Chapter 130

Chapter 130. Busy, Yet Not Busy (1)

After thwarting the schemes (?) of the monsters trying to socially assassinate me,

the conversation with Oxianor, who had returned to normal, thankfully went as I expected.

Well, to be precise, it seemed to go even further than I had anticipated.

“I assume you’re already well aware, but aren’t we and the Pirate Empress secretly forming an alliance behind the backs of the two factions?”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

“But apart from forming such a secret alliance, strictly speaking, for now, it’s just an alliance in words only.”

‘Huh?’

What I had thought was simply, ‘Oh, it’s awkward for us to talk directly to the Empress, so you go ahead and tell her.’

But listening to Oxianor—no, the monster faction’s side of the story…

It felt like things were moving way further ahead than that.

While I was lost in thought, feeling puzzled,

Oxianor continued speaking.

“Moreover, while the Pirate Alliance has the Empress herself present, no matter how much we’ve strengthened our position, ultimately, our representative envoy is me—a sentient terminal doubling as an envoy. That’s a problem, isn’t it?”

“…Ah, I see.”

Through Oxianor’s words, I could understand why the monster faction had brought this up.

“So, in our current state, it’s difficult to negotiate with the Pirate Alliance as equals…?”

“Icarus, as you’ve guessed… we too will dispatch a VIP of equal standing to the ‘Pirate Empress’ here.”

“…Hmm.”

Every time, I can’t help but notice how the ‘Space Monsters’ seem to place such importance on diplomatic matters.

Seeing how randomly determined faction traits can create such terrifying butterfly effects,

I couldn’t help but feel a mix of complicated emotions.

As I was lost in thought, Oxianor continued.

“But there’s one problem here.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Hmm…”

As I quickly responded while still thinking, Oxianor tapped the table with his tentacle—no, the appendage on his suit—looking frustrated.

He furrowed his brow and continued speaking.

Wondering what the issue could be, I just quietly stared at him.

Eventually, as if realizing something, he straightened his posture and turned to me with a bright expression, opening his mouth to speak.

“Come to think of it, there’s no need to hide this from you!”

“Huh?”

“The thing is, you’ve also noticed that the Xenobia Empire and the Earth Federation have been acting suspiciously lately, haven’t you?”

“…Ah.”

“Their movements are so suspicious that Her Majesty finds it difficult to mobilize a large enough fleet to escort the VIP!”

Clapping his hands like a human and making gestures,

I nodded and replied.

“So, you’re not asking us to escort the VIP or anything like that, right?”

“You catch on quick. As expected of Commander Icarus, whom I trust.”

But as Oxianor looked proud and satisfied, I couldn’t help but make a confused expression.

I continued the conversation.

“Wait, can’t you just use the thing you used when you went and came back?”

“The thing… you mean the neural network?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

I was referring to the monsters’ insane instant teleportation method, which, according to the lore, ‘no one really knows why it works.’

Anyway, I asked if they couldn’t use that over-technology to move from one end of the universe to the other in an instant.

But in response, Oxianor looked at the exoskeleton covering his hand like a glove and said,

“Unfortunately, the neural network is overloaded due to the large-scale troop movements.”

“Ah.”

“That’s why even I can’t go to Her Majesty right now.”

Shrugging his shoulders with a calm expression,

for a moment, I wondered if he was just making excuses even though it was usable.

But that thought was fleeting.

“So, let me ask you again. Are you willing to give it a try?”

As soon as Oxianor finished speaking, a quest message popped up in front of my eyes.

—————————————-

<Quest>

<VIP Escort Mission-1, Dispatch.>

<Details>

<You must escort the ‘VIP’ from the ‘Space Monsters’ headquarters to your base.>

<Of course, to protect the VIP, the ‘Space Monsters’ large-scale fleets will take turns providing cover within their territory.>

<However, they will only handle ‘large-scale’ fleets that your fleet cannot handle.>

<You’ll have to deal with the rest—small-scale attacks, common rogue space pirates, wild monsters, etc.—on your own.>

<But first, before that...>

Your fleet must reach the ‘main base,’ but…

<Objective>

Dispatch a fleet of at least 100 ships to the main base of the ‘Space Monster.’

<Condition: At least 3 S-rank or higher Superhumans and a minimum of 15 Cruiser-class ships must be included.>

······ ······ ······ ······ ······ ······

—————————————-

However, upon seeing the quest message that popped up—more specifically, a slightly altered message compared to before—I barely managed to hold back the curse words that were about to spill from my mouth.

‘Are you kidding me? Our base just hit 150 ships, and now you want us to give up two-thirds of them?’

What kind of evil…!

Moreover, considering the distance to what is presumed to be the monster’s main base, sending the fleet as is would mean, no joke, literally months of back-and-forth travel.

‘Holy moly.’

I was horrified by the absurd target and naturally reached out to reject the quest, but…

That thought was short-lived.

······ ······ ······ ······ ······ ······

—————————————-

<Clear Rewards>

<Randomly awarded one ship integrated with the monster's bio-technology>

<Permanently maintain a trust level of +10 or higher with the Monster Force while the VIP is stationed at the base>

<Increased probability of 'positive' events related to monsters>

—————————————-

Seeing such sweet rewards, I stopped whining.

‘Fine, let’s give it a shot.’

I decided to put in the effort, and then some, to escort this major VIP.

==========

But even though I had made up my mind, we couldn’t immediately proceed with the quest.

“Commander, are you really planning to just send the fleet to the monster’s main base like that?”

“…No, of course not.”

As mentioned earlier, sending them as is would be a massive waste of time.

So, we decided to prioritize the construction of the <Fleet Long-Distance Teleport System>, which becomes available with a Level 6 base upgrade, as the most ‘perfect’ solution.

And as part of that effort, we worked hard to keep our resource fleets running.

-Kwaaang! Pueong!

“Heh ha♡”

“They’re running away, flank and surround them.”

-“Yes! Belial!”

We hunted nearby respawning mobs to plunder resources.

“If you run, you know what’s coming, right? Better behave.”

‘Damn bastards.’

While leveling up Ignis, we captured pirates and wild monsters in the ‘Forced Labor Camp’ we obtained from hunting unaffiliated pirates, and squeezed resources out of them.

And if they struggled a bit?

“Here, gently, it won’t hurt~”

“G/A/A/A/H!”

“B/A/L/A/H!”

“Ugh… Ttwi… Ttwitwi.”

After bringing those unaffiliated pirates and wild monsters to Gryanarr, we performed the miraculous three-step recycling process (?) of turning them into resources.

As a result, in less than a week, we managed to gather 320,000 minerals and over 10,000 rare resources.

Of course, in the process, the surrounding mobs were completely wiped out.

—————————————-

Title: WTF, why aren’t mobs respawning here?

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Space Image]

It’s either completely empty or already looted, only newly spawned mobs are left.

Why is this happening?

Comments:

-[Someone already looted everything]

-[Lord, let me be a righteous mob thief today]

-[LOL]

-[Is there a ranker nearby? Their mob-clearing speed is insane]

—————————————-

As soon as I accidentally opened the gallery and saw that post, I realized that the poor nearby users couldn’t farm mobs due to a minor issue.

Thus, my explosive third-phase manpower recycling plan had to come to an end after just one week.