"I mean…, how could glowing rocks I found be enough to restore a mode as precious as this," Tatehan muttered as he walked toward the kitchen. His stomach rumbled, he'd skipped breakfast and now he was starving.
"Casual mode. It feels too easy," he added, stepping inside. Then, with a grin: "And hope you didn't peep while I bathed?"
[Not at all,] the Spaceship's AI replied smoothly. [I am only an AI.]
[And about it being too easy, check your repair points.]
Tatehan thought about it, and words flashed across his retina:
[Repair points: 11/100]
Without further explanation, he understood. Just 11 repair points had unlocked all this. If the ship could look this good at 11, how insane would it be at 40? Or 100? The thought sent a thrill through him. He pictured himself dashing through space, tearing through planetary wars, maybe even discovering civilizations on the Moon or beyond.
"Well… seems I'm way behind," he admitted.
[Exactly,] the AI said. [The Red Dragon Spaceship is awakening, but slowly. If you keep going, one day this vessel will be like an immortal.]
Immortal. That was a heavy word.
[What you're inside is a war vessel. It may have casual and training modes, but it also has battle mode. And battle mode has Ten levels. At level ten, this ship becomes invincible.]
Tatehan didn't know why the AI was sharing all this, but it felt like a push.
Motivation!
_________
Even though the kitchen gleamed with futuristic panels, it looked surprisingly normal. There were no floating spoons or levitating pots like he had expected. Just shelves and counters like back on Earth.
Inside the shelves, he found salt, thyme, curry, seasoning cubes. Even loaves of bread.
"Well, things look normal here," he said, picking one up.
[Yes. The kitchen was designed not to be too futuristic.]
He sniffed the bread. Fresh. Well...too fresh. "And this survived a century?"
[The shelves preserve anything stored inside. Food emerges as fresh as when it was first placed.]
Tatehan whistled. This ship was less sci-fi and more… magical. But if it had once belonged to a space dragon, then maybe that was normal. Anything was possible in a universe where dragons soared through the void.
Who have thought there were beings as space dragons. Even normal dragons had been said to be mythical and not actually real.
He found jam and spread it on bread, adding a bottled drink from another shelf. Sitting at the sleek chrome table, he ate in silence, letting the sweetness hit his tongue.
Back on Earth, his friends had mocked him for knowing how to cook so well, calling it "a girl thing." He hadn't cared then, and he didn't now. Cooking and surviving were skills worth having.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder why all these supplies were here. Did the Red Dragon itself need food? Or had the previous pilot stocked it? The thought twisted back to the mystery of his new body. Was Tatehan truly a reincarnation, or a reconstruction? Either way, he decided, it didn't matter. He was alive, and chosen by fate. That was enough.
After eating, he lay on the bed in the sleeping area. The shelves retracted in the kitchen area, the walls that led to it shifting back into silence.
He now turned the radio device in his hands, curious about what history he'll hear now.
The static hissed before a voice cut through:
[Mars is filled with many deadly monsters. Some with super speed. Some with brutal strength. Some are pure horror. Others are weak. Survival depends on knowing them first—then knowing how to kill them.]
The static roared again, then silence.
"Random as always," Tatehan muttered. Yesterday, it had told him about Earth's fall. Today, monsters. Tomorrow? Maybe why rocks are hard.
Training mode filled the rest of his day. He skipped hologram battles this time, choosing gym mode instead. Weights, pushups, stretches— then, finally, one sparring match against two dummies. He beat them, but not easily.
By nightfall, exhaustion claimed him. He dropped onto the bed, sinking into its soft embrace. For the first time in what felt like forever, he slept like a child, his mind sharper and hungrier for tomorrow's challenges.
Tomorrow's task.
____
Tatehan wasn't sure if it was possible to dream in this new body. The two nights he'd spent here were dreamless.
The first night, he'd struggled with sleep, but tonight was the opposite. It came easily. All he had to do was lie down and consciousness faded.
When morning arrived, it felt like bliss.
One second his eyes were closed, the next they fluttered open.
After rubbing his eyes and clearing away the hazy state, he could finally see clearly.
Instead of expecting a door leading to the main area of the spaceship, he found a wall in front of him.
The walls must have retracted while he slept.
Fascinating.
On impulse, he placed his hand in an opening by the wall and it slid apart.
He walked through and it shut behind him.
[Morning, host.] the spaceship's AI greeted him.
Tatehan responded with a nod.
"Morning."
He went to the kitchen area and made hot coffee in a mug while pacing around the space, like doing a walking exercise.
After the coffee, he decided to exercise before eating anything. He started with push-ups.
After completing about a hundred with ease, and much faster than his former self could manage, he couldn't help feeling fascinated again.
How could doing a hundred push-ups be this easy?
He did another hundred, and finally feeling fully awake, he had bread and jam just like the night before.
Then he said to the spaceship's AI:
"So what's today's task?"
He sat in the pilot seat that had once been tossed aside. Now it was perfectly upright.
"[Your second task will be much harder than the first,]" the spaceship's AI began.
[It requires killing a very powerful beast known as the Hexapod Mauler.]"
Tatehan couldn't help but blink.
The name alone sounded deadly.