Finally, Toward Base Level 8

"…Still, I made that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drug with a delayed effect, so he should be able to hold out until the farewell party ends, right?"

"Can he really last that long?"

"Probably?"

"Something about this feels a little suspicious."

All she could do was trust the drug's delayed effect and hope the situation would somehow slide by without incident.

But there was one thing even Griyanaar herself had failed to anticipate…

Unlike Icarus, whose digestive capacity was no better than an ordinary person's once you set aside drug tolerance and physical durability—

Liran, as a superhuman who had risen far enough to rule as a Pirate Admiral, possessed a body that, while not quite on Marianne's level, was still considerably enhanced. Naturally, that included a digestive system far superior to Icarus's.

Which meant, of course—

That the drug Liran had swallowed along with his drink was absorbed through his digestive tract and spread through his entire body faaaaaaar faster than Griyanaar had ever expected.

And the result…

"Taaaaaahhhhh♡♡♡♡!!!"

"?!"

"My whole body's turned into a nippleeeee♡♡♡♡♡♡"

"A-Admiral?!"

"Old man, what the hell's wrong with you?!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!"

"Commander, you shouldn't be looking at something that grotesque."

"Oh my…"

"C-Commander."

Right in the middle of the farewell party, a burly, shaggy middle-aged man began squealing like a sow in heat that had been stripped of every last shred of masculinity—and Icarus's vision, which had only just been purified by the reverse bunny girls, was promptly re-contaminated by a bandit-bearded, three-thousand-times-sensitivity climax show.

Fortunately, the reverse bunny-bunny-bunnies ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠immediately body-blocked his field of view with a full-contact charge, so the visual terrorism didn't last long…

But not long after, once Icarus learned the full story, a thoroughly enraged commander would force the partial demolition of Griyanaar's pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment.

All of that, however, was a matter for the relatively near future—none of it had happened yet. For now, Griyanaar could only stare at the shaggy Liran downing his drink in one shot, completely unaware of the fate barreling toward her, and silently wail inside her own head.

Why the hell are YOU drinking that, you hairy bastard!!!

Finally, toward Base Level 8.

Three days later.

"You've truly worked hard, Admiral Liran."

"…I've been through every damn experience imaginable at this point."

We were seeing off the shaggy Liran—who had briefly become a male sow(???) thanks to three-thousand-times sensitivity—and his fleet as they departed the base.

Naturally, this was only after Griyanaar and her research team had spent two full ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠days and nights performing surgery and reconstruction work to purge the drug that had seeped into every corner of his body and reverse the side effects.

At any rate, right after we finished watching the Pirate Coalition's protective fleet leave the base—

Oh.

Seeing the construction-complete event message pop up at just the right moment, I closed the comm screen and turned to Jessica beside me.

"Jessica, we've got two battleships sitting in the docking facilities right now."

"Yes, Commander."

"Move both of them into the docks. Let's get started on those repairs we've been putting off."

"Understood. I'll contact them right away."

Following my orders, the two battleships at the command center were gently towed by dozens of shuttle craft acting as tugs, puttering their way toward the capital-ship docks. Once that was underway, I settled into the command seat and pulled up the newly unlocked Base Level 8 Upgrade Menu that had appeared with the Fleet Association's completion.

The moment I opened the menu window, a truly monstrous price tag hit me square in the face, and a groan escaped my lips before I could stop it.

Has this price completely lost its mind?

The Level 7 upgrade had demanded around 500,000 minerals and maybe 30,000 rare resources. Level 8 was asking for minerals in the millions, plus hundreds of thousands of rare resources on top of that.

Faced with a price that blew past anything I'd imagined—even knowing we'd been diligently stockpiling—I immediately asked Jessica, who was standing by, how many resources we currently had, just to make sure we weren't short.

Jessica answered with a confident nod.

"We've got about 1.7 million minerals right now, and roughly 900,000 rare resources!"

"Yeah, well—we're about to spend 1.2 million minerals and 500,000 rare resources out of that."

"…"

The moment I told her that more than half of everything she'd worked so hard to accumulate was about to walk out the door, Jessica's expression wordlessly asked me, You do know that if you're lying, your wrist is getting broken, right?

In response, I quietly grabbed her wrist, pulled her over, and showed her the menu.

The instant she saw the price stamped right there on the window, Jessica's face contorted into the exact same expression I'd been wearing moments earlier.

But glaring at it wasn't going to make the number go down—and we didn't have anything else to spend the resources on right now anyway. So I went ahead and initiated the Base Level 8 upgrade.

The one silver lining, if you could call it that…

Previous stages had burned nearly a full month just on the base upgrade itself. This time, Level 8 was only going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to take about a week—a genuinely decent construction timer, for once.

Of course, after every previous stage had only ever ballooned exponentially, the sudden drop was strange enough that Jessica couldn't help commenting.

"It's kind of weird, though."

"What is?"

"The Level 8 upgrade time. It's been getting longer and longer this whole time, and then it just suddenly drops right here?"

"Ah… that."

Faced with Jessica's thoroughly puzzled reaction, I shrugged and answered casually.

"Well, Level 8 just doesn't have anything particularly special or important among its buildings."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Aside from the extra docking facilities that already existed and one more capital ship shipyard, the rest is pretty middling."

Honestly, the Level 8 base upgrade was, to put it bluntly, a kind of rest stop—a light expansion of your Fleet Points before the next upgrade dumped Dreadnought-class ships and other high-end vessels on you, all of which ate points like crazy.

And as always, explaining all of that in detail myself was far too much of a hassle. So instead of walking Jessica through it line by line, I simply opened the gallery wiki tab and showed her.

"Everything you want to know is right in here."

"Ah, yes…"