Ch.180″We are neutral.”

Meanwhile, as I was browsing the gallery, I noticed something interesting apart from the current trending topics.

The clan that had fought against me was experiencing a major drop in trust with the Pirate Alliance, making it difficult for them to hire mercenaries.

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Title: Update on the clan that lost 5 vs 1.txt

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Message about the clan’s situation]

Their trust with the Pirate Alliance got completely trashed. Not just the clan, but all users affiliated with them will have to pay through the nose when hiring mercenaries until they restore their trust rating.

Comments:

-[Why did their trust with the Pirate Alliance drop?]

-˪[From what I gathered, it seems the 3rd-ranked sent the Pirate Empress and her fleet as support in the recent battle between the Pirate Alliance and the Earth Federation]

-˪[Oh, the one where Loki and Humanity showed up?]

-˪[So the Alliance tanked Unity Clan’s trust rating because they backstabbed Icarus who had helped them]

-˪[Oh, I didn’t know that](Author)

-[Hmm interesting;]

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Just as I expected, their reputation was in tatters. I nodded with satisfaction, but Jessica, who was looking at the gallery posts with me, tilted her head in confusion.

“Hmm? Commander, something seems strange here.”

“What is it?”

“We have none other than the Monster Princess at this base, so why isn’t our trust with the monster faction affected?”

“With the monsters?”

“Yes, we even fought against Oxianor and mobilized monster forces.”

“…That’s an interesting question, but the answer is quite obvious.”

My nonchalant response seemed to confuse Jessica even more. She looked at me with so many question marks practically floating above her head.

I shifted my gaze from the gallery to Jessica and decided to explain the situation.

“Oxianor made a contract to help if our ‘base’ was invaded, so that’s processed by the system… but our Princess Luca isn’t like that.”

“Huh?”

“How should I explain this? It’s going to get quite complicated.”

As I tried to explain, I realized it would be difficult to do so quickly and simply. After organizing my thoughts, I began again.

“As you know, each faction basically maintains a neutral stance regarding conflicts between commanders.”

“Uh… even if the base where they’re stationed gets attacked?”

“The base gets attacked, not them personally, right?”

“Oh.”

I pulled up an image of our base, which was still under repair from the heavy bombardment of the defense facilities.

Then I showed her the monster’s “neural network” which didn’t have a single trace of damage.

“It’s only natural that they wouldn’t care if the commander of their base gets attacked, as long as they themselves aren’t harmed.”

“Oh…”

“Of course, if we were dealing with someone like Humanity who’s obsessed with Earth supremacy, things might be different…”

“Might be different?”

“Even then, unless Princess Luca, who’s safely inside her nest rather than being used as regular monsters given to users like Oxianor, suffers direct damage…”

“…”

“They wouldn’t trash their trust rating like our angry Marian did.”

Despite my explanation, Jessica still seemed unconvinced.

“But what if your affiliation suddenly changes, Commander? Wouldn’t that cause problems like the secret alliance between the monster faction and the Pirate Alliance being canceled?”

“Well… I can see why you’d worry about that.”

“Right?!”

“But that won’t happen.”

“Huh?”

Rather than explaining this myself, I decided to show her a wiki article I found.

—————————————-

Title: Factions are basically neutral in personal fights between commanders.txt

Author: Wiki Historian mk-4

Content: [Faction map image]

Basically, NPCs/factions maintain neutrality regarding conflicts between commanders.

Why? Because even if a commander gets defeated and their base gets occupied, why should they care if they’re not affected?

It’s not like the victor can forcibly change the defeated commander’s faction affiliation anyway.

Even users don’t try to drag factions into what are essentially fights between regular users rather than faction wars.

So naturally, while a siege battle is happening at a base, the ‘envoys’ residing at that base just watch while munching on popcorn.

Of course, separate from this, faction detachments can be provided at the base commander’s request,

but those are ‘forces’ that users are systemically entitled to use, so they’re exceptions.

And seriously, who would mess with a faction just to take down one commander?

Harass an envoy? Do you want to get beaten up by an enraged faction fleet? That’s what would happen.

From the factions’ perspective, fights between users are too small-scale to care about.

Don’t forget that the Space Elves, who have the smallest number of ships among all factions, still have millions of vessels in total.

Comments:

-[So they don’t get involved in petty fights?]

-˪[Yep](Author)

-[I just saw that some clan had their faction trust rating tanked recently, why did that happen?]

-˪[The invaded user had sent support to a faction that was under attack, so naturally the faction got pissed when another user attacked that supporter](Author)

-˪[I see]

—————————————-

“Ohhh… there are always complicated backstories involved.”

“Indeed.”

Unlike what the wiki article and other users’ analyses suggested, it wasn’t because we sent “support forces” that caused the anger.

It was Marian’s fury after I got ganged up on by other users… but whatever.

And this situation wasn’t limited to just the Unity or whatever clan that invaded me…

—————————————-

Title: WTF why is my trust with the Space Elves suddenly tanking?

Author: Kantappiaaaat

Content: [Image showing “Your trust has decreased, loser~”]

What the hell is going on?

My trust is suddenly tanking just because I fought a nearby user?

I worked my ass off doing quests to build it up, damn it!

Comments:

-[Another central zone invader caught red-handed]

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[WTF users fighting each other never used to matter, why now?]

-˪[If you beat up someone who sent forces to help a faction, within that faction’s territory, what do you expect?LOLOL]

—————————————-

—————————————-

Title: Why is Earth Federation trust suddenly dropping?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Message showing Earth Federation trust decrease]

I haven’t done anything, why is this happening?

Comments:

-[Did nothing (yeah right)]

-[LOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Invasion force busted LOL]

—————————————-

—————————————-

Title: Why users posting trust drop proof are REAL idiots.txt

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Collection of cropped trust drop proof screenshots.jpg]

It seems users from surrounding areas flocked to the central zone, whether by coincidence or not.

With thousands of users involved, these idiots don’t understand why their trust ratings are dropping.

Why would they drop?

These users sent parts of their fleets as expeditionary forces to support their faction or other factions,

and then someone backstabbed them – what faction would look kindly on that?LOLOL

Comments:

-[What dumb bastards LOLOL]

-[If they were smart enough to think about that, they wouldn’t have invaded users who sent expeditionary forces in the first place]

-˪[Agreed]

—————————————-

Surprisingly, quite a few users were self-destructing through their proof posts.

As a result, the story about the invaders getting hit with a trust bomb from the “pirates” was quickly buried in the gallery.