Free Bio-Experiment Subjects

A forced labor camp? What is this, a gulag?

The moment that thoroughly intriguing option appeared, I nearly selected number three on pure reflex. But only for a moment.

Hold on. There's no way this garbage game would hand a player something that's pure upside.

These were the same developers who cheerfully slotted in random events where pirates raided other people's resource warehouses — exactly the kind of thing I'd just lived through. There was zero chance they'd do anything out of the goodness of their hearts.

That thought sent me into a brief spiral of deliberation… until I realized something.

Hmm. If I'm already second-guessing this hard, that means I don't need to overthink ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠anything extra right now.

The very act of agonizing over it was functionally the same as picking option one. So I selected it without further hesitation and turned to face Marianne, speaking in a calm, even tone.

"All right. First off, Marianne — I understand where you're coming from."

"Thanks for hearing me out, Oppa!"

"That said, I'd rather wait until the others get back before we properly discuss what to do with that lot."

"Oh, is that so? Hmm… well, you're right. Having the specialists in each field weigh in would be better anyway."

Marianne conceded that my reasoning was sound. She volunteered to keep the prisoners under her watch until Belial and the rest of our Super seniors returned, told me to call her if anything came up, and then took her leave from the command post.

About three hours later, once the five Super women had finished clearing the day's quests and come back, I filled them in on Marianne's little "gift."

"Is that so? Why not just kill them all?"

"A forced labor camp is a rather fascinating proposition. Handled well, it could actually work out quite nicely."

"Or we could just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slap some arms and legs back on them and put them to work as slaves~♡ Having them wait on us would be pretty convenient, don't you think?♡"

"Pashtura. A nun should not chase after mere convenience."

"Hiiing."

Everyone had a different take, but regardless of which approach they favored, the overall reaction was thoroughly positive.

And among them…

"Commander! If you hand them over to me, I can make them into something that would be a massive help to the base!"

Our mad scientist, Professor Griyanaar, was the most excited of the lot. Her signature violet eyes gleamed as she stared at the maggots Marianne had dragged in, her face flushed and smiling for reasons I couldn't begin to guess. The sheer intensity of her enthusiasm left me wondering what on earth had gotten into her.

Live test subjects are precious, you say?

Fortunately, my curiosity about Griyanaar's bizarre behavior didn't last long. Barely five minutes after our thoroughly unhinged professor started radiating that mad-scientist energy, an event message popped up right in front of my eyes — a full explanation of exactly why she was acting this way.

And it even came complete with a detailed write-up and a full set of options.

Hmm.

Setting aside the wall of text, the options themselves made the outcomes pretty clear.

Option one meant the pirate prisoners — those maggot friends of ours — would be changing careers into lab rats under Griyanaar.

Option two was, as expected, a one-way ticket to the gulag coal mines.

And option three…

Wait. Something about that looks off.

Wondering if I'd misread it, I called Jessica over and showed her the choice event floating in front of me, asking if it made sense to her.

Jessica scanned the options, then shook her head firmly.

"I don't know about the others, Commander, but option three is the game flat-out telling you not to pick it."

"Hmm."

"It's not a reduced chance of being attacked by pirates — it's a fifteen percent increase in the chance of being attacked. That would make resource-zone mining operations an absolute nightmare."

"Ah. Right."

Armed with Jessica's interpretation, I mentally crossed option three off the list and spent a while weighing one against two…

Yeah… no matter how I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠look at this, it feels like the game is holding a knife to my throat and telling me to pick number one.

Options two and three looked ordinary enough on the surface, but both had nasty little traps tucked inside — clear evidence of the developers' burning desire to screw me over later. I'd only just noticed it, but that "Rebellion chance +5%" sitting right there on option two? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

The point was, two and three only looked fine. In reality, they existed solely to mess with the player.

So I shook my head inwardly and selected option one on the spot.

"Griyanaar. Those things are yours now. Handle them however you like."

"…Ooooh!"

The instant the words left my mouth, Griyanaar's face lit up with pure delight. Violet light poured from her eyes as she and her pet tentacles dragged the limbless pirate prisoners off toward her nest — or rather, her biology laboratory — with brisk, eager steps.

Once Griyanaar and the maggot specimens had vanished, I turned to Marianne, who had gone to the trouble of bringing in and carefully managing these precious(?) test subjects(?), and offered her some well-earned praise.

"Marianne. Once again — thank you for bringing these in and looking after them. You really went through a lot."

"Eep— th-that… of course! It was nothing, so please don't worry about it!"

As always, my praise left Marianne grinning like an idiot, practically melting on the spot — until she managed to grab hold of her composure and settled into a thoroughly satisfied, proud little smile.

While all these minor affairs played out, the Ministry of Defense — or rather, our clock — kept right on ticking. And perhaps because the crushing repair costs that had been bleeding us dry were finally gone, three days after Griyanaar hauled the pirate prisoners away…

With Griyanaar buried so deep in her research that she couldn't even show up for quests, the remaining four threw themselves into high-tier quests in her place. On top of that…

"Paperwork quests really are stingy with the points, aren't they?"

"Well, what can you do? Compared to the quests Ignis and the other Supers clear, the content is genuinely easy."

Jessica and I diligently worked through Oxianor's kaiju quests alongside the daily quests, and in just three days we managed to earn a hundred and fifty thousand points — a solid start by any measure.

And more importantly…