Ch.552Welcome To Daedalus

The day after spending an incredibly complicated day settling matters like choosing village chiefs for Tannhäuser and Tomsk, I decided to focus on my own tasks.

Of course, during all this, some users from the “Most Noble Republic” were curious about why I wasn’t selecting defense outposts near Daedalus.

Among them was Jessica, who was right beside me.

“Commander, aren’t you planning to give the nearby defense outposts to other commanders?”

“Huh? No, of course not.”

Looking at our Jessi-Jessi, I decided to give her a proper explanation.

“Then what’s your plan?”

“I’m thinking of giving priority rights to users who docked at Arclight and the other Level 1 outposts near Spiralis.”

“Arclight… that would be the person called Odeng-tang who brought us information about the users who rebelled earlier.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Anyway, I chatted with Jessica like this.

And watched as Decarabia reached level 31 under Berial’s intensive guidance.

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<Daedalus Research Fortress – Ancient Legacy>

<Lv. 9>

<Type: Research Base>

<Defense Force Status>

˪<Guard Fleet x100> (Current Replenishment Rate: 24%)

˪<Fortress Combat Fleet x250> (Current Replenishment Rate: 20%)

<Fleet Composition Table>

<Guard Fleet Composition>

˪<Cruiser Battleships 15, Heavy Cruisers 10, Light Cruisers 50, Destroyers 1,000, Escort Ships 3,500>

<Fortress Combat Fleet Composition>

˪<Dreadnoughts 5, Heavy Battleships 20, Battleships 50, Heavy Cruisers 150, Light Cruisers 600, Destroyers 5,500, Escort Ships 1,000, Patrol Ships 2,000>

<Fortress Comprehensive Defense System Status: Currently Recovering (Time Remaining: 13 days 20 hours 56 minutes>

<Tip: Cities and fortresses are basically in a non-aggression state. Fleets will deploy when damaged by direct attacks.>

<Warning!>

˪<Upon approaching the fortress beyond a certain distance, guard fleets and fortress combat fleets will immediately deploy!>

<The following buffs and functions are granted when docking with the base:>

˪<Additional increase in resource buff acquisition>

˪<‘All’ performance of each ship +5%>

˪<Increased base resource storage capacity>

˪<Access to the outpost’s main resource storage>

˪<Base ‘Research Lab’ efficiency +20%>

˪<Equipment enhancement and ship equipment enhancement efficiency +20%>

˪<Slight increase in probability of special events related to ‘Support’ type superhumans>

—————————————–

“Oh, this is the power of Level 9 docking…?”

“There’s quite a lot here, almost overwhelmingly so.”

Looking at the impressive buff features of a Level 9 outpost, something I’d never seen even during my “clan membership days” from so long ago that it only surfaces occasionally like a seizure, otherwise essentially forgotten…

“So Jessica, what’s the current resource status of our base?”

“I’ll start with storage capacity. The warehouse that could store a maximum of 31.5 million at Tannhäuser can now store 39 million… no, effectively 40 million.”

“Oh.”

“Considering we’ve only completed the base’s Level 10 upgrade and haven’t built the remaining auxiliary buildings… especially resource warehouses, once we complete the auxiliary building construction, we’ll definitely exceed 40 million.”

The maximum resource storage capacity was about to hit 40 million (not quite yet).

And if we proceeded with the Level 10 base upgrade, it would “probably” definitely surpass 40 million.

‘Wow… now we can sustain an army of 1 million mercenaries for 3 days.’

As I listened to the briefing, I could feel my mood improving tremendously in real-time.

And the good news didn’t end there.

“Plus, the resource supply rate has increased significantly. Now the daily resource supply is 500,000 minerals and 80,000 rare resources.”

“That’s less than I expected. What about the rest?”

“And the weekly supply has increased from about 3.8 million to 4.5 million.”

“Very good.”

“Oh, and of course, the weekly supply includes resources and minerals. Plus, the gold income is now enormous.”

“Veeeery good.”

Just by taking Daedalus, our resources were increasing exponentially.

How sweet is that?

Although in the midst of all this, there was one disappointing aspect…

“By the way, it’s a bit unfortunate that if we could charge rental fees from commanders docking at Tomsk, our resource supply would increase significantly more.”

“Well… considering the risks, we needed to attract as many users as possible.”

“That’s true.”

As Jessica mentioned, Tomsk Supply Base—the only Level 4 outpost among the newly acquired ones and the sole connection between the existing territory including Tannhäuser and Daedalus where I’m currently located—didn’t charge any rental fees.

Of course, I was just saying it was unfortunate, but as I just told Jessica…

Given that the outposts were appropriately interconnected, with the “Earth Federation Provisional Government” serving as the home port for the Leviathan Squadron in the center of what’s called the “Tannhäuser Zone”…

And despite being beaten by Grand Cross, it still had two fortress cannons remaining…

Now that I’ve established my position, the “Daedalus Zone” could have Cerberus and the main fleet along with 1 million mercenaries emerge at any time, unlike Tomsk, which functioned as the “only” route connecting two somewhat distant zones.

This made it extremely disadvantageous defensively.

If hostile forces were to invade, Tomsk would likely be the first to be attacked.

In such a situation, we couldn’t reduce the number of users docking at Tomsk just for a bit more profit.

Sad but true, there was nothing we could do about it.

But aside from that minor issue, everything else was in excellent shape, so I nodded my head and expressed my immense satisfaction.

‘Sweet.’

==========

But while I was enjoying this sweet reality, feeling happy and omnipotent(?)…

-Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Oh? Commander?”

With the sudden beeping alarm sound and Jessica’s puzzled voice, I tilted my head in confusion, wondering who dared to make alarm sounds when the mood was so good.

“I heard a very ominous communication sound. What’s going on?”

“It’s communication from other commanders who wish to enter your territory.”

“…Ah, is it already that time?”

Through Jessica’s explanation, I learned that the alarm was from users who wanted to move into Daedalus or my territory.

“It seems they’ve judged that since it’s been over 4 days since the event ended, Daedalus’s defense forces must have recovered to some extent.”

“Hmm, I’d probably think the same.”

Honestly, no joke, I would probably start testing the waters too.

As Jessica said, more than 4 days had passed since the event ended.

By now, Daedalus’s own defense forces should have recovered sufficiently, so it made sense that people would want to dock at the only Level 9 outpost in the central zone for some soft benefits.

That kind of thinking was understandable.

Moreover, the users trying to enter my territory now mostly shared one characteristic.

And what was that?

—————————————–

Title: Is it true that refugees are flocking to Daedalus?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of about 2,000 ships gathered near Daedalus’s escort outposts, with each ship having different users]

Look at how many have gathered

Of course I’m a refugee too, damn it. Let me find my dreams and hopes away from those bastards

Comments:

-[Why are so many gathered there?]

-˪[Users from settlements who were already suffering from other raider users before the event, or users who were ruined because of the space monster fleet attacks during the event] (Author)

-[Were there that many users who got screwed over enough to gather like that?]

-˪[The central zone did get quite a raw deal this time]

-[Wow, it’s crowded]

—————————————–

“…Whoa, so those are all users applying as refugees.”

“It’s incredible, and the numbers are still growing bit by bit.”

“Indeed.”

They all shared the characteristic of being typical “refugees”—either suffering since before the event or having collapsed during it, now seeking a new life here.