Linking Bases

Apollo arrived at the Command Center and noticed it was identical to his own.

He stepped forward, approaching the big monitor that was currently turned off.

"Hmm... there is no key or button... how do I power this thing again?"

He looked around, tried clicking on the keyboard, touch the screen, but nothing happened.

"Maybe there is some kind of remote control that turns it on? Oh wait, what about our bracers? Maybe I have to use some voice command...Let's try!"

Apollo took a deep break and started saying every word that come to his head.

"Power On! Turn On! Power up! Link! Connect! Connect neutral HQ! Connect neutral base! Dominate! Conquer! Join! Assimilate! Eat up! Devour! Golden Fag! Rotten Fang! Son of a B****! Wait, I'm getting side tracked here... Think! Think!... What is the most chuunibyou thing I could say right now? I HAVE CONTROL! Hahaha, there is no wa-eehhhhh!?"

The lights suddenly lit up at once and the computer slowly started showing signs of powering up as well.

"I have control? Are you kidding me!? I said that as a joke! How the fuck did he expect us to guess this command!? This is so messed up! I can't believe it! At least mini-map makes sense! Damn! I want to kick that guy! More than once!"

At this moment, Apollo's bracer popped message after message.

[17 neutral buildings discovered. Do you want to take over their control right now?]

"Yes, please do so."

[Unregistered drone detected. Would you like to register it now?]

"Yes."

[Registration Complete! New drone recipe acquired!]

[Unregistered drone detected. Would you like to register it now?]

"I already said yes!"

[Registration Complete! New drone recipe acquired!]

[Unregistered drone detected. Would you like to register it now?]

"God damn it, yes!"

[Registration Complete! New drone recipe acquired!]

[Unregistered drone detected. Would you like to register it now?]

"Ugh....yes, go ahead and register all of them!"

[Registration Complete! New drone recipe acquired!]

[Unregistered drone detected. Would you like to register it now?]

"Am I supposed to say no!?"

[Are you sure?]

"Register! Register them already! Stop asking me the same question again and again!"

[Registration Complete! New drone recipe acquired!]

[Second HQ detected. Do you want to link your two HQs?]

"Eh? That's new. I would love a tutorial telling me what this linking will do, but it seems like as always I will have to find out by myself... All right, link the two HQ!"

[ 3 crystal cores, 20 kg of iron and 5 kg of wood will be used. Are you sure?]

"...Go ahead!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

At that moment Apollo heard three loud explosions as if 3 cannons had been shoot. He ran outside and saw three S.o.W flying in the air toward southeast.

"What the..."

As they started to appear too small for him to see, one of them changed route and fell straight to the ground.

"WHAT!?"

Because it was too far away, it was impossible to see what had happened, and exactly because of this that Apollo made a mental note to himself to investigate it later, when he was on his way back to his first base.

Going back to inside the building, Apollo noticed the base's map had expanded and now it showed not only this base, but also his first base as well as three little dots between the two bases and a line linking everything together.

"Master!? Have you came back!?"

"Rose? Is that you?"

"Yes, Master. Please wait a moment, I will be right beside you... Something is wrong, I can't find your presence in our base. Master, are you hiding somewhere?"

"Hiding? No. I'm at the Oni's base, or maybe I should say Ector's old base. Anyway, I took over it."

"As expected of Master! It's an honor to serve you!"

Apollo didn't need to see Rose's face to know what face she was making right now. Feeling a bit tired due to the extra pressure, he let out a sigh and continued to talk.

"How is the situation on our base? Did anything else happened?"

"No. Hayate is still not back and we were just preparing a team to investigate the Oni camp for more clues."

"He still haven't come back? Hmm... please make haste and don't forget to bring your armor and weapons. I'm having a bad feeling about this. I will also hurry here so I can join you later this afternoon. Let's try to meet at noon on Negi's base."

"Understood! I will be waiting!"

(Good, so now that it's linked, we can communicate between bases and also share our maps. This is more or less what I expected.)

"All right, Angela. Gather everybody near the gate. I want to say some words before heading out."

"As you wish!"

A strong gust of wind blew on Apollo's face, making him close his eyes, and as he opened them again Angela had disappeared, leaving only a few falling feathers behind.

"They really should rename maid to ninja..."

"Did you say something, Master?"

"No! Nothing at all!"

-----//----

30 minutes later, after walking all the way back to the front gate again, Apollo saw his new servants organized in four groups.

The first group, the angel group, contained Angela plus another 7 angel maids almost identical to her, except for the different hair cut.

The second group was made of 4 Oni, but with the arrival of Apollo's group, the two Oni who were accompanying them joined the Oni group, totaling 6 units.

The third group were the mermaids. Different from all other servants, Apollo could notice a distinct style in each of those girls not limited by their clothes but also hair, nails, eyes, and lips, as well as their mannerism. This group had only 5 members but due to their lively aura, they attracted more attention than all other groups added together.

The fourth group were the grew dwarfs. There were six of them and most of them were wearing miner's uniforms. They appeared quite serious, as if waiting for the command to march to war.

"...Shouldn't there be five groups?"

Cough! Cough!

Apollo turned to the person who coughed out loud and noticed five corpses, I mean, lizards, laying in the grass.

"Oh! There they are! All right then, let's end this fast! My name is Apollo and I'm your new Master."

"Everybody! Salute your new Master!"

At Angela's call, everybody saluted to Apollo, except for the lizards on the grass that had either fainted or were sleeping.

Seeing this overwhelming sight, Apollo raised his hand, stopping them.

"Enough. Let's skips the pleasantries and go direct to the point. Now that I'm in command, there will be some changes. First, I won't force any of you to fight, but I will force all of you to learn how to fight. As for how you will learn, I will later send people to explain our training program to you. Second, the Oni troop's survivors were poisoned to death last night. We are currently looking for the culprit. If you have any clues, please tell us as soon as possible, and if you don't, make sure to keep your eyes open for any suspect. Third, until this case is closed, I will have all of you prohibited from leaving the base. This is for your own security, so I ask your cooperation. As for everything else, we will talk as things happen. Welcome to Apollo's camp. You can go back to your own activities now."

""Yes, Master!""

"Angela."

"Yes, Master!"

"I'll keep you as the manager of this base while I'm away. Make sure everybody is healthy and everything is working. Also, check if the crystal cultivation research can be resumed. If it can, do it, if it can't, start over again. This research is vital to our future, so make sure it's a success."

"Understood."

"Great. I wanted to take a tour, but since we have to meet the investigation team before noon I will leave it to next time. Then, we will be off."

"Master, wait!"

"What's it?"

"About the giant boar ranch..."

"Don't worry about it. In the end of the day we all need protein."

"But!"

"My boars are different from yours. Let's continue to treat yours as animal for both our mental health. I honestly can't live without meat and it's not a lie that yours can't turn into people, right?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"The less we think about it, the less problems we will find. Please stop digging the minefield, I got enough problems as it is."

"Master..."

"Please!"

"...All right...I just need to forget about the girl turning into a giant boar and things will be fine! Yeah, that never happened! It was all my mind playing tricks on me... There is no such thing as boar girls! There is no such thing as boar girls! There is no such thing as boar girls! There is no-"

"All right Bacon. Let's depart."

Bacon nods to Apollo's order and turns into a giant boar before lowering her body to allow other to climb it.

"Then, until next time."

"MASTER, I HATE YOU!!!!!!"

Hearing Angela's scream behind him, Apollo smiles like a child who just pulled a good prank.

"Next stop, Negi's base!"