Ch.5Pirate Raid (1)

It was truly a regrettable situation.

Without any rerolls, Ignis was the first SS-rank character I pulled from a single draw.

Our Ignis had top-tier stats among SS-ranks even without any enhancements.

It was an undeniable fact that with proper item setup, she could compete with even the highest tier SSS-rank characters.

The problem was that Ignis’s abilities were thoroughly designed for one-on-one combat.

Against the incoming pirates who relied on sheer numbers, her performance was extremely inefficient.

Of course, given enough time, she could use her A+ stamina to defeat them all one by one and claim victory…

But if we fought like this, while Ignis boarded one pirate ship and cut down everyone aboard,

The other two ships would destroy our single patrol ship, demolish our meaningless defense turrets, and then loot all our base resources and blueprints.

That’s why as soon as I confirmed Ignis’s existence, I immediately started production on a new patrol ship, but:

<Time remaining until patrol ship production: 70:37:40>

<Time remaining until pirate base attack: 70:04:31>

‘Fucking hell.’

Even after using the production acceleration item I received as a return reward,

The result showed the ship would be completed 30 minutes after the pirates’ attack.

Accepting this grim reality, I decided to post some whiny messages in the chat.

Of course, I said “whiny,” but it was more about venting my frustration.

-[Waaah, I got Ignis as a newbie from a single pull, is this good?]

-[What an asshole.]

-[Fuck off]

-[Go die]

-[Why the fuck do I only get B-ranks instead of Ignis]

‘Mmm yummy… no, this isn’t the time for that.’

After inadvertently bragging and receiving a barrage of curses,

I hastily wrote an explanatory message to defuse the situation.

-[Just kidding, I did get Ignis but how do I use her to stop a pirate horde?]

Other users quickly responded to my message:

-[How the hell would you stop that with Ignis.]

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[Of all things, you got hit with a pirate horde attackㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

-[Bye bye, bitch]

-[Upvote if this is a newbie who got excited about pulling a meta character only to get wreckedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

‘Haha, these bastards.’

They obviously knew exactly what I was thinking.

The chat responses were half pity,

And half mocking laughter at my instinctive bragging.

Of course, among those responses, there were some helpful answers:

-[You could actually win if you manually control the patrol ship to buy time while Ignis destroys them one by one.]

“Ohhh?”

Just as my eyes lit up at this promising news and I was about to consider this option:

-[That’s easier said than done. If you just pulled her, Ignis is only level 1.]

-[For real. Didn’t you say the pirates are coming in 3 days? Even if you train Ignis hard for 3 days, will she even reach level 10?]

-[At that level, Ignis would take too long to handle even one pirate ship, and our patrol ship would be destroyed first]

Reading these messages, I thought about Ignis who was probably training in the base’s training facility right now.

Just as I was about to give up and just mess around in the chat:

-[No no, many people don’t know but Ignis has dual-wielding]

-[Yeah]

-[If you give her two pickaxes, one in each hand, and make her mine resources, it counts as hunting and she levels up quickly]

“…That actually works?”

Finding this very interesting information, I thought it sounded quite credible.

And since I had no hesitation in putting this idea into practice,

I decided to call Ignis from the training facility through Jessica.

“Commander, I heard you called for me.”

“Ah, you’re here?”

After putting two pickaxes in her hands,

I checked the resource mining ship that had just finished resource transport and was preparing to depart again.

I immediately decided to boldly implement my brilliant plan (not really) for Ignis.

First, board the resource mining ship.

Second, go to the resource mining area.

And finally third, mine diligently.

Of course, upon hearing my orders, Ignis wore a truly “stupid” expression.

“…Commander? Are you telling me to… do mining work?”

Soon that “stupid” expression disappeared,

Replaced by a dumbfounded look that seemed to say “Are you serious right now?”

But despite Ignis’s attitude, I answered with a calm and confident tone.

“Yes, this is the key to enhancing your abilities.”

After hearing my words, Ignis’s sharp eyes sparkled brightly.

“Then I’ll go right away.”

“Excellent choice.”

And so she set off on a journey to enjoy 70 hours of non-stop mining work, transforming from an SS-rank combat specialist to an SS-rank miner.

==========

After sending our Ignis off as a dual-pickaxe warrior mining machine,

I called Jessica and asked if there was any way to wake up the rest of the crew who were supposedly in hibernation at the base.

Given the nature of my account that had completed the endgame set, most of those in hibernation were likely S-rank or higher.

If I could wake up even one of them, it would be more than enough to bolster our forces.

But…

“The superhumans and heroes in hibernation will wake up on their own after the base is repaired and upgraded.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, though we don’t know who will wake up.”

“You mean there’s no predetermined order of who wakes up first?”

“That’s right. And besides the personnel we’ll gain through base upgrades, the rest of the hibernating members will randomly wake up whenever you manipulate the dimensional causality.”

“…”

According to Jessica’s explanation, the hibernation release was tied to the game system.

At this point, no matter what I did, I couldn’t immediately use the characters I had spent my own money to develop.

This perfectly illustrated why this cursed game was classified as one of the most vicious crappy games out there.

But looking at it differently…

“Jessica, what’s the total cost for base repairs and upgrades?”

“Sir, it’s approximately 650 minerals!”

Seeing Jessica’s crisp salute after hearing my question, I nodded and thought:

‘If we survive this pirate attack, we can upgrade the base and immediately add the awakened personnel to the fleet…’

Judging from Jessica’s tone and the information provided,

It seemed like at least two superhumans would emerge from hibernation.

The message seemed to be: handle this with just one hero from the gacha; if you can’t solve even this, you won’t survive what’s coming.

Of course, struggling with this alone would be the worst possible approach, so:

-[Hey guys, is it true you get additional superhumans and heroes when you upgrade your base?]

I decided to use the power of collective intelligence to get the information I needed.

Shortly after posting that message:

-[Yeah that’s right]

-[You’ll probably get 1 person, maybe 2 if you’re lucky]

-[Didn’t someone post proof of getting 3 people last time?]

-[Getting 3 would be insanely lucky, might as well assume it won’t happen]

-[Agreed]

-[Agreed]

Through the flood of messages, I confirmed that my information and conclusions were correct.

After considering what I needed to do right now,

I thought about improving my ship control skills to prepare for the upcoming pirate attack.

So I closed the chat that was filling up with useless chatter,

Called Jessica, and ordered her to provide me with a separate console so I could directly control the patrol ship.