Ch.461Bounty Hunting ON.

The problem was that when I actually tried to fulfill Marian’s request(?), it turned out to be tougher than expected.

“Commander, Marian has sent us the expected route of the target fleet.”

“…Why is it so all over the place?”

“Apparently, the person who ran off with the Gigantia is taking an incredibly unpredictable route.”

Maybe because it’s an actual user fleeing with it, not an NPC.

Despite Marian’s elite personal guard directly pursuing them…

They were escaping so skillfully that it was hard to even figure out where to start.

And of course, users weren’t going to just sit back and watch such an exciting situation as “a chase between someone who stole a pirate alliance flagship and the pirate alliance’s elite fleet pursuing them.”

—————————————–

Title: Status of people recording the real-time chase.txt

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a fleet fleeing with a Gigantia-class cruiser in the lead, with a pursuit team following several hundred light-seconds behind.jpg]

It’s intense as hell

I’m filming Mad Max in space by myself

This is fucking awesome

Comments:

-[What’s going on?]

-˪[Post about someone broadcasting a chase after they pirated a Pirate Alliance flagship and ran]

-˪[That’s fucking awesome, agreed]

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[This reminds me of “Run if you want to live”]

-˪[-Wrong-]

-˪[You little punk who hasn’t even been weaned yet, how dare you criticize the legendary game of our era]

—————————————–

—————————————–

Title: Pirate Alliance is throwing an event at Central Zone users

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Pirate Alliance chase cooperation event.jpg]

There wasn’t anything like this during the Xenovia era

Did they update something?

Comments:

-[Dunno?]

-[It’s probably just the difference in style between Xenovia and the Pirate Alliance]

-˪[Xenovia was the type to act all high and mighty and handle things themselves]

-˪[Now that the Pirate Alliance has a more user-friendly(?) personality, they’re throwing quests like this and asking for cooperation]

-˪[Pirates asking for cooperation, something’s definitely up](Author)

—————————————–

With dedicated users broadcasting the situation like this and attention focused so actively on it…

The user we were chasing was using all the chatter to track the positions of my fleet and those of other users who had accepted Marian’s quest, slipping away like a loach darting here and there.

-Beep beep beep!

-“Commander, we’ve lost sight of the target fleet.”

“Wow, they actually escaped.”

At this point, I finally understood why police officers in real life tell reporters to get lost when they’re trying to make an arrest.

Of course, realizing this didn’t mean I could do anything about it.

Above all, that user had their base completely destroyed, so they were literally fighting desperately out of spite.

In contrast, to be honest, the other users and I were only interested in maintaining good relations with the Pirate Alliance and getting discounts(?) on mercenary contracts.

Since we weren’t as desperate as the other side, the situation wasn’t developing favorably.

At this rate, it was obvious the user would escape, and neither I nor the other users would get our rewards.

I realized I needed a new approach.

Of course, using the “unlimited mercenary corps” was excluded from consideration.

“Commander, couldn’t we just hire a large number of mercenaries and surround them with sheer numbers?”

“You want me to spend hundreds of thousands to millions of resources on unlimited mercenary corps just to stop one fleeing user? What am I supposed to do if someone attacks while I’m recharging after that?”

“Oh.”

To be frank, the unlimited mercenary corps was essentially a “nuclear option” for me.

Using it for something like this would be quite dangerous.

Anyway, since that method was off the table, I needed another approach.

And what was that approach?

“Jessica, contact Marian again.”

“What should I say is the reason for calling?”

“Tell her to put a bounty on that user. Meanwhile, I’ll contact mercenary users through the chat room.”

I decided to use the trustworthy and reassuring “bounty system.”

Of course, Marian responded to my suggestion with the perfectly reasonable question: “Isn’t it strange for pirates to be placing bounties?”

But when I said, “Just give me the OK and there won’t be a problem. Just confirm you’ll provide appropriate rewards!” she actually agreed.

A little while later.

—————————————–

<Tannhäuser Mercenary Market Chat Room>

<Notice: Don’t bring neutral zone talk here, and don’t take conversations from here to there.>

-[Hey everyone](Icarus)

-[The King of the Central has arrived]

-[Ohhh Central big boss ohhh]

-[What’s up what’s up what’s up]

-[You know that Pirate Alliance quest? There’s additional rewards, want to hear about it?](Icarus)

-[Oh right, this guy got the Pirate Empress to surrender to him]

-[What is it then?]

-[Empress says: Whoever captures the target directly gets a Tiger-class cruiser used by the Pirate Alliance, plus tons of resources and gold](Icarus)

-[And people who help with the capture will also get resources and gold slightly less than the main captor, separate from reputation gains](Icarus)

-[Oh]

-[Wow, for real?]

-[Yes, it’s true](Icarus)

—————————————–

When I spread the information about the rewards I’d heard from Marian (a pirate cruiser plus loads of resources and gold, with resources and gold for everyone else!) in the Tannhäuser mercenary user chat room…

They immediately started punching numbers into their calculators and concluded it was definitely worth doing, showing positive reactions to the idea of chasing down that user.

And they didn’t just react positively—when I threw out these facts, the agents and mercenary users there naturally started spreading this information to their “contacts”…

The result?

—————————————–

Title: Today’s News) Pirate Alliance has placed a bounty on the user who stole their ship

Author: News Boy

Content: [Bounty information spreading through the Tannhäuser mercenary network.jpg]

This is real

The person who captures the Gigantia-class cruiser gets a Tiger-class cruiser used by the Pirate Alliance plus tons of resources and gold

Users who help with the capture get resources and gold

People with nothing better to do should participate and get resources and gold

Comments:

-[Damn, these days events are popping off one after another without giving us time to get bored]

-[Mmm the sweet scent of gold]

-[Let’s gooooo~]

-[Do you get rewards just for participating?]

-˪[No, as mentioned above, you have to participate in the battle to capture the user]

-˪[I see]

-[Gold supply has been tight lately because of those damn hoarders, but now gold income sources are increasing]

-[Let’s goooooo]

—————————————–

With news of a “treasure goblin(?)” appearing, users from the Central Zone as well as…

Users with nothing to do after the event ended quickly rushed in to form a large and beautiful encirclement…

Just three days after spreading the rumor.

—————————————–

Title: Breaking news) Bounty user caught LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a Gigantia-class cruiser and a user’s fleet surrounded by about 270 user fleets while shouting “OH SHIT!!!”.jpg]

Treasure goblin bastard LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Comments:

-[LOLOLOL they really got caught LOLOLOL]

-[Look how all the other ships are a mess but the Gigantia is pristine]

-[How did you catch them?]

-˪[Our clan even mobilized mercenary corps to catch them, it was awesome](Author)

-[Damn, if I’d known I would’ve mobilized mercenary corps too]

-[Aren’t you guys defending your home base?]

-˪[We have allied clans, so it’s fine](Author)

—————————————–

While completely destroying the captured user’s fleet, the Gigantia-class was recovered without a scratch.

Eventually, our dear Mari-Mari received the Gigantia-class back without a scratch, which put her in a good mood, so she distributed additional rewards and even a kind of “participation fee” to all users who participated.

I and all the users who participated in this incident enjoyed it as a fun event and reached a happy ending with sweet rewards.

Of course, only the captured user ended up wailing as they were dragged away by the Pirate Alliance pursuit team that came to take them prisoner.