Gacha Store
-The results are better than I expected, actually.
"Th-that's a good thing, right?"
Karlstein coughed awkwardly, sneaking a sidelong glance at Aria. Fortunately, it didn't look like he was about to get chewed out for what he'd pulled off this time.
-The Ether yield from other dimensions is, in fact, far exceeding even the upper estimates I projected.
For Aria to exceed her own projections was an exceedingly rare event. Unless it was something on the scale of breaching a Singularity, she simply never uttered words like those under ordinary circumstances.
Karlstein felt an odd swell of pride. This whole affair had been practically a unilateral decision on his part, after all.
It was, admittedly, something close to his private slush fund — but Karlstein failed to notice anything strange about the fact that he was still reading Aria's mood. He had long since grown accustomed to her running the household.
"It can't compare to the Ether the Galactic Empire rakes in as a whole, but the efficiency you get per unit of actual time is absurdly high."
Even when acquiring a planet of the same size, the Ether that could be extracted from another dimension was overwhelmingly greater.
-That said, the Ether consumed by the investment itself is also considerable. That would be the drawback, wouldn't it?
"Well... fair point."
Karlstein smacked his lips.
As one of the experiments for the forward-base plan, he had sent the prototype, final-evolution, twelve-stage Hyperion to another dimension. Merely shipping the twelve-stage Hyperion over had cost a staggering twelve billion Karma Points — and that was assuming he squeezed out Keisha's three billion as well.
A whopping fifteen billion Karma Points, all told.
Considering that, after deducting everything he'd spent from what he'd earned in the Community, he had roughly twenty billion points left, it amounted to pouring out nearly his entire fortune.
Of course, if you tallied the total sales volume of the Dimensional Store, the real figure was far larger — but he'd also burned through no small amount developing this thing and that.
It was much like running a business. You didn't simply earn and hoard. You had to expand the enterprise and pour resources into research and investment for the future.
It was easiest to think of it as growing the overall flow of points — growing the pie — and expanding the business along with it.
The Dimensional Store was merely the cash cow. Karlstein was painting on a much larger canvas.
That was why he'd considered this venture an obvious investment. When you were looking past immediate profit and toward the far horizon, bold spending was simply the price of admission.
To him, Karma was nothing more than a resource and a means. If something needed spending on, you spent; if necessary, you pulled funds forward and invested anyway. All that mattered was obtaining something in return worth more than the outlay.
Viewed through that lens, this particular dimension was truly fascinating.
A world built on magitech engineering, and out pops a sci-fi alien? Different civilizations coexisting?
He'd never seen a case like it in the Community, which was exactly why he'd committed to dropping Hyperion in earnest. A civilization on the level of the Debra seemed suitably useful.
Truthfully, the apocalypse Earth had been far too small a stage for the Hyperion. Its civilization was so thoroughly demolished that he'd essentially have had to rebuild from nothing.
Thinking of it that way, it had been a good choice, but...
-You will need to put in some work for a while, Master.
"Ugh..."
She wasn't wrong. For a single expenditure, he'd spent far too much. The reason he'd been so busy lately was partly to fill that hole, too.
"Don't tell me that thing bulked up to that size just to screw me over on purpose?"
4,200 kilometers — roughly the size of the Moon.
Truly excessive.
Granted, 4,200 km would count as small next to the largest battleship in his arsenal, but...
What good was all that bulk?
-That is precisely why it so rarely gets used. And as a prototype, the power it draws scales exponentially with its size.
It was as if a power-fantasy protagonist had dumped every upgrade point exclusively into the most inefficient stats: Size and Weapons, maxed to the brim.
The 8.5 km Imperial-class vessel he used to ride was also a type of core ship. Like a matryoshka doll, it could dock and combine with higher-tier warships as the situation demanded. He rode the Imperial everywhere mainly because of its speed and power output.
'And I keep the Imperial close precisely because I treasure it...!'
Was this what it felt like to be a broke father who scrimped and saved to feed her, clothe her, send her to academy — only to watch his daughter blow it all on outrageously expensive luxuries?
"That guy's off in the distance doing whatever he pleases, isn't he. Running wild."
The newest Hyperion he'd raised had that same streak. A creature that swelled its frame and went absolutely deranged over aggressive upgrades.
At the moment Aria's scolding was keeping it maintained at 300 km, but still...
-Shall we dispose of it?
Aria's ice-cold voice cut through Karlstein's musings.
"What?! Do you have any idea how much Ether went into that thing! What are you even saying!"
-It is a sunk cost, nothing more. Besides, it was rather pleasant to see my Master working so diligently for once.
"!!"
Aria had a subtly ruthless streak.
"No! No, wait. Regardless, we did need it if it's going to serve as the forward base after we take the Debra Planet. It's not being sent back out — it's going to be the home base. So letting it grow a little was fine, really."
-Understood. Heh.
The corner of Aria's mouth curled upward — just barely, just for an instant — before settling back down.
For all her icy words, he'd personally trained this AI from scratch. Had she actually disposed of it, she probably would have been quietly hurt.
"...Anyway. We're ready now, aren't we?"
-Yes, Master.
All that said, he had absolutely no intention of neglecting his cash cow.
"Then let's get ready for the opening."
Karlstein broke into a delighted smile.
"A pre-mium store."
-Proceeding with the update.
On screen, a woman in a lavish pink gown was striking the most bubbly pose imaginable. The comments, however, were considerably less bubbly.
On screen, Keisha was performing every cutesy gesture in existence with reality-shattering, hyper-bubbly energy. At first the comments had all been about the video's star, but gradually the equipment inside the footage began catching people's eyes.
One or two commenters had made pointed observations, but regardless — this was the first video ever posted to the Community, and the buzz was enormous.
The footage showed Keisha carving her way through open space, squaring off against an entire space fleet. Fortunately, the scenes of her screaming and unleashing every curse word known to sentience had been tastefully edited out.
KRA-KOOM—
The mech, its frame now transformed into a colossal cannon barrel, erupted in a blinding flash — and the video cut to black.
"Heheh."
There was plenty of grumbling in the mix, but the enthusiasm was every bit its equal.
Karlstein's cultural invasion was progressing right on schedule.
