Chương 40: Chapter 41: Two years later

"Where am I?" Adam asked as his consciousness awoke in a completely white space, the last thing he remembered was following the hallway lights to another room where several strange pods that looked like beds, except they had see-through roofs, sat. As he followed Spector's instructions to undress and climb inside, the lid closed, and a second later, he lost consciousness.

"You are currently in a virtual reality lobby." Spector's voice replied.

"Virtual reality? That's a thing?" Adam asked in surprise before adding, "Why does it have to be so white? It makes me think I have died and I'm about to meet God before being isekai'd to another world."

"Don't worry, you haven't been killed by Truck Kun."

"Was that a joke?" Adam asked in surprise.

"No," Spector replied before changing the subject.

"Since you don't like the current appearance, what would you like to change it to? Since it's virtual, it can be anything""Hmm, really? Well, let's just make it the room your construct is in for now since I'm talking to you."

"Very well." As Spector finished speaking, the white space suddenly changed to an exact copy of the room Spector's construct was in.

"Wow." Adam marvelled as he looked around.

"So why am I here? Have we already arrived?" He finally asked after admiring how perfect the virtual projection was.

"Negative, I estimate we are still several months from our destination."

"I have brought you into this place because the data on ship usage, ship combat, ship repair, universal law and other topics have been successfully downloaded to your brain via your neurolink."

"As your body is still in stasis, I have brought your mind into the virtual world in order for you to get accustomed to being the captain of a starship and what you may face in the future."

"As such, you will be loaded into the virtual reality game Space Rogue."

"Space Rogue?" Adam asked curiously.

"Space Rogue is a very popular space simulation game because of how well it recreates the realism of being in space and commanding a starship. Also, Space Rogue has the ability for players to upload their own ship designs to play with."

"I have already created you an account and uploaded Spector's basic specifications, but only on the general dimensions of the craft."

"Why only the general dimensions?" Adam asked.

"In order for you to properly benefit from your training, it is best for you to start with basic equipment for your starship, which you will need to upgrade in-game instead of just jumping straight in with Spector's true specs, which would be too overpowered for you to learn anything."

"I see." Adam nodded in understanding.

"It is advised that you start with the single-player campaign and do the first few missions so that you can learn the basics.

"After that, you will move to PvP, where you can battle other players and experience what true starship combat is like." As Spector finished speaking, the world around Adam changed, and he found himself floating in space wearing his anti-gravity armour. Suddenly, he saw many starships of different shapes and sizes appearing nearby with a flash of light. As one particularly large ship headed right for him, Adam tried to move but realised he couldn't move himself as the ship passed him by.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. It took a moment for him to figure out that this was probably the game's intro, just as the largest ships started firing power lasers at each other. The lasers hit some kind of energy field that appeared around the ships before disappearing, after which they started firing off other types of ballistic weapons along with different-sized missiles.

As the larger ships kept attacking each other over long distances, small fighter-type ships appeared and started to dogfight against each other while avoiding the larger ships' fire. In the middle of all this carnage, a lone fighter that looked different from the rest darted through the combat while evading attacks aimed at it before returning fire. Eventually, the lone fighter seemed to reach its main target as it launched a missile that was bigger than any it had fired so far at one of the larger ships.

As the missile hit the large ship and a giant explosion covered Adam's view. When the explosion died down, the lone fighter remained with space as its backdrop before bold wording appeared.

'SPACE ROGUE' As his ability to move returned, Adam saw three options appear before him, though the middle one was greyed out to show he couldn't select it. [[New Campaign]] [[Load Campaign]] [[PVP]]"Select new campaign by either using your hand or saying it.]]"New campaign," Adam said aloud and the scene shifted to a quick back story. Apparently, in Space Rogue, you play the part of a freelance mercenary who took the majority of his jobs through intermediaries known as brokers.

His first mission was a simple retrieval and transport mission. Adam left the broker before heading for his ship, which looked identical to the real Spector. This was the first time he was seeing what it looked like, even if it was virtual, and he had to admit he liked it a lot. After admiring it for a bit longer, he boarded the ship before heading for the cockpit. The cockpit was at the front of the ship and had five consoles with seating before them.

The ship could be controlled by a single person at a single console with the help of the AI or by multiple people at different consoles, fulfilling different roles. At the very centre was the main seat and console, with the other four around it to the front left and right, as well as the rear left and right. Before all of them at the very front was a curved wall with dark hexagon-shaped patterns; however, as Adam took his seat at the centre console, the hexagrams changed and showed the external view of the ship.

He had to leave the planet he was on and FTL to the location of a destroyed transport vessel to retrieve some of its cargo. Doing everything manually this time instead of ordering Spector to do it, Adam powered up the ship. He followed the Universal departure procedures Spector had downloaded to his neurolink as he was in status by contacting space control of the planet he was on, and once he got clearance, powered up the anti-gravity drive to lift off before heading into space.

As he broke orbit with the planet, he punched the coordinates of the derelict vessel into the star drive before lining up the ship to the correct heading, after which he engaged the star drive. The stars he could see ahead of him through the view screen all seemed to elongate before he saw a flash of light, and the stars started zooming past the ship as he was now in FTL.

Because of the realism of Space Rogue, the travel time was realistic, and it would take him around forty-five minutes to reach the coordinates because of the basic engine he had fitted in the game. Adam played around with Spector's controls, familiarising himself with them until a beep from the console announced their arrival and the ship dropped out of FTL. Adam did a quick sensor sweep of the area when he saw no sign of the derelict ship and located the wreckage before piloting the Spector in that direction.

As he arrived, he saw the large wreckage of a transport ship with many crates of different goods floating aimlessly in space. Adam was only tasked with finding one specific type of good, so he told Spector to scan just for that, and as it was located, he piloted closer. Adam stopped nearby before opening the ship's cargo bay and deploying worker drones to collect the cargo.

The little drones flew out into space using thrusters since they were too small for anti-gravity drives and attached themselves to the cargo before returning with it. Once all the cargo was secure, Adam closed the cargo bay before plotting a course for the drop-off location and entering FTL.

After exiting FTL again near a planet with a research outpost, he contacted the outpost for permission to land, and after receiving the go-ahead, he piloted the ship to land at the research outpost, where workers of the outpost unloaded the cargo. After the last of the cargo was unloaded, Adam received a communication from the broker by subspace who congratulated him and transferred his pay before offering him more work.

This time there were three jobs, requiring him to pick up cargo from a spaceship, a moon and once again a derelict ship in space. Before dropping them off at a planet, a space station and another ship, respectively. Space Rogue gave the players the freedom to complete missions in whatever order they liked, and for efficiency, Adam decided to collect all the cargo first before taking them to each respective drop-off location.