Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!-Chapter 142: A Blessing

Eva was staying true to her earlier declaration—to seriously try and make me fall for her. And this moment, right now, was probably one of her more direct attempts after some time.

Even though we were both still in our spacesuits, with how tightly they clung to the body, I could basically see and feel her every curve. My pulse quickened involuntarily from her little stunt.

"Arthur..." she whispered softly, her lips brushing against my neck. "Nobody's here to interrupt us."

"..."

Her voice, instead of teasing, sounded more like a desperate plea. A change that seemed more like a subconscious action.

I felt the slight trembling in her body—but wasn't exactly sure why. Was she scared? Nervous that I might reject her again?

Well, I had already given her my answer before, and I didn't plan to change my mind anytime soon.

So... I gently wrapped my arms around her back, pulling her into a warm, secure hug. My right hand moved to the back of her head, slowly patting her soft, wavy hair.

"Whatever you're worried about, leave it to me. I'll handle it," I murmured, eyes shutting.

Her whole body trembled briefly, before gradually beginning to relax.

Whatever tension she had inside her finally melted away. Before long, I could hear the faint, steady rhythm of her breathing. She was... asleep?

Honestly, it'd be a lie to say I wasn't a little disappointed that she passed out like this, but I knew she'd been exhausted from all the work we'd done.

Still, it wasn't just the physical fatigue or even mental strain. She was riding an emotional roller coaster. Between her mother's illness and seeing a glimmer of hope for a cure—then the constant fear that it might not work, or that her mother wouldn't survive long enough to benefit from it...

And not to mention the unease over me getting close to other women. Her subtle attempts to gatekeep that recruitment post were proof enough.

Technically, Nyssra was also a girl, but... There was no way I'd ever look at her as a heroine candidate. That'd be suicidal, plain and simple.

So like that, with Eva sleeping on top of me, time drifted by. I eventually fell asleep as well—only to be jarred awake by the AI's urgent warning.

"...!"

Wait—did I doze off without noticing?

I checked the clock. It was already 25 hours into the jump. Just five more hours until arrival. But Eva... she was gone. Did she wake up earlier than me? No, hold on—!

[Warning. Anomaly detected in the spacetime continuum ahead. Spatial anomaly detected. Gravitational irregularity confirmed.]

The robotic male voice of the ship's AI echoed through the quarters, snapping me fully back to reality. I jumped to my feet and sprinted to the cockpit—where Eva was already hard at work, hands flying across the controls.

"You're finally awake!" she growled, not even sparing me a glance. "Get in position—I'll explain everything in a sec!"

"Got it!"

I dropped into the captain's seat and began scanning the sensors, checking the radars, flipping through every monitor I could access. But at a glance, I couldn't spot any visible anomaly.

"No mechanical issue with the ship itself," Eva said quickly, fingers still dancing over the keys. Several holographic displays popped up in front of us.

"A small singularity has formed in our path—releasing odd energy pulses that are throwing off every AI in the fleet. The problem is, those AI errors are preventing us from aborting the jump. And worse, we're heading straight for the damn thing!"

"Singularity?" I paused, connecting the dots. "You mean—a black hole?!"

"Yes. It was most likely created artificially, but by now it's practically indistinguishable from a natural black hole," Eva confirmed with a nod.

The data she displayed showed we'd be crossing the event horizon in just under two minutes. If that happened... we might either die instantly or get tossed out into some random, unknown sector of the galaxy.

"I'm not gambling on either. Activate the Jump Drive Jammers!"

If we couldn't stop the jump through normal means, then we'd just have to force it.

Or so I thought, until—

"Tried already. But since we're mid-jump, the jammers won't activate. Same goes for all the others in the fleet," Eva said, her tone grim.

"Then bypass the safety—"

"—the safety's managed by the AI, remember? And the AI is exactly what's losing its mind right now."

"...Fuck."

"I'm fine with it. Right here, now?"

"..."

I didn't know how she could still manage to joke in a situation like this, but I let it go. "Have you contacted Nyssra yet?" I asked, needing confirmation.

She was currently the most skilled among us when it came to dealing with AI tech.

Eva gave a nod, but her reply wasn't quite what I hoped for. "Did. She said she needs to reboot and rewrite the AI systems—she can do it in about five minutes."

Five minutes to reprogram a ship's AI? That was practically lightning speed, miraculous. But with less than two minutes left... it might as well have been five hours.

Time was bleeding out, and we were cornered.

Eva had already tried every logical option. That left us with only one: hope this black hole was actually a wormhole—and that it dumped us out somewhere survivable.

{Killing Breeze to Black Halberd. Arthur, your little pet over here is acting crazy!}

Right then, a video call connected, coming from the battleship Killing Breeze—Nyssra's ship. On it, there was Nyssra desperately grabbing the little Void Dragon, restraining it from leaping toward the console.

"Did it detect our impending doom and want to escape?" I muttered in wonder.

But its eyes didn't look desperate—rather, they looked... excited? Like a child who's just about to arrive home...

"Wait..."

Right then, buried information resurfaced in my mind.

A short-lived artificial black hole. Strange energy pulses that fried the ship's AI. And now, this little Void Dragon's strange reaction... All of it pointed toward one very specific event.

"This is...!"

I gasped, then whipped my head toward Eva.

"Eva, connect me to all ships, now!"

Without hesitation or asking why, she nodded sharply and responded immediately, "Got it!" Then began tapping away rapidly at the consoles.

Moments later, the comms didn't just reconnect to the confused Nyssra but to every ship in our fleet. I didn't waste another second—there was no time to explain in detail.

"Everyone, manually activate your wormhole protection modules! Set all of them to 100% output! You have 30 seconds—no more!"

Given our velocity in hyperspace, we had less than a minute before reaching the event horizon. If even one ship failed to activate their protection modules in time... well, they might not die—but only if they were lucky.

"Maintain radio silence after we reach the other side, until I say it's safe to speak!" I warned, just before cutting the connection.

I exhaled slowly, forcing calm back into my mind. I had almost panicked earlier—for no good reason.

"...We'll survive this, right?" Eva asked quietly, her voice laced with the faintest hint of doubt.

I gave her a firm nod, projecting solid confidence. "Don't worry—we're just going on a small side trip."

Yeah... I know this event.

A random encounter that could happen after purchasing a certain DLC bonus content.

It was a side quest that forcibly pulled the player into a one-way wormhole, throwing them into a remote sector of space—one brimming with peril and unpredictable enemies. The player then had to search for the next wormhole that lead them back to familiar territory.

But with that danger came great rewards.

The DLC's destination was renowned for its incredible loot.

While randomized each time, I'd once found a derelict ship nearly equivalent to the Eclipse Sovereign in value. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring it back—it required a specific engine I didn't have. I ended up chopping it up for rare parts, which still made for an amazing haul back then.

Usually, at the very least, you'd find some powerful weapon modules—gear significantly above the standard tech across the galaxy, though still a tier below ancient relics like the Brionac.

"Right... this isn't misfortune—it's a blessing in disguise!"

Eva worked diligently, finishing the process of setting the wormhole protection modules—just like the others presumably had. But now that we were completely cut off from external signals and radiation, it meant we were flying blind.

No communication. No backup.

We could only hope no one made the fatal mistake of splitting off from the fleet during this blackout.

"We're entering the event horizon!" Eva shouted, her eyes locked on the countdown timer. "Brace for impact!"

And then—just like slamming into a speed bump at full throttle—the entire ship lurched violently. Everything not bolted down went flying. A few cans hit my head and torso. Yeah... we really should've cleaned up if we knew this was coming.

The shaking lasted several seconds, but finally subsided. The ship's trajectory stabilized, becoming calm and straight once again.

I glanced at the external cameras. The familiar void of the Calumet Star System was gone.

Instead, we were surrounded by a completely alien scene.

Massive glowing gas clouds wrapped around us like dense fog, making it difficult to see anything beyond the immediate area.

"Carefully disengage the wormhole protection modules and run a quick biological scan," I instructed Eva while gripping the manual controls tightly myself—just in case.

Without a word, she complied—powering down the protection systems, the energy shields, and every interference barrier. Then, she initiated a rapid environmental scan.

The radar results came in first: we were smack in the middle of an asteroid field, cloaked in gas clouds—visibility was abysmally low.

Next came the infrared scan, which lit up with a few glaring heat signals ahead. Then, finally, the biological scan result came.

"Arthur..." Eva's voice trembled, her eyes wide as she stared at the scan results. "This... is a problem."

"Yeah..."

I could see the biological scan for myself. And I could say with absolute certainty...

"We're fucked."

The scan showed we were not only surrounded by thousands of alien lifeforms—but there was also one massive signal located a short distance away. It was so large that its dot took up nearly half the monitor—easily spanning approximately 0.1 AU in size. ƒreewebɳovel.com

One of the external cameras managed to catch a brief glimpse of the beast.

Just to confirm.

I stared at the screen and gave a dry, incredulous laugh.

"That's..." I swallowed hard. "A juvenile Void Dragon."