Chapter 307

Chapter 307. I Hate Unfairness, But Oh Well.

—

I’m not sure if this is good timing or bad timing.

After everything was done, I saw Marian returning with her escort fleet and personal guard fleet.

“Commander, Marian has finished her business with the Pirate Alliance and has returned.”

“Hmm, I just saw it on the screen too.”

The fact that she came back with Leonard, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, made me think, “Wouldn’t it have been better if they came a bit earlier?”

Of course, from Marian’s perspective, that would’ve been completely unreasonable and unfair.

After brushing off such a nasty thought from my mind…

I decided to welcome the pirate fleet, Marian, and Leonard, who would now protect this place in place of the completely wrecked fortress forces.

Moreover, some users who had been lingering around for no apparent reason also naturally left as soon as the pirate fleet arrived.

I couldn’t help but feel grateful.

*Sigh… They’re even protecting us from potential attackers? Thank you… Overwhelming gratitude!*

—

Anyway, after exchanging greetings with Marian and Leonard, I left the task of arranging things to Jessica.

—

<Notification!>

<53 clans, including the 'Isekai' clan, have expressed their intention to surrender to you!>

<Effect: Combat situations between both sides will be lifted.>

<Since the opposing side has initiated the surrender, you, the player, now have the authority to set possible demands!>

—

Seeing the war-ending surrender message pop up at just the right time…

I decided to calculate how much damage I had taken from this battle and squeeze out as much as I could from the enemy.

Of course, I first checked the status of my fleet…

—

**Fleet Status**

Total Points: 558.5/850 Points

– Aircraft Carriers: 3 ships, 70 points each = 210 points

– Special Battleships: 1 ship, 65 points each = 65 points

– Battleships: 2 ships, 40 points each = 80 points

– Aetheric Submarines: 1 ship, 50 points each = 50 points

– Light Aircraft Carriers: 1 ship, 40 points each = 40 points

– Cruiser Battleships: 2 ships, 30 points each = 60 points

– Heavy Cruisers: 0 ships, 10 points each = 0 points

– Light Cruisers: 0 ships, 6 points each = 0 points

– Destroyers: 5 ships, 3 points each = 15 points

– Escort Ships: 0 ships, 1.5 points each = 0 points

– Patrol Ships: 1 ship, 1 point each = 1 point

– Resource Mining Ships: 25 ships, 1.5 points each = 37.5 points

—

*Tsk.*

Before the battle started, my fleet points had overflowed past 900.

Despite the Guard Fleet (about 40,000 ships), the Combat Fleet (500 battleships alone, totaling about 25,000 ships), and even the mercenary groups I hired for a whopping 4.5 million minerals (about 1,000 groups) tanking like crazy…

Half of the fleet I had organized had already crossed the rainbow bridge.

—

“This is quite a tough situation.”

“What do you mean, Commander?”

Jessica, who had already finished her tasks and returned, tilted her head while wagging her signature black bunny ears.

I showed her the fleet status I was looking at.

“This is the current status of our fleet…”

“Oh my.”

“One large aircraft carrier and one battleship were sunk, and 4 out of 6 cruiser battleships were completely destroyed.”

“…”

“The heavy cruisers and light cruisers… including the Overseer, were completely wiped out.”

“That’s a horrifying result, Commander.”

—

And the problem didn’t end there.

“The large aircraft carrier we received as compensation was destroyed, and the newly built ships are also heavily damaged, making them unusable.”

“Hmm, what about the battleships?”

“Surprisingly, one is completely unharmed, but the other one only has its power source intact.”

“…Then the cruiser battleships must be in a similar state?”

“Both are heavily damaged, so there’s no choice. The light aircraft carrier also needs repairs because its flight deck got blown off.”

—

Except for one, all the remaining large ships are in a sorry state, so I’ll have to mobilize all the large shipyards I own to focus on repairs.

As for the Kraken and Hreðsvelgr, they were kept far back from the start to avoid taking critical hits.

From the mid-battle, they were either holed up inside the fortress or acted as turrets, so…

The second unit is suffering from indigestion and getting hit hard with debuffs…

Other than that, there were no major issues.

And even for the small ships, the battle was so intense that even a single graze could be fatal.

“Surviving means… being strong…”

The survivors were unscathed and clean, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

“Wow, the situation is really serious. Should we start repairing the ships at the shipyard right away?”

“Yeah, let’s repair the large aircraft carrier and battleship first. For the other one, put in the cruiser battleship.”

“Got it, I’ll do that.”

But just as I roughly solved the problems with my fleet, another issue came to greet me.

“Commander! Do you have any spare shipyards?!”

“Do you know when the resources to restore our security fleet will arrive?”

“Ah.”

As you can tell from the urgent words of Captain Lephan and Aquarias who rushed to the command center.

The problem was restoring the ‘Rhodes Mercenary Group’ and the ‘Avalonia Security Fleet’ that were under my direct employment.

Fortunately, the Rhodes group, led by the well-fed Captain Lephan, only had battleships and cruiser battleships, so none were sunk…

However, their overall durability was hanging by a thread, and they were deemed unable to operate until all ships were repaired.

Avalonia’s battleships were mostly intact with no major damage, so they could manage with self-repairs…

“So, half of the heavy cruisers and small ships are completely gone?”

“Yes, the other half is also mostly in a state of heavy damage and needs repairs.”

As per the conversation with Aquarias, the state of the remaining ships was truly… meh.

Accordingly, I mobilized all six docks of the base’s ‘general’ shipyard to repair Avalonia’s auxiliary fleet.

As for the Rhodes Mercenary Group, unfortunately, since my ships were being repaired first…

I moved their ships to the armored docking facilities inside the fortress and planned to repair them later when space became available in the large ship dedicated shipyard.

==========

Anyway, after sorting out the damage situation of the fleets and issuing repair orders…

“Commander, what about the base fleet?”

“They can handle their own repairs.”

“That’s true.”

Only then did I realize it was time to receive the ‘surrender’ and get my rewards, so I started happily pondering what to get from the massive number of clans.

Of course, as seen in the previous Unity incident, this game had clear limits on what you could demand even with ‘unconditional surrender’…

And it was the same for regular ‘surrender’…

—————————————-

<Regular Surrender Conditions>

<Can forcibly requisition resources from the opponent, with a maximum of 100,000 minerals and 10,000 rare resources for users, and triple that for clans>

<If resources are insufficient, minerals are calculated at 1 gold per 100, and rare resources at 1 gold per 10>

<Cannot demand ships or superhumans that you haven't captured or seized>

<Superhumans from the opponent can only be transferred if you personally captured them>

—————————————-

Despite the blatantly unfair surrender conditions, I wasn’t too worried.

“Well, this time I didn’t seize any superhumans or ships.”

Close-range superhumans like Smeragi, Partia, and Ignis were too busy fending off superhumans storming the fortress to even dream of capturing ships.

Similarly, the enemy superhumans were in no position to be captured either…

For me, it was just about diligently sucking up resources, so despite the conditions, I could still manage a smile.

And after diligently adjusting the demands and setting the maximum amount I could take…

—————————————-

<Surrender Agreement Result>

<53 clans, including the 'Isekai' clan, have surrendered to Commander Icarus.>

<Commander Icarus will receive resources (300,000 minerals, 30,000 rare resources) per clan from these clans.>

—————————————-

The 53 clans that ganged up on me… no, the Walpurgis Alliance, was now generously donating a massive amount of resources, becoming an excellent wallet for me.