Ch.154Return to Daily Life(?) (1)

For about a week after that, the state of my fleet-base in the situation I experienced was…

To put it bluntly… to uninformed newbies approaching, it apparently looked like quite a tasty prey.

Of course, to be honest, since it was positioned outside the base, the number of ships visible in the external docking facilities when approaching was only a few dozen.

And most of those were either “common grade” or purchased from the “Favor Exchange” shop.

Yet the resource zone was unnecessarily abundant, and I was even a ranker?

From the perspective of clueless newbies or the peculiar types who rarely or “never” engage in community activities… wouldn’t I be treated like a literal walking treasure goblin?

And such individuals, with high probability, using a single cruiser as their flagship—which now any user in the top 40% would possess—

Would invade my territory with a dignified attitude, but…

What awaited them was at least 5 hired mercenary fleets, along with…

The newly constructed Cruiser No.1 and the Kraken showing its full glory as an anti-carrier, having achieved sweet leveling through continuous battles.

Although initially, it showed weakness when it charged in at level 1 and lost half its carrier-based aircraft to a mere pirate group…

Through steady leveling and growth, our Kraken, which reached level 30 three days ago…

“Hahahahaha look at the trash human!”

“Wow.”

To newbies who charged in relying solely on a cruiser, it would teleport and suddenly appear above their heads with thousands of bio-bombers.

Like Goliath from Starcraft, it would turn beautiful large cruisers into cute bisected sausages.

It was showing all kinds of remarkable achievements, redeeming itself from its early humiliation.

Moreover, with the Kraken taking such an approach from a distance with its “cruiser crusher” stance, essentially handling all the damage dealing alone…

At this point, it was perfectly embodying the “awesome premium assault carrier” image I had envisioned.

No joke, it was literally showing “this is what a large hexagon looks like!!!” with its entire body, making newbies and those who don’t engage with the community feel like they’d hit a wall of lamentation.

Of course, despite this, some users were skilled even if they didn’t participate in community discussions.

They would send 2-3 scout ships for initial reconnaissance, and upon realizing there was actually a carrier here…

They would switch their fleet to an anti-air formation and position anti-air destroyers with high in-game anti-air defense stats on the outside to thoroughly prepare for carrier-based aircraft attacks.

They showed truly excellent countermeasures.

But such formations were only optimized for defending against carrier-based aircraft attacks…

“Let’s go in~”

“No way.”

When the Kraken used bio-missiles with eyes and bio-plasma instead of carrier-based aircraft…

And simultaneously, because the Kraken was doing too good a job, someone got frustrated that their leveling work was becoming insufficient…

Unlike our small, cute, and precious Kraken, when the coordinated bombardment from Cruiser No.1 and other cruisers including the Overseer—which could properly receive command buffs from Berial and others—took place…

Before long, they would realize they were screwed no matter what they chose and would request surrender.

And if they somehow endured both the carrier-based aircraft assault and the barrage from my large ships, stubbornly approaching?

-“Hah! Time for plunder!”

-“The employer has permitted it! Kill them all!”

-“Uwaaaaah!”

By utilizing the absence of point restrictions, I would deploy 10 pirate-mercenary groups hired in advance.

Implementing perfect space defense by deploying a massive fleet impossible for a single user to field at this point…

…That was essentially my daily routine for the past week.

However, in that process, resource fleets often had to run due to combat, and…

“Jessica, it seems like our resource supply rate has been lagging recently.”

“The base and nearby forced labor camp resource supply is fine, but some resources that should be transported from nearby resource zones were plundered by the Commander’s fleet during the last invasion.”

“Hmm.”

Due to the inevitable plundering that occurs during battles, the resource supply rate had dropped sharply…

“So how many resources do we have left now?”

“After you pressed for the construction of the <Graviton Detection Radar> for early warning a few days ago, we have about 90,000 minerals and 8,400 rare resources?”

“Hmm.”

“And considering today’s opponent brought 5 anti-air cruisers, causing the Kraken’s carrier-based aircraft to be shredded in the thousands for the first time in a while…”

“Sssssip.”

“…You should expect an additional 15,000 minerals to be spent.”

Seeing the supply rate versus consumption rate graph forming an X-intersection, I felt my heart aching.

But unlike before, my mental state wasn’t completely shattered, because…

After all that resource grinding and perseverance…

Now, a week after the beginning…

For the first time in a long while, instead of a command center filled with warning sounds from early morning…

I could leisurely browse reports while sipping coffee made by our Black Rabbit Jessica.

‘Yes, occasionally having peaceful days like this is necessary too.’

With that thought, after Jessica’s report ended…

As usual, I checked the daily quest completion messages from our superhumans and fleet, collected the rewards in one go…

And to maintain this peace, I decided not to enter the gallery today and enjoy some quiet time.

==========

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Inside the gallery that Icarus wasn’t looking at, posts criticizing him from newbies who had been utterly destroyed were continuing…

—————————————-

Title: WTF How is there already a carrier

Author: SeaweedStemTasty

Content: [Image showing the Kraken-class as a distant dot, with thousands of carrier-based aircraft attacking a cruiser bridge perspective]

I saw that 3rd-ranked guy had a pathetically weak fleet so I charged in thinking “hah, easy” but

Suddenly carrier-based aircraft appeared through teleports and dive-bombed my fleet with bombs, missiles, and torpedoes, completely destroying it

I had 5 anti-air cruisers, but they appeared right above us through teleport so we couldn’t respond

Plus, they must have gained so much experience, unlike other users, their aircraft had amazing evasion rates and didn’t get hit

But somehow I endured and pushed forward, then a huge monster and cruiser started firing beam cannons, raping my fleet

Seeing that, I thought “ah, this bastard is focusing on large ships”

So I tried to get close while avoiding those and the aircraft attacks

Then suddenly dozens of mercenary groups popped out and devoured my fleet

Comments

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Wait, are rankers just fodder now? lol]

-[That carrier sounds tempting]

-[Dozens of mercenary groups is impossible]

-˪[It’s possible you idiot]

-˪[Y u tok lyk dis?]

-[??? A giant monster using carrier aircraft and firing cannons?]

-[Wait, this guy might not be easy to deal with]

—————————————-

—————————————-

Title: Why the f*** are carrier aircraft so strong

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a cruiser being bisected and sinking from fly-like carrier aircraft]

What the f***! My cruiser!!!!!!

You! Bastard!!!!!!

Comments

-[lololol]

-[Haha, look! The human is trash!!]

-[This guy is filming Starcraft by himself]

-[Did you try shouting “Baruuk” toward the base?]

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[lolol]

—————————————-

—————————————-

Title: Guys aircraft suddenly appear above fleet is this a bug?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [GIF of aircraft flickering as they teleport right above a fleet]

How do aircraft suddenly appear like that?

Is it a bug? A hack?

Is the ranker using hacks? How do I report to admins?

Comments

-[Waaah…]

-[Why do kids always call everything they don’t understand a bug or hack?]

-˪[Then if it’s not a bug what is it?](Author)

-[Damn use some spaces]

-[Wait, I’m already writing an analysis post about that guy and other former rankers’ situations]

—————————————-

It was a natural progression that some high-level players, unable to bear the whining posts from newbies, would end up posting fleet analysis articles about Icarus and several other users.