Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship! Chapter 73: Shutting Up Competition

The incident began just as we arrived at the waiting room next to the dock for Eva’s Hunter Frigate.

Since the area was open enough, the interior was visible from the hallway—and with the transparent windows, her ship could be seen by anyone passing by.

I assud the initial purpose of this setup was for publicity, but at the sa ti, it gave other teams a chance to "scout" their potential competition.

"Hah! What’s this trash doing here, participating? Is the AGP turning into a dump yard now?!"

...And that voice, laced with ridicule, started it all.

The mont the man spoke, I turned toward him instantly, evaluating him. He was tall, roughly two ters, with a humanoid build—but his entire head was concealed by a specialized tal mask.

Extending from the back of his head were two long electrodes, their tal tips releasing violent electric sparks—almost as if they were reflecting his current, excited ntal state.

I was initially planning to just ignore it as random provocation, but our neighborhood short-fuse redhead was way too quick to react.

"Huuuh?! What did you just say, you fucking tin can?!"

She flared up instantly, jumping toward the man and yanking him by his spacesuit’s collar.

The other party tried to resist—he attempted to shove Eva away—but the difference in raw strength was just too obvious. He couldn’t even make her budge an inch!

"B-Bitch, unhand ! Don’t you know who I am?!" The man growled, but his earlier confidence had noticeably dipped. "If you dare do sothing to , the Eden Company won’t let you off easily!"

"Eden...?"

That na sounded awfully familiar.

Now that I looked closer, his suit did bear the Eden Company’s emblem—a golden apple with two leaves attached to its stem.

"Bitch?! Who, ?!" But Eva ignored everything else he said. "Bastard! Say that again! C’mon, I dare you to open that goddamn stinky mouth of yours and say it again!!!" She added while winding her left fist.

Just as the situation was getting out of hand, I felt a soft tug from the side. Turning slightly, I found Cassandra—currently donning the sa disguise she used before with Eva.

She wore a short brown wig and a white-and-blue baseball cap, trying to avoid standing out as much as possible.

"A-Arthur... I think you should hold her back, or this might spell trouble..." she whispered, concern lacing her voice.

Of course, I was also worried about the situation. Especially about the possible consequences of Eva’s actions—like getting disqualified before the GP even started.

"Let her be," but honestly, I knew stopping her was pointless.

In the first place, there was no need for to step in.

"What’s going on?! What’s the commotion about?!"

The next mont, a group of Militia in blue and white uniforms stord onto the scene. Each was ard with a laser rifle, making their presence intimidating by default.

Surely, even Eva would realize the gravity of the situation and back off—

"Hah?! Don’t you fucking interf—mmph!"

—Yeah, too much wishful thinking on my part.

Right, this was the sa girl who had insulted a general to his face. What made think a couple of rank-and-file Militia mbers could stop her?

Without wasting another second, I clamped a hand over her mouth, grabbed her right arm, and slowly pulled her away.

"It’s nothing, officer. She was just saying hello to our fellow contestants." I put on my best, most diplomatic smile.

The Militia shifted their attention, first glancing at , then at the flailing Eva in my arms, and finally at the man she had grabbed.

One of the officers stepped forward. "Is that true?"

"That bitch—!"

"AH, of course, it’s true. There’s no way a chanoid like him would struggle against a frail girl, right? A punch from her must feel like a tickle to him~!"

I quickly cut in, turning toward the masked man, my gaze softening ever so slightly. "Right~?"

"..."

The next mont, he fell silent. Even the two long electrodes on the back of his head stopped sparking.

I smirked internally. He was definitely shaken.

After all, chanoids were a race renowned for their superior physical and computational prowess.

In normal circumstances, no one should be able to sneak up on them, let alone grab them by the collar. And even if it did happen, shoving off a human should be effortless.

So if he pushed the issue now and dragged the Militia into this ss, that would an he felt "threatened" by a "frail girl."

And that? That would crush his pride entirely.

"Tch. Fuck, rember this!"

He spat out a curse before turning away, storming off without even responding to the officer’s question.

With the situation diffused, the Militia had no more reason to linger, so they too dispersed, along with the small crowd that had ford around us.

"MMMPH! MMMP!"

Eva, however, still hadn’t stopped flailing.

Even though she looked beyond pissed, the fact that she hadn’t forced her way out of my grip ant she was at least holding back.

"Ah, alright, alright. I’m letting you go, so just calm down, okay?" I slowly put her back on her feet and stepped away.

"Arthur, you bastard...!" she growled the next mont, her face a shade redder than usual. "Watch the fuck where you put your hands...!"

Then, without warning, her palm ca flying—

*SMACK!*

My vision went white for a mont. A stinging pain followed soon after. I blinked in surprise, instinctively clutching my cheek.

Two questions imdiately crossed my mind.

One: Where the hell did I even touch her?!

Two: Why didn’t she punch like usual?!

As I ntally reviewed the events, I realized sothing.

To restrain her properly, I had crossed her arms in front of her chest and… yeah. My arm had ended up right in the middle.

Damn, I was too focused on the situation to even enjoy the sensation!

But the second question still bugged .

Had she perhaps llowed out a little? Or was my usual silent nerfing her reward tactic finally working whenever she got violent?

Either way, this was an improvent!

"Humph!"

Eva plopped down beside Cassandra, arms crossed and cheeks puffed in frustration.

It was honestly cute—but saying that aloud would be suicide.

As I rubbed my aching cheek, I smirked. "Alright. Next ti, I’ll make sure to get a good look at where I put my hands on."

I even made a deliberate grasping gesture in the air—

Eva turned beet red.

"You damn bastard! If you want a beating that badly, then look no farther!!!"

"E-Eva, calm down...!"

Thankfully, Cassandra was quick to hold her back before I actually got hit.

Anyway, after that?

Yeah. Nobody else dared to ss with our booth.

---

The Preliminaries of the Aegis Grand Prix are just like any other race.

Six racers line up at the starting line, complete three warmup laps, and then finish with one "final" lap that determines their official ti.

Of course, allowing multiple racers to start together could lead to attempts to hinder their competition, so there’s an additional rule—you can skip any number of warmup laps.

This way, it becos harder for competitors to ti their little tricks aid at slowing others down.

The order of preliminaries is based on registration ti, aning our batch was literally the last one.

Overall, there were a total of 78 participants, split into 13 batches. Given that each batch took about 30 minutes from setup to the actual laps, the entire preliminary round would take over 6.5 hours to conclude.

During that ti, racers could watch the live feed of the racetrack.

They had various options, from first-person views of each ship to a god-perspective of the entire track.

To maximize our ability to "observe" the competition, we chose to display six first-person perspectives side by side, watching the race from the pilots’ helt cams.

Just then, we saw one ship ahead of another suddenly slow down before accelerating again, causing the flas of their afterburners to scorch the ship behind them. The way the cara feed shook frantically made it clear—the stunt had caused damage.

"Fuck, that’s dirty...!" Eva cursed, probably seeing the sa screen as I was.

Despite her words, her expression remained serious. No matter how "dirty" others played, it didn’t matter—not yet, at least.

If soone tried that against us, though, it would be a different story altogether.

Of course, I kept tabs on the numbers of the ships pulling dirty tricks, just in case we faced them in the actual race. Better safe than sorry.

"The clear ti..." Cassandra whispered, her brows furrowed. "The fastest so far is just a little over four minutes..."

"Yeah," Eva nodded in agreent. "But what confuses the most is..."

She turned to , raising a brow as she gestured toward the video feed. "Arthur, why does this preliminary track look soooo familiar?"

"Oh? It really does!" I exclaid, feigning surprise. "What a coincidence, no, this is almost a miracle~!"

"..."

Judging from her stare, I could tell my lie didn’t pass. Still, she didn’t push the matter further. She must have realized it was pointless to ask, since I wouldn’t answer anyway.

*BOOM!*

Right then, one of the racers’ ships suffered engine failure, its main thrusters exploding. At first glance, it looked like an accident, but...

As expected, so teams resorted to these kinds of tricks...

Unfortunately for them, I was well-acquainted with this thod of eliminating potential competition.

However, I was starting to get worried that soone in our batch might try the sa trick. Since I hadn’t been able to prepare Eva’s ship in advance, avoiding falling prey to it would be quite tricky.

"Well, as long as we don’t let them get in front of us, we should be fine..."

I sighed—but the foreboding feeling in my chest never faded.

Sothing was bound to happen during our run.