ate, he idly considered what to do next. The Graveyard still seemed like his best option to earn some money, but it was dangerous.

  And he still knew too little about this world. He had to get more information. That was how he had survived in The Quarter.

  His attention turned to the achievements The Mind had told him before. He was curious about what rewards they granted. And some of them didn't seem all that hard to get.

  [ Smuggler: Sell something originating from Tatooine in a planet belonging at least to the Mid Rim Territories. The selling price must be no less than 6.000 Republic credits. The selling price has to be at least 3x that of the original item. ]

  [ Desert Predator: Tatooine's wildlife is as hostile as the planet itself. Hunt 5 different creatures in Tatooine. ]

  [ This is Pod-Racing: Win one race in the Grand Arena of Mos Espa. ]

  After a while, he narrowed it down to those three. [ Smuggler ] was already one of his objectives, and a long-term goal. He particularly liked it because it aligned with his main mission to leave Tatooine, but also because it never said he had to buy what he planned on reselling.

  In the end, he discarded [ This Is Pod-Racing ]. While easier than the other achievements, which mostly involved raising his reputation with different factions, from what he remembered from the movies, pod-racing was an expensive hobby.

  So that left [ Desert Predator ]. And Rumor would be lying if he said he wasn't eager to see all the strange and fantastical creatures of Star Wars with his own eyes.

  Plus, he had a blaster now, and he wanted to use it.

  After asking for directions, Rumor bought some supplies - jerky of some kind and water - and made his way out of Mos Espa.

  The further he got from the town's center, the more unsavory characters he met. He could feel eyes on him, and none were kind.

  He casually revealed the blaster strapped to his waist, and those gazes receded.

  In less than 30 minutes, Rumor was out of Mos Espa and in the desert proper. Orange sand dunes stretched as far as the eye could see, and it would be very easy to get lost.

  Luckily Rumor wasn't planning on going far. He had inquired with the owner of the food stall, and his first test subject made their home right there in the outskirts of the city.

  Groups of towering spirals rose from the ground, the mixture of sand and saliva hardening into blood-red mud. Several dozen of the towers stood tall like a miniature castle, each two or three times Rumor's height.

  Those spirals, Rumor had been told, were the home of a native Tatooine species called blood ants. Apparently, kids liked to throw rocks and watch the spirals collapse and the ants rebuild them.

  But you had better be careful if you intended to provoke the blood amts. From what Rumor gathered, their bite had similar effects to the fire ants back on Earth - extremely painful, and even deadly in large quantities if you were allergic.

  He stopped about 20 meters away from the spires, eyeing them critically. He didn't believe The Mind would be satisfied if he went around squashing normal insects. But the [ Desert Predator ] achievement description specifically stated Tatooine was home to many 'hostile' wildlife. The blood ants definitely qualified.

  He was still considering if he should just shoot the spires or what when a moving patch of red a few meters ahead of him caught his attention.

  Upon closer inspection, it was one of the fabled blood ants. The insect was about the size of his pinky, blood-red as the name indicated, and had jaws that looked like they could sever Rumor's finger just as easily as Scarface Mikhail's pruner had.

  Warily, Rumor approached the ant, which continued going on its merry away without paying any attention to him. Big or not, it was still an ant, after all.

  SQUISH!

  Rumor stomped on the creature and ground his heel until he was satisfied it was dead. Calling on his menu, he looked at rhe achievements list.

  [ Desert Predator (1/5) - Blood Ant ]

  Nice. As he had suspected, it qualified for the achievement, although there were no rewards from killing an ant. That was expected.

  Taking out his blaster, the [ C-21 Scout Saboteur ], he held it with both hands while taking careful aim at the closest spire.

  Rumor had never shot a gun before. Even in The Quarter, guns were difficult to acquire - not because they were rare, but because they were expensive.

  But a Star Wars blaster was different than a gun. It shot concentrated energy, not material bullets. So, it shouldn't have recoil, which was one of the hardest things to control about a normal gun.

  Closing one eye and bitting his bottom lip, Rumor pressed the trigger.

  The sound wasn't like anything he expected. It sounded... Wobbly. He couldn't think of another word for it.

  But the laser that came out was everything he wanted. A red, straight blast of light that, with a little bit of beginner's luck on his side, hit almost dead center of the spire.

  There was a loud sound, like a miniature explosion, and a fist-sized hole with scorched edges was carved into the spire, showering the surroundings with dust and debries.

  Almost immediately, hundreds of blood ants crawled out of the hole in a frenzy, searching for the attacker. From a distance, it looked as if the spire had come alive, its surface rippling like liquid.

  Thankfully, Rumor was far away from the phobia-inducing sight. Even so, he shuddered at the unbidden thought of the insects crawling over him.

  Taking aim at another spire, Rumor shot again. This time he wasn't so accurate, and it simply grazed his target. It still provoked quite the aggressive reaction.

  "Oof... Need to practice more. Sorry in advance, little guys."

  ...

  Two hours later, a sweaty Rumor was making his way back to Mos Espa. Tatooine's suns were no joke, but he was happy with the results from his impromptu training session.

  Now, he could accurately hit something from 30 meters away 9 times out of 10. As long as the target was about as big as a human and stood still anyway.

  A lot better than when he started. And, tempted as he was, Rumor refrained from adventuring farther from Mos Espa to hunt for more creatures for his achievement. He wasn't prepared, and the thought of running into the Tusken Raiders chilled his spine.

  Next objective: the Graveyard. Tired as he was, Rumor didn't forget he only had 15 days to complete his main mission or be erased. There was no time to waste.

  This time, he didn't approach the location from the front. Instead, he went around Mos Espa's outskirts until he found the fence, then followed it, searching for weak points.

  It was surprisingly easy. Either the Krayt Dragon Gang was less vigilant than he expected, or they simply didn't believe anyone would target them.

  Either way, Rumor gleefully stepped through the hole in the fence he found. Now, to investigate. After all, he had no idea what was considered valuable and what wasn't.

  The Graveyard was a veritable maze, only the walls were replaced with half-dismantled spaceships. While he could see workers in the distance, the place he was in was quiet.

  Sneaking around felt familiar, like he was back on his days as a pickpocket on The Quarter.

  Rumor spent at least an hour going from ship to ship, both amazed by the feeling of stepping inside real space-travelling vessels, and disappointed he couldn't find anything worthy taking.

  Well, at least he wasn't entirely clueless. Rumor had quickly found out that anything that didn't warrant a description from the system didn't have any value.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  After the end of that hour, he had only put three things on his storage: [ EK-05 Navigation Disk (Damaged) ], [ Aviator-class Central Command (Shard) ] and [ Turret Energy Source (Leaking) ]. All null rarity, with the exception of the navigation disk, which was a 1-Star.

  The various degrees of damage explained why the Krayt Dragon Gang hadn't thought it worthwhile to take the stuff. But to Rumor, even a few wupiupis more would help, and selling this, even if he got scammed, would give him a notion of the price of the parts.

  "Grr..."

  Just as he was thinking of heading back, Rumor heard growling behind him and froze. Slowly, he turned around and saw a dog-like creature, with a shaggy black mane and very sharp teeth.

  It had a leash.

  "Oh, fuck."

  That was all he had time to say before the creature lunged at him, trying to sink its fangs on his throat.

  It was pure instinct that had Rumor duck under it, and the creature sailed over his head to crash onto the side of a spaceship.

  Only, it didn't fall down like he expected. Instead, the animal turned around mid-air and used its claws to grip onto the vessel, the metal warping under its strength. Rumor's eyes widened.

  "Oh, fuck!"

  He quickly scurried away, pulling out his [ Standard Ottegan Army Blade ]. He wanted to avoid making more noise than necessary. The creature had a leash, so that meant it belonged to someone. Probably one of the Krayt Dragon Gang members guarding the Graveyard.

  "Ggrrrr!"

  Rumor didn't have time to use his [ Observe ] skill before the creature jumped him again.

  But this time he was a little more prepared. Rolling to the side, he felt the animal crash on the ground next to him, and blindly swung his knife.

  "Yiip!"

  He was rewarded with the sensation of striking flesh and a whine of pain. Taking advantage of that, he turned to face the creature fully, and stabbed again.

  This time it wasn't just a shallow slash. His blade sunk deep into the animal's neck, and dark-red blood splashed out.

  "Yooourrn..."

  Although the creature tried to swipe at Rumor with its claws, it was too weak to even raise its paw. The tester watched indifferently as the light went out on its eyes.

  Only when he was sure the animal was dead did Rumor relax, falling back on the ground and taking rapid breaths. A dozen notifications flashed across his vision, none of which he had noticed during the short but intense battle.

  [ You attacked Male Anooba. Calculating attack value... Deducting target's defense... ]

  [ You dealt 13 points of damage to Male Anooba. ]

  [ You cut Male Anooba on a vital area. Calculating attack value... ]

  [ Critical strike achieved, target's defense was ignored. You dealt 33 points of damage to Male Anooba. ]

  [ Male Anooba is suffering from a bleeding status effect, losing 3 HP every 5 seconds. ]

  [ Male Anooba suffered 34 points of bleeding damage. ]

  [ Male Anooba died. ]

  [ Desert Predator (2/5) - Blood Ant, Anooba ]

  [ Battle summary: You have slain one Male Anooba. ]

  [ No one has witnessed your battle. Do you wish to hide this information? Tip: You can reveal it later for varying rewards. Tip: others can find out about this information through special methods. ]

  Rumor blinked. It was a little different from before, especially the last notification. The tips were quite informative. So, hiding the fact he was behind something didn't mean it could never be found out.

  "No."

  He already had a Hostile status with the Krayt Dragon Gang anyway, and planned on falling out with them even more.

  [ You have revealed you are the one behind attacking and killing one of Krayt Dragon Gang's guard Anooba. Your relationship with the Krayt Dragon Gang has fallen further. ]

  So, no further reputation gain. Well, not like the Hutt Cartel would care he killed one dog - and it wasn't even their dog!

  [ You have acquired: Anooba Pelt (Poor) ]

  He wondered how much that was worth. But really, his biggest gain had been the progression of the [ Desert Predator ] achievement.

  "Amok, where are you!?"

  Suddenly, Rumor was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice calling what he could only suppose was the Anooba's name.

  Scrambling to get up, Rumor hid next to a spaceship that was missing its entire front half.

  "Amok!"

  And just in time too. An alien with dark green skin and what looked like antennas on their head rounded a corner, seeing the dead animal and crying out in despair.

  A smarter person would have looked around for the culprit first. But overcome by his worry and grief, the alien rushed forward to cradle the Anooba's corpse.

  Without an ounce of mercy, Rumor stepped out behind the alien and slit his throat.

  [ You attacked Krayt Dragon Gang member Andoran. Calculating attack value... Deducting target's defense... ]

  [ You cut Krayt Dragon Gang member Andoran on a vital area... Calculating attack value... ]

  [ You attacked Krayt Dragon Gang member Andoran while in stealth. Adding stealth bonus... Calculating attack value... ]

  [ You achieved a one-hit kill. 110 damage dealt. ]

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Andoran died. ]

  [ Battle summary: You have slain one Krayt Dragon Gang member. ]

  [ No one has witnessed your battle. Do you wish to hide this information? ]

  "No."

  [ You have revealed you are the one behind attacking and killing a Krayt Dragon Gang member. Your relationship with Krayt Dragon Gang has fallen further. ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel (Mos Espa) has grown to Unknown (300/1.000). ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel has grown to Unknown (30/1.000). ]

  [ Your reputation in Tatooine has grown to Unknown (3/1.000). ]

  [ You have acquired: 333 wupiupis, Delicious Unknown Fruit, Rusted Brass Knuckles. ]

  Rumor felt his lips twitch. This world... The Mind... It felt like they were driving him to be a killer. Why else would the rewards be so much more abundant than anything else he did today?

  [ Delicious Unknown Fruit ]

  [ Rarity: --- ]

  [ Effect: Heals 20 HP. Has to be consumed entirely for effects to take place. ]

  [ Description: An unknown fruit with healing properties. ]

  [ Observation: Can be brought out of this world. ]

  Not all that impressive, but useful nonetheless.

  [ Rusted Brass Knuckles ]

  [ Rarity: 1-Star ]

  [ Requirements: None ]

  [ Attack: 6 ]

  [ Attack speed: 8 ]

  [ Range: Close quarters ]

  [ Durability: 19/20 ]

  [ Description: Old but reliable brass knuckles. Sacrifices attack power for speed. ]

  [ Observation: Can be brought out of this world. ]

  While he already had his knife, Rumor wouldn't say no to another weapon. And, if he really didn't use it, he could always sell it later.

  Rumor was about to leave when another notification flashed before his eyes.

  [ Hidden achievement completed: Xenophobic. ]

  He froze.

  "What?"