Hikaru was speechless. Seriously? A non-ranked naval base?
He'd bought practically all the available furnishings in the game, yet the system still rated his base as non-ranked. What, was he supposed to turn the whole place into a palace?
He had no idea how far he was from the "Brilliant Radiance" rating.
Grumbling internally, Hikaru began reflecting on the base rating system.
From the evaluation message, it was clear that the rating considered multiple factors: land area, prosperity, economic trade, cultural influence, living conditions, safety, and even how much enemies feared the base.
Raising all those factors would be a massive endeavor—practically like developing a miniature kingdom. He even had to consider the base's deterrent power.
Still, he needed a short-term development plan first.
Step one: repel the incoming Abyssal army and secure his footing.
Step two: gather resources and expand the base's land area. The [Masterwork of Nature] mission was still active; as long as he provided the necessary materials, the floating island could be upgraded to the next stage.
Hikaru had misunderstood this mission at first.
The first stage of [Masterwork of Nature] required a stockpile of 100K of each resource. Hikaru thought he needed to save all that up just to manifest a 4 square kilometer island.
But after digging deeper, he realized the initial 4 square kilometers came as a free gift. The first stage actually expanded the island from 4 to 9 square kilometers.
That meant the island would go from 2 km x 2 km to 3 km x 3 km.
He had already collected about a fifth of the required materials for this stage—roughly 20K+ of each.
Compared to an island measured in tens of thousands of tons, even 100K in resources wasn't that much. But he wondered if the required resources would increase drastically later on.
After all, this mission wasn't just about island expansion. It also unlocked editing options for minerals, flora, and fauna. The "Basic Flora and Fauna Editing" privilege alone hinted that the system could be upgraded.
And upgrades obviously required microtransactions.
But that was a concern for later. For now, Hikaru regretted that the resources absorbed by the system couldn't be extracted again. Otherwise, he could pull out those 20K+ and just about scrape together enough to wage a battle.
He was about to exit the interface when something in the corner of his vision caught his attention.
A new set of tasks had appeared—four in total.
[Beginner Mission: Level-Up Rewards]
Reach Admiral Levels 10, 30, and 50 to unlock the summoning rights for:
-USS Helena
-USS Saratoga
-HMS Prince of Wales
[Beginner Mission: First Purchase]
Spend any amount of diamonds to unlock the summoning rights for USS Ranger.
Hikaru was both surprised and delighted.
These were originally part of the game's standard beginner bonus system—rewards for leveling up and making your first in-game purchase.
He had always wondered why only certain tasks—like "first shipgirl construction" which rewarded Lexington—were available, while others were missing.
So this is where they'd been hiding!
It seemed the critical trigger had been establishing the naval base. Only after acquiring one could these beginner missions be activated.
And these four summoning rights? Absolute lifesavers right now.
But after the initial wave of joy, Hikaru's face fell.
Logically speaking, he should have already completed the level-up reward mission.
His current Admiral level was a shiny Lv. 143, more than enough to meet the criteria.
Yet the mission still showed as incomplete. That made no sense.
Could the system not recognize his true level? Did it think his level was fake?
That wouldn't be so bad—but if this was a genuine system bug, it could become a serious problem.
We weren't just talking about numbers here. This involved real shipgirls with actual lives.
Hikaru decided not to rush. He'd take his time examining the mission mechanics before making any decisions—even the "first purchase" one. It wasn't worth the risk of triggering a bug he couldn't undo.
Meanwhile, Yat Sen was still hoping to cook a big meal for him.
But even the most skillful cook couldn't make a feast without ingredients, and she was completely stumped.
"Commander," Yat Sen said, "maybe I could catch some fish and grill them for you. Or prepare sashimi? I really wanted to cook a proper reunion dinner…"
She did know how to prepare special fish-based dishes. But with the kitchen stripped of seasonings and supplies, they'd be lucky to get by on grilled fish or raw slices.
She had set her heart on cooking a grand meal for the Commander—and now that dream had crumbled, Yat Sen couldn't have been more disappointed.
[End of Chapter]
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