Chapter 392

Chapter 392. I Can Do It, If It’s Me! (2)

Of course, apart from being puzzled, ‘Arcadia’ wasn’t the type to do anything crazy.

I naturally tucked away my doubts and decided to press Y to accept the chat.

And as soon as I accepted the chat…

—————————————–

<Icarus-Arcadia Chat>

-[Icarus]

-[Have you cleared Round 6?] (Arcadia)

-[Nah, nope]

-[The difficulty is too brutal, and the losses I took in Round 5 were bigger than expected]

-[But why do you ask?] (Icarus)

—————————————–

Out of nowhere, they brought up clearing Round 6, and I couldn’t help but feel a surge of suspicion.

Of course, in response to my doubt-filled question, Arcadia said:

—————————————–

<Icarus-Arcadia Chat>

-[Oh, nothing serious]

-[It’s just that everyone in the gallery is going crazy over the difficulty of Rounds 5 and 6]

-[I thought maybe you got caught up in that too]

-[You didn’t fall for the Round 5 trap, did you?] (Arcadia)

-[Hmm] (Icarus)

—————————————–

They casually dismissed the gallery drama with a confident “Yeah, that’s all nonsense.”

‘Wow, what a cool person.’

I immediately dropped my suspicious demeanor and started responding to Arcadia with pure sincerity.

—————————————–

<Icarus-Arcadia Chat>

-[No way, lol] (Icarus)

-[That’s a relief]

-[Actually, unlike before, about a year before possession, right?]

-[The content was changed with an update patch, and Round 5 was turned into a sort of mid-boss] (Arcadia)

-[Mid-boss?] (Icarus)

-[Yeah, lol]

-[Originally, you’d climb up round by round, right?]

-[But now, every 5 rounds, the difficulty spikes like a boss, and the next one has almost no difficulty increase] (Arcadia)

-[Ah, I see] (Icarus)

—————————————–

==========

Aside from that conversation, I also learned about various minor update patches that happened while I was away from the game.

As I listened to the changes brought by the updates, I began to understand why this event felt both familiar and subtly different from what I remembered.

—————————————–

<Icarus-Arcadia Chat>

-[So, they kept patching things here and there, and then a year before possession, there was a major overhaul?] (Icarus)

-[Yes]

-[Rounds 1-4 basically function as a tutorial]

-[Round 5 is the mid-boss]

-[Rounds 6-9 are slightly easier than Round 5 but completely random]

-[Round 10 is the final boss] (Arcadia)

-[Ah, got it]

-[Thanks a lot, this was really helpful] (Icarus)

-[No problem, we’re all here to help each other] (Arcadia)

<Chat Ended>

—————————————–

And right after realizing all these new facts through the chat…

—————————————-

<<<Special Defense Facility Construction Complete!>>>

<Special defense facilities can now be built inside and outside the base!>

<Additional defense facility construction list added!>

˪<EMP Generator Facility><NEW!
˪ ˪ ˪ ˪
----------------------------------------

‘Oh.’

Seeing the list of various 'Special Defense Facilities' after such a long time, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of nostalgia.

But while I was feeling all sentimental (?), Jessica, who was next to me, had a look on her face that screamed, "What the heck is all this, nerd?"

“What’s all this, Commander? This massive construction list...?”

Her expression was so strong, it felt like she was saying, "What even is this, you geek?"

Seeing Jessica like that, I felt a pang in my chest, realizing just how long I’d been away from the game to have forgotten all this.

Of course, while I was thinking that...
It was just a moment.

As I mentioned earlier, enough time had passed for our Jessica to forget about it...

I wanted to plant new knowledge in our Jessica once again, so I opened the gallery once more.

As always, I clicked on the Wiki tab and decided to throw the descriptions of those new facilities at her.

"Alright, Jessica, look this way."

"Uh-huh."

-----------------------------------------

Title: Information related to 'Special Defense Facility'

Author: Wiki Officer mk-33

Content: [Hyper Ion Cannon Concept Art.jpg]

Once you upgrade your base to level 9, a 'Special Defense Facility' will appear.

After building it,

[Special Defense Facility Construction List.jpg]

Something like this will pop up.

But what is that?

Let me explain each one with pinpoint accuracy.

EMP Generation Facility = A device that generates a wide-range EMP near the base.

Using it will render aircraft, guided missiles, and torpedoes useless.

Nanomachine Drone Swarm Launch System = An interceptor that cannot be intercepted by fleet anti-air.

Grand Fleet Satellite Fortress = Just a ridiculously large defense turret.

Hyper Ion Cannon System = The wide-area beam cannon used by extermination ships.

Omni-directional Scatter Anti-Air System = Like the anti-air scatter missiles and CIWS used by ships, but bigger and fires more.

If I'm wrong, then I'm right. Period.

Comments:

- [What a manly explanation.]

- [I really want to nitpick, but when you think about it, it's all correct.]

- [It's frustrating, but it's true.]

- [But it's frustrating...!]

-----------------------------------------

"...Is that really accurate?"

"As you can see from the comments, it's a very precise and concise explanation, like a sharp private tutor."

Of course, if we delve deeper and more accurately, the story might change a bit...

But we don't need to know all the details right now, and that wasn't the important part to begin with.

"Anyway, Jessica, there's something more important than the Special Defense Facility right now."

"What do you want me to do?"

"First, the resource status, just what's left."

"Hold on... Minerals are now 11.1 million, and rare resources are about 4.7 million?"

"Excellent."

"Why are you... Oh, are you planning to build that now?"

As if she had just remembered something, Jessica spoke, and I nodded in response.

"It's not the Fortress Main Gun, that's for later when we have enough resources."

"Oh."

"Instead, let's build the

“Ah, okay.”

Even though I reacted like that, I could sense a great deal of disappointment in Jessica’s expression.

But since the chances of some lunatics crashing into my Tanhoizer right now were practically nonexistent,

It was better to quickly upgrade the base and prepare for the eventual level 10 base upgrade… It was an inevitable decision.

And shortly after…

—————————————-

<Nemesis Orbital Ring construction in progress...>

<Time remaining until completion: 35 days 9 hours 23 minutes 48 seconds>

—————————————-

“Finally, we’ve hit 35 days.”

“Sigh…”

After starting the construction of that monstrous building that consumes 5,350,000 minerals and 950,000 rare resources in one go,

I checked that we had enough resources left and told Jessica to prepare for round 6.

“Jessica, are all the salvaged ships in repair status?”

“Yes, all ships with moderate damage or more.”

“Then have the regular shipyards keep producing destroyers and patrol ships.”

“Huh… Only small ships?”

“Yeeees.”

Of course, with this command of mine, Jessica, who had been acting like a large ship enthusiast, now looked like she was about to spam small ships.

But that was just for a moment.

Perhaps because she believed I had a plan, she quickly changed her expression and obediently started the real work.