Chapter 260

Chapter 260. Watch closely what I can do. (2)

Of course, naturally, if you hire thousands of mercenary groups, the daily resource consumption alone would be close to 100,000.

“Commander, but then we’d really be consuming 100,000 units a day. How do you plan to handle that?”

“Hmm.”

“Our current maximum resource collection limit is 5.5 million for minerals and only 1 million for rare resources, right?”

“Hmm.”

“You remember that hiring mercenary groups also consumes resources, right?”

“Hmm.”

“Then wouldn’t our base resources be completely drained even before we start the siege?”

“Ah… so that’s what you’re worried about.”

Hearing Jessica’s words, I shrugged and said that wouldn’t be a problem either.

“No need to worry too much. After all, we’ll hire them all at once on the day of the siege… and release them immediately after the siege is over.”

“Oh…”

“Even if we push the resources to the limit by hiring thousands of mercenary groups, we’ll last for 2-3 days.”

“That should be fine then.”

After all, we weren’t planning to conduct a city… or base siege over a long period.

As mentioned before, this area was literally a den of wolves.

If I were to drag out the siege unnecessarily?

Other wolf-like users around would swarm in, saying, “Oh, let me have a bite too!” and slowly nibble away at our defense fleet.

No, that would actually be fortunate.

If things went wrong, they might not just target the defense fleet but also start gnawing at my own fleets, trying to exponentially extend the mercenary hiring period.

For us, there was no other option but to aim for a super-speed, short-term decisive battle.

==========

Anyway, after finalizing our plans like that.

With 20 days left until the construction of the Air Command… and another 4 days after that for the large aircraft carrier to be fully repaired.

I decided to make the most of the remaining month, saving up as many resources as possible.

Frankly, the mercenary hiring system only allows “changes” once a day.

As long as you have the leeway, the system fills up with new mercenary groups the moment you hire them.

So, to hire a large number of mercenary groups for the base siege, all you needed was a lot of resources…

My goal became to push the resource stockpile to its limit.

But for that, the current resource supply was still quite insufficient.

“Hmm… Jessica, Jessica.”

“You only need to call me once, Commander.”

“How are our current resources?”

“The supply rate?”

“No, not just that. Tell me everything about where we’re consuming and supplying resources.”

“Hmm… just a moment.”

Following my order, Jessica started checking and tapping on her tablet.

Soon, she projected a separate holographic screen in front of me and calmly began to explain.

“First, the daily resource supply from the base itself is 6,200 minerals and 470 rare resources.”

“Hmm.”

“From the resource mining fleets, we’re currently getting about 23,000 minerals and 8,100 rare resources.”

“What about the forward bases?”

“We’ve built a total of 3, and 2 of them are supplying 6,000 minerals and 1,300 rare resources. The remaining one is expected to start full operation in about 2 days…”

“Hmm, I guess we’ll have to see how much it actually mines.”

“Yes, but the estimated figures are 2,500 minerals and 800 rare resources.”

“What about quests?”

“Ah, daily quests give us 3,000 minerals and 500 rare resources.”

As Jessica spoke, she input the data into the hologram.

—————————————-

<Icarus Astral Base Resource Status>

<Current Resource Supply: 33,315 Minerals, 10,370 Rare Resources>

—————————————-

“Hmm, hmmmm.”

“That’s roughly the amount.”

It feels like just yesterday I was bragging about surpassing 20,000 in daily supply, and now we’ve hit 30,000.

Is it because of Rain’s resource supply buff, which increased the base’s resource supply rate?

I felt a deep sense of emotion, but that was short-lived.

With Princess Luka’s hobby (?) support funds, and the massive increase in fleet maintenance costs due to the battleships, carriers, and cruiser battleships filling up the place…

“…Hmm, and then there’s…”

“Except for the things that consume resources?”

“Calculating the average fleet repair costs, plus maintenance fees, hiring costs, and other expenses, all combined?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm, then… roughly this much.”

—

**<Icarus Astral Base Daily Resource Status>**

**Current Resource Income: Minerals 33,315, Rare Resources 10,370**

**Current Resource Consumption: Minerals 13,519, Rare Resources 3,453**

**<Net Income: Minerals 19,796, Rare Resources 6,917>**

—

“…It’s quite a shortage.”

“Well, once the 3rd forward base starts operating, the daily income might hit 20,000 again.”

Not bad, but if things continue like this, even after about 24 days when the carrier repairs are done…

At best, we’ll only have 500,000 minerals and less than 50,000 rare resources, barely enough to hire mercenaries.

“Ah, but Commander, we have weekly quests, monthly quests, and those occasional quests from the monsters, right?”

“Hmm… that’s true, but while weekly and monthly quests are predictable, faction quests are a bit too random.”

Even if we open all the resource boxes currently in the base, including the ones from the last gacha…

We might get around 200,000.

Anyway, after suddenly grasping the situation, I realized that, contrary to expectations, organizing the forces to attack the space city stronghold is quite difficult.

“Not easy.”

“Well, sieging a city is never easy, right?”

But since we can’t just cancel the plan we’ve already started…

I decided that even if I have to drain all the gold from the trading market, I’ll buy and open a ton of resource boxes to create a mercenary group.

I resolved not to let this burning determination be extinguished.

—

But really, is this a blessing in disguise?

Just 3 days after making that decision…

Shortly after the 3rd forward base officially started operating…

—

**<Global Announcement>**

**<Mini Event 'Chasing the Ghost Fleet!' is now open!>**

**<A message for all Commanders.>**

**<Long ago, some of the exploration fleets that set out on a journey to the distant universe encountered accidents or were left behind.>**

**<However, it seems that the ships of those abandoned or lost fleets are drifting aimlessly and heading towards your bases, Commanders!>**

**<Capture and inspect the drifting ghost fleet ships to earn small rewards!>**

**<Caution!>**

**<You never know what's inside the ships!>**

**<They might just contain resources, or ancient technology, or even superhumans in hibernation.>**

**<Or, over the years, the crew or their corpses might have mutated into monsters, or there could be terrifying viruses or killer robots.>**

**<But no matter what you find, rewards will be given in real-time upon completing the investigation and exploration of the ships!>**

**<We look forward to your active participation and interest, Commanders!>**

—

“Oh…”

“My, isn’t this… a chance to gather additional resources, Commander?”

“You’re right, Jessica.”

With an event dropping resource box(?) ships for users…

I decided to officially form a capture and investigation team to secure as many resources as possible through this bittersweet event.

Of course, it’s called an investigation team(?), but in reality, it’s more like barging in, slaughtering everything, and looting resources(?).

Well, if we happen to get superhumans, ‘technology,’ or ‘equipment’ along the way, that’d be a bonus too.