Chapter 86

Chapter 86. Our Empress Doesn’t Ask.

“Commander, by the way, about earning those reward points…”

“Hmm.”

Perhaps because I had been spacing out for almost an hour.

The tired office lady from before was nowhere to be seen, and Jessica’s eyes sparkled with renewed energy.

I nodded my head, gesturing for her to continue.

And in response to my reaction, Jessica, wagging her ears, went on.

“Can’t we just accept quests from Marian and complete them or something?”

“Marian?”

As she said this, Jessica pointed to Marian THE Pirate Empress, who was busy exchanging communications in a corner of the command center.

For a moment, my ears perked up.

‘Wait, that’s impossible.’

But that thought was fleeting.

As I thought about it more, I realized that what Jessica was suggesting was indeed impossible.

And since there was no need to keep that realization to myself.

I decided to share the harsh reality with our bunny girl Jessica, whose eyes were still sparkling.

“…I wish we could do that too, but unfortunately, we can’t get reward points from Marian.”

“Huh? Why not?”

Jessica, with a look of confusion, subtly shielded herself from Marian’s view.

She pointed at Marian with her finger and continued.

“But Marian has already maxed out her favorability with you, Commander, at 100%.”

“Well… that’s true.”

“Then shouldn’t we get way more reward points just by accepting quests from Marian? Why not?”

Instead of responding directly to Jessica’s rebuttal.

I decided to open the base status window and show it to her as my answer.

—————————————-

<Icarus Fleet>

<Affiliation: Space Monster>

<Base Level: 5>

<Fleet Size: 400 points>

<Forward Base: 0>

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“Ta-da.”

“…”

And our Jessica, proving she wasn’t chosen as an adjutant for nothing.

Upon seeing the status window and the ‘Affiliation’ section, she seemed to understand what I was getting at and nodded her head.

“Umm… so because our faction isn’t pirates, we can’t accept quests from Marian?”

“To be precise, we can accept ‘quests,’ but we can’t get event reward points.”

At this, Jessica tilted her head in confusion.

Then, with a look of disbelief, she opened her mouth again.

“Commander, then why don’t we just leave the Monster Faction and join the pirates?”

“Didn’t I show you last time? Once you leave a faction, it’s pretty tough to get back in.”

“Huh? Wasn’t that only for rejoining the original faction?”

“…I used to think that too.”

In a now hazy memory.

Thinking that joining a ‘different faction’ wouldn’t be a problem, I left my faction without a second thought.

Only to have my base ravaged by the angry fleet of my former faction during my noob days.

I shook my head, dismissing it as not worth discussing.

Then, half-jokingly, I muttered, “What a shame. If I had known this, I would’ve chosen pirates.”

But as soon as I said that, Jessica put a finger to her lips, gesturing for me to be careful.

“Commander, if Marian heard what you just said… things could get serious.”

“Huh?”

“Imagine if Marian heard that, or if you accidentally said it in front of her without realizing.”

“…”

“She might immediately decide to make sure you can’t reverse your choice… by gouging out Oxianor’s eyes?”

“…Oh.”

“And she might drag our entire base to become a pirate den.”

“Ugh.”

“Then she might try to make you her collection, like the former Pirate King who’s now a limbless human pig.”

Hearing this, I recalled the setting where the bearded Pirate King, now with all his limbs severed.

Lived as Marian’s personal pet, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

‘Our Marian is much more obsessive than I thought.’

But even so.

I couldn’t help but think that our Marian might evolve into a full-blown Marian.

Ah, those were the days.

Back when she was the Pirate Empress (Jin), reminiscing about Marian of the Cliffs and her pure, innocent(?) days.

Could she really have been that wicked? I couldn’t help but wonder.

But then again, thinking about it, Marian hasn’t really done anything crazy since we got here.

Sure, she’s pretty harsh on her subordinates.

But then again, those subordinates are none other than the notorious ‘Space Pirates,’ so it’s not like they’re a bunch of saints.

If she didn’t act tough, it’d be impossible to reign as the Empress or keep her crew in line. So, it’s only natural.

Other than that, our Marian has always been a bit of a flustered mess around me, both then and now.

I couldn’t help but wonder if this was some kind of infamous girl-on-girl divide or something.

But then I thought, ‘What am I even thinking? These are just game characters.’

Besides, Jessica, her adjutant, wouldn’t bother with such petty nonsense.

Just as I was coming to terms with reality, a new message popped up in front of me, as if it had been waiting for the perfect moment.

—————————————-

<Pirate Empress Marian's favorability has surpassed its limit.>

<However, considering Marian’s character settings, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.>

—————————————-

The message had a strong warning tone, so I dug through some old forum posts I found in the gallery about the Pirate Empress.

And there, I rediscovered some of Marian’s ‘detailed settings’ that I had forgotten.

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Title: Pirate Empress Marian’s Detailed Settings 3.

Author: Wiki Officer mk3

Content: [Full-body concept art of the Pirate Empress]

Pirate Empress Marian has her own ‘harem’ in the lore.

But this harem isn’t your typical juicy forest of beauties or anything like that.

It’s more like a livestock farm where she captures traitors or those who resist her, cuts their photos, and turns them into human pigs.

Oh, and there are rumors that innocent people are caught up in it too.

And according to official lore, she does all sorts of crazy things to these human pigs.

When I first read this, I was like, ‘What the hell is this nonsense?’

I mean, even if they don’t have limbs, what if there’s a psychic or something?

What if they bite her with their teeth or something?

But then I read that she fries their brains if they’re psychics and pulls out all their teeth. Gave me chills.

Oh, and later, someone drew a really hot doujin about it in THE EYES, so I ended up liking the setting.

Comments:

-[???]

-[Why are you exposing your tastes like this??]

-[Ah] (Author)

-[Wiki Officer is a total weirdo;;;]

-[I’ll tell you~ my~ shy little secret~]

—————————————-

After reading that post (or should I say, tip?), I happened to lock eyes with Marian, who was waving at me from afar, looking all happy.

At that moment, I vowed to myself to never again casually suggest switching factions to pirates or anything like that.

==========

Anyway, after having that kind of conversation, Jessica and I neatly wrapped up the discussion about faction choices and started agonizing over how to earn more points.

But even with Jessica by my side, brainstorming together, I couldn’t come up with a decent solution, and I could feel my frustration building.

And the next day, something even more infuriating happened…

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-[Hey, check out the updated message] (77,186)

—————————————-

‘Oh, please.’

As I read that cursed post and saw the update message in front of me, I felt like the sky was falling.