Ch.213A Brief Tale.

# Chapter 213: A Story for a While

This world, as always, was far too vast.

Any operation would take at least half a year.

While our purge unit and the Prosnack Marines were busy “stirring up trouble,”

And Ambassador Samiya, having become a sand madman, was enthusiastically advancing forward,

I was dedicating myself daily to handling various miscellaneous tasks, along with support agreements necessary for the reconstruction of the Kerzin Republic.

But as I immersed myself in handling all these tasks, I suddenly felt fatigue in both mind and body.

‘…Perhaps I should take a short break.’

Setting aside my work for a moment, I leaned back against my beloved sofa and began to recall a past event in my mind.

————————————–

It was about Riel being possessed by that bastard Former Emperor.

‘That damned guy said with his own mouth he wouldn’t cause the same incident again, but I’d be a fool to believe that.’

The problem was that we had no suitable method to resolve this issue immediately.

In this SF era, we couldn’t exactly hold a shamanistic ritual to prevent the Former Emperor’s ghost from possessing someone.

Moreover, Riel herself had no memory records of the time when she was possessed by the Former Emperor’s ghost, and beyond that:

“Huh? Minister, do you still believe the Former Emperor is alive?”

She’s not like that now, but she once spoke that way, which shows how bad it was.

Of course, the moment Riel reacted that way.

-“Now, look at the camera and state your name and age.”

“Kyaaaaaah…”

Because there was no pause function during my conversation with the Former Emperor, I was able to quickly convince her by showing her the CCTV footage from my office that only I could access.

‘And then for half a day, she made a huge fuss about leaving me and whatnot.’

But after Riel spent half a day whining in front of me and performing something akin to deep apology…

-Ding♬

[Pause]

With a cheerful notification sound, the world paused, and soon a new event message appeared before my eyes.

However, this event message was quite different from the usual format:

[system: error code 5555]

[System error confirmed, administrator intervention detected.]

[Excessive threat to player’s safety confirmed.]

[Unauthorized access, unauthorized access.]

[According to system code regulations, initiating blockage of all connection routes for unauthorized access]

‘What is this saying?’

From my computer-illiterate perspective, such excessive use of programming language was nothing short of severe linguistic violence.

Faced with incomprehensible information, I could only stare blankly.

Regardless of my reaction, the status window—if it could even be called an event message—continued to spew bizarre phrases.

But shortly after:

-Beep beep beep

[Complete blockage of unauthorized access targeting player confirmed]

[Event: There’s No Wiretap in My Ear!]

[Riel will no longer be possessed by that entity.]

[Reward: Absolutely none.]

‘…!!!’

Seeing such a prompt event message or reward appear, I immediately released the pause function and embraced the sobbing Riel, dancing with joy.

———————————-

‘That’s how it was back then.’

After finishing my reminiscence, I felt energy returning to my fatigued body.

‘Since then, I’ve developed a taste for teasing Riel, and it’s quite enjoyable.’

But I couldn’t remain lost in such trivial thoughts forever.

I was about to resume my paused work by picking up the terminal I had placed on the table.

But just as I lifted it…

“Minister, we’ve received new information from the recently rebuilt Prosnack intelligence network. Would you like to see it?”

“Hmm.”

As Riel came waving an office terminal, I nodded and accepted it.

And the moment I took the terminal and looked at the screen:

-Ding ding ding!

[Pause]

As usual, the whole world stopped.

And before my eyes, a new event message appeared:

[Event: Civil War Among Children]

[The behind-the-scenes power struggle within Prosnack has been triggered by your recent “troublemaking,” and is now proceeding amidst fiery support.]

[With numerous factions in disarray, what kind of outcome will this bring in the future?]

[Option 1: Intervening beforehand would be interfering in internal affairs… (Linked event proceeds)]

[Option 2: Let’s create and support a reasonably friendly faction. (Linked event proceeds)]

[Option 3: With Ambassador Samiya’s faction present, there shouldn’t be any problems. (Linked event proceeds)]

…

After quite a long time, it was a choice event with more than just two options.

‘Ooh.’

Despite my cooperative relationship with Ambassador Samiya, I spent a long time contemplating what benefits I might gain by making a selection.

But just as I was about to reach a decision:

‘Wait, why is the window scrolling down more?’

Noticing the unusual scroll bar, I scrolled up the status window.

And there was a brief message written there:

[Selection time exceeded, forced selection of Option 1]

[Event in progress]

Realizing this event had already passed long ago, I couldn’t help but feel utterly bewildered.

‘What the hell?’

In all my life, I had never encountered such an absurd situation.

I mean, I’m receiving this quest for the first time here, and it’s already showing a selection time exceeded?

It’s like ordering milk delivery in the morning and receiving spoiled milk past its expiration date on the first day.

If there was any consolation:

As soon as I saw that brief message, a new event message promptly appeared before my eyes.

[Event: Intensification of Civil War Among Children]

[The civil war in the Prosnack capital seemed to end with the remaining allied factions fleeing under the leadership of the Security Commander, the eldest son of the Supreme Commander, and the neutrality of the neutral faction.]

[The allied factions even faced a situation where half of their ground forces were annihilated or captured, unable to escape from the capital.]

[However, the Security Commander couldn’t pursue the allied factions prematurely and was left stomping his feet.]

[Similarly, the allied factions are trembling with anxiety due to the current situation and experiencing internal division of opinions.]

[How will their condition affect the future galactic political landscape?]

After the event message ended, I immediately released the pause and addressed Riel:

[Pause Released]

“Riel, have you already seen this too?”

“Yes, of course I’ve seen it all.”

“…Then do you have data on the scale of each faction?”

“That’s also included in the terminal.”

At Riel’s words, I began examining the terminal screen that had triggered the event message.

After browsing through several documents, I found the information I was looking for:

[Prosnack Civil War Force Comparison Table]

[Eldest Son Faction: Fleet 50%, Ground Forces 60%]

[Allied Remnants: Fleet 25%, Ground Forces 30%->15%]

[Neutral Fleet: Fleet 25%, Ground Forces 10%, but all “battleships” of the capital defense fleet belong to the neutral faction.]

“Hmm.”

Seeing that the event message was accurate, I began contemplating how to utilize this situation.

But since pondering alone would waste considerable time:

Before activating the pause function, I decided to gather additional opinions from Riel who was beside me.

“Riel, in your opinion, does this allied faction… have any value for us to exploit?”

“Well, from my perspective, they’re no different from nomads who were thoroughly beaten by Prosnack’s Security Commander and barely escaped with their fleet.”

With Riel’s scathing assessment, I nodded while organizing my thoughts.

‘I guess this is just an event about Prosnack losing fleet strength. Maybe it’s a kind of balance patch since they’re so powerful.’

But the moment I had this thought:

-Ding!

[Pause]

[Event: The Enemy of My Enemy is My Ally]

[The escape route of the allied faction coincides with the advance route of the coup… revolutionary army led by Ambassador Samiya.]

[It seems inevitable that they will collide with each other at this rate.]

[However, if handled well, perhaps the allied faction’s fleet could be naturally absorbed, providing crucial assistance to Ambassador Samiya’s coup.]

[Option 1: That’s an excellent idea, let’s absorb them. (Linked event proceeds, random event occurs)]

[Option 2: They’re useless losers, eliminate them as they’re only a hindrance. (Linked event proceeds, random event occurs)]

Seeing the appearance of such a promising event, I decided to quietly revise my assessment of the allied faction in my mind.