Ch.560″This is… the mercenary’s stance!”

Meanwhile, at the exact moment mercenary users were harboring such thoughts while living their lives as day laborers…

As I looked down at the nearby airspace through the command room window while docked at the center of Daedalus…

I could suddenly feel a thought I had previously abandoned quietly raising its head in my mind again.

And what was that thought…?

“Jessica, Jessica.”

“Yes.”

“Should we start living as daily mercenaries soon?”

“What?”

I was suggesting that we try “mercenary” work again, which I had only done once before, and that was during a massive event.

Of course, in response to my opinion, Jessica, who had been busy with various administrative tasks, shot me a look filled with bewilderment.

“Commander, didn’t you say you would never do mercenary work again after helping the Humanity Clan last time because it was too difficult?”

“Hmm… I did.”

“And now you want to do it again?”

Seeing Jessica’s expression that seemed to say, ‘This guy is trying to do something weird again,’ I immediately grabbed both her ears and decided to give her a brief disciplinary session.

“Jessi-Jessi-Jessica, your attitude just now was too impertinent.”

“Kyaaang!”

Only after finishing that disciplinary session did I decide to explain why I had such thoughts.

“If we stay like this, our fleet leveling might fall behind compared to other users.”

“Uuugh… you mean leveling?”

Hearing my words, Jessica, who was half-folding her long rabbit ears and stroking them with her hands, could only raise a question mark above her head.

But only for a moment.

“…Ah, other commanders keep fighting each other and gaining experience, but we’re just sitting here doing nothing?”

“Exactly.”

The notion that PVP should be avoided was now merely an old story.

Of course, PVP between solo users was still quite discouraged culturally, but…

When it came to clan-based multi-person battles rather than solo versus solo, or 1-on-1 PVP…

Unlike 1-on-1 situations, losses between users decreased while gains—specifically “experience”—increased, creating a peculiar situation.

Paradoxically, this led to an increase in PVP battles between clans.

As a result, rather than users losing accumulated experience when their fleets were destroyed, ships with enhanced performance from accumulated experience survived longer.

And as these surviving ships gathered one by one, they began grinding down the fleets of other users who participated less in combat, which was happening all over space.

“So, you want to level up all our fleets in advance to prepare for when we eventually have to fight other commanders?”

“Yes, honestly, what you get from PVE is too little to be meaningful.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Yeah, and we should occasionally fight with other users too, so we won’t be flustered when forced into PVP later.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

“Plus, if we’re going to fight anyway, let’s not just mindlessly bash each other but earn some resources while we’re at it.”

To achieve this perfectly lucky situation where I could improve my skills while leveling up my fleet and earn resources at the same time, my mercenary work seemed like an unavoidable destiny.

However, as everyone has already guessed by now, that was nothing more than nonsense mixed with my own brain’s fabrications…

When I actually inquired about mercenary work from the person who could be considered the greatest expert in my vicinity—namely “Tsumelingweise,” who was both the leader of the Tannhäuser Mercenary Agency Clan and the village chief of Tannhäuser—the person in question said:

—————————————–

<Icarus-Tsumelingweise Chat Room>

-[So you’re saying you want to do mercenary work?](Tsumelingweise)

-[yy]

-[help!](Icarus)

-[Impossible](Tsumelingweise)

-[What?](Icarus)

—————————————–

‘Why! Why not!’

Hearing such a resolute rejection… or rather, being told it was impossible…

I decided to throw out my question about what exactly the problem was.

And in response to my question, Tsumelingweise answered again:

—————————————–

<Icarus-Tsumelingweise Chat Room>

-[Are you asking because you don’t know?]

-[Your scale is too large, so ordinary clans can’t afford your hiring cost](Tsumelingweise)

-[Huh?](Icarus)

—————————————–

Incredibly, I was being told that my price was “too expensive” to work as a mercenary, despite having only done it once.

Naturally, hearing such a thing for the first time in my life, I could only express my bewilderment.

In response to my reaction, Tsumelingweise, the expert, began to give me a very detailed explanation.

—————————————–

<Icarus-Tsumelingweise Chat Room>

-[What do you think it means to hire you?]

-[It doesn’t simply mean hiring ‘just’ your fleet, but literally using your Leviathan Squadron or unlimited mercenary corps](Tsumelingweise)

-[Oh… ah?](Icarus)

-[So what does that mean?]

-[Even if we exclude the Leviathan Squadron, how much did Humanity pay when you deployed your unlimited mercenary corps?]

-[A lump sum of 3 to 4 million in total resources, plus additional compensation for your trouble]

-[Even though clans have enormous resource reserves, that price is very burdensome just to hire one user](Tsumelingweise)

-[Ah, I see](Icarus)

-[Plus, with fights breaking out everywhere these days, clans’ stockpiled resources are rapidly depleting]

-[So even if you decide to work as a mercenary and there’s a clan willing to hire you]

-[I doubt they could afford compensation worthy of your level](Tsumelingweise)

—————————————–

Through that long and detailed explanation, I came to understand why that person was telling me there was no point in trying mercenary work.

‘How very interesting.’

The fact that I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to made my feelings rather complicated.

Of course, I tried to make a rebuttal of sorts, but…

—————————————–

<Icarus-Tsumelingweise Chat Room>

-[But what if I just don’t use my mercenary corps or Leviathan Squadron?](Icarus)

-[What if you suddenly feel endangered and deploy a large mercenary corps?]

-[In this industry, if a mercenary user brings additional support fleets, the client has to pay for those too]

-[If you use a large mercenary corps, the opposing clan would end up being forced to pay an unexpected premium after only trusting your word that you’d contribute just one person’s worth](Tsumelingweise)

-[Sigh…](Icarus)

-[And if you say you won’t charge for using your unlimited mercenary corps]

-[Then the problem isn’t you but other mercenaries]

-[“Icarus didn’t charge for using his mercenary corps, so why are you charging?”]

-[Of course, agencies like ours and other mercenary users wouldn’t stay quiet]

-[But wouldn’t the very occurrence of such a situation be extremely annoying? Haha](Tsumelingweise)

-[Now that I hear it, that’s true]

—————————————–

‘How dare you attack me with facts.’

Since everything he said was correct, and he was literally talking about “the health and life of the entire industry”…

I realized, with a very dejected feeling, that I had to abandon my plan for my second mercenary job in life.

Of course, seeing my reaction, Tsumelingweise did offer an alternative solution, but…

—————————————–

<Icarus-Tsumelingweise Chat Room>

-[Well, it’s not like there’s absolutely no way](Tsumelingweise)

-[Oh?]

-[What is it?](Icarus)

-[The Big 4 clans or large clans with over 5,000 users might have the capacity to hire you](Tsumelingweise)

-[But then I’d get caught up in politics…](Icarus)

-[Then there’s no way](Tsumelingweise)

—————————————–

Hearing this, I just felt like I was being fed excuses.