Chapter 295

Chapter 295. This is how loyalty is earned, Commander.

The threefold difference made me feel like my mental state was being tossed around like crazy, but somehow, I managed to hold it together and tried to observe the situation more calmly.

When I thought about it, converting to points… Even if I added up everything I mobilized, it would only reach 120,000. Meanwhile, over there, 385 users gathered to produce 350,000, so the difference was only natural.

Anyway, after grasping the situation, I realized how much power I needed to invest to conquer the Tanhoizer Gate Fortress.

“Jessica, how much did it cost to hire all 512 mercenary groups last time?”

“I remember it was 2.5 million minerals and 300,000 rare resources for the hiring fee.”

“…Hmm.”

Roughly calculating, that’s three times more. But considering the additional power we need to subtract from the ‘Pirate Alliance Fleet’…

“This is bad. Just the hiring fee alone would require a one-time investment of at least 10 million minerals.”

“That’s insane. We’ve only just gathered 2 million minerals so far.”

Just the hiring fee alone: 10 million minerals, at least 1 million rare resources.

“Oh right, how much did they take daily as contract fees back then?”

“800,000 minerals and nearly 100,000 rare resources.”

If we recruit like that again, it means they’ll consume at least 3 million minerals and 400,000 rare resources daily.

“Even if we go all-in for a short-term battle, it’ll take at least 3 days…”

“The maximum resources we can gather right now, regardless of minerals or rare resources, is 16.5 million, Commander.”

“…”

If we don’t hire forces that cost 12 million in hiring fees and 3.4 million daily in contract fees, we can’t conquer the Tanhoizer Gate Fortress.

“Holy moly.”

Our base is only at level 8, so the maximum resource storage hasn’t increased. To make use of this, we’d have to fight for a while…

We’d have to convert resources from the trading market or resource boxes, fill the resource warehouse, and then quickly spend the contract fees.

“Wait a minute, how much were the resource boxes we saved up last time and the resources we bought with 20,000 gold?”

“That? It was about 300,000 minerals and 70,000~80,000 rare resources in total.”

“…This is bad.”

The problem is, unlike before, I don’t have any resource boxes left now.

And thanks to spending all the gold I received as rewards last time, I don’t have much left…

“How many resource boxes do we have left now?”

“Three, but even if we open all of them, we won’t get even 10,000 minerals.”

“This is really bad.”

If we don’t gather enough power to go all-in, our resources will literally vanish into thin air.

Even if we spend all our resources, it’ll still be less than what the Latun Water and Magellan Clan mobilized…

“My mental state is shattered.”

Even if I mobilize my fleet, the ‘Rhodes Mercenary Group,’ the ‘Avalonia Security Fleet,’ and the now roughly 50-ship-strong ‘Princess Luka’s Royal Fleet,’ half of the mercenaries we hired would desert after just one day.

“Holy moly holy mimi molorolo.”

At least the gold investment has been somewhat steady.

—————————————-

<Trading and Auction System Notice>

<To use this system, you need the exclusive currency 'Gold.'>

<It’s different from the rare mineral 'Gold' and can only be used here.>

<Current Commander’s remaining currency: 25,083 Gold>

—————————————-

I managed to increase it to 25,000, but even if I spend it all, the most I can get is 500,000 resources?

Moreover, considering the ‘random’ nature of resource boxes, the fluctuation in resources could be wildly unpredictable.

Even if we say 500,000, if luck isn’t on our side, it could be even less…

“Jessica, if we start building additional forward bases and upgrading our base to gather resources at maximum capacity… how long would it take to gather everything?”

“Probably around 2 months.”

I decided to put in every effort to find a way within the time Jessica calculated.

The only saving grace is that this outpost I captured generates 3,000 gold weekly.

If I save up without spending it on unnecessary things during those 2 months and continue small-scale ship stock(?) investments…

I should be able to gather at least 240,000~250,000, which would allow me to gather at least 1 million resources.

‘

Hmm, other than doing quests and this and that, there seems to be no other solution.’

Anyway, after assessing the situation, I concluded that there’s no other way but to gather, gather, and gather some more.

With the goal of collecting enough resources to maintain the attack power of ‘Tanhoizer’ for a maximum of three days, I decided to put in some serious effooooort.

==========

However, as mentioned earlier, that task was something that wouldn’t happen for at least two more months.

Before that, there was another problem that needed to be solved.

And what was that, you ask?

“What on earth are you doing, Commander Icarus?”

“Ah.”

“Neglecting the management of the fleet and the superhumans is practically failing in your duty as a commander, isn’t it?”

“Hmm.”

“Not properly managing even a single fortress base makes you unqualified as a commander, don’t you think?”

“….”

Right now, the issue at hand was the newly hired fleet commander of the ‘Avalonia Security Fleet.’

A female character who introduced herself as ‘Aquarias’ was the immediate problem that had just blown in.

However, it wasn’t because Aquarias had caused any trouble.

—————————————-

<Aquarias>

<Level 50>

<Type: Support>

<Traits: Ordinary person, commander, master strategist, meticulous, irritable>

<Stats>

Health: D-

Attack Power: N/A (Ordinary person)

Physical Defense: N/A (Ordinary person)

Magic Power: SSS-

Magic Defense: N/A (Ordinary person)

Mobility: N/A (Ordinary person)

—————————————-

As you can see from those bizarre stats, Aquarias was the only ‘ordinary person’ among the regular characters in my base.

She didn’t have the ability to cause trouble even if she wanted to.

Moreover, her command buffs and abilities were quite exceptional, but as a trade-off,

her overly by-the-book attitude meant she had no reason to cause trouble herself.

However, in return, her personality was quite… let’s say, difficult.

Not exactly bad, but she had a very strong tendency to nitpick and criticize.

She was the typical ‘self-assured to the point of being dogmatic genius’ type, you know?

Of course, there are plenty of characters like that in the world.

For me, it was just a bit annoying, but I thought as long as she fought well, it was fine.

But the problem was that Aquarias’ irritable attitude was getting on the nerves of the other superhumans, except for me and Jessica.

Especially when she managed to tick off none other than Gryanarr.

-“Is the Commander there?”

“Yeah?”

-“Hello? I’m the deputy of the Avalonia Security Fleet… Do you happen to know where our commander went?”

“Out of the blue, what are you talking about? Did the commander go missing without a word?”

-“Well, she said she was going to have a chat with Gryanarr, and then we lost contact.”

“….”

After receiving such a message, I went to the Nest of Life with Jessica, saying I’d check it out…

And sure enough.

“Oh, Commander, you came at the right time.”

“….”

“I don’t know about you, but I thought she was being way too disrespectful to the Commander, so I gave her a little lesson.”

“….”

“How is it?”

“Holy moly.”

I don’t know what Gryanarr did to Aquarias, who was the typical genius beauty type, but…

“Ah, I don’t like pain, please be gentle…”

“If you obey our Commander, only good things will happen to you.”

“R-really?”

“Of course.”

“….”

“….”

Listening to their conversation…

Seeing Aquarias half-naked, covered in something, clutching Gryanarr’s leg and panting,

I immediately slapped Gryanarr on the head and decided to return Aquarias to the security fleet.