Chapter 100

Chapter 100. The Return of That, Well, Her.

Anyway, after wrapping up the live combat deployment with Partia like that, we started tackling various quests and officially kicked off our five-member system…

“Commander, does this mean our team can now focus solely on ‘high-level’ quests?”

“Yeah, let’s do it that way.”

As Jessica suggested, to make the event progression more efficient, I decided to outsource all the general quests automatically received from the monsters to the pirates. We, on the other hand, would take on the high-level quests, which, while more efficient in terms of points, also came with a significant increase in difficulty.

However, to pull this off, we needed to strengthen our forces. So, we came up with a plan to enhance the superhumans through Gryanarr’s body modifications. One of these plans was to give Ignis a tentacle tail to turn them into a triple-sword wielder, but…

“Commander!!!”

“Huh?”

“Th-there’s something weird below me!”

“…Oh.”

“Oops, looks like I attached it wrong by mistake?”

“Uwaaah!”

Project SDL (Triple? Sword) ended up becoming Project K-whatever, as Gryanarr accidentally (?) attached the tail to the front instead of the back during the surgery, causing Ignis to complain about their condition deteriorating in more ways than one. They almost collapsed and had to undergo surgery again.

“Jessica, I feel like my luck has been improving lately.”

“Huh?”

“So, I was thinking of trying my luck with the gacha…”

“Commander, last time was just luck, but you also blew through 150 pulls and an additional 70 pulls of causality fixation before that, so…”

“…”

“Your bad luck’s over, so don’t get any weird ideas.”

*Sob.*

Getting stopped by Jessica when I tried to pull the gacha and all that, time just kept flowing and flowing…

==========

A few days passed like that…

Now, after about a week, to be precise, 8 days and 12 hours later…

<<"Icarus, I have finally returned with the Queen's message for you.">>

“Oh?”

Due to the need to report directly to the Queen, we were able to reunite with Oxianor, who had been unable to come in person and had only been communicating through the neural network via telepathy. However, we didn’t meet Oxianor directly right away. While Oxianor’s ‘spirit’ returned to the nest through the neural network, we could only communicate via telepathy for the time being…

Anyway, I felt a sense of joy at the return of Oxianor, one of the few ‘male-type’ characters in this base.

‘Welcome back, Ox-tae.’

Of course, Oxianor wasn’t the only male in our base. There was Leonard, whom Marian had assigned as my escort, and quite a few of the pirate captains were also male. But with Leonard, things had been awkward since our first meeting… We didn’t have much to talk about, and it was just plain awkward. The other pirate captains were only helping me under Marian’s orders, so we didn’t really have any meaningful conversations either. That’s why Oxianor’s return was all the more welcome.

Anyway, with that sense of joy, I continued communicating with him…

“It’s been a while since we last talked, so… did things go well with the Queen?”

<<"Of course, Icarus.">>

“Oh?”

<<"The Queen responded very positively to your and the Pirate Empress's proposal... Her trust in you seems to have increased even more.">>

“Ooh.”

<<"To be honest, the Queen's message is currently embedded in my mind... Once I arrive, you'll receive her message directly.">>

I have no idea how this whole thing works, but the important part is that once Oxianor arrives, I’ll receive the Queen’s heartfelt decision. Hearing his confident words, a new event message popped up in front of my eyes.

—————————————-

<Event>

<Having received Oxianor's 'persuasion' and the 'evidence' it brought, the Queen of Monsters has decided that this proposal is not a mere trap, but a genuine offer from the pirates...>

I was extremely intrigued by the proposal you presented.>

<And as a result of that intrigue, it seems they sent you a message embedded in Oxianor's consciousness.>

—————————————-

‘To go this far to confirm the facts.’

Since it was clearly a very friendly message, I immediately got up.

I headed to Jessica and the Biological Research Institute, planning to welcome Oxianor, who was about to emerge, along with Gryanarr who was there.

But about 30 minutes later.

Contrary to my expectation that a familiar eyeball gentleman would emerge from the wobbly biological tissue.

Instead, something burst out like Queen Alien’s amniotic sac rupturing, and what came out was…

“…Huh?”

“Commander, is that…?”

“Oh my, has a new experimental subject arrived at our base?”

As our reactions show, it wasn’t the familiar eyeball gentleman.

Instead, it was a woman covered in scales and armor, with massive horns sprouting from her head.

A thick, long, and grotesque tail extended from her hip.

With perky breasts, slender limbs, a narrow waistline, and wide hips.

Her white hair and skin, damp with mucus, contrasted with her crimson eyes.

‘Wait, what?’

Her gaze seemed oddly familiar, but her appearance… at least in this game, it was something I’d never seen before.

As mentioned earlier, not just me and Jessica.

Even Gryanarr, who usually maintains a poker face like a little devil, was visibly flustered.

And that fluster intensified when the monster woman(?) in front of us opened her mouth.

“Hmm? Icarus, why are you looking at me like that?”

“…This voice?”

“And Jessica and Gryanarr too, why does everyone seem different… Did you all grow up?”

“Oxianor? Could it really be Oxianor?”

In response to my question, she nodded as if it were obvious.

“After seeing this familiar face, you still ask that? Icarus.”

“…”

“Truly a disappointing reaction. I considered you a friend.”

She then pouted with a disappointed expression, making me wonder if this was real.

While Jessica and I were stunned, Gryanarr, using a bio-mechanical arm installed in the lab.

Brought over a full-length mirror and placed it in front of Oxianor, calmly saying.

“Who would think you’re the same ‘Oxianor’ after seeing that? Take a look at yourself.”

“What are you talking about? My body… what…?”

And in response to Gryanarr’s bluntness, Oxianor frowned but obediently looked into the mirror.

Upon seeing her ‘current’ appearance, she stammered and looked flustered…

Then turned to me with an indescribable mix of embarrassment and confusion.

And for some reason… even a hint of shyness.

Fortunately, the reason for her shyness didn’t take long to figure out.

“What is this! Why am I naked like this!!”

“…Oh, right.”

Despite the scales and armor covering the important parts, if she felt that way, who were we to argue.

And more importantly, while the woman presumed to be Oxianor(?) was in chaos.

A new event message popped up in front of me, thoroughly explaining the current situation.

So rather than pondering over this self-proclaimed… no, genuine Oxianor(TS).

I decided to focus on reading the event message in front of me first.