Ch.216″From now on, protect each other.” (3)

While I was chatting with users here and there, leisurely preparing for battle and spending time arranging the fleet formation, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Oh, by the way, Marian?”

“What is it, oppa?”

“What happens to the Pirate Alliance when you come here?”

When she had to come here, I hadn’t thought about it because of the urgent situation…

But now that I think about it, well, how should I put this?

According to what Marian and other pirate admirals had said before, given the nature of the Pirate Alliance always being full of malcontents…

Didn’t they say it would collapse if the Empress Marian didn’t regularly go in and keep a tight grip on things?

So if Marian just up and left like this, I was increasingly wondering if the Pirate Alliance would simply collapse.

When I cautiously brought up this concern, Marian gave me a blank expression that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

But that didn’t last long.

Soon, Marian flashed a bright smile and confidently began speaking, saying she understood my concern but that I didn’t need to worry about it.

“Oppa! Thank you so much for worrying about me!”

“Umm…”

“But it’s fine. I don’t think there will be any major problems this time.”

“…Why not?”

Wondering why she was so confident, question marks appeared above my head and Jessica’s beside me.

While maintaining her confident attitude, Marian revealed why she was called the “Pirate Empress” in the setting.

“Well, I legally purged all those complaining vermin when the southern region erupted!”

“Oh.”

“It seemed like they were deliberately throwing away their forces in the southern region, so I just used them as meat shields under the pretext of blocking Earth Federation’s main force.”

‘…So even though they said the two forces and major clans were seriously fighting, it was actually just WWE as usual.’

I felt strange when she used the word “legally” in relation to pirates, but that was momentary.

After hearing from Marian herself that the southern conflict was actually WWE, I felt quite complicated, profound, and subtle emotions.

And separately from that, I got goosebumps when Marian proudly announced that she had purged internal dissent…

“You’re so reliable, Marian!”

“Hehe.”

“Commander, Marian really seems to handle things well.”

“Yes, she does.”

Jessica, who was next to me, immediately hugged Marian and gave me a meaningful look.

—————————————-

<Quest>

<Give her a pat!>

<Description>

<Although Marian is called the Pirate Empress and praised as the iron-blooded woman who leads the massive Pirate Alliance.>

<She is still at an age where she craves praise, and she’s secretly hoping for your approval while ‘boasting’ about what she’s done.>

<Objective>

<Praise Marian.>

—————————————-

Seeing the quest window that naturally appeared.

I also gave Marian a nod of approval and decided to thoroughly pat her head.

‘Pat pat pat.’

==========

Anyway, apart from us taking care of these trivial matters, there hadn’t actually been any battles since we arrived here.

Perhaps because the users gathered here had nothing to do after finishing their fleet formation arrangements.

They were taking small shuttles from their ships to sightsee the Kraken or Hresvelgr that I had brought along.

They were engaged in utterly trivial activities like taking proof shots with the Kraken as a backdrop.

Of course, even I would want to take a proof shot first if there was a big-fucking-huge monster the size of a small satellite right in front of me…

‘Did I come to participate in an event, or did I just come to provide a spectacle for users to gawk at?’

After all, it was inevitable that I’d feel strange when I came to participate in an event but ended up being just a spectacle.

I decided to take screenshots of some uniquely designed gacha ships that other users had brought, then open the chat window to ask about my doubts.

—————————————-

-[Damn, that Kraken is huge]

-[Guys, aren’t we going to fight?](Me)

—————————————-

And as soon as my question popped up, other users immediately responded.

—————————————-

-[We want to, but we have to wait]

-[Seems like we have to wait until the event participation restriction period ends]

-[It says random, but I think users are determined by when they first participated]

-[Oh](Me)

—————————————-

In other words, the current situation was no different from waiting for matchmaking.

And after hearing those answers, I started thinking that maybe we could launch carrier aircraft in advance to attack enemies preemptively.

But these users had already thought of that too.

—————————————-

-[Aren’t you launching carrier aircraft in advance?](Me)

-[You must be new here lol]

-[Even if you try to launch aircraft, the system blocks it saying the battle hasn’t started yet]

-[I brought 2 large carriers but can’t do anything except suck my thumb]

-[Sucking fingers kinda turns me on]

-[?]

—————————————-

Something weird came up at the end, but anyway, the summary was that there was a system-level block in place.

‘Well, that makes sense for balance reasons.’

And once I asked a question, perhaps because of the strange sensation of being questioned by a veteran (?) ranker, users started throwing answers to questions I hadn’t even asked.

—————————————-

-[Also, we can’t send scout ships outside this zone right now]

-[It’s only possible to arrange formations near this area or move within it, nothing else]

-[Oh really?](Me)

-[Yep]

—————————————-

Well, thanks to them I learned everything I needed to know.

I took my eyes off the chat window and gave orders to Jessica who was waiting beside me.

“Jessica.”

“Yes, Commander?”

“First, tell our entire fleet to stand down from combat readiness, and what about Neranja?”

“It’s still submerged, and according to their report, strangely there’s no energy consumption.”

Maybe because the Neranja-class started in a submerged state.

According to the settings I saw in the wiki tab and in-game performance, it should be time for forced surfacing, but it was still maintaining its state.

Thinking that energy consumption would obviously start once the battle began, I nodded.

After giving instructions to make carrier aircraft ready for launch at any time, I was about to lie down and rest until the system started the battle.

But just as I got up from the command seat with that thought…

—————————————-

<The participation restriction period for ‘Capital of the Ancient Empire’ has ended!>

<The event battle will begin shortly, so commanders, please be prepared!>

<Time remaining until battle starts: 5 minutes 3 seconds>

—————————————-

‘Ah.’

The timing was really terrible.

I was amazed at how the battle start notification appeared right when I was about to rest.

‘It’s already been two days since we came here?’

Thinking how time flies so quickly, I shook my head and decided to sit back down in the command seat to prepare for battle.