Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!

Cassandra's body, which had clearly lost more than half its total mass, was definitely not a pleasant sight. Understandably, both Eva and I didn't linger in the medbay any longer than necessary.

Oh, and then there was the injectable medical fluid. Only one vial remained. We should've restocked the last time we docked somewhere... but hindsight is a cruel tutor.

I handed it over to Eva for now, since her condition was visibly worse than mine.

While the girls were undergoing recovery, I took control of the Range Falcon and went out to retrieve our loot.

Not too far from where we started—up near what I could only describe as the "ceiling" of the core zone—floated an egg. The very egg we nearly died trying to obtain.

"Who would've thought a basic fetch quest would spiral into a life-or-death nightmare…"

I let out a long sigh as the tractor beam slowly drew the egg toward the ship.

There was no rush anymore. Not with the worst already behind us.

Roughly three minutes passed before the egg finally entered the Falcon's hold. I hurried down to the loading bay, anti-acid spray in hand, to greet the little prize we'd risked everything for.

To make sure it was safe to handle, I gave the egg a thorough spray down, then wiped it with a cloth. The cloth... got a bit scorched, but not too badly damaged. That probably meant most of Glop-kun's bodily fluids had already been cleaned off.

"Let's have a look…"

Carefully, I picked up the egg and examined it.

At a glance, it looked like a large ostrich egg—about the size of my palm—but it had an exotic, almost alien quality to it. The shell was covered in intricate patterns that practically shimmered in the dim light.

A strange mix of gold, green, and blue weaved together in an optical mess—so vibrant and chaotic it hurt to stare too long.

Its spiral patterns weren't rigid or geometric, but natural and flowing—as if mimicking the golden ratio itself. The golden spiral ran vertically along the egg's longest axis, while the green and blue spirals danced around its curves.

Truly, a bizarre egg in every sense of the word.

"But with this, we can finally continue the main questline."

This egg wasn't just a prize—it was a key. A trigger item meant to unlock the next leg of the main quest.

All we needed to do was deliver it back to the Narlia Commercial Hub, to Major Terrence's daughter—the ever-busy Receptionist Mercy.

"All right!"

I stood up, feeling somewhat proud, and instinctively tried to clap my hands clean—only to remember I still had just one arm. Right... I'd lost it back in that mess. Temporarily, at least. If I could hop into the medical pod myself, I could regenerate it.

Unfortunately, this ship only had a single pod—and right now, it was occupied by someone in far more critical condition. I'd just have to wait patiently until it became available again... or seek medical help elsewhere.

"But we can't just return to the Meyers Star System while their Queen's like this…" I muttered, a chill running down my spine. "We'd get guillotined before Cassandra even opens her eyes!"

So yeah, heading back was off the table—at least until she regained consciousness.

*BEEP!*

"Huh?"

Just then, a notification popped up on my terminal. When I opened it, I was hit with an unexpected surprise. The survey drones had found a deposit of Herticalcium! Not just a pocket—nearly a full ton!

"This... this doesn't feel right," I muttered, narrowing my eyes.

Even in the game, Herticalcium was a legendary-tier resource. Rare beyond belief.

It was used to craft high-end powered suits and bionic limb upgrades due to its bone-like properties. Actually, according to the item's flavor text, it was bone—from some ancient race whose name had long been forgotten. Shattered and scattered across the cosmos.

Which got me thinking. "Did we stumble upon its resting place or something?"

A ton of Herticalcium wasn't just valuable—it was absurd. That kind of volume could fund the purchase of the Eclipse Sovereign in full, crew included. Not lease, not rent. Buy. We could afford a whole star system at that rate—sure, a small one, maybe with four or five planets, but still.

"I bet Eva would flip when she hears this, but..."

Even so, I couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling crawling up my spine.

Pocketing the egg, I returned to the bridge and checked the latest scan data. The 3D map I'd been generating was already 25% complete, thanks to the overwhelming efficiency of millions of survey drones working in tandem.

Focusing in, I zoomed into the green-marked zone—the scanner's detected hit.

As the display sharpened, I isolated the target area and initiated a full 3D analysis. Using layered imaging from the scanner returns, I digitally peeled away rock, metal, and everything else that wasn't Herticalcium.

What emerged was a chilling silhouette.

"..."

It was a skeleton. Humanoid. Easily fifty meters tall if stretched fully upright. But it wasn't standing—it was curled into a fetal position, lying on its side.

Definitely not what I expected.

Who would've guessed that Herticalcium came from the remains of some ancient, giant, humanoid alien?

I found myself hesitating. Should we even be mining this?

Before I could make up my mind, another notification arrived.

"The fuck…?"

Never in my worst fever dreams did I imagine what came next—five more deposits were discovered. Each one identical in size and posture. Fetal position, curled, silent.

Clearly, these weren't infants. The skeletal structure was far too mature for that.

Ethics aside, if we mined all of them, we'd have more Herticalcium than the entire galactic market had seen in its entire history. Enough to crash the price—maybe the economy too.

I sat there, silent, weighing every angle... and reached a decision.

"Let's wait for the other two before deciding."

I nodded to myself. Some things just shouldn't be rushed.

---

Cassandra's injuries were far too severe. In total, it took her a staggering 70 hours inside the pod to fully recover.

Once she was back on her feet, it was Eva's turn to enter the pod. She spent around 10 hours inside to regenerate her arm—a notably faster recovery compared to mine. I had to endure a solid 20 hours to fix all my damage.

Well, anyway, it's been about two galactic days since then. Currently, the scan coverage of this entire place stands at 99%. Just a minuscule sliver remains unscanned—but I'm confident enough to declare we've discovered all the Herticalcium deposits hidden in this zone.

Exactly 29 bodies were found, scattered across the subterranean field. That amounts to roughly 30 tons of Herticalcium, assuming we mined everything we found.

Anyway, after consulting with Cassandra and Eva about how we should proceed—

"This place must be some sort of graveyard for those giant humans," Cassandra muttered, almost reverently. "And for some reason... I feel like there's a strange connection between me and them."

"Really?"

We had discovered the key once treasured by the Meyers Royal Family here... But even though Cassandra was considered "big," she was nowhere near fifty meters tall like these giants.

"They're just ancient, long-dead folks anyway. Let's just mine everything while we can," was Eva's blunt take on it.

The two of them ended up trading barbs for a while—arguing over the ethical dilemma versus practicality—and eventually reached a middle ground.

"So, we'll retrieve one complete specimen, and leave the others undisturbed, right?" I sighed, not quite sure how long their verbal tug-of-war had lasted.

"Yes," Cassandra confirmed with a nod. "With one full specimen, we can study what kind of species they were, and maybe learn more about this place too."

Eva, though visibly annoyed, didn't object further. "Well, if it helps cure my mother, then I don't care what we do with the rest… Not like we can't return here and gather the rest, anyway..."

She understood clearly—mining all of this wouldn't bring her glory. At best, it would flood the market and crash the value of this legendary-grade material.

With our plans in place, we began the operation.

As per Cassandra's request, we extracted a huge chunk of rock and metal roughly 25 meters on each side. Contained within was one of the largest and most intact specimens among the 29 skeletal giants.

Once it was loaded onboard, we didn't waste another moment.

"Let's warp back!"

"Roger!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Our escape consisted of two warp jumps. The first was to return to our initial entry point—right at the edge of the Kariki Star System's boundary. From there, we traveled from World-One to World-Zero using the key, then initiated a final warp jump straight to the Meyers Star System.

The entire return journey took less than ten minutes in real time. Though the total time we spent in there was almost a full galactic week in World-Zero's time!

At Cassandra's request, we delivered the preserved Herticalcium specimen to Fizzen, the capital planet. Once the researchers, medical experts, and even the military learned what it was, they kicked into high gear—mobilizing resources and personnel with renewed intensity.

As for the monetary reward... Cassandra took charge of the negotiations personally.

"A total of 5 Septillion Credits, paid monthly over 72 months!"

"...Sep... what?"

Let me do the math… Three zeroes make a thousand, six is a million, then billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion... septillion! That's a billion times more than what we earned from the betting pool at the race!

"So... 69.44 Sextillion per month?!"

That's more than the annual operating budget for a large-scale industrialized planet!

"I'm genuinely shocked you can afford that..." I said, both impressed and stunned. "Is the Meyers Star System that wealthy?"

If this were the Astoria Empire, I wouldn't have batted an eye. But Meyers?

"Hehe, actually, no." Cassandra gave me a sugary-sweet smile that made me uneasy.

"No...? Then how are you planning to pay for all this?"

"Well, by using this specimen as leverage, we entered a joint research initiative with Astoria, Goldberg, and Starlight Industries," she explained smoothly.

"The four of us agreed to split the financial burden. Astoria will cover 50%, Goldberg 10%, Starlight 15%, and our Meyers Star System the remaining 25%."

"I-I see…"

That's still an insane amount to cover… but I guess if four mega-entities join forces, it's doable.

Not that I'm complaining, of course. Getting paid a fortune without lifting a finger—who'd say no to that?

"But with this kind of windfall... I might actually be able to start my own mercenary fleet for real!"