Gugubeopgu, Looking This Way (1)
I deleted my auction listing first, then hit Y on the other party's trade request without a second thought.
He was just as cool on the way out as he'd been coming in and closing the deal. I gave a little nod at his retreating presence, then got straight to shipping off the two I'd locked up in the "prison."
Every superhuman on base was present—everyone except Griyanaar, who was still neck-deep in the so-called Ongogok Gugubeopgu Patgomul Project with Smeragi and couldn't make it. Even Belial, who'd been running adaptation drills with the small fleet the kaiju had gifted us, took her place in the lineup.
The two S-grade superhumans Ignis and Partia dragged in looked thoroughly cowed by the silent promise in every stare around them—one wrong move and they'd be carved into pieces without hesitation. But S-grades who could cross a kilometer-class warship in minutes weren't about to fold that easily. Even under that crushing pressure, both of them bellowed straight at me.
"You bastard! The day we come back, we're taking Smeragi with us!"
"Poor Smeragi… we will reclaim her. Without fail."
Not that I cared either way. They were leaving our hands for good now. I waved one hand casually as the base teleport facility shipped them off to the buyer's base, tossing out a half-hearted send-off.
"Yeah, yeah. Go play house with your new master, you two~"
"Grrraaagh—!"
The moment they vanished, 2,100 Gold landed in my account. The thought of using it to start seriously multiplying my Gold on the auction house filled me with a strangely pure kind of joy.
Meanwhile, at the exact hour Icarus was off doing something ridiculous like crowing I'm a four-digit Gold owner now, babyyy!—
Axion and Leti, left behind while only Smeragi stayed and forced to swallow the humiliation of being sold off to yet another commander, were steeling themselves.
"Axion. We must never forget our Commander."
"Agreed. Whoever this new one turns out to be… we will not bow to him."
Their affinity with Icarus had sat locked at −200 the entire time and never budged an inch. Paradoxically, that meant their loyalty to their original commander—Marshmallow—had stayed just as rock-solid. So even while the teleport whisked them away, they renewed their vows to him and decided that the second they arrived, they'd unload a full round of abuse on whatever unknown commander showed up to claim them.
Then—
Flash!
"Kh—."
"Nngh."
The teleport finished. A white glare flooded everything, and a ringing in their ears cut off every sense for a moment.
"…Still, we've gotta keep the old roster setup going, right? We'll figure something out."
"Th-that voice—?!"
"Wha—?!"
"Huh? Wait—huh?"
The instant their senses snapped back, there he was—sight and sound together—their own dear Commander, Marshmallow.
"C-Commander!"
"We're home! Commandeeer!"
Marshmallow startled at the two superhumans who clearly recognized him—and they, for their part, broke into the purest, brightest smiles imaginable, radiant with nothing but joy at having reached their sweet, longed-for home. Not a scrap of negativity left in them.
Marshmallow wore that same smile once he grasped the situation… for about three seconds.
"Wait. Hold on. Does that mean I just bought my own superhumans back at a markup…?"
"That would be correct, Commander."
"…"
The truth settled in. Pure smiling was no longer an option. Marshmallow genuinely could not tell whether he was supposed to keep laughing or start crying.
But only for a moment. Smeragi was SSS-grade—getting her back had never been realistic anyway. These two, though, had carried him through the early game. Founding heroes coming home was still something. He decided to take the win and fill himself with quiet satisfaction instead.
Gugubeopgu, Looking This Way (1)
Right after I'd offloaded those two annoying S-grades onto some nameless commander—
"Commander! Construction just finished!"
"Oh?"
> Emergency Ship Repair Facility — Construction Complete!
I'd been so buried in the prisoner headache that I'd completely forgotten about the base upgrade. Hearing it was done filled me with genuine happiness—at last, it was time to push the base to Tier 7.
There was just one rather serious problem.
Gaaaaaah.
As you can see, upgrading the base now demanded over half a million minerals. And the rare resource requirement had quadrupled outright from Tier 6.
"Jessica… how are our resources looking right now?"
"You've only been producing mining ships and transport destroyers, Commander, so at the moment it's about 89,000 minerals and 12,100 rare resources."
"Ah…"
"Still, you started running the resource transport destroyers yesterday, so from today our total daily intake should clear fifteen thousand."
Which meant that if we wanted to level the base and start carpeting the place with absurd battleships and carriers, we were looking at least a full month of nothing but resource fleets and tightened belts.
Ugh. My wallet.
If it hadn't been for that damned Central District grand invasion, we'd already be sitting pretty at Tier 7 by now, living the easy life.
Ah, screw it. Whining about water under the bridge isn't what a real man does.
I shook my head hard, banished the self-pity, shut my mouth, and resolved to just grind resources in silence.
And so the shipyard slammed out four corvettes at a time, then threw itself entirely into building nothing but resource transport destroyers like its life depended on it. The capital shipyard stayed busy repairing the captured light carrier that had somehow survived being thrown out as bait last time. I cleared daily quests as always, enjoyed a pleasant meal, dozed off for a bit, and was savoring a leisurely stretch of afternoon when—
Beep-beep!
"Oh, Commander? Is now a good time to call?"
"Griyanaar. What is it?"
"That test subject you gave me last time… no, wait, the superhuman?"
"Ah."
At Griyanaar's call, I nodded, recalling Smeragi—the one I'd decided to leave alone until her affinity hit +100.
"I remember Smeragi. What about her?"
"The modifications are done. Want me to bring her over, or are you coming to see?"
"…Hmm."
I was fairly certain I'd only told her to raise affinity. So why was Griyanaar casually sliding the word modifications into the conversation like it was the most natural thing in the world?
Utterly incomprehensible. But curiosity was curiosity, and I didn't have anything that urgently needed my hands right now.
"I'll come take a look, then. Nothing pressing on my end at the moment."
"Got it~ I'll have everything ready so it's easy to see~"
Beep.
"Jessica. Shall we go meet our new colleague?"
"Yes, Commander."
With Jessica at my side as always, I headed straight for Griyanaar's biology lab—no, the place that had finished evolving and now went by the name Nest of Life.
Of course, walking there together, neither of us found it easy to hide a certain complicated feeling.
"Commander… by the way, did you hand Griyanaar complete authority over everything?"
"Pretty much. Not like there's anything useful we could do by hovering and second-guessing her."