Ch.18Ready, Ready, Ready, Ready! (2)

-[Pirate Empress?]

-[There’s a newbie who knows about that?]

Naturally, veteran players tend to have difficulty holding back their excitement when they see newbies trying to learn.

-[Child, come sit over here.]

-[We’re about to tell you some damn amazing stories]

When that unnamed newbie asked a question, veterans flocked over as if they’d been waiting for this moment and began reviving their cherished memories.

-[Ah! The Pirate Empress! A name that always brings nostalgia]

-[She’s our heart]

-[She’s definitely a heart, yep]

-[She’s the one who slaughtered all the clueless newbies]

-[The Empress of Refunds;;]

-[The Empress of Hearts, woo woo]

The way they reminisced seemed to prove that, due to the nature of SF as a game genre, the player base had aged more rapidly compared to other games. Rather than the normal style of veterans teasing newbies, it resembled old folks sharing tales in a nursing home.

-[Ugh, these old geezers;;]

-[Grandpas, stop talking nonsense and go ride your walkers]

-[What!! You damn newbie punks, how dare you]

-[Asked for an explanation but all they talk about is hearts]

It was slightly disappointing to see other newbies(?) reacting with disgust.

Of course, excluding those senile grandpas, most veterans were giving perfectly sensible answers.

-[The Pirate Empress is the final boss that appears in the large-scale event chain that includes the currently active linked event]

-[In the event story, you can either recruit her early on, or beat her up and recruit her later]

-[Oh?](questioner)

-[More precisely, if you don’t recruit her early through luck, she’ll show up later in one of three ways]

-[How does she come?](questioner)

-[1. As a pirate admiral friendly to the Commander, bringing her fleet with her.]

-[2. As a pirate admiral who dispatches her fleet or subordinate pirates like a mercenary support.]

-[3. Or she becomes someone who genuinely plunders us lol]

Hearing those words, I could feel memories buried within me gradually resurfacing.

Of course, regardless of my thoughts, the conversation in the chat continued.

-[But then isn’t she just a multi-ending type enemy? Why did she become the subject of refund runs?](questioner)

-[Ah, you don’t know]

-[So that’s it…]

-[I see…]

-[So that’s what happened…]

-[Well…]

-[You don’t need to know]

-[What the hell](questioner)

At this point, it seemed like the veterans were starting to tease the newbie.

-[These damn jokesters, can’t break their habit of messing with newbies]

-[Hahahahahahaha]

-[Now is not the time]

Unfortunately, the original responders quickly suppressed these troublemakers and pushed them away.

The pranksters’ antics were immediately shut down, and the time for explanations continued.

-[To continue explaining, until the Pirate Uprising event, this game was closer to a bonsai game even though it was real-time management]

-[For real, even though the time has been significantly shortened now, it used to take hours to produce just one patrol ship]

-[Plus, players controlling characters was pretty much meaningless back then]

-[Really?](questioner)

-[Yeah, back then most people considered character control and action scenes as just cutscenes]

-[To be precise, unlike now, close combat characters were considered trash back then]

-[Everyone thought you just needed to deal damage from a distance, so the meta was all about annihilating from range]

-[Oh, that’s what I’m doing right now](questioner)

-[But the Pirate Empress directly counters that meta]

-[Ah](questioner)

-[Hahahahahahahahaha]

-[Hahahaha newbie reality check ON]

The newbie questioner, belatedly realizing the reality, desperately tried to find a miraculous reversal chance.

-[But didn’t you just say there’s a 66% chance she becomes an ally?](writer)

-[If not recruited early, two out of three paths make her an ally, but that’s not the probability, gay boy]

-[To be honest, the probability of the Pirate Empress coming to destroy our base is 90% lol]

-[Oh fuck me](writer)

Without giving any hope, the veterans continued their explanations, starting to make the newbie’s mental state crumble.

-[First, we need to explain why the Pirate Empress counters that meta]

-[You absolutely need close combat characters because of the phase progression when the Pirate Empress invades]

-[???](questioner)

-[I don’t know how it is now, but when we did the event, she brought a cruiser and counter-sniped our snipers]

-[The important thing is, if we don’t create a counter-sniping angle with SSS-rank superhumans or ships, or establish fire superiority…]

-[Then the Pirate Empress dives into our ships and captures them one by one lol]

-[Plus, the Pirate Empress herself is equivalent to an upper SS-rank close combat character, and the algorithm is so well-designed that if you just rely on our characters’ AI and push them in carelessly, they all get shredded]

-[There’s a reason she’s called the Empress of Refunds]

-[We can block her by putting close combat superhumans on our ships, but there’s another problem]

-[There’s more problems?](questioner)

-[Yep]

-[Remember I said she captures ships when she dives?]

-[She brings her royal guards and assault troops with her, using the setting that she captures and uses our ships]

-[Fuck?](questioner)

-[Wait, so we have to face diving units with just superhumans and empty ships, without any soldiers?]

At the veterans’ explanation, not only the questioner but other newbies gathered and started to wail.

-[Yep]

-[How the hell are we supposed to block that]

-[There’s always a reason why games fail]

-[This balance is ridiculous]

Of course, such pure anger from the newbies was merely a spicy seasoning that stimulated the excitement of the veterans who were finally straightening their spines.

-[Of course, since this is a game, there are ways to beat it]

-[?](questioner)

-[The Pirate Empress’s troops are brought to operate ships after capture, so their numbers decrease with each capture]

-[But they decrease by a fixed amount regardless of ship size, so you can throw a few patrol ships at the beginning and keep our main ships in the back]

-[If you deploy our superhumans in between to slowly whittle down her troops and royal guards, sometimes the Pirate Empress ends up diving alone]

-[Then you gather all our superhumans and focus fire to take her down]

-[Oh](questioner)

-[I see there is hope after all]

At the veterans’ answer, a glimmer of hope seemed to appear in the newbies’ eyes.

Of course, if they only gave hope here, the newbies would likely do something stupid.

So the veterans began to give additional warnings.

-[But the important thing is, the Pirate Empress’s dive pattern is to eat ships one by one from the fleet’s outer edge]

-[So?]

-[Why does that matter?]

-[So if you push your main ships to the front line thinking you’re in a fleet battle, the Pirate Empress will say “itadakimasu” to your main ships]

-[…]

-[During the event, there was a guy who bragged about getting an S-rank battleship from gacha, but as soon as it started, the Pirate Empress captured his battleship and he lost his mind lol]

-[Fuck]

The newbies listening to the veterans’ past stories were starting to show signs of mental breakdown.

-[How do you already have battleships and cruisers?]

-[They give us one destroyer as an event reward, but the difficulty is this insane?]

And then some people came to patch up their shattered mental states.

-[Wait, I think you guys are misunderstanding something]

-[What they’re talking about is the very end of the current event chain]

-[???](questioner)

-[What does that mean?]

-[If we go by the current timeline, this is at least a month to half a year later]

-[???]

-[It’s after users fight pirates, power level their superhumans, and build up a decent ship pool.]

It wasn’t even a good cop/bad cop strategy, but seeing a veteran jump in to fix the mental state that another veteran had disturbed made me inwardly laugh with resignation.

-[Oh, is that what it is?](questioner)

-[I was scared for nothing]

-[Hahaha I’m saved, I’ll just build an invincible fleet and crush her]

Seeing our newbies revive with energy, I also made a firm decision.

‘I need to focus on development like my life depends on it.’