Chapter 57: Welcome To Star Hunters

The world went white the same way it always did, and when it cleared, Logan wasn’t standing on solid ground at all.

He was standing on the deck of something enormous, metal underfoot instead of grass, stars wheeling slow overhead in every direction he looked.

No sky. No horizon. Just open space and a galaxy’s worth of light scattered across it.

```

[ Welcome to Star Hunters ]

```

A voice followed the panel, calm and mechanical, the same kind of flat delivery Logan remembered from every other system announcement he’d ever heard.

"Each player has been assigned an individual Mothership. You are currently standing on its deck."

Logan looked around properly for the first time, taking in the ship underneath him, sleek dark metal stretching out in every direction, a raised platform near the center marked with a familiar circular pattern.

"Your Mothership’s deck holds a Summoning Circle. Spacecraft summoned here are living units, same as any other summon, capable of independent thought and action."

"Mythic-rank Spacecraft carry an additional capability. They can transform between their spacecraft form and a humanoid form at will, and gain one Talent for every Tier they hold."

Logan nodded to himself. ’I know. Can’t wait to get my hands on Mythic-rank Spacecraft.’

"Your primary objective. Defend against the Filburn Hive, a hostile alien swarm currently spreading through this galaxy. And deploy Spacecraft periodically to engage Hive forces directly."

"Tower Points are earned by destroying Swarm units. Players may also engage each other directly."

"Victory belongs to whichever single player reaches the deepest point of the Hive with their army, or alone, and destroys the Filburn Queen."

"If your Mothership’s core is destroyed, or you surrender, you lose."

"All players earn Tier Points based on overall performance score. Only the match’s winner may remove three summoning units from this game permanently upon exit. Units already owned prior to entering this match, brought in from any previous victory, may be removed freely regardless of outcome, provided they survive."

Logan let it all settle for a second.

’Billy, Solveig, and Synthia are safe no matter what happens here, as long as they don’t die. They’re already mine. I just need to keep them alive.’ He looked out at the stars. ’And if I win, I get three more on top of that.’

A prompt hovered patiently in front of him, waiting.

```

[ Set Player Name ]

```

Last time he’d gone in as just L, too tired and too new to the whole idea to think of anything better. This time he already had a name built for exactly this purpose.

’Leon Flanke.’

```

[ Player Name Set: Leon Flanke ]

```

He turned toward the summoning circle next, three cards already in hand.

Billy, Solveig, and Synthia stepped out of the light one after another, all three of them exactly as he remembered, right up until the moment their stats actually updated.

```

[ Summons brought from prior match victory. Ascending to Tier-4. ]

```

Their base stats climbed from forty each to eight hundred eighty, more than twenty times what they’d been carrying just a few minutes ago.

Logan actually laughed out loud, alone on the deck of his own Mothership. "How do you all feel?"

"Strong. It feels like I could split this whole ship in two." Billy grinned as he took a step and found himself running clean across open air, visibly startled by his own footing. "Whoa! That’s my second Talent!"

"Three new Talents," Solveig muttered, eyes glinting with fighting spirit. "I can’t wait to battle something, my lord."

"I can craft even better items with the new Talents." Synthia smiled.

"For sure. But right now, we’ll have to wait. Open map."

The Mothership’s AI answered him, a screen assembling itself out of countless points of light, reflected off nanomachinery woven through the whole hull.

The Hive sat two light-years out according to the display, requiring FTL travel to reach, marked at the exact center of the map. Logan’s own Mothership sat to the southwest of it, a tag reading Leon Flanke’s Ship blinking slowly beside the marker.

One more thing sat just below the map, and it might have been the single most important tab in the whole interface.

```

[ Scan Pulse ]

Effect: Capture all activity and Motherships within 1 light year and display them on the map for 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 5 hours.

```

"Alright. Let’s see if we can hunt someone right off the bat." Logan grinned.

With three Mythic units and himself fully geared in Mythic-rank equipment, he could drop straight onto another player’s Mothership and start tearing it apart before they even understood what had hit them.

"Use Scan Pulse."

The scan swept outward in a silent pulse, and the map filled in almost immediately, dozens of new markers blinking to life across the display.

```

[ Scan Pulse complete. ]

[ 139 players detected. ]

```

A hundred thirty-nine. Logan scanned the cluster of markers, most of them scattered wide across the display, until his eyes settled on the one sitting closest to his own ship’s position.

"That one." He marked it on the display. "Full force. Get us there."

[Would you like to use FTL Drive?]

"No."

FTL Drive had a cooldown of 5 hours as well. He wasn’t going to waste it.

The deck hummed beneath his feet, and the stars outside blurred into streaks as the Mothership’s engines answered, the whole ship surging forward hard enough that Logan had to plant his feet to keep steady.

Billy grinned, already watching the approaching marker on the display. "First blood’s ours, boss."

Logan’s own grin matched it, eyes fixed on the same blinking marker as the distance between them started closing fast.

"There’s more stuff in this game that’ll come." Logan was eager. He had read all about Star Hunters, and knew what to prioritise.

Aside from the swarm from the Hive attacking players, and other players, there was another thing called Floating Ruins, which were basically like dungeons, but of a different scale.

’Player Grace Fruits are available in all game modes. One just has to hunt for them.’ Logan’s eyes glinted.

He was determined to get as many Player Grace Fruits as possible in every match.

"Milord, this RohaoKing is trying to create a distance between us." Solveig narrowed his eyes, noticing the movement on the map.

"It looks like he also used the scan and figured we are after him." Billy grinned as his blade wheels rolled across the air. "I can go ahead first and start cutting to slow it down."

"Me too." Solveig nodded.

"No, don’t jump the gun." Logan shook his head, staying cautious. "We are still several thousand kilometres apart. It’ll take a bit of time. Until then, let me take a look at your new talents."