Chapter 83

Chapter 83. It’s a Trap! (1)

About a week had passed since then.

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<Quest>

<Fleet Annihilation Request>

<Recently, there have been frequent reports of sightings of the Xenobia Empire's fleet near the Commander's base.>

<Of course, you haven’t personally reported it, but the existence of the neural network attached to your base...>

<It has been relaying such information to the Queen of Monsters in real time.>

<Oxianor wants you to annihilate the nearby Xenobia Empire fleet to ensure future safety.>

<Objective: Annihilate the Xenobia Detachment>

<Reward: 30 Event Points>

<Complete>

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“Hmm, sweet points.”

I had been diligently completing various quests and daily quests sent by Oxianor, steadily accumulating event points over the past few days.

Of course, I hadn’t even glanced at the “Event Shop” yet.

I deliberately avoided checking my points or trust status, thinking it might be bothersome…

But now, I thought, “A week of holding back is enough.”

Sitting in my command chair inside the command center, I casually opened the status window menu.

“Let’s see… where’s the trust status window?”

I decided to check my trust status, which I had left untouched for a week…

“Huh? What’s this?”

As soon as I checked the trust status, I noticed something peculiar.

“Jessica, Jessica, I just realized something new.”

“What is it, Commander?”

Jessica, who had been supporting Ignis by monitoring the communication screen while he dealt with the Xenobia Empire’s reconnaissance team infiltrating the satellite base, turned her head toward me with a hint of annoyance.

*Pout.*

Well, Jessica’s usual expression wasn’t exactly sharp.

Her soft eyes, fluffy rabbit ears on top of her head, and the short, stubby rabbit tail poking out near her tailbone…

Even though she was clearly annoyed, she just looked adorable.

Of course, if I kept thinking like that, I’d soon face Jessica’s *real* annoyance instead of just her pouty expression.

So, I shook off my stray thoughts and spoke to Jessica, whose bunny tail was twitching as she stared at me.

“Hey, it’s just that… the trust level isn’t increasing as much as I thought it would.”

“Are you talking about the faction trust level?”

“Yeah, take a look.”

I opened the “Trust Status Window” that I had checked after completing three quests today and showed it to Jessica.

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<Your trust level with the Space Monsters has increased by 2 points!>

<Current trust relationship with "Space Monsters": +17>

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Looking at the status window, Jessica frowned and said, “Something’s off. You completed three quests and handled one event, but only got 2 points… Compared to when we started, it’s only gone up by 3 points in total.”

“Right?”

Honestly, it was a really strange situation.

Previously, just clearing one quest or handling a “request” in the form of an event would give at least +1 trust level, and sometimes even +5.

But now, it felt like… even after completing over 10 quests and events in the past few days, the trust level was barely increasing, maybe even by decimal points.

“Is this some kind of scam or something?”

Feeling frustrated by the situation, I told Jessica to continue supporting Ignis and leaned back in my command chair.

I opened the gallery window to see how other users were doing.

Honestly, maybe… only the monsters are getting scammed like this.

Other factions might be getting their trust levels boosted easily.

Of course, if the developers had done the update properly, I wouldn’t have to suspect anything.

But already…

Looking at the record of everyone drawing their great swords (or demon swords?), it was clear that reliability was thrown out the window.

I decided to figure out what the heck was going on, and with a pounding heart, I opened the gallery window.

And of course, right next to it, our trusty chat window was also open.

But as soon as I opened the gallery and the chat window…

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… … … … … …

-[Guys, why isn’t the trust level going up? Is this normal?]

-[Is the trust level growth rate for real? My chest feels so grand right now.]

-[Why! Isn’t! The trust level! Going up!!!]

-[Something’s off with the faction trust level? It’s not going up at all.]

-[It was definitely +1 as a baseline not long ago? Why is this happening?]

… … … … … …

—————————————-

Just like me, the chat window was having a meltdown over the trust level not increasing.

The gallery was also a mess, with dozens of power plants being built due to the trust level issue from the faction.

—————————————-

-[The trust level is now increasing by 0.01 units at a time](6,165)

-[Is this for real? I finished a quest and the trust level didn’t budge at all](893)

-[Hey, you too?](611)

-[Is this a bug? Like, did they mess up the trust level value check or something?](1,135)

-[From now on, Manchester is taking over this place](3,569)

-[The gallery is on fire](957)

-[Wow, the firepower today is insane](2,358)

-[Must-read) Explaining why the trust level increase is weird right now](98,176)

… … … … … …

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Even the veterans who usually write tip posts were included in this chaos.

I started to think this might actually be a bug.

‘What’s that?’

In the middle of all this, a post titled ‘Must-read’ caught my eye.

A user, who might be a veteran or just a regular, wrote a new post explaining the cause of this issue.

Curious, I clicked on the post to see what it was about.

And after reading it, I realized it was something I naturally wouldn’t know.

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Title: Must-read) Explaining why the trust level increase is weird right now

Author: John Doe

Content: [Trust level growth curve graph]

This is something even returning players might not know.

Right now, tens of thousands of users in each faction are grinding for trust levels, right?

But because so many users are going crazy trying to raise their trust levels,

The system is applying a correction.

To put it bluntly, if they kept giving out trust levels like before (1, 5, 10, etc.), users would fill it up too quickly.

So, the more users trying to raise their trust levels, the more the trust level given by the faction is reduced to 1/N.

So, what used to give 1 trust level per user,

Now gives around 0.01 or 0.001.

Well, it’s probably not that extreme, but you get the idea.

Basically, if all faction users are desperately trying to raise their trust levels,

They get a trust level growth debuff.

Oh, and as mentioned earlier, it’s natural that even some veterans don’t know this,

Because this system was implemented just a few months before we got isekai’d.

So, those veterans who don’t know this? They’re probably just returning players who quit the game and came back.

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Comments:

-[Casually writing a tip post while digging into personal info lol]

-[Casual roast, upvote]

-[Tip post GOAT]

-[Ugh, newbies craving tip posts ugh]

-[So, should we roast the veterans who don’t know this?]

-[These guys are looking for a roast angle in the tip post, damn]

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‘Ah, I see.’

I nodded, feeling annoyed at how pointless this system was.