The pirates' ships were simple, balanced ships made for civilian use, nothing close to his Warhawk. Worse, the models were several generations old and worn from use. Their main generator outputs, shield strength, and weapons were pitifully weak by comparison to his.
They probably neglected proper maintenance, leaving the ships' plating all out of shape. As for him, his Warhawk was built for hardcore military use, and he had customized it perfectly to his liking, making it the ideal personal battleship. His shield and weapons strength far surpassed their shabby ships, and a military-grade sturdy hull protected him from their pathetic attacks.
Quite frankly, defeat was inconceivable. This wasn't going to be a fight; it was going to be a one-sided hunt. A curbstomp. He flipped his rising generator output to max level all at once and said, "I don't wanna die, so I'm gonna fight back. Just so you know, this probably ends with you guys dying. Don't blame me."
"That's big talk for someone facing three ships at once. You're gonna regret this, buddy!" The space pirate ships that were circling swiveled to aim at him. In that instant, he launched the Warhawk forward full throttle.
"Wargh!"
"Wha?! He's fast!"
The sudden g-force threw him back against his seat, but he managed to use the touchscreen to get his weapons online.
Four weapon arms equipped with heavy lasers extended from the Warhawk, while the weapons bays on either side of the cockpit deployed two flak cannons. He activated the sub-boosters and banked into a 180-degree turn, maintaining his momentum as he pointed the four heavy lasers at one of the space pirates' ships.
"It changed shape!" one of the pirates screamed.
The continuous fire of Koji's military-grade heavy pulse lasers easily tore through the ship's shield, vaporizing its hull with small explosions. The lasers kept on burning, cutting right through the cockpit.
"All that with one shot?!"
Koji hit the throttle again, chasing after a ship trying to escape. The drag of the g-force made his vision go dark. Almost soothed by the sensation, he once again activated his heavy lasers.
"N-no, I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die, I don't -" The volley of pulse lasers pierced mercilessly through the pirate's shield and stabbed the ship's main booster as the pirate begged for his begged for his life.
The lasers must have burned right through to the main generator; the second ship exploded in a burst of fiery light. "Dammiiit! I'll kill you!" The third pirate chose to fight instead of flee. Maybe the sight of his friends' demise left him yearning for revenge.
He readied his laser cannons.
"Phew, phew!"
Once he started firing, avoiding the speed-of-light ammo would be next to impossible. Koji didn't have many options open to him. All he could really do was dodge around erratically and hope that made it harder for the pirate to target him.
"Gngh?! Urk...!" Koji switched between rapid acceleration and sudden stops, trying to move the Warhawk as unpredictably as possible.
The jerky motions turned his stomach and left him nauseous."Grrr, how do you move like that?!"
The space pirate steadied his aim. That was certainly a change from the game.
This couldn't be a dream; the space pirates reacted like thinking, reasoning humans, just like Koji. The nausea intensified.
Maybe it affected Koji's maneuvering, or maybe the space pirate's aim simply outshone his evasive maneuvers. Either way, the pirate finally landed a shot on the Warhawk.
"I-It didn't work?! The pirate growled with frustration and surpris.
The Warhawk's shield blocked the pirate's laser completely, leaving Koji unscathed.
He thought that was enough. Koji accelerated toward the pirate ship facing him.
They dashed recklessly at each other, like a game of chicken. The pirate got off a few more desperate shots, but his panic made him sloppy and sent his fire wide. Even when he managed to hit Koji, the Warhawk's shield rendered the attacks harmless.
"S-stop! Please—!" Koji dodged the space pirate's ship an instant before they would have collided, firing flak at him as he veered away. The high-speed shots saturated the pirate's shield, tore through it, and blasted through the hull of his ship.
By the time the flak burst free, the pirate's ship looked more like metallic Swiss cheese than any kind of spacecraft. "Hargh! Haah, haah…" Koji banked through a tight turn, wheeling around to watch the ship explode. His breath rasped through the cockpit.
He returned the generator output to normal levels and, finally, took the weapons system offline. The nausea subsided when the ship stilled and the g-forces relented. It wasn't nervous nausea. Now that he'd stopped, now that it was over, he felt strangely calm.
"If that didn't wake me up, this has gotta be real." Koji shook himself. He'd survived. He'd more than survived. He had taken down three pirates bent on robbing him of his Rare Metal and barely broke a sweat. He had to stay positive now. If he didn't, he'd die out here—if not physically, then certainly mentally.
"Well, this is a problem." There was no more denying it. This was definitely not a dream. And that posed some issues. What kinds of issues? Well, for one thing, he had no idea what to do about any of this. He'd woken up on a ship drifting along through the dead, black expanse of the universe.
On top of that, Koji didn't know why this was happening and had little hope of finding a way home. "Maybe someone made full-immersion VR a reality when I wasn't looking, and I'm actually in a full-dive scenario."
He tried messing with a few consoles and shouting "open menu!" and "log out!" but no menu or button that would let him out of this reality appeared. What a cruel, cruel world.
Koji was at an utter loss. He had no choice: he had to do what humans do best and adapt. "Depending on his perspective, this might not be all that bad." He had his beloved ship. He had his piloting skills.
Best of all, he clearly had the ability to trounce space pirates with ease. If there really was no way out of this, he could live the mercenary life he'd built in Astria Online.
He also had cargo he could trade for a decent sum of money. He might even be able to use his ship and his skills to hunt down more pirates for some extra cash. The three ships he'd already taken down were carrying 19,000 Vetra.
He didn't know what prices were like in this world, but space pirates in fully equipped ships like those wouldn't be carrying chump change.
The 19,000 Vetra wouldn't buy a whole ship, but it would probably let him refuel the Warhawk, stock up on ammo, and do some maintenance.