Mimi’s Salary Raise and Choosing a Mothership

"Man, I just can't stop laughing."

"Okay, okay. It's great that we made a profit huh."

"As expected of Master."

After arriving at the Dexer star system, which was the home system of

Earl Daleinwald, we entered the Dexer Prime colony and finally

completed our bodyguard mission. We just got our rewards for the job.

We would be paid 250,000 Enels per day, and the time it took to arrive

at the Dexer star system was a total of 22 days. The battle we went

through and our time resupplying at the Comatt system was also

included in the calculation. The time we spent getting the fleet repaired

and hospitalizing the injured crew was also taken into account.

And we also got a bonus for stopping Balthazar's rampage. The initial

reward was 5,500,000 Enels, with a bonus of 2,500,000 Enels. That's a

grand total of 8,000,000 Enels all in all. As expected of Earl Daleinwald!

He's filthy rich!

Since Mimi's share was 0.5% of the total rewards, she'll receive 40,000

Enels. Elma's was 3%, so she'll get 240,000 Enels. The remaining

7,772,000 Enels will be my share. My assets last time was 24,400,000

Enels, so I now have a total of over 32,100,000 Enels. I have to subtract

about 10,000 Enels or so for the maintenance and repair fees as well as

restocking ammunition and supplies.

"M-Mm..."

Mimi's face froze when she saw the numbers displayed on the data

terminal. Fumu…? Was the pay she got not enough? But, yeah. 0.5% was

really too little. Yosh.

"Come to think of it, you've already accustomed yourself to being our

ship operator, right Mimi?"

"Eh? Um… I guess so?"

Mimi got surprised when I suddenly called out to her and nodded

reflexively.

"That's right. I guess it's about time for her to graduate from being a

trainee huh."

It looks like she already knew what I was getting at, so Elma backed me

up. Un. It really is the case though.

"That means it's also about time Mimi gets a raise, right?"

"Eh... N-N-No! I'm fine! I have enough money!"

Mimi started panicking after hearing our exchange. What are you

getting flustered for, girl?

"That won't do. Once you get promoted to a full crew member, it is a

standard procedure that you'll get a pay raise. After all, you've already

mastered all the necessary procedures, resupplying, selling loot, as well

as keeping watch on the radar. Since you've raised your skills, you

should be rewarded an appropriate amount."

"That's right. The 0.5% share is just the very minimum after all. Should

we raise it to 1%?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. Alrighty then. Instead of 40,000 Enels, you'll

be receiving 80,000 Enels for the job this time…"

"I-It's fine! You can raise it later! Later, okay!"

"No, well, we made an unexpected killing this time, so it's better to raise

your salary now, right?"

"I won't be able to use up that much money though!"

After hearing Mimi shout, Elma and I exchanged gazes.

"80,000 Enels won't be enough to customize a cheap Zabuton ship

though."

"Yeah. You can probably purchase a second-hand generator, but that's

about it."

The Zabuton is the nickname SOL players gave to the cheapest ship in

the game – a so-called noob ship. It was squarish and flat, so it got the

nickname zabuton. Zabuton is an in-game slang used by SOL players,

but Elma was actually familiar with it for some reason. It's things like

this that make me question if this was really another dimension or not.

"But I don't have the same common sense for money compared to Elmasan and Hiro-sama. I just can't keep up. I'm just your regular citizen,

okay. 40,000 Enels is enough for us to live comfortably for a year, you

know?"

"Is that so…? Hm. Come to think of it, it does seem like that huh."

If you convert 40,000 Enels to Japanese Yen, you'll end up with

4,000,000 Yen all in all. If you don't include taxes and insurance

premiums, it does seem that it would be enough for an average family

to live off of for a year.

"But that is that, and this is this. If you really insist on it, then I'll keep

your share to 0.5% this time, but you'll need to receive 1% the next

time we complete a job, okay? That's final."

"Uu… Okay."

Mimi still looked quite troubled and let out a sigh. Anyway, that does it

for the salary talk.

"I mentioned this before, but I'm planning on buying a mothership with

the money we received."

"A mothership huh… How much do we have on hand again?"

"About 32 million."

"Nn… If we have that much… But we're barely scraping it, don't you

think?"

Elma inclined her head and raised her eyebrow. Well, it's true that 30

mil would be barely enough to cover purchasing the ship, customizing

it, and setting aside an emergency fund for the possibility of getting

shot down.

"We'll just take on most enemies with Krishna. It doesn't have to sport

high firepower. It would be okay if it has a tough enough shield and hull,

a large cargo space, and sufficient speed and maneuverability for its

size so it can escape if need be. Besides, Krishna would be more than

enough for combat purposes anyway."

"I see. So a support mothership that won't participate actively in

combat huh. I guess we could make that work. But our budget would

still be barely enough."

"Yeah. That's why I'm planning on purchasing one directly from a shipmaker to get it as close to the factory price as possible. We'll have to go

to a system with lots of ship making companies for that. We'll have to

choose the ship maker and model carefully though."

I then fiddled with my portable terminal and connected with the holodisplay inside the dining area.

"I've managed to list some prospects already."

The first one I showed on screen was Recon Industries'[RIMS – 013

Night Hawk]. This ship was designed for speed. Although the armor,

shields, and cargo capacity suffer a bit due to that, it was still a top-class

mothership with great speed and maneuverability. And even if the

shield and armor strength, as well as cargo capacity, were a bit lacking,

that's only compared to ships of its class. It only loses out to mediumsized combat starships, but it's way tougher than those repurposed

civilian ships that the pirates use.

"It's a really cool-looking ship, Hiro-sama. But it doesn't hold a candle to

Krishna though."

"It has a sharp and streamlined feel to it. Having great speed doesn't

sound bad at all."

"That's right. But it doesn't have enough synergy with Krishna, I think.

Wouldn't something with greater defense be better in order to take

advantage of Krishna's firepower?"

"I think this is a good choice though. Anyway, next is this one."

The next unit I put up on the holo-display was the mothership model

[ SDMS – 020 Skizbrazunil ] manufactured by Space Dwerg. It's

lacking in the speed department, but it has powerful shield output and

thick armor. It has a large cargo capacity so it's used as a mercantile

ship often, and since it is fairly easy to customize, it can not only serve

as a mothership and transport ship but also as a mining or research

ship, depending on the customer's needs.

But due to the heaviness of the ship, its speed and maneuverability

suffer a lot in exchange. It may fall prey to things like interdictors quite

easily, and its FTL Drive speed was mediocre as well. The Hyperdrive

doesn't seem to suffer too much though.

"It's tough-looking and really big!"

"I have no complaints about its specs, but the style is just not for me."

"This ship would make good use of Krishna's abilities, I believe. It may

be weak to interdictors, but Master would actually prefer it if we engage

with pirates often, right?"

"Well, that's right, I guess. But I kinda have reservations on it being too

slow for my tastes."

I put up another ship model on the holo-display. This is a mothership

manufactured by Ideal Star Way; the[ISMS – 007 Chrome Elephant].

This ship is in the middle ground when it comes to performance and

overall specs compared to the two earlier models. It's slower than Night

Hawk, but it has a tough shield and thick armor. Its cargo capacity is

also quite satisfactory. It's faster the Skizbrazunil, but its armor and

shield don't measure up to it. The cargo space also isn't quite as large.

"Doesn't it kinda resemble an imperial military starship?"

"Well, the official manufacturer of imperial ships is Ideal Star Way after

all. Looking at Ideal ships kinda brings back some bad memories

though…"

"It's not good to be half-baked. It won't be able to outrun enemies the

Night Hawk can outrun, and it won't be able to defend against attacks

the Skizbrazunil will be able to easily take on. That isn't good enough, in

my opinion."

"So this is a bust as well… The specs look fine though."

Mimi didn't have a problem with it, but it looks like Elma was getting

goosebumps just looking at it. May was against it as well, so I guess

Chrome is a no-go.

"Okay then. We'll remove Chrome Elephant from the list and choose

between Night Hawk and Skizbrazunil."

"Agreed."

"Alright."

"I-I think either is fine… I'll leave the choice to you, everyone!"

Mimi hurriedly bowed out of the discussion. Well, Mimi still didn't have

enough knowledge about ships after all. In any case, it looks like Elma

likes Night Hawk while May is in favor of Skizbrazunil. In the end, it'll

be up to me to make the choice huh… Decisions, decisions.