Ch.375Here is the Mercenary Mecca (3)

Meanwhile, at the exact moment our Icarus was putting aside thoughts about the mercenary business.

The solo rankers who had spoken to Icarus about the mercenary business were each breathing sighs of relief about the sudden situation.

However, their reasons for these sighs of relief differed from one another.

—————————————–

<Mercenary Chat Room>

<Notice: Agents caught doing business here will die>

-[Oh shit]

-[We barely stopped Icarus from becoming a mercenary;;](Indefatigable)

-[Good]

-[If that guy comes here, it’ll just break the balance]

-[I don’t think it would be bad](Laura)

—————————————–

For solo rankers like Indefatigable and Laura, who had been working as mercenaries the longest.

They were essentially trying to check Icarus from a purely “business” perspective.

And for good reason—if Icarus were to join the mercenary business as a participant.

His uniquely overpowered “mercenary mobilization ability” would likely cause tectonic shifts in the industry.

No, beyond mere tectonic shifts…

—————————————–

<Mercenary Chat Room>

<Notice: Agents caught doing business here will die>

-[Hate to say it, but honestly, if that guy joined, all major clan requests would likely go to him alone]

-[Obviously]

-[Even before the Tannhäuser occupation, he was pulling out fleet power worth thousands of users by himself, how much more has it increased after occupying that place?]

-[For real lol]

—————————————–

No joke—if Icarus decided to fully commit now?

Based on calculations users had made from the size of resource warehouses at his three bases and his own resource storage:

—————————————–

<Mercenary Chat Room>

<Notice: Agents caught doing business here will die>

-[How much can he produce?]

-[After the Tannhäuser occupation, if he collects maximum resources and goes all in, he can maintain power equivalent to 10,000 users for 2-3 days]

-[Holy shit]

-[How can one person maintain 10,000 people? That doesn’t make sense]

-[That’s why it’s only for about 3 days, can’t maintain it longer due to resource shortages]

-[Insane]

—————————————–

Icarus alone could produce a force of 10,000 people, albeit “temporarily”…

Since he could field numbers comparable to an “ultra-large clan,” it was understandably shocking news for mercenary users.

That’s why Indefatigable and Laura, who had the “backing” of their clans and had been involved in the mercenary business since the beginning…

Whether they liked it or not, they had no choice but to preemptively check that overpowered guy from entering their territory.

==========

As for the other two rankers, Menaldo and König, their situations differed from Laura and Indefatigable.

Menaldo had simply spoken without much thought, merely intending to say “yeah, being a mercenary is tough.”

“I mean, honestly, this mercenary thing is hard to do without connections, that’s a fact.”

Unlike the two rankers mentioned above, Menaldo had a stronger tendency to have struggled through everything alone.

So it would be fair to say he had offered “advice” based on his own experiences with pure intentions.

And König, unlike Menaldo, had his own agenda…

“If I play this right, I could use this at a premium later.”

In the current situation where agents were busy branding themselves and ripping off other users rather than engaging in price competition.

If Icarus were to jump in?

There was a high probability that even Icarus would end up lowering his prices.

König had prevented Icarus from jumping in at this point.

Planning to push that overpowered guy into the mercenary business later, once the industry had undergone some self-correction.

Of course, when pushing Icarus in, he would act as the agent upfront.

Through this, he was plotting to bring about a massive wave of innovation across the mercenary industry, taking control of the entire sector.

Of course, given that nearly 1,000 mercenary and agent users had gathered at Tannhäuser.

If left alone, there was a possibility that Icarus might get hooked by “other” agents.

So König had casually dropped hints to the other rankers to cut off any possibility of Icarus joining the mercenary business.

And with all four rankers thinking their own thoughts but acting the same way.

Our Icarus naturally decided to put aside thoughts about becoming a mercenary, thinking “I guess so?”

But with those thoughts about the mercenary business gone, leaving Icarus’s brain empty…

Something new was already emerging in a different form.

==========

But while thinking this and looking around the base without any particular thoughts.

When I happened to see the Bayern-class (still packaged) that was still abandoned between the turrets.

“…I think we could make good use of that.”

“Pardon?”

I felt a brilliant idea forming in my head.

“Actually, when you think about it, we have quite a few docking points to spare, right?”

“Yes, and most commanders dock on the inside of the ‘triangular zone’ for safety reasons.”

“Then we could use the remaining spaces to offer a storage service for ships that other users are ‘scheduled to receive,’ like this Bayern-class.”

“…What?”

“What are you talking about?”

Of course, at my words.

Not just Jessica but also Smeralgi, who had come to escort me after Ignis, had expressions that clearly said, ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

And it wasn’t just their expressions…

“Commander, are you perhaps thinking about a life as a businessman rather than a commander now?”

“Hmm.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? If someone deploys superhumans like me, all the stored ships could be stolen.”

“…Hmmmm.”

Unlike what I expected, they were throwing back quite reasonable counterarguments.

Finding myself in a 2:1 situation, I felt momentarily intimidated.

But only for a moment.

“Well… thinking about it, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea.”

“Nya?”

“Honestly, looking at your eyes right now, Commander, you seem extremely fixated on this idea.”

“You caught me.”

As Jessica saw through my eyes and delivered a killing blow while simultaneously surrendering.

My freaking awesome storage service business(?) naturally began its first steps.

==========

Of course, this storage service, while called a service or business.

Since it had absolutely nothing to do with the game system and was more of a workaround…

“But Commander, we can’t build separate docking facilities outside, so how do you plan to do this?”

“Won’t it be a problem if ships or superhumans from friendly neutral or general neutral commanders try to enter?”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, even with guard fleets and defense turrets on strict patrol duty, to keep ‘large’ numbers of ships on standby as you want… honestly, the area is too wide.”

“…You make valid points.”

To avoid potential incidents.

Like crazy people who ignore guard fleets and just barge in.

Or to prevent ships from being damaged by occasional “meteors” that pop up as events, there was a lot to prepare…

‘Well, I had nothing else to do anyway, so this works out.’

Since I started this because I literally had nothing to do.

And for complex calculations that I couldn’t understand…

“Alright Jessica, you can handle this, right?”

“Kyaaaaaaang!”

“Fighting! I believe in you.”

Our high-IQ Jessica would take care of it.

Trusting in Jessica, I could focus on what needed to be done, step by step.