Ch.251″Let’s make a deal!”

Fortunately, unlike after that grueling 1:5 battle with the Unity folks, when I had no proper way to handle them and had to waste time waiting for them to be sold at auction…

Had they heard about the situation from their spy?

I received a contact from the Loki Clan wanting to recover “Mirai,” “Sherpa,” and “August” who I was currently holding captive.

But surprisingly, the Loki Clan didn’t send a designated executive like Humanity did…

-“Ah, Icarus, Icarus.”

“Huh.”

It was none other than Betelgeuse, the clan leader herself, directly calling me.

I was quite curious why she chose to call rather than chat, but I answered anyway since they initiated contact.

However, instead of the apology I was expecting…

-“I think you know the situation, but this incident truly wasn’t my intention.”

“Oh, is that so?”

She was boldly playing innocent with an “it wasn’t me” attitude, which instantly made my irritation spike.

So to relieve that irritation, I was about to hang up when…

-“It’s true, here’s proof.”

“…Oh.”

I stopped my hand from disconnecting when Betelgeuse unhesitatingly showed me the chat logs between the spy called Indian Machete and herself. I focused on the conversation.

“I understand why you’re calling instead of chatting, but are you saying that since your spy’s terrorist act has nothing to do with you, there won’t be any compensation?”

-“How could that be? Solo players who can become mercenaries anytime are truly precious, you know?”

“Hmm.”

-“Although our first meeting wasn’t great, we had a good time during the event, didn’t we?”

“Hmmmmmm.”

-“So, about those three superhumans from Indian Machete who you’re currently detaining.”

“Yeah.”

-“Would you mind sending them over to us?”

Rather than offering compensation, she was naturally asking me to “give” her something.

I was about to nod along with her flow of conversation, but quickly caught myself, resting my chin on my hand while raising my other hand toward the disconnect button.

Seeing this, Betelgeuse waved her hands and quickly added:

-“No, wait, wait! You should listen to a Korean person all the way through!”

“Explain within 10 seconds why I should listen to you ‘all the way through.'”

-“Of course I’ll give compensation for this incident!”

-“That was so obvious I didn’t bother mentioning it. How could you interpret it that way? What does that make me?”

While she continued complaining about her supposed innocence and my apparent lack of tact…

I just made a “:/” expression.

I slowly moved my finger toward the disconnect button, silently expressing my “hurry up and speak” intention.

As Betelgeuse kept beating around the bush and avoiding the compensation topic, she finally surrendered and boldly declared:

But true to her cunning nature, she still tried to slip in a negotiation for the compensation:

-“Fine! If you release those three, I’ll give you 1 aircraft carrier and 5,000 gold!”

“…”

-“…How much did Humanity offer as compensation to make you look at me like that?”

“Jessica, what did we receive from Humanity as compensation?”

“Two battleships, 15,000 gold, and resources, sir.”

-“What.”

Apparently, she hadn’t expected Humanity to give so much.

Betelgeuse’s eyes swirled with emotion that seemed to say, “Those bastards were that generous?”

After a moment of silence in deep thought… Betelgeuse finally broke the silence:

-“Alright, then I’ll keep the aircraft carrier but make it a ‘large aircraft carrier,’ and 20,000 gold!”

“Hooh.”

-“This is really expensive, to be honest. ‘Mirai’ and the other superhumans are just being taken for punishment purposes.”

“Hmm? Punishment?”

When something quite interesting came up, I casually threw out a question about it…

-“The details are our internal affairs so I won’t say more. Anyway, deal or no deal?”

“Hmm, hmmmm.”

Perhaps because her planned negotiation had completely fallen apart.

Betelgeuse had abandoned her previous composure and suddenly adopted a rather prickly attitude.

I nodded at this behavior and signaled Jessica, who was waiting behind the communication screen, to run some mental calculations.

Shortly after, Jessica gave me a quick answer:

‘Not bad, since those three would only waste our superhuman forces anyway.’

‘What happens if their owner gets destroyed?’

‘They would transfer to Commander’s affiliation since you destroyed Indian Machete. If someone cunning like Betelgeuse did it…’

‘I see.’

After diligently calculating with Jessica through our mental calculator and eye-communication session.

We decided to accept the offer made by Betelgeuse… or more precisely, the Loki Clan.

“Alright, I’ll accept that offer.”

-“Great, great, good decision.”

But right after that, a thought suddenly crossed my mind, and I spoke to Betelgeuse who was about to end the call:

“Wait.”

-“What now?”

“You’re not planning to send some battered aircraft carrier that’s better off scrapped as ‘compensation,’ are you?”

Sending garbage that only consumes more resources as compensation was actually a long-standing tradition in this game.

Wondering if they might pull the same trick, I casually threw out the question.

At my question, Betelgeuse’s expression suddenly became distant…

-“…After some crazy bastard tried that once and ended up losing three of our subordinate clans that were completely dismantled in retaliation, we don’t do that anymore.”

“Oh…”

As she delivered this unexpected sad news, she immediately sent me a trade request:

—————————————-

<‘Betelgeuse’ has requested a trade with you!>

<Betelgeuse (Large Aircraft Carrier x1, Gold 20,000) ⇒ Icarus>

<Do you accept this trade?>

<(Y)/N>

—————————————-

Seeing Betelgeuse’s cool trading approach, I nodded and decided to accept the compensation through the trade.

And as a result of suddenly receiving compensation from two clans simultaneously.

I found myself in possession of ship types that I couldn’t build yet because I hadn’t constructed an <Air Command Headquarters> or <Fleet Association>, which secretly made me feel like I was about to burst with excitement.

But at this point, there was a problem that neither I, Jessica, those around us, nor Humanity and Loki who sent the compensation had considered…

==========

What was that problem?

Simply put, even though they transferred the ships to me, the ownership would only officially change after the ships docked at my base according to the system.

Before docking, until the ships automatically entered the docking facilities, they were still treated as belonging to their respective factions=commanders. That was the first problem.

The other problem was…

“Commander, the ships we received as compensation will be arriving at the base soon.”

“Are they coming through the teleport?”

“Yes, since you have one at your base, they’ve received permission to come… Oh, but Commander?”

“What?”

“Ships from both Loki Clan and Humanity Clan are arriving simultaneously… Won’t they start fighting as soon as they exit the teleport?”

“…Huh?”

Right after Jessica’s belated observation.

When I saw one large aircraft carrier and two battleships emerging from the teleport and immediately engaging in a brawl with their close-defense weapons.

Watching the compensation ships destroying themselves during the delivery process in real-time, I felt my mind going blank.

‘What the hell.’

Only after urgently deploying the Kraken to separate the three ships could I finally handle the situation…

But perhaps due to being battered by each other’s 250mm CIWS, all the external structures, anti-air systems, and radars were completely wrecked, leaving me with a deep sense of sorrow.