"You all have thirty seconds to decide," the man's voice came through the microphone. "Twenty-nine, twenty-eight..."
The death countdown began, and the screams in the cabin grew louder as despair spread across everyone's faces.
As the time dwindled, Yuka was about to forcefully break through the cabin door and head straight for the cockpit when she heard a faint voice beside her, "I... I can."
Yuka turned her head.
The boy next to her had a flushed face, his voice barely audible, "I can do it." Trembling, he stood up and walked to the junction between Cabin 3 and Cabin 2. He was knocked down by the chaotic crowd, struggling a few times before managing to get back on his feet.
"Seven, six... Looks like we have a volunteer," the man, observing through the monitors, saw the flushing boy and burst into laughter, telling someone beside him, "Go bring that kid here."
The crowd suddenly quietened down.
They looked at him with hopeful eyes, some crying tears of gratitude. The tattooed man wiped his face and threatened the boy, "You better be able to fix their ship—"
"I can too."
Yuka stood up, interrupting the tattooed man.
The pirates in the cockpit were taken aback. "Fine, bring them both over."
Yuka ignored her butler's frantic protests and walked over to the boy, supporting his trembling body, and whispered, "Don't panic."
Strangely, Toru's heart, which was about to leap out of his chest, suddenly calmed down. He took a deep breath, trying hard to control his quivering voice, and whispered to Yuka, "I... my name is Ando Toru."
Yuka responded with a simple, "Hmm."
Toru felt a bit disappointed not hearing her name. He was just a teenager fresh out of high school, with only theoretical knowledge of spaceships, never having repaired a Lev, let alone a ship thousands of times more complex than a Lev...
Sighing inwardly, Toru felt like he was probably going to die there that day. But before dying, he bravely took the step to introduce himself—he wasn't socially anxious anymore!
Trying to find humor in his predicament, Toru thought at least he had fulfilled his wish before dying and bought some time for the others on the ship, making his death worthwhile.
He sneakily observed the girl beside him. She was wearing a helmet, her face unseen, but her relaxed posture and steady hands showed no fear of the impending life-or-death challenge.
Toru couldn't help but wonder, 'is she actually an expert, having fixed many spaceships, and that's why she seemed so confident?'
And this seemingly confident, composed "expert" Yuka—
She was daydreaming.
Her thoughts drifted back to the first time she interacted with machinery. Beside her, Nori was wearing a welding mask, sparks flying from the mini-welder in his hand as he crafted a core chip for Butler.
And there she was, holding the damned circuit board, curiously connecting the positive and negative terminals of a particle battery to a plug—
Then the entire lab exploded.
Fortunately, both she and Nori had high physical strength levels. Even after being blasted away and lying in the rubble for half a day, they eventually staggered to their feet. Nori scolded her mercilessly and from then on, forbade her from setting foot in the lab again.
Yuka thought that the butler's current dim-wittedness was probably a result of being blown silly at that time.
"They're coming," Toru said, his voice quivering again.
Yuka snapped out of it and watched the connecting cabin door slowly open. The space pirates wore red masks, covering the lower half of their faces. They each held a gun, with spare bullets and cold weapons strapped to their waists.
They pointed their guns at Toru and Yuka, barking, "Move it!"
Feeling a sense of responsibility as a man, Toru stepped in front of Yuka, leading the way out. Yuka followed closely behind.
The pirates, walking beside them, completely underestimated these seemingly frail individuals, not considering them a threat at all.
Yuka counted the number of pirates along the way; there were fewer than she had anticipated. Either they were overly confident, believing no one would dare resist, or perhaps...
"Why are you wearing a helmet?" a small-eyed man suddenly asked, demanding Yuka remove it. His gaze swept over her, repulsively lecherous.
Licking his lips, he thought, 'with such a figure, her face mustn't be bad either...'
"Why are you wearing a mask?" Yuka retorted, "Why don't you take it off?"
Toru, startled by her audacity, spun around, wanting to stop her from speaking, but a pirate beside him held him back.
The small-eyed man furiously barked, "How dare you speak to me like that?! I'll shoot you right now!"
"You gonna take it off or not?" he pressed, pointing the gun at Yuka's head, "Take it off!"
"Go ahead, shoot," Yuka said nonchalantly. "Whatever. We're here to fix the ship. Any injury will affect our precision in operations. If we can't fix it, it'll be your fault."
The man's face turned from red to pale. Seeing the situation escalating, someone nearby whispered, "Just hold it back for now, wait till she's fixed the ship..."
After a moment of hesitation and a signal from his companions, the man angrily put back his gun and, with a growl, motioned for Yuka to keep moving forward.
As Yuka walked past Toru, who was barely holding himself together and continuing forward despite his trembling limbs, she witnessed the dire situation in Cabin 2, where people who had paid for second-class seats now sat despairingly, stripped of their belongings by the pirates.
The sight in Cabin 1, reserved for first-class passengers, was even grimmer. Only one passenger had been there, now dead, along with his bodyguards scattered lifelessly around.
This was a scene of carnage Toru had never witnessed before. Tripping over an intestine and unable to hold back any longer, he vomited, his eyes tearful.
Yuka, undisturbed, walked past him. Her unwavering steps only heightened Toru's admiration for her. The pirates, noticing Yuka's calm demeanor, grew more cautious.
Just as the small-eyed man was about to question Yuka, she suddenly collapsed, trembling against the wall, shaking her head frantically, feigning fear: "I can't... I can't do this anymore..."
Yuka thought to herself how useful the helmet was, saving her the effort of pretending to cry.
The man, thinking he had regained some control, laughed and said, "Get up! See how these people ended up?"
He grabbed Yuka's arm, pulled her up, and dragged her through a more densely populated area of corpses.
Suddenly, Yuka struggled free and ran towards the other pirates, shouting, "Let me go! I don't want to do this anymore!"
The pirates changed their expressions and reached out to catch her.
Yuka, displaying evasive agility, weaved through the pirates like a slippery eel. They thought they had touched her but couldn't even grasp a piece of her clothing. After using up all their spare bullets, Yuka pretended to be exhausted, gasping for breath, and collapsed to the ground again.
Meanwhile, Toru had finished vomiting. The pirates, frustrated by the commotion caused by both Yuka and Toru, dragged them harshly to the final cabin door.
In the cockpit, there was only one pirate.
Yuka raised her head, assessing the man in front of her. He was bulky, with dark skin, and a deep scar running from his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth, splitting his face in two. He didn't wear a red mask.
"Which one of you can fix the ship?" the man asked.
Yuka, recognizing his voice from the broadcast, replied, "I can."
Toru, mustering a faint voice, added, "I know a bit too."
The man looked at them with interest, seemingly evaluating who appeared more skilled. After a few seconds, he pointed at Yuka, "You, come with me."
"You stay here," he told Toru. "When she's dead, it's your turn."
Toru's complexion, which had just slightly improved, drained of color once again.
A large hole had been opened on the side of the main cockpit, connecting it to another spaceship via a corridor.
The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Yuka, ordering, "Move."
Yuka walked through the corridor into the space pirates' ship and entered their main cockpit.
The man peered over her shoulder, pointing at the charred, clumped-together control panel and said to Yuka, "Fix it."
Yuka looked at the smoking control board and fell silent.
The man pulled up a chair, sat down beside her, and raised his gun, asking, "Can't fix it?"
The sound of the gun cocking was a clear threat.
"No," Yuka responded slowly, "I was just wondering, did you cook here or did you light a cigarette and set the main controller on fire?"