Ch.129″I want to upgrade the base.”

Despite the shocking resource consumption, we absolutely had to proceed with upgrading the base.

And the reason for that was none other than…

—————————————-

<Base Level 6 Upgrade>

<<<Required Resources: 250,000 Minerals, 7,500 Rare Resources>>>

<Upgrade Unlocks>

˪<Additional Docking Facility Unlocked>

˪<Additional Resource Warehouse Construction Available>

˪<Fleet Long-Range Teleport System Construction Available>

˪<Large Ship Exclusive Shipyard Construction Available>

˪<Ship Emergency Repair Facility Construction Available>

˪<Graviton Detection Radar Construction Available>

—————————————-

The existence of the “Large Ship Exclusive” shipyard was mouth-watering enough.

But the <Fleet Long-Range Warp System> that could instantly deploy fleets from the base to desired battlefields…

That was precisely what separated commanders with level 5 bases from those with level 6 and above.

Of course, due to its structure, we could only send fleets out.

When returning, unless using the same facility at another allied commander’s base…

There was absolutely no way except letting the fleet slowly make its way back on its own.

And besides those two features, there was also the <Ship Emergency Repair Facility> that used resources and rare resources to rapidly restore ships.

For cruisers, repairs took only a few dozen seconds.

Then there was the <Graviton Detection Radar> which, while not particularly expanding the base’s detection range…

Could weakly detect even those “stealth” ships that occasionally appeared in gacha.

Plus, with the ability to build additional docking facilities and resource warehouses.

Truly, “like it or not,” upgrading to a level 6 base was inevitable if you wanted to survive long in this game.

But since I couldn’t proceed with it right now even if I wanted to…

I decided to just complete some daily quests, gather resources in earnest, and commit to construction tomorrow or the day after.

However, about 5 minutes after I had that thought.

<<“Commander Icarus, do you have a moment?”>>

“Huh?”

Just as Oxianor’s telepathy, which had faded into the background lately, suddenly reached me.

—————————————-

<Quest>

<A World in Tension.>

<Details>

<Recently, numerous conflicts have been occurring in border regions between factions.>

<Until now, these have mostly been small unit skirmishes or battles between “commanders” awkwardly straddling multiple factions.>

<As these incidents have accumulated, there was recently a large-scale fleet battle between the Earth Federation and Space Monsters.>

<Seeing tensions escalate, the leader of your faction, the ‘Monster Queen,’ recognized the gravity of the situation.>

<She is producing massive troops and fleets to prepare for possible future wars.>

<In this process, she wishes to receive small “donations” of resources from commanders affiliated with her faction.>

<Objective: Donate at least 50,000 Minerals and 3,000 Rare Resources to the Monster faction.>

—————————————-

<<“…so, would that be possible?”>>

‘Ah, so it’s finally time for this event.’

Seeing this event that still remained in my memory appear, I thought I’d have to postpone the base upgrade for a few days.

This was because this event was a kind of “common event” that appeared for all users belonging to a “faction.”

If you refused or donated less than the minimum amount…

Your trust with that faction would be severely reduced, or negative events might occur.

And if your trust went into the negative because of this event?

Then they would immediately expel you from the faction—it was an absolutely vicious event.

And even if you weren’t expelled, as mentioned above, the trust you’d built up would be slashed away.

So without much deliberation, I decided to set aside some of my remaining resources to hand over to the Monsters.

“Oh of course, absolutely possible.”

<<“The Queen will be delighted by your assistance!”>>

==========

Anyway, after sending resources to the Monsters and clearing some daily quests, the next morning…

“Jessica, Jessica, magical Jessica.”

“…”

“Would you tell me today’s resource status?”

“Considering both income and expenditure, we currently have 150,000 minerals, and we just hit 3,000 rare resources.”

Despite the rather unfortunate loss of half my resources in just one day.

Now that I wasn’t insanely consuming resources for events anymore, I could just focus on gathering for about a week.

Besides, apart from what I spent from the ranking rewards, I hadn’t really blown through that many minerals.

So judging there wasn’t a major problem, I was thinking about attacking nearby NPC fleets to extract some resources.

But while I was thinking that…

“Hmm? Oh, yes? Just a moment please.”

Jessica, who was beside me, suddenly started conversing with someone.

Eventually, she turned to me with a puzzled expression and brought up something unusual.

“Commander, Oxianor is asking if it would be possible to meet with you one-on-one?”

“Huh? Oxianor?”

I wondered if this might be that event I’d only heard about but never experienced—where they randomly cling to you asking for “more resources.”

My spine tingled at the thought, but since there’s nothing more dangerous than making assumptions on my own…

I decided to accept this heart-pounding one-on-one “date” (?) with Oxianor to find out what she wanted.

=========

Of course, as everyone guessed, calling it a date was just my joke.

At most, I thought she might have additional quests to give me.

Or perhaps since Oxianor lacked the clout to speak “directly” with Marian about the secret alliance with the Pirate Union…

And Leonard, who was somewhat similar in standing, refused to get involved in anything beyond what Marian ordered…

So she might want to discuss the alliance through me? That’s what I thought this meeting would be about…

But surprisingly, contrary to my expectations…

“Icarus, for some reason… other commanders haven’t been very receptive to our requests lately.”

“Hmm.”

“Do you know why that might be?”

“…Well.”

Our big-bosomed Oxianor, using the soft touch of her bio-suit as a shield…

Deliberately sat next to me on the sofa and kept clinging to my side.

Moreover, as she spoke, she naturally wrapped herself around one of my arms…

Placing it between her “monster pouches” that were so voluptuous they seemed about to burst through the monster bio-suit.

‘…Wow!’

For a moment, I felt dazed by the incredible springy softness of that overwhelming flesh…

‘Wait a minute, Oxianor is a gentleman, a gentleman!’

But briefly remembering that Oxianor was originally male-formed…

I felt great sadness and confusion, but also managed to regain my senses naturally, thinking there must be some reason for this behavior.

So I tried to naturally extract my arm that Oxianor had wrapped herself around…

…only to fail due to her strength, which was incomparably greater than mine.

Stuck in this awkward position, I decided to continue the conversation with Oxianor in the calmest tone possible.

“I’m not entirely sure, but don’t you think the past couple of months were actually the unusual period?”

“Hmm… I see.”

And when I didn’t fall for her feminine wiles(?) and spoke calmly…

Oxianor, still leaning on my shoulder, just blinked at me.

Eventually, she naturally released my arm and adjusted her posture back to how it was at first.

I also inwardly sighed with relief and decided to have a “wholesome” conversation with Oxianor…

“Hmm, you don’t like this body?”

“…?”

“I created it by compromising between the Queen’s opinion and mine, to resemble those nearby… but if you prefer something unusual.”

With a “crunch” sound, she instantly transformed her body into that of a 7-8 year old girl.

I had to grab Oxianor by the shoulders and speak urgently.

“I am not a pedophile, Oxianor.”

“Hmm?”

“So please return to your original form immediately. If you stay like that, I could be terribly misunderstood.”