I Got a Monster Spaceship from the Tutorial Tower - Chapter 47

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 47
47
The Asteroid Field.
A space battleship began moving its massive form through a field of scrap.
Common sense would dictate a careful approach—keeping collisions with asteroids to an absolute minimum.
Vwooooom!
But the space battleship pressed forward without hesitation, as though collisions were beneath its concern.
And the meaning of that boldness became clear at once.
Thunk! Ping! Ping!
Instead of destroying the asteroid directly ahead, the battleship simply swallowed it whole through its landing strip intake.
「Scrap Quota: 1%」
“Oh, it actually works?”
Yeon-woo watched the quota notification floating before his eyes shift and spoke to Urelka.
Urelka seemed slightly surprised too, but soon smiled and nodded.
“It appears the captain found the blind spot precisely, sir.”
When fighters spoke of mining asteroids, they usually meant using close-range weapons to destroy them.
The system would then recognize materials classified as scrap, collect them, and the quota would rise.
But this was painfully slow, and a great deal was wasted.
“Hwa-ryeon, how’s the landing strip holding up? Can you manage?”
— Yes, Captain! Fox Fire melts them in no time!—
— P-please, just a little more slowly, Chief Mechanic!—
Yeon-woo’s strategy was simple: swallow the asteroid whole through the landing strip, and let Hwa-ryeon incinerate it completely.
Since the work happened inside the space battleship, every scrap within the asteroid was captured and stored without exception.
Fox Fire proved useful not just for maintenance, but for this as well—the nine-tailed fox’s gift.
Of course, larger asteroids that couldn’t be melted whole had to be roughly destroyed by Surika’s Laser from the Thunder Hound he kept in the hangar.
But even that was far safer and faster than mining with ordinary fighters.
Since the space battleship didn’t sweep up asteroids at full speed anyway—it waited for Hwa-ryeon and Surika to complete their work before targeting the next one—there were no issues.
「Scrap Quota: 13%」
“At this rate, we might finish before the orcs show up.”
Having only swallowed three asteroids so far, the speed was remarkable.
In fact, the quota percentage on a mining floor could be verified through the live broadcast itself.
└ So everything I’ve done until now wasn’t mining—it was just scrap collecting labor……
└ They’re swallowing asteroids like popcorn.
The pilots on the 21st floor who’d tried asteroid mining showed reactions of pure anguish.
It took them a full twenty minutes to destroy and collect a single asteroid—what had all that past suffering been for?
But none of that mattered.
「Scrap Quota: 30%」
“Going strong!”
Yeon-woo let out a joyful whoop watching the quota fill in real time.
Had his voice been broadcast live, his critics might well have multiplied a little more.
Then, at the moment the quota crossed 30%—
“Captain, orc scouts approaching.”
“……So they’re coming, after all.”
The orcs, determined to disrupt the asteroid mining, had begun making their appearance.
Urelka reported the approach to Yeon-woo via drone detection, and simultaneously transmitted the position to the ship’s fighters.
Yeon-woo studied the tactical display intently.
The display range had expanded far beyond what the space battleship alone could sense.
At its far edge, five orc scouts were closing in.
— Cock-a-doodle-do! Let’s go! Go!—
— Gudru’s taking point.—
The Silver Edge darted forward at a speed noticeably faster than the other fighters.
Though quick maneuvers should have been difficult with the asteroids in the way, the pilot weaved through with remarkable precision.
This time, no bone-chilling cry escaped.
‘If he still had his flight phobia, this might’ve been quite dangerous.’
Marcos’s flight skill had always been something everyone had to acknowledge.
But his technique for fine-tuning speed and angles seemed to have developed considerably.
And with an A+ Grade rating besides, what more could be said?
The main force followed behind.
Fullmail, Gauntlet, and—
Waver!
— Ugh!
— H-hold on, are you all right, Pilot Torka?!
……His Goliath was still flying rather clumsily, as though the adaptation hadn’t quite finished taking hold.
Lurching between sudden stops and violent accelerations, it scraped past asteroids with a margin so thin it nearly clipped the undercarriage.
‘A Relic Grade machine making its first deployment in the Asteroid Field—that’s certainly no easy task.’
Yeon-woo turned these thoughts over as he spoke to Torka.
“Torka, don’t tense up so much. The other pilots can handle more than enough of this. Think of it as a chance to adjust—just relax into it.”
An ancient warrior who loved telling stories from ages past.
Yet contrary to Yeon-woo’s concern, Torka’s sharp retort came back at once.
— Who in blazes turned on the Autopilot Assistance System?!
— M-me, it was me.
— You brat! A pilot who can’t even fly his own machine, and you want to rely on assists? Back in my day, anyone who switched that garbage on got shipped straight to the Rear Planetary Defense Unit!
“Autopilot assist?”
Urelka answered Yeon-woo’s question with evident discomfort.
“Exactly as it sounds. The devices a pilot needs to operate are so numerous that……it’s a function to automatically assist with collision avoidance, evasion, targeting, and such. It’s enabled by default, but it seems Pilot Torka doesn’t use it.”
“Is—is that even possible?”
Yeon-woo was well aware of just how grueling the work was for pilots in flight.
And yet he was saying they were managing even with the autopilot assist turned on?
Then what in the world would it take to operate the machine manually, the way Torka described?
Yeon-woo’s trembling eyes fixed on the video feed of Torka’s cockpit.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap! Rattle-rattle-rattle! Tick-tick-tick!
Was that a goblin or a machine?
The sight was nothing short of extraordinary.
Without exaggeration, Torka was operating the fighter at a speed barely visible to the eye, using both arms and legs, even his elbows and knees.
What was even more astonishing.
Screech! Whoooosh!
The moment he switched to full manual control, the Goliath’s movements became incomparably cleaner and more dynamic.
Urelka spoke in a tone of utter bewilderment.
“Full Manual Control pilots vanished around three hundred years ago. The manual conversion function was only kept for emergency ejection. Of course, in theory, manual operation should increase a machine’s performance, but……I never imagined it was possible to do something like that.”
Yeon-woo’s expression was scarcely different.
Just looking at it, he couldn’t believe such a thing was feasible.
This wasn’t even combat—merely a simple maneuver to avoid asteroids.
Yet to move his entire body to that extent just to dodge rocks……
“Enemy scout formation sighted. Engaging in combat.”
Pew-pew-pew-pew! Rat-a-tat-tat!
In actual combat, what on earth would be required?
The lasers and plasma from the carrier fighters crossed with machine-gun fire from the orc scouts, and chaos erupted in an instant.
— Kekekeee! Enemy down, enemy down!
— Harpy, shut it. Cutting comms.
As always, the pilots showed their mettle.
— All units, silence!
— ……???
But this time, instead of the usual tone, a grave command cut through the channel.
It was Torka.
He piloted the fighter with movements of a different caliber than before.
Though his entry was a beat late, his weighty roar seized the entire comm network in a single instant.
— Wet-behind-the-ears pups! Who told you to fill the combat channel with this racket? I’m taking command as temporary wing leader. Fullmail, cover my left flank. Gauntlet, cover my right. Silver Edge, prioritize striking designated target five.
— …….
— Acknowledged!
— Yes, yes! Target five!
— G-Gudru here, listening well.
“That’s quite something…….”
Yeon-woo marveled as the carrier pilots, individually skilled yet thoroughly chaotic, snapped into formation in the blink of an eye.
So this was the clan leader of the Iron Blood Assault Clan?
Urelka nodded as if he’d expected as much.
“The Iron Blood Assault Clan is renowned for honoring martial pride and maintaining strict discipline. It’s only natural they keep their pilots’ bearing taut.”
“Hm.”
Yeon-woo decided to watch how the battle unfolded after Torka’s appearance.
Before, it had been individual play—Marcos disrupting the enemy’s rear while the rest charged about in confusion, destroying foes in haphazard fashion.
— Silver Edge, move right! We’ll advance that way and provide cover. Gauntlet, watch the rear!
— Cluck-cluck! Right side!
Now under Torka’s command, they wove through the chaotic melee, and Yeon-woo felt the precise geometry of the formation taking shape moment by moment.
The instant a rigid structure crystallized in the maneuvers that the distant Yeon-woo could not micromanage, the carrier-based fighters’ movements became far more organic.
In a heartbeat, the five Orc scout ships that had launched an ambush were reduced to rags, plummeting toward the asteroid below.
“I thought he was just a talkative old man.”
“The clan leader of the Iron Blood Assault Clan is not such an easy position. And Pilot Torka was only twenty years old by Earth standards when he died.”
“…?”
Yeon-woo turned to Urelka as if to ask what that meant.
“Since Goblins have shorter lifespans than humans, you must have misunderstood.”
That hardly qualified as a mere misunderstanding.
“Then how old are you, Urelka?”
“I am now sixteen. For reference, Sureka and Surika are thirteen.”
These wet-behind-the-ears youngsters!
Yeon-woo was shocked at just how young the Goblins actually were.
And here he was at twenty, having just been lectured by them about rank mattering more than age.
‘…Sigh. Fine. Age is irrelevant anyway.’
Yeon-woo considered tightening discipline aboard the ship but sighed and abandoned the thought.
Plenty of monsters would be gathering on the battleship in the days ahead.
Each species had different lifespans, and if he started insisting on age hierarchies, things would only get more confusing.
Better to let the other monsters feel at ease, aside from Captain Yeon-woo.
But now that age had come up, he found himself curious about the others as well.
“Hwa-ryeon.”
— Yes, Captain?
“How old are you?”
— Hmm? Well… if I convert it to Earth years, I’d say around three hundred? But I’m still in my prime!
‘A… a grandmother….’
Yeon-woo was staggered, recalling Hwa-ryeon’s skin, far more taut and supple than his own.
Age truly was nothing but a number.
“And Lapis…?”
Yeon-woo asked the same of Lapis, who occasionally transformed into a cute child.
Even if they said it was a young specimen, it should be younger than Yeon-woo.
Lapis floated a number above their head and answered.
— 500 years old!
“….”
Yeon-woo fell silent.
That adorable Lapis was five hundred years old.
By age, it seemed Lapis was the oldest among the current crew aboard.
“Slimes are naturally an immortal race. A Blue Slime of five hundred years is considered very young indeed.”
“I see.”
Yeon-woo then asked the same of Marcos and Gudru, who were returning from combat.
“What about the two of you? How old are you?”
— Age? You ask about age? Cluck-cluck! I’m already thirty. I’d forgotten about it.
Urelka added that Harpies have much the same expected lifespan as humans.
Gudru pondered for a moment, then shook his head firmly and replied.
— Troll, don’t count that. Age, can’t eat.
“Right. That’s a noble mindset.”
And so the crew’s age survey was complete.
Combat under the direct command of acting squadron leader Torka.
And thanks to the brilliant performances of Hwa-ryeon and Surika.
「Tutorial Tower, Floor 21.
S+ Grade Clear.」
In far less time than other pilots would have managed, Yeon-woo had conquered the twenty-first floor.
「Floor 21 Clear Reward.
Scrap 100.
S+ Grade Achievement Bonus: additional Scrap 400 awarded.」
Moreover, while the base Scrap reward for the 20s was normally 30, befitting a Mining Floor, Yeon-woo managed to secure a total of 500 Scrap.
‘Truth is, money flows in steadily from broadcast fees anyway, but still—feels good.’
And with the arrival of Marcos and Torka, both achieving A+ Grade.
「Tutorial Tower, Floor 22.
S+ Grade Clear.」
「Tutorial Tower, Floor 23.
S+ Grade Clear.」
「Tutorial Tower, Floor 24.
S+ Grade Clear.」
Up through the twenty-fourth floor, they cut through the tower like a hot knife through silk.
With Torka’s disciplined command structure in place, combat had become far more efficient.
Each floor’s objectives—escort missions, extermination, mining—were familiar tasks they’d done before, so nothing proved particularly difficult.
Meanwhile, Ha-yoon had finally cleared Floor 20 alongside the promising pilots from other clans that the Meng-Ho Clan had matched her with.
[Hades Pilot Ha-yoon’s Floor 20 Retake: Ten Iron Blood Assault Clan Units Shot Down… A Solid Showing for South Korea’s Next Ace]
└ Yesss! I knew she had it in her!
└ ㅋㅋㅋ She’s been attached to that Space Battleship all this time, but honestly Hades’s talent is top-tier.
└ Yeah, there were a few late-twenty pilots in this run, and she basically soloed the whole thing.
└ Honestly, getting escorted by Space Battleship pilots probably felt like a step down for her.
Riding high on the crowd’s passionate cheers, Ha-yoon pressed forward with the other Meng-Ho Clan pilots and took on Floor 21.
But on Floor 21, she ran into an unexpected obstacle.
Her original plan had been to showcase a hard carry by holding off an Orc assault while simultaneously blasting asteroids to pieces with the Antimatter Cannon.
— Pilot Ha-yoon! When you shoot asteroids with the Antimatter Cannon, they all just vanish!
— Leave the asteroids alone! Just focus on taking down the Orcs!
…And so she found herself realizing, much to her dismay, that in the mining objective, far from carrying the team, she had become what was known as a “Troll.”
“My, it seems Pilot Ha-yoon took a bit of a hit to her reputation this time.”
Gudru, having heard the news from Hwa-ryeon after she’d taken the phone from Yeon-woo, laughed with a snort.
“So even the Black Fighter Pilot is a Troll now.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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