Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!-Chapter 50: For the Side Quests!

During my idle time, I had already mapped out the fastest and most efficient route to complete the five quests in the Haerith Star System. However, as expected, we didn’t have much time to waste on each one.

We started with the delivery quests.

At first, I almost gave up on getting a completion mark from the requesters. During their search, the blue-armored Royal Guards had messed up the packages, and I expected nothing but complaints from the recipients.

But things didn’t turn out as I imagined—because I wasn’t the one handling the deliveries. Instead, our friendly neighborhood bully, Eva, took the lead.

"Here’s your package," she announced in a sharp, icy tone, then slapped the recipient in the face with the delivery confirmation receipt. "Now sign here if you don’t want to get hurt."

Rather than a courier, she sounded more like a yakuza shaking someone down for protection money. I’m sure I didn’t even need to say what happened to those who hesitated to sign.

Surprisingly, we wrapped up the three delivery quests in under five hours, leaving only the two bounty contracts. But just as I was about to plot the next course—

"Let’s ditch this contract and head to the next station," Eva suggested, her frown deepening by the second.

She had a point. Time wasn’t on our side. Assuming Prince Leobert chased the pod and then turned back, he would need at least 100 hours—two full galactic days—to complete the round trip. By then, we needed to be long gone, and preferably already at our destination: the Kariki Star System.

In other words, we had to cut a fifteen-day journey down to just two. I understood her concern, but—

"...No." I refused without hesitation.

As a gamer, I couldn’t just ignore side quests like they didn’t exist. It was a battle between my pride and the reality of our situation. Not to mention, abandoning all those contracts would make my heart—and my wallet—bleed.

I turned to Eva, wearing the most serious expression I could muster. "Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we arrive on time."

Theoretically, traveling in a straight line to Kariki would take about 60 hours. But there was one key difference between that star system and most others.

"If we use the wormhole near the Ghorst Galaxy, we can reach our destination instantly!"

The Ghorst Galaxy was closer, only about 38 hours away at full speed. But more importantly, its spacetime fabric was incredibly unstable. Hundreds of wormholes existed there, connecting to different star systems—making it a massive interstellar crossroads.

"A wormhole?!" Eva’s face paled. "You want to spend millions of credits just to finish your stupid quests along the way?! We’d end up even more broke than when paying the penalty! Are you insane?!"

Right... Compared to jump gates or warps, traveling through a wormhole was ridiculously expensive. Not only that, it was risky—there was a 0.031416% chance of getting spat out into some random corner of the galaxy instead of the intended destination.

Considering the total rewards from all our side quests, we’d be spending nearly half of our earnings just on the wormhole fee alone.

Still, I shook my head. "It’s not about the money," I explained. "It’s about keeping a 100% commission completion rate record for our mercenary band!"

As a player of TSO, I was one of the rare few who had earned two of the game’s most difficult achievements: "All Clear" (completing every single available quest, including hidden missions) and "Perfectionist" (achieving a 100% quest completion rate).

I wasn’t about to let go of that reputation—game or not.

Just as our argument was reaching its peak, a hesitant voice cut in from the side—Cassandra.

"...Uhm."

Eva and I turned toward her as she fidgeted slightly, looking between us.

"Actually, my family owns a private Variable Wormhole in that galaxy. What do you say we use that instead?" she suggested. "If I’m with you, then it’d be free of charge," she added with a bright smile.

"Ugh..."

Even the ever-stingy Eva groaned. The temptation of profiting from the side quests while using a free wormhole to reach our final destination was almost too good to pass up. However, there was one major problem.

"That means you’ll be exposing your present location to whoever’s chasing you," I pointed out.

Cassandra simply shook her head, smiling. "It’s fine, Captain Arthur. After all, once we reach the Kariki Star System, they won’t be able to chase us, right?"

I fell silent, deep in thought. If the unknown "backer" orchestrating Cassandra’s kidnapping wasn’t from Kariki, then we’d be in the clear. But if it was him—the wealthiest individual in the universe—then we were beyond screwed.

The odds were slim, but the possibility existed.

"...Alright!"

In the end, I relented. The risk had been there from the beginning anyway; hesitating now over a slight increase in exposure would be pointless. More importantly, this plan allowed us to complete all our side quests and reach our destination on time.

Eva let out a long sigh. "Fine, I approve too," she muttered. "But if our lives end up in danger, then I’m claiming ten times my usual wage this time!"

"Hazard pay, right?" I shrugged. "Deal."

Cassandra giggled, chiming in with a sweet smile. "If we make it through this and I return to the Meyers System in one piece, we can expect a large reward from my father!"

"Ah..." I hesitated for a moment before biting my tongue. It was still too soon for her to know about [that]. "Well, a reward for our suffering would definitely be nice."

"Yes!" Cassandra beamed—innocent as ever as if her "Crazy Princess" title had never existed.

Then, as if casually dropping the biggest bombshell yet, she added, "And after getting my father’s permission, I’ll become your lawfully wedded wife~!"

Scratch that—she was still crazy as ever.

Eva’s stare turned sharp, though I had no clue why she was glaring at me of all people. It wasn’t my fault the princess kept making these bizarre declarations! I’m innocent!

Either way, with our path set, we pushed forward—completing the remaining side quests one by one.

---

From the Adventurer’s Guild, I had accepted a total of 38 quests—including the survey mission for the Kariki Star System. These quests were scattered across multiple star systems near our final destination, which would normally require tedious back-and-forth travels.

However, with our newly acquired shortcut through the Ghorst Galaxy, we could now complete them in a single continuous route.

For the next four days, we systematically cleared every remaining quest.

To maximize efficiency, Eva used her Hunter Frigate to retrieve delivery items from space hubs while I handled conflicts and bounties.

With our arsenal—top-tier weaponry, powerful stealth modules, and jump drive jammers—none of the bounty targets posed a real challenge.

If I could just get my hands on an optical camouflage module, our setup would be perfect. Unfortunately, those were rare, typically only found on pirate vessels. And honestly, forcing Brionac to hold back its punch just to check if a pirate had one onboard wasn’t worth the effort.

Regardless, with our well-divided tasks, quest completion proceeded much faster than expected. By the time we were finished, we had amassed around 100 million credits in total. Now, only the final commission—Blas Kariki’s request—remained.

"And... where exactly are we going?"

With our optimized travel path, we reached the Ghorst Galaxy just a few hours after finishing our last bounty.

From a distance, the sight had already been unsettling—enough to trigger trypophobia in some. But up close, it invoked a different kind of fear altogether.

Wormholes were, in essence, pairs of black and white holes. And given how the fear of black holes was deeply ingrained in every space traveler, willingly approaching one—let alone entering—was no easy feat.

Cassandra, however, studied the star map with curiosity before pointing ahead. "Over there, the C8 sector."

"C8?" I frowned, double-checking the coordinates. "...There’s nothing there, though."

Cassandra turned to me with a reassuring smile. "It’s there. Trust me."

Despite my skepticism, there was literally nothing—nothing on the radar, nothing in the star maps, and nothing visible to the naked eye. Yet, judging by Cassandra’s unwavering confidence, something was at play here.

"...Alright, let’s check it out."

If she was wrong, we’d only lose a few minutes at most anyway.

I adjusted our heading, and the Range Falcon accelerated smoothly toward the C8 sector. On the radar, our green indicator steadily moved closer to the sector’s location, but—

"Huh?!"

Without warning, our signal vanished from the star map. At the same time, the scenery outside completely changed.

What had once been a chaotic landscape of scattered black holes and white holes was gone. Now, only a single, colossal black/white hole remained—its form fluctuating between the two states in an endless, almost rhythmic cycle.

Eva let out a sharp breath. "What the fuck?! I’m not dreaming, right?"

"This... is physically impossible..." I muttered, struggling to comprehend the sight before me.

A singularity alternating between a black hole and a white hole in a stable reaction cycle—it was absurd. It shouldn’t exist. This was a blatant violation of the laws of physics!

"There, head toward that space station," Cassandra instructed calmly as if the impossible spectacle before us was an everyday occurrence.

Following her gaze, I spotted a small station floating nearby. Unlike the grand space hubs we had visited before, this one was barely a fraction of their size. Yet, considering it was a private station—one specifically designed to manage a Variable Wormhole—its very existence was nothing short of astounding.

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"Alright, everyone," I exhaled, gripping the controls. "Prepare for docking!"