Next Steps
The cash I had on hand wasn't nearly enough to buy all the equipment the ECHOs wanted.
In the end, I had no choice but to settle for the most urgent and efficient upgrades— the ones with the best cost-performance ratio.
"Uh... if the M134's no good... how about the M127 Vulcan?"
"That works too?"
She looked a little disappointed at my words but nodded anyway.
"Yeah. There will be no jams, and it's also super stable. High fire rate per minute, big ammo capacity too. Eight hundred rounds per mag."
"...Oh."
I searched for the M127 Vulcan on the Money Compass.
3700C, including fifty boxes of ammo.
Compared to 5000C for the Minigun M134 with just five ammo boxes, this was dirt cheap.
"How's the firepower difference?"
"Not a huge gap. Maybe like 15% less or so? Still a hundred times better than this scrap heap I'm using now."
That sounded great.
And so, I first bought the M127 Vulcan to replace Pomen's beat-up machine gun and a small launcher for her shoulder mount.
"Oh my god— Commander! Look at this shiny barrel! Doesn't it kinda look like yours?"
"......No, not even a little."
"Whoa—! This is insane. Way better than the one I used before. Check it out! The mag slides in so smooth!"
Wasn't it supposed to slide in smoothly anyway?
What kind of lives have these girls been living?
Watching Pomen hug her new gun and rub all over it in joy stirred up a weird feeling in me.
Was it pity, perhaps? I was not sure.
Next up was Arva.
"I... want to invest everything in blades, Commander."
She seemed to have come up with an idea after watching me and Pomen's choices.
"Sure? Then let’s go for it."
After some careful thought, Arva selected the Tungsten Alloy Monomolecular Blade.
Its price was a staggering 13000C.
She gripped the new blade and swung it through the air a few times. Rare excitement and admiration gleamed in her blue eyes.
"Incredible. The reaction speed has shortened by 0.3 seconds compared to the old blade. I can now output up to 75% of my core's processing power. With this weapon..."
"You could take on a Corpse Breeder, right?"
"I'll cut its throat before it can even reach you, Commander."
Her voice carried unshakable confidence.
Noah was next.
"Oh my, to think the Commander's grace would extend even to me... But are you sure this is okay? I heard using that Artifact requires some special resource of yours..."
"Yes. But arming you girls comes first. That's how we protect this Ark— and all of us, right?"
"In that case... I humbly accept your grace, Commander."
Noah replaced her F-grade worn-out emitter – essentially her internal core – with a new one.
A D-grade MK-3 standard energy emitter.
60% more efficient than her current one.
Once the swap was done, a far clearer, purer golden energy mist rose from her palm.
"Ah, aah... To feel the Commander's grace so clearly and with such purity. Now I can embrace even bigger, harder things for everyone."
"The Commander's thing is pretty big and hard too— think you can handle it?"
Pomen chimed in slyly from the side.
"Oh... Does the Commander have some kind of holy relic like that?"
"Yup. The real deal. Wanna see?"
"......"
I shook my head at Noah, who innocently tilted her head, completely clueless about Pomen's words.
Anyway.
Seeing the three ECHOs' reactions brought a smile to my face without me realizing it.
Even though I was left with less than 5000C, it didn't feel wasteful at all.
"Alright, shall we head out for a performance test right now?"
We immediately started clearing the Ark's isolated zones.
The enemies were mostly regular zombies and contaminated mass-produced ECHOs, but we also found another Corpse Breeder nest in Sector C-4, just like our first encounter.
If we hadn't bought gear with cash...
Cleaning the nest would've taken longer, and we might've really been in deep shit.
The new equipment performed beyond expectations.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Acquired 4900C.
Acquisition History: Sector C-2 Corpse Breeder Extermination Operation (Combat Participation Reward)
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Acquired 2000C.
Acquisition History: Sector A-3 Zombie Extermination Operation (Combat Participation Reward)
"Die—! Die—! Die, you filthy monsters!!!"
Pomen unleashed firepower like a maniac without worrying about her weapon jamming anymore.
The bullets pouring from the M127 Vulcan shredded the charging tentacles like paper.
Arva moved like a ghost.
True to her word, her new blade sliced through the Corpse Breeder's thick hide like cutting through tofu.
Even if it absorbed mass-produced ECHOs and underwent Predatory Evolution like before, they were powerless before Arva’s blade.
Boom—! Thud—!
Noah held strong too.
Her barrier effortlessly blocked attacks from contaminated mass-produced ECHOs, massed tentacle strikes, and Corpse Breeder assaults— unlike before.
There were no more shaky flickering or cracks.
"Yeah, that's the joy of upgrades."
A whole new level of combat efficiency was thus achieved.
I cheered at the Arclight Squad mowing down zombies so cleanly and provided support fire with my White Tiger rifle.
If this were a game, it'd feel like a major story progression spec-up.
But there were some downsides too.
The ECHOs, hyped on their new gear, handled so much that I barely needed to step in.
Which meant I wasn't raking in as much cash as expected.
And that wasn't even close to the end of our problems. It was just the start.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
We'd cleared about 60% of the monster-infested isolated zones and returned to the command sector when it happened.
Still buzzing from the thrill of battle and victory in the commander’s quarters, Arva approached me with a grave expression. An urgent report in her hand.
"Commander, the new gear performs perfectly. But there's a problem."
"Problem?"
"Yes. Unlike our old junk gear, we lack the maintenance skills to keep the new equipment in optimal condition."
"...Ah."
Arva held out her new blade.
A faint scratch from the recent intense fight marred the otherwise perfect edge.
"We can handle basic field repairs, but continued combat like this will accumulate issues, likely causing permanent damage to the new gear."
"Hmm... So what then?"
"To maintain them perfectly and keep peak performance, we need specialized fabrication facilities— and above all, an engineer-type ECHO with maintenance expertise."
"......"
Arva was right.
Rebuilding and maintaining this massive Ark with just the Arclight Squad was impossible.
We needed specialized ECHOs for non-combat issues, like now.
The problem was... unlike the game, I couldn't just summon ECHOs at will here.
Just give me 200 pulls, dammit!
If I landed just one SSR engineer-type ECHO, we'd be set for now.
It was just another pipe dream floating through my mind.
But sadly, the Money Compass had no gacha system.
In other words, to gain new ECHO allies in this world…
We either needed to craft them directly from genes like with Noah, or recruit from outside.
The former required massive resources and cash right now, while the latter meant venturing beyond the Ark into unimaginable danger.
"Got any good ideas?"
"There's a Cryogenic Stasis Center in Sector B-1 of the Ark. It holds gene data from ECHOs who operated in Ark 69."
"...So we could make an ECHO with that?"
"It'll need materials, but you might buy them with your artifact, Commander."
"Really?"
I finally felt like things might actually go our way.
If cash ran low, we could farm it from the remaining contaminated zones.
And so, the next day, full of hope, we headed to Sector B-1.
We passed two contaminated zones en route, but we faced no issues and swiftly cleared them.
"The maintenance ECHOs from Ark 69... Who were they?"
I asked Arva, buzzing with anticipation.
My game story knowledge that was roughly of… 30 years into the future, so it made sense for me to have no knowledge about this time period.
I'd played plenty, but since this was the past, I didn’t have any clue regarding the ECHOs of Ark 69.
"Only one squad in Ark 69 had maintenance skills."
"Just one?"
"Yes. Have you heard of the Ironworks?"
Unfortunately, I didn’t.
"Is that the name of the squad?"
"Yes."
Tch.
Should've cracked open the ECHO story creators' brains before crossing over.
"What's the lineup?"
"Two H-class ECHOs— Lena Hydros and Karen Blaze."
"...Wait. That Karen Blaze— red bob cut, always bragging how her equipment is the best?"
"Correct. You know of her?"
I nodded at Arva's question.
She was not a gacha character, but rather a recurring side character in the story.
She'll be joining us?
The thought of obtaining a new ECHO already had me excited.
But... the Cryogenic Stasis Center beyond the rusted door crushed our hopes.
"Fucking assholes."
Hundreds of data banks— all destroyed.
We searched desperately for any intact storage, but found nothing to be recoverable.
The previous commanders must've smashed everything mercilessly before abandoning the Ark.
"Data corruption rate 99.9%. No recoverable gene info, Commander."
"Shit..."
Arva's cold report drew curses from me unwittingly.
Our plan to recruit new allies and steadily restore the Ark hit a wall from the start. Self-sourcing new ECHOs was now impossible.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Gene Info: H-class - Lena Hydros - 1,050,000 C
Gene Info: H-class - Karen Blaze - 1,050,000 C
Gene Info: H-class - Sophia Gearlight - 4,320,000 C
Gene Info: H-class - Mira Torquewrench - 5,640,000 C
The Money Compass shop had gene info too.
But they were absurdly expensive.
And even then, it wouldn't guarantee new recruits— this was clearly not meant for purchase.
"No helping it. Let's go."
We gave up on new recruits and focused on Ark restoration.
We went on to clear hidden zombies in isolated areas and any trace of the Z virus from the Ark.
Then we prepped the new zones for human and ECHO traffic and built minimal survival basics.
Once all internal threats were gone and temporary safety was secured, I called the squad together.
It was time to take the next steps for our survival.