Chapter 77

Chapter 77. Shouting “First Strike, Certain Victory” Doesn’t End Well (4)

Suddenly losing most of his fleet and barely managing to save a few precious rare ships, Pierre exclaimed:

“I’ve been tricked! That third-ranked guy built a Mercenary Dispatch Center first instead of building his fleet!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes! I should’ve realized something was off when the fleet was too lacking!”

Pierre, under some strange delusion, was venting his frustration at Icarus, who he believed had deceived him.

Of course, if Icarus had heard this, he would’ve been baffled, wondering where Pierre got such a wild idea.

Unfortunately, Icarus wasn’t present, so Pierre continued to rant and rage at him.

“By the way, Commander, some ships have returned via emergency warp, but even if we combine all the returning ones, it’s only 10% of what we originally had.”

“…We got slaughtered that badly?”

The numbers were staggeringly different.

While Icarus’s fleet was counterattacking and being double-teamed, Pierre, desperate to save at least the rare ships, ended up suffering severe losses.

“Even at the most optimistic estimate… many of the ships are in such bad shape that it might be better to scrap them for resources.”

“How bad is the ratio?”

“At least 30% of the remaining ships… I’d say.”

“Ugh… damn it.”

Closing his eyes, Pierre could still see the illusion of his ships exploding moments ago.

Rubbing his temples, he pondered how to resolve this situation.

But his pondering didn’t last long.

“By the way, Commander, if we don’t do something, won’t that Commander Icarus’s fleet come to attack us?”

“…Ah, right!”

As his adjutant Maya pointed out, if they stayed idle, that crazy third-ranked guy might just decide to crush them with his fleet.

“Mail, mail… no, Status Window!”

Pierre immediately pulled up his status window and opened the special notification indicating the war status with Icarus.

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<Pierre-Icarus Invasion Battle>

<Fleet Battle Result 1:2>

<Would you like to surrender?>

<Surrendering requires transferring 50,000 minerals and 2,000 rare resources to the opponent.>

<Y/N>

—————————————-

“Ugh… YES.”

Immediately declaring surrender, Pierre said:

“Maya, sorry, but can you keep an eye on my mail for me?”

“Of course, Commander, I’ll help with whatever I can.”

Regardless of whether the surrender was accepted, Pierre sent an additional apology via mail along with 10,000 minerals upfront.

Of course, this meant that including the surrender compensation, a whopping 60,000 minerals would be lost in one go.

“But it’s still better than having all our base facilities destroyed and having to rebuild from scratch, right?”

“You’re right, Commander.”

Trusting his increasingly strong survival instincts, Pierre decided to swallow his pride and offer the resources cleanly, planning for the future.

And at the same time, he harbored thoughts of soon leaving the Earth Federation to join the Monster Force.

No matter how good the romance is, survival comes first, right?

Moreover, he realized that later on, he could just legally “confiscate” those super-large ships.

==========

“Commander, the transport ship with the surrender compensation from Commander Pierre is expected to arrive at our base soon.”

“Hmm, he’s quite a likable fellow.”

‘He sent it much faster than I expected.’

Excluding the sneak attack without a declaration of war, the opponent’s actions were quite to my liking.

Looking at the apology mail and the 10,000 minerals that had just arrived, I wished that someday we could meet as teammates and decided to accept the spoils of victory.

And with this, we suddenly had a surplus of resources.

“Jessica, what’s the current total resource count?”

“Yep, including the incoming compensation… we have 87,000 minerals and about 6,000 rare resources.”

Hearing Jessica’s words, I immediately opened the base construction upgrade window to choose what to build next.

—————————————-

<Base Upgrade Facility Possible List>

<Additional Docking Facility>(2,500)

<Forward Base>(30,000)

<Mercenary Dispatch Center>(17,500)

—————————————-

‘Oh, only three left now.’

Looking at the nearly completed facility list, I felt a sense of accomplishment.

After some thought, I decided to start building the Forward Base.

Although it’s ridiculously expensive, having just that one built would…

One can ensure safety from sudden attacks by other factions.

Moreover, unlike the method of spreading unmanned drones for surveillance, it was a way to firmly expand my ‘territory.’

Of course, Jessica raised some doubts and objections to my choice.

“Commander, but with this battle, there’s a lot to repair or newly build for the fleet… Isn’t it not a good idea to use too many resources at once?”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

“Yes, and it’s not just our fleet that needs repairs. We should also help with Leonard’s fleet repair costs.”

“Huuuuum.”

“You should at least leave a reserve of about 50,000, Commander.”

“50,000, huh…”

After Jessica’s words, I decided to take a moment to think.

‘From what I remember, we get about 3,000 to 5,000 minerals per day.’

And through the <Resource Synthesis Production Facility> attached to the base, we get an additional 1,000 minerals every week.

But despite that, Jessica’s words meant…

That the fleet recovery and repair costs would be much higher than I thought.

Having sorted out my thoughts, I nodded in agreement with Jessica.

“Alright, then unfortunately, we’ll have to keep the Forward Base as is this time.”

“Good thinking, Commander.”

But base upgrades should always be done diligently, as they can affect the late-game snowball effect.

Instead of the Forward Base, I decided to build a Mercenary Dispatch Center right below it.

“Then let’s build a Mercenary Dispatch Center instead.”

“Ah, that should be sufficient.”

It wouldn’t be a big burden on the reserve resources for repairs.

As soon as I heard Jessica’s response, I immediately selected ‘Mercenary Dispatch Center’ from the construction list.

And decided to proceed with the construction.

—————————————-

<Mercenary Dispatch Center construction in progress...>

<<<Time remaining until completion: 14 days 3 hours 56 minutes>>>

—————————————-

Meanwhile, the size of the Mercenary Dispatch Center is quite small compared to other buildings or modules added to this base.

Yet, the construction time is longer than that of various research labs or the <Weapon Development Center>.

It’s truly an incomprehensible sight, raising doubts.

But since even the setting guide doesn’t explain it, it’s one of the seven wonders (?) of Astral Lagrange.

Shaking my head at unnecessary thoughts, I decided to put in the effort to live diligently tomorrow and the day after.

==========

And in that way, I had various clashes with nearby factions.

A small clan suddenly picked a fight, and I made sure they got wrecked by Leonard at the base.

A crazy user loaded about ten superhumans onto a tank-type armored cruiser and rammed it into the base like an assault pod.

Thanks to Ignis, Belial, Leonard, and Gryanarr, who created a tentacle monster using themselves as the core, we barely held on.

Finally, Marian returned from her mission, and we narrowly survived.

After such a spectacular time, a month has passed.

Despite the busy and spectacular days, time flies by quickly.

As usual, I opened the gallery to see what today’s hot topic was.

And the moment I opened the gallery…

—————————————-

-[Hey, did you see the new notice that just popped up?](35,645)

—————————————-

A post with an overwhelming amount of firepower caught my eye, and I immediately clicked to see what it was about…

—————————————-

Title: Hey, did you see the new notice that just popped up?

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Notice message notification window check]

There’s a notice, but no notification popped up, so I checked.

They’re holding an event to decide the gallery moderators, is this for real?

—————————————-

I was momentarily dumbfounded, wondering what this was all about.

But only for a moment.

-Ding♬

Naturally, the notification sound rang, and I left the gallery window open to check the new notification in the notification window.