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

"BIIIITCH!!!"

At the last moment, Eva's scream filled the cockpit. In a last-ditch effort, she fired all laser turrets simultaneously, aiming directly at the incoming attacks—intercepting them mid-shot!

*BOOM!*

The ship shook violently, warning sirens blaring, but surprisingly, the damage was minimal—so much so that we could practically ignore it for now.

Honestly, I was shocked that her stunt had worked in time.

She had less than 100 milliseconds to adjust her aim and fire without charging—that reaction speed was inhuman!

"Hey, bastard captain! Stop daydreaming...!"

"... Ah!"

I snapped back to reality.

Without hesitation, I maneuvered the Range Falcon further away, beyond enemy targeting range. Thankfully, after the initial volley, no follow-up attack came.

Not because they let us go—

But because of their short lapse in focus was punished.

In the brief opening, the Astoria forces launched a desperate counterattack, forcing the enemy to shift their firepower back toward the larger battle.

They suffered minor losses, but the psychological damage was far worse. The prey they had been toying with had managed to bite them back!

"E-Enemies incoming...!"

Cassandra, watching the radars, cried out in alarm.

I quickly checked for myself, and—

She was right.

A swarm of enemy ships—roughly 100 Corvettes and Frigates—was closing in fast, hot on our tail.

Compared to their full fleet, it was a small number. But just to keep a single ship in check, it was still too much firepower.

"They're really not pulling their punches…" I sighed, before shifting gears, focusing entirely. "Eva, Cassandra, return weapon control to me for a moment. I'll wrap this up in a minute!"

Without waiting for confirmation, I forcefully took control of the ship's Manual Combat System. Navigation shifted to full manual mode—Including all weapons and shield controls.

"I-Is this fine?!" Cassandra asked, half-panicked.

She probably meant if it was okay for her not to help, but—

"Don't think too hard about it, Casey." Eva cut in before I could answer. "Just sit tight and make sure you don't bite your tongue!"

"...What a weird thing to say!"

I grinned, then slammed the pedals down—performing a sharp backflip, turning the ship upside-down to face the pursuing enemies.

At the same time, the turrets—charged a few seconds earlier—fired all at once.

With only small ships chasing us, their shields melted instantly.

In one sweep, ten ships were obliterated, while five others suffered critical damage.

The Range Falcon followed through, flipping back to its original heading, before the main thrusters reignited, blasting us forward.

The entire maneuver lasted less than a second—and yet, in that tiny window of time, the enemy lost 10% of their forces.

"Ah…!"

Cassandra gasped, eyes wide, mouth slightly open in shock. Her reaction was honestly refreshing—

She had just witnessed her first real taste of combat acrobatics.

"Incoming…!"

Just as I was enjoying Cassandra's reaction, Eva's warning rang out.

The monitors lit up.

Several enemy ships had caught up, and their main turrets were charging for a high-powered attack.

But I had already predicted this.

"They're still a step too late!"

During the earlier stunt, I had held back—Brionac had remained unused. I had anticipated they would try this exact counterattack.

And if I had read their movements like a book, then—

I slammed the pedals down once again, hands moving with precision over the control panel.

Activating the left-side bow thruster and right-side stern thruster—at MAXIMUM output—and pulling Brionac's trigger at the same time!

*WHOOSH!*

Matching the timing, I killed the main thrusters once more—allowing the ship to rotate in a flawless 360-degree clockwise spin.

360 No Scope!

'…Wait, ships don't have scopes either way... Well, whatever.'

Brionac's beam fired—

Sweeping across the battlefield like a solid blade of light, cutting through every ship in its path.

Shields?

They couldn't even withstand the weaker turrets for one second. There was no way they could block Brionac's overwhelming output.

One by one, enemy ships exploded.

Turning into brilliant crimson blossoms that scattered into lifeless debris.

Eva, already accustomed to this sight, gave a quick report.

"37 ships down! 76 left on our tail!"

"Oh?" I raised a brow. "That's fewer than I thought."

Although I had performed those stunts completely blind, I had hoped to take out at least half of them.

Well… No matter.

What I needed to do hadn't changed.

Activating the main thrusters once more, I pushed the ship into acceleration—before drifting to the right, positioning us straight toward the enemy Leviathans, with our starboard side now fully exposed to the pursuing Corvettes and Frigates.

But it wasn't us in danger, but them—they were right in line for our broadside turrets!

"Time to say goodbye!"

Of course, the remaining ships had learned from their earlier mistakes.

The moment they saw me turn, they spread out like a disturbed hive of bees, ensuring that no matter what, I'd only get a few at a time instead of wiping them all out in one sweep.

This was an obvious response—and one I had seen coming a mile away.

My fingers danced across the control panels, adjusting the targeting mechanisms of the remaining turrets. At the same time, I changed the broadside turrets' settings from concentrated fire to a scattered barrage—a laser squall.

Right, instead of firing a single, powerful volley, I converted it into a storm of smaller beams, sacrificing sheer firepower for a wider area of effect!

A relentless rain of lasers showered across the battlefield, covering the dispersed enemy ships. They had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide—even their own allies couldn't be used as shields, as they were too far apart!

The barrage struck their shields, draining them rapidly—and as a finishing blow, the eleven main turrets activated in unison, targeting and eliminating them at a rate of eleven ships per volley.

Within fifteen seconds, the entire fleet of 76 ships had been reduced to nothing but wreckage.

By all logic, back in the game, a single Battleship-class vessel should have had no chance of surviving against a coordinated assault from over a hundred smaller ships. Judging by Cassandra's slack-jawed expression, that fact still held true in this world.

But who am I again? One of the top 10 players of TSO.

If I couldn't handle this much pressure and difference in numbers, then how the hell could I ever claim to be one of the best?!

"That's 500,000 Credits pocketed!" Eva cheered, a grin curling on her lips.

Right... Even though the enemy ships' individual bounties were on the cheaper side, their sheer numbers made up for it. And since we took them down uncontested, every last Credit was ours.

That was a damn good haul for barely a minute of combat.

"Still, not as efficient as targeting big ships!"

The fight was far from over.

I had angled toward the seven remaining Leviathans not just to line up our broadside attack—but because it was time to wrap things up.

Our current position was just outside their automatic targeting range—a perfect spot for sniping.

"Brionac...!"

I charged our main weapon, carefully aligning it to strike multiple—or all—ships at once.

To maximize the output, I shut down the most power-consuming systems—our shields and thrusters—and redirected all available energy to the main turret.

Brionac charged to 100% in just one second.

But I didn't stop there.

200%... 300%...

After fifteen seconds of overclocking, Brionac reached its current maximum possible—547% energy output!

I pulled the trigger.

A prismatic beam erupted from the turret—yet it wasn't just an ordinary laser blast.

When Brionac surpasses 500% charge, its output undergoes a fundamental transformation.

The electrons within the turret accelerate beyond light speed, generating synchrotron radiation—emitting X-rays and Gamma rays in the process.

This wasn't a prismatic laser attack anymore.

This was a Gamma Ray Burst—the true reason behind Brionac's legendary namesake: The Spear of Light.

The Spear of Light streaked through the void with unparalleled speed, striking true—just as the Range Falcon's lights flickered from the sudden energy drain.

The seven Leviathans were pierced clean through. Their shields and armored hulls meant nothing against the devastating radiation assault.

In an instant, the Gamma radiation scorched through the ships, turning their internal structures red-hot in a matter of milliseconds. But that wasn't all.

The Spear of Light also acted as a supercharged Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), completely disrupting the Leviathans' electronic systems.

For a brief moment, all seven ships "died"—

Before their Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) kicked in to reboot their core systems.

But those few seconds of total shutdown had already sealed their fate.

Shields? Offline.

Thrusters? Disabled.

Weapons? Inoperable.

Even with their crews scrambling to reboot everything manually, it would take at least 10 to 30 seconds before they were combat-ready again.

{The enemy has gone silent! Attack…!}

And just as expected, the Astoria fleet didn't hesitate.

A single, coordinated barrage of laser fire followed—

The remaining forces rained down mercilessly, tearing through the crippled Leviathans in mere moments.

No matter how powerful a ship was, without shields, it was nothing but a floating coffin.

"Phew…"

I let out a deep breath, restoring the ship's power distribution back to normal.

Brionac, having just fired at a 547% charge, was overheated beyond safe limits. It would take at least 30 minutes before it could be used again.

A small price to pay for such an unmatched level of devastation.

Without their Leviathan-class support, the remaining thousands of enemy ships lost all coordination.

From there, it was a rapid collapse.

The entire battlefield was cleared in record time, and peace returned—

"FUCK YOU!!!"

Eva's voice echoed across the comms, filled with pure rage.

"All seven of those Leviathans were OUR kill! Don't you DARE claim otherwise!!!"

"…"

Or not.

The battle was over—

But Eva was still fighting… over the bounty rights.

Well, she did save us earlier, so I should let her have her fun.

It would take a few more minutes before everything finally settled down…