Chapter 274

Chapter 274

Doing your best is nothing more than self-satisfaction. It’s just an excuse and a justification to escape reality.  

So face reality, Luka.  

I have been defeated. I have suffered a failure greater than the Storm Era.  

I have accomplished nothing. I have been swayed by a massive organization, a powerful force, and individuals as formidable as that force itself.  

Despair and fear slowly crept in, consuming me from within. Those who cannot withstand this overwhelming darkness either lose their minds or take their own lives.  

Despair is a dead-end cliff, and fear is an invisible abyss.  

Desperate fear is being pushed to the edge of that cliff and staring into the abyss.  

But Luka, just as you must face reality, stand at the cliff’s edge and look into the abyss. You must not close your eyes in terror.  

If there is still a rope of hope left for me to grasp, I must keep my eyes open to seize it.  

…With closed eyes, I cannot grasp anything.  

I kept my eyes open and looked at Mushir al-Kashura as he approached. He advanced toward me, guiding his fully armored prosthetics, and grabbed the handles of my wheelchair.  

"You must know by now that there are no options left. But what I seek is a mind that refuses to give up, even in a situation like this. Just like you right now. I admire the brain of Akies Victima, one that contemplates solutions until the very last moment."  

Kashura pushed my wheelchair forward, heading into the corridor that led to the spaceship's center.  

Vrrrm, vrrm.  

A strange vibration, unlike anything before, resonated through the spacecraft. It was strong enough to make the entire ship tremble.  

Something was unstable.  

"Something is happening."  

"It’s quite the emergency. Your value is astonishing yet peculiar."  

Despite calling it an emergency, Kashura remained composed. He continued forward, speaking in cryptic words.  

We reached the end of the corridor. The door opened, revealing the control room, lined with monitors on all sides.  

Hiss, clank.  

As soon as we entered, the locking mechanism engaged with force, sealing the door shut.  

‘An Imperial reconnaissance ship?’  

I focused on one of the monitors. Three small, crimson-black spacecraft appeared on the screen. They were simple yet sharp in design—clearly Imperial ships.  

"I didn’t think the Empire would risk a space battle for you alone. Finding someone in the vastness of space is no easy task, after all. It seems the Empire has redirected several strategic assets to this location. Strange, isn’t it? No matter how valuable you may be, there is no reason for an entire nation to move to such an extent for a single individual."  

Kashura’s four glowing eyes stared at me in silence. I did not respond.  

‘Ivan Accretia’s obsession.’

It was Ivan’s command. His desperate determination not to lose me was evident.  

‘Why?’  

I wondered the same. Ivan’s obsession was bizarre. He was pouring an excessive amount of resources into securing me.  

Let me make one thing clear—it wasn’t something as simple as ‘love.’ It was something stickier, darker. A deep-seated obsession.  

‘Possessiveness?’  

At first, I thought that was all it was. But that alone didn’t explain everything.  

‘For what reason? Since when?’  

Kashura shifted his gaze away from me and focused on the monitor displaying the Imperial spacecraft.  

"It seems even you don’t fully understand why the Empire is pursuing you to this extent. In any case, I’ll be dealing with a force beyond my capacity. Space… it’s truly a battlefield for nations. Small groups like ours are nothing but weaklings here. You need vast capital, advanced technology, and manpower to survive."  

Kashura’s glowing eyes gleamed. Soon, communication with the Imperial reconnaissance ships was established.  

- Mushir al-Kashura, you have mocked and deceived the Empire. We will no longer tolerate your arrogance. Your pathetic legend ends today.  

Kashura connected the monitor. The pilot speaking appeared on-screen, his body covered in a tangled mass of electronic equipment and machinery to the point that his original form was unrecognizable.  

"Lukaus Custoria is still here. That means you can’t attack, can you? You’re just reconnaissance ships, and you don’t seem to have any assault capabilities."  

The reason Kashura had brought me to the control room was to display me as a hostage. He seemed to believe that as long as I was here, they wouldn’t attack.  

- We are here to punish your arrogance. Lukaus Custoria’s life is of no concern to us.  

"…Are you sure about that?"  

Kashura let out a chuckle, taunting the pilot.  

The pilot’s feed cut out for a moment. He had likely severed the connection to communicate with his superiors.  

"Now that they’ve confirmed you’re alive, they won’t attack. They’ll have to wait for an assault ship to arrive for capture. Once I merge with you, I suspect I’ll uncover some rather interesting truths."  

If Kashura could access my memories with his experience and knowledge, he would learn far more than he already knew.  

Static.  

The communication and video feed reconnected.  

- Mushir al-Kashura, I will offer you a merciful deal. Hand over Lukaus Custoria, and…  

Kashura was undoubtedly smiling. Everything was proceeding exactly as he had anticipated.  

Click.  

He cut the transmission off without even listening to the rest. He was certain they wouldn’t attack before their capture ship arrived.

The game is lost by the one who stops first. But if neither side stops… both are doomed. Even if one does stop, if the other takes too long to react, the ‘coward who stopped first’ ends up winning.  

Kashura’s ship was passing by Pintercel, the 9th planet.  

‘Vern.’  

The map displayed Vern, the 11th planet, in large detail. It was the last planet in the Niger system. Beyond that lay the void outside the system.  

‘The Imperial reconnaissance ships have stopped.’  

They could no longer pursue. It must have been due to the line Kashura had mentioned—the limit they could not cross.  

One by one, the reconnaissance ships disappeared from the map. They had shut down their sublight engines before Kashura’s ship did.  

Finally, the last scout ship vanished from the display.  

We had passed the boundary of Doil, the 10th planet.  

Kashura was urgently maneuvering the spacecraft. The situation was bad enough that it had to be manually controlled.  

He, too, was hurriedly trying to shut down the sublight engine, but the accumulated momentum didn’t dissipate so easily.  

Clunk, thud, boom!  

The uneasy vibrations resonated through my body.  

‘We stopped.’  

The ship went dark. This time, the power seemed to have completely failed.  

Not long after, red emergency lights flickered on, and the backup systems gradually restored normal operations.  

Hissss.  

My helmet finally reconnected to the external atmosphere.  

“Hah… hah…”  

I steadied my ragged breathing, feeling my heart pounding.  

Nausea twisted in my gut, and my head throbbed. My brain pressure and blood pressure were so high that it felt like I’d explode if I were nudged the wrong way.  

"Exhilarating, isn’t it? Didn’t you enjoy it? If you stay with me, you’ll experience this kind of thing often."  

If Kashura had a human body, he would be drenched in sweat, gasping for breath.  

But his lips would still be smiling.  

His artificial brains were undoubtedly flooding with adrenaline and dopamine like a broken faucet spewing water.  

"Where… are we? The outskirts of the Niger system?"  

"We barely survived. We’re between Doil, the 10th planet, and Vern, the 11th planet. But this isn’t a safe zone either. We need to prepare to escape immediately."  

Kashura wasn’t even taking a moment to catch his breath—he was already manipulating a series of holographic interfaces, filling the air with data projections.  

The ship’s status display showed many yellow and red indicators.  

Static. Crackle. Zzt.  

The holographic interfaces were flickering worse than before. Some shut off entirely, while others glitched and refused to respond.  

"We pushed too hard, didn’t we?"  

"There was no other way to shake them off."  

The external cameras activated, and the monitors flickered to life.  

Beep, beep-beep, beep.  

A series of warning alarms echoed through the control room. The ship’s cameras had detected something in the distance.  

“Haha, we’re in a hurry, but I can’t let this chance slip away. When else would I have the opportunity to come here again? This is a rare occasion. The chance to observe Vern is practically nonexistent.”  

Kashura sounded delighted.  

The ship’s telescope focused on the distant planet, its lens honing in on the farthest reaches of space.  

Amid the writhing blackness, something faintly emerged.  

A vague, unfamiliar object flickered into view for just a brief moment before the feed was swallowed by static.  

“…This is enough.”  

Kashura was about to reactivate the sublight engine when he let out a low sigh. The holographic interface was flooded with error messages.  

He opened a panel on the control room floor and yanked a lever forcefully.  

Vrrrrrm.  

As the floor hatch slid open, a mechanical control system rose from below. It seemed the digital controls had sustained damage.  

"Hey, I get that you’re excited, but how about sparing a thought for your companion? I’m about to throw up. Take this helmet off for a second unless you want to drown in my vomit."  

I grumbled.  

“Oh, my apologies, Luka. I got carried away… I wasn’t paying attention to you. Your body must have taken quite a toll. I’m impressed you’re still conscious.”  

One of Kashura’s auxiliary arms, mounted on his back, grabbed my helmet and lifted it off.  

‘Even in this unstable situation, he’s prioritizing escape over ship repairs.’  

Even as a non-pilot, I could tell—things were bad. If we weren’t careful, the ship could end up completely wrecked.  

‘…No point holding back now.’  

I steadied my breathing.  

I didn’t have arms or legs right now, but at least I had abs that I trained every single day.  

Bending my upper body forward, using that tension—  

‘Jump!’  

Under normal circumstances, Kashura wouldn’t fall for this. But he was in a high-pressure situation, and there was no way he expected me to pull a stunt like this.  

Well, unless Zvely’s brain was still intact somewhere.  

I knew I looked ridiculous. But I wasn’t the kind of person to care about dignity.  

I had even worn a skirt before—what was there to be embarrassed about now?  

Crunch! Crack! Thud!  

I threw myself into the mechanical control system, rolling over it while biting down on a lever with my teeth. My stomach churned violently, and I ended up vomiting all over the place.  

Fuck. I must’ve looked absolutely disgusting.  

"You—what the hell are you doing?!"  

Kashura, visibly panicked, tried to yank me away. But unless he tore my throat out, I wasn’t letting go. I clamped down with everything I had.  

Screeeeeech!  

A deafening noise ripped through the ship. I had no idea how to operate a spacecraft. I didn’t even know what the hell I was doing.  

Kaaaang!  

A thunderous blast rocked the ship. The monitors blacked out, and the familiar sound of the sublight engine roaring to life echoed through the cabin.  

"Luka! Do you realize what you’ve done?! We could both die!"  

Kashura shouted. Only then did I finally release the lever. My front teeth were still embedded in it.  

With my newly toothless mouth, I spat out my words in a slurred voice.  

"Fuck you, you bastard. Oh, right—you don’t even have a dick, you idiot!"  

There was no grand plan or purpose behind this.  

I just wanted whatever Kashura was aiming for to crash and burn spectacularly.  

…Yeah. That was my true nature.  

I laughed from where I was sprawled in a corner.  

And then—  

The ship surged into sublight speed.  

Without a helmet to protect my head, my consciousness faded to black.

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