Chapter 70

Episode 70. An Ordinary Day. (1)

After spending the day reading various nonsense about faction trust relationships.

The next morning.

-*Ring ring♬*

Realizing that I had become so accustomed to the old alarm that I couldn’t get up even when it rang.

I welcomed a refreshing morning with a newly changed alarm sound.

Then, after being thrown around here and there, following my unchanged daily routine.

After a quick wash, I put on the official uniform given to me as the base commander and headed straight to the command center.

And upon arriving at the command center, as usual, I took actions to complete daily quests.

“Jessica, what about today’s long-term mining expedition?”

“I sent it as soon as you turned on the command console, Commander.”

“Good.”

So, I reorganized the Resource Mining Fleet and sent them on expeditions.

“What’s being newly constructed this time?”

“We’re rebuilding one Patrol Ship that was sunk while fighting the Xenobia Empire’s patrol unit, and the ship that was heavily damaged and towed by another ship is scheduled to be dismantled.”

“Hmm.”

Similarly, as soon as I arrived at the command center, the ship construction and dismantling quests were resolved in just a minute.

Feeling satisfied, I decided to go check out the gallery.

And as soon as I entered the gallery, I saw a post about how the factions seemed to have been somewhat organized.

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Title: Hey, it seems like the factions have been somewhat organized now?

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Screenshot of Earth Federation’s statistical data]

Everyone is estimating that the current user population is roughly around 100,000, give or take 10,000.

After building up trust and asking the Earth Federation’s manager, he said that the number of commanders affiliated with the Earth Federation alone is roughly between 30,000 and 35,000.

But looking at the numbers of those who were rampaging in the gallery, it seems like everyone is about the same.

If the other factions have joined similarly, it seems like everyone has made their choices now.

Comments:

-[As expected of the Home-World, the population is the largest.]

-[Even at maximum, the user population is 110,000, and at least 30,000 of them are in the Earth Federation? Crazy.]

-[Corrupt Earth Federation out.]

-[If you’re jealous, you should join the Earth Federation too, you idiot.]

-[Idiot? Where are you from?]

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Naturally ignoring the comments that were heading in a strange direction, I pondered over the information posted by the anonymous user.

And seeing me like this, Jessica quietly approached, read the gallery post, and made a rather serious expression.

“Commander, if this is true, wouldn’t the power balance between factions completely collapse?”

“Power balance, you say?”

“Yes, if a large-scale war between factions breaks out later… I’m worried that the fleets of commanders like you might not function as meaningful forces.”

Jessica trailed off, but.

Even without her saying it all, it was obvious what she was trying to say.

I shrugged and said that there’s no need to worry too much about it right now.

“That’s also a concern, but right now, there’s not much we can do about it, is there?”

“Is that so?”

“Think about it, how much firepower did commanders like me gather when dealing with pirates?”

“About 1,500 commanders gathered, with nearly 12,000 ships…?”

As Jessica dug through her memories to answer, I nodded and added more explanation.

“Yeah, and at that time, the so-called Pirate King and those who gathered to help him had over 10,000 ships, so the total firepower of both sides combined didn’t even reach 30,000.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But do you know how many ships the Xenobia Empire’s fleet, which has the smallest number among the factions, has in total?”

“Uh… I’m not sure.”

Recalling the settings of Astral Lagrange, which I had once been so immersed in that I even spent money on, I shared what I remembered with Jessica.

“At least over 10 million, of course, that’s counting all types of ships combined.”

“…”

Hearing my words, Jessica looked like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

And while making gestures as if she had misheard, she perked up her rabbit ears, showing interest.

Rather than explaining it in detail and making my mouth tired.

“Here, this contains the result you want.”

In a tone like the pilot telling the Little Prince that there’s a sheep inside the box, I opened the previous mass mail and showed it to Jessica.

——————-

<Overall Announcement>

<Regarding the settlement of the 'Pirate Invasion' event>

First, let me share the results of the event.

Commanders, you have permanently annihilated a total of 16,905,151 pirate groups and eliminated 125,309,057 pirate ships.

······ ······ ······ ······ ······ ······

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Over ten million pirate groups were slaughtered.

And over 125 million ‘pirate ships’ were sunk.

“Wow.”

Seeing Jessica’s extremely surprised expression, I wondered if I hadn’t shown this to her before.

And so, I continued the story.

“One hundred million, Jessica.”

“…”

“At their peak, the pirates used over 100 million ships to invade the bases of more than 100,000 Commanders.”

Of course, to be blunt, it’s not like the pirates ‘actually’ had that many ships.

It’s more likely that the game system or the developers added something extra.

But the important thing is that such an insane number of ships were mobilized, showcasing the sheer scale of this world’s resources.

“Of course, now that so many ships have been destroyed, the numbers have significantly decreased.”

“Yes…”

“But there are still tens of millions left, right? And the other factions probably have even more, far surpassing the Xenobia Empire.”

As I said this, I pulled up the mini-map (?) on the command console.

Tapping the mini-map, I continued.

“The event was only at a level where users could endure. If a full-scale war between ‘factions’ breaks out, as you mentioned…”

“…the Commanders’ current forces wouldn’t be able to do anything meaningful.”

“Exactly, in their ‘current’ state.”

After saying this, I opened the management window of my base fleet and showed it to Jessica.

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Fleet Status

Total Points: 370.5 Points

Cruisers: 23 ships, 6 Points

Destroyers: 45 ships, 3 Points

Escort Ships: 25 ships, 1.5 Points

Patrol Ships: 30 ships, 1 Point

Resource Mining Ships: 20 ships, 1.5 Points

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“As you know, my fleet isn’t particularly large compared to other users, right?”

“That’s right, even including the mining ships, you don’t even have 150 ships.”

“But in the late game, a single Commander’s fleet points will easily reach at least 1,500~2,000, with an average of 5,000 being the norm.”

“…Hmm.”

“Of course, by then, everyone will have fleets composed of at least cruisers or larger ships, except for a few patrol ships used as cannon fodder… but the numbers will still be overwhelmingly larger than now.”

“Ah, I see…”

“So by the ‘late game,’ a clan with 50~100 members could easily field 10,000 ships…”

“Taking the Earth Federation as an example, the minimum of 30,000 Commanders could easily produce over 10 million ships, no joke.”

“Right, but for now, no one has that kind of power.”

“Ah, I see.”

Seeing Jessica’s nod of understanding, I nodded back, signaling that’s how it is.

And with that, I decided to end the conversation and continue browsing the gallery.

But the moment I reopened the gallery…

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-[Where did all those neutral country jokers go?](44)

—————————————-

‘That’s right? Where did they all go?’

Seeing a post that caught my interest, I quietly clicked on it to take a look.