Chapter 67

Chapter 67. A World with Monsters

<<“Ah, truly a pleasure. I am Oxianor, here to offer you advice and support under the Queen’s orders.”>>

“Um… yes, nice to meet you, Mr. Oxianor.”

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<Intelligent Terminal, Oxianor>

<A being created by the Queen of Space Monsters to seek dialogue with intelligent entities.>

<Usually, he maintains a literally “gentlemanly” demeanor and requests respect for etiquette if it is breached.>

<Of course, depending on the Commander’s intelligence or preferences, he will adjust his speech accordingly for a more comfortable conversation.>

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Our eyeball dude here has quite a unique name and an equally unique setting.

As I’d heard in the gallery, he truly shows an extremely polite and gentlemanly demeanor.

I nodded my head and decided to introduce the two people present here first.

“This bunny beastkin is my deputy, Jessica.”

“Hello, Mr. Oxianor.”

<<“Truly a pleasure. Since you’re the Commander’s deputy, I suppose we’ll be talking often.”>>

With tentacles tipped with claws swaying, Oxianor extended a handshake to Jessica.

Our Jessica, with a barely controlled trembling smile, somehow managed to shake Oxianor’s tentacle.

And unlike Jessica…

“Um… and here is Gryanarr, our base’s research officer.”

“Hehe, really nice to meet you, Mr. Oxianor.”

<<“Quite the mischievous young lady, aren’t you?”>>

Though it seemed like he was openly expressing interest.

With that signature little-devil smile, Oxianor’s eyes gave off a rather peculiar vibe.

After this brief self-introduction session, Oxianor, who told me there was no need to use formal language with him, blinked his eyes a couple of times and continued.

<<“I’ll basically be staying here, but feel free to contact me anytime if needed.”>>

“Hmm.”

<<“However, since our trust relationship hasn’t been established yet, just know that I can’t offer much proper help for now.”>>

For a moment, I was puzzled by what he meant, but then it hit me.

‘Ah, that’s it.’

A forgotten memory from the past flashed through my mind.

Just because you join a faction doesn’t mean you’ll immediately receive their ‘buffs,’ or get access to ‘fleets’ or ‘superhumans’ without using user points.

Or receive resources from the faction, for that matter.

Of course, there was a chance I had dementia or just couldn’t remember it clearly since it was so long ago.

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<Faction Support Guide>

<The Commander needs to establish a kind of “trust relationship” with the joined faction.>

<If sufficient trust isn’t established, the faction’s assigned representative or leader may deem the Commander untrustworthy.>

<This could significantly reduce the support the faction provides to the Commander.>

<To increase trust, you can complete quests given by the faction.>

<Or attack enemy faction fleets, or hand over mined resources.>

<Alternatively, you can build “personal favor” with the faction’s representative or leader.>

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According to the newly displayed guide, at least I wasn’t mistaken.

I nodded and replied.

“I know. It’s only natural not to expect too much when we’ve just met today.”

<<“Hmm, compared to other rude individuals, you seem much more reasonable. I see hope for the future.”>>

And as soon as I heard that, a notification popped up in front of me, indicating that our trust relationship had taken its first step.

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<Event>

<You’ve successfully elicited a friendly response from Oxianor, the intelligent terminal of the monsters.>

<Trust with the Monster Faction +1>

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“Oh, fast trust level.”

Thinking that this was a decent enough start, I decided to shake hands with Oxianor one last time.

-*Clap*.

“…Hmm, something feels weird.”

Of course, I couldn’t help but think that from now on, I’d rather shake a dry claw than a slimy, mucus-covered tentacle.

==========

Anyway, after successfully(?) completing my first encounter with the Monster Force in that manner, I headed straight to the command center. I fiddled with the command console to check if there were any remaining daily quests, but…

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<Daily Quest Clear List>

<Expedition Resource Mining x1> (Cleared)

<Resource Mining x3> (Cleared)

<Resource Mining x10> (Cleared)

<Ship Construction x1> (Cleared)

<Scrap Old Ships x1> (Cleared)

<Base Upgrade x1> (Cleared)

<Superhuman Upgrade x1>

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“Nothing much.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

It seems that attaching the Monster’s neural network module counted as a base upgrade.

Except for the <Base Upgrade x1> that was marked as cleared by chance, the daily quest window looked exactly the same as usual.

Confirming that there were no major issues, I decided to proceed with the actual base upgrade.

Of course, before that, I first checked with Jessica to see how many resources we had.

“We have about 23,000… no, 23,500 minerals, and about 5,000 rare resources.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, and there’s a communication just in. The resource mining fleet returning to the base has 3,500 minerals.”

“Plenty.”

After hearing Jessica’s report, I immediately opened the base construction window on the command console I was holding.

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<Base Upgrade Facility Possible List>

<Additional Docking Facility> (2,500)

<Resource Warehouse> (3,000)

<Weapon Development Center> (19,000) <Selected>

<Forward Base> (30,000)

<Mercenary Dispatch Center> (17,500)

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<Weapon Development Center Construction in Progress...>

<<<Time Remaining Until Completion: 8 days 1 hour 9 minutes>>>

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After some deliberation, I decided to build the Weapon Development Center first.

With the construction order given, I put down the command console, as there was no need to look at it anymore today.

This time, I opened the Community Window in the Status Window to check out the newly added ‘Trade & Auction House.’

Since user-to-user trades had been happening based on trust alone, I figured the system-controlled trade and auction house would be somewhat active.

I also thought I might do a bit of shopping if there was anything worth buying.

And the ‘Trade & Auction House’ I entered for the first time was far more active than I had imagined.

The only difference from what I expected was…

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-[Staria for Sale, Level 50, No Negative Traits, All Limbs Intact]

-[Ranya Twins for Sale, 1+1, Both Level 42]

-[Ignis Level 23 Panda, Beginners Only]

-[Polka Ramada, Level 35, Missing One Arm]

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The auction house was filled with all sorts of superhuman trafficking(???) going on, and that was the difference.

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