Proof That I'm Not Crazy
"…"
The moment those words reached me, I gently lifted my head and turned to look beside me.
There, among the Superhumans who had come with me, Pashtura and Griyanaar were—more precisely, they were giving Marianne a thumbs-up, or nodding as if to say, Fair enough.
Realizing exactly how this situation was playing out, I turned toward Oxianor—whose enormous eyes were brimming with pure confusion—and declared with absolute confidence:
"Oxianor, I will prove with this very situation that I am not crazy!"
And a short while later—
"You've finally grasped the truth, you eyeball monster."
"Marianne, could you step aside for a moment?"
"Sure, Oppa~♡"
Once the chaotic situation settled, I had Marianne and the others step back for a bit.
> All trust-related debuffs have been removed.
> Current trust relationship with the Space Kaiju: +25
Yeah. That's more like it.
Satisfied with the clean, polished state of the trust window, I tried once more to open a dialogue with the still-bewildered Oxianor.
"Alright then, Oxianor—wouldn't you say we've built up enough mutual trust by now?"
"Oh?"
And seeing her take a clearly friendly stance, I felt a fresh wave of satisfaction.
Want to be secret friends with us?
Of course, the authority Oxianor currently possessed to help us was, by all appearances, extremely limited.
> Revealed all of your secrets: +5
> Trust with the Space Kaiju has exceeded 30!
> [30+] — General Kaiju Breeding Facility construction unlocked
"Hmm."
For a commander who had successfully trained—not—the Pirate Empress, it was a rather meager offering. Nevertheless, I reacted as if it were nothing to Oxianor's sincere apology.
Because what mattered to us right now wasn't whatever rewards Oxianor could hand over…
"Then, regarding the current situation and just how important our Commander is…"
Including even Oxianor's own mistakes, she had reported everything she'd witnessed here to the Queen of the Space Kaiju faction. What mattered was the reward that would come afterward.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, that process included Oxianor's mistakes—and not just any mistakes. She had nearly provoked a conflict with the Pirate Empress rather than some ordinary commander. If things went poorly, Oxianor could well be replaced by another intellectual terminal unit.
While maintaining a nonchalant front, I made a point of looking thoroughly responsible. Despite having various trust debuffs slapped on us just moments ago, Oxianor had done everything in her power to protect us—and I was, privately, quite impressed.
"Faster than I expected, Oxianor."
And when she even openly confirmed that it hadn't been my delusion—
Hell yeah.
I earnestly hoped this eyeball gentleman of surprisingly excellent character would live a long, long life.
Anyway, we had succeeded in sending word of our situation to the Kaiju Queen through Oxianor. The problem was that the report also included talk of a secret alliance between two factions.
"Hmm?"
"Ah, I see."
Hearing from the person herself that it would take at least a week—
Sweet.
I decided to visit the event shop with the points I'd earned through Marianne's automatic quest-farming system (Pirate Edition). But first—since I'd resolved not to rely on my shoddy memory anymore—I opened the gallery window to check the actual performance of the Bahamut-class Artillery Heavy Cruiser I'd originally planned to buy.
Looking at it, however, I realized that contrary to my memories, the ship's performance had been subject to a kind of nostalgia filter…
Okay so first off, this thing LOOKS insanely cool, and on paper the specs aren't bad either. It's also huge, so newbies putting together expedition fleets love using it as a flagship.
But here's the trap: the main guns have a massive caliber, but the rate of fire is absolute garbage. Sure, each individual shot hits hard for a heavy cruiser—but the problem is this thing is SSS-grade. Among SSS-grade ships, not a single one has one-shot firepower that loses to a regular heavy cruiser. This one does.
Tanking ability? Also looks great on paper. But holy shit, the design concept is basically "just protect the vital parts and you're fine"—so every time it takes a hit, the outer armor plating turns into a goddamn sponge cake full of holes.
And that's a serious problem, because the ship is so massive you can load a ton of boarding-defense troops inside… except the armor is so trash that after a few artillery exchanges, all those defenders just get wiped out. lmao
Then the enemy just slams a few assault pods into the sponge-caked Bahamut and eats the whole ship for free.
Now someone might say: "Hey, the catalog specs show it's pretty fast—isn't it meant for hit-and-run maneuver warfare? Isn't that why the armor is thin?"
Yeah, on paper and in the lore, its top speed is comparable to a decent destroyer. But that's the maximum speed. In actual combat? Half of half that.
This thing's only real use is exploiting its massive size and "heavy cruiser" classification to park it in your resource fleets and scare off dumbass newbies who try to ambush you without knowing better.
Oh, and for the record—it apparently wasn't this bad originally. Got nerfed recently and fell off a cliff.
1. Firepower trash, armor trash, mobility trash
2. Just a cool-looking oversized transport ship
3. If anyone bought this from the event shop and posted proof, drop a massive upvote for the comedy
Nooo, my Bahamut!!!
Truly a tragic tale. The fact that the Bahamut-class I'd been eyeing so intently had become comprehensive, all-purpose garbage filled me with a deep and genuine sadness.
Wondering if maybe that tip post was wrong, I opened the global chat (anonymous) and asked there too…