Episode 684. Is He Listening? ~A Song for a Clan~ (1)
Anyway, I kept seeing all sorts of random stories.
And after doing various things, living my daily life, about a week had passed.
As usual, while enjoying sweet honey bread and sipping on sugar-free ice americano, that moment came.
“Commander, Commander.”
“Huuuuk… What is it?”
“The construction of the additional building, the <Outlaw Alliance Contact Office>, has just been completed!”
“Oh, finally.”
<Outlaw Alliance Contact Office Construction Completed!>
<From this moment onward, you can receive discounts on the hiring and contract fees for 'Regular Mercenary Corps' and 'Base Mercenary Group'!>
<You can enhance the performance of the mercenaries you hire!>
<Separate from your currently hired mercenaries, you may hire one mercenary group belonging to the Outlaw Alliance!>
<Note!>
<You can only choose one between discounted hiring/contract fees and enhanced performance of hired mercenaries!>
<ex: Cannot simultaneously use both hire fee discount and performance enhancement.>
‘This is good.’
Finally, news came that the additional building suited my unique identity (?), the Unlimited Mercenary Force, was completed, different from other users.
Though we couldn’t have both enhancements and discounts at the same time, choosing either would still make the Unlimited Mercenary Force ‘stronger,’ so I nodded in satisfaction.
And naturally, with the completion of such an additional building…
<Autonomous Evolving Biological Mutation Platform under construction...>
<Time remaining until completion: 25 days 1 hour 23 minutes 15 seconds.>
<Construction speed slightly reduced due to the effect of 'Monster Main Base.'>
Lastly, I decided to proceed with the final upgrade of the Level 10 base by initiating the construction of the last additional building, the <Autonomous Evolving Biological Mutation Platform>.
Despite consuming over 5 million minerals and nearly 400,000 rare resources…
“Commander, by the way, in a few days, the Resource Warehouse will be full again, won’t it?”
“That’s right, um…”
Even though I possessed a fairly large resource warehouse for a single user, hearing that it would soon be full due to the insane influx of resources…
I listed around 30 million resources on the trading market for the first time in a while and decided to finish eating my coffee and honey bread.
However, did eating that sugar lump during the listing process activate something in my brain?
A forgotten thought suddenly surfaced in my mind.
“Hmm, Jessica.”
“Do you have any tasks for me, Commander?”
“Let’s consider forming a clan.”
“…Really?”
The establishment of a ‘clan,’ which I had fiercely rejected until now, was precisely that thought.
Of course, upon hearing this, Jessica reacted with surprise, her two black rabbit ears perking up as if she couldn’t believe it.
But her reaction was limited to “Wow, Master thinking like this is quite surprising!”
“Commander, may I ask what caused this change of heart?”
Instead, she maintained her composure and asked earnestly why I had come to this decision.
Only for a moment, though.
“No, I just suddenly thought of it.”
“Commander, saying that makes all my previous caution meaningless.”
Upon hearing my casual remark, she playfully slapped my cheek with her flexible ears and disappeared instantly.
Of course, I wasn’t truly saying it without thought, and neither did Jessica think so, so it was more of a light tap rather than anything painful or unpleasant.
To lighten the mood with a small joke, I eventually began answering Jessica’s question calmly.
“So, why do you think my mindset suddenly changed?”
“Yes?”
“Well… Actually, there are many reasons, but if I have to summarize, it’s close to ‘Why should we be the only ones not forming a clan and enduring?'”
“Is that so?”
How unfair was that?
Back when my territory had only a thousand users, every time I tried to form a clan, people would interfere from all sides.
And the Central Zone even went as far as making veiled threats.
But now, with thousands, even over ten thousand users, large clans were freely forming.
There were also clans that clearly seemed to be backed by the ‘Four Great Clans’ of neighboring zones, yet no one criticized them.
‘d*mn, this is ridiculous.’
From my perspective, it was nothing short of ‘double standards.’
And anyone subjected to such treatment would naturally feel frustrated.
“If everyone else can do it, preventing us alone is infuriating.”
“True, that is fair.”
Before being possessed, joining this accursed game’s clan resulted in getting betrayed badly.
Watching other clans cause chaos and betray each other was certainly part of it…
And the antics of those ‘troublemakers’ happening daily…
Wasn’t it akin to the experiences one gets when assigned as a group project leader or a Green Camp squad leader?
Though deep down I felt “Ah, still, clans seem somewhat like that,” considering past experiences…
Having once experienced it myself, I knew one couldn’t cling to past traumas forever.
Especially since I had noticed others engaging in double standards recently, I thought it was time to shed my trauma and consider forming a clan.
After hearing my story, Jessica nodded approvingly, showing admiration.
However, shortly afterward, she raised some concerns while maintaining a rational attitude.
“But Commander, you mentioned before that forming a clan has more than a couple of issues to solve.”
“Hmm.”
“What about the officers? Last time, you stopped because there was no one to take the role, right?”
“Indeed, that was true back then.”
Seeing Jessica bring up the issue of “having no subordinates to appoint as officers, meaning I’d have to run the clan solo,” I realized why having an adjutant was important.
I appreciated how Jessica remembered something I had casually mentioned in passing and patted her head gently before speaking.
“But now it’s different; we have quite a few users suitable for ‘officers.'”
“Eh? Oh… Do you mean using the ‘village chiefs’ as officers?”
“Yes.”
Unlike before, through testing the management skills of users under the title of ‘village chief,’ I had gathered over twenty capable individuals who had proven their abilities and reliability.
“Are there any within our ranks who have already formed their own clans?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Including them and giving them officer positions could work well, don’t you think?”
“Ooh…”
Rather than just village chiefs, there were users leading separate clans.
We could recruit the clan leaders and senior officers of these clans into our new clan as officers.
Perhaps the fanatics who often shout out the name of the Icarus Empire would happily accept the offer to become clan officers.
However, calculating the number of officers this way, I realized another minor issue lurking…
“Commander, even so, aren’t the number of officers somewhat insufficient?”
“Even combining smaller clans and all the village chiefs, it’s slightly lacking.”
Surprisingly, although forming the clan would prevent the nightmare scenario of running it solo, there was another problem.
Due to the insufficient number of ‘officers,’ a major mishap could occur where my and the other users’ mental states would burst under pressure.
