Chapter 151

Chapter 151. Commander, Did You Do What You Had to Do? (3)

“Of course, I’m not doing this without any thought.”

“That’s obvious.”

“I can guarantee that the Commander wouldn’t do something like that.”

Though they said they believed me, their eyes told a different story. I gestured to Jessica beside me, and she projected the holograms I had prepared earlier.

“Hmm… what’s this?”

“It’s the new mercenary group I hired. They cost 1,500 minerals per day.”

As I spoke, a completely ordinary fleet of mercenaries, consisting of 1 cruiser, 2 destroyers, 5 patrol ships, and a few others, floated leisurely in front of us.

Seeing my confident expression and the mercenary fleet, the two seemed to realize what I was getting at.

“Wait, Commander, are you planning to fill all the small ships with mercenaries?”

“Yeeeeees.”

“Hmm… but won’t that drain your resources in no time? Even if you’re cutting costs, considering your current scale, you’d need at least 3-4 small pirate groups.”

And for some reason, they were looking at me like I was Rome entrusting border defense to the Germanic tribes.

‘Why are they looking at me like that?’

For a moment, I was confused by their reaction, but it didn’t last long.

—

<Event>

<Upon hearing your plan to dismantle almost all small ships and replace them with mercenaries, Belial suspects that the mercenaries or pirates might have brainwashed you.>

<Marian, on the other hand, is considering storming the mercenary office after this meeting, thinking you’re being scammed.>

—

‘…’

Seeing the event message in the status window, I quickly started explaining my plan in detail.

“Wait, no! I’m not planning to handle everything with mercenaries!”

“…?”

“Then what?”

They looked at me as if asking, “Then what’s with the hologram?” I shook my head and had Jessica project a new hologram, showing a small fleet of space monsters.

“My plan is this! I’ll fill the lower-tier fleets, including small ships, with mercenaries and small to medium-sized space monsters!”

“Hmm…”

“Of course, as a precaution, I’ll always have 5 Azkran-Class Destroyers and 5 patrol ships on standby!”

“Ah, I see.”

Once they understood my plan, they nodded, acknowledging that it made sense.

“So, Commander, are you planning to fill the remaining fleet capacity with only cruisers and above?”

“Well, that would definitely give off a strong intimidating presence…”

Though they still seemed a bit uneasy, I snapped my fingers and confirmed their guess.

“Exactly! To be honest, later on, I plan to dismantle all cruisers except for the Overseer and Kanhel-Class I currently have.”

“Wow…”

“Commander, isn’t that too risky? Even so, reducing the number of destroyers seems excessive…”

Despite their concerns, I decided to fully explain the plan I had in mind.

“Mm, I understand why you’re reacting like this.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“But there’s a reason why we need to reduce the number of ships below cruisers.”

As I spoke, I admitted that the plan wasn’t 100% finalized yet. Feeling like I was beating around the bush, I decided to just go for it.

“What is it, Commander?”

“Simply put, I’ll organize my fleet with only large ships like cruiser battleships and light aircraft carriers.”

“And then?”

“Then, unlike other solo players who have to invest in small ships and lack large ships, I’ll live like a mercenary, charging others for my services!”

– Boom!

As soon as I finished speaking, Jessica, who had somehow gotten her hands on fireworks, set them off in celebration.

“Indeed, it seems like a decent approach in its own way.”

“Right?”

“Although it will cost more resources, the hiring fees for mercenaries will not only return to normal over time… but will actually decrease.”

“Exactly, you nailed the point.”

Belial, who was in front of us, clapped and showed a positive reaction to our discussion…

But Marian, who was next to her, tilted her head, still looking puzzled.

“Bro, I think the idea itself is fine.”

“I see.”

“But, bro, do you really think other commanders wouldn’t have the same idea?”

“Hmm.”

“Other commanders would probably think the same way, so it might not be as easy to succeed as you think, bro.”

After Marian’s sharp observation, I realized her point was quite valid.

However, there was a reason I was pushing this plan forward.

The main reasons were the ‘Mercenary Office’ and the ‘Monster Ship Production Facility,’ which were the driving forces behind this plan.

Currently, in our base, there are no limits on hiring or production numbers.

But for other users, there were limits to hiring from the Mercenary Office.

Originally, it only didn’t consume the user’s points.

But since they had their own allocated points, if they exceeded that limit, they wouldn’t be able to hire any more mercenaries.

This would lead to a situation where additional hiring was completely blocked.

And this wasn’t just limited to the Mercenary Office; for us, it was the same with monsters.

The ‘offices’ of each faction stationed in their bases also had similar restrictions.

Each base had allocated points based on its level, and even at maximum level, it was around 200-300 points.

Moreover, the maximum number of ships they could hire was around 30.

For other users, mercenaries and faction fleets were like a chicken rib—useless but hard to discard.

But for me, this situation was completely irrelevant.

While other commanders had only a single envoy from the faction stationed in their base…

I had Marian, the Empress of the Pirate Alliance, as the leader.

And on the monster side, I had Luka, the princess of the highest rank.

Surprisingly, for me, hiring and breeding mercenaries and monster fleets didn’t consume any points.

Of course, as you can tell from my previous comments, I didn’t know about this originally…

==========

It was just a night when I was struggling with the small ship issue after laying out the basic plan.

Thinking I needed to clear my head, I was scrolling through the gallery…

—————————————-

Title: It’s sudden, but the 3rd place seems to fight quite gentlemanly.

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Battle screenshot with the Icarus Fleet]

After defeating the Pirate Empress, they didn’t spam mercenaries using minerals.

They strictly fought with only their own fleet.

It’s kind of like a villain fighting with their power sealed, which is kinda hot.

Comments:

– [What? What are you talking about?]

– [Mercenaries have a number limit and are expensive because they consume minerals.]

– [Are you talking about the Pirate Empress’s own fleet?]

– [You guys don’t know, but if the Pirate Empress is in the base, there’s no limit to hiring pirates from the Mercenary Office.]

– [Wait, really?]

– [Yeah, that’s why sometimes you see a bunch of pirates popping up near the base. That’s probably why.] (Author)

– [Wow, damn, no wonder they only use basic ships, they’re actually OP.]

– [ㄱㅆㅅㅌㅊ;;]

—————————————-

‘What.’

By chance, through a post written by someone who had fought me…

I discovered that I was, in fact, an OP powerhouse without even realizing it.