We Need More Friends (2)

"Hmmm."

"What's wrong, Commander?"

Through the gallery users' reactions, I had just realized that our so-called "Pirate-Style Automated Quest Farming System" had a fatal flaw — and I was still humming darkly to myself over it when Jessica, having finished her various duties and cleared a resource-transfer quest with the Beast faction on the side, turned to me with a puzzled look and asked the question.

I shared the "truth" I had just uncovered and showed her the gallery screen above as evidence. Jessica nodded with a grim expression, clearly recognizing that the problem was quite serious.

"According to those posts… in crude terms, the pirates are being treated like 'monsters,' so the other commanders attacking them is what's causing the issue?"

"On top of that, there are natural skirmishes with other faction fleets as well."

The pirate fleets currently deployed numbered over a hundred thousand ships. Even excluding the pirate crews led by heavyweights like Leonard, nearly a thousand separate pirate bands were participating. Which meant that, realistically, only about one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or two percent of them — five percent at absolute best — were actually bringing in proper quest clears.

This was something even my own experience couldn't have prepared me for, and more than anything, it was a situation I had never so much as anticipated. I found myself sinking into a long stretch of silent agony over how on earth I was supposed to fix this.

But no matter how long I stewed over it, no answer came.

Damn it, there's literally no solution here.

I dragged Jessica into brainstorming with me, but she didn't have any brilliant ideas either. Still, unlike me, Jessica was fairly well-versed in information gathering, so she at least tried to float a method with some kind of rationale behind it.

"Commander, what if we asked Marianne to step in?"

"…That probably wouldn't work."

"Why not?"

Unfortunately, our Jessica didn't have much common sense in this particular area. Facing her baffled expression, I briefly explained why it was a non-starter.

"Think about it. Why are we failing to earn points right now?"

"Well, obviously… because the surrounding factions keep attacking our pirates?"

"Right. So let's say Marianne personally gets involved."

"Okay."

"She's not going alone, so she'll take her pirate officers and tour every neighboring commander — and every nearby faction outpost — on a full circuit of performances, right?"

"W-well… yes?"

Apparently conjuring up the image of Marianne and her crew on a cheerful, delightful rampage of plunder, Jessica's face twisted for a split second. Then, remembering I was sitting right in front of her, she smoothed her expression and gave that characteristic twitch of her rabbit ears, refocusing on my words. I fought down the urge to reach out and touch those ears and pressed on.

"But if the Pirate Empress herself — not just anyone, her — personally leads a massive force to conquer border-zone outposts and loot commanders belonging to her own faction…?"

"…Ah."

"Do you really think the Zenobia Empire and the Earth Federation would just sit still?"

"The Earth Federation might try a diplomatic approach, but the Zenobia Empire would definitely come charging in."

"…The Earth Federation would probably take the physical approach too."

Two enraged superpowers forming a united front against the pirates was entirely within the realm of possibility. The Earth Federation would deploy their main force — complete with the super-dreadnoughts that were the pride of their navy, the Jormungandr-class and the Yggdrasil-class. The Zenobia Empire would almost certainly commit the elite armada that the community called the "Extermination Fleet."

Jessica might not know much about combat specifically, but she had enough grasp of the big picture. Once I laid it out this far, she seemed to face reality — her perked-up rabbit ears drooped flat, and she looked thoroughly deflated.

Confronted with that reality, we both realized we couldn't keep dumping everything on the pirates forever, and decided to thoroughly rework our plans going forward.

"Alright. From this moment on, what is our objective?"

"What is it, Commander?"

"First — no more messing around with random side projects. We grind points. Hard."

"Ooh."

"And then we dump them all into the gacha."

"Ooooh… wait, what?"

Jessica's reaction to my grand vision was the look of someone who was sure she had misheard.

"To be precise — we stockpile a mountain of points and blow them on the superhuman-exclusive gacha to expand our fleet's roster."

"…And with those extra personnel, you'd farm even more reward points. Is that the idea, Commander?"

"Yesss."

Even one additional pull would raise our non-pirate fleet's point acquisition rate by at least twenty percent — from four people to five. It was a perfectly respectable plan.

Of course, if this had been the regular gacha with its usual garbage rates, I would have just kept hoarding points ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without a second thought. But hadn't the gallery already said it?

"The event-exclusive superhuman gacha has better rates… I believe in our tip-thread veterans…!"

"Commander…"

With rates supposedly upgraded over the standard gacha, I was planning to buy that 450,000-point ten-pull and absolutely recruit some new nakama. My entire body was wrapped in a blazing fervor.

Watching me like this, Jessica wore a look of brief internal struggle, then slowly shook her head and began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠speaking with the frank, persuasive air of someone trying to talk sense into her superior.

"Commander… didn't you say last time that you would never use Dimension Causal Fixing again?"

"…"

"You said you have no luck, so even fixing causality wouldn't mean anything."

"…Gah!!!"

Seeing Jessica smile sweetly while delivering a cowardly fact-check to her own commanding officer, I immediately roared at this romance-deficient rabbit — but my own logic was every bit as flimsy.

"Miss Jessica… the gacha… I have to pull the gacha and recruit more people…!"

Like some long-haired guy weeping about wanting to play basketball, I collapsed on the spot and wailed. There was nothing else I could do.

Jessica let out a long, deep sigh at the sight of me.

"I know, Commander. I understand that we're short on personnel."

"Jessica! You get it after all!"

"Honestly, what choice do we have? Realistically, our point acquisition rate needs to at least match the other rankers."

"Sniffle…"

Witnessing that pure, kindhearted soul, I felt the crumbling mental fragments inside my wailing mind gently knit themselves back together.

And now, exactly three days later—

"The time has finally come."

"It has, Commander."

Everyone else had gone out on quests, leaving only Jessica and me. We stood before the gacha chamber known as the Multi-dimensional Fixed Causality Generator.