Ch.303″Holding on is always the answer.” (1)

Of course, no matter how much I tried to hold out by deploying the Kraken-Tochka.

The fundamental problem of insufficient overall combat power was unavoidable.

In a situation where we’d be struggling even if the opponents brought ‘only’ their user ships, some of them were even bringing their mercenaries…

-BOOM!

“33rd Combat Fleet has suffered 30% losses!”

“Commander!”

“Contact Aquarias, tell them Avalonia will support the 33rd Fleet.”

“The 48th Combat Fleet’s defense line has been breached, enemy small ship squadrons are heading toward the aircraft carrier and Hresvelgr!”

“Deploy the three remaining mercenary groups nearby, and contact the mercenary dispatch office to immediately hire additional mercenary groups for 1 million minerals and 300,000 rare resources.”

“Understood!”

Despite deploying nearly 30,000 combat ships.

Since the opposing users had also survived in this hellhole called the central zone, they were efficiently tearing through our NPC fleets that didn’t even have superhuman buffs.

While I was deploying combat fleets and scraping together remaining ships to form defense lines.

I was somehow maintaining resistance by hiring about 200 additional mercenary groups to counter their numbers with our own.

“Ugh, my resources.”

“Well, you need to survive to use resources anyway, so why not think of it as an investment?”

“When I think of it that way, I can accept it!”

Of course, in the process, I’d already spent several million resources that were meant for the Tannhäuser operation.

The originally planned Tannhäuser operation would likely be delayed by at least a month…

But as Jessica said, we needed to survive here first before we could even think about any operations.

So I had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue spending additional resources.

==========

But just as enemies and allies were getting mixed up near the fortress, about to engage in chaotic battle.

Shocking news struck our entire base, including myself.

And what was it, you ask…

-KABOOM!

-“Kyaaaah!”

“What, what happened!”

“Commander, Overseer has been hit by enemy battleship fire! The ship has sustained serious damage!”

“!!!”

The SSS-grade ship Overseer, a bombardment-type cruiser, was the first ship I acquired after being bound to this body.

It had been our fleet’s flagship for nearly a year, earning the nickname “Unsinkable” for its distinguished service.

And in this battle too, it had been working hard alongside Pashtra, using firepower comparable to battleship bombardment…

“Report the damage situation.”

“Confirmed! The upper part of the ship caught in the bombardment has completely lost its main gun turret and bridge!”

“…Tsk.”

-“This is Overseer, further combat operations are impossible.”

According to the urgent communications and reports, Overseer’s condition was literally one step away from sinking.

The sleek hull’s bow section was melting down like magma.

The relatively sturdy main gun turret had lost about half of its characteristically long barrel.

The remaining half was melting like taffy and collapsing onto the already melted upper deck armor.

The bridge structure behind it maintained its form thanks to the main gun turret absorbing some of the bombardment.

But it was only maintaining its shape; the command center sections that weren’t covered had completely disintegrated.

Seeing all this, with small explosions occurring one after another throughout Overseer’s hull showing its highly unstable condition.

I immediately ordered Pashtra and the troops on board to evacuate and was about to send a resource mining ship there.

“Overseer is done for, Pashtra! Get out of there immediately!”

-“Yes, Commander!”

But while Pashtra and Overseer’s operators were urgently evacuating following my orders…

-“Beam reaction detected ahead!”

-“Allied destroyer failed to intercept! Impact on Overseer imminent!”

“Oh, these damn bastards.”

Looking at the incoming bombardment trajectory, several particle beams that clearly weren’t aimed deliberately somehow made their way through the gaps between ships.

Then they struck the still-intact lower part of Overseer, which was in the middle of evacuation.

And that attack was essentially a death sentence for the already heavily damaged Overseer.

When the main gun turret hit by the particle beam couldn’t withstand the backflow of energy and exploded.

The explosion affected Overseer’s power source, which had already reached its limit due to overload.

So Overseer, now attacked even in its lower section, in less than a minute…

-Rumble rumble rumble… KABOOM!!

“O-Overseer has been destroyed! Overseer has been completely destroyed!”

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

After nearly two years of service as the backbone of our fleet, our beloved Overseer ended its eventful life and became part of the cosmic dust forever.

And before we could even mourn Overseer’s death…

-“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“Aaaaaaah!”

Although Pashtra, who had been aboard Overseer, managed to escape, she was caught in the explosion and ejected into outer space.

At this rate, there was a high possibility of losing a precious SSS-grade superhuman to the void, so I screamed out loud while watching the screen.

Fortunately, a patrol ship that had survived the melee somehow managed to catch Pashtra.

Thanks to that, we were able to avoid Pashtra becoming lost in outer space.

==========

But regardless of that, the battle situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable.

When I deployed my second wave of mercenary groups, it seemed the other side finally realized they could use mercenaries too.

The problem was that apart from those they had already deployed, the rest of the users also hurriedly hired mercenary groups from their bases and threw them into this battlefield.

Of course, users other than myself had limits on how many mercenary groups they could hire per person…

But when over 500 users scraped together what they could, it created a mercenary fleet with a scale exceeding 100,000 points.

“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap.”

Terrified by that sight, I hurriedly invested an additional 2.5 million minerals and 500,000 rare resources in one lump sum to hire 500 more mercenary groups.

But despite that, they said 100,000, but in reality it was ‘over’ 100,000 additional forces that joined.

The result was an even match… no, the opposing users still maintained a slight advantage, and from my position on the receiving end, I was truly experiencing what it meant to be ‘desperate.’

==========

But I wasn’t the only one feeling this way…

—————————————-

<Mint Chocolate Meeting Room>

-[That bastard called more mercenary groups again!]

-[How many resources does he have to spare?]

-[Damn, looks like he added at least 500 more mercenary groups?]

-[It’s fine, we also called 500 more mercenary groups, right?]

-[We came fully loaded with points, so we have a slight advantage over them]

-[Does it make sense that a single individual can match 500 people who came with fully loaded mercenary groups?]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL This is driving me crazy]

—————————————-

The leadership of the Walpurgis Alliance Clan facing Icarus was appalled that despite deploying their last card of “mercenary” spam.

Icarus somehow managed to summon a similar scale of mercenary groups, even if slightly inferior to theirs.

Of course, if they continued fighting like this, it was clear that Icarus would eventually lose due to fleet issues.

The problem was that their plan of “the alliance clan overwhelms the 3rd ranked player, smoothly takes the level 5 stronghold, and grows rapidly” had failed spectacularly.

Even if they drove Icarus away and took the Avalon Fortress at this point, their losses were so severe that it would take far too long to recover.

Of course, the leadership calculated that once they took the level 5 stronghold, rear defense wouldn’t be a major issue, so they could focus on fleet recovery…

But unfortunately, just 2 hours later.

—————————————-

<Mint Chocolate Meeting Room>

-[Wait, what’s with those other users behind us?]

-[Oh, those bastards are attacking us]

-[Damn, it’s the solo players!]

-[Solo users are gathering at our rear, those bastards caught on!!]

-[Shit]

-[Those bastards are saying we’ve been exposed for trying to form a single clan, so prepare to die?]

-[How the hell do they know that?!]

—————————————-

Surprisingly, somehow, the surrounding ‘solo’ players had noticed the existence of the Walpurgis Alliance Clan and started gathering from all directions to enforce the ‘rules of the central zone’.

The leadership instinctively realized that the plan they had been preparing for a long time was about to collapse.