Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!-Chapter 99: Synced Senses

When I woke up, before my brain could even start functioning, Eva's barrage of questions hit me like a missile.

I wasn't sure why she was suddenly so fixated on names, but aside from Mercy and Glenda, I couldn't recall the others she mentioned.

No, it wasn't because I was still half-asleep—I genuinely didn't know them.

Anyway, after hearing my answer, Eva's expression finally softened…

Seeing her angry face while she was in my body was honestly nerve-wracking. It felt like she was about to strangle me to death, and let me tell you, that wasn't a pleasant thought at all.

With that out of the way—or at least I hoped it was—it was time to focus on our real problem. How were we supposed to switch back to our original bodies?

Judging from how long I had been out, there was barely one galactic day left before the Grand Prix began.

We needed to swap back, resume training, and finalize every other preparation within that limited timeframe—but aside from the first task, the rest were at least doable.

"Seriously, how do we return?" I sighed, feeling utterly helpless.

Honestly, we were grasping at straws here. Even if we could swap back in the next instant, Cassandra's lap time was still around six minutes. That was fast—way ahead of the others—but still more than twice our target.

There was just no way we could cut that down to half in only a day's worth of training.

As I was spiraling into despair, Eva's casual question yanked me right back to reality.

"Wouldn't this situation actually favor us instead? I mean, from everyone else's perspective, you're Cassandra right now."

"... Ah."

Right! I was currently Cassandra, which meant that if we stayed like this, I would be the one piloting in the Aegis Grand Prix Finals!

"How the hell did I miss that detail?"

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I groaned, frustrated beyond belief that Eva had to be the one to point it out to me. It wasn't even some complex concept—it should've been obvious! And that just made it all the more irritating.

But regardless of my wounded pride, we had a breakthrough.

If I was the pilot, I could easily break the three-minute mark and complete the race in under 150 minutes.

The situation had improved significantly—but that didn't mean all my worries were gone. There was still one critical issue that haunted me:

What if our bodies switched back in the middle of the race?

If that happened, then without me piloting—and with Cassandra's limited stamina—our loss would be all but guaranteed. That meant I needed to prepare Cassandra to take over in the worst-case scenario.

Well…

Desperate times called for desperate measures. There was no room to hold back.

---

When Cassandra's meeting finally ended, she arrived at the dock where Eva and I were waiting. It was time for practice.

But before anything else, I handed her a small briefcase and explained,

"Cassandra, put these on while we practice."

Inside was a spacesuit—but not just any ordinary model. It was a cutting-edge 9th Gen Full-Sensory Haptic Suit, developed by Wieze Ltd.

This suit could emulate sensations as if the wearer were experiencing them firsthand. Normally, it was used for playing minigames inside TSO, acting as a bridge between the "player" and their in-game's in-game characters.

Of course, that wasn't how we were using it.

This one… had been modified. By yours truly.

In the time it took Cassandra to finish her meeting, I tinkered with the suit and linked its sensory feedback to another suit of the same model.

Long story short, I turned it into an "external nerve system," allowing the wearer to experience what I was feeling in real time, with almost no delay.

The way I moved my eyes, the pressure in my fingertips, the precise timing of pedal presses—everything. I wanted Cassandra to feel it all firsthand.

Of course, this was incredibly dangerous.

Flooding someone's brain with foreign sensations could cause serious confusion, possibly even long-term damage. That was why I had never intended to use this method.

But as luck would have it, Cassandra was in Eva's body—a female body—which significantly reduced the risk of sensory incongruencies. If we had been in our original bodies, this would have been a complete disaster.

"...So I just need to memorize how you pilot the ship?" Cassandra asked, her voice ladylike, calm and composed—but coming from Eva's body, it felt oddly out of place.

"Yes," I nodded. "But as I told you before, if you start feeling weird, just shout [Terminate] to immediately stop the sensory link. Do not try to endure it—it could cause permanent damage to your synapses."

"G-Got it..."

Cassandra sounded a little shaken, but she still went ahead and changed into the suit.

When she returned, she was already wearing the tight haptic suit. Naturally, I was suited up as well. How did I change into mine? Well, let's just say, with Eva around, you can imagine how that went.

With everything set, the three of us boarded Eva's Hunter Frigate and headed to an open space nearby—the same location where Cassandra had been practicing before.

"Then, I'll be activating the training program," I warned lightly. "Cassandra, you can activate the sharing of senses now. Remember, terminate it as soon as you feel anything off."

"...Alright." Cassandra, seated behind me, gave a nod of understanding. "[Sense Sharing - Activate]!"

With her words as a trigger, the tiny mechanisms in her suit whirred to life. Acting like microscopic electrodes, they sent command signals through her skin, emulating the exact synaptic transmissions my body produced.

To test it, I raised my hands, and Cassandra mimicked the motion perfectly. I turned my head left and right, wiggled my hips a bit, then instinctively reached for my che—

*BAM!*

"—!"

A fist of justice crashed down on my head without mercy.

"Stop screwing around!" Eva growled, her fist poised for another strike. Her glare alone could have set me on fire.

Of course, since our sensory feedback was linked, Cassandra felt the same pain I did and reacted identically—clutching her head in agony, both hands rubbing at the sore spot.

"Alright, alright..." I sighed in surrender. "I was just checking if everything was working properly, damn it..."

Of course, the little detail about wanting to see "Eva" fondling herself was a secret I'd take to the grave.

Dropping all jokes, I activated the training program.

Within the ship's main visualizer, the visor displayed a glowing wireframe tunnel. It was an exact replica of the Aegis Grand Prix finals track—the same one Cassandra had been grinding through for days.

I took a deep breath and spoke.

"Alright. The first lap is just a warmup. The real practice begins from the second lap all the way to the fifty-first. Cassandra, focus on every single movement I make. Let your body memorize the motion on instinct. We only have two shots at a full track run, so don't waste this chance."

With Cassandra's low stamina, even if I was the one controlling her body, we'd still need at least five hours of rest between attempts.

Factoring in travel time, two full sessions were the absolute limit.

I tightened my grip on the lever as the start signal began its countdown. The moment it flashed green, I floored the pedals, launching the ship forward at full acceleration.

My eyes darted rapidly, analyzing trap placements and timing calculations. I adjusted my movements—though a slight disconnect in reaction speed remained due to the body swap. That was exactly why the first lap was a "warmup."

Weaving through the track, dodging obstacles without slowing down, I focused entirely on my piloting. The two behind me remained silent, their reactions unreadable.

Anyway, the first lap took four minutes.

"Slow..."

I had been getting used to Eva's movement range, so the time loss was expected.

But I was a veteran of full-dive MMOs—adjusting to an unfamiliar "avatar" was second nature to me.

By the second lap, I had already shaved my time down to three minutes and ten seconds. By the tenth lap, I had fully optimized my approach, reducing my time to two minutes and forty-five seconds per lap.

I continued tearing through the circuit, adjusting to the randomized traps and refining my responses lap after lap.

By the time I completed the full fifty laps, the timer read: 139 minutes.

That was our final record.

Confirming the lap count, I brought the ship to a smooth halt. As I removed my helmet, sweat poured down my face like a waterfall. Turning around, I flashed a grin and asked,

"So? Any comments?"

Cassandra—in Eva's body—looked just as drenched in sweat as I was. However, unlike me, she wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion. Instead, her eyes gleamed with unrestrained excitement.

"That was amazing!" she cried, her voice practically bursting with energy. "You went like... Whoosh! Then Bam! And just when I thought we'd hit a trap, you'd dodge it like it was nothing! Without even slowing down!!!"

I chuckled at her childlike enthusiasm.

As someone who had personally struggled through the course, she understood the difficulty of what I'd just accomplished—far better than Eva, who had only been watching.

"Well, it's nothing compared to a one-versus-a-hundred dogfight," I said with a shrug, though I couldn't help but feel a bit pleased by the praise.

Meanwhile, Eva had turned pale as a ghost.

She… got sick from all the rapid turns and high-speed maneuvers. It was impressive that she hadn't thrown up, honestly. If she had, the cockpit would have reeked, and that was the last thing we needed.

"...Take some anti-motion sickness meds before our next session," I advised, giving her a light pat on the shoulder. "And if you start feeling dizzy, shut off visuals immediately."

With that, we wrapped up and took a much-needed break to recover.

As expected, pushing a ten-minute lap down to just 25% of its original duration came with consequences. My fingers trembled from the strain, and my legs felt like jelly.

If the two of them hadn't helped me walk to a resting room, I probably would've collapsed on the spot and passed out.

Still, for the first time, we had completed all fifty laps.

It was a massive step toward securing our victory.