I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse

Chapter 1924: Are You Out of Your Mind?!!

[Are you out of your mind?!!] Hye was genuinely baffled. He knew the Hescos were too mighty to need a petty excuse to target him.

His status as a hunted man by the Toranks already gave them all the cover they needed to eliminate him if they so desired. But what Moth was asking for—initiating combat in the heart of their sanctuary—was pure insanity. It felt like an invitation to a firing squad.

[You are already inside our world!] Moth replied, his words sharp and unyielding. [The entire solar system is actually our homeland territory! It is not a place for guests. It is a place of struggle. All you need to do now is to survive on your own. Force your way through everything you see until you finally arrive at the central area of this world!]

Hye sat back, the realisation hitting him like a physical blow. This wasnʼt a diplomatic visit. The Hescos didnʼt host people; they tested them. To see the Elders Council, he had to prove he was strong enough to reach them through a gauntlet that would kill any lesser being.

”Hmm, he isnʼt joking,” Hye said, a low chuckle escaping his throat. The worry that had been gnawing at his soul for weeks finally transformed into something he recognised: battle lust. If they wanted a monster, he would give them one.

[Tell me then,] Hye sent back as he began the power-up sequence for his weapon systems, [am I allowed to keep any gain I find here? If I kill it, is it mine?]

[Sure, itʼs your luck and strength; itʼs your right to keep what you gained!]

[Then letʼs start this game!] Hye finally understood the level the Hescos were operating on. This wasnʼt a formal diplomatic ambush or a simple threat. They wanted to test his mettle, to see if the man who had outmanoeuvred them at the negotiating table could survive the raw, unbridled reality of their homeland.

He still couldnʼt fathom why they would choose their most sacred and secretive sanctuary for such a violent trial, but he knew the answer would be written in the blood he was about to spill.

”Time for the truth,” Hye whispered, his hands dancing over the controls of his ship. His curiosity was now a roaring fire, burning away the last vestiges of caution. ”Letʼs start the engines!”

The moment the fusion core of his ship kicked to life, the world exploded into a brilliant, agonising white. He had anticipated a surge of brightness, and he had already engaged the polarisers to dim the viewports to their maximum setting. He had even primed his radar to compensate for visual distortion. But he was woefully underprepared for the reality of the Hescosʼ world.

The light was so intense it ignored his shielding entirely. It bled through the darkened glass as if it werenʼt there, searing his retinas and plunging his world into a white-out of pure bright blindness. He was blind and floating in a sea of hostile enemies.

”Fire at will then!”

He didnʼt hesitate. If he couldnʼt see, he would make sure nothing else could get close enough to see him either. He hammered the firing studs, and the shipʼs pulse cannons began to scream, spitting out a continuous stream of plasma.

At the same time, he began to move the ship in tight, erratic circular paths. He knew he couldnʼt hit the throttle—not yet. Without a heading, high speed was a death sentence. He gushed just enough power to keep the ship dancing in place, a spinning top of destruction.

Having piloted this specific small ship for a long time already, he could handle it by muscle memory alone. He was steering blindfolded, literally. All around him, he heard the muffled thrum of fierce explosions and the rumbling of impacts against his hull.

Slowly, agonisingly, the white glare began to fade. When his vision finally cleared, the sight made him inwardly curse with a fervour he usually reserved for his sworn enemies.

”They brought me right in front of their star! Are they desperate to kill me or what?!”

Hye realised that the reason his light-dampening measures had failed was his terrifying proximity to the massive star at the heart of this system. If he had moved recklessly, if he had pushed the engines to their maximum in his blindness, he would have plunged directly into the inescapable gravity well of that celestial furnace.

As for the ”rocks Moth had instructed him to shoot? They were no longer rocks. The stone shells had shattered or rearranged themselves, revealing sleek, advanced autonomous drones. Thousands of guns were pointed directly at his cockpit, firing with the same frantic freedom he had just displayed.

Thanks to his instinctive caution, he had evaded the gravity trap and survived the initial crossfire. He had already neutralised more than half of the surrounding drones.

With his vision partially restored, he picked a destination away from the sunʼs pull and slammed the thrusters. He carved a path through the remaining drones, his cannons turning the advanced machines into expanding clouds of glittering scrap.

[Nice start!] Just as he was starting to catch his breath, Mothʼs message flickered.

[Just for your knowledge, you are on your own now. Communication will be down for the next twenty-four hours. So… Good luck, pal!]

[Screw you!] Hye didnʼt hesitate to curse Moth out loud, his voice echoing in the small cabin. This was the friend who had led him into a localised supernova without a single hint of the danger!

He watched a red error message bloom across his screen as his reply failed to deliver. Moth wasnʼt lying about the comms blackout. He was truly alone in the lionʼs den.

”First things first,” Hye muttered, forcing his heart rate to settle. He began a deep-space scan with his remaining operational radars. What he saw left him speechless.

The world… It was exactly as Moth had hinted. The entire solar system wasnʼt just a territory; it was a single, cohesive habitat. As far as the radar could reach, he spotted immense stretches of land. It gave him the feeling it was a massive, flat land world, with a single star orbiting it!