I Became a Commander in a Crappy SF Game.

Ch.374Here is the Mercenary Mecca (2)

by fnovelpia

As soon as I entered the chat room, I realized what the user I just met had meant.

—

<Notice: This is for users docked at Icarus Triangle Zone>

<Notice: If you want to hire users as mercenaries, do it elsewhere with individual users or agents>

-[Hello everyone, I just docked here]

-[hi hi]

-[Nice to meet you]

-[Oh, there’s a notice right above]

-[tsk tsk]

-[hahahahaha]

-[You need to go elsewhere to find mercenaries, bye]

-[yep]

-[We get two or three of these guys almost every day]

-[I won’t say the mean thing about them being idiots trying to hire cheap without agents]

-[You already did lolololol]

—

‘Hmmmteresting.’

I’ve been so busy with various things that I hadn’t paid attention to this, but…

Unlike Avalon or Barracuda where users were content just “living” together like in a village community or rural life after docking:

—

<Notice: This is for users docked at Icarus Triangle Zone>

<Notice: If you want to hire users as mercenaries, do it elsewhere with individual users or agents>

-[…What is this place?](Icarus)

-[Our boss is here]

-[Everyone salute!]

-[lololololololol]

-[Welcome, boss!]

-[saluting emoticon]

-[lolololololol]

-[You look like a gang leader getting greeted by thugs right after prison release]

-[lololol]

-[What the fuck](Icarus)

-[Why are there so many users working as mercenaries here?](Icarus)

-[Well, the Tannhäuser docking buff is quite something]

-[Getting a teleport buff for 10 million total resources is pretty lucky]

—

Maybe it’s because Tannhäuser has such good docking buffs.

Unlike the two bases I mentioned earlier, I could see that this place mainly attracted “mercenary” users who participate in battles for other clans or users in exchange for payment.

And through this, I learned one more thing.

“Jessica, don’t we have quite a lot of leftover docking points at Tannhäuser?”

“Yes, contrary to expectations, the response has been rather poor.”

“But today I realized why that is.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Most users docking at Tannhäuser aren’t looking to live a rural life, but rather want to fight with others.”

“Huh.”

That’s right.

Users docking at Tannhäuser had completely opposite tendencies from the users who had previously docked with me.

“So Commander, are all the people docking at Tannhäuser now warmongers?”

“That’s exactly it.”

Because of this, users hoping for “rural life” don’t need Tannhäuser’s buffs, so they don’t move in.

And “mercenary” users who might want to move into Tannhäuser have already gathered as much as they could.

It seemed that Tannhäuser’s population couldn’t grow any further.

And thanks to the formula that fewer users docking = lower docking costs,

Even after conquering this place, contrary to expectations, the resource income rate wasn’t very good.

Of course, it wasn’t that there was no growth at all.

“Still, I see about 2-3 people coming to dock every day.”

“Is that so?”

“In some cases, they dock at Tannhäuser first, then move to Avalon or Barracuda when spots open up there.”

“Huh.”

As Jessica said, there was a steady influx of 2-3 people per day.

“How many users have docked at Tannhäuser now?”

“Currently, about 1,200 out of 2,500 total docking points are being used.”

“Hmm.”

If nothing special happens, it seemed like it would take at most a year to a year and a half to fill up completely.

—

After realizing the reality of Tannhäuser, I started to wonder if I should try being a mercenary too.

“Jessica, should we try getting into the mercenary business?”

“…What are you trying to do now?”

Of course, hearing my suggestion, Jessica—who would have to handle all the detailed work—made an indescribable expression.

But my interest in mercenary work was short-lived.

To gather information, I clicked around the gallery for a search…

—

Title: Current Status of User Mercenary Business.txt

Author: Maximus

Content: [Strange chart image.jpg]

Damn, it’s getting more complicated as time goes on

To summarize, the old 1:1 employer-mercenary match is almost non-existent now

How does it work?

First, there’s always a user acting as an agent between the employer and mercenary

When this agent receives a request from an employer, they match them with mercenary users through their network

But now it’s become even more specialized

Clans that exclusively handle mercenary work have emerged

So how does it work now?

An employer needs mercenaries?

They find an agent nearby or post “looking for agent” in chat, then people watching the chat contact the employer to find out what type they want

After that, the agent contacts a clan, and the clan either finds other mercenaries through agents they manage

Or they dispatch mercenaries from their own ranks

And they take a huge cut during this process, so hiring mercenaries becomes really expensive lol

Anyway, that’s why networking is super important

Damn, without connections, nobody will hire you even if you want to be a mercenary lol

It’s different if you’re a ranker, but that’s only for rankers below the thousands

For rankers in the tens of thousands or hundred thousands? Well…

Comments:

-[Damn, just like people from Hell Peninsula, internal distribution structures are already being established]

-˪[That’s Hell Peninsula for you]

-[Does this really need so many middlemen?]

-˪[If it doesn’t work, make it work, you know?]

-˪[That’s not something you’re supposed to say here, damn it]

—

“Ugh, shit.”

The disgusting intermediate distribution stages(?) had increased from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3.

The situation was bad enough, and now they’re saying networking is absolutely necessary.

—

<Notice: Just do whatever>

-[Guys, what do you think about mercenary work?](Icarus)

-[We’ve been doing it from the beginning, so agents and such can’t interfere with us]

-[From what latecomers say, the networking and politics are no joke](Indefatigable)

-[Sometimes idiots try to play their political games with us too lololol](Menaldu)

-[I don’t think it’s good to jump in now]

-[You’ll probably just get screwed by the politics](Laura)

-[I see](Icarus)

-[If you really want to, you need a large clan backing you like Laura or Indefatigable](Koenig)

-[Then those half-baked mercenary clans won’t dare mess with you](Koenig)

-[I see](Icarus)

—

I casually asked other solo rankers who had been working as “external mercenaries” for a while.

But the responses weren’t very positive.

“Jessica, Jessica, Jessica.”

“Yes, yes, yes.”

“Let’s put the mercenary business idea on hold for now.”

“That’s a good decision, Commander.”

I let go of the idea of jumping into the “mercenary business” that I had been considering until just now.

“Well, that’s how it is.”

“Yes, if you really want to do it, I think you need to think more and observe the situation further.”

Since nearly 1,000 users related to the mercenary business had gathered at Tannhäuser,

I thought it would be good to gain experience by watching what these users do.

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