Ch.219″Minor issues are usually errors.”

The long, drawn-out first battle ended with our acceptance of the enemy’s surrender.

And as soon as we accepted their surrender, all user fleets and superhumans, including myself, were transported to an unknown space. Then, a battle results screen appeared before my eyes, showing just how fierce our battle had been…

—————————————-

<‘Ancient Empire Capital’ Battle Results!>

<Team A Victory due to Team B’s surrender!>

<Total Forces on Both Sides>

<*Format: Team A vs Team B>

˪<Player’s Team: A>

<Battleships: 13 vs 15>

<Aircraft Carriers (including light carriers): 16 vs 11>

<Battle Cruisers: 13 vs 22>

<Cruisers (no distinction between medium-light): 530 vs 570>

<Destroyers: 854 vs 781>

<Other Small Vessels: 1,342 vs 995>

<Battle Results>

<Remaining Ship Numbers>

<Battleships: 10 vs 7> (Losses: Team A 3 ships, Team B 8 ships)

<Aircraft Carriers: 16 vs 8> (Losses: Team A 0 ships, Team B 3 ships)

<Battle Cruisers: 8 vs 14> (Losses: Team A 5 ships, Team B 8 ships)

<Cruisers: 319 vs 320> (Losses: Team A 211 ships, Team B 350 ships)

<Destroyers: 451 vs 486> (Losses: Team A 404 ships, Team B 295 ships)

<Other Small Vessels: 873 vs 888> (Losses: Team A 469 ships, Team B 107 ships)

<Total Ship Losses by Side>

<Team A: 1,085 ships>

<Team B: 771 ships>

<Ship Loss Points by Side>

<Team A: 3,867 points>

<Team B: 4,810.5 points>

<Player’s Ship Losses>

<1 Medium Cruiser, 1 Light Cruiser, 3 Destroyers, 1 Patrol Ship>

—————————————-

‘Holy moly, holy moly’

Faced with this shockingly high damage report, I couldn’t help but feel confused.

Of course, looking at just the numbers, one might think we lost since our side had over 300 more ship losses than theirs…

But as you can see from the types of ships lost and the “points” for ship losses, we literally traded flesh to grind their bones.

Small vessels, what, destroyers? Escort ships?

Sacrificing dozens of those was far more beneficial than letting the enemy’s battleships and battle cruisers survive.

‘Sweet.’

And if there was one more fortunate thing about this…

“Ah, Commander?”

“What.”

“All the people who were deployed in that battle have returned.”

“…How?”

“I’m not sure either, but they said everything around them suddenly sparkled and then they found themselves back here.”

Our superhumans and ships that had charged into the enemy fleet and were fighting had all automatically returned without my knowledge.

It was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t even say goodbye to those who had been my teammates.

But at least I avoided being separated from my precious superhumans, so I thought it was a good outcome overall.

And within just a few minutes, I was also able to learn what this mysterious pitch-black space was for.

—————————————-

<When combat ends, the victorious Commander’s fleet will be moved to a separate subspace for repairs and rest.>

<The maximum time allowed for fleet repairs, replenishment of troops and weapons, and other rest is 12 hours.>

<It is possible to participate in combat before this time expires, but not after. Commanders, please keep this in mind.>

<Time Remaining: 11 hours 45 minutes 17 seconds>

—————————————-

“Hmm.”

“So this dark space is for refreshing after battle?”

“That’s right.”

Thanks to this, I could also get a sense of exactly how this event would unfold.

“From the looks of it, this event seems to give us just a short reorganization time after battle before throwing us right back into combat.”

“That seems to be the case, but fortunately our fleet took relatively little damage.”

Nodding at Jessica’s words, I watched the welding lights of automatic repair robots flickering throughout the hull of the Hresvelgr I was on.

Ships scattered here and there were either busy with self-repairs.

Or in the case of ships in worse condition, one of the seven resource mining/repair ships we brought was attached to them, diligently carrying out repairs. I was quite satisfied with what I saw.

But my happiness was short-lived.

While watching strategic missiles being loaded into Hresvelgr’s large and beautiful launch tubes, a thought suddenly crossed my mind…

‘Wait, didn’t they say fleet reinforcements aren’t allowed in this event?’

As soon as that thought occurred to me, I asked Jessica again about our fleet’s ship losses.

“Our fleet’s losses? Let me see… 1 medium cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 1 patrol ship.”

“So 6 ships.”

“Why do you ask, Commander?”

“We came in with 65 ships initially, and we’ve already lost 10%.”

Regardless of point-based losses, in terms of total number ratio, 10%—or more precisely, 9.23…something percent—of losses occurred in just one battle.

And that’s just counting the completely destroyed ships.

“This is serious, Jessica.”

“What do you mean?”

“This event isn’t simply about crushing the opponent to win.”

“…Then what?”

“It means we need to adopt a strategy of meticulously preserving our fleet while forcing the enemy fleet to mutually destroy with our allies.”

“…!!!”

At this point, I could also understand why one of those trolls moved as if they had an awakening at the end of the battle we just fought.

“That guy who caught the deserter and brought him back must have realized this from the beginning and deliberately did that.”

“Ah… but wouldn’t that cause chaos in battle?”

“Chaos?”

“Didn’t you say friendly fire is possible? Then there might be people who start shooting at allies as soon as the battle begins.”

Jessica brought up what’s known as the “prisoner’s dilemma” and said:

“If you don’t attack your allies and fight hard against the enemy, you’ll lose your fleet and likely be powerless in the next round…”

“But?”

“On the other hand, if you attack your allies first to weaken them, then force mutual destruction with the enemy, only your fleet will safely advance to the next round.”

“Right, but if the enemy remains intact after doing that, things get seriously problematic.”

“You know about the prisoner’s dilemma too, Commander. In this situation, the opponent will also attack their own team.”

Because of this, I felt my head starting to ache severely after realizing the situation.

‘Ugh, my head…’

Just dealing with fleet battles was already pushing my brain to its limits, and now they’re throwing in political economics.

These wicked operators, stop putting such vicious information into my brain.

And apart from that, I couldn’t understand why they would allow “friendly fire” and drive the event into the worst possible scenario.

I mean, are they telling us to participate in the event or not?

It’s like they’re openly declaring, “We’re the ones who kidnapped hundreds of thousands of minds and shoved them into a game!”

As a result, regardless of the truth about the event that I just realized, I felt ridiculous that I now had to be wary of allies stabbing me in the back when participating in battle.

==========

But about 4 hours after that conversation…

—————————————-

<Emergency Notice>

<‘Ancient Empire Capital’ Error Handling>

<We have discovered an error where some Commanders’ fleets can attack allies without any consequences.>

<This issue has been fixed immediately, and from this moment forward, ‘attacking allies’ may result in penalties to event score calculations.>

—————————————-

It was absurd, but fortunately, after seeing the notice that “friendly fire” was due to the operators’ mistake.

I found myself nodding in agreement that it was indeed an unreasonable and unfair situation.