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

Technically, there is no real universe, as each universe is its own reality. However, for the sake of clarity, let’s call the universe where we started World Zero.

As for the previous one we traveled to—the one where we obtained Cassandra’s key—let’s call that World-One.

With the key’s help, we managed to easily switch over from World-Zero to World-One, but the problem was that we weren’t sure what kinds of dangers were waiting for us.

Another issue was that time here flowed 2.5 times slower than in World-Zero, meaning escaping the enemy blockade wouldn’t be as simple as it seemed... Well, at least, not if we didn’t have the algorithm genius—Eva—on our side.

The first ten minutes of our travel were smooth, with nothing obstructing us—no aliens, no asteroids, just a vast, empty void filled with the familiar cascade of bright dots and shining gas clouds against a pitch-black canvas.

At that moment, Eva finally spoke.

"I just finished analyzing the enemy fleet’s behavior. I’ll be plotting the danger zones as heatmaps on our star map," she explained. "We just need to stay in the colder colors as much as possible."

When she loaded the program, the star map quickly lit up with a spectrum of colors. It ranged from a deep, cold blue to a blazing red—an intuitive visualization of danger levels.

Currently, our green dot was sitting dead center in a deep red zone, meaning that if we returned to World-Zero right now, we’d be completely screwed.

Of course, these zones weren’t static. They shifted dynamically over time. The blue zones—the safest areas—were drifting further away as time passed... but it wasn’t all bad news.

The longer we waited, the more the red zones cooled down.

In fact, after ten more minutes, the deep red zone we were in had faded to a faint orange—closer to yellow. It was now less dangerous than before... but that didn’t mean we were in the clear just yet.

"We need to move at least 10 AU away before attempting to return to World-Zero," Eva said with a serious expression.

Right. We couldn’t stay in World-One indefinitely. Not only were there no jump gates here, but the complete lack of Dark Energy was slowing us down significantly. This place was nothing more than a temporary escape route.

"Alright." I nodded. "Then let’s proceed carefully. Full speed ahead!"

Our current heading remained the same as before—toward the Calumet Star System. But as expected, space here wasn’t a perfect reflection of World-Zero.

For one, there was this.

"What is that...?" I muttered, zooming in on a weird section of space just 0.01 AU ahead of us.

Something was wriggling in the darkness—barely visible to the naked eye. I switched to the external cameras for a closer look, but the instant the image filled my screen—

"Ugh!"

I lurched forward, barely holding back my stomach.

The two girls weren’t as lucky.

"Urk...!"

"...!"

Cassandra fainted on the spot. Eva, pale-faced, was desperately emptying the contents of her stomach, before wiping the corners of her lips with her suit’s sleeve.

For the sake of everyone’s sanity, I immediately cut the video feed and turned the ship ninety degrees starboard.

Yep. No way in hell were we heading in that direction.

Even with the feed gone, the lingering image burned into my brain was enough to make my skin crawl.

"Fucking god, Arthur...!" Eva panted, still trembling. "I felt like my sanity hit zero in an instant!"

I quickly nodded, firmly agreeing.

"Yeah, my bad. Didn’t think those kinds of abominations existed here... But I guess it’s better we saw it now than later. I don’t wanna imagine what would’ve happened if we got closer."

"Urp! S-Stop it...!" Eva gagged, glaring at me in a silent plea.

Did she just imagine it again? Too bad for her.

Anyway, let’s forget about that Lovecraftian horror and focus on what’s ahead.

"...Huh?"

But then, I blinked.

In the distance, I thought I saw something... familiar.

Not a person, of course. An object.

"But that... shouldn’t appear until Chapter 13..." I muttered under my breath, trying to dismiss it as my imagination—doing a bit of sour grapes coping to avoid getting my hopes up.

Still, that didn’t stop me from heading toward it.

I adjusted the ship’s trajectory by five degrees portside and surged forward—warily. Just in case, I activated the biological sensors. If any weird invisible monsters were lurking around, we needed to detect them first.

Three minutes later, the object that caught my attention finally came into full view.

It wasn’t some randomly discarded crate or space debris.

It was a massive, man-made structure.

Its design was unmistakable—Greco-Roman architecture, reminiscent of the Pantheon. Grand pillars, intricate carvings, an otherworldly presence...

Of course, something like this wouldn’t just appear randomly in space.

"I knew it...!" I exclaimed, feeling a spark of excitement. "This is that place!"

This was—

"The Temple of the Forgotten Gods!"

After identifying the Temple, I maneuvered the Range Falcon through it. Yes, through it.

The Temple of the Forgotten Gods was a gigantic structure—like someone had plucked the Pantheon, amplified its size by a hundredfold, and dropped it into this section of space!

At a glance, the material of each pillar didn’t seem to be simple rock. Furthermore, each column was inscribed with extremely detailed carvings, resembling ancient hieroglyphs that depicted long-lost stories of the past.

Regardless, I piloted the Range Falcon deeper, passing between two of the massive pillars.

"Eva, keep the sensors active but limit them to short range. If anything appears on the scans, alert me immediately."

"...Got it."

Probably noticing how serious I sounded, Eva didn’t grumble and did as told. She took control of the radars, 3D mapping scans, and biological sensors, ensuring that nothing ahead of us posed an immediate threat.

"All clear," Eva announced after a few moments.

With her signal, I gently maneuvered the Falcon even deeper inside. We passed through the large arch doors, made of the same mysterious material—neither metal nor stone—as the pillars outside.

The ship’s external lights flared to life, illuminating the interior.

The structure resembled a dome, with two additional passageways branching off from the entrance we came through. The layout formed a perfect triangular symmetry, with each path spaced roughly 120° apart.

But those weren’t what caught our attention.

"Woah..." Eva exhaled in awe.

Within the Temple of the Forgotten Gods stood, what else, but the statues of the said forgotten gods.

There were thirty-six statues in total—but roughly half of them were destroyed beyond recognition. Of the remaining ones, eight were heavily damaged, nearly unidentifiable. Five were partially damaged, retaining some of their original details. The rest were cracked but mostly intact.

"It really is the Temple of the Forgotten Gods, huh..."

I had been half-doubting it until we entered, but now, there was no denying it. And if this was "that" place...

"Then that relic should be here too!"

Excitement surged through me.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up.

"Eva, take over controls! I’m heading out for a bit!" I commanded. "And keep an eye on Cassandra—she’s still out cold."

"Wait, what?!" she cried, confused. "Why?! Where the hell are you going?! Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there?!"

"It’s fine. There’s nothing on the sensors, right? I’ll be quick, so don’t worry."

"Bastard, do you even hear yourself? Do you know how many times you’ve said ’Don’t worry,’ only to end up almost dying?!"

"..."

Well. She had a point.

I sighed, shrugging.

"Then are you coming with me? I just need to grab something from one of those statues, and then we head back." I explained. "One person is enough for the job, and it’s better to have someone on standby in the ship in case something does go wrong."

"...Can’t you postpone this until Casey wakes up?" she asked, her voice softer than before.

I shook my head. This wasn’t something I could delay.

Getting that relic now rather than later would give us a massive advantage.

And since this Temple was supposed to exist in World-Zero, not here, that meant the entire structure would eventually phase out of this universe—sooner or later.

It could happen in the next instant or years from now. Honestly? I had no idea. Which was exactly why I needed to get it while I still could.

Eva frowned, deep in thought—before growling in irritation and roughly scratching her head.

"Fuck! Alright, alright! I’ll watch the ship, so hurry the hell up!"

She quickly took my seat at the controls, while I grinned, bringing a teasing smile to my face.

"I’ll give you a kiss as thanks later!" I called out, already heading for the back.

"Who the hell would want your kiss, you fucker?!" Eva’s voice echoed through the corridor.

I chuckled as I entered the armory, quickly scanning the available suits.

Right now, I couldn’t use the Iron M—I mean, the Freeman Suit.

It was still damaged from the last excursion and needed repairs.

Instead, I grabbed the next best option—a standard powered suit, plain with a solid metallic color. It lacked fancy features, but it was reliable enough for the job.

"Alright! Eva, open the hangar!"

After arriving at the cargo bay, I radioed in my request.

A moment later, the rear loading bay opened, exposing the vast void of space beyond.

"...Oh, just in case..."

Before stepping out, I grabbed an umbilical cord and secured it to my waist. If my thrusters failed for any reason, this would ensure I wasn’t left drifting into the abyss with no means of return.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself—

Then, with a powerful jump, I launched into the emptiness ahead.

"Arthur, heading out!"