Even If the World Collapses, There's Still a Place to Live (2)

Of course, seeing Jessica and me looking so grim, one of the supers still linked in by comms from outside while grinding quests had something to say.

Ignis, wearing an expression of pure incomprehension, pushed back.

"Commander? If it's about those commissions, couldn't we just send the remaining ships to handle them even without us present?"

"You mean the regular ships?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'd love nothing more than to do exactly that… but it's impossible, so give it up."

I simply shook my head at Ignis's question, and that was enough to set the rest of the people still connected on the screen off — Belial and Pashtura among them — firing questions straight at me.

"Commander, why exactly is that not possible?"

"She's right, Commander. If we have to, we should show them that a fleet of clones and drones can get the job done just fine♡"

They were offering perfectly realistic advice and pushback, and I nodded inwardly — but all the same, I had no choice but to refuse them on this point yet again.

Even If the World Collapses, There's Still a Place to Live. (2)

It wasn't as if I was rejecting them out of pure laziness, either. No silent little I hate it, rehu bubbling up in my heart or anything like that.

I simply had nothing more to discuss with the rest of them, so I cut the connection and turned to Jessica, still seated nearby, to pour out my grievances about the current situation.

"It's just so damn tragic. Truly tragic."

"Mm… it really is. I wonder if those ladies can even grasp that you absolutely need a super to clear a quest."

As Jessica's reply made clear, this godforsaken game had a system where any quest that required deploying a fleet could only be cleared if at least one super was brought along for the ride.

Why such a thing even existed was anyone's guess — though Jessica and I both already knew the answer.

"We're getting screwed over by leftover relics from the ancient era, way back in the mists of time."

"Ugh. Tell me about it."

The important point was that, thanks to that damned system, the maximum number of quests we could run at once was four or five at absolute best. So no matter how strong our supers were, the pace of quest completion was slow — painfully, agonizingly slow.

At least the base-side work was something Jessica and I could bustle around and handle ourselves, so we could clear relatively more of those. But base-only quests weren't exactly common either. So we were grinding our hearts out — blood, sweat, and tears — using Ignis, Belial, Pashtura, and Griyanaar to keep pace against players who by now probably had at least ten supers on hand. Pure, relentless effooooort.

But it didn't take long to feel that even that approach had hit its limit…

One week after I'd said those words.

Stacking those slowly trickling score-flex posts and their verification screenshots against my own numbers…

…and looking at that utterly wretched point total of mine, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could feel the blood tears welling up inside.

"Heaven, why!!! Did you create me!!! And then create every other player!!!!"

"Commander, that would mean you want all one hundred and ten thousand of the others dead."

Jessica, watching from the side, gently tried to talk me down — but even she let out a low groan at the glaring gap laid bare before us.

"Manpower shortage really is the chain around our ankles, Commander."

"Ghhh… yeah."

The one silver lining was that I'd built up a decent amount of trust before the event even started. Running four barracks and grinding with pure, relentless effooooort had paid off.

Ugh, damn.

After enduring trust gains that ticked up in estimated increments of 0.01, I'd finally pushed our standing with the kaiju faction past 20.

Thanks to that, mid-tier quests — far better than the old low-tier trash — had started landing in my hands. I'd managed to dodge the damned balance-patch update and keep farming points…

But even so, just as Jessica said, the fleet under my command simply couldn't push any further than this.

"Commander, if things keep going like this until the event ends…"

"I know, Jessica."

It was such a bleak line of thought that she let her words trail off, so I shook my head and finished the sentence for her.

"If things keep going like this, both the rankings and the shop are going to be a complete disaster, right?"

"Yes… honestly, yes."

"And there's no solution, either."

"That's right, Commander."

It wasn't that our four-barracks setup — no, our four super women — were bad at their jobs. With three SSS-grades and one near-SSS among them, they finished work far faster and far more precisely than lower-ranked units ever could, occasionally even bringing back bonus rewards on top.