A Complete Tour of the Base

At present, it was serving entirely as my private bedroom.

Back when this was just a game, there hadn't been a "bed" at all, so at first I'd had to make do with the sofa. Anyone who's ever tried sleeping on a couch knows the drill — for someone of my awkward size, the thing was an exercise in pure misery. So I'd gone and bought a jelly-mattress bed from the shop, and that was how I was handling overnight duty these days.

For the record, the only reason Pashtura had managed to infiltrate the Commander's office before was that I'd gotten careless and left the door unlocked. These days Jessica came by for one last check before I turned in, so that particular brand of incident was no longer possible.

As for everything else — most of the facilities had been here from the moment I dropped into this world. In other words, they'd been part of the base from the very beginning.

Hmm.

I paused for a moment at the shop entry, remembering the trip I'd made there to buy my bed, and nodded to myself.

Yeah, it really did get gutted hard.

Unlike in the game, we couldn't exactly swipe a credit card and top up real money in this situation — and the vast majority of items that could be exchanged for in-game currency were locked out anyway. To put it bluntly, the place felt less like a proper shop and more like a furniture outlet exclusively for Commanders.

In this game, the Training Room was the rare oasis that let newbies actually survive. For our fleet, though, it was currently functioning as Belial's personal gym — and for good reason. Ignis had that miraculous miner-leveling exploit the chat had tipped us off about, and Pashtura was the type who blasted beam cannons all over the place. Letting her train indoors would punch more holes in the Training Room and the outer walls than I cared to count. Unless new personnel showed up, it was going to stay Belial's exclusive domain for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the foreseeable future.

And this damn Docking Facility was the root cause of why going solo was so hard in this game — the single biggest reason players were forced to form "alliances" no matter what. Even if you maxed out every docking berth and filled the fleet with nothing but unique ships, the moment multiple players piled on, even a ranker couldn't hold out alone.

Of course, there were other reasons solo play was rough besides this one, but those were a little awkward to explain here… Who exactly am I even talking to right now?

I stopped reading for a moment and cast my mind back a few weeks.

Come to think of it, Belial was the one who came back to me this way, wasn't she?

At the time, I'd clearly been told that hibernation released with every base upgrade. Looking at the actual description, though, it was once every five levels.

Hmm… well, fair enough. Having ten or more Supers by the time you hit base Level 10 would be broken in its own right.

I nodded, accepting it as a balance patch of sorts, and kept scrolling through the rest.

Everything from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here on out was newly constructed.

An absolute must-have for exploring the gallery. Not an item — a facility.

In plain terms: the gacha system.

And as if I needed the reminder, the Advanced Research Lab's description was living proof that this base really wasn't occupied by just me and the Supers.

A bare-minimum basic resource producer, existing for the eventuality that players couldn't secure a resource zone.

I'd already looked at the Advanced Technology Management Office last time, so I skipped it.

A facility that burned resources to manufacture rare ones.

And finally…

Oh my god.

Where had that pathetic defense setup gone — the one that struggled to stop even a single pirate ship? Looking at a system sturdy enough to slap any ordinary battleship silly several times over, I genuinely couldn't help the tears of pure emotion welling up.

The event continued.

Anyway, after inspecting every facility in the base like that, I finally pulled up the objective of the Main Quest that damn Status Window had handed me the moment I fell into this world.