Chapter 245

Episode 245. The aircraft buff is sweet.

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The moment I saw Tiamat’s status window, I felt a momentary doubt.

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<Tiamat>

<Level 1>

<Type: Large Army, Close Range>

<Trait: Air Traffic Control>

<Stats>

Health: B-

Attack Power: A-

Physical Defense: A-

Magic Power: SSS-

Magic Defense: SSS-

Mobility: D

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‘What the…’

What should I say?

The ‘Magic Power,’ which represents intelligence, and ‘Magic Defense,’ which handles various biochemical aspects excluding physical damage, are appropriately labeled SSS.

But the rest of the stats are just mid-tier A-level performance, aren’t they?

At least the trait mentions ‘Air Traffic Control,’ as per its self-introduction.

But what does it mean for a character that operates aircraft to have a ‘Close Range’ type?

…And as you can tell from my reaction,

I was seeing this superhuman character Tiamat for the first time in this game.

‘Ugh, help me, Wiki-emon!’

Following the internet’s golden rule of “if you don’t know, search first,” I immediately opened the gallery’s wiki tab to check.

Although, in the process, I had to spend some time deleting a bunch of annoying troll posts and hateful images.

Anyway, after deleting those hateful images, my friends, who were busy with girl-talk, suggested we check out the base.

As they left with Tiamat, who was wagging her devil tail,

‘The wristband is free now, since the owners didn’t give us any poop posts.’

Feeling like a freed house elf, I could finally read the explanation of Tiamat’s settings and performance on the wiki tab.

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Title: SSS-Class Command-Type Superhuman ‘Tiamat’ Setting Post.txt

Author: Wiki Officer mk-33

Content: [Tiamat setting image], [Tiamat making a smug face or a goofy expression]

A rare character providing aircraft-related buffs.

Appeared about 2 years and 10 months ago by possession standards.

Looks like either a strict FM style like Belial or a seductive succubus style.

But her actual personality has the then-trendy ‘goofy despite appearance’ trait, showing a clumsy side in daily life.

If you put her next to Belial or ‘Asmodeus,’ she looks like a useless high school girl.

But in battle, it’s a different story.

Her way of speaking changes, you could say.

Even then, during normal interactions with others, she still shows her goofy side,

Leading to frequent rumors of her having a split personality.

Anyway, that’s the gist of the setting. What about her performance?

[Tiamat’s spec screenshot]

As you can see, except for magic and magic defense, which represent intelligence, the rest of her performance is pretty bad.

Despite being a ‘Close Range’ large army type, with this performance, she’d get shredded in solo combat like the two characters mentioned above.

She doesn’t even buff ships, making her useless in common fleet battles.

So, at first, I wondered how to use her.

Though labeled a combat character, she’s strictly for use on ships in combat.

More precisely, she’s needed for aircraft launched from carriers or ships in real fleet battles.

If you have aircraft and drone swarms, Tiamat can command buff them, significantly boosting their performance.

Especially, she greatly enhances the ‘evasion rate’ and ‘hit rate’ of aircraft, crucial for them.

So, in an air battle between fleets with and without Tiamat, the opposing aircraft would be shredded about 30% more.

Lastly, this might count as performance talk,

You know how some people make weird plays using the horn on her head as a handle?

That horn is actually an antenna and feeler that provides her command ability to buff aircraft.

So, the more she commands, the more sensitive it gets. If you touch it wrong, you’ll see her perform water manipulation without water.

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Comments:

-[The content was informative, but what was that last part;;]

-[How did you know about the last part? Please explain in detail.]

-˪[I didn’t want to know either, but she was sweating buckets and just collapsed like that] (Author)

-˪[Ah, damn, that kind of…]

[Was it?]

-˪[Then what are you thinking, tell me] (Author)

-˪[I was thinking about the guard]

-[Why are those comments docking with each other and falling over]

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‘Hmm, I see, I perfectly understand.’

For a moment, I felt a strong sensation as if my intelligence had sharply dropped.

But that was only temporary. Quickly shaking my head, I regained my senses and felt a bright smile naturally spreading across my face.

Naturally, Jessica, who was next to me, looked puzzled and asked,

“Commander, why are you so happy?”

“Ah, Jessica, finally, someone who can give us an aircraft buff has arrived.”

“…Really?”

“Of course.”

As I said that, I showed Jessica the gallery wiki tab I was looking at and continued,

“I thought there wasn’t much to do besides the fleet enhancement plan for a while, but who knew we’d get another task like this.”

“That’s amazing. So, what’s your plan for leveling up that superhuman named Tiamat?”

“Nothing special. Once the construction of the new Light Aircraft Carrier No. 2 is complete… we’ll form a carrier task force including the Kraken and two light carriers, catch some pirates, and do some training.”

The wiki tab didn’t explain in detail, but since it said Tiamat could only be useful with aircraft, I decided to act accordingly.

“Well, there’s no other way.”

“Hmm.”

So, not long after talking with Jessica,

Tiamat, whose stats showed she was lacking in ‘stamina’ and ‘mobility,’ returned to the command post riding on Partia’s back.

I immediately assigned her to the Kraken to start her leveling process.

But as soon as she was assigned to the Kraken, it seemed Tiamat had no resistance to ‘tentacles’ either, just like Belial.

-“Huhyaaaah?!?!”

“Oh.”

-“C-Commander?! It’s all wet and damp here?! Something’s squirming around?!?!”

“Looks like it’s not a good fit.”

Hearing the high school girl-like scream as soon as she was assigned to the Kraken,

I wondered whether to leave Tiamat there to adapt (?) like Smeragi or to take pity on her and assign her to a regular light carrier instead.

Of course, that dilemma didn’t last long.

“If we leave her there, what will happen to her friendliness?”

“Are you planning to implant a brain parasite that might lower her intelligence on someone who isn’t even hostile to you, Commander?”

“…Now that I think about it, you’re right.”

Since I couldn’t afford to reduce the ‘magic’ stat related to command for a character who specializes in command,

I contacted Tiamat, who was on the verge of tears, and instructed her to move to the nearby light carrier.

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And the next morning,

As usual, I was deploying superhumans here and there for daily quests while preparing to start Tiamat’s leveling process.

Of course, Tiamat grumbled about the light carrier being ‘standard grade,’ as per her personality setting.

“Then do you want to stay on the Kraken? Gryanarr modified it yesterday, so the ride is better now.”

-“Sorry, I’ll stay on the light carrier.”

Since boarding it would involve some neural connection process, making it a genuine tentacle ‘squish-squish’ experience,

Our horned Tiamat immediately panicked at Jessica’s words.

Unfortunately, since pirates and other riff-raff weren’t respawning yet, we decided to level her up through training using aircraft.

And as I worked on this, I thought today would pass peacefully as well.

Little did I know what was about to happen next.