The Ten-Pull Ticket

"Huh?"

To my surprise, this base's faction affiliation was still sitting on the default neutral setting.

"Wait, weren't we pirates?"

"Not even close, Commander!"

At my baffled expression, Jessica gave her long, oversized rabbit ears a little twitch, then put on a faintly smug look and opened her mouth.

"Ahem! First, let me make our current situation perfectly clear. Marianne surrendered as your subordinate, Commander — nothing more."

"Well, yeah, that's true."

"So you can't really call the Commander a 'pirate affiliate.' If anything, the pirates ought to be affiliated with you."

"…!"

Hearing it put that way, it made perfect sense. No matter how massive a force a subordinate commanded, the idea that the boss above that subordinate would then belong to that force was absurd. Just as Jessica said, the pirates belonging to my base was the natural order of things.

"But here's the problem — the system simply won't allow it to work that way."

"…Hmm."

So this was where the developers' screw-up reared its head. Jessica shook her head and pressed on.

"Think about it logically. The pirates are roughly the same scale as the other factions… For the Commander to swallow the entire pirate force through the Pirate Empress would be — system-wise — completely impossible."

"Balance reasons, then?"

"Exactly. Honestly, if that had been allowed, how would any of the other commanders besides Icarus even survive?"

A shame. For a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brief, shining moment, I had dreamed of becoming the Pirate King — leading tens of thousands of pirate ships and torching every other player in sight.

Close, but no cigar.

Faced with the fact that the dream could never come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠true, I buried the rising sorrow deep in my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chest. Separately, though, I decided to revisit one very positive implication.

"Jessica. So what you're saying is… ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if we can just get ourselves affiliated with another faction…?"

"You're thinking exactly right, Commander. Unlike everyone else… you could avoid being attacked by a full two factions."

Ohhh, baby.

Where everyone else had to weather assaults from three factions in exchange for one faction's protection, I could enjoy the pirates' cover and, once the upcoming faction selection locked in, a second faction's protection on top of that. Absolute free real estate. I felt genuine happiness settle over me.

Anyway — with a rough grasp of the faction situation in hand, I was deep in thought about the update a week out and the faction choice that would come with it when—

Ding~♪

"Hm?"

Out of nowhere, a cheerful notification chime rang in my ear. I flinched, and Jessica — who had been fretting over the same choice of faction — shot me a suspicious look.

"What is it, Commander?"

"I just heard some kind of alarm."

"An alarm?"

But the moment she heard that, Jessica lifted her tablet pad and started tapping away…

A moment later.

"Ooh, Commander! The developers are giving special rewards to players who made it into the top ten of the rankings!"

"Rewards?"

"Yes! By now, every commander in the top ten — including you, Commander Icarus — should have received a message!"

Barely had Jessica finished explaining when, true to her word, a guidance message about the 'reward' floated up in front of my eyes—

The instant my eyes hit the words "10-Pull" at the bottom of that message, I shot up from my seat and launched into a screaming, frenzied victory dance.

"ZZZWOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

"W-Wait, Commander?!"

The little "Time Limit: 1 Day" tag stuck on the end did grate on my nerves considerably, but—

A time-limited gacha ticket. How generous of them.

Time-limited or not, they had handed out a gacha ticket — the single finest reward any gacha game can offer. So, partly to convey my gratitude to the developers wherever they were hiding, I decided to spin our gacha first, before fretting any further over faction selection.

And so, standing once more before the long-overdue multi-dimensional whatever-it-was… the gacha machine, at any rate.

"You only get a good one if you approach it with a pure and reverent heart."

"Ah… is that so."

I had already finished a full ritual bath, set out a bowl of water as an offering, and was bowing toward the gacha machine. Of course, I hadn't originally planned to go this hard. My usual approach was to spin it half-asleep and stroll out to greet whatever friend showed up. But—

"By the way, why is the Commander acting like that?"

"Ignis casually told him, 'You burned through a hundred and fifty pulls without thinking last time, so maybe this one will just be ordinary,' and…"

"Ah."

"Kh… I-I never expected him to get this depressed over it!"

Just as the three superhumans behind me were saying — the last 150-pull had been a total wipeout. Realizing that this time around, something with the same concept as those three might drop… or something with worse performance and stats that would just tank its usage rate… or, in the worst case, an SSS-grade that somehow performed worse than an S-grade or even an A-grade and had nowhere to be used… the probability of a genuine catastrophe was real. That was why I had prepared this thoroughly.

And after a truly long stretch of labor, with every preparation complete, I approached the machine with a heart full of tension and spun it at once.

The now-familiar, dazzling, otherworldly colors erupted inside the machine, white smoke billowing out in a satisfying poof that only fed my expectations further.

But those expectations curdled into pure disappointment the moment I saw the results that popped out—

…What the hell is this? What kind of joke is this?

Granted, no weird SSS-grade had shown up. But I hadn't expected zero superhumans and basically zero ships either. Still, half-hoping that another "hibernation" had been lifted, I scrolled the results message up and down several times and checked the CCTV feed I'd set up in front of the hibernation chamber…

Nothing…? Why…?

The more I checked, the more ironclad the evidence became that my gacha had completely tanked. From this day forward, I resolved never again to rely on pathetic superstitions — and to worship only the Imperial Truth, just as the golden-haired uncle had preached.

New Update (3)

Crushing the sorrow of a gacha wipeout underfoot, I rose once more and strode firmly forward.

"Obsessing over gacha results is something only beta males do."

"Is that so. Then the part where the Commander, after failing his gacha, collapsed into Pashtura's arms going 'Mommy~' while his mental state completely disintegrated… I'll quietly forget that for you."

"…"

There may have been a few… incidents along the way.