Chapter 8

Episode 8. Rewards are always welcome.

And right after the clear message popped up.

The flagship of the pirate group… well, it’s a bit too shabby to be called that.

Anyway, after the pirate ship that the leader was on got sunk and disappeared.

I was happily watching that big, beautiful explosion, but then I put it down and looked at the shiny notification in front of me, grinning at the thought of collecting rewards.

<Critical hit on the pirate ship!>

<Sunk!>

<Patrol Ship level increased>

<Rewards collected: 0>

‘What the heck does that mean, Status Window?’

Despite successfully pulling off a great harpoon move.

I felt annoyed that the damn pirate ship Sheila gave nothing but a level-up for the patrol ship.

But maybe this annoyance showed on my face.

“Really sorry, Commander.”

“Huh?”

“Due to my lack of ability, I might have put you in danger.”

After the pirate attack, Ignis, who had brought back the captured pirate ships, was acting all apologetic towards me.

But I was just baffled by Ignis’s reaction.

Well, right now, it’s just me, Jessica, and Ignis in the base, so it’s not a big deal.

But later, when there are more people stationed here and large-scale battles happen… the person who actually did something is apologizing to me?

‘Ugh, loyalty drop event.’

If the trust and loyalty of the idle guys keep dropping, it could lead to a disaster with debuffs during attacks or defenses.

So I immediately stopped Ignis’s attitude and decided to praise the MVP of this battle.

“No, it’s not like my life was in danger, so don’t worry.”

“…Is that so?”

“Plus, thanks to your efforts, Ignis, both me and this base were handled without any issues, so isn’t that a relief?”

“Co-Commander, you feel that way… I don’t know what to say…!”

Hearing this, Ignis turned red like their hair and looked flustered.

—————————————-

After subduing (?) Ignis like that and sticking them in the base’s lounge to keep them from overthinking.

I let go of my frustration about the missed flagship reward and decided to check the rewards from the pirate attack.

But around this time, I realized that my plan had gone awry.

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong, Commander?”

“Jessica, is the reward from repelling a pirate attack supposed to be capturing a pirate ship?”

Originally, when you repel pirate raids.

You don’t get a pirate ship capture event, you just sink all the raiders.

And then you use the resources gained to upgrade the base or build new ships.

But this time, instead of resources, they gave me a ship, and a pirate ship full of mutilated pirates at that?

What am I supposed to do with this?

Facing such an unheard-of event, I was utterly baffled.

But that bafflement was short-lived.

‘Wait, I can just ask.’

Unlike the original game, here I can just ask through the chat window.

So I quickly clicked on the shiny status window in the corner and opened the chat to ask.

-[Guys, I repelled a pirate attack and got a pirate ship, why is this happening?]

-[Isn’t it supposed to give resources?]

And as soon as I asked, responses started pouring in…

-[Yeah, it gives resources.]

-[How did you get a pirate ship?]

-[Starting with 2 extra ships, OP game;;]

“What the.”

At first, most reactions were that I was the odd one, so I thought maybe it was a game bug or something.

Or maybe I was in some ‘I start with 3 ships cheat mode,’ feeling a bit smug.

-[Oh, that’s probably because of the recent update, it’s random now.]

-[Huh.]

-[Yeah, that’s right. Rewards are random now.]

-[No, no, it’s more like you get one of several possible rewards.]

“Ah, bummer.”

Sadly, it seems I’m not living the cheat mode life, so I felt a bit disappointed but decided to ask more.

-[What do you mean by several rewards?]

-[Nothing too different.]

-[Some people…]

Originally, you receive resources as usual, but some people get pirate ships like you.

– [Besides that, there are cases where you recruit pirate characters instead of pirate ships, or you can recruit characters who were captured by pirates.]

– [Ah, I think I’ve seen that too, yeah.]

– [Me too.]

– [222222222222]

– [33333333]

– [But if you’re unlucky with the last one, they just leave after saying they’ll pay their ransom, lol.]

– [Ah, that damn bastard.]

– [The meerkat got fooled again, lololol.]

“Hmm, I see.”

Thinking there was no need to look further, I scrolled down the chat window that kept popping up with notifications.

Then, I called Jessica, who was looking at the pirate ship next to me, and said:

“Jessica, can we dismantle that pirate ship and turn it into resources?”

“Huh? You want to just dismantle it?”

At Jessica’s words, I raised a finger and shook it, signaling a negative.

“No, not right now… but I thought we should find out if we can dismantle it ourselves later.”

“I see, Commander.”

At my words, Jessica seemed to gather her thoughts for a moment… and after a while:

“No problem, Commander. If you wish, we can start dismantling it right away.”

“Hmm, I see.”

At Jessica’s confident assertion, I nodded and accepted her words.

Right after this conversation, Jessica, realizing she had forgotten something, started giving me an additional report.

“Ah, right! Commander? Shouldn’t we start repairing and upgrading the base soon?”

“Hmm.”

“Once you complete the base upgrade, one of the superhumans in the base will wake up from a long hibernation to help you!”

And as soon as Jessica finished speaking, a quest appeared before my eyes.

—————————————-

<Base Repair and Upgrade>

<Due to a long hibernation and various collisions with space debris, your space base’s systems and external armor have suffered significant damage.>

<As a result, all systems in the base are currently operating at less than 30% capacity...>

<But if you, Commander, start repairing and upgrading the base, its condition will quickly return to normal.>

<Objective 1: Repair the base to at least 70% (Current durability: 54%, 1% repair requires 10 minerals)>

<Objective 2: Upgrade the base (Required mineral resources: 500)>

<Reward: Unlock additional base facilities and systems, resource supply>

—————————————-

‘Ugh.’

After carefully reviewing the quest, I checked the resources by operating the console I was sitting on.

<Current base mineral reserves: 857>

“Hmm… Jessica.”

“Yes, Commander?”

“How much does it cost to produce one patrol ship? Was it 100 minerals?”

“Yes, though it may change with future upgrades… initially, it’s 100.”

Right after hearing Jessica’s confirmation.

<Patrol ship construction complete!>

“Ah, a new patrol ship has been constructed! Now the base’s defenses will be even safer!”

Hearing that the patrol ship I ordered three days ago was complete, I immediately gave Jessica an order.

“Jessica.”

“Yes, yes! Commander!”

“Start producing another patrol ship now, and use the remaining resources to simultaneously repair and upgrade the base.”

“…Yes!”

==========

And about a week later.

<Base repair and upgrade complete!>

<As a reward, additional base facilities and systems are unlocked, and you receive extra resources!>

“Hmm, this is it.”

I felt a deep sense of satisfaction as I looked at the result of pouring all the resources I had saved up, without even producing patrol ships, into this project.