Ch.229A Very Old Plan (2)

# Chapter 229: A Very Old Plan (2)

The Emperor’s plan was, in a way, quite complex.

While Aethernia had been meddling with other races and nations whenever they felt bored…

Why was it that when the time came to deploy their “fleet,” they always avoided it by using “regulations” as an excuse?

The Emperor’s assessment was as follows:

‘Because they use their fleet to reinforce that damned psionic veil.’

And the method the Emperor chose to pierce through the powerful Pioneer Empire’s psionic veil was, in some ways, quite simple and basic:

‘Many fleets, a great many fleets, an overwhelming number that would force Aethernia to mobilize most of their own.’

Mobilizing a powerful and numerous fleet large enough to draw out all of Aethernia’s “fleets” that maintained their veil.

If such an offensive were launched, Aethernia’s fleet would certainly be forced to mobilize as well.

And while their fleet was lured out and the psionic veil weakened…

The Emperor would personally step forward, pouring in all the power and energy that had been meticulously accumulated and barely used.

Simultaneously, the Emperor would manifest in the form of a massive cosmic monster and beautifully tear the weakened Aethernian psionic veil into a star shape.

Of course, if the Emperor were to tear through the veil alone, the imperial family members who had secluded themselves in Aethernia’s capital citadel—

The beings known as “Aether Dragons” would swarm out and surely reduce the Emperor to ‘p-u-l-p.’

That’s why, while proceeding with this plan, the Emperor placed great importance on countermeasures against the Aethernian imperial family…

‘Argh, the subspace portal is large enough, but I can’t gather enough monsters to overwhelm them…!’

It was at this point that the Emperor felt utterly stuck.

The most crucial part of this plan—the existence of a fleet powerful enough to make Aethernia feel they needed to commit “most” of their own fleet—

Creating such a fleet presented all sorts of problems, starting with building a nation capable of producing and maintaining it while fighting well enough to keep Aethernia on edge.

Fortunately for the Emperor, discovering a rather decent nation and race called “Prosnack” had eased some concerns.

However, building a fleet to the Emperor’s desired level would still take decades at the very least.

‘Arrrrgh! My head feels like it’s going to explode.’

The Emperor had arranged for all kinds of secret material support to flow from the Sebelli Empire to Prosnack.

“Such damned traitors, wasting the empire’s tax money because of you.”

‘That tax money was meant for this purpose from the beginning!!!!’

When someone named Arto or Artro appeared, the plan began to unravel.

The Emperor had used brainwashed “loyalists” in the Sebelli Empire to turn the otherwise unremarkable but wealthy empire into a resource pipeline for Prosnack.

“Traitors here, traitors there.”

‘They’re loyalists, damn it.’

Arto’s counterintelligence activities were rooting out all the carefully placed agents.

And when the Emperor tried to establish new routes…

“I don’t understand why new ones keep appearing no matter how many I kill.”

‘That son of a bitch…’

Despite being merely a character in this world, his unnecessarily sharp intuition was drying up Prosnack’s resource pipeline.

Of course, as the Emperor prided himself, such setbacks would never break him.

Although the damage from Arto’s meddling was severe,

The Emperor believed that insufficient resource lines could simply be redeveloped.

———————————-

While steadily growing Prosnack to attract Aethernia’s attention…

‘How on earth should I deal with those dragons?’

One day, while exploring the area near Aethernia, consumed by vengeful thoughts(?), the Emperor happened to witness pirates running rampant in the regions surrounding Aethernia.

The Emperor didn’t have any particular thoughts about such ruffians.

‘Warlords, ah, such things have always existed.’

Leaders of pirates and mercenaries who appeared whenever the Emperor traveled through parallel universes, or save files.

Sometimes called Khan.

Sometimes called Monarch.

Sometimes self-proclaimed Pirate King.

These figures existed in every parallel universe the Emperor visited.

Rather than getting entangled with warlords, the Emperor maintained a stance of non-interference to avoid reducing the forces needed to attack Aethernia.

Of course, there was another reason for the Emperor’s attitude.

‘It’s been over 100 years since the game’s starting year, yet this player hasn’t shown any particular prominence.’

The Emperor’s ambiguous attitude stemmed from the fact that another entity they had been wary of besides Aethernia—

The game’s “player”—had seemingly “disappeared” without showing any prominence for the past 100 years.

‘If there were a player, some nation should have risen to prominence long before now.’

Yet for over 100 years, no nation had distinguished itself, all remaining at similar levels.

The Kerzin Federation, which had been suspected of harboring the player, turned out to be merely lucky and backed by those damned Aethernians.

Perhaps because of this, the tension the Emperor had maintained for over 100 years had dissipated.

In a state of mild “burnout,” the Emperor had been merely observing…

But before long, the Emperor witnessed something that made them doubt their eyes.

‘What in the world is that…?’

From traversing parallel worlds, the Emperor had learned that the strategies used by beings of this world were mostly predictable.

This wasn’t to say they were stupid—it just meant there was a certain “pattern” the Emperor had recognized after visiting countless parallel worlds.

But in this warlord campaign, the Emperor clearly witnessed something different.

“Using small vessels to lure cosmic monsters and cause confusion in the warlord’s forces…?”

And there were even more surprising elements:

“That’s… a nano machine! I never expected remnants of that ancient civilization to appear here!”

From the center of the Southern Alliance fleet, which was hostile to the warlord’s fleet, a nano-machine mass the size of a small satellite emerged and swept through the battle lines.

And seeing that, the Emperor realized:

‘The Southern Alliance fleet—could the player be somewhere there?!’

—————————————-

Having suddenly snapped out of burnout, the Emperor began methodically implementing each stage of the plan.

Moreover, through the tactics demonstrated by the unknown “player,” the Emperor also conceived a method to subdue Aethernia’s accursed dragons.

The Emperor vowed that once the identity of the “player” was discovered…

They would be granted a painless death as thanks for providing such an excellent method that the Emperor hadn’t thought of.

Additionally, the Emperor planned to expand Prosnack’s domain through the Puksviet or whatever they were called,

And to use capital-obsessed entities like Zeltech to once again make Sebelli a resource pipeline for Prosnack.

This time, the Emperor had no intention of being careless as before.

Over more than 20 years, the Emperor had stirred the brain of someone whose will had been completely broken and who had become content with life as a pope,

And had one of the governors spread Prosnack’s vaccine, implementing a plan to definitively make Sebelli a slave to Prosnack and the Emperor.

And as a result,

The carefully crafted plan thoroughly collapsed, with Zeltech, the Pope, and the Governor all being eliminated.

However, through this incident, the Emperor discovered who the “player” was.

‘I see, so you were the player all along.’

And that player was none other than Arto, the Minister of Diplomatic Enforcement of Sebelli, who had been feeding the Emperor all sorts of trouble.

———————————————–

And now:

“Go, monsters! Go and show death to that garbage Aethernia!”

The Emperor was adapting Arto’s tactics,

Using small ships filled with pheromones as bait to gather cosmic monsters from various regions, then creating new subspace portals with their power to deploy them.

Unlike the existing subspace portals made by modifying rare monsters from outer space—

The so-called “space bugs” that could open and close wormholes at will—

This method of forcibly opening space with the Emperor’s own power

Was highly inefficient in terms of energy for portals that would only last a day or two…

But even that would clearly be a fatal blow to Aethernia.

‘I must say this is all thanks to you, Player Arto!’

Considering all the past grievances, the Emperor had decided to personally kill Arto as a special favor for suggesting a method to destroy Aethernia.