Busy Yet Not Busy (2)

Watching just how terrifying a butterfly effect a truly random faction alignment could set off, I couldn't help the complicated tangle of thoughts running through my head.

And while I was lost in those thoughts, Oxianor kept right on talking.

"However, there is one problem here."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Well…"

I answered quickly even as I was still thinking, and Oxianor looked faintly exasperated as she tapped the table — not with a finger, but with a tentacle attached to her formal wear — frowning as she trailed off.

Wondering what on earth the problem could be, I simply watched her in silence. Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she straightened her posture, her expression clearing as she turned to face me.

"Come to think of it, there is no need to hide this from you!"

"Huh?"

"Simply put — you are aware, are you not, that the Zenobia Empire and the Earth Federation have been acting rather suspiciously of late?"

"…Ah."

"Those two factions have been so unsettled that Her Majesty finds it rather awkward to mobilize a fleet large enough to escort a VIP!"

She even clapped her hands together with a thoroughly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠human gesture. I nodded and answered.

"So you're not asking us to escort that VIP ourselves, then?"

"You understand perfectly. As expected of Commander Icarus, whom I trust so well."

Oxianor looked thoroughly pleased with herself, which only left me more confused. I pressed on.

"Wait — can't you just use whatever you used when you came here and went back?"

"Whatever I used… ah, you mean the neural link network?"

"Yeah, that."

I was asking about the Kaiju's absurd teleportation method — an over-technology that, even in the lore, was described as "we don't know exactly how it works," but could move you from one end of the universe to the other in a single hop. Oxianor glanced down at the carapace that had grown over her hand like a glove and answered.

"Unfortunately, the neural link network is overloaded from moving large-scale forces."

"Ah."

"Which means even I cannot reach Her Majesty at present."

She shrugged with a completely unbothered expression. For a moment I wondered whether the network was actually still usable and she was just putting on an act — but the thought didn't last long.

"So I shall ask you once more. Are you willing to try?"

The instant Oxianor's words ended, a quest message popped up in front of my eyes with a cheerful little chime.

Looking at the quest message floating in front of me — or more precisely, at a message that seemed slightly different from the ones before — I barely managed to swallow the curse that tried to claw its way out of my mouth.

Are you kidding me? Our base just barely hit 150 ships, and you want two-thirds of them?

What kind of highway robbery was this…!

On top of that, given how far the Kaiju main base was estimated to be, simply sending a fleet out would mean months of travel each way. No joke.

Holy moly.

I recoiled from that absurd objective, my hand instinctively drifting toward the decline button… but only for a moment.

The moment I saw those ridiculously sweet rewards, I stopped whining.

Fine. Let's do this.

I resolved to pour every effort I had into escorting this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠critically important VIP.

But just because I'd made up my mind didn't mean we could start the quest immediately.

"Commander, so you're just going to send the fleet straight to the Kaiju main base?"

"…Of course not."

As I'd already noted, simply sending them would be an outrageous waste of time. So we set our top priority on the most perfect solution available: constructing the Long-Range Warp System, unlockable through a Base Level 6 upgrade.

To that end, we kept the resource fleets grinding hard — and more.

— KRA-BOOM! FWOOSH!

"Hyaah♡"

"They're fleeing. Flank and encircle them."

— "Yes, Lady Belial!"

We farmed the trash mobs that respawned nearby on their own, stripping them of resources.

"You know what happens if you run, right? Behave yourselves."

Those fucking bastards.

While leveling Ignis on the side, we rounded up unaffiliated pirates and dumped them into the "forced labor camp" we'd acquired from previous pirate hunts, working them to the bone for resource collection.

And if any of them started dragging their feet?

"Easy now~ It doesn't hurt~"

"G/AAAAAAH!"

"BA/HA/LA/AAAH!"

"Uuu… ddyai… ddyaddya."

Those unaffiliated pirates and wild kaiju got handed over to Griyanaar, who performed the miracle of three-stage recycling — reducing them back into raw resources through her "alchemy."

The result: in less than a week, we had stockpiled over 320,000 minerals and more than 10,000 rare resources.

Of course, in the process, we completely wiped out every mob in the surrounding area.

The moment I accidentally opened the gallery window and saw that post, I realized a minor problem had arisen: the poor nearby players could no longer farm any mobs.

And so my explosive three-stage manpower recycling plan was forced to shut down after just a single week.

At any rate, through the three-stage recycling plan — grinding pirates and kaiju down to the literal bone, harvesting resources at full tilt, and pushing construction as fast as possible — roughly two weeks later…