Chapter 152

Chapter 152. I had it all planned out, maybe? (1)

Of course, I wasn’t about to believe it right away.

Some jerks go through the trouble of photoshopping screenshots, you know.

There are also cases where they mess with the numbers in settings or stats, doing all sorts of nonsense.

I quickly shook off the drowsiness that was creeping in and immediately started digging through the wiki tab about the matter.

Of course, someone might say, “But couldn’t the wiki tab also be faked?”

Fortunately, the information on the wiki tab wasn’t something users could easily manipulate, reminiscent of some flowerpot wiki from a past life.

It wasn’t managed by top-ranking users like me, but by the admins themselves.

And since even the original writers couldn’t just edit it willy-nilly, it was a place you could trust.

Anyway, for some reason, I found myself internally defending the wiki tab (?) while searching for information.

Soon enough, I found the exact information the user had mentioned earlier, neatly written by some wiki officer.

—

**Title:** Tips on Base Mercenary Offices and Faction Troops. 5

**Author:** Wiki Officer mk-6

**Content:** [Base Setting Image]

As mentioned before, the faction office and the mercenary office are similar but different places, and accordingly, they use separate points.

But by now, you all probably realize, these guys have a ridiculously ambiguous point and ship count, right?

If you think you’re wrong, don’t worry—you’re exactly right.

As I’ve mentioned multiple times in my series of mercenary office tip posts, this system is seriously flawed.

It’s pretty much useless unless you’re a newbie or in a desperate fight where you’re short on even a single ship.

And these guys are a pain because you have to hire them in “mercenary groups,” which often leads to mismatches between point limits and group sizes.

You have to grind through random rolls, and the problem is, mercenary group hiring changes randomly once a day.

You get one free change, but that’s it.

Ugh, this is so frustrating that I’m rambling.

To summarize:

1. The fleet points you can replenish from the mercenary office and faction dispatch fleets (tentative name, actual names vary by faction) are limited.

2. But it’s not just the points—there’s also a limit on the number of ships.

3. The annoying part is, while you can control what you pull from the faction dispatch, the mercenary office forces you to hire in “mercenary groups.”

4. Each mercenary group has different ship counts and point costs, but you can’t just pick and choose.

5. You can change it twice a day, but one of those changes is automatic after a day passes.

6. WTF, how did I even deal with this crap game?

Anyway, it’s such a garbage system that the mercenary office is often called a “chicken rib” (useless but hard to discard).

But there’s one exception: if you manage to pull off the Pirate Empress Hororok, all those annoying “limits” just disappear.

Lore-wise, it’s because of the Empress’s connections—commanders who have her can purchase mercenaries without limits, backed by her guarantee.

—

**Comments:**

– [So without the Empress, it’s just a chicken rib for everyone, huh?]

– [Yep, smart observation, good job.] (Author)

– [Facts.]

– [Sometimes I optimize the mercenary group points perfectly, but then a battleship group shows up, and I’m internally conflicted.]

– [If it’s a battleship, just take it, why hesitate?]

– [If I had a battleship, I wouldn’t hesitate, would I?]

– [The battleship doubles itself!!!!]

—

“Wow!”

—

Anyway, after uncovering some hidden power of mine (?) the next day, our so-called “88 Fleet” reconstruction plan seemed to be gaining momentum.

Of course, burning with determination is one thing, but…

—

**<Large Ship Dedicated Shipyard Construction List>**

– **<Dock 1>**

<Cruiser Battleship under construction...>

<Remaining Time: 2 days 17 hours 2 minutes 59 seconds>

<Resources Consumed: 15,500 Minerals, 3,700 Rare Resources>

—

Our first cruiser battleship, the starting point of our fleet reconstruction plan, was still…

As you can see, the construction at the Large Ship Dedicated Shipyard is still ongoing.

The insane 88 Fleet Plan was a super-long-term project that required waiting patiently for months, if not longer.

Separate from the 88 Fleet, I decided to continue with the monster-related quests.

—————————————-

<Neural Network Building Growth Complete!>

<General Monster Breeding Facility Growth Complete>

<Units with the 'Monster' trait will now be added to the list of deployable units on ships.>

—————————————-

And just as I was waiting, the ‘growth’ of the Monster Breeding Facility was also completed.

I immediately set my next construction goal, half-consumed by the neural network module(?).

I decided to proceed with the ‘upgrade’ of the Biological Research Institute, which was transforming into something like the infected ships from the ‘Peace-Frame’ I often saw in my past life or the Ishimura from Dead Space.

But this part was also something I had no memory of seeing in my past life when I played the game.

I wondered if there had been some ridiculous update, so I dug through the wiki tab in the gallery for information.

—————————————-

<No results found for 'Biological Research Institute Upgrade'>

—————————————-

“Why is there nothing?”

For some reason, there was no information on the wiki tab about this matter, and I felt my head tilting in confusion, even though I’m not a cute girl.

But that thought was short-lived.

“Oh right, this is still being written.”

In this world, as users were forcibly possessed, the connection to the real internet was also severed.

Naturally, all links to Wiki-Tree became useless, and considering that users were rebuilding everything from scratch, it was possible that the information I wanted hadn’t been written yet.

So, I closed the wiki tab and decided to open the gallery to search for the keyword again.

Of course, during this process, the usual trolls popped up.

Like someone posting a picture titled “Pirate Empress.jpg” but actually stuffing it with an image of the Pirate ‘King’ in a bikini, leading me to block them for a day.

While performing my daily duties as a moderator, I continued my search.

After blocking about 13 people, I finally found the post I was looking for.

However, the content was… quite unusual.

—————————————-

Title: What the hell is this Biological Research Institute Upgrade?

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [An external view of the base, with a massive flesh-tentacle monster attached to about one-third of the total size], [Mosaic-covered flesh wall image], [A giant tentacle attacking a Cruiser Battleship (censored)]

I tried the upgrade because it suddenly appeared, and this bastard started raping my ships!

And then it turned my superhumans into breeding grounds, and now it’s coming after me too.

F*ck this sh*t.

Comments:

– [What the hell is this?]

– [This post feels urgent~]

– [What is this?]

– [What’s a breeding ground?]

– [Good kids should go wash and sleep]

– [What the f*ck is this ship-raping nonsense;;]

—————————————-

“……?”

I couldn’t understand what was going on.

From the images, it looked like a giant tentacle sprouting from the base was wrapping around a docked Cruiser Battleship, trying to enter through the nozzle.

Or arbitrarily expanding its territory inside the base.

It looked ‘very, very, very’ dangerous to anyone who saw it.

Wondering what the hell was going on, I immediately canceled the Biological Research Institute upgrade and rushed to the current Biological Research Institute to figure out what was happening.