Ch.89The World May Crumble, But There’s Still a Place to Live (3)

I couldn’t ask for help since I was the leader of our faction, but when Bread-rian came to me first and offered to help, I was deeply moved.

‘That chest was full of good character all along. She’s grown up so admirably.’

Of course, if I said this out loud, the friendship level that had just reached Max would plummet, and Marian’s boot heel might end up buried in my solar plexus. So instead of saying that, I decided to simply express my gratitude.

“You’ll help me?”

“Yes, you didn’t say anything so I was just watching, but it’s very clear that you and this fleet are under considerable strain right now, isn’t it?”

As Marian adjusted her pirate hat, placed her hands on her hips, and thrust her chest forward, I could only nod in agreement.

“Indeed, anyone would see it that way.”

“Honestly, except for that person—who was it? ‘Griyanar’?—everyone else looks really struggling.”

“…Tsk.”

That last part didn’t need to be said, but anyway, she was offering help, so what did it matter?

At a time when we needed all hands on deck, having the Pirate Empress—treated as a near-SSS rank hero—step up would create more breathing room for our already insufficient point acquisition by adding another barracks.

Our Marian was known for turning people into human pigs, burning resistant forces, and beating her subordinates mercilessly while reigning as a symbol of terror.

In my previous life, on that sleazy site called ‘THE EYES,’ she was constantly featured in illustrations and 3D videos being passed around among subordinates. But here, that wasn’t the case, and except for Griyanar, whom she’d only recently met and still felt awkward around…

With Jessica and Ignis, she had a close senior-junior relationship.

With Berial, they were master and disciple with mutual respect.

And with Pashtra… they were somehow close, but the reason for that closeness remained mysterious.

Since Marian maintained friendly relations with our entire fleet without any major conflicts, I organized my thoughts and welcomed her offer with genuine enthusiasm, hoping to complete even one more quest.

But that didn’t last long.

I had forgotten that our Marian was the “Pirate Empress”—just like the “Earth Federation” or “Xenovia Empire” that were giving quests to countless users out there. Marian was also the leader of a massive force that couldn’t be compared to mere users.

As a result, exactly 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 24 seconds after Marian offered to help me…

“C-Commander! We’ve detected massive warp signatures outside the base!!!”

“What?”

“The numbers are at least… at least over 100,000 ships in the armada!”

‘For real?’

“Oh, they’re already here? That’s fewer than I expected.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I told my subordinates to gather a reasonable number of people to help you.”

“…”

Bringing over 100,000 ships with just one word, and then calling it “few.”

I felt a chill run down my spine as I was reminded once again that our Marian was literally the “leader” of an entire faction.

But that feeling didn’t last long. With the sudden appearance of 100,000 ships, plus Leonard’s fleet rushing out from the base, Jessica came to her senses, approached me, and expressed her doubts.

“Um… Commander? There’s something I need to mention.”

“Hmm?”

“A fleet of 100,000 ships is impressive, but to complete the quests given by Oxianor and the monster faction… you know?”

“Ah, right.”

At Jessica’s words, I regained my composure after being shocked by the enormous fleet size. Of course, Marian looked slightly confused by our reaction.

“Huh? Is there a problem?”

“Um… a small one?”

“What? Why?”

When I emphasized my bewilderment, Marian fluttered her pirate coat and pointed to the pirate fleet that covered most of the vast space beyond the command center window.

“100,000 ships is actually few by my standards, but the kids brought quite a lot!”

“Well… that’s true, but…”

“Commander, let me explain this.”

Before I could say anything, Jessica stepped forward to explain to Marian…

“First, I’m not sure how to explain this exactly.”

“Please explain in detail, Jessica unni.”

But the moment she started explaining, when Marian called her “unni” with a very curious expression…

For Jessica, who was treated as the youngest in the base, this was truly unexpected. Her face showed obvious delight, and even her rabbit ears on top of her head twitched excitedly. Jessica began explaining the current situation to Marian with much more enthusiasm than before.

“So basically, to handle this request, we need people like Ignis, you know?”

“What?”

“In other words, ‘Superhumans’ need to participate directly for us to complete the request from the opposing faction.”

“…Wait, do only superhumans have to do the work? Isn’t that basically saying that all those pirates can’t handle a simple task?”

But after hearing this explanation, Marian boldly refuted with a straightforward attitude.

Hearing Marian’s words, Jessica made an expression as if she’d been caught fabricating a seal as she replied.

“Yeah, why are they so stingy about it?”

“But I understand what you mean. We actually handle things the same way because of trust issues with requests.”

‘What’s going on?’

After boldly criticizing it as nonsense, she then admitted to doing the same thing herself.

Thanks to this, Jessica looked extremely confused, but our ever-confident Pirate Empress Nimu Marian just nodded, saying she understood.

“So what matters isn’t the number of personnel, but the number of our executives—the people in charge—who are deployed?”

“Executives and people in charge… I guess that’s right.”

Since it wasn’t wrong, I also nodded in agreement, and Marian clapped her hands together, saying there wouldn’t be a big problem.

“Then there’s no big issue! I just need to deploy captain-level personnel at minimum, right, oppa?”

“Hmm.”

At the mention of captain-level, I briefly ran through some mental calculations.

‘Hmm, at that level, in gacha user terms… about A-rank?’

I had my thoughts, but having experienced too many failures in real life from relying solely on mental assumptions, I decided to ask Jessica about this matter rather than taking unnecessary risks.

Jessica promptly answered my question.

“That’s right. Specifically, captain-level in a typical pirate crew would be at least between B and S rank.”

“Jessica unni is right, oppa. Since I called them, they’ll all be at least A-rank or higher.”

“Oh…”

With Marian’s additional answer, I decided to express my intention to trust and leave everything to our Marian, no matter what she did.

“Alright then, with Marian’s help, shall we try to live with a bit more breathing room?”

“Of course, oppa! Just leave it to me!”

“Having Marian’s help is truly like having an army of thousands, Commander.”

“Mmm!”

Seeing Marian so happy with my decision, I couldn’t help but think that if I had known this would happen, I should have asked for her help from the beginning instead of being so cautious. Things might have gone more smoothly.

But honestly, who would have expected such a pretty girl to be so happy about helping me?

Anyway, as I watched Marian grab the communication screen with an extremely happy face and start issuing various orders, I thought we might be able to get at least several thousand more points.

With that in mind, I began to carefully formulate future plans.

However, my plans were soon thrown into the trash.