Chapter 86

“There’s a lot of pryrium on the asteroid ahead, right?”

“Let’s mine it.”

Pryrium is the basic ore in *Cosmic Osuary*, a resource used for all sorts of crafting. Whenever you find it, mining it is always a no-brainer.

As the spaceship approached the asteroid, robotic arms extended from the ship and began extracting the resources.

Seeing this, Pape opened his mouth.

“If you can’t even use mechs for mining, what are they even good for?”

“Combat, maybe?”

“You think we should use that against those giant tentacle monsters?”

“From what I see, those giant tentacle monsters are top-tier in the game’s lore. They were placed early on to shock players. Similar to ‘Morgott’ in *Elden Ring*. Assuming every monster in the game is on par with those tentacle beasts is probably a misjudgment.”

“Or what?”

“If it’s just a hunk of scrap metal, we might as well sell it to a scrapyard.”

Mining took time.

Meanwhile, I examined the game’s systems.

*Cosmic Osuary* offered a variety of combat methods.

Space battles using spaceships, boarding actions where you infiltrate enemy ships, and ground combat on planets. The combat possibilities were vast, and so were the weapons: Plasma Guns, Laser Pistols, Gravity Guns.

And… swords.

All combat classes in *Cosmic Osuary* were Awakened Ones.

But even among Awakened Ones, there were different types:

– Reinforcement System: Those who can strengthen matter.

– Transformation System: Those who can alter their bodies.

– Control System: Those who can manipulate matter.

– Summoning System: Those who can summon matter.

– Divine System: Those who can heal or enhance living beings.

I was part of the Reinforcement System.

I could strengthen my body and temporarily enhance any matter I touched, making me exceptional in close combat.

When Pape heard about my class, he couldn’t help but scoff.

“Seriously? In a world full of sci-fi weapons, you’re going to fight with a sword?”

“I thought you’d changed after playing ‘Metatron’ in *Eternal World*, where close combat is viable. Guess the spoon mentality never goes away. My bad.”

Pape was a Control System Awakened, perfect for ranged combat.

“…I’m Transformation System.”

“Transformation System suits Chaenarin perfectly. Go ahead and turn into a beast.”

“Unnie, I’m Summoning System.”

“Good. If Bunnyrun were a Control System Awakened, I’d always have to be wary of her hypnotic abilities. What about you, Malangmabang?”

“I’m Control System too.”

Our Awakened abilities were distributed as follows:

– Me: Reinforcement System

– Mos: Control System

– Pape: Control System

– Bunnyrun: Summoning System

– Chaenarin: Beast System

Just reading the descriptions, the Control System seemed like an overpowered hexagon of abilities. But I didn’t expect two people to pick it.

I sighed softly.

“Clearly, romance lies in the Reinforcement System.”

“Does romance put food on the table?”

“That cold-heartedness. Very fitting for Pape, who abandoned his first love to start anew.”

“Specify it’s Kale. You’re deliberately being vague to stir up viewer reactions, aren’t you?”

“You did abandon her, though.”

“It wasn’t abandonment; Kale just wasn’t performing well. And if we’re being technical, you’re the one who abandoned us. This Game Pass thing. Did you know? I logged into the game recently and saw Rumen had been posting in the group chat until last year. He kept asking to add his voice chat ID as a friend.”

“Classic Bbangbbang.”

As expected of a support, his sensitivity was profound.

Perhaps when I went on a brief hiatus, he realized some relationships just fade away with time and cried over it.

There’s a reason he’s my only Tier 1 fan.

It’s definitely Bbangbbang.

“That was just a short hiatus?”

“Well, we reunited in the end, so it counts.”

“Truly a Game Pass moment.”

There was only one way to enhance Awakened abilities: gain experience and allocate Skill Points.

Though the mechanism seemed simple, the difficulty was high because once a character died, there was no resurrection.

You had to create a new character, and all the accumulated experience would be lost, which was quite painful.

Moreover, while combat wasn’t the only way to gain experience, ultimately, you had to fight to reach higher levels.

In other words, to level up a high-level character, you had to engage in countless battles without dying even once. Easy? Not a chance. Unless all the players became veterans over time, it was unlikely to see high-level characters within two weeks.

I started grinding my Reinforcement ability.

It was highly inefficient, but better than doing nothing.

“Unnie! Look, a meteor shower!”

At Bunnyrun’s words, I stopped using my Reinforcement ability and looked out the window.

Countless streaks of light poured down in the pitch-black space, like a shower of glowing rain.

The scene was breathtaking, like a sparkling curtain had been drawn. I muttered to myself, “Meteor showers occur when meteoroids enter the atmosphere, and in space, meteoroids are small and dark, so they don’t shine like that.”

“Yoorim unnie! Unidentified spaceships have been detected on the radar ahead!”

“Just as I expected, a festival has begun. Let’s join in.”

“It looks more like a battle than a festival!”

“That *is* the festival.”

***

Han Yoorim imposed almost no restrictions on the server.

Limits like how many team members you could have, no looting, or no capturing enemy ships—she confidently removed all the necessary restrictions for the server to run smoothly, making this possible.

“Even so, with 400 people united, aren’t we at an advantage?”

Forming a coalition of over 400 people from the start was also okay on Han Yoorim’s server.

[Hakko Coalition] was an alliance formed by people with low viewer counts banding together.

Their goal was singular: to succeed in broadcasting.

Currently, *Cosmic Osuary* was drawing massive attention. Just being Han Yoorim’s new game was intriguing, and on top of that, the prize was the [Freedom Game Creation License]. It was no surprise it was absorbing all the world’s attention.

On such a stage, making a big splash could instantly elevate you to a mid-tier broadcaster.

Of course, doing it once wasn’t enough; you had to make a splash three times in a row to secure your position. But if you couldn’t do that, you weren’t cut out for broadcasting success in the first place. You had to dive in with the intention to succeed, not give up because it’s hard.

I shouldn’t have jumped into the streamer scene.

The conversation took a slight detour, but in this situation, the best way to grab the most attention was obviously to find the [Freedom Game Creation License].

Even if I couldn’t find it, it was fine.

Just getting close to the [Freedom Game Creation License] was enough to appeal to hundreds of thousands of people.

In the community, even a comment like, “Yo, the planet this kid went to is super suspicious,” would instantly rack up thousands of viewers given the current level of interest and firepower.

Plus, aiming for the [Freedom Game Creation License] was the least frowned-upon playstyle.

Since the server was competing at a top-tier scale, most streamers would get obliterated in the first encounter if they clashed with [Hakko Union]. But if [Hakko Union] was too aggressive? It left less room for big corporations trying to show off their “streaming skills.” Perfect for making countless fandoms cross their arms.

However, if this firepower wasn’t used for piracy or conquest but purely for adventure, it gave big corporations more opportunities to shine.

In short, [Hakko Union]’s playstyle was deeply tied to Hakko’s survival strategy.

“If 400 people seriously rush in, wouldn’t they actually find it?”

“If they do, their MTube subscribers would skyrocket at a speed that would go down in internet history.”

“But they’d probably just watch and not subscribe because it’s boring.”

Hahaha—. While continuing with light banter, the 1st Fleet of [Hakko Union] suddenly tilted their heads in confusion.

“We were careful and did things moderately, but is this really okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if someone gathers 1,000 people, forms a union, and declares infinite plunder? It’s a free server, after all.”

“Right?”

“Then it’d be 100% chaos. Did Han Yoorim consider all that when setting up the server?”

“Well, since all participants are streamers, they’d probably handle it themselves, right? That’s the mindset, isn’t it?”

“Then they shouldn’t have accepted just anyone. Did you see the participation conditions? Anyone who’s streamed even once a month ago can join. Even someone who streamed once five years ago and quit can join.”

“Hmm.”

Indeed. That was a bit strange.

Someone who streamed once and quit? They were no different from regular viewers. Meaning, Han Yoorim’s server was essentially playing a game with thousands of viewers. In such a server, with free rules? Chaos breaking out 10 times wouldn’t be surprising.

“Maybe they’ll make rules on the fly if things get chaotic?”

“With over 5,000 participants, can they really handle it that way?”

“I don’t know.”

[Hakko Union] began pondering the sudden riddle.

“Maybe the game was designed to handle free rules without issues?”

In reality, this union wasn’t even an in-game system.

It wasn’t like a party or guild system where you invite people; they just naturally banded together.

Moreover, the only rule in the server was, “Real-time information exchange must only happen through the in-game system,” making it even tougher.

So, to smoothly run the union, equipping spaceships with communication systems was essential, but those systems were ridiculously expensive. They ate up 25% of the initial points, making it seem like Han Yoorim was indirectly warning against forming unions.

“Want to hear something funnier? Some junk mecha even ate up half the initial points.”

“Do people like that even exist?”

“Exactly.”

Hahaha—. After a big laugh, [Hakko Union] shook their heads.

“Or maybe they just didn’t think it through. Like you said, they can deal with it when the situation arises.”

“Yeah, probably—”

[Hakko Union]’s words were cut off.

A sudden explosion engulfed them.

“What the!”

“Ahead!”

They were startled.

A massive spaceship—no, a ‘space battleship’—was slowly emerging through space.

Chichichik. A forced communication link connected, and the enemy captain appeared on the spaceship’s screen.

A blonde, blue-eyed beauty with an eye patch—

“Holy crap, is that Han Yoorim?”

“An NPC?”

“Probably an NPC. Han Yoorim’s under the same conditions as us; there’s no way she already has a spaceship like that.”

[Surrender is not accepted. Please entertain me to the fullest.]

Whether it was Han Yoorim or Thierry, or someone resembling them, the NPC boldly declared and—whoosh—opened all cannons on the massive battleship, gathering energy.

And then.

“We’re screwed.”

BOOM!

In an instant, over 100 of [Hakko Union]’s spaceships were blown to bits.

The reason Han Yoorim didn’t care about forming unions or declaring infinite plunder.

It was because.

<Cosmic Osuary> was a brutally hardcore world where, whether 1,000 or 10,000 people gathered, you’d end up getting plundered instead.

Meanwhile, Pape, who arrived late to the battlefield, clicked his tongue softly upon spotting the giant battleship.

“Yo. This is hopeless. How are we supposed to beat that?”

“This isn’t a festival; it’s a funeral.”

“What should we do about Han Yoorim? Run?”

“……”

“Yo. Why aren’t you answering? Should we run?”

Pape frowned and turned his head to see why there was no response.

And then he blinked.

…Huh?

Thinking he might’ve seen wrong, Pape calmly counted the people inside the ship.

But no matter how many times he counted, it was the same.

Pape spoke in a dazed voice.

“Where did Han Yoorim go?”

“…Over there.”

Chaenarin pointed straight ahead with her finger. It was space—how could Han Yoorim even be there? For a moment, Pape chuckled dryly.

Han Yoorim was really flying toward the enemy’s giant battleship with her bare body.

So, an Awakened One from the Reinforcement System can do that too. First time seeing it.

Pape muttered softly.

“If you’re not even using mecha for infiltration, what the hell are you saving it for?”