Ch.407[Chapter 407] First Employment

Sir Dominic, having enjoyed small moments of happiness with his granddaughter Sir Dominica, took her hand and returned to the main road.

“Yawn. I’m sleepy…”

Sir Dominica began whining that she was sleepy, perhaps from eating too many sweets.

“Then let’s head home.”

“Mmm.”

Sir Dominic, judging that Sir Dominica had no more energy to wander around, promptly returned home.

Getting home wasn’t particularly difficult.

They just needed to move to the center of Gachaland through a portal, then go straight home.

Anyway, after returning home, Sir Dominic carried the now soundly sleeping Sir Dominica and opened the front door.

“Welcome back.”

In the living room, Sir Dominica was waiting, sipping a cup of tea.

She was simply wearing a basic t-shirt with “Left☞” written on it, without any skin.

Sir Dominic quietly laid Sir Dominica down in her room, then returned to the living room and asked Sir Dominica.

“Where is our lord?”

“Downtown buying snacks. She just left, so it’ll probably take some time.”

Sir Dominica said this while taking a sip of her tea loaded with sugar.

“Hmm.”

After hearing Sir Dominica’s words, Sir Dominic sank into the living room sofa.

Only then did Sir Dominic notice the fatigue washing over him.

Having exerted himself unusually hard today, his tired body, which had temporarily recovered due to adrenaline and sugar, now felt the fatigue returning like a tidal wave as both effects wore off.

“I’m tired.”

“…What on earth did you do?”

“It’s a long story.”

Sir Dominica looked at Sir Dominic with surprised eyes when he mentioned being tired.

As far as Sir Dominica knew, Sir Dominic was the person with the strongest physical stamina in Gachaland, and his mental strength kept him furthest from feeling fatigue.

For such a person to mention being tired first was truly exceptional.

“On the way back, I met my nephew from the future, and had quite a fight with him. That’s all.”

“Nephew? Must have been quite strong?”

“He was my equal.”

“4-tier?”

Sir Dominic nodded at Sir Dominica’s question.

Sir Dominica became curious to see the face of this so-called nephew.

Even though he was the same tier as Sir Dominic, making Sir Dominic this tired was quite an achievement.

While briefly thinking about this unknown nephew, Sir Dominica suddenly remembered that a message had come for Sir Dominic.

“Oh right, there’s a message for you.”

“From where?”

“The Tanker Union.”

Sir Dominic stroked his chin thoughtfully at Sir Dominica’s words.

He recalled that he hadn’t properly participated in any activities since joining the Tanker Union previously.

“Is it about my activity?”

“Well, something like that.”

Sir Dominica nodded at Sir Dominic’s words.

It was indeed about activity, as Sir Dominic had guessed.

“To be precise, it was a request for support.”

“A request for support?”

“Yes.”

Sir Dominica handed a card to Sir Dominic.

It was an employment card sold at the card pack exchange, with Sir Dominic’s name, face, and tier recorded on the front, and a brief summary of Sir Dominic’s stats on the back.

“What is this…?”

“A support request for Sir Dominic came through the Tanker Union.”

A support request.

This was Sir Dominic’s first time being hired through an employment card.

He had been hired for free for Captain Elang before, but this was his first formal employment.

It wasn’t that Sir Dominic’s cards were rare in circulation.

Rather, because Sir Dominic’s card value was so high, everyone was saving them for important moments.

And now, someone who apparently thought this was an important situation had hired Sir Dominic.

“Who hired me?”

“Captain Elang.”

“Captain Elang?”

Sir Dominic thought about Captain Elang from not too long ago.

Wasn’t Captain Elang so poor he could barely afford a proper meal?

How could such a Captain Elang afford premium personnel like Sir Dominic?

While pondering this deeply, Sir Dominic suddenly thought that perhaps Captain Elang might have drawn his card early on.

Indeed, Captain Elang, upon confirming Sir Dominic’s strength in the early days, had devoted almost his entire fortune to collecting Sir Dominic’s cards.

Of course, this was a series of hardships.

Sir Dominic’s card appeared at an extremely low probability even among the already rare 4-tier cards.

This was the result calculated by the system based on the original card pool ratio.

After several failed “investments,” Captain Elang had only recently managed to get his hands on a few of Sir Dominic’s employment cards.

And for some reason, this Captain Elang had now summoned Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic stroked his chin and muttered.

“Hmm. I don’t know the reason, but since he called, I should go.”

“I think he’s probably stuck in Story Mode. The difficulty of the hidden world increases exponentially as the numbers go up.”

“I see.”

Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica chatted briefly, speculating on why Captain Elang had summoned him.

After the brief chat, Sir Dominic rose from his seat again.

“Are you leaving now?”

“I can’t keep the person who hired me waiting.”

“But didn’t you say you were tired?”

“Even so, rules come first. Since I signed up to do it, I naturally have to do it.”

Sir Dominic said this while recalling his contract with the Man in Black.

Sir Dominic silently gathered his skin.

“Oh right, Captain Elang asked if you could come with the [Assault Commander] skin. Otherwise, he said he’d lend you a basic skin.”

“…You can even specify skins?”

“It seems so. It says here that you must do so.”

Sir Dominic put back the mythical-grade skin he was about to wear on the hanger and changed into the Assault Commander skin.

…

“I don’t really like it.”

Those were the first words Captain Elang uttered.

Sir Dominic couldn’t hide his bewilderment upon arriving at the meeting place.

For some reason, Captain Elang was wearing eight gold rings on each hand, totaling sixteen, with gold and diamond necklaces hanging around his neck, and a fur coat draped over his shoulders.

He even wore pixelated sunglasses on his face, which Sir Dominic found rather unsightly.

“What on earth are you wearing?”

Sir Dominic asked Captain Elang.

“I spent real money.”

Captain Elang replied as if it were obvious.

“One of my savings accounts matured, so I got a lump sum. Thought I’d flex a little, you know?”

Captain Elang said this while proudly raising his hands to show off the sixteen rings.

“…Well, as long as you’re happy.”

Sir Dominic said this to Captain Elang and turned his head away.

It was too unsightly to keep looking at.

“Anyway, you said you hired me, but what’s the matter?”

“Ah.”

Only then did Captain Elang remove his sunglasses and get to the point.

“I’m stuck at hidden world area 12.”

“?”

Sir Dominic expressed confusion at Captain Elang’s abrupt explanation.

Realizing he had been too brief, Captain Elang added more details.

“I’ve tried to clear area 12 more than 50 times, but I can’t seem to do it without a tanker.”

“Without a tanker? What kind of area is it?”

Sir Dominic, now interested in Captain Elang’s words, asked for a more detailed explanation.

“It’s definitely a mission where tankers are important.”

“Tankers are important, you say.”

“Each hit can be the turning point in the battle. Actually, I’ve used a couple of 4-tier dealers before, but they weren’t much more efficient than 2-tier dealers. In fact, efficiency increased when I deployed more tankers.”

Captain Elang emphasized the necessity of tankers.

“So I thought, ah, tankers are really the most efficient. I should prioritize tankers in my formation. That’s why I contacted Sir Dominic this time.”

“When you put it that way, I’m even more curious about this mission.”

Sir Dominic tilted his head as he spoke.

“What’s the concept of area 12 that makes tankers so important?”

“Hmm.”

Captain Elang briefly wore a serious expression at Sir Dominic’s question, then took something out of his inventory and handed it to Sir Dominic.

“Take this.”

“?”

Sir Dominic instinctively took what Captain Elang handed him.

And he realized it was a fairly high-grade skin.

“I wanted to match the outfit to the concept for this battle… but that outfit doesn’t really suit you either.”

Captain Elang gestured for Sir Dominic to try on the skin.

“Try it on.”

Sir Dominic gave Captain Elang a strange look but changed into the skin.

Sir Dominic then appeared wearing an officer’s hat and uniform, with one eye cyborgically modified.

That one eye was the side where he usually wore an eye patch.

“As expected, this outfit suits you well too.”

Captain Elang said, clapping for Sir Dominic.

“What is all this?”

Sir Dominic asked Captain Elang, confused by the new outfit.

“This is the concept for area 12.”

Captain Elang said as if it were obvious.

“Area 12’s gimmick is space warfare.”

With Captain Elang’s explanation, Sir Dominic understood why the tier of dealers wasn’t important.

In a battle between space battleships, the grade of the battleship would be important, not the tier of the dealers inside.