New Update

And barely had I finished reading that event message when—

"You needn't worry so much. Any pirates who dare stand against me… well. From now on, all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they'll be able to do is agree."

"Mm."

Chills.

Hearing Marianne deliver that line with a bright, beaming smile, I couldn't help feeling the girl had grown up… in a rather concerning direction.

According to the event message, it sounded as though she had the pirates under perfect control. But when I said as much, Marianne herself shook her head vigorously.

"If it were up to me, Oppa, I'd go beyond just being with you every single day — I'd move the entire pirate den right here."

"…"

I'd really rather you didn't.

Whether she cared about my thoughts or not, Marianne kept grumbling and picking the conversation right back up.

"It's all because that human pig never showed any real authority as the first Pirate King."

"Authority, huh."

"So no matter how hard I squeeze and drill the pirates, if I don't show my face at their den often enough… my control starts to slip."

"Is that so."

In a way, that was only natural.

Back when I was playing the game, I'd never obtained the Pirate Empress at all. And separate from that, the pirates had run on an entirely different system from the rest of the game. The Empress, like any other superhuman, was permanently bound to the player — so I'd never heard of anything like this happening.

But then again, talking about "the game" was almost pointless. My entire affinity route with Marianne was something that couldn't even exist in the original game. Treating every little detail as identical to the old version was probably a bad idea.

I shook my head and settled for telling her she had it rough.

"You're really going through a lot, huh."

"Eheh, not at all… If I just think about Oppa while I tough it out, the time flies surprisingly fast."

"R-right."

At any rate, Marianne — whom I hadn't seen in quite a while — claimed she'd only stopped by because she was passing through the area, and left sooner than I'd expected. After seeing her off, I sat right back down in the command seat and sank into thought about what to do next.

Of course, as always, this wasn't a problem I was tackling alone.

"Jessica, any advice on where we go from here?"

"Hmm, well…"

I was working through it with Jessica — my adjutant, who existed as advisor, secretary, and event announcer all in one. My IQ of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠100 plus Jessica's IQ of 200. A combined three hundred points of pure intellect, taking on the challenge of forging a plan for the future.

And this aimless, planless state wasn't unique to me.

One look at the gallery told the whole story. With the rankings announced and nothing left to do, every single player was bored out of their minds, spamming nonsense.

And honestly, in the current state of the game, the only real options were farming resources for base upgrades or dumping spare currency into the gacha. That was it. If the operators didn't give us something proper to do, then for a company that had kidnapped and imprisoned the minds of over a hundred thousand players, their management was so pathetic that a very strange kind of uprising felt increasingly likely.

Fortunately, exactly one week after that thought crossed my mind, a new update message appeared before every player — myself included. Looking at it, I figured I wouldn't be bored for a while.

New Update (1)

"Whoa."

"Is something the matter, Commander?"

"Just that the update is way more packed than I expected."

"Ah — so you've seen the patch notes."

After nearly three weeks of pure content drought, the update message that landed among a player base growing increasingly feral contained not one but four separate faction introductions — any one of which would have been enough to set the community on fire. On top of that came an auction house, a trading system, and more. The sheer variety pulled a genuine gasp of admiration right out of me.

I'd had Marianne's spectacular, high-stakes pirate games and the suicidal charges of deranged newbies to keep me occupied. Other players, though? How agonizing must those weeks of boredom have been?

Of course. How are a bunch of dopamine addicts supposed to survive being bored?

As if to prove the point, I quietly opened the gallery — and sure enough.