Ch.136The Great Purge (2)

# Chapter 136: The Great Purge (2)

Perhaps it was because my sword dance was so magnificent.

“Th-that madman took out our limbs!”

“He’s turned us into amputees.”

The Zeltech and the Papal States, who had been bristling with thorns in fear, finally dropped their defensive postures and hurriedly began to respond to us.

“What are those guys trying to do now?”

They were merely our limbs.

Well, except for the fact that we had already blown off the heads of those who would have acted as their action units long ago.

Of course, their actions weren’t particularly slow by “this world’s” standards.

No, they were actually moving much faster than during the “game.”

‘In the game, maybe because of the sheer size of nations, even small tasks would take months to complete.’

Besides that, perhaps because the overall scale of nations and everything based on them was so large.

The actions of each institution in this world seemed somewhat sluggish compared to reality.

‘But damn, corruption and other bad things get processed in a day, what a shitty game.’

As I was lost in these idle thoughts, Riel, who was standing next to me, nudged my waist with her elbow and said:

“So what are you going to do now, Minister?”

And the moment Riel spoke those words.

A new event message appeared before my eyes.

-Ding!♪

[Time Pause]

[Event: Desperate Struggle for Survival]

[By stopping the threat much faster than the game system anticipated, you have caused Zeltech Capital and the Papal States to lose their fighting power against you.]

[However, while the Papal States may be one thing, Zeltech Capital had prepared a secret weapon for such a situation.]

[They spent a fortune to purchase a mercenary fleet led by an admiral who was formerly part of a Warlord’s Keshik Fleet for their protection.]

[Although at this point, it could be considered a kind of “junk fleet” mostly composed of outdated ships…]

[Even so, a “fleet” is a force that cannot be ignored.]

[To counter this, you will need to find a new approach.]

[Option 1: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Random event activation, linked event progression)]

[Option 2: Have a conversation with that ‘fleet’ (Random event activation, linked event progression)]

Along with that familiar notification sound I hadn’t heard in a very long time.

An event choice containing that damned “random” event.

‘Seriously, if both choices lead to random events, what am I supposed to do?’

Moreover, the options seemed a bit strange.

‘Option 1 seems to be suggesting that I should mobilize a fleet, just like Zeltech’s countermeasure…’

I wondered if I even needed to mobilize a fleet in the first place.

No matter how skilled the admiral from the Keshik might be with his mercenary fleet.

I could instantly crush a single fleet just by deploying Levia’s dreadnought currently floating in Ka’zan’s orbit.

And if needed, I could also mobilize Ash, so that would be that.

At first glance, this seemed like a rather meaningless event.

But the fact that the event message was displayed like this meant it was important in its own way.

‘Could it be a case where even two or three powerful ships like Levia or Ash couldn’t handle it?’

If that were the case, it would certainly be annoying to deal with using my current forces.

So having such options made perfect sense.

Therefore, since I had the time pause activated, after a long internal debate:

‘…Well, let’s try talking to them first.’

[Option 2: Have a conversation with that ‘fleet’ (Random event activation, linked event progression)]<Selected

[Time Pause Released]

I chose option 2 and prepared as much as possible to deal with the coming situation.

And not long after, we managed to drive away the mercenary fleet that could be called Zeltech’s secret weapon…

-“We’ll settle this next time!!”

“Heh.”

…after inflicting considerable damage.

——————————–

…or at least that would be nice, but the truth was a little different.

About one day before the fleet battle.

-“I didn’t expect to see you here, Minister.”

“So you were Zeltech’s secret weapon.”

During the past Warlord Crisis.

After being captured by the Southern Alliance forces and taken as a prisoner to the Holy Sebelli Empire.

Due to the urgent war situation, they couldn’t put him to use and the war ended while they were dithering.

After that, he completely adapted to civilian life, running a mercenary business, becoming a PMC CEO, and even publishing his own book.

Seeing that this admiral was Zeltech’s last resort made me feel quite ambivalent.

Nevertheless, as the option suggested, I maintained a cordial atmosphere with the admiral.

“I heard you’ve been doing well lately. Well enough to maintain a small fleet, it seems?”

-“Yes, when the chaos in the east calmed down a bit, I was quite worried about the future…”

“Hmm?”

-“Thanks to those nano-machines or whatever, I’ve been getting a lot of work from Rixie lately.”

Hearing that business was booming, I nodded lightly and continued the conversation.

“So you’re planning to attack us this time?”

-“No matter how important trust is in our mercenary business, it’s not more important than our lives.”

Hearing those words, I found myself nodding involuntarily.

-“So I was wondering… would you be interested in negotiating with me, Minister?”

“Negotiation, huh.”

And the admiral’s next words perfectly appealed to my shady preferences.

“Alright, I’ll hear you out first.”

-“It’s nothing special. How about this scenario: The fleet under my command tried to break through the encirclement of your ‘grand fleet’ to maintain trust with our client but failed… resulting in the loss of some ships before retreating?”

“…Hmm.”

Seeing him improvise a story on the spot, I could tell the admiral really didn’t want to fight.

It was an interesting proposal, but I wondered if it was really acceptable.

However, the admiral on the other side of the communication screen dismissed my concerns with a gesture:

-“Other mercenary fleets do this sort of thing all the time. In fact, others don’t hesitate to do even worse than what I’m proposing.”

“Worse…?”

-“Yes, we at least destroy some ships, but others don’t even go to the operation area and just forge communication records.”

“Oh.”

-“So if people get the impression that we fearlessly charged at the grand fleet commanded by you personally, out of loyalty to our client…”

“And then?”

-“It gives us priority when securing new contracts later, which helps our business in the future.”

He added that he needed to dispose of some old ships anyway and had no proper place to do so, suggesting they could be used for target practice.

I nodded and decided to agree with the admiral’s proposal.

————————————-

As a result, while the mercenary fleet lost several cruisers and destroyers.

All crew members had evacuated beforehand, and only outdated ships stripped of weapons and ammunition were destroyed.

In return, they received two of our latest destroyers… but we agreed to keep that a secret.

And when the Zeltech Corporate Alliance learned that their secret weapon had met a miserable end…

“Can we stop fighting now…? If necessary, we’ll support you from behind with our capital.”

They conveyed their intention to surrender to us, but.

“What do you want to do, Minister?”

“Just taking money from those bastards would harm the Empire.”

“Then…”

Since they created damned egalitarian and capitalist factions that shook the Empire’s system just by existing.

Whether for gameplay or realism, I couldn’t let them live…

“Kill them all. Let the refugees be reborn as Sebelli Imperial citizens in the embrace of the Empire.”

I killed the representatives of the corporate alliance that tried to overthrow the Empire’s system.

Especially those who dared to suggest a constitutional monarchy to the Emperor…

“W-wait! Minister Arto! Let’s calm down and talk first…!”

“Shut up, traitor.”

-Bang!

I deliberately put a new hole in their heads, dealing with them one by one decisively.

In addition, I confiscated all of Zeltech Corporate Alliance’s capital within the Empire that had been used to attempt to overthrow the imperial system.

After thoroughly destroying their influence:

[Imperial Faction Status]

[System Update: 1 day ago]

[Imperialist Faction: 25%]

[Class-based Faction: 45%]

[Militarist Faction: 30%]

[Theocratic Faction: 50%]

[Other Miscellaneous Factions: 35%]

[Personnel in each faction may overlap, and individuals participating in multiple factions are counted as members of each faction.]

‘Yes, this is it.’

I finally breathed a sigh of relief that the Empire’s name wouldn’t become something like the Holy Sebelli Corporate Republic.

And with the stabilization of the system secured, I realized there was only one thing left for me to deal with.

‘Pope Irion.’