I Got a Monster Spaceship from the Tutorial Tower - Chapter 54

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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 54
54
Torca’s strategy against the Hammer of Valor was straightforward.
If they tried to crush careless enemies with organic, coordinated movements, then—
‘Block that organic coordination itself.’
Such tactics fundamentally depended on the pilot’s individual capability, true enough.
But the importance of command was equally decisive.
Screee-crack!
“Hades breaking clear—I’m moving in!”
Torca seized the gap the moment Ha-yun shot down a Striker, accelerating and shouting his order without hesitation.
Ha-yun already understood Torca’s tactical rhythm.
Without waiting for the withdrawal command, she abandoned greed and disengaged immediately.
Torca’s eyes flashed with intensity.
‘A pilot like that born in this wasteland? The universe truly is vast.’
Though they hadn’t fought together many times, Torca had trained countless young pilots as clan leader—enough to recognize Ha-yun’s talent at a glance.
Not merely piloting skill, but instinctive judgment and tactical comprehension.
In actual combat, all of that became the measure of a pilot’s worth.
The Empire didn’t hand out S+ Grade units to just anyone, after all.
The bizarre system called the Tutorial Tower must have seen something in Ha-yun worth testing.
While such thoughts crossed his mind, Torca’s Cruiser—
Crash-crack! Fwee-fwee-thwak!
—locked onto position behind Hades’ retreat vector, unleashing full firepower on a nearby Crawler.
The Hammer of Valor responded with equal speed.
Some split off to widen distance from Torca, while the nearest Strikers—
Boom!
—charged the Cruiser without hesitation.
“Gnngh!”
He’d already anticipated it and raised his Barrier, but the impact was still fierce.
Torca gritted his teeth and shouted.
“Silver Edge! Now!”
— Kee-oooooh!
Among the pilots Torca currently commanded, Silver Edge’s piloting was nothing short of exceptional.
A silver flash cleaved across Jejū’s blue sky.
Accelerating to speeds even Torca had rarely witnessed—
Fwee-fwee-fwee-thwak!
—Silver Edge’s plasma struck the target without wavering.
The Striker that had charged the Cruiser lost power and plummeted.
“Silver Edge, maintain course. Strike the enemy formation scattered above.”
— On it! On it!
Markos flipped Silver Edge with breathtaking precision.
Of course, Torca was now exposed at the heart of enemy fire, but he couldn’t afford to give the ram-focused Hammer of Valor time to build momentum.
Seizing control of the battle’s tempo faster than the enemy’s—that was the key to this engagement.
Tzzz-tzzz-tzzz……!
Just as impacts threatened from all directions on the Cruiser—
— Commander, we hold the line.
— We’re coming through!
Pap-pap-bang!
Gudru and Sureka appeared from either flank, deploying Barriers at full capacity.
Though their grades were lower, both piloted defensive units—their Barrier output matched the Cruiser’s.
Without sufficient range, the Strikers’ charge lost half its force.
In that brief window when their advance stalled, the Yuguan Zhang Trio struck again.
Torca, having slipped his position, attacked the nearby enemy craft anew.
It resembled a matted ball of hair being threaded by several needles piercing through at different angles.
Ork’s elite squadron, the Hammer of Valor, fell one by one, losing power and dropping from the sky.
Huuuum……!
And then, the Void Sphere—which had been observing from the rear for some time—finally began to assert itself.
Black aura gathered in its vicinity.
Mecha specs and firepower overwhelmingly superior to the other Hammers of Valor.
If the Void Sphere truly broke loose, that organic coordination meant nothing—they’d have to accept casualties.
“Silver Edge. Target the hammer’s haft.”
— Yes, yes!
But he had already drawn the situation heavily to his side.
Torca boldly sent Markos toward the Void Sphere.
The silver flash scattered plasma once more, aiming for the Void Sphere, but—
Screech!
The Void Sphere, launching with sudden acceleration, astoundingly evaded Markos’s plasma.
— How?!
Markos’s startled voice echoed through the communication channel.
The Void Sphere itself was an extremely sleek unit, and its defining feature was the auxiliary thrusters opening in all directions.
With nothing but a pilot’s skill to back it up, it could execute evasive maneuvers in any direction, even from a standstill.
Simultaneously, such mobility demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in close combat as well.
‘Not going down without a fight, then.’
Torca had anticipated as much.
Besides, if the Hammer of Valor’s flagship had melted away in just one attack, Torca would only have grown angrier.
Pew-pew-pew!
Torca fired suppressive shots toward the Void Sphere and issued orders.
He had prepared a dedicated counter for the Void Sphere.
“Hades, cut it down.”
— Understood.
Screeeech!
The god of death swung its scythe as if to shatter the shaft of the black spear itself.
It was Ha-yun’s Hades, already having activated Death Side.
A picture-perfect strike laid upon the Void Sphere, which had been focused on evading the Silver Edge’s assault.
Shriek!
The Void Sphere lifted its tail portion violently, dodging Ha-yun’s attack.
The maneuver was so radical it seemed impossible to believe it was a simulated pilot executing it.
Yet Ha-yun had no intention of surrendering the initiative now that she had struck first.
Screech! Screech! Screech!
The blade of the scythe spun in circles, trampling the enemy like prey.
Ha-yun circled the Void Sphere, wielding her long wings to sustain the engagement.
Crash!
Anti-matter colliding with anti-matter.
In such an exceptionally rare clash, the aggressor held the advantage.
Torca had not drawn the Void Sphere’s attention through Markos for no reason.
The key was managing Death Side’s time limit and maintaining supremacy in an anti-matter duel.
Crunch!
The blades attached to the Void Sphere’s wings fell away one by one.
“The moment Death Side’s time limit approaches, return to the battleship without delay. Even if you cannot shoot it down, we will handle it.”
— I will remember your words.
Ha-yun responded obediently to Torca’s command.
Ha-yun, who had already garnered expectations from both the Fierce Tiger Clan and Korea through overwhelming skill relative to pilots of the same tier.
Normally, she would have pushed herself to directly destroy her opposing Void Sphere, no matter the cost.
Because if she did not, other pilots—other people—would surely suffer casualties.
It was no mere worry born of excess caution.
The prophecy-like prediction that took shape in her mind.
Every element of the situation whispered that without her, destruction was certain.
‘Even if I fall back… it will be all right.’
But a battle fought alongside Torca and the Space Battleship was different.
Ha-yun herself was merely one member participating in the operation.
She did not need to bear all the weight alone.
There was support behind her if she retreated.
That difference in mindset was profound.
Hum!
Hades vibrated gently, as if responding to Ha-yun’s resolve.
The dark aura dwelling in Hades’s wings seemed to deepen.
‘Let’s go.’
Ha-yun bit her lower lip firmly.
Crossing, crossing, crossing, crossing.
Anticipating, anticipating, anticipating, anticipating.
Killing intent radiating from enemies on all sides.
Everything beyond the battle is erased.
All that remains in this void is her Hades and the Void Sphere.
The Void Sphere moves with admirable precision despite its spear shaft bearing numerous severed edges.
Yet even that admiration proved unnecessary.
Ha-yun drew with that characteristic composure of hers.
A single thread connecting her waist to the Void Sphere’s.
Whoom!
Absolute focus.
Ha-yun executed it with such flawless precision that even she couldn’t comprehend what she was doing.
Drawing elegant curves.
Crack!
She bisected the Void Sphere.
The severed spear shaft tumbled helplessly through the air in the wake of the flying scythe.
* * *
“V-Void Sphere neutralized! Repeat, Void Sphere neutralized!”
…….
In the Control Center.
Despite the operator’s urgent report, the atmosphere within the center remained silent.
Rather, no one dared speak at all.
There was no need to hear the report—everyone was already watching Hades’s engagement unfold on the screens.
Tae-geun barely managed to translate his thoughts into words.
“Is that…… a possible maneuver?”
Hades is hardly a small unit.
If anything, it should be called quite large.
Yet the utilization of Death Side against the Void Sphere fell short of no dedicated combat fighter.
Is the Fierce Tiger Clan’s education system truly that superior?
Hardly.
If so, the Fierce Tiger Clan would have already risen to rank first in the world.
Is Ha-yun special?
Of course.
But that alone cannot account for everything.
Ha-yun’s conquest is the Analysis Chief’s number one priority.
She’s shown an oddly steep ascending curve lately, but this was beyond explanation.
Only one possibility remained.
The synergy with the Space Battleship was explosively awakening her dormant talent.
The Analysis Chief answered in a voice like trying to gather scattering sand.
“It’s impossible…… At least, based on Pilot Ha-yun up to this point, it should be impossible. Such maneuvers would require at minimum…….”
But sand always slips through the fingers.
“I’d say it would have taken someone around the level of Giselle from the 40s at least…….”
* * *
— Hades, returning to the battleship.
“Y-yes, come back quickly, quickly!”
Ha-yun announced her return in a calm voice, despite having just achieved the remarkable feat of neutralizing the Void Sphere.
Rather, it was Yeon-u who gave urgent approval.
Immersed in combat, Ha-yun hadn’t realized it herself.
The battle with the Void Sphere had lasted longer than expected.
Nearly depleting the entire Death Side activation time—after which comes movement disability.
“What’s with all this confidence? If she stops in enemy territory……”
Had Yeon-u been the timid sort, he would already be fretting and panicking to return.
Hearing Yeon-u’s concern, Urelka nodded.
“Indeed, your talent as a Ship Captain truly shines through, Captain.”
“……That’s not a backhanded insult, is it?”
“I would never dare such a thing.”
Urelka’s denial notwithstanding, Yeon-u’s suspicion lingered.
A Space Battleship is the flagship of any fleet, no matter what anyone says.
Especially a Super Carrier—its most important role is to hold the rear of the fleet stable and secure.
So why shouldn’t Yeon-u understand the profound implication that he’s the perfect fit for that duty?
Despite minor misunderstandings, Hades successfully touched down on the runway before Death Side’s activation time expired.
— Thanks to the battleship, I was able to complete the operation safely.
Ha-yun expressed her gratitude to Yeon-u.
Ordinarily, he would have had to endure the backlash of Death Side in empty space, completely exposed to the enemy.
Which meant the skill itself was subject to severe tactical constraints.
But with a Space Battleship at his disposal, he could suppress any target and return to the ship whenever he wished—making the tactical applications extraordinarily expansive.
“Well, you’ve accomplished something remarkable.”
Of course, that didn’t mean it was a given that he could seize the elite squadron’s flagship and simply return with it.
Yeon-u paused briefly, then added a word to Ha-yun.
“But you might want to prepare yourself mentally before disembarking.”
— I’m sorry? What do you mean?
Ha-yun asked Yeon-u with a bewildered expression.
The situation had been urgent, so there was no avoiding it, but Ha-yun had piloted the Hades with considerable violence.
It would be fair to say she’d pushed the unit right to its limits.
Which meant when Hwa-ryeon in the hangar confirmed the condition…
— Who! Who flies a fighter jet like this, you absolute maniac?!
— Gasp! Ma’am, steady—steady yourself!!!
— Does it look like I can steady myself right now?!
She would undoubtedly be furious.
Yeon-u shook his head at the situation unfolding as expected and spoke to Urelka.
“Cut communications to the hangar for a while. It’s going to get loud.”
“Understood, Ship Captain.”
But the reprieve from destroying the Void Sphere didn’t last long.
Zing.
“I had no idea Hwa-ryeon was so terrifying…”
When Ha-yun, pale-skinned even on ordinary days, arrived at the Bridge looking completely haggard.
“Ship Captain, I’m afraid you need to see this.”
“Hmm? Why?”
Urelka called to Yeon-u with a rigid expression and brought up the feed.
The expressions of both Yeon-u and Ha-yun, upon seeing the contents of the image, matched Urelka’s grimness.
Urelka spoke in a low, grave voice.
“An enemy fighter has landed at the airport.”

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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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