Chapter 53

Chapter 53. Nope.

Anyway, next to me, constantly fidgeting and muttering something about “Icarusium” or whatever.

Watching the overgrown Marian, who’s going berserk about absorbing some strange thing.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

‘By the way, if she surrenders to me, what happens to the real pirates?’

The current situation, in a way… seems similar to the “Happy Ending” scenario that other veterans mentioned.

But from what I understood, that was only about the Pirate Empress surrendering to me after being defeated.

I never imagined she’d surrender without a fight and even leave an Imperial Guard fleet behind to ensure no danger comes my way in her absence.

Up to that point, it was still somewhat understandable.

But looking at it this way… isn’t it just like the Pirate King, where the Pirate Empress was also defeated by an enemy?

Especially since she surrendered without a fight, shouldn’t the pirates either expel Marian and appoint a new leader?

Or, without appointing a new leader, shouldn’t they just go wild on their own?

Of course, it’s just a game, and seeing the developers’ strange management style… it seems like they’re just making things up without much thought.

They’ll probably figure it out somehow…

But still, curiosity got the better of me, so I subtly brought up my question to Marian.

Hearing my question, Marian’s unique dark brown eyes sparkled, and she opened her eyes wide.

“Oh… Oppa! Are you finally interested in our management? Are you ready to plunder the universe with me?!”

“Uh-oh.”

Then, with madness pouring from her eyes, she suddenly accelerated.

It was truly terrifying.

Of course, Marian’s actions were quickly restrained by the others nearby.

So, we decided to continue our conversation in a calmer state.

==========

Anyway, after Marian was subdued, she heard my question.

As if it was no big deal, she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, opening her mouth…

“There’s no problem? The situation is different between me and that pig.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“To put it bluntly, my surrender to you was decided from the start.”

“Hmm?”

Hearing that, I tried to ask Marian for further explanation.

Immediately, a new event message popped up in front of me, explaining things to my insufficient brain.

—————————————-

<Event: Pirate's Contract>

<From an external perspective, the Pirate King defeated by other commanders.>

<And the Pirate Empress who surrendered to you, both seem similar.>

<But in reality, the situations are slightly different.>

<From the start, you were treated as the Pirate Empress's master by the pirates, and it was publicly declared.>

<Moreover, unlike the Pirate King, who only showed incompetence before being purged.>

<The Pirate Empress herself, regardless of her decision to surrender to you, led her pirate fleet so well that it could be called an invincible fleet.>

<Before surrendering to you, she won every battle and showcased her skills...>

<To the other pirates, it wasn't a surrender due to incompetence.>

<But rather, acting according to a "contract" from the start, ensuring that both your and her leadership remained unshaken.>

<Of course, there were those who opposed the Empress's decision...>

<But now, they can't survive without agreeing with the Empress's decisions.>

<So, the Empress's control over the pirates won't disappear anytime soon.>

—————————————-

And as soon as I finished reading that event message.

“Don’t worry too much, any pirates who dare to defy me… will have no choice but to agree from now on.”

“Hmm.”

‘Chills.’

Hearing Marian’s words with a beaming smile, I felt like she grew up in a really strange way.

But according to the event message, it seemed like Marian had “perfect” control over the pirates.

But actually, Marian herself shook her head at my comment.

“I wish I could be with you every day, even move the pirate den here.”

“…”

‘I’d rather you didn’t.’

Whether I thought that or not, Marian grumbled and continued the conversation.

“It’s all because that pig of a Pirate King couldn’t show proper dignity as the first Pirate King.”

“Dignity, huh.”

“Because of that, no matter how much I try as the Pirate Empress…”

“Even if I tighten the reins and crack the whip, if I don’t show my face around the pirates’ den often… my control over them will inevitably weaken.”

“I see.”

Well, when you think about it, that’s just how it goes.

Back when I was playing the game, I never even got the Pirate Empress.

And besides, in the game, pirates operated on a completely separate system.

The Empress, like other superhumans, was permanently bound to the player, so…

I’ve never heard of something like this happening before.

But then again, talking about the game now feels pointless, since my current relationship with Marian is something that couldn’t even exist in the game.

Thinking of all these things as identical to the old game probably isn’t the best idea.

So I shook my head and decided to tell Marian that she must be having a tough time.

“You’ve really been through a lot, huh?”

“Ehehe, not really… If I just think about Oppa, time flies by surprisingly fast.”

“Oh, is that so?”

==========

Anyway, Marian, who I hadn’t seen in a while, mentioned she was just passing by today and left surprisingly quickly.

After seeing her off, I sat down in the command seat and started pondering what to do next.

Of course, this kind of pondering isn’t something I do alone.

“Jessica, do you have any advice on what to do next?”

“Hmm…”

With Jessica, my advisor, secretary, and event notifier, by my side.

My IQ is 100, Jessica’s is 200.

Together, we’re tackling the creation of future plans with a combined IQ of 300.

And this “planless” state isn’t unique to me.

—————————————-

-[Bored gamers, hit like](24)

-[Event’s over, what now?](3)

-[Anyone up for a player war?](5)

-[Did 100 pulls, got any SSRs?!](3)

-[Sex](8)

-[Ugh… Mama… Feed me…](13)

-[99% chance of getting trolled by the Empress rape meme](6)

—————————————-

Title: Event’s over, what now?

Author: Speed of Maha

Content: [Pirate Raid Event End Notice]

Now that pirate raids are rare, and it’s too much hassle to fight other players, is there any content?

I’m bored.

Comments:

-[Just grind base upgrades, you’ll get facilities to build Cruiser Battleships and other Large Ships.]

-[Still haven’t gathered enough resources for that]

-[This guy quit the game]

—————————————-

Title: Did 100 pulls, got any SSRs?!

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Proof of 10 normal resource boxes]

Didn’t get any, so here you go, you bastards.

Comments:

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

—————————————-

As you can see from the gallery, after the ranking announcements, all the users were left with nothing to do.

Bored out of their minds, they were just spouting nonsense.

But honestly, the only things to do in the game right now are gathering resources, upgrading the base, or occasionally doing gacha pulls with the currency you collect.

With nothing else to do, if the developers don’t give us something substantial…

Considering they’ve essentially kidnapped and held hostage the minds of over 100,000 users…

It’s highly likely that the users will rise up in some weird way against the developers’ incompetence.

==========

And thankfully, exactly one week after having that thought…

A new update message appeared before me and all the other users, and I thought, “Well, at least I won’t be bored for a while.”