Chapter 131

Episode 131. Busy, yet not busy. (2)

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Anyway, through the 3-stage recycling plan, we literally “ground the pirates and monsters to the bone,” diligently collected resources, and quickly pushed through the construction.

About two weeks later.

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<Base Level 6 Upgrade in Progress...>

<Time Remaining Until Completion: 23 hours, 14 minutes, 5 seconds>

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My pretty base has shed its newbie sprout phase and has now taken on the appearance of a mid-level player ready to dive into the game.

“Hmm, it took a little over two weeks for the construction… If we include the teleport facility, it’ll take at least a month, right?”

“Still, it’s faster than blindly charging into the monster’s stronghold.”

“True, now that you mention it.”

Fortunately, the monsters, including Oxianor, understood why we weren’t moving out immediately and were just lazing around the base.

Of course, at first, they thought accepting the quest meant we’d follow their lead, but instead, we were wiping out nearby mobs and focusing on base construction.

Oxianor’s gaze was gradually turning into that of a certain rabbit-headed anime girl, but…

“Can we reach the target coordinates instantly with long-distance teleportation?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, but we’ll have to come back on our own.”

“And for that, base construction is essential, right?”

“Yeeeeees.”

“Well then… it can’t be helped.”

After hearing the explanation, they even actively offered to help with the base construction.

Of course, even with their help, it didn’t speed up the construction process, so we politely declined Oxianor’s enthusiastic offers and leisurely continued gathering resources.

In this situation, Marian also occasionally left for 2-3 days at a time to manage the pirate faction, making our days truly peaceful.

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The next morning.

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<Base Level 6 Upgrade Complete!>

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Seeing the fresh base upgrade message pop up instead of the usual alarm, I immediately headed to the command center. As soon as I sat in my dedicated command seat, I checked the base construction menu.

But when I saw the list, I felt like the wind was knocked out of me…

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<Base Upgrade Facility Possible List>

<Additional Docking Facility>(5,500)

<Resource Warehouse>(6,000)

<Fleet Long-Distance Teleport System>(191,500)<NEW!>

<Large Ship Dedicated Shipyard>(95,000)<NEW!>

<Ship Emergency Repair Facility>(100,700)<NEW!>

<Graviton Detection Radar>(155,500)<NEW!>

—————————————-

“Wait, what the hell? Was it always this expensive?”

It felt like the prices had increased by at least tens of thousands compared to what I remembered.

I immediately rushed to the gallery to search for information about base upgrade prices…

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Title: For Those Going Crazy Over Base Upgrade Prices, Read This Post

Author: Wiki Officer mk-9

Content: [Gallery Mark Image]

Just in case you think it’s only you, after being possessed by this game and cross-verifying with other users, I found out that for bases above level 5, the higher the level, the more exponentially the prices increase compared to the original game.

Especially for those who’ve reached level 6, the prices are just insane.

Comments:

– [This is crazy;;;]

– [I thought I had enough resources, but then I saw the hundred-thousand-unit costs and freaked out.]

– [Why does a tiny radar facility cost 150,000 minerals? LOL]

– [I never thought they’d balance the growth speed between veterans and newbies like this.]

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“Ah, I see.”

Realizing it was just the developers being absurd, I gave the post a thumbs-up and moved on.

Title: Check out this awesome furry pic before you go

—

<Delete this post?>

<(Y)/N>

<Block this user? (Current setting: 3 days)>

<(Y)/N>

—

After naturally handling some aggro on one side of the gallery, I closed the gallery window and reopened the construction menu I had set aside earlier.

“Hmm, at least I have enough resources left, thank goodness.”

Grateful to myself for not wasting resources over the past two weeks, I immediately clicked on the teleport system to proceed with construction.

However, as is often the case with high-tier buildings, just clicking “construct” doesn’t mean it’ll be ready to use right away.

—

<Fleet Long-Distance Teleport System construction in progress...>

<Time remaining until completion: 15 days 1 hour 5 minutes 45 seconds>

—

“Another two weeks, huh.”

I checked the construction time displayed prominently in front of me, shook my head, and sighed.

Well, there’s nothing to do right now.

Partia, Belial, and Pashtira, who I’ll send out as VIP escorts, are ready.

Even with repeated research, the rest of the team is lagging behind in levels compared to those who are constantly thrown into real battles.

Even Gryanarr seems to be on the verge of turning into a dark child.

—

“Ahhh, Commander? I feel like I’m getting stronger just by researching, you know?”

“No, staying cooped up inside will make you sick.”

“What?”

—

I forcibly dragged them out and decided to level up by hunting nearby pirates.

—

And so, while Icarus spent over a month handling both his wristband and his quests in this manner, all users, including those in the gallery, were increasingly showing signs of factional splits along faction lines.

The problem was that the more prominent “clans,” which were accepting users from all over, had become quite complex internally due to the tangled web of user factions.

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Title: Today’s Clan Disbandment News

Author: Here to inform you

Content: [Clan ‘Ring Collectors’ disbandment message]

It was a clan centered around Earth Federation and Elf faction users, but recently, the infighting between the factions got too intense, so the Pirate faction clan leader blew up the clan lol.

So, the Earth and Elf faction users banded together and left to start their own thing.

The remaining factions and neutral users chose to be absorbed into nearby clans rather than create new ones.

—

Comments:

– [Wasn’t that a pretty big clan? Like, thousands of members?]

– [The two main factions got too big, and the rest failed to mediate.]

– [Wow, I was in that clan once, sucks that it’s gone.]

—

—

Title: I just got robbed by my clan lol

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Trolling message]

The Earth faction took over as the majority in the clan, threatened the original clan leader, kicked them out, and took over as clan leaders themselves.

Then they kicked out all the members from other factions, wtf.

When I confronted them, they just flexed their fleet and did some fake diplomacy.

—

Comments:

– [What the hell?]

– [Are they Islam or something? Trying to take over clans as their population grows?]

– [Lol, this is ridiculous.]

—

As existing clans crumbled or were taken over by specific factional groups, it seemed like a major tectonic shift was happening in the user-driven clan world.