Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!

With our current speed, escaping the gigantic Detonid’s range was practically impossible. Adding to the fact that I had to swerve constantly to dodge its relentless attacks, escape was becoming nothing more than a pipe dream.

Our original objective was like in a defense game—holding back the enemy long enough for all allies to escape safely. A maximum of six minutes, considering the time it would take their Jump Drives to charge. But now, it felt more like a survival horror game, with an unstoppable monster relentlessly chasing us.

"UGH!"

I groaned as a moment’s lapse in focus cost us greatly. A stray tentacle grazed the hull, peeling away armor plates as if they were nothing more than fish scales.

"A breach in the A3 Deck!" I cried as warning signs lit up across the ship’s system, before giving out an order the next second. "Percy, isolate that damaged section with airlocks! Don’t let the ship depressurize!"

[Command received. Activating Emergency Barricades... Breach isolation complete.]

If the Range Falcon had an HP bar, that hit would’ve shaved off at least a tenth of it. Through the surviving external cameras, I could see sections of the starboard side torn open, with dangling wires sparking intermittently. It looked less like a tentacle had grazed us and more like some massive beast had taken a curious bite out of the ship!

"Can we survive this?" I muttered, despair slowly creeping in—but if I’m one to give up that easily, I would never have made it to the top ten in TSO’s Open World rankings.

From what I could see, Eva still needed about a minute to finish her task. All I could do now was buy her all the time that she needed.

"This reminds me of the crazy race match in Chapter 7..." I grinned, gripping the levers tight. "And just like back then, I’ll win this!"

There was no time to hold back. Planting both feet firmly on the pedals and one hand on the lever, I moved my other hand across the control panel with practiced precision. Moments later, a white cube-shaped object was ejected from the ship’s stern.

"Percy! Instant action mode! Shoot that cube down!"

Without delay, one of the turrets rotated 180°, blasting the cube with a quick, precise laser blast. The cube was hit dead-center, triggering an immediate reaction.

The white cube expanded violently, growing into a colossal white "wall" that quickly obscured us from the Detonid’s view. Fueled by dark energy drawn from the void of space, it continued to swell, creating an immense barrier between us and the monster.

I gritted my teeth, lamenting my rash choice. "It’s a waste… but it’s better to lose money than to get caught and die here!"

The cube was part of the Range Falcon’s emergency defense systems—a last-ditch measure for plugging breaches when no airlocks were available. It used dark energy to expand, a foam-like substance filling and sealing any exposed areas. Normally, 1cc was enough to fill a 5m³ space. But that cube I had just dumped? It was 10,000cc worth of foam—all the reserves we had.

Oh, and each cc of it cost 500 Credits. Now, just imagine how much of a loss that stunt cost me!

In mere seconds, the foam expanded into a colossal block, several kilometers on each side. It was supposed to be as strong as steel and should have bought us at least a few precious seconds... but reality’s a bitch.

The warning sirens blared again, and my heart sank. A dozen invisible tentacles smashed into the white wall, ripping it apart as if it were made of paper.

"Damn it! It didn’t even hold for a second!" I shouted, slamming my fist against the console.

Even with that brief delay, we had only managed to gain about 4 kilometers of distance at our current speed. Nowhere near enough to escape its range.

Another tentacle whipped toward us with terrifying precision, leaving me no choice but to swerve sharply once more.

"Eva!" I called out, my voice filled with urgency, with my muscles tense from the intense G-Forces of the maneuver.

"Shut it! I know! Don’t rush me...!" she snapped, not looking up as her fingers flew across the console.

Her calculations filled the screen—a chaotic jumble of equations and data, even to me, an "expert" in this game. I could barely recognize familiar formulas like entropy balancing and the Pythagorean theorem, tangled among an ocean of other unfamiliar variables. From the way it looks, I’d just be a nuisance if I tried to help her!

"Just speed it up, or we’ll be in heaven long before you’re done!" I barked, swinging hard to the starboard side to dodge yet another tentacle snapping toward the ship.

Seconds ticked by in what felt like an endless game of cat and mouse.

Despite the chaos, I was starting to see patterns in the Detonid’s movements. For one, its tentacles didn’t all move at once. Instead, they lashed out one after another—except for the time they demolished the foam wall. That attack had been an anomaly, with over a dozen tentacles striking in perfect unison to obliterate the barrier.

The only explanation I could think of was scale. The Range Falcon was a minuscule target—just 400 meters across—compared to the Detonid’s tentacle’s massive size—over a hundred meters in diameter on average. Sending multiple tentacles after us at once risked them tangling with one another. But that didn’t stop the creature from using other tentacles to block paths ahead or to the sides, making evasive maneuvers hair-raisingly tricky.

Still, as long as it couldn’t fully coordinate all of its tentacles to catch me, I could always find an escape route—though every evasion felt like a narrow miss.

Tentacles lashed out toward the ship in rapid succession. I dodged one, only to have another anticipate my trajectory. This forced me to execute a pre-programmed evasive maneuver to counter the follow-up. It was a vicious cycle, a deadly dance of action and reaction.

This was no longer a matter of simply seeing and dodging—it was a match of pure prediction. Reacting in time after seeing a tentacle move was impossible. The only way to stay alive was to predict its movements several steps ahead!

"But you’re a thousand years too early if you think you can outsmart me!" I growled, gripping the controls tighter.

The relentless alien was gaining on us. Because I had to swerve constantly, I couldn’t maintain maximum speed, and the distance shrank rapidly—from 9 kilometers to just 3. Any closer, and we’d enter its no-escape zone!

I had no idea how much time had passed. I was entirely focused on the controls, each movement critical. Then, finally, the voice of salvation rang out.

"Analysis complete! Incorporating the pathfinding equation into the VBA Module!" Eva announced, slamming her fist triumphantly against the virtual enter key.

"Finally!" I exhaled, relief flooding through me. My eyes locked on the view ahead. "Now, time to get out of this hellhole...!"

The ship’s AI, Percy, synchronized with the VBA Module, immediately projecting a calculated escape route. A glowing white wireframe tunnel appeared on the visors, snaking through the void and out of danger.

"So I just have to follow this course?! Easy!" I smirked, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I pushed the pedals to the limit once more.

The white tunnel projected by the VBA Module twisted and turned like an indecisive snake, weaving left and right, up and down in what seemed like random directions. At first, I thought Eva was just making the path unnecessarily complicated. But as I focused, I noticed the tentacles aiming for us were consistently missing—by wide margins.

"I see...!" I grinned, the realization clicking into place.

The erratic snake-like path, though ultimately following a near-straight trajectory, was baffling the giant Detonid. It was trying to predict our movements, sending its tentacles to where it assumed we’d be. But with each sudden turn in the path, we’d swerve in a completely unexpected direction, leaving its attacks flailing in empty space. None of its strikes came close anymore!

With the improved pathing, evading its attacks became significantly easier. Gradually, the distance between us and the monster grew. Minutes felt like hours, but finally, after three agonizing minutes, the gap widened to 10 kilometers. We’d reached the edge of its attack range—safety at last!

"Great!" I cheered, adrenaline still pumping. I resisted the urge to kiss Eva in gratitude—there’d be time for celebrations later. "Percy, full speed ahead! Prepare the Jump Drives! Activate them as soon as we’re 1.25 minutes out of enemy range!"

Far behind us, the last remaining ships from Major Terrence’s fleet were in the final stages of their evacuation. The Heracles, three Leviathans, two cruisers, and two battleships formed the final group. Their thrusters glowed bright blue as they prepared their space jumps.

From their acceleration, it was clear they’d already initiated the jump sequence. Even if the Detonid suddenly abandoned its pursuit of the Range Falcon to target them, it wouldn’t have the speed to catch up!

’In short, mission complete…!’

Relief washed over me as I watched the furious alien trailing us while the last few ships made their escape. With the fleet safe and Eva’s calculations guiding us, I allowed myself a moment of cautious optimism. In just a little more time, we’d be able to jump away, too—or so I thought.

Warning lights blared, and an ear-piercing hum filled the cockpit. The sound was unmistakable—a laser turret’s beam alert.

’Fuck!’

If we could hear it, that meant the laser was targeting us. Whether it was aimed directly at the Range Falcon or nearby didn’t matter—either way, it was bad news, as our shields were down.

Time seemed to slow as the VBA Module traced the laser’s path. It originated from one of the battleships in the rear group, aimed precisely at us from a diagonal angle. The predictive system highlighted the inevitable—a perfect snipe that even I am unable to dodge.

Before I could even react, the real laser beam streaked through the void, crossing the vast distance in an instant, hitting the Range Falcon squarely. The ship shook violently as the hull failed under the impact. Red warning lights flashed across the system interface, highlighting critically damaged areas.

I scanned the damage report, which made my heart sink.

"Damn… they got our main thrusters!"

We’d just escaped one nightmare, only to plunge into another. As the Range Falcon lost its main source of thrust, our fate became painfully clear. Death was knocking on our doors!