Chapter 379: Marine Headquarters — Give Me Five High-Tier Pets
"Everyone, do you have any thoughts on the Game Merchant's announcement?"
At Marine Headquarters,
Fleet Admiral Sengoku sat at the head of the war council, sweeping his gaze across the room with a serious expression.
"Pet eggs—are they different from hunters' and summoners' contracted battle pets?"
These two things were easy to confuse.
Vice Admiral Tsuru, head of the Intelligence Division, nodded slightly.
"You could say pet eggs and contracted pets are completely different."
"Contracted pets and summons are player skills—
they involve binding or summoning monsters to fight."
"But pet eggs, based on our analysis of the pet slot, are more like living equipment."
Living equipment?
Sengoku looked puzzled, and the senior marine officers in the room also exchanged confused glances.
Tsuru nodded.
"Game pets are tightly linked to the player's base stats."
"Every time they level up, pets gain 10 potential points that can be distributed among the four main attributes."
"The stronger the pet's stats, the more they boost the player's own attributes—at a 10-to-1 ratio."
Realization dawned on Sengoku and the others.
So that's what they meant by "living equipment"?
And then came the shock—
A leveled-up game pet could boost a player's attributes by dozens of points.
Not to mention, pets could release Fusion Skills, and many came with powerful abilities of their own.
A player with no pet and one with a pet?
The gap in combat power would only grow larger.
By total metrics,
pets were far more important than a single piece of gear.
"That's not all..."
Tsuru sighed, clearly frustrated.
"Pets gain potential points based on their aptitude. Some pets with high aptitude can gain 20, even 30 points per level."
Sengoku inhaled sharply.
A game pet's enhancement might soon rival even a full armor set.
"So, pet hatching is bound to become the trend."
Vice Admiral Smoker, aka "Poison Dragon," nodded.
"Same thing happened when the Reincarnation Game first launched.
Everyone chased high-damage skills and ignored gear, until early adopters with full sets steamrolled them."
In the pirate world, Devil Fruits and Haki reigned supreme.
Even swordmasters trained their Haki and slash techniques;
the supreme-grade swords helped, but weren't game-changers.
As a result,
players overlooked the power of gear—
and got wrecked when they first faced ninja players.
It took a costly adjustment to catch up.
That was the limitation of their world.
If this were the Imperial Arms world, someone like Esdeath would've recognized gear's importance immediately.
To them,
equipment was the very embodiment of supernatural power.
"If possible, give Aokiji, Akainu, Kizaru, Smoker, and our Iron Fist Hero—each one a high-aptitude [Zombie Baby]. Any objections?"
Sengoku was well aware—
This wasn't the time to pinch pennies.
Every game update or system change was a race to keep up.
Fall behind, and you'd pay a steeper price to catch up later.
"Seconded."
"Agreed."
The high-ranking marines present—including recently allied Vice Admiral Jonathan—mostly approved.
Currently, the Marine Headquarters Alliance
had no stockpiled wealth from the World Government.
They relied entirely on the treasuries of the regional fortress commanders,
spread across all four seas like warlords—now absorbed into the Alliance.
Sengoku no longer ruled unilaterally—
he had to consider their votes.
"The Marines' mid-tier power is the strongest among all factions in the Reincarnation Game.
What we lack is top-tier strength."
Jonathan, a shrewd strategist who had greatly aided their rapid growth post-separation from the World Government, offered this:
"Don't just give pets to the five admirals—
cover their hatching and growth costs with Alliance funds."
"But make them sign contracts.
If they betray the Marines or lose combat effectiveness, their pets are reclaimed and reassigned."
In other words—
these five pets were on loan.
The admirals had usage rights, not ownership.
This way,
the Alliance could invest fully in their development and get quick returns in battle.
Sengoku had no objections.
He glanced at Akainu and the others—none opposed.
"Very well. Approved. Let's move on to the Game Village topic—"
"Hold on, Sengoku. Don't oversimplify this!"
Tsuru cut him off.
As Intelligence Head, she had studied the pet system thoroughly.
"High-aptitude pets can't be bought directly."
"Combine 200 pet fragments to get an egg—then hatch it to see the [Zombie Baby]'s quality."
"From F-rank all the way to SSR—
the better the quality, the higher the aptitude."
"Everything is completely random."
"And even if you get a high-quality Zombie Baby,
you still need tons of reward points to raise it to [Mature Stage] before its attributes emerge."
"Also random."
Tsuru stopped there.
From Sengoku and Jonathan's expressions, she knew they understood.
Sengoku's face darkened.
"So... to get a high-quality, stat-matching Zombie Baby,
we need to hatch dozens of eggs?"
"Dozens?"
Jonathan gave a bitter laugh.
With his sharp mind, he quickly estimated:
dozens of eggs? That's just the appetizer.
Each egg costs 500,000 reward points.
Trying to hatch a high-tier pet from fragments?
Even if they sold the entire Marine Alliance, it wouldn't be enough.
They had been naive—
like players new to gacha games, unaware of the real cost of a high-end pet.
In truth,
a single SSR pet might take hundreds or thousands of eggs.
And Fang Yi was being kind.
He only introduced two random traits: quality and attribute.
If this were some predatory gacha game, he'd have added personality, talent, specialty…
a dozen variables.
Players would literally sell their houses for a chance.
Fang Yi understood balance.
You couldn't overdo it.
Harvesting too hard would kill the crop.
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