Ch.289The Empire Split… Strategy(?) (2)

After our Icarus expressed his boredom with JOY.

He fell into deep contemplation with Jessica about why they had received “ultra” micro bikinis (with plug(?) fastening method) from Vermouth.

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From exactly when, it’s impossible to know, but roughly a few days ago.

After the Magellan Clan hastily withdrew from the monster territory they had been expanding into due to rumors of conflict with the “Justice Clan” that started in the gallery.

Just as they were about to begin expansion in another direction to recover lost time…

“Wee-hahahahaha!”

“*Sob* Today’s meal was delicious!”

While regular users were causing havoc apart from the executives, the Rotten Water Clan, whose very existence had served as a kind of restraining force…

And now that the Rotten Water Clan and its friendly subordinate clans had suddenly disintegrated, Humanity saw an opportunity.

Under Clan Leader Antares’ orders, Humanity launched a massive invasion toward Xenovia Empire territory.

The scale was enormous with over 10,000 Humanity clan members alone.

Adding the subordinate clans to that…

With vanguard ships alone numbering over 1 million, from battleships to patrol ships, this truly massive invasion force launched a full-scale offensive, resulting in…

-“Oh shit.”

-“What the fuck is that number!”

-“This isn’t working, let’s jump out immediately.”

The border region, which had been mostly populated by small clans and solo players seeking a “pastoral” atmosphere with no major battles since the monster territory conflicts…

Within just one day of the invasion beginning, about 3,000 users lost their homes and became wanderers.

Or they surrendered to the invading Humanity forces and had their fleets and resources requisitioned.

Despite this situation, unlike during the Pirate Alliance conflict, the Xenovia Empire’s main forces didn’t come to help them…

—————————————–

<Xenovia Empire Chat Window>

-[Why the fuck isn’t our faction coming to help?]

-[The Pirate Alliance actually fought for us, is this for real?]

-[You idiots, back then the Earth Federation’s main forces attacked first, that’s why the Pirate Alliance moved]

—————————————–

Naturally, unlike the “Southern Campaign” between the Pirate Alliance and Earth Federation…

In this invasion, Humanity’s goal wasn’t to weaken Earth Federation forces…

They didn’t bait the Earth Federation’s main forces into deploying, and even left the Earth Federation’s “faction delegation” at their base untouched.

They strictly used only their own forces to carry out the invasion.

As a result, the Xenovia Empire command also treated this invasion not as a “large-scale invasion” conducted by the “Earth Federation.”

But as a “children’s quarrel” to be resolved among lowly “commanders”…

Unfortunately, users in the invasion path received no helping hand from their “homeland,” the Xenovia Empire.

The Xenovia southern territory, which consisted of only a few mid-sized clans of 2-3 thousand members each, was mercilessly crushed under the overwhelming force of over 1 million ships.

Of course, the mid-sized clans, having strongholds of at least level 4, managed to hold out by deploying defensive lines around their bases.

But the remaining clans and users, as mentioned above, couldn’t maintain their territories and were pushed back or forced to surrender.

However, for the Xenovia faction users being swept away by this sudden large-scale invasion, before long, truly one ray…

No, two rays of light descended upon them.

While Xenovia Empire users were being trampled, they continued to resist somehow, causing Humanity’s invasion forces to be considerably split.

Belatedly, the Justice Clan and the “I Love Chaos So Much I’m Happy Clan” (Loki Clan) quickly took action as soon as they assessed the situation.

And suddenly, the Justice Clan’s main fleet appeared in northern Xenovia.

From the southeast of Humanity, where the “Southern Campaign” had taken place, the Loki Clan’s raiding fleets emerged to attack Humanity.

Eventually, Humanity halted their invasion of Xenovia Empire territory.

They retreated from all areas except those occupied by their subordinate clans, returning to Earth Federation territory.

==========

…or so someone claimed in a post on the gallery.

When I saw it, I found myself nodding involuntarily.

“Seems like Humanity pushed too hard here.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I don’t know the exact reason, but… Humanity’s invasion forces advanced too hastily instead of securing territories and advancing step by step.”

Moreover, Humanity’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

Dealing with just Justice would be quite challenging, but to have the Loki Clan show up too?

Even though Humanity is the number one clan…

The Loki Clan now has over 40,000 pure users, reaching about 80% of Humanity’s strength.

Justice is also a massive clan with over 30,000 members.

Like Humanity, both clans also have their own “affiliated, subordinate clans.”

It seemed Humanity judged they couldn’t win and hastily retreated, writing off the wasted invasion forces as sunk costs.

…perhaps?

The problem was that simply thinking that way…

“It’s suspicious.”

“Yes, very suspicious indeed.”

Humanity was never the type to push mindlessly like that.

And knowing that Antares, Humanity’s clan leader, was never one to handle matters sloppily…

As Jessica and I said, the situation was extremely suspicious.

But no matter how much we suspected, we had no way to know the real-time situation happening faaaaaaar away from here.

After discussing the information we saw on the gallery for a while, we eventually decided it wasn’t something we needed to worry about right now.

So we turned our attention away from this matter for now.

“Nyaaaaaah…♡”

“Hmmmm.”

“Ahahahah…”

We decided to contemplate why Smeraggi, who had gone to put on a cat cosplay outfit, now had 9 tails instead of just 2.

And why Griyanar and Pashtra, following behind Smeraggi, were making extremely subtle expressions.

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And while Icarus was doing strange nonsense…

Inside the base of the level 8 stronghold “Andromeda Galaxy,” which the Humanity Clan was using as their main base…

“Hah! Most of the guys on the purge list are contacting us asking for quick support to repair their fleets?”

“Repair, huh.”

“What are you going to do, Antares?”

As Icarus suspected, the inner circle executives were showing clear signs that Humanity’s purpose from the beginning was not simply territorial conquest.

And their purpose was none other than…

After the previous “Loki Clan spy” hunting incident, internal slanderers had gone into hiding, making them difficult to eliminate.

And after successfully eliminating some, there were concerns that the Loki Clan could insert additional spies among newly recruited members.

So they pretended to stop hunting spies, thoroughly collected information to identify who the spies and “traitors” were.

Then in this Xenovia Empire expedition, they mainly assigned those users to mindlessly charge forward and deplete their forces.

Of course, since forming units with “only” those people could lead to outright rebellion…

They mixed in about 30% regular clan members, and as the finishing touch…

They appointed an “anti-Antares faction” user as commander—someone who became an executive purely through seniority and connections despite being slated for expulsion due to skill and personality issues.

They stimulated this user’s ambition and desire for honor, ensuring that Antares and the leadership would avoid blame later.