Chapter 73

Chapter 73. Ordinary Daily Life. (4)

Of course, apart from that, it was true that Gryanarr’s pranks had crossed the line.

“Professor Gryanarr, your actions could lead to serious trouble if you’re not careful.”

Our Jessica, who seemed quite angry, moved her rabbit ears and tapped Gryanarr’s head repeatedly.

Her truly bizarre way of expressing anger made me curious about the structure of those ears.

And it seemed Gryanarr felt the same way.

Despite being in the strange situation of having his head tapped repeatedly by Jessica, who was taller than him, he didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he seemed more fascinated by the way her soft, fluffy ears moved freely.

“Huhuhu, sometimes you need to pull these little pranks to keep the atmosphere lively, right?”

“…”

“Honestly, I’m more amazed by how freely those ears of yours move.”

Of course, in response to Gryanarr’s attitude, Jessica silently increased the speed of her ear taps.

-Tap tap tap tap tap

“W-wait… If you keep hitting my head like this, my intelligence and physical abilities might decrease. Maybe you should hit somewhere else…”

-Tap tap tap tap tap

Gryanarr’s relaxed demeanor gradually became more frantic as the tapping continued, but for now, it wasn’t important that Gryanarr was being turned into a shortstack.

I decided to stop watching the banter between Jessica and Gryanarr and turned to Oxianor, who had been watching Jessica’s strange rabbit ears with interest.

“First of all, Oxianor, the reason we came here is because we wanted to ask you something…”

<<"Ah, what is it that you're curious about?">>

“I was wondering how many users… no, Commanders have joined the Monster Force.”

How many Commanders do you have stored in your house? I asked.

Oxianor closed his eyelids and placed two tentacles under his eyes, as if deep in thought.

Then, after a moment, he opened his eyelids and sent me another telepathic message.

<<"Regarding your question, the Queen has granted permission to share that information.">>

“Ah, I see.”

Somehow, it felt less like the typical ‘mother and terminal’ relationship between the Queen and the monsters, and more like a genuine military hierarchy. It made me think that perhaps the Space Monsters, despite their appearance, were more organized than I had imagined.

And while I was pondering this, Oxianor’s telepathy continued.

<<"First, regarding the number of Commanders, we recently surpassed 20,000.">>

“Hmm, over 20,000?”

<<"To be precise, around 21,000. The exact number below three digits is still classified due to your current trust level.">>

“Umm… I see. That’s very helpful information.”

<<"I'm glad it was helpful.">>

Through Oxianor’s response, I was able to gauge roughly how the users were divided.

‘Let’s see… The Earth Federation has around 30,000 to 35,000, and the Pirate Alliance has reached 17,000, right?’

In addition, the number of users who have joined the Space Monsters this time is around 21,000.

So, considering the numbers, the remaining faction, the Xenobia Empire, which hasn’t disclosed its numbers, likely has around 25,000 users, give or take.

Anyway, now that I have a rough idea of the faction dynamics, I thanked Oxianor.

But in response to my gratitude, he waved his tentacles as if brushing it off.

<<"Everything depends on the Queen's choices. I'm just a middleman, a communication link.">>

“Oh…”

His calm, or rather, telepathic response made me nod, and I asked him to convey my thanks to the Queen.

With that, our business was concluded.

Oxianor then trembled his tentacles and sent me an additional telepathic message.

<<"By the way, judging from your actions, it seems you really have no prejudices.">>

“Huh?”

<<"You, as a Commander, have seen things even more bizarre than us, so I suppose it's natural for you to act this way.">>

“Well… that’s true.”

Wondering what he was getting at, I…

Oxianor seemed to like my attitude, nodding their head—or rather, wiggling their eyeballs up and down a couple of times—before continuing.

<<“But you, of course, and that ‘Gryanarr’ lady as well, are openly displaying a mind free of ‘prejudice.’”>>

I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t just a lack of prejudice, but rather curiosity overcoming prejudice. Still, I decided not to complicate things by opening my mouth and instead kept quiet, observing the situation.

Oxianor, seemingly satisfied with my behavior, gestured and got to the point.

<<“So, Commander Icarus, I think it’s time we had a more in-depth discussion about your base and fleet.”>>

Right after this telepathic message from our eyeball gentleman…

—————————————-

<Trust level with Space Monsters has increased by 5 points!>

<Current trust relationship with ‘Space Monsters’: +14>

—————————————-

‘Oooooh.’

Including the trust that had been slowly creeping up, it finally hit double digits. I felt a surge of joy inside.

==========

Of course, while it was nice that the trust level had increased, it didn’t really mean much at this stage. After wrapping up the pleasant meeting, I returned to the command center with Jessica and immediately opened the status window to check what functions were unlocked through trust levels.

Sure, I had some vague memories, but relying solely on hazy memories and getting screwed over wasn’t ideal… Even if it was a hassle, it was much safer and better to check at least once.

—————————————-

<Faction-wide Trust Relationship Unlock Functions>

<0>–<None>

<1~10>–<Chance of friendly messages and events occurring>

<10~15>–<Quest granting begins>

<15~25>–<Additional quests and events (resource support, etc.)>

<25~50>–<Recruitment of the faction’s ‘Superhuman’ possible> (Lower grade than ‘Superhumans’ from gacha.)

<50~70>–<Fleet lending possible>

<70~99>–<Various friendly events randomly generated, increased occurrence rate>

<100+>–<Direct quests from faction leader, significant increase in support items, higher-grade ‘Superhuman’ recruitment> (Details vary by faction, please refer accordingly.)

<Monster Force Exclusive Trust Relationship Unlock Functions>

<10+>–<Next trust level stage 2 visible>

<30+>–<General Monster Breeding Facility construction possible>

<50+>–<Unlocks special functions related to bio-modification>

<70+>–

<90+>–

<100+>–

—————————————-

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see everything yet. What’s worse, the ‘fleet production’ function, which is heavily utilized by players in faction recruitment, wasn’t visible. I realized I still had a long way to go and that the mountain of tasks ahead was enormous.

Of course, that didn’t mean I could just sit around doing nothing. As always, I decided to diligently level up my crew and fleet while steadily upgrading the base, one step at a time.

===========

But a week later…

“Commander! Another commander’s fleet is attacking our base!”

“Ah, crap.”

An Earth Federation player suddenly launched an attack, and just like that, my healing time was over.