I Became a Commander in a Crappy SF Game.

Ch.105″The oil is oozing out.” (1)

by fnovelpia

According to Jessica’s explanation, our problem was none other than…

Since we had to bear “part” of the repair costs for the massive pirate fleet of about 100,000 ships that came rushing at Marian’s request, all the resources we had accumulated so far.

Literally vanished in the blink of an eye, completely depleted in just one month.

What made it even more frustrating was that this was actually Marian and the Pirate Alliance being as accommodating as possible to us.

“Repair costs? I’ve been hearing a lot about that lately.”

“…Ahem.”

“Even though I only called for those who would help you, all sorts of riffraff showed up too, so the fleet damage rate is enormous.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Don’t worry, I realistically know your base can’t handle all that.”

“Sob.”

As you can tell from the way Marian herself talks about it.

The repair costs for the pirates dispatched(?) to our base weren’t being 100% covered by us.

Given the sheer scale, we were only responsible for a mere 1-2% of the total.

The rest was being handled through self-sufficiency by the Pirate Alliance headquarters and individual pirate groups, but.

Even that measly 1-2% of repair costs became an insane amount when the fleet requesting those repairs approached 100,000 ships.

On our side, including the newly discovered locations, we had more than 10 resource zones.

We were deploying fleets of transport-destroyers plastered with transport compartments except for a single turret, running them in three shifts to secure resources.

And simultaneously receiving resources sent by the monster forces as rewards whenever we cleared quests.

Despite all this, our fleet simply couldn’t handle the enormous scale of those pirates.

Slowly but surely, all our resources were drying up.

So in this grotesque situation, we were desperately struggling to avoid a “resource zeroing” crisis…

First of all… the resource boxes that had piled up from my excessive gacha spending.

Whenever needed, with a feeling similar to opening emergency food cans.

I would open them one by one and fill our warehouse with the resources inside.

I thought this would be enough for emergency transfusions.

But that was short-lived.

As if to prove how foolish my thinking was.

Watching the resources disappear in the blink of an eye…

Seeing the resource boxes I had kept as evidence of my excessive spending being depleted in no time.

Realizing this wouldn’t be nearly enough, I immediately tried a new method.

—————————————-

<15,000 points will be deducted.>

—————————————-

In other words, unless I bought resource boxes from the store at 1,500 points each and dumped them in.

There was no way to meet the resource demand.

Whether we liked it or not, we had absolutely no room to do things like base upgrades.

And so, hoping to avoid “resource zeroing” at all costs.

Today again, I was using massive amounts of points, putting in effort upon effoooooort to patch up our resource situation.

Of course, part of me thought we could just let the resources zero out.

And pay it all back later in one go.

But if we did that and a real “resource zeroing” crisis occurred?

If resources completely disappeared, it would result in massive debuffs to my fleet and superhumans’ performance.

—————————————-

<Tip: Resource Shortage Crisis>

<Warning! These debuffs apply to ‘all fleets’ under the Commander’s command, including ‘mercenaries’!>

—————————————-

As I could see from the tooltip I was looking at.

If such an insane debuff were applied.

Even at a glance, it would cut fleet combat power by at least half, meaning inevitable defeat against any user of equal rank.

And the real problem in the current situation wasn’t PVP with other users.

As the tooltip clearly stated, this would apply unconditionally to any fleet under my “command” regardless of affiliation.

So as long as Marian’s elite guard fleet + miscellaneous pirate alliance fleets were temporarily under my command to help me.

The resource zeroing debuff would affect all of them too.

And why this was a real problem was.

If Marian’s direct fleet and various pirate groups currently scouring the surroundings all had their performance slashed.

Then naturally, the surrounding forces.

Especially the NPC forces like the Xenovia Empire and Earth Federation would certainly not leave the thorn-in-their-side Pirate Alliance alone.

If the Pirate Empress and her main fleet ended up getting hit with debuffs and wiped out while struggling…

The “Pirate Alliance” backing that I had finally secured might collapse after the destruction of their main fleet and subsequent full-scale invasion by other forces.

So whether I liked it or not, I was putting in effoooort to avoid catastrophe by securing resources through resource fleets and quests.

As well as purchasing large quantities of resource boxes with event reward points.

Of course, as time passed, conflicts between pirates, users.

And other forces would continue to occur, generating additional repair costs.

As mentioned above, by intensely running resource fleets, clearing quests, and opening resource boxes.

I somehow managed to reach a point where resource consumption and acquisition were in balance.

But that was short-lived.

I suddenly realized that at this rate, we’d only maintain the status quo.

And I wouldn’t be able to get anything from the event except resource boxes.

‘Wait a minute, we’re screwed.’

At this point, I thought this event was definitely ruined.

Clearly, the pirates were only here to help me progress through the event.

And to improve trust with the monster forces by clearing quests more quickly.

But the current situation was like… the tail wagging the dog.

And I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

“Commander, may I offer a suggestion?”

“…I think I know what you’re going to say, but go ahead.”

“If we continue like this… aren’t we just wasting time on this event without any meaning?”

“So you think so too.”

Just as our bunny-bunny Jessica was saying.

If we continued like this…

To be honest, the cost-benefit analysis simply didn’t add up.

Since the topic had come up.

Jessica and I spent time actively exchanging opinions on how to resolve this situation.

After about 15 minutes.

“…We should send the pirates back now.”

“Right, it’s time for the pirate gentlemen to go home.”

Although Marian hadn’t explained exactly why.

Seeing how the Pirate Alliance’s repair cost claims were increasing exponentially.

It was obvious that response units from other forces had arrived at the border.

And were happily engaging in combat with the nearly 100,000-ship pirate fleet Marian had brought.

With this conclusion firmly in mind.

I was about to go to Marian, who was sitting in a corner of the base command center, to tell her it was time to send the pirates back.

But the moment I uttered those words.

“Oppa, don’t tell me you don’t need me anymore?”

“…!”

“But I need you so much?”

Marian’s eyes radiated an extremely, extremely, extremely ferocious aura.

Thanks to that, I felt like a baby zebra thrown before a lion, thinking this must be how it feels.

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