Ch.27Lone Wolf vs Troll (5)

Naturally, that Melon guy or whatever his name was seemed quite stung after seeing the community gallery’s reaction.

<Melon requests a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

<Melon requests a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

<Melon requests a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

He kept demanding to chat, showing signs of absolute panic.

But I had been busy preparing to teach him a physical lesson for quite some time.

‘Nope, not happening, go away.’

<<<You have blocked ‘Melon’.>>>

<You will no longer see this user’s chats or chat requests!>

I immediately blocked him, then turned to look at Berial, Ignis, and Pashtra who appeared on the command center screen.

“Everyone’s familiar with the operation plan, right?”

-“Yes, Commander.”

-“All preparations are complete.”

-“You can count on me anytime, Commander♡”

“Good, then launch immediately!”

-“””Yes!”””

———-

At the same time, inside Melon’s base command center.

“Damn it! Why won’t he accept my chat!”

The professional troll was showing signs of genuine panic in this unexpected crisis.

<Chat request denied.>

“Come on, you bastard! Just accept it already!”

<Chat request denied.>

<Chat request denied.>

<Chat request denied.>

It was truly pitiful to see how desperate he was, continuing to send chat requests despite clearly being blocked.

Of course, the reason this previously overconfident man had become so frantic was largely due to the post he had made on the “gallery.” It was a perfect example of how fortune can reverse itself unexpectedly.

Though even if someone told him that directly, Melon’s limited intellect would probably just respond with some xenophobic remark about not using Chinese expressions and spout some nationalistic nonsense.

“C-Commander, please calm down first…”

“Calm down?! How can I possibly calm down now!”

-Thwack!

“Ugh?!”

In the midst of this, Melon was brutally lashing out at his innocent adjutant, a cat beastkin named Maya, before he began throwing various objects around his command center in a fit of rage.

-Crash! Bang!

But while Melon was busy destroying his own belongings to vent his frustration…

-Beep! Beep!

Maya, who was somehow maintaining her composure despite being hit by her commander, noticed an alert sound coming from the command console that had been thrown.

Perking up her cat ears on top of her head, Maya immediately picked up the console to check the situation…

And right after that.

“Commander… Commander!”

“Huff, huff… what the hell!”

“It’s the enemy! The enemy commander’s fleet has appeared!”

“What the hell?!”

Melon’s expression instantly drained of all color upon hearing Maya’s urgent report.

But as he heard her subsequent report, the color quickly returned to his face.

“Enemy count 7 ships… 2 destroyers, 2 escort ships, and 3 patrol ships!”

“…Really?”

“Yes, and both destroyers… they’re transport types!”

“What?”

The moment he heard those last words.

As if his previous fear had been a complete lie, Melon said:

“Good, gather all fleets and superhumans except those needed for base defense right now!”

“Yes, Commander!”

“They said he was a veteran player, but he’s just a broke loser after all! I was right!”

“Indeed, Commander!”

He began deploying his main fleet, including his flagship Overseer, to intercept Icarus’s “fleet” that had appeared before him.

Little did he realize that this fleet was actually Icarus’s bait to lure him out.

———-

At the same time.

-“They’ve taken the bait.”

-“Confirmed, fleet reverse 180 degrees and retreat.”

Once it was confirmed that Melon’s main fleet had emerged from the base where they’d been holed up,

Berial immediately ordered the decoy fleet to retreat.

Simultaneously, keeping sufficient distance to avoid detection by the Overseer,

She continued to pursue Melon’s fleet.

“Why are you so slow! Move faster!”

“Yes, Commander.”

And Melon, completely unaware of this fact, continued his pursuit, but

Naturally, no matter how high-performance the Overseer might be,

The performance of the fleet escorting it wasn’t particularly superior to Icarus’s fleet.

Having delayed their deployment by staying holed up in the base, Melon’s fleet soon lost track of Icarus’s fleet.

“Arrrgh!”

As a result, Melon once again displayed symptoms of anger management issues, throwing nearby objects in rage.

But that didn’t last long.

-Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

“Commander, there’s a destroyer moving ahead of us.”

“Ugh… just one?”

“Yes, it’s another transport type… wait a moment, please. This one… it’s fully loaded with resources!”

“Oh.”

Whether by coincidence or not,

Near where Melon had lost track of the enemy, a transport destroyer fully loaded with resources was wandering around.

Naturally, Melon felt no fear toward a basic destroyer with only three laser weapons and no escort ships.

He immediately mobilized his fleet and began charging mindlessly to attack and plunder the destroyer.

“Enemy destroyer is turning around and fleeing!”

“Chase it! This time we’ll definitely catch it!”

Of course, upon confirming the appearance of Melon’s fleet, the destroyer immediately turned its bow and began running at full engine power to survive.

Unfortunately, due to the massive amount of minerals loaded in its transport compartment, it was more than twice as heavy as usual, making the hull extremely sluggish and slow.

Eventually, before long, railgun shells fired from the Overseer’s main cannon hit the destroyer.

-Kaboom!!!

Living up to its reputation of having battleship-level firepower, the Overseer’s main cannon destroyed the destroyer’s propulsion system and keel in a single shot.

Although in the process, determined not to let it escape this time,

Despite Maya’s attempts to dissuade him, Melon had the Overseer approach and attack alone at high speed.

This created a problem where the escort fleet became separated from the Overseer…

From Melon’s perspective, since they were only 2-3 minutes apart at most,

He figured he could quickly salvage resources from the destroyer while waiting for his escort fleet to arrive.

But that moment was precisely

Icarus’s calculated strategy, using a single destroyer and its mineral resources as a second bait.

The moment the flagship Overseer became separated from its escort fleet,

-Kaboom!!!

“Ugh?!”

Twenty patrol ships under Berial and Ignis suddenly charged toward the isolated Overseer.

“Commander! The Overseer is in danger!”

“Damn it, fire! Blast them all!”

Naturally, Melon, watching this from the command center, reacted with panic and tried to counterattack the surprise attack force with the Overseer’s powerful main cannon.

Unfortunately, while the Overseer’s main cannon was powerful, it was still just a single attack.

The Overseer’s counterattack only managed to sink two patrol ships before the surprise attack force closed in.

At the same time, for a cruiser to have “battleship” level firepower, it naturally had to sacrifice many things.

“Rate of fire” and the ship’s “defensive capabilities” were among those sacrifices.

And that also meant that despite being just a cruiser, it was vulnerable to “direct breakthrough assaults” via assault pods.

The moment they got close to the Overseer, Berial and Ignis each boarded separate assault pods.

They were launched like shells, infiltrating the Overseer to begin a boarding operation.

Of course, the alarm for such a boarding naturally went to Melon’s command center.

“Aaaah, no, my Overseer!”

The desperate Melon tried to use the “booster” function to bring forward his fleet, which was only about a minute away.

But right toward Melon’s escort fleet, Icarus’s patrol fleet, having completed their task of landing superhumans on the Overseer, immediately dove in.

“Aaaaargh!!! Get away! Damn it, get away!”

“Commander, please calm down and focus on eliminating that fleet first!”

“Aaaagh!”

As a result, the booster he had used became useless.

And due to using the booster, Melon’s fleet suffered a -50% mobility debuff as soon as they entered combat.

It was truly the most horrific outcome Melon could have imagined.