While I was ruminating on my current situation, a soft chime echoed through the bridge. Mimi’s holographic form flickered slightly, and her golden eyes sharpened.

  “Captain,” she said, voice crisp but carrying a hint of… hesitation. “Six unidentified ships detected approaching. One is moving evasively—appears to be under pursuit. The other five are closing fast and exhibiting combat patterns consistent with veteran pilots. Sensor imagery shows heavy engine modifications and extended pursuit rigs, but hull integrity is unusually low—optimized for long chases, not sustained combat. High probability of them being pirates.”

  Then a 3D holographic map materialized in front of me as a mini projection of my ship, Minerva, at the very center. It formed a 3D circular radar that spun slowly to reveal the relative positions of each vessel. And it seemed like they were coming from the asteroid belt where the aurora originates.

  The single ship under pursuit seemed to be a scout ship—darting ahead, nimble and desperate, running for its life. Meanwhile, the five behind it were coordinated, flanking, cutting off potential exits, and forcing it into open space.

  And it seemed like they were heading straight for my ship.

  Well, it was understandable that they wouldn’t even notice my ship and come straight to me by coincidence, as Minerva was under passive coating mode, one of my Commander skills. Every player or hero, once appointed commander of a ship, has Commander skills: a player has six, a hero has four. But I only have three; in exchange for leaving the other three slots unused, I focused all the commander points on these three skills. One of those skills is Passive Cloaking. When the ship I command hasn’t taken damage for an extended period and is in slow mode, it masks all the ship’s signatures and enters invisible mode.

  As I stared at the dogfight with interest, I spotted Mimi’s expression harden on the edge of my vision. Those minor shifts in her usually expressionless face were actually quite interesting, no matter how much time had passed. And it seemed she hadn’t expected to detect them only when those spacecraft were this close.

  Well, “close” isn’t really that far-fetched, as it was still a few kilometers away from us.

  “I apologize, Captain. I was unable to detect these anomalies until they were in close proximity.”

  Even knowing her sensors were offline and the radar wasn't even operational, she still took the blame.

  I blinked, surprised at how straightforwardly she admitted it. It wasn’t even her fault we were in this situation in the first place—the system being offline, the modules not activated and the unknown event happening right now isn't something she can predict in the first place. Yet she didn’t hesitate. She simply informed me, calm and professional, as if it is a matter of fact. I would probably have made excuses if it were me.

  The glow from her hologram reflected off the polished panels around the bridge as she added, “I will continue tracking them in real-time. And prepar—”

  I exhaled slowly, gripping the armrests of my chair. These ships were real, and they were already in striking distance. I could only force myself to accept it and respond to the situation at hand. I might have wished to just stay here on this command bridge, and take in the view for a little longer—but fate didn’t allow it. I could only be optimistic that I had woken up before anything worse happened.

  I leaned forward. “Ahh, forget about it, Mimi. It wasn’t your fault in the first place—just focus on rebooting the system and bringing the reactors online. Speaking of reactors… how many are functional?”

  My build was different from other players’, as mine had 22 reactors, even though a single one could power the ship on its own.

  “Yes, Captain.” Mimi’s voice was steady again, though I could see the faint ripple in her holographic form as she processed data. “All movement vectors and threat probabilities will be displayed immediately.”

  Despite my command, she is still attentive and helps with their ship trajectories while she focuses on starting the ship functions.

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  The aurora outside shimmered against the void, oblivious to the tension outside Minerva as the dogfight was still happening. But inside the bridge, everything had just gone from observation to immediate combat readiness.

  And somehow… even with the danger, I felt the familiar pulse of excitement—the same rush I used to get on my old games.

  Mimi’s voice suddenly clipped through my headgear, as she made a report. “Captain — anomalous tethering detected on external mass. Tow-cable impact registered.”

  One of the pirate ships outside the vicinity of the chase gazed at the tow-cable of my ship—the one I used to tow some salvage ships I intended to repair and sell.

  The pirate ship wobbled repeatedly, struggling to regain control, while its engine thrusters exploded, creating a small ripple that seemed to cancel my Passive Cloaking as the skill slowly began to undo itself.

  This shouldn’t have happened with how weak those explosions are, but Minerva’s shields weren't activated—and all my ship modules were currently offline.

  Despite one of their companions nearly dying and an unknown ship materializing, they still choose to continue the chase.

  This bastard even dared to use my ship as a battle platform. Those pirates were shooting missiles and hitting my armor plating… and those systems were offline too! Fuck!

  Do you know how much those things cost? Those weren't just ordinary plating, those are energy shield plating. Even though it is disposable, those are still priced high. Well, I could make them, and I have the materials… but still.

  Ah…

  Does my item box and Alchemy box still work?

  Panic rose in me as I realized I had no idea if they still functioned like in the game.

  Thinking quickly, I activated another of my Commander skills: Reactor Overheat. Even though it’s a life-saving skill with a very long cooldown of 5 hours, I didn’t hesitate to use it. It temporarily disables any reactors, effectively “stunning” enemies within my ship’s range.

  This immediately forced the pirate ships into offline mode. The skill only affects reactors, forcing them into standby—but it’s perfect for running or hunting pirates and salvage their ship. This is how I got this 3 Ships in tow in the first place.

  Afterwards, I used my last Commander skill: Nano Repair Protocol. This skill repairs 0.5% of ship HP + Commander INT × 250. Small considering the size of my ship, and it couldn’t replace the modules that had been destroyed—but it saved me a lot of materials and time. Its cooldown is only 30 minutes, making it ideal for quick recovery mid-battle.

  Every penny counts, after all. I could use the materials I would have spent on repairs for other modules to sell—or sell the materials themselves.

  With their ship down for the moment, I looked at Mimi without saying anything.

  And, as always, as if she knew what I was about to do, she had already rebooted the docking and UAV drone facilities, sending some drones toward the ship—both as infantry and advanced support—before retrieving it.

  In our current situation, information was crucial. From what I could see on the HUD, there was no quantum net in the area, and this bunch was the only information source available.

  We had a similar event in the game before, so I had some experience with how to act and deal with this situation. Meanwhile, Mimi was the very first companion I had in this avatar, so she knew my habits very well.

  Minerva, on the holographic map, started making adjustments as the smooth silhouette revealed an opening between the two engine thruster pods where the dock appeared. It then sent some drones toward the downed, modified ships and what seemed to be a light spaceship.

  Some drones latched onto the sides of the five ships that looked like pirate vessels, while others deployed docking pods, sending armed android troops inside.

  The drones that latched onto the ships were hacking drones, meant to disable weaponry and defenses, while the others delivered personnel to capture the pirates and rescue any captives.

  With the nuisance effectively dealt with, I began preparing to meet them at the dock myself.

  Meanwhile some UAV mining Ship is used to tow the last ship towards Minerva.

  I stood up, preparing to exit the command bridge, only to fall flat with a “thud,” crashing straight down.

  Ahh, I forgot—despite my power armor still functioning, it was effectively half broken. So the hovering functions weren’t working either.

  Am I the most stupid transmigration person in the whole world or what? Damn, this definitely had something to do with what happened to me a while ago… It was probably a side effect of the transmigration into this world—well, universe. Definitely.

  “Captain, you’re no longer a child. Please refrain from doing anything as stupid as this. Your parents would have been embarrassed if you had married the princess back in the Empire if you kept repeating these stupid actions of yours… Is it a blessing that you ran away from that marriage? Or was it your conscience, not wanting to bring embarrassment to the Void Dragon and Demon Lord bloodline?”

  Then Mimi’s nagging sounded straight into my headgear.

  “Heir of Brilliance? Your noble and prideful race would cry if they saw you like this. How did you even earn that title, Captain? Born as the third son of a powerful Marquis, destined to inherit power—and excellence. Raised among master scholars and strategic mentors, yet why does your clumsiness never cease?”

  Mimi's nagging continued, and I didn’t feel like standing up at all… What did I do wrong to end up in this situation…?

  I asked myself that as I lay flat on the floor, like the 大 character, with the background noise of nagging ringing in my head. I wondered how my new journey would unfold in this new reality.