Chapter 165: Stacked up Experience

Countless spears of light fired by gigantic ships lit up the void of space and inundated the crystal lifeforms, causing them to flare brightly in their final death throes as they burst into nothingness. Even more projectiles were launched out from the bodies of the ships and left light trails in their wake as they rained down on the crystal lifeform swarm. The moment they hit their targets, they caused a gigantic conflagration to erupt, lighting up the void’s darkness even further.

And finally, the ships unleashed a barrage of anti-ship reactive torpedoes that the crystal lifeforms couldn’t possibly hope to withstand. The resulting cataclysmic heat and shockwaves from the simultaneous blasts of the reactive torpedoes obliterated the entire vanguard of the crystal lifeforms.

“Don’t they seem a lot more powerful than the reactive torpedoes Krishna uses?”

“It’s the difference in the amount of explosive ingredients put in them. Theirs has a lot more than ours.”

“I see.”

Actually, the thing that’s stuffed inside anti-ship reactive torpedoes is even more dangerous than simple explosives. Their missiles were also larger, so it makes sense that they have more destructive force than the torpedoes Krishna has.

This applies to laser weapons as well. The high-caliber laser cannons equipped on Krishna are mostly the same types equipped on imperial heavy cruisers. It’s just that the ones equipped on imperial cruisers have a comparably higher caliber, so their maximum range is much higher than Krishna’s. This also applies to normal missiles. Anyway, there’s an obvious difference in firepower.

“Even so, those things are probably going to get through huh.”

Elma sighed as she kept an eye on the radar. Well, of course, they would. There are thousands of those things out there after all. It would be impossible to wipe them all out in just a couple of volleys. It can’t be helped.

“That’s about it for spectator mode. Let’s go, guys. Generator output, set to combat mode.”

“Aye, aye, sir. Don’t stumble when it counts, alright?”

“Of course.”

And so, a long, grueling battle has begun.

『Dammit! There’s too many of them!』

『They’re coming from above! Careful!』

『Argh! John Ray got done in!』

As I listened to the frenetic exchange between my fellow mercenaries echoing out the comms, I continued to bring down small-type crystal lifeforms one after another.

Each of the four heavy laser cannons pierced a different enemy, and the ones coming directly from the front were taken care of by the shotgun cannons. I kept avoiding the crystal lifeforms that attacked my blind spots. I kept the 3D radar in my line of sight at all times in order to monitor enemy positions constantly. It’s one of the basics of high-speed dogfights.

『Just look at those maneuvers. Does the guy have eyeballs behind his head or something?』

『If I had a high-performance ship like that, then even I can……』

『Nah, that’s impossible. That ain’t just due to the ship’s specs, man.』

“To think I’d really get to witness someone capable of avoiding the indiscriminate ramming attacks of countless crystal lifeforms in such a chaotic melee like this. Seriously, my hat’s off to you, Hiro.”

“I wonder how high Hiro-sama’s spatial awareness ability is?”

Man. It wasn’t just from the comms. Even the ladies seated together in the cockpit with me were getting in on the action. I can only say the current me is a result of tens of hundreds of times experiencing bitter defeat and exploding in-game and hours upon hours of bitter practice runs. And as a result of that, I’ve trained my battle awareness to the max. The maneuvers have already seeped deep into my bones and have become close to instinctual. In other words, my current skills are a result of a heck of a lot of experience and effort.

I earned money and got fragged to pieces. I earned some more money, bought a new ship, and got fragged to pieces again. I sold my previous ship in order to earn enough funds to buy a direct upgrade and used the remaining money as a cushion to pay for future repairs. I exploded, exploded, and exploded some more… I heard later on that I had a relatively easier time compared to the other SOL players, but I also had my fair share of extremely frustrating experiences. In fact, they almost made me want– Ugh, let’s just stop. I’m just gonna feel depressed thinking about it.

Anyway, I’m just a simple guy who really hated to lose and didn’t know when to give up. So I practiced like mad. I came up with personalized strategies. I also scoured both domestic and international forums and watched in-game videos until the wee hours of the morning for reference. And the result of all that hard work and effort is the present me.

I didn’t really think that effort would end up benefiting me quite like this, but I guess all’s well that ends well.

“What’s the current battle situation?”

As I concentrated on performing evasive maneuvers, I asked Mimi about the situation on the entire battlefield.

“Small-type crystal lifeforms are pouring in from other areas, but it seems the rear guards are still able to hold them off. 70% of the Guardian Crystals have been eliminated. The elimination phase should be done soon.”

“The lesser their numbers are, the faster the elimination rate, huh.”

Fewer enemies meant we could focus fire more easily. In other words, it was only a matter of time until we won this battle.

“Just a little bit more to go.”

I was a bit concerned by the fact that about half of the shotgun cannon ammo has been used up. But I guess it should be okay as long as I didn’t push it too much. But if I became too lax, the ally casualties could increase, so it was a little tricky to find a good balance.

“Hiro-sama! An enemy group is closing in from port-side!”

“Roger that.”

Mimi constantly reported the readings captured by the long-range radar to me. It looks like they ended up going for the neighboring area since we pushed ahead. I had Krishna reverse course and caught the enemies in my sights.

“The elimination of the Guardian Crystals should be complete soon.”

“Move to the planned coordinates as soon as the elimination phase is completed. Begin a concentrated siege against the main target afterward.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

I checked the tactical information shared in real-time by all the ships in the fleet and watched the situation on the entire battlefield. Elimination of the Guardian Crystals was proceeding smoothly, and the small-types that managed to slip away from our bombardment are well within our expectations. The area where ‘he’ was stationed had the fewest leaks. I glanced at the number of his kills, and instead of eliminating a few small-types here and there like his fellow mercenaries, he was destroying the enemies at a rate comparable to imperial destroyers.

“So ‘he’ really is the real deal, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he truly is.”

I nodded in agreement. It’s only natural for a still-living mercenary who managed to receive a Silver Sword Wings Assault medal to display such an exemplary performance. He has to be able to do at least that much, or else, people would doubt the standards of the imperial military. His battle records from the time he arrived at the Izrooks system until now have been securely recorded in the imperial military database. He should find it easier to secure more jobs in the future since official results like this were like a mark of true skill and a guarantee. However, he would probably also get involved in more troublesome stuff in the future, but that’s one of the consequences of fame.

“Can we now say that we are witnessing the rise of another Platinum-rank mercenary?”

“That depends on the Mercenary Guild, but I do think it’s highly possible.”

They would certainly put a lot more attention to the man who managed to receive a Silver Sword Wings Assault medal while he’s still alive. I imagine the Mercenary Guild would also like to see another Platinum-rank mercenary rise up, and we at the imperial military would not reject such a thing either. In fact, we would welcome it.

“Guardian Crystal elimination complete!”

“Very well. Let us proceed to the next phase. Move to the designated coordinates and start synchronized bombardment.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am!”

Restalias began moving to the specified coordinates in order to commence the final phase of the operation.

“The pressure from the enemies is tapering off.”

“The military battleships and heavy cruisers have finished eliminating the Guardian Crystals and are now heading for the Mother Crystal. The small-types are breaking away in order to intercept them.”

“Tsk. This is bad.”

In other words, the enemy lines have spread out and begun slipping through the vanguard. It would have been better to reduce the numbers of the small-types more before starting the siege on the Mother Crystal. It was a miss on my part. I didn’t manage to elaborate on that previously.

Our victory should still be assured even if we left them alone, but if we did, the rear lines would certainly suffer casualties.

“Can’t be helped. Mimi, activate the FTL Drive.”

After saying that, I immediately deactivated the weapon systems. You can’t use the FTL Drive while the weapon systems are deployed after all.

“Eh?”

“It’s fine. Activate it now.”

“Y-Yes! FTL Drive, charging start. Countdown. 5, 4……”

As I listened to the hum of the FTL Drive activating, I pointed the bow toward the direction of the Mother Crystal.

“H-Hey, wait a minute! Hiro?”

『H-Hey, where the heck are you gonna–!?』

『Damn! Are you planning to run–!』

I ignored Elma’s confused plea and the reactions of the other mercenaries on the comms who noticed we activated our FTL Drive. I simply waited for the countdown to finish.

“3, 2, 1, activate!”

Boom! A loud roar resounded within the cockpit as the FTL Drive activated. But I immediately deactivated the FTL Drive and returned to normal space after a short-range jump. The two sounds almost overlapped due to the extremely short duration between them.

“Mimi, activate the FTL Drive again.”

“Y-Yes! Charging start!”

I kept the bow’s position trained squarely on the Mother Crystal located in the far distance as I instructed Mimi to charge the FTL Drive again. By performing repeated short-range jumps with the FTL Drive, we would be able to bypass the clusters of small-type crystal lifeforms that were deployed between the vanguard and the Mother Crystal. We will continue to perform short-range jumps until we successfully close in on the Mother Crystal. This is one of the specialized techniques for taking on large targets in SOL.

Once we manage to close in on the position of the Mother Crystal, we should be able to get the attention of a good number of the small-types that were going after the rear line and bait them away.

“FTL Drive, charging start. Countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1……Activate!”

The overlapping roars rang out once again, and a huge object that looked like an extremely gigantic crystal chestnut or sea urchin soon appeared in front of us.

“S-So big……!”

“This is……”

“This isn’t the time to gawk!”

I immediately re-deployed the weapon systems and punched the thrusters to maximum output in order to close in more on the Mother Crystal. Now then, let’s start the final round.