I Got a Monster Spaceship from the Tutorial Tower - Chapter 52

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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 52
52
Explosions and screams.
And the roar of aircraft tearing through the sky at breakneck speed.
Jeju—with its blue sky, azure sea, and dark rocky shores—had been transformed into something unrecognizable mere moments after the Named Portal opened.
The clans headquartered in Jeju mobilized their pilots faster than anyone else, launching fighter jets into the air.
But.
— Three orc fighters on us! Give us support!
— No available units to send. Hold the line!
Both the clans and the deployed pilots understood the truth.
They were merely buying time.
Though if they could buy time effectively, that alone would be an admirable feat.
Overwhelmingly outnumbered, air superiority was already forfeit.
The Jeju pilots threw everything into their second strategy: intercepting fighters attempting to land.
— Hit! Left wing inoperative! Withdrawing!
Yet one by one, the struggling pilots chose to fall back.
The clan leader of Hanla, Jeju’s representative clan, was relentless in the command center, pressing the Control Authority for support.
“When exactly will reinforcements arrive?”
— We’re doing everything we can, but as you know, these things take time.
Tae-geun, stationed on the other end of the line, answered reluctantly.
He was doing all he could, but this emergency situation made every second feel like an hour.
Tae-geun pressed the clan leader with a question.
— Have we located the President’s position?
The clan leader’s expression hardened visibly.
“We’re having trouble cutting a path to the airport. Some of the other clans have command structures that are down.”
The Named Portal had opened while Yun Seong-a was in the middle of a press conference at the airport.
No enemy aircraft had been spotted landing at the airport yet.
But their own fighters couldn’t approach either.
At any moment, orcs could land and reduce the airport to rubble.
Tae-geun muttered grimly.
— We have to protect the President at the very least.
It wasn’t that the individual Yun Seong-a was superior to other citizens.
But as President, she bore immense responsibilities that had emerged in the wake of the Named Portal.
As head of the Control Authority, this was an unavoidable choice about priorities.
The one saving grace was.
— Director, LW Clan mobilization complete!
— Red Wing Clan is also launching!
The clans, hastily summoned, were gradually dispatching pilots to Jeju.
With the Level 30 Limit, there were promising talents with real capability.
Unlike the Incheon Raid before, these pilots wouldn’t panic or lose their composure.
The clan leader of Hanla exhaled a shallow sigh of relief, though his expression remained tense.
The entry of heavyweight clans like LW and Red Wing was certainly welcome.
But Korea’s strongest card within the current Level 30 Limit had yet to be revealed.
Then.
— Fierce Tiger! Fierce Tiger Clan mobilization complete! Hades launching!
“……Ah!”
News arrived that could turn the tide.
Hades—Korea’s only S+ class aircraft.
With a pilot like Ha-yun, whose performance in the Tutorial Tower was unmatched even among that elite tier, a genuine reversal seemed possible.
‘If the Space Battleship would only show up now…….’
The Hanla clan leader’s fist clenched involuntarily.
With Hades alone, they might actually punch through a corridor to the airport if they were skilled enough.
But to turn the tide across all of Jeju was impossible.
To minimize casualties, they desperately needed something more—a decisive trump card.
Yet in the Control Authority’s command center, a voice rang out, trembling with shock.
— D-Director!
— What is it?
News arrived that neither Tae-geun, the Hanla clan leader, nor anyone else had anticipated.
— In the Fierce Tiger Clan’s launch manifest…… Cha Jin-yong, piloting Hexagon. It’s not an error…….
— Excuse me?
“?!”
He wouldn’t have been this shocked even if a dead man had walked back to life.
A fighter jet reduced to scrap metal taking to the skies again—it was a case equally bewildering.
* * *
『Will you participate in the Named Portal raid at Jeju, Republic of Korea?』
“It’s all or nothing now.”
It had been days since he’d told Yeon-u that he was satisfied with Cha Jin-yong as Clan Leader.
He felt a twinge of awkwardness at going back on his word, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on such things.
Jin-yong’s Hexagon lifted off with violent momentum.
The next instant, he was already flying over Jeju’s airspace alongside the Clan’s fighters.
Flames and smoke erupted in scattered columns; concrete buildings and roads lay mangled and scarred.
Modern warfare. The face of the Portal.
Ha-yun’s voice crackled through the comms.
— Are you really sure about this, Clan Leader?
— I mean—when did you even repair the fighter? How did you manage it?
The other pilots in the Clan had reacted with a turbulent mix of shock and concern.
Ha-yun, too, hadn’t hidden her worry when she’d heard Jin-yong was joining the operation.
Jin-yong answered with a tight laugh.
“I’ve been putting in some practice on the sly. When the Clan faces moments like this, its leader needs to prove his worth—that’s how we grow stronger.”
Half jest, half truth.
He really had been recovering his edge in the unmanned combat stages within the Tutorial Tower’s tenth floor.
Not with any intention of climbing the Tutorial Tower again, but simply to keep his repaired fighter from gathering dust.
Five years ago, Jin-yong’s Tutorial Tower record had reached the twenty-eighth floor.
Like a cruel joke of fate, now—at the very moment South Korea faced an existential crisis with a Level 30 Limit Named Portal—
Jin-yong had resolved to stare down that destiny.
“If things get too dangerous, I’ll pull back anytime. Don’t worry. Besides, we’re going to win this. Right?”
— Clan Leader…
Thinking his words were hollow bravado, another pilot on the comms called out to him with a sigh in his voice.
How could someone entering Korea’s first Named Portal speak of victory so casually?
Yet Ha-yun, catching the unspoken resolve beneath his words, smiled faintly and nodded.
— Yes. We will win.
Part of Jin-yong’s reason for mustering the courage to enter after five years was the Space Battleship’s participation.
The conviction that if the Space Battleship came, even a Named Portal could be overcome.
The Clan’s situation room relayed new orders.
— Rebroadcasting: Our Clan’s primary objective is to secure air superiority around Jeju Airport. These are the Control Authority’s orders—advance from the north.
Piercing through to Jeju Airport—the region of fiercest combat, where the President himself was sheltering—using the Hades as their spear.
Jin-yong’s mouth twisted in a wry smile.
“Our force alone isn’t enough for that, is it?”
The Fierce Tiger Clan had deployed a total of fifteen fighters.
Not a small number, but nowhere near sufficient to accomplish the mission objective.
The situation room’s response came through.
— The Hero Clan, the Samguang Clan, and the Dragon Clan have agreed to provide support. Most of their forces will handle the surrounding area… direct support is three fighters.
“Three fighters?”
Jin-yong tilted his head in confusion.
They were reputable Clans, so some assistance would certainly help, but the force distribution seemed odd.
— Pilot Yu Hyun-su, Pilot Jeong Gwan-u, and Pilot Jang Chae-bin.
“…….”
— …….
At the names of these familiar pilots, both Jin-yong and Ha-yun fell silent.
So that was why three Clans were offering support simultaneously—it seemed the influence of these three pilots was at work.
‘I wasn’t keen on getting tangled up with them… but beggars can’t be choosers.’
Setting aside the antics those three could pull off together, their skill was genuine.
With one A-class fighter and two B-class machines, they’d be solid reinforcements.
Screeeee……
Jin-yong gradually increased throttle and addressed his pilots.
“Regardless, we’re initiating the operation. Full-mail units to the front. The Hades will conserve maximum power until we breach the airport—I’ll provide fire support.”
— Understood, Clan Leader!
— I have no idea how you managed to return… but it’s an honor.
Fifteen fighters began forming up around Jin-yong’s Hexagon as their center point.
* * *
While Cha Jin-yong and Ha-yun’s Fierce Tiger Clan hurried toward Jeju Airport.
“This is utter chaos…….”
Yeon-u arrived over Jeju airspace at the same moment, accompanied by the Space Battleship.
Just as with the Incheon Raid Portal, the Space Battleship materialized at an altitude considerably higher than the other fighters.
It was essentially a distance at which ordinary fighters could not engage.
Given that the battleship primarily conducted planetary-scale operations, this altitude was necessary to maintain.
Reports came trickling into the Bridge that the pilots had boarded their fighters.
“I’ll bring up the tactical display, Ship Captain.”
“Go ahead. I’m counting on you.”
Above the Bridge, a hologram materialized showing a map of Jeju overlaid with allied and enemy fighters tangled in chaotic patterns.
Blue allied fighters were being added gradually, but the red enemy fighters were far more numerous.
The situation was particularly dire around Jeju Airport, where President Yun Seong-a was located.
Allied fighters were engaged in combat in the surrounding areas, but progress toward the center appeared difficult.
Meanwhile, from the north where enemy defenses were thinnest, fifteen fighters were advancing rapidly.
“That’s the Fierce Tiger Clan?”
“Correct, Ship Captain.”
Other sectors were certainly important, but ultimately the Space Battleship would have to center its operations around the airport.
Still, Yeon-u had a reason for not issuing an immediate launch order.
“What’s the position of the Elite Squadron?”
“They don’t appear to have been summoned yet. We have no contact.”
The Elite Squadron was guaranteed to appear in every Named Portal.
Given that the allied fighters were already struggling, the orc Elite Squadron would be an opponent their carriers couldn’t handle.
Yeon-u judged it wiser to wait for the Elite Squadron’s summoning position to appear before deploying the Carrier Fighters.
“Do you know about the orc Elite Squadron?”
“Yes, Ship Captain. There are several famous squadrons. All composed of valiant warriors.”
If the Iron Blood Assault Squad was an extreme refinement of the goblin specialty—mobility—then the orc Elite Squadrons pushed their own specialty, destructive power, to its absolute limit.
They were groups that embodied the orc principle of overwhelming force taken to its furthest extreme.
A previous Named Portal in the Eastern United States had also fielded an orc Elite Squadron.
‘If it hadn’t been for Giselle Han, New York would have been a sea of fire.’
A prodigy from her debut.
Now firmly established as America’s ace pilot, Giselle Han.
Had she been constrained by the Level 30 Limit, that portal would have become an American nightmare.
At the time, Giselle Han had personally shot down eight of the twenty summoned enemy fighters.
Yeon-u spoke to the pilots in the Hangar.
“When the Elite Squadron appears, we’ll take them on. Everyone stay ready.”
— Cluck-cluck…….
— Orcs, indeed it stirs curiosity which unit will emerge. They were all formidable comrades.
Markos and Torca spoke, each with a nostalgic tone.
The Jeju airspace remained deadlocked, fighters trading ground.
Yeon-u’s wait was not a long one.
Whooom!
A violent tremor raced through Yeon-u’s body.
At the same moment, Urelka shouted.
“Elite Squadron summoned! Valiant Hammers, the Valiant Hammers! Twenty aircraft total!”
“Valiant Hammers? ……The same unit that appeared in America?”
By coincidence, it was indeed the same squadron that had emerged in the American theater.
Before Yeon-u’s eyes, the heavily armored fighters appeared, their dark gray hulls materializing slowly.
The Valiant Hammers were distinctively larger and more thickly plated than ordinary orc fighters, a fact obvious at a glance.
What set them apart was that they employed ramming as their primary tactic, far beyond conventional anti-air javelin exchange.
Their main fighter, the Striker, had a front section shaped like a hammer—blunt metal plating designed for crushing impact.
They sacrificed some speed, but the design made clear their intent: even a glancing blow would shatter an enemy fighter.
Their gunship variant, the Crawler.
An evolution beyond the orc anti-air javelin, it wielded barbed weapons that fired in unpredictable curved trajectories, ensnaring fighters.
And it didn’t end there—powerful energy surges could disable enemy electronics.
Finally, their flagship bore the name Void Sphere.
‘Anti-matter collisions. It’s insane.’
The flagship, darker gray than the rest, had a pointed prow and three vertical lances attached to each wing.
Like the Hades, anything that struck its anti-matter lances would be torn to shreds.
The Void Sphere, Crawler, and Striker were all weaker than the Hades, yet equipped with anti-matter cannons, their medium-range firepower was formidable.
And their summoning point was none other than near the airport.
“Whether we like it or not, that airport’s going to become the front line this time.”
“Yes, Ship Captain.”
As if they too had been observing our movements, the Fierce Tiger Clan was approaching from the north, and Yeon-u adjusted course toward them.
Just as Yeon-u was about to order the carrier fighters to launch.
Screeeeeech!!!
Ting-ting-ting!
“……?”
Without warning, three combat fighters shot upward directly in front of the Space Battleship.
Simultaneously, the hail of incoming communication requests blared across the bridge.
Dreadnought, Phantom, Phalanx.
Urelka turned to Yeon-u and asked.
“It’s the Yuguan Zhang Trio from the Platform last time, sir. Should we answer the transmission?”
Yeon-u couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
“Yuguan Zhang, not Yugan Zhang. But more importantly—what are those people doing popping out of there?”
Of course, the Yuguan Zhang Trio were all under Level 30, so they weren’t subject to the Level 30 Limit.
But still, didn’t it strike him as odd that they’d emerge like this, as if they’d been waiting for the Space Battleship?

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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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