Ch.274The World Always Requires You to Watch Your Back (1)

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<Fleet Association under construction…>

<Time remaining until completion: 25 days 1 hour 3 minutes 50 seconds>

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‘Ugh, that’s long.’

Of course, it’s not surprising considering it requires the highest amount of resources among all the auxiliary buildings so far.

The Fleet Association’s construction demanded nearly a month of time.

Though the other auxiliary buildings like the Air Command and Special Design Management Bureau also took over 20 days each.

Since I had already anticipated this, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

And after initiating such construction, I habitually checked the resource status with Jessica…

“Jessica, what’s our current resource situation?”

“About 520,000 minerals and 290,000 rare resources, sir.”

“…Whew.”

Is this really us? The same losers who used to run out of resources at the drop of a hat, unable to do anything after building just one structure?

“It fills my heart with grandeur.”

“Mine too, Commander.”

Jessica clearly shared this sentiment, her ears twitching excitedly as she expressed her enthusiasm.

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After indulging in a brief moment of self-praise.

‘Ah, the tranquility after battle.’

With nothing urgent to do, I planned to use my free time to finish inspecting the facilities that had merged with the fortress.

But in the process, was it because I hadn’t given clear orders in advance?

Or were they simply trying to recreate their base behaviors in the fortress?

-“Commander, it seems the tentacles and cells from the ‘Nest of Life’ are gradually infiltrating the interior of the fortress.”

“…What’s doing what now?”

-“It appears that some of the clone production facilities, bioengineering labs, and some quarters in the fortress are being infiltrated by the monsters’ multipurpose cells.”

“Oh…”

-“Commander, Griyanar was connecting tentacle bundles and pipes to the fortress’s organic compound storage. Is that really okay?”

-“Oh my, Commander? Recently some of the fortress garrison troops have transformed into chimera units. Is that alright?”

“…”

“…”

“Jessica, tell Griyanar to come to the command center immediately.”

“Yep.”

“And call Oxianor too.”

“Understood.”

Griyanar, who had started arbitrarily spreading monster-type infections throughout the fortress.

I decided to summon both Griyanar and Oxianor, who had likely been just standing by watching, to issue orders to stop this situation immediately.

Of course, when Griyanar was dragged in at my summons, she immediately made a pouty face and grumbled, but…

“Don’t engage in any infiltration activities until I tell you to.”

“Hmph, fine.”

Only when I scolded her firmly did she finally click her tongue and show signs of withdrawing the infiltration that had been heading toward the fortress’s central generator.

Of course, separate from that…

Various actions she had been trying to sneak through.

For example, trying to turn the soldiers’ living quarters into “living-hatching grounds!”

Or transforming toilets into “flesh toilets.”

Experimenting with chemicals on the ingredients in the soldiers’ cafeteria.

And various other mad scientist-like behaviors.

When I pointed out all these activities without missing any and told her “don’t do it,”

Griyanar puffed her cheeks in great dissatisfaction.

But I couldn’t allow attempts to turn the fortress into a monster nest right after we had just secured control of it.

Since from her perspective it was just expanding monster territory, I spoke to Oxianor, who had been turning a blind eye to Griyanar’s actions.

“Keep an eye on Griyanar so she doesn’t do anything impulsive again.”

“Hmm… understood, Icarus.”

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Anyway, after resolving all these issues.

And preventing Griyanar’s impulsive actions…

“I’m tired.”

I strongly felt that inspecting the fortress interior as originally planned would be physically exhausting.

Since I had already completed all the daily quests while dealing with everything else,

After witnessing the bizarre sight of soldiers cutting off mindlessly spreading tentacles and cells to eat them like live octopus,

I decided to leisurely go to the “Commander’s Office,” flop down on the bed, and check the gallery.

The problem was that after conquering the fortress, there was more to deal with than I expected, so I hadn’t checked for nearly two days since posting the fleet certification shot.

As soon as I opened the community menu, my notification window was filled with numerous “report” alerts.

And as a moderator, I had to process these “reports” before I could browse the gallery…

I was able to enjoy my “very very pleasant” rest time by first processing hundreds of reports that had accumulated in just two days.

And about 10 minutes later, after processing all the reports (which weren’t actually that many due to duplicate reports), I entered the gallery.

I saw that in the mere two days I hadn’t checked, a new hot topic had ignited in the gallery.

And what was this hot topic?

Perhaps out of some competitive reaction to me being the first user to conquer a Level 5 stronghold…

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Title: Breaking News) ‘Rotten Water Clan’ with Rank 2 player planning to attack Level 7 fortress city

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Screenshot of ‘Rotten Water Clan’ leader Raksha announcing city siege plans in public chat room ‘Space Canif Area Meeting Room’.jpg]

It’s real

Yeah

Comments:

-[Oh]

-[What, you think we lack pride? Or skill?]

-˪[Isn’t it the opposite?]

-[Ooooh]

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Unexpectedly, the “Rotten Water” clan, known for recruiting members solely based on player skill, boldly announced they would siege a city.

The topic continued to roll on.

And it wasn’t just about the Rank 2 “Rotten Water” clan…

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Title: Breaking News) Rank 10 leading ‘Magellan’ clan announces support for Rotten Water

Author: News Boy

Content: [‘Magellan’ clan expressing intent to support ‘Rotten Water’ clan in public chat room.jpg]

Just as the title says

Comments:

-[What’s going on?]

-[Suddenly things are getting super interesting]

-[*murmuring intensifies*]

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With the newly ranked “Magellan” clan, reportedly led by “Mona Lisa,” publicly declaring support for “Rotten Water’s” Level 7 city siege.

Unlike previous events, this siege would involve two confirmed top 10 rankers with proven “skill” (whether through ship advantage or otherwise).

Plus numerous top 100 rankers included in Rotten Water.

The gallery was buzzing with curiosity about whether the two clans could successfully push through a Level 7 stronghold.

And “betting” was taking place in real-time, creating a very heated atmosphere.

Of course, it was difficult for latecomers like me to understand the situation, so some newbies posted questions asking what was going on…

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Title: What the heck is going on

Author: BeagleBeagleWiggle

Content: [Image of a toad shrugging with a question mark]

Why are you all talking about things only you understand

Please share what you know with me too

Comments:

-[Is that so… you don’t know…?]

-[I won’t tell you what you want to know]

-[A few days ago, Rank 3 used his unlimited mercenary hiring ability to mobilize 50,000 ships alone and captured a Level 5 stronghold]

-˪[Damn, that happened?](Author)

-˪[Yeah, so the clan with Rank 2 said they’ll siege as a clan unit, but they’re going for an even bigger Level 7 city]

-˪[Seeing that, Rank 10 offered clan support to pick up the scraps of victory, and the gallery is on fire about it]

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From the naturally emerging answers, I could understand how the situation had developed.

‘Ah, I see. I completely understand.’

Of course, after understanding the situation, another question came to mind.

‘Is it possible for a small clan like Rotten Water to conquer a Level 7?’

No matter how I thought about it, what Rotten Water was doing seemed like pure suicide, unlike my approach.