Ch.226″The more skilled one is, the more they adhere to the basics.”

As Marian had said, the two of them were much more willing to listen to me than I expected.

However, while I might understand Arcadia following orders, having Betelgeuse comply so readily was quite strange to me.

As the battle began, I decided to casually discuss this matter with Jessica.

Of course, Jessica didn’t know everything either, so she only showed a troubled expression at my question.

“Commander, I don’t know everything.”

“You can do it, if it’s you…!”

“???”

However, I soon realized why Betelgeuse was so willing to listen to me.

That moment came when…

-“What’s that, Icarus? That fleet.”

“…A lot has happened.”

-“How pathetic♡ Unworthy of your rank♡”

“Hmm, no, but how did you maintain that fleet anyway?”

-“I’m not telling you. Why would I tell you that?”

“…Hmm.”

I tried to subtly extract her secret method of fleet preservation.

But perhaps due to her personality, Betelgeuse suddenly turned serious mid-conversation and refused.

-“Pfuhuhut, to think a supposed 3rd-ranked player can’t even manage their fleet properly and only has 6 ships left, tsk tsk.”

“Ugh.”

And then she continued to taunt me like this.

Well, I wanted nothing more than to deliver a righteous flick to that mocking head of hers.

-“Picking fights like that is why you have no friends.”

-“What?”

-“Oh excuse me, Icarus? Let’s ignore that pathetic pink-haired girl and get back to our work.”

-“If you’re going to say that, you’re also…”

“Aaaaargh.”

If I were to let those two argue freely in the ‘team-wide chat’…

—————————————-

-[Enemy spotted at 3 o’clock]

-[3 o’clock from your position or from the main force?]

-[Obviously from my position, duh]

-[You’re literally on the opposite side from us, wtf]

-[Oh shit, they’re using battleships for reconnaissance!]

-<Blanca’s Havoc-class destroyer has been sunk by Auria’s standard battleship.>

-[Looks like they don’t have small ships for scouting, they’re just pushing battleships and cruisers into the asteroid field]

-[Damn, this would be perfect for torpedo spam with escort ships]

-[Dodge!!! Main guns!!! Get to the corner!!!!]

-<Starlight’s Chatter-class light cruiser has been sunk by Lanchart’s Overseer-class medium cruiser.>

-[Maybe you should have dodged before chatting?]

-[I was about to say that~]

—————————————-

“…”

If those two were to fight like that among our teammates who were already busy fighting on their own, it would be extremely disruptive.

So, whether I liked it or not, I had to relay both their opinions to the chat, suddenly finding myself promoted to team leader.

I was starting to think this might lead to stress-induced hair loss.

But that suffering was short-lived.

-“Oppa, I wanted to ask you something… Oh, were you in the middle of a conversation?”

-“Hick!”

The moment Marian appeared on the communication screen.

Gone was Betelgeuse’s previous smug expression, replaced by hiccupping and struggling to maintain her composure…

-“O-Of course I’ll tell you!”

“Huh?”

-“You were curious about how I preserved my fleet, right? I’ll tell you!”

For some reason, her face turned red as she blurted out words urgently, suddenly showing an Icarus-friendly(?) attitude.

Though I didn’t understand why, I realized there must be a reason Marian had acted so confidently earlier.

So while continuing to battle against the enemy team, I decided to listen to Betelgeuse’s practical compressed fleet preservation method.

Even Arcadia seemed curious, pretending not to be interested while keeping the communication screen open and watching us.

=========

And about several dozen minutes later.

—————————————-

-<Icarus’s Kraken-class assault carrier has sunk Lanchart’s Overseer-class medium cruiser.>

-<Arcadia’s Hood-class battle cruiser has sunk Mania’s Berlin-class cruiser.>

-<Betelgeuse’s Odin-class battleship has sunk Chupacabra’s Seraphias-class carrier.>

-[They’re all going down]

-[We got their main force!]

-[lolololol now we just need to push through]

—————————————-

Only after enough time had passed to destroy half of the enemy’s main force did I understand what Betelgeuse meant.

“So… it’s because you played politics intensely?”

-“Isn’t that obvious? No matter how good you are alone, there’s a limit to what you can do given the game’s characteristics.”

Unlike her previous bratty attitude where she was just showing off.

Now that she was talking about something she was actually good at, every word and action overflowed with confidence.

How should I put it…

She looked like Griyanar when she’s proudly explaining her research results.

Anyway, the conclusion was that through appropriate political maneuvering, she had minimized her fleet’s losses while defeating enemies by sacrificing her teammates.

Thinking she wasn’t called smart for nothing, I nodded, but…

I felt like I’d be losing if I gave that arrogant pink-haired girl a straightforward compliment.

“Wow, truly worthy of being the 6th-ranked player and leader of the 2nd-ranked clan.”

I immediately launched a counterattack, taking a jab at Betelgeuse.

-“Whaaat?! W-who do you think made me drop to 6th place?! If it weren’t for you, I would have been 2nd!”

As expected, caught off guard by my surprise attack, Betelgeuse’s face turned red for a different reason as she screeched with youthful screams.

But while I was roughly understanding and moving on, Arcadia immediately expressed doubt about Betelgeuse’s words.

-“Wait a minute, wouldn’t that method negatively impact your ranking score since you can’t get proper points?”

“Oh.”

-“If you preserved that many ships, you probably couldn’t have scored many direct kills or assists…”

But Betelgeuse only snorted at Arcadia’s point.

-“Do you think I wouldn’t have considered that? How rude~”

“…”

-“I told you, didn’t I? I used appropriate awareness and politics.”

“How exactly did you do that?”

-“It’s nothing special. Just slightly reducing speed or delaying deployment by a few seconds when charging with allies, so other ships take the aggro?”

“…”

It sounds simple.

But she must have meticulously controlled dozens to hundreds of ships to pull this off.

-“After hanging back slightly, I’d support from the rear while carefully picking up kills and assists.”

“Hmm.”

-“Of course, if I didn’t take any losses at all, my allies might team-kill me later, so I deliberately sacrificed ships I brought as meat shields or disposables, creating a perfect alibi!”

“Hooh.”

She explained that if she hesitated even a little, people might notice, so she quickly selected appropriate ships to ram into enemy fleets, securing both kills and alibis.

I found myself nodding, thinking this is what it takes to be a clan leader.

Of course, she mentioned this method only worked until the 7th battle…

-“From the 8th battle on, players’ intelligence seemed to spike and they wouldn’t fall for it.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

-“But so what? By that point, other players’ ship numbers would be ridiculously low.”

“Oh.”

-“So in the final round, I’d just crush them with overwhelming numbers. Isn’t that what makes someone worthy of being a ranker?”

It was impressive, but for someone from the Loki Clan, famous for using extraordinary strategies, Betelgeuse’s approach felt surprisingly straightforward.

And it seemed Arcadia felt the same way, as she made a strange expression while asking that very question…

In response to our questions, Betelgeuse shook her head with a look of disdain.

-“Thinking that smart people always use extraordinary methods is itself a kind of trap.”

“What.”

-“On the contrary, the more complex things get, the more those with solid fundamentals win.”

As she tapped her head with her finger and destroyed another enemy battleship using orthodox tactics.

I once again realized the truth that mastering the basics is what truly matters.