Community Open!
"Hmm?"
"For starters, you can expand the shipyard's production lines further, and you can also increase the size of the resource warehouse!"
"And?"
"Along with a research facility for technology development, the Multi-dimensional Fixed Causality Generator — that thing you commanders keep calling by all sorts of weird nicknames — will also switch to permanent availability."
"Hmm."
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
That much was already familiar territory, and nothing about it had changed in any meaningful way. I nodded and told her to move on.
"Got it. So what else is there?"
"Yes, sir. From here on are the facilities newly added through the update… ooooh…"
"What now? What's the problem this time?"
Jessica trailed off, eyes rolling around like she was trying to crib notes off someone else's paper, then finally steeled herself and laid out the information on the updated facilities — or rather, facility.
"Um, Commander? I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, but…"
"What is it."
"Regarding the updated facilities, I can only tell you about one of them right now."
"…"
Of course, our poor Jessica tried to lead with an apology first.
"Haaaaaah…"
"I-I'm sorry…"
"No, what did you do wrong? Just tell me about the facility."
Figuring the developers were screwing with the players again, I shook my head, heaved a long sigh, stopped Jessica from groveling any further, and told her to just give me the details on this so-called updated facility.
"Yes. The newly updated facility is called the Dimensional Signal Collection Type Communication Amplification System."
The name alone was a mouthful, but I nodded silently and waited for her to continue.
"The facility itself doesn't actually affect the base in any way."
"…?"
"Instead, as long as it exists — and the more you upgrade it…"
"The more you upgrade it?"
"The commanders' Community features unlock one by one, apparently."
"Community features?"
"Yes. The ones you tried to look into last time, Commander, but couldn't access due to insufficient permissions."
The moment Jessica finished speaking, a new status window shimmered into existence before my eyes.
Hmm.
Looking at the status window, I immediately asked Jessica how many resources we currently had.
"Including what we took from the pirate raid a while back… we currently have 720 minerals."
"Hmmm… right."
It was an annoyingly ambiguous amount. I'd been planning to build at least one more patrol ship just in case, which effectively left me with only 600 to work with. That meant I could afford exactly one of the options on the list.
"This is a real pain in the ass to decide."
"Hang in there, Commander…!"
A sudden knot of indecision had my head spinning. What should I pick? I spent a miserable stretch of time paralyzed by choice — but only briefly.
Come to think of it, when decision paralysis hit this hard, the best solution was sometimes to just hand it over to the collective intelligence. So I opened the chat window and tossed out a question, looking for advice on the options in front of me.
And as always, a bunch of people who clearly had way too much free time — whoever they were — flooded the replies almost instantly.
Everything from that point on was pure garbage not worth reading, so I filtered out the sane opinions and tallied them up.
"Looks like community feature activation is the clear favorite."
Honestly, about what I'd expected. I reached for the status window in front of me and made my selection.
> Dimensional Signal Collection Type Communication Amplification System (600) — SELECTED
> Proceed with construction? Y / N
Seeing the follow-up prompt, I nodded with a look of grim resolve, hit Y, and turned to Jessica.
> Dimensional Signal Collection Type Communication Amplification System — Construction Initiated
> Time Remaining: 07 : 22 : 19
"We're upgrading the communications system first."
"…Yes, Commander!"
"Once the upgrade's done, I want to see just what the hell is actually in this Community."
"Yes, sir!"
Since my conversation with Jessica had been in the evening, I hit the build button and went straight to sleep.
And the next morning—
> Dimensional Signal Collection Type Communication Amplification System — Construction Complete
"Oooooooh."
The crisp construction-complete message that replaced my usual morning alarm had me vaulting out of bed and heading straight to the base's central command post. I glanced at Jessica's empty seat — maybe she'd pulled an all-nighter — then dropped into my personal command chair and opened the status window… no, not the command console. The status window. I started hunting for the newly added menu.
Finding it didn't take long at all.
⟪ ENTER COMMUNITY ⟫
A single menu option — simple, clean, no frills — was radiating an absurdly intense presence from the middle of the otherwise barren status window UI. Drawn in by that presence, I hit the Enter Community button on the spot.
A status window slightly larger than the monitor I'd used in my previous life(?) bloomed in front of me — and inside it was the unmistakable layout of a "community" board, the kind I'd seen a thousand times before.
I was wondering what the Community would look like, but thankfully it's a familiar format.
The layout was so familiar it almost hurt — the spitting image of "that" community board I'd used constantly in my previous life(?). A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I decided to skim through a few posts.