Ch.487″Show me your imagination.”

After assessing the situation, I tried to gather as much information as possible.

I checked the auction house in the trading market, probed a few players for direct trades, and even explored the black market(?) that had naturally formed in “Icarus Kingdom Something Something”…

—

<Central Neutral Zone Black Market>

<Notice: Welcome to my black market.>

-[What is this? Isn’t this supposed to be a black market?](Icarus)

-[We are the ones who break the neutrality of the center]

-[We’re The Middle Breaker]

-[Wait, that’s actually Icarus himself]

-[Ah]

-[Ugh, this is screwed]

—

I ended up unexpectedly catching some strange characters lurking inside.

Despite all my efforts, including searching through gallery posts about item trades, I couldn’t find what I needed.

—

Title: Item trade prices seem ridiculously inflated

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Screenshot of chat demanding more expensive ships in exchange for SS-class mobile destroyer.jpg]

I probed about five or six people

And they all responded like this

Are they colluding on prices or something?

Comments:

-[“That’s how business works, my friend!!”]

-[LOL why are they so expensive]

-[Everyone’s like this?]

-˪[Only the people I’ve seen so far](Author)

-[The whole market is inflated right now, it’s not the time to trade but to keep quiet and wait]

-˪[Hmm, is that so](Author)

-˪[I agree with this, prices are too high right now]

—

All I learned was that “the market is too inflated right now!”

“I think the Commanders in the gallery are right. Honestly, prices are too high across the board right now.”

“Hmm.”

“Jumping into the trading market in this situation doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

Hearing Jessica’s advice, who excellently fulfilled her role as my adjutant and secondary brain, I reluctantly closed the trading market window and decided to take a moment of silence.

—

Of course, just because I stopped exploring the trading market didn’t mean my immediate needs disappeared.

‘Whether I like it or not, I need a tanking ship, and a really tough and impressive one at that.’

As I’ve pointed out several times, trying to tank with a common-grade ship at this point?

It would be nothing but a waste of resources and leveling time, so I desperately needed some new approach.

The problem was that being anxious didn’t provide any suitable solutions.

Lowering my standards and compensating for poor performance with quantity wasn’t viable either, since I either lacked the quantity or it was too expensive to build up.

“…No matter how I look at it, there’s no good solution.”

I could only shake my head while muttering such laments.

Seeing me like this, Jessica thought for a moment and then…

“Commander, if nothing works out, couldn’t you ask Marian to lend you a decent ship, or receive one through Princess Luca?”

“Huh? Ship donations?”

“Yes, come to think of it, even Commander Monalisa receives ship donations from the Xenovia Empire, right?”

“…Hmm.”

It sounded very plausible, so I momentarily thought, ‘Oh, that’s not bad.’

But when I went to Princess Luca first to ask for her opinion…

“A ship, you say?”

“Yes.”

“You’re already using my hobby fleet and I even gave you a Kraken-class. What more do you want?”

“Moreover, Icarus Commander, didn’t you lose the two destroyers we gave you last time?”

“…Well, that did happen.”

“That’s true.”

As Princess Luca pointed out, the Monster faction delegation currently at our base boasted a quite powerful fleet with over 20 battleships.

Above all, despite the random probability or whatever, our base had been granted TWO Kraken-class ships.

Though they had already been destroyed or sold for gold, leaving no trace now…

‘Ah, Halfling-class, my barely-used Halfling-class.’

Anyway, it was true that they had given me two S-class destroyers.

Although we were providing some of the resources needed to build that hobby fleet, most of the structure relied on resources that the monsters—or rather, Princess Luca—scavenged from various resource zones.

Thinking it would be unreasonable to ask for more from the Monster faction at this point, I nodded in understanding.

—

And then I tried to contact our hope, Marian A.K.A. Yurunyangkawaii-nemu, everyone’s little sister, to find a ray of hope…

-“Ship donation? Hmm… I’m afraid that would be difficult.”

“Sob.”

-“It’s impossible, Commander Icarus.”

-“As much as I’d like to give oppa-ya the Eclipse or Ironblood…”

-“Your Majesty, if you did that, other commanders including the Loki Clan would revolt.”

As I could tell from Marian and Leonard beside her politely refusing me, if she favored me—who wasn’t even part of her faction—any more than this, the actual users in her faction would likely revolt…

‘This can’t be helped, hmm.’

Unlike the Monster faction with Princess Luca, they were drawing a line saying it was impossible, and I nodded while feeling quite disappointed.

But perhaps my thoughts were clearly visible on my face.

-“Ah, wait a moment, oppa-ya.”

“Huh?”

-“It’s not like there’s absolutely no way, just a second…”

Through the communication screen, I saw Marimari saying there might be a way as she quickly made another call.

The problem was what that method entailed…

-“Ah, Loki Clan leader? It’s me.”

-“If you’re planning to do something stupid to help that precious husband of yours, I’ll revolt without question.”

-“Oh my, how cute.”

-Beep!

-“The Loki Clan leader has cut the communication.”

-“Yes, I guess no amount of etiquette training can fix some things… oh well!”

“…Right.”

‘Poor Betelgeuse… I mean, that poor thing…’

She was harassing Betelgeuse, who had been pushed around between factions and internal troublemakers during the recent “Counterattacking Factions” event.

Unlike Humanity’s Antares, Betelgeuse seemed to always be in the position of a middle manager getting pushed around from all sides.

Due to our first meeting being somewhat twisted, I had harbored negative feelings toward Betelgeuse, but now seeing her suffering in ways similar to me, I began to feel a strange sympathy.

And through this, I realized that being a clan leader doesn’t always mean enjoying privileges like Antares or Justice’s Arcadia.

-Communication terminated.

As soon as I ended the pleasant and cheerful(?) communication with Marian, I decided to reaffirm my resolve to Jessica who was standing beside me.

“Jessica, Jessica, I will absolutely never become a clan leader.”

“Uh, that’s right… but why suddenly bring that up…?”

“Just wanted to engrave it in my heart once more.”

—

And so, despite employing every method available to me, I found myself in a situation where there was absolutely nothing I could do as a mere user, so I decided to temporarily set aside my goal of acquiring a “tanking ship.”

But right at that moment.

“Oh, wait a second.”

“Yes?”

“I just remembered, didn’t Griyanar heavily modify the Overseer and other ships before?”

“That’s… right? She modified them so excessively that they became too unstable, requiring Griyanar to stick to them like glue.”

As memories of extensively using the Overseer, my fleet’s former flagship, flashed through my mind, I began to think this could be a very elegant solution for our current fleet.