Ch.304″Holding on is always the answer.” (2)

But how did they find out about it?

Of course, neither the leadership of the Walpurgis Alliance Clan nor Icarus himself knew the reason…

In the end, the main cause was simply that clan members’ mental states had deteriorated due to the unexpectedly dire situation.

That alone wouldn’t have twisted the situation, however.

The problem was that among those who lost their composure, one happened to be assisting the clan leader who was monitoring the Walpurgis Alliance leadership’s secret chat room.

And this person “accidentally” saw the clan leader’s chat and realized they weren’t part of a small, friendly clan, but…

A group with ambitions to become a major—no, eventually a massive clan rivaling the top three—plotting to seize control of the Central District from the beginning.

“Shit, we’ll get beaten up by those Central District bastards at this rate.”

“Commander, wouldn’t we be fine with 500 members and a stronghold?”

“No, definitely not.”

With his already fragile mental state, this truth was too much to bear, and the user decided to desert to save himself.

While Icarus was busy fighting an endless 1:500 defense battle, and other users were too occupied with raiding to handle the situation…

This user quietly retreated from the front line, gave his fleet a brief rest…

And immediately posted on the gallery while simultaneously spreading the information to “Solo Players’ Room,” which was essentially the chat room for Central District users.

—————————————–

Title: Breaking News) Live footage of mass killing of 3rd ranked player ON

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Fleet battle images of Avalon Fortress from various angles.jpg]

This is real

A friend just sent this to me, looks like a clan of about 500 members is concentrating their attack on Icarus

Comments:

-[500?]

-[How did a clan with over 500 members survive in the Central District?]

-[Is this a lie? The gold spoons go crazy when there’s more than 10 people]

-˪[I checked and they’ve been hiding by splitting into dozens of clans with fewer than 10 members each](Author)

-˪[Damn, that’s insane in its own way]

—————————————–

—————————————–

<Solo Players’ Room☆>

<Notice: This room is for solos only. If you join a clan, announce it and leave>

-[Guys guys guys]

-[“Live video of Avalon Fortress under attack.swf”]

-[A solo ranker is getting ganged up on by a 500-member clan]

-[???]

-[What is that?]

-[500-member clan? Was that even possible for us?]

-[Gallery says they’ve been hiding by creating dozens of clans with fewer than 10 members]

-[These bastards crossed the line]

—————————————–

When this information spread, Central District users naturally expressed extreme anger.

“How dare these bastards try to form a large clan in the Central District?”

“For real? Are they insane?”

“Crush them! Kill them all!”

Seeing these reactions, the user who spread the information thought he should quietly run away in the middle of the battle.

However… contrary to his expectations, reality proved to be colder and crueler than anticipated.

“…Where are all those people who said they’d crush any large clan that forms?”

“I wouldn’t know, Commander.”

Was the story about users in the Central District attacking any clan with more than 10 members just an urban legend?

Such thoughts kept surfacing as the user response was unexpectedly and ridiculously minimal.

“Perhaps the reason such harsh rumors spread in the Central District in the first place, Commander.”

“Hmm?”

“Maybe the commanders themselves spread it as an urban legend because they were too lazy to step in themselves.”

“…Ah!”

As the Adjutant offered this analysis of the suspicious situation.

The user who had been watching realized he might have been fooled by a bunch of pranksters into making the wrong choice.

Perhaps his information leak would be discovered, and he would be purged by the clan that had successfully captured the stronghold. He was left anxiously clutching his chest.

==========

But while the user who spread the information was lamenting being fooled by pranksters…

—————————————–

<Solo Rankers’ Room>

-[lololol]

-[These bastards crossed the line lolololol](Menaldo)

-[I was wondering why Icarus has been quiet since yesterday, so this is what happened](Koenig)

—————————————–

The information circulated among users in the Solo Players’ Room and, through their complex network of connections, reached the ears of solo rankers.

As a result, not only the rankers in the top 10…

But most other solo rankers, who typically ignored such matters because they were too bothersome to deal with, saw this as someone trying to “exploit” the system.

They judged this as a violation of the “no large clans in the Central District” rule—the foundation that allowed them to maintain their positions as solo “rankers.”

In other words, they saw it as an infringement on their “authority” to maintain a stratified society(?), and as they intervened, the situation began to take a dramatic turn.

The detailed process was too complex and chaotic to explain fully.

But in summary, centered around three solo rankers (excluding Koenig who wasn’t in the Central District), a major propaganda campaign was launched against the “Walpurgis Alliance Clan.”

However, apart from their common goal of “crushing large clans early before they become too difficult to handle”…

The three rankers showed various differences in their approaches.

For example, Laura, who had the strongest clan-affiliated tendencies among the three…

Chose to spread her opinions indirectly through her “connections” rather than getting directly involved.

Meanwhile, Indefatigable, who was similarly treated as an exclusive mercenary for Humanity…

Was more proactive than Laura, mobilizing himself and his connections for a full-scale public opinion campaign in galleries and chat rooms.

—————————————–

<Playground for Solo Players>

<Notice: Why does this room’s name keep changing dammit>

-[Honestly, we should normally just let things slide]

-[But isn’t 1:500 crossing the line a bit?](Indefatigable)

-[Yeah I agree]

-[Even Raksha’s Rotten Water at least had the pretense of being in the same clan, but this is beyond just killing]

-[Definitely crossing the line]

—————————————–

And finally, Menaldo, who seemed quite interested in this “no clans over 10 members” rule…

“Let’s gooooooo!!!!”

-“Let’s gooooo!!”

-“Let’s gooooooo!”

…was actively leading his fleet after rallying his connections.

==========

Of course, some were skeptical of their instigation.

And others thought it would be good if Icarus fell from the ranker position altogether.

Surprisingly, even Indefatigable’s “Adjutant” was among those who held this view, despite his commander’s stance on crushing Walpurgis to help Icarus.

“Don’t you agree, Commander?”

“My, my, you still haven’t figured it out.”

Seeing his Adjutant’s behavior, Indefatigable shook his head and said:

“Unlike us, Icarus is a true solo player with almost no communication with other users.”

“That’s true, but…”

“So there are many ways to deal with him. His miraculous ability to mobilize resources is ultimately just spending massive stockpiled resources all at once to hire mercenary groups.”

Indefatigable snorted, saying there were plenty of countermeasures for such tactics.

“But why should we confront him directly? If we just step back once, he’ll waste hundreds of thousands of resources into thin air.”

“Ah…”

“To counter Icarus, you just need to gather about 10 people and drag out the battle for over a week.”

“I see.”

“Right, just stall until his resources run out, then hit him with all remaining ships at once… But what if this Alliance Clan remains?”

Indefatigable said this while using the command console as a drawing board to illustrate how the Alliance Clan’s “size” wouldn’t decrease.

“Unless users specifically disband them, they’ll remain like that for days, weeks… even years.”

“So you’re helping Commander Icarus for that reason.”

As the Adjutant realized the “truth,” Indefatigable nodded with satisfaction and decided to continue his propaganda work.