Ch.228All-Star Without You

I heard some extremely valuable information: not only our Kraken’s awesome bio-bombers, but also Hresvelgr’s strategic missiles and light carrier-based aircraft—all our consumable(?) weapons—had become one-time-use only.

I realized that no matter who my opponent was, I’d need to grit my teeth and give it my absolute best this round.

Even I, as our ultimate weapon, was struggling since my specialized “space torpedoes” consumed so many resources.

With so few remaining, I could barely slow down enemy ships, but… right after entering the combat map.

—————————————-

-[Hi] (me)

-[Hi]

-[Oh, it’s Kraken]

-[Finally we got a ranker on our team]

-[Hello hello]

—————————————-

While exchanging greetings with my welcoming teammates, I checked our fleet situation…

Including resource mining ships and repair vessels, we had only 7 ships total. Looking around, I saw everyone else had fewer than 10 ships as well.

‘Well, this seems manageable enough.’

The opposing team, having won over 10 victories, must have lost quite a few ships too and wouldn’t have many left.

I thought that if we coordinated properly, using carrier-based aircraft and long-range attacks effectively with my teammates, we could somehow respond to the enemy.

But my dreams and hopes were shattered the moment I finished greeting my teammates, when I saw notifications in the “all chat” and multiple enemies from the opposing team acting like they knew me.

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<All Chat>

-[Oh?]

-[Hi, thanks for the help last time] (Koenig)

-[Icarus, why are you over there?] (Arcadia)

-[…?] (Icarus)

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There was Koenig, the political officer who had solidly supported our rear last time.

And Arcadia, who had been my reliable running mate from the sixth to ninth rounds.

—————————————-

<All Chat>

-[Loser♡ Outcast♡] (Betelgeuse)

-[?????] (Icarus)

-[This is payback for screwing us over last round] (Betelgeuse)

—————————————-

And inexplicably, Betelgeuse was there too.

—————————————-

<All Chat>

-[LOLOLOLOL] (Indefatigable)

-[Why are you alone over there?] (Menaldu)

-[How pitiful…] (Laura)

-[I’m honestly speechless about this] (Antares)

-[The ranker club really is a club, I guess] (Raksha)

—————————————-

Then one after another, rankers from 7th, 10th, 5th, 1st, and 2nd place all fired messages at me from the “enemy team.”

Both I and my teammates couldn’t hide our bewilderment at this insane situation.

==========

Perhaps they considered it practically their win already.

The opposing team… no, the ranker all-star team was leisurely chatting away in all chat despite the battle having started long ago.

Of course, they weren’t complete idiots, so they didn’t say things like “we’re here, come and get us”…

—————————————-

<All Chat>

-[If this is an all-star team, where are 8th and 9th place?] (Icarus)

-[Haven’t seen the 8th place old man since early on, and nobody here has met 9th place] (Renaldu)

-[Oh, I destroyed all that guy’s ships so he couldn’t participate] (Raksha)

-[What] (Icarus)

—————————————-

Thanks to this, I learned about the 8th ranker (who died after an early wipeout followed by a natural disaster) and the 9th ranker (whom nobody knew).

And I was naturally introduced to the remaining three people who were part of the ranker all-star team…

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<All Chat>

-[Well, I’ve already talked with that person] (Koenig)

-[That’s right] (Arcadia)

-[Yeah]

-[But who are the others?] (Icarus)

-[You mean me?] (Mona Lisa)

-[Yeah] (Icarus)

-[I’m similar to you, getting spawns from space whales] (Mona Lisa)

-[Saying “spawn” makes it sound kind of dirty] (Indefatigable)

-[???] (Mona Lisa)

-[Why is the other one not talking?] (Icarus)

-[Oh, that person only has one battleship left so they’re just staying quiet] (Arcadia)

-[They said they’re just quietly living their life] (Laura)

-[Why are you telling Icarus that, you crazy?] (Betelgeuse)

-[Oops~] (Arcadia)

—————————————-

“Well, well.”

Meanwhile, seeing how they didn’t even consider someone with just one ship as a viable force, I quickly glanced around to check our allied forces nearby.

“We have two people with only one ship each.”

“And one of them has a cruiser battleship, while the other has an aircraft cruiser with no weapons.”

The fact that what they considered their “weakest link” was equivalent to two of our team members, plus the commander with the nickname “Mona Lisa” openly admitting to receiving “spawns”… it was clear they must have received enough powerful ships to spam them.

No matter how skilled our team members were—technically in the top 0.1% of all users—being overwhelmed by such a power difference sent our team into a mental breakdown.

—————————————-

-[Well, there seems to be no hope anyway, so let’s just think of it as a fun game ^^]

-[For real]

-[This is so depressing]

-[But hey, we have more carrier aircraft, so isn’t that okay?]

-[Do you have resources to recharge aircraft? I only have 2/3 of my aircraft because I’m out of resources]

-[I only have half my aircraft lol]

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Whether they thought victory was impossible or not, their fighting spirit, which had already been diminishing before the battle, was now almost extinguished with water being poured over it.

And in this situation, the rankers on the opposing team—especially the clan leaders Antares, Arcadia, and Betelgeuse, who had to deal with people’s thoughts more than anyone—couldn’t fail to notice.

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<All Chat>

-[Looks like your morale is breaking. Instead of running around making things tedious, how about surrendering?]

-[Or just offer up your ships for our points and pick up a few small vessels to increase your score lol] (Betelgeuse)

-[Although we got along well until the last round… a game is a game, so it can’t be helped.] (Arcadia)

-[Surrendering would waste less time] (Antares)

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At this critical moment when our team’s morale was wavering, they ruthlessly dug in with all-chat messages to shake us up even more.

And they weren’t the only ones who could speak.

—————————————-

<All Chat>

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[Rest in peace action beeeeeam========] (Menaldu)

-[Beeeeeam==========] (Laura)

-[Press X to pay respects] (Indefatigable)

-[Not easy, is this the power of rankers?] (Mona Lisa)

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The other users were mercilessly firing action beams, showing their effoooort to teabag us.

But there was something they hadn’t considered…

Although it was true that our team was slightly lower in ranking and skill than them, except for me, they were still experts and veterans in the top 0.1%.

As they continued to see the opposing team trampling on their pride…

—————————————-

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[I’m going to stab those bastards with a bamboo spear before I go down]

-[Let’s see if their fancy battleship stays intact with a medium torpedo in its head]

-[This is infuriating]

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“Grazie!”

As a result of pouring the gasoline of teabagging onto their diminishing fighting spirit…

Seeing them rekindle their determination and reaffirm their will to fight,

I nodded and decided to employ every possible method against that crazy ranking all-star team.