Chapter 199

Chapter 199. Don’t Put a Ship, a Ship in My Dungeon. (2)

Of course, basic information about the dungeon could be checked through the deep scanner that every ship in this world is equipped with.

Moreover, as soon as I scanned the dungeon, a ‘Quest’ popped up in front of me, complete with information about the dungeon.

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<Quest>

<Explore the 'Ancient Base Ruins'!>

<Content>

<The ancient empire's base discovered in the Commander's area is a 'small research base built on an asteroid'!>

<Surprisingly, even though it seems to have been abandoned for quite some time, the base and various facilities on the asteroid still appear to have functioning power systems.>

<Through the external observation windows installed on the base's outer walls, although quite blurry due to the dust accumulated over the years without maintenance,>



<The technological prowess of the extinct ancient civilization was truly formidable, so finding the 'Research Laboratory' inside will surely be a great help to the Commander's base!>

<If luck is on our side, there might even be survivors still in hibernation!>

<Objective>

<Explore and investigate the base's interior, reach the 'Research Laboratory' somewhere inside the base.>

<Caution!>

<The maximum number of participants allowed in this quest is three.>

—————————————-

“Hmm…”

Perhaps because it’s just a tiny asteroid a few dozen kilometers in size.

Seeing that only three superhumans can be deployed, I fell into thought about who to send.

Of course, while it says three, in reality, I only needed to worry about two…

After all, the purpose of this event is ultimately to find the ‘Research Laboratory’ inside the dungeon and obtain the rewards there.

And as the term ‘Research Laboratory’ suggests, there’s a bit of an Easter egg and a secret reward involved.

At this stage, most users have at least one ‘supporter’ type superhuman.

Especially those who hole up in base research labs, providing buffs to research scores.

Since deploying them could yield some additional rewards, I decided to include Gryanarr, who is most suitable for what I mentioned, as a fixed member.

Anyway, with one person decided, I started to worry about who the other two should be.

Of course, excluding our lewd nun and trigger-happy human cannon, Pashtira, from the remaining five.

But as I was agonizing over this, Belial, who was on the communication screen, raised her hand to request to speak.

-“Commander, I have something to say.”

“Huh? Oh, sure, go ahead.”

-“The presence of a large number of life signs inside suggests that deploying me, who operates large-scale doll troops, early on might not be ideal.”

“…Hmm.”

-“Even just some of the passages detected by the scanner would be hindered by large-scale regular troops like my doll army, rather than helped.”

“Hmmmm.”

Contrary to expectations, Belial’s reaction of ‘You should probably send someone else instead of me’ left me outwardly composed but inwardly somewhat flustered.

Of course, apart from that fluster, Belial’s argument made sense both in terms of setting and practicality.

In reality, in terms of operational efficiency before performance, deploying a command-type superhuman like Belial in such a small-scale operation was something you’d only do if you had no other options.

Nodding at Belial’s bold suggestion, I decided to accept her opinion.

“That doesn’t seem wrong, alright then, let’s do it that way.”

-“Thank you, Commander.”

Of course, unlike my smooth acceptance.

Gryanarr, who usually clashes with Belial, was seen teasing her from the side.

-“Hmm? Isn’t it just that you’re in a bad mood and don’t want to go?”

-“…”

-“Heh, heh, heh.”

But that was only for a moment.

As Gryanarr teased, Belial gently picked up the command baton she had placed on the table.

-“Commander, such a good…”

“It’s a choice. Sometimes, people inevitably have to do things they shouldn’t.”

As if nothing had happened, they immediately changed their expression and spat those words at me.

I could see the thought of how to tear Belial apart flashing across her face on the communication screen.

Anyway, after cutting Pashtira and Belial like that.

The remaining members were Partia, Oxianor, Ignis, and Smeragi.

Those four were all similar ‘close-combat’ superhumans, so it didn’t matter much who I chose, and I decided to pick the remaining two from here.

But when it came time to actually choose, the struggle was intense.

Thinking that dragging this out any longer wouldn’t be manly, I made my decision shortly after.

“Alright, I’ve decided.”

“Who are you planning to send, Commander?”

“Gryanarr, Oxianor, Smeragi.”

– “Yes, Commander?”

– “I’m honored you chose me.”

– “I heard.”

“You three will infiltrate that asteroid base and retrieve the ‘research lab’ and ‘research materials’ inside.”

– “An Ancient Empire research lab, huh? That’s quite an exciting word, isn’t it?”

– “Hmm, then I’ll leave the princess in your care while I’m gone.”

– “Got it, I’ll sweep everything away!”

And so, I formed a team of three and sent them charging towards the asteroid dungeon, said to be filled with biological reactions.

==========

And shortly after.

After watching the small shuttle carrying the three head towards the asteroid, I ordered most of the nearby fleet to return to base and closed the communication screen.

Jessica, who had been waiting behind me, asked with a puzzled look.

“By the way, Commander, aside from Gryanarr, was there any particular reason you chose the other two?”

“A reason, you say?”

“Yep.”

I shrugged at Jessica’s question and casually replied.

“Well, you know how they said there were a lot of biological reactions inside the asteroid?”

“Yes, Ignis reported that.”

“Those aren’t just biological reactions. The asteroid research base itself has turned into some kind of living dungeon.”

“…Huh?”

It’s a pretty common trope in sci-fi, isn’t it?

You board a ghost ship drifting in space, only to find it’s horrifically infected with some unknown alien bio-virus, yada yada.

“That place is probably a research facility where the Ancient Empire, which supposedly perished, tried to create biological weapons using monster cells, right?”

“…Oh.”

“But during the experiment, the test subjects escaped… and after that, most of the researchers, security forces, and various test subjects inside got infected and taken over, leading to the entire facility being sealed off, blah blah.”

“Ooh…”

As I recited the setting I remembered, Jessica, whose IQ sometimes spikes to 250, seemed to realize why I specifically sent those two aside from Gryanarr.

“Ah, so that’s why you sent them? Oxianor is a monster anyway, and Smeragi was modified by Gryanarr, so she’s half-monster too, right?”

“Excellent deduction, 100 points.”

Jessica’s words actually boasted a 100% accuracy rate.

As I said, according to the setting, it’s essentially sending them into a monster’s biological nest.

And there’s no need to send non-monsters there and risk triggering debuffs or negative events.

Of course, after being separated for so long, they might feel quite different even if they’re the same species.

But it was still clearly better than sending Ignis and Partia, who are practically ordinary people.

With the thought that my choice was absolutely correct, I left the internal exploration to those three.

Then, I decided to gather resources for ship production and leveling while browsing the gallery for information.