Ch.37″Become my comrade.”

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Title: Hey, isn’t the Pirate Empress’s name Kim Soon-ja? Why deny it?

Author: Anonymous

Content: Hello, I’m Doctor Yudong.

I’m researching the most attention-grabbing titles in the Astral Lagrange gallery.

So hurry up and tell me the Pirate Empress’s name.

Otherwise, from now on, the Empress’s name is Kim Soon-ja.

Comments:

-[Always researching useless things]

-[Ah shit]

-[Wasn’t it Marian or something?]

-[Yeah, Pirate Empress Marian]

-˪[Oh thanks](Author)

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Suddenly, a thought crosses my mind… ‘a memory that doesn’t exist’.

No, rather, I recalled a gallery post I saw recently.

‘Mary Ann, Mary-Ann… Marian… Marian?’

Only after going through this mondegreen process.

I realized that the character standing before me was the infamous “Pirate Empress” that old-timers in the gallery talked about.

To be precise, I was quite surprised to realize this character could rightfully be called a sort of Pirate Empress (true).

And once I adopted the Mary Ann=Marian hypothesis, more facts became apparent.

‘Come to think of it, the Pirate Empress is an Asian beauty character.’

Of course, due to the limitations of illustrations and anime modeling, they all looked somewhat similar.

The Pirate Empress likewise had black hair with brownish undertones.

As evident from gallery users shouting “noona,” the production company put great effort into the modeling.

I felt goosebumps when I realized that the face I was looking at now resembled that modeling.

However, my reason emitted doubts that there were many suspicious aspects to rely on just that.

After all, in the case of the “Pirate Empress” that users meet in-game:

First, she has very large breasts, wears an eye patch over one eye.

And her hair is grown in a longer style.

In the case of “Mary Ann” before my eyes…

While her hips, thighs, and face look similar.

Unlike the typical wild long-haired empress style, starting with a roughly cut wild ponytail hairstyle.

Her chest size relative to her hips is beyond flat—practically breastless.

Her face seems similar, but she doesn’t wear an eye patch, has no scars.

And while her body isn’t without muscle… it doesn’t particularly seem impressive.

For a moment, I feared I might be getting ahead of myself.

“Um… so why did you ask to bring me here?”

“…Ah.”

Since I could satisfy my curiosity about that later,

I decided to focus on resolving the situation before me for now.

==========

After sending “Mary Ann” and the others out of the command center with awkward excuses,

I sat in the commander’s seat and decided to gather information by properly opening the community.

Of course, saying “information gathering” just meant browsing the gallery.

I wasn’t actively collecting information.

The reason for this was quite simple.

What if I really have the “Pirate Empress’s” body(?), and others find out?

It was obvious that my base and fleet would be completely destroyed by the invasion of old-timers whose eyes had rolled back in their heads, wanting to get their hands on the Pirate Empress—a jack-of-all-trades character far better than even most SSS-tier characters.

So I was racking my brain over how to confirm whether this Pirate Empress (true) was real.

And after about 10 minutes.

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Title: Honestly, isn’t recruiting the Pirate Empress early just nonsense?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Laughing toad image]

If you recruit someone you don’t even know what they look like early on, then fire them, isn’t it all for nothing?

And honestly, an SSS-tier character from gacha might be better than whatever Pirate Empress

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After spending 9 minutes struggling to change from a fixed nickname to an anonymous one,

I felt anxious looking at the post I had worked hard to write for 1 minute.

Of course, my concern wasn’t about drawing attention with the post itself, but whether it would actually attract any attention…

Fortunately, shortly after.

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Comments:

-[What did you say? This bastard…]

-[Are you out of your mind!]

-[Just remove the eye patch from the Pirate Empress’s appearance, remove or reduce the scars, reduce the breasts, and shorten the hair]

-˪[What the hell, everything’s reduced]

-˪[But it’s true]

-[But since the thighs and hips remain the same, that’s what makes her the Pirate Empress (true).]

-[Perfect for childbearing OMG]

… … … … … …

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As all kinds of comments poured in, I realized that the Pirate Empress (true) I had picked up was indeed the real Pirate Empress (true).

Feeling a surge of joy, I just added -˪[Oh, is that so?](Author) to the comment.

Then immediately closed the community window and inwardly shouted “jackpot” repeatedly.

Of course, as I had confirmed through the status window earlier,

Our Pirate Empress (true)’s current situation was barely hanging on as A-rank trash.

If I just threw her into the frontlines believing only in her future as the Pirate Empress…

She might die a miserable death in battle against the now-standardized pirates.

Or she might interpret it as an attempt to kill her, steal someone else’s shuttle, and escape.

So I decided to make plans on how to raise Mary Ann, no, Marian.

Of course, since I couldn’t make such plans alone,

“Jessica, Jessica.”

“What is it, Commander?”

“I’m going to tell you an incredible secret.”

“Yes?”

“We now have the future Pirate Empress in our hands.”

“…Whaaaat?”

I called Jessica, the most trustworthy person, to implement our plan to raise our Pirate Empress (true) into a real Pirate Empress.

The operation codenamed “Heart-Fluttering Pirate Empress Maker Operation.”

But just before implementing the plan,

“So Commander, what exactly are you planning to do?”

“Hmm?”

“About the goal. You know that if we just raise her diligently, the Pirate Empress will eventually escape and leave on her own, right?”

Hearing Jessica’s question, I experienced what it truly means to have a brain freeze.

Listening to it, it wasn’t wrong. According to what old-timers had mentioned in the gallery or chat, there were three ending(?) routes for the Pirate Empress.

These routes diverged based on how I treated and raised this Pirate Empress (true).

To be precise, depending on how favorably and strongly I raised Marian,

After Marian escapes with my shuttle later, she would be guided in one of the three directions I’m about to explain.

For example, the so-called “Happy Ending,” Ending 1:

Where she becomes a pirate admiral and joins the base with her fleet—this could only be achieved if the user managed Marian’s favorability and performance very strictly and thoroughly.

Second, the “Good Ending,” Ending 2:

If the “favorability” is too low to meet the conditions for Ending 1, it becomes a strictly “business-friendly relationship” with the player.

In this case, the Pirate Empress fulfills the role of a friendly NPC to players.

She becomes a sort of “pirate mercenary businesswoman” who lends her fleet to users for money.

In this case, the user who once housed the Pirate Empress receives a special benefit(?) of a 5% discount on mercenary prices.

And finally, the so-called “Normal Ending,” which is actually closer to a bad ending, Ending 3:

If you have “below” a certain level of favorability with Marian, the Pirate Empress (true), or don’t provide training and practical experience.

That is, if you judge the Pirate Empress (true) with her lowest A-rank performance as just another A-rank throwaway character,

If you play in a way that roughly tosses her aside in a corner,

As our old-timers said, with a 90%(!) probability, she escapes much faster than other routes.

Then, seeking revenge on the user who disrespected her, she thoroughly crushes that user.

“…Hmm.”

After organizing my thoughts for a moment, I nodded to Jessica in front of me and said,

“Of course, we should aim for the happy ending through maximum favorability and support.”

“Yes, Commander.”