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

"What a waste..."

I sighed while still trying to shake off the lingering phantom pain throbbing inside my head.

Due to the accidental friendly fire caused by the confusion from receiving a psychic assault, we likely lost a hundred or so of my employees. After all, the collars no longer have their safeties on, and disobedience now equates to death—instantaneously.

Of course, that didn't mean I stopped moving.

I marked several coordinates surrounding our position—seemingly empty zones that gave no hint of life—before sharing the data across the fleet. At the same time, I spoke through the still-open comms and issued a sharp command.

"Ignore the pain in your head, and fire directly at the coordinates I sent! ASAP!"

I would've fired at those locations myself if I had a clear shot, but the other ships completely blocked my line of fire. All I could do was delegate the targeting to the rest of the fleet.

A few seconds later, beams of laser fire cut through space. They were immediately followed by a chorus of agonized howls that echoed even across the vacuum, reaching us at this distance.

*KRYAAAGH!*

Without feeling complacent, "Status check!" I barked out the instant the cries faded.

One by one, the ship captains responded, reporting their current conditions and losses.

Thankfully, none were killed directly by the Shuulwailer's mental attack. All the casualties came from the punishment inflicted by the slave collars. Once all reports were in, it was confirmed—the entire fleet was finally clear of the mind assault.

Naturally, the bombardment continued as we spoke.

If we relaxed even for a moment, it was easy to imagine the aliens overwhelming us.

Streaks of light exploded across the void, striking down approaching entities one, two, sometimes three times before they finally dropped. All the while, the fleet inched forward—or rather, steadily distanced itself from the juvenile Void Dragon.

'Right, I wonder what's going on with the little Void Dragon with Nyssra?'

The thought crossed my mind, fleetingly, but I pushed the curiosity aside. Our focus now should be finding the exit as soon as possible. Anything else would come afterward.

Securing our escape route took priority.

As the relentless battle raged on, the thick gas cloud enveloping us began to thin. As the density faded, the Shuulwailers' mental attacks also began to falter. Without a medium to transmit their psychic wails, their reach weakened considerably.

"Three ships down! All corvettes!" Eva announced grimly.

Corvettes were the smallest class of vessels. Smaller even than frigates, they were single-occupant ships, light and fast—but terribly weak. Due to their size, their mounted turrets were vastly underpowered, leaving them unable to repel approaching enemies in time.

"Idiots..." I muttered with disdain before gesturing sharply. "Spread out the battleships and cruisers to the outer perimeter, and keep the smaller ships shielded in the middle!"

"Relaying commands! Adjusting the fleet formation now!"

Within the next minute, the ships began to reshuffle.

The larger vessels, equipped with stronger hulls and reinforced shields, repositioned themselves around the smaller ones. The formation Eva transmitted wasn't a closed wall, either—it allowed gaps between ships for the inner group to continue firing. Our overall firepower output stayed consistent.

As we'd been flying blind for several minutes, our sensors finally detected something unusual—something that wasn't alien or dragon.

A metallic object drifted nearby in space, its shape refined and angular—clearly artificial. Definitely not a natural asteroid.

"That's a turret." I identified instantly—but there was more. "The lower segment's still connected to a hull mount protector. That means... there's a shipwreck nearby!"

True to Hard Mode's nature, we stumbled straight into a treasure jackpot!

Eva, while maintaining a calm exterior, clearly appeared excited by the discovery. While plotting our navigation path, she also expanded the scanning radius—eagerly seeking the source of the wreckage as fast as possible.

It didn't take long for us to locate it.

Roughly 3,000 kilometers from the drifting turret—which I, of course, pulled into my cargo hold using the tractor beam—we followed a trail of debris that led us to a large, Leviathan-class shipwreck.

Its massive frame was split into two sections, with a curved segment floating a fair distance away. Judging from the damage, it looked like some enormous creature had taken a massive bite before spitting it out again.

There wasn't much doubt about what that creature was. "Must be that Void Dragon's prey from a few centuries ago."

"Should we loot it now?" Eva asked coolly—hiding her desire to jump into it and strip that shipwreck bare.

But I gently shook my head, smiling wryly.

"You think those guys are gonna let us just waltz in and do that?" I countered, pointing at the radar, still littered with hostile red signals.

If we wanted to loot this derelict properly, we'd have to eliminate the surrounding threats first—or at the very least, secure a safe perimeter. Only then could we dismantle this gargantuan treasure trove in peace.

Thankfully, the latter seemed plausible, especially considering that, right now, I had hundreds of ships under my direct command.

"Everyone," I quickly announced to the entire fleet. "A shipwreck has been detected ahead of us. ETA is 10 minutes. Ships of Frigate class and below, start salvaging anything you can find, regardless of its resale value. Even if it seems worthless, take it."

I paused briefly, gathering my thoughts. "For the rest, form a 100-kilometer radius perimeter around the wreck and do not let a single alien come close!"

{Copy that!}

{Roger!}

The operation commenced immediately as soon as the ship captains responded with confirmation. Without delay, we closed the remaining distance in the next 10 minutes, all while eliminating any alien threats along the way.

However, the Velk-Nar Leviathans managed to deal a few blows to some of our corvettes, their massive fins functioning like charged-arc chainsaws, slicing into the smaller ships and damaging their hulls. While not yet incapacitated, their first armor layers were visibly compromised.

If our entire fleet had a collective HP bar, it would now be entering the yellow zone—over 25% damage sustained.

"Target reached! Corvettes and Frigates deployed for scrapping the target!"

"You mean looting," I chuckled lightly. "To all ships! Maintain a distance of 100 kilometers from the wreck and stand by. Fire freely at any aliens attempting to approach!" I doubled down on the command.

Eva and I moved to the very top of our command ship—based on our orientation, at least. Using our position as a reference point, the rest of the fleet formed up, encircling the shipwreck protectively.

The corvettes and frigates immediately got to work, dismantling whatever they could reach. From broken turrets to large deposits of rare metals, from ancient modules to structural parts—they salvaged everything, even going so far as to strip the walls themselves.

If they intended to scrap the ship's walls, floors, and ceilings, I doubted all of it would fit inside these small ships' cargo holds...

But apparently, I had underestimated the pirates.

Once their cargo bays were filled to the brim with random components and materials, they flew toward the nearest allied ship and offloaded their haul into any available empty storage spaces. By doing this, they were able to return again and collect another ship-sized load from the wreck.

Turns out, they weren't as dim-witted as I had originally thought.

The larger ships maintained their protective perimeter, shielding the smaller vessels as they worked like an army of ants—delivering salvaged materials to their "colony" before setting off once again.

With such impressive coordination and speed, the massive shipwreck—which had once spanned nearly the entire 100-kilometer radius zone—was reduced to just drifting dust in a little over an hour.

Thanks to the effort, 68% of our fleet now had fully-loaded cargo holds. Among the rest, 22% carried partial loads, not quite enough to be considered full. The remaining ships hadn't been used for storage at all.

Naturally, I made sure to claim one particular item from the wreck—the black box.

"Let's see what's inside..."

Without delay, I inserted the black box into the reader and began scanning its contents. A few moments later, the data was decrypted and displayed on-screen.

"...Huh?"

Unfortunately, the language used in the logs was completely unfamiliar. It wasn't something from the universe we came from, that I'm sure, at the lest. I couldn't understand a single word of it. However, the box did contain a star map, along with the ship's recorded flight history.

By isolating and loading only that portion into our navigation system, we were able to extract one crucial piece of data—coordinates marking the location of the "exit."

"Eva, set this location as our next waypoint. That's where the exit should be."

"Got it!"

Without hesitation, she entered the coordinates into the console, revealing our new course. The path pointed diagonally to the left—and backward.

"...Is this..." I muttered, hesitant.

Eva, clearly picking up on what I left unspoken, gave a solemn nod. "Yes. To get there, we'll need to pass by the Void Dragon."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled a long, frustrated sigh.

"Damn it... And here I was hoping we wouldn't have to get anywhere near that thing..."

Trouble just kept coming for us... relentlessly.

After venting my frustration, I tapped the console and reopened the fleet-wide comms, speaking directly to all ships under my command.

"We've got our loot, so it's time to return to where we came from—" I began.

"Now... Let's head to the back of the Juvenile Void Dragon!"