I Became a Commander in a Crappy SF Game.

Ch.222″The battle continues, on and on and on.” (3)

by fnovelpia

Fortunately, before my barrage of hooks could continue, the two users brought their fleets right up to me and opened communications.

“Commander, we’re receiving incoming communications.”

“For us?”

“Yes, from two fleets simultaneously… Should I connect both of them right away?”

“Hmm… Alright, connect them.”

“Yes, sir.”

With both of them calling at the same time, I wondered why they were using ship-to-ship communications instead of the chat window.

Nevertheless, it was only proper to accept incoming communications, so I nodded to Jessica to connect them.

As soon as I accepted the connection, two communication screens popped up on Hresvelgr’s bridge channel.

-“Ah, can you hear me? I’m quite indebted to you from before.”

“…Huh?”

Just like in the chat window, a male commander with horns on his head was acting like he knew me as soon as the communication connected.

-“Um, excuse me, you are Icarus, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

And for some reason, a female commander with silver-white hair was blushing while looking at me, going “hoeeee”…

No, she was the rank 4 user I’d seen just once before.

At the same time, she was Arcadia, the leader of “Justice,” one of the top three largest clans in terms of current size.

This was enough to make me, who knew nothing, feel quite perplexed.

=========

But that confusion didn’t last long.

Seeing my obvious bewilderment, the two commanders who had called quickly introduced themselves.

-“Pardon my late introduction. I’m ‘König,’ and I was assigned to the same team as you during the first battle.”

“Huh? Even if we were on the same team, which…”

-“You know, the one who caught a troll in reverse…”

The moment I heard those words, the image of the ‘political officer’ from the first battle flashed in my mind.

-“Ah, that commissar! That was you?”

“Hahaha, well, thanks to you, I received fewer insults from other users, so that was fortunate, wasn’t it?”

He had seemed rather absurd from my impression, but meeting him directly, he appeared quite polite.

Given that it’s technically a game, these days users often speak informally to your face or swear at you, so his level of courtesy was already more than satisfactory.

Moreover, although I didn’t know at the time, I later heard that while this gentleman was waiting in the rear, supposedly repairing battleships…

He had actually ambushed an enemy carrier task force that was trying to flank us, preventing us from being backstabbed.

I found myself feeling quite friendly toward the user who identified himself as König.

But unlike König, with whom I had formed at least a small connection…

Arcadia, looking at me from the other screen… no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t understand what kind of connection we might have had.

It was completely incomprehensible to me.

‘I mean, since I possessed this body, most of my so-called connections with other users haven’t exactly been positive, have they?’

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt this way; Jessica beside me seemed to feel the same.

Making sure she couldn’t be heard by those on the communication screens, Jessica carefully leaned toward me and whispered:

“Commander, do you perhaps have a secret lover?”

“…”

I needed to correct my thinking.

It wasn’t that there was no connection; she seemed to be mistaking me for having a hidden connection(?).

Of course, since there was no way that could be true, I immediately gestured that it couldn’t be so.

Then I decided to first exchange greetings with Arcadia.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I didn’t expect to be teamed up with the 3rd and 4th ranked players here.”

-“Yes… I was quite surprised too.”

And honestly, regardless of how awkward it felt, having two top 10 rankers on our team was truly a good thing.

So I decided to chat with them briefly while also checking the status of their fleets.

==========

And a little while later.

After chatting about this and that, and incidentally assessing the situation of their fleets…

I discovered that both Arcadia and König had managed to keep quite a number of their ships intact.

Of course, the main reason for this was that their play styles were completely different from mine…

“Wow, how did you manage to keep so many alive?”

-“Nothing special. I just took charge of flanking and rear operations, or beat up the idiots who tried to desert to save themselves… Sometimes I’m unlucky and the game ends without even encountering the enemy.”

“Oh.”

As König himself admitted, while “luck” had been on his side…

Basically, since he tended to choose flanking maneuvers rather than head-on confrontations, unless he was facing enemies who were also flanking…

There could be cases where he might go through an entire game without properly encountering the enemy.

Of course, that didn’t mean he could completely avoid encounters…

“Commander.”

“What is it, Jessica?”

“I’ve compared this commander’s fleet data, and his fleet has shrunk quite a bit since we first saw him.”

Despite his cheerful demeanor without showing any particular concern…

—————————————-

<König Fleet Analysis>

<Battleships: 2>

<Battlecruisers: 1>

<Destroyers: 12>

—————————————-

‘Hmm.’

In the data screen that Jessica had discreetly displayed, I could see that König’s fleet had significantly decreased in size since I first saw it.

‘He must have lost at least one battlecruiser, and more than half of his cruisers and below.’

Of course, pointing that out directly would be impolite, so I nodded at her words.

Similarly, without showing any particular reaction, I was able to conclude my pleasant conversation with König.

-“Well then, I’ll be going now~ Hope to see you again in the next round.”

“Ah, yes.”

And after saying goodbye to König, I now looked at the fleet data of Arcadia, the 4th ranked player…

—————————————-

<Battlecruisers: 3>

<Destroyers: 20>

—————————————-

‘…Hmm.’

Although I wasn’t sure what fleet Arcadia had initially brought…

She only had three battlecruisers as ships that could be considered “large vessels.”

Of course, looking closer, one of those battlecruisers was, befitting a top ranker, an SSS-class high-mobility, high-speed battlecruiser.

And while the other two were also respectable upper S-class vessels that were nearly SS-class…

The rest were mostly small ships like light cruisers and below.

Or she had “aviation cruisers,” which were cruisers that had been heavily modified to function like light carriers, with all defensive armaments except for CIWS-like anti-air systems completely stripped away in favor of aircraft hangars.

Seeing Arcadia’s miserable(?) fleet condition, Jessica and I naturally found ourselves wearing sympathetic expressions.

But Arcadia herself seemed puzzled by my expression.

-“Hmm? Is there a problem?”

“Ah, no… um… you must have had a hard time.”

-“Oh, you mean my fleet?”

At my comment about her having had a tough time, Arcadia seemed to finally realize we were referring to her fleet’s “damage situation.”

But that didn’t last long.

-“There’s no need to worry too much. I only brought three battlecruisers as large ships from the beginning this time.”

“…Huh?”

-“Since other users bring all the large ships anyway, I figured I just needed to focus on mobility and supporting firepower.”

With those words and a confident smile on her face…

I realized that while Arcadia’s fleet had been cut down, unlike König, she had come with a “mobile force” style specialized in evasion and flanking maneuvers.

0 Comments