Ch.130Busy, Yet Not Busy. (1)

After thwarting the monsters’ scheme(?) to socially assassinate me.

Fortunately, my conversation with Oxianor, who had returned to normal, went exactly as I had expected.

Or rather, it seemed to be going even better than I had anticipated.

“I assume you already know this well, but aren’t we and the Pirate Empress secretly allied behind the backs of the two powers?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“However, separate from this secret alliance, strictly speaking, it’s currently just an alliance in name only.”

‘Huh?’

What I had been thinking was simply, ‘Ah, it’s awkward for us to speak directly to the Empress, so could you speak to her on our behalf?’

But listening to Oxianor, or rather, the monster faction’s story…

It seemed to be going much, much further than that.

While I was momentarily dazed with confusion…

“Moreover, while the Pirate Union has the Empress herself present, our side, despite being reinforced… ultimately has the problem that our representative is just me, an intelligent terminal with ‘diplomatic functions.'”

“…I see.”

From what Oxianor said, I could understand why the monster faction had brought this up.

“So in the current state, it’s difficult to have discussions with the Pirate Union as allies…?”

“Icarus, as you’re thinking… we will also dispatch a VIP of the same rank as the ‘Pirate Empress’ here.”

“…Hmm.”

I feel this every time, but it’s strange to see “Space Monsters” placing such importance on diplomatic matters.

Seeing how randomly assigned faction traits can cause such a tremendous butterfly effect.

I couldn’t help but have complicated thoughts.

And while I was thinking, Oxianor continued speaking.

“But there’s one problem here.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Well…”

When I quickly responded while still deep in thought, Oxianor tapped the table with his tentacles—not fingers—attached to his suit, frowning as if frustrated, and continued speaking.

Wondering what the problem could be, I just quietly watched him.

Eventually, as if having realized something, he adjusted his posture, brightened his expression toward me, and began speaking.

“Come to think of it, there’s no need to hide this from you!”

“Huh?”

“You’re aware that the recent movements between the Xenovia Empire and the Earth Federation are concerning, aren’t you?”

“…Ah.”

“The situation between those two powers is quite precarious, so Her Majesty finds it very uncomfortable to mobilize a large fleet sufficient to escort the VIP!”

Seeing him even clapping his hands and gesturing like a human.

I nodded and replied.

“So you’re not asking us to escort that VIP, right?”

“You understand well, as expected of Commander Icarus, whom I trust.”

But seeing Oxianor’s proud expression, I showed my confusion.

And continued the conversation.

“Can’t you use what you used when you came and went back?”

“What I used… oh, you mean the neural network?”

“Yes, exactly that.”

I asked why they couldn’t use the monsters’ amazing teleportation method, which according to the setting is “not exactly clear why it works.”

Anyway, it’s an over-technology that allows instant travel from one end of the universe to the other.

Looking at the carapace that had grown over his hands like gloves, Oxianor replied.

“Unfortunately, the neural network is overloaded due to the movement of large-scale forces.”

“Ah.”

“Because of that, even I can’t go to Her Majesty.”

Seeing him shrug his shoulders with a nonchalant expression.

For a moment, I started to wonder if he was lying and it was actually usable.

But that thought didn’t last long.

“So I’ll ask you again, are you interested in taking this on?”

As soon as Oxianor finished speaking, a quest message popped up before my eyes.

—————————————-

<Quest>

<VIP Escort Mission-1, Dispatch.>

<Details>

<You must escort the ‘VIP’ from the ‘Space Monster’ headquarters to the Commander’s base.>

<Of course, large fleets of ‘Space Monsters’ will take turns providing cover within their territories to protect the VIP.>

<However, this is only meant to block ‘large-scale’ fleets that your fleet cannot handle.>

<You must handle the rest yourself, such as small-scale attacks, common independent space pirates, or wild monsters.>

<Of course, first, the Commander’s fleet must come to the ‘headquarters’.>

<Objective>

<Dispatch more than 100 ships to the ‘Space Monster’ headquarters.>

<Condition: Include at least 3 Superhumans of S-rank or higher, and at least 15 cruiser-class ships.>

… … … … … …

—————————————-

Looking at the quest message that appeared before me, which seemed slightly different from before.

I barely managed to hold back the curse that was about to escape my lips.

‘Are you kidding me? Our base just barely reached 150 ships, and you want us to give up two-thirds of them?’

What evil…!

Moreover, considering the distance to what was presumed to be the monster headquarters…

If we just sent the fleet, it would literally take months to go back and forth.

‘Holy moly.’

I was appalled at that ridiculous target and was naturally about to click on quest rejection…

But that thought didn’t last long.

—————————————-

… … … … … …

<Clear Reward>

<Random gift of one ship with monster biotechnology integrated>

<While the VIP stays at the base, trust with the monster faction permanently maintained at +10 or higher>

<Increased probability of ‘positive’ events related to monsters>

—————————————-

Seeing the incredibly sweet rewards, I stopped whining.

‘Fine, let’s give it a try.’

I decided to put in all my effort for this important VIP escort.

==========

But no matter how determined I was, we couldn’t proceed with the quest right away.

“Commander, are you really planning to just send the fleet to the monster headquarters?”

“…Of course not.”

As mentioned above, sending them directly would be an enormous waste of time.

As the most ‘perfect’ solution, we decided to prioritize building the <Fleet Long-Distance Teleport System>, which becomes available with the 6th level base upgrade.

And to achieve this, we not only worked our resource fleet hard.

-BOOM! BANG!

“Hah-ha♡”

“They’re escaping, surround them!”

-“Yes, Lady Berial!”

We hunted respawning mobs nearby to steal resources.

“You know what happens if you run? Behave yourselves.”

‘These damn bastards’

While leveling up Ignis, we captured independent pirates and wild monsters for the ‘Forced Labor Camp’ we obtained, and extracted resources by working them hard.

And if they started to falter?

“There, gently, it won’t hurt~”

“AAAAARGH!”

“VALHALLAAAA!”

“Ugh… daddy… daddy.”

We took those independent pirates or wild monsters to Griyanar.

After performing the miracle of triple recycling by converting them into resources through alchemy(?).

In less than a week, we managed to collect 320,000 minerals and over 10,000 rare resources.

Of course, in this process, the surrounding mobs were completely depleted.

—————————————-

Title: WTF why aren’t mobs respawning here?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Space Image]

It’s either completely empty or already looted, only brand new mobs

Why is this happening?

Comments:

-[Someone already took everything]

-[Lord, make me a righteous mob thief today too]

-[LOL]

-[Is there a ranker nearby? Those guys process mobs at an insane speed]

—————————————-

As soon as I accidentally opened the gallery window and saw this post.

I realized that the poor nearby users were having the minor problem of not being able to find mobs to hunt.

So my explosive tertiary workforce recycling plan had to end after just one week.