Chapter 56

Chapter 56. New Update (3)

After overcoming the sorrow of a disastrous gacha pull, I decided to stand up again and march forward with determination.

“Only weaklings get hung up on gacha results.”

“Ah, I see. Then I’ll quietly forget about how you collapsed into Pashtira’s arms, whimpering and mentally shattered after your gacha failure…”

“…”

Although, well, there were some… incidents along the way.

“Don’t be like that, Jessica~♡”

“Pashtira.”

“I enjoyed it, you know…♡ Ahhh, I can still feel the Commander’s vibrations coursing through my chest and stomach…♡”

“You see that, Commander?”

“Sigh.”

Anyway, now that the gacha was done, I decided to fully dedicate myself to tackling the tasks ahead.

And among those future tasks—joining a faction, the inevitable next gacha, wars with other factions or users—I decided to prioritize the most important one.

Namely, the serious business of upgrading the base to Level 5.

First, let’s take a look at the current state of the base…

‘Let’s see, open the base status window.’

—————————————-

<Astral Base Lv. 4>

<Currently Unlocked Facilities>

– Commander’s Room

– Command Center

– Shipyard

– Medical Room

– Lounge

– Store

– Training Room

– Resource Warehouse

– Docking Facility

– Cryostasis Room

– Dimensional Signal Collection Communication Amplification System

– Multi-Dimensional Fixed Causality Generator

– Advanced Research Lab

– Resource Synthesis Production Facility

– Rare Resource Synthesis Production Facility

– Advanced Technology Management Center

– Rare Resource Production Facility

– Comprehensive Defense System

—————————————-

At Level 4, the only new facility unlocked was the ‘Rare Resource Synthesis Production Facility.’ Compared to before, there wasn’t much of a difference…

‘Next, the base upgrade window.’

—————————————-

<Base Level 5 Upgrade>

<<Required Resources: 95,000 Minerals, 3,500 Rare Resources>>

<Unlocked Facilities Upon Upgrade>

– Additional Docking Facility

– Additional Resource Warehouse Construction

– Biological Research Institute Construction

– Weapon Development Center Construction

– Forward Base Construction

– Mercenary Dispatch Center Construction

<Upon Reaching Base Level 5, One Random Superhuman in Cryostasis Will Be Awakened>

—————————————-

From Level 5 onwards, not only do the basics get upgraded, but a bunch of new facilities unlock all at once.

‘Wow, that’s a lot.’

Although the resource cost for the upgrade skyrocketed nearly tenfold compared to Level 4…

It’s practically a crime against morality, the amount of resources needed.

But as I looked at that long and glorious list of new constructions…

‘Finally, the day has come.’

Seeing the ‘Cryostasis Awakening’ at the very end, I felt a small spark of hope reignite in my heart, which had been shaken by the disastrous gacha.

Of course, who would come out was still a mystery.

But at least it wouldn’t be a complete dud like the gacha earlier.

With that thought, I decided to check with Jessica how many resources we had saved up.

“Jessica, how many resources do we have right now?”

“Hmm… just a moment.”

Suddenly, it struck me as odd why I couldn’t just check something as trivial as this through the command console and had to go through an adjutant like Jessica.

But before I could dwell on that thought…

“Ah, found it. We have about 25,000 minerals and… 800 rare resources?”

“Hmm.”

Fortunately (?) for the developers, Jessica reported faster than I could finish my train of thought.

So I put that aside and continued thinking about our current situation.

“The minerals are whatever, but why do we have so little rare resources?”

“Back then, the Commander’s Fixed Causality Generator used to spit out tons of rare resources, but this time there’s barely any?”

“…”

Hearing that, my expression stiffened.

He kept bowing and saying it was a joke, then continued speaking.

“It’s a joke, it’s just that the Commander has been using so many minerals lately.”

“…Did we really use that much?”

At my words, Jessica nodded her head, looked at her tablet, and then spoke again.

“Yes, you’ve been postponing the addition of docking stations for various reasons, and you’ve been carrying out all sorts of construction projects simultaneously.”

Well, to be precise, as soon as one construction project was finished, you immediately started the next.

When I nodded in agreement with her words, Jessica even brought up a hologram next to her and continued with additional explanations.

“Moreover, there was a Commander who recently invaded our resource zone without any declaration of war.”

“Ah.”

At Jessica’s words, I nodded again, recalling the ‘minor’ conflict that had happened just a few days ago.

“But back then, didn’t our pirate friends raid that Commander’s base and bring back minerals?”

“Most of them were used up repairing the pirate ships, which were heavily damaged.”

“Hmm…”

“Additionally, since the resource mining ships were sunk, we lost one resource zone and three destroyers.”

“Ah… right, we had to rebuild those.”

In summary, it was used where it needed to be used.

When I realized that I had been struggling without any resources to upgrade, I felt a bit ashamed.

==========

And about a week later.

—————————————-

<Base Level 5 Upgrade in Progress...>

<<<Time Remaining: 7 days 15 hours 35 minutes>>>

—————————————-

‘Good, this is done now.’

Including the newly produced resource mining ships.

After sucking up resources from over 30 resource zones around us.

I could finally see my precious Level 5 base upgrade progressing rapidly.

And at the same time, the long-awaited update was also rolling out…

—————————————-

<General Announcement>

<To all Commanders enjoying Astral Lagrange.>

<As of now, including the existing pirates.>

<The void space monsters, aliens from distant realms, and the Earth Federation, your homeland and benefactor.>

<Each faction is revealing their presence.>

<Commanders, will you follow the Earth Federation, your superiors?>

<Will you interact with the aliens with astonishing technological prowess, arming and advancing with even more developed technology?>

<Or will you join hands with space pirates to plunder weaker civilizations?>

<Will you utilize the space monsters, the pinnacle of bioengineering?>

<It all depends on your choices.>

—————————————-

—————————————-

<Additional Announcement>

<A 'Auction House and Trading Market' will be opened in the community.>

<Random enemies will now spawn throughout the universe.>

<Major factions will spawn in each quadrant!>

˪(Quadrant 1: Earth Federation, Quadrant 2: Space Pirates, Quadrant 3: Aliens, Quadrant 4: Space Monsters)

<Each quadrant will mainly spawn fleets of the corresponding faction, but there's a random chance for fleets of other factions to spawn in each quadrant.>

<Resource mining fleets of each faction will appear in existing resource zones!>

˪(To mine in resource zones, you’ll need a corresponding defense fleet.)

—————————————-

“Ah, shoot!”

While reading smoothly, I couldn’t help but shed a tear when I saw the sudden additional update content at the end.

The fact that the ‘octopus-style resource mining’ method I had been using was being forcibly terminated made me unable to hold back my tears.