Ch.318War of All Against All (1)

Recently, with all kinds of stories exploding in the Central District about fortress sieges and secret clans being revealed…

The gallery had developed a strong perception that the Central District was a “spectacular place” where exciting events continuously unfolded.

But that was only because things appeared lively at the center of the whirlwind of chaos, among rankers and their connections, and through collusion between major clans.

In a situation where the “user count” in the Central District alone approached at least 100,000, stories involving merely 500 or 1,000 people…

Were simply being actively discussed in the gallery.

From the perspective of the Central District natives(?), they either watched these events with indifference, like chickens watching a fight…

Or continued their war of all against all, living day to day without any interest in such matters.

Or they quietly lived among themselves, merely “watching” the gallery.

However, in communities, there were always far more users who just watched than those who actively posted and commented.

Consequently, the cases of users fighting among themselves who weren’t mentioned in the gallery and lived quietly without chattering…

Though not mentioned in communities including the gallery and chat rooms, their absolute numbers were quite substantial.

However, due to the nature of PVP where people fought without connections, there was a strong tendency to raid others’ bases to gain maximum benefits.

Naturally, this led to countless cases where fleets and bases were not just plundered but completely destroyed.

In the process, there were of course users who had been so thoroughly defeated that they became incapacitated or lost their will to fight.

“Sob sob, that was delicious today too.”

“The food tastes good at least.”

Since there were also many cases of users who were kidnapped while just trying to sample the game, or who were kidnapped just after opening their mail.

How were these users living?

-“Today we’ll take the resource zone.”

“Ah, go ahead.”

-“Thanks.”

…Unlike what you’d expect from the Central District, where the war of all against all was the norm, they were living in a kind of “clan village” after gathering together.

In some ways, it resembled the small-scale clans that were common in the Central District.

In fact, when these users banded together, they often evolved into small clans, so it wasn’t entirely wrong to say so.

But despite this perception, the reason “clan villages” were distinguished from clans was…

-BOOM!

-“Oh damn, there they go again.”

“What happened? Did that ship explode again?”

-“They say they ran into the wrong people and exchanged fire, so one person’s ship got completely destroyed.”

“Oh my.”

There were users who had truly lost everything, with their bases and fleets destroyed, leaving them penniless.

There were also users who avoided combat and leisurely upgraded only their bases, playing it like SimCity.

And there were users who only mined resources, who should be called miners rather than commanders.

Overall, they were like “non-aggressive mobs” living together with their bases clustered, without forming a clan.

The problem was, as just mentioned above…

The users forming clan villages were basically either terrible at combat or had no will to fight.

In other districts, they might be able to survive by being managed by medium-sized or larger clans…

Unfortunately, this was the Central District, a den that killed clans with more than 10 members, making their situation truly pitiful.

So what did that look like?

-“Ah, we’re screwed.”

-“Why?”

-“Those bastards are back again, damn it.”

“Ah.”

-“We’re here to collect resources, hand them over quickly.”

-“For real.”

Other more successful users from the area would come barging in every day, plunder the clan village users, and then withdraw.

Of course, the clan village users didn’t just take it lying down. They tried to resist at first.

But as mentioned above, the vast majority of clan village users had neither the will nor ability to fight.

In contrast, the users who plundered the clan villages had survived in the Central District, a den of devils.

They had built their own elite fleets and leveled them up very thoroughly, so the clan village users had no way to resist.

The particularly problematic point was that in this game world, it was impossible to replenish “fleet power,” which was very important.

While superhumans could be recruited through gacha and hidden in the base if needed…

Ships were too large to hide no matter how much one wanted to.

As mentioned above, most clan village users had terrible fleet power, with some having lost their mental stability after their fleets were annihilated.

The plunderers knew that if the ships gathered together, they would be too numerous for them to subdue…

So while the plunderers might spare the “superhumans,” they destroyed all ships except resource mining vessels, transport destroyers, and the “minimum” number of ships needed to defend against various NPC mobs that automatically attacked users.

Moreover, not only did they destroy existing ships, but the moment someone tried to build a new ship…

-“Talking back… with a fleet?”

-“Please, no.”

-“Not a chance!”

They ruthlessly destroyed ships being built in the shipyard, claiming it was an attempt at resistance.

Of course, ships obtained through gacha weren’t destroyed but quickly seized and taken for themselves.

Anyway, while living day to day, paying a certain amount of all resources except gold…

The clan village users experienced a period of about two days when they weren’t subjected to plundering.

When was this? It was quite curious indeed.

It was none other than when Icarus first mobilized a large fleet of over 50,000 ships to occupy the Avalon Fortress.

At that time, no one knew why the 3rd-ranked player was going all out, so the plunderers all held back.

The clan village users enjoyed an unexpected brief peace, having a very pleasant time.

Of course, now it’s known that Icarus doesn’t operate such large-scale fleets except when taking strongholds…

During the time when our Icarus was unexpectedly being attacked by another user…

…or rather, going back in time a bit to when Icarus was fighting at Barracuda, the plunderers were operating normally.

For the clan village users, that experience remained vividly in their minds.

Although they had managed to deal with the plunderer users by paying resources…

It was still an unbearable situation for fellow users.

If they had never experienced peace, it might have been different.

But as a result of enjoying two days of true “peace,” albeit by coincidence…

The users forming the clan village finally decided it was time to make a decision and devised the best plan to escape from the plunderers.

Of course, “creating a clan” was excluded from the start.

—————————————-

<Clan Village Chat Room>

-[Honestly, I don’t think a clan is the right move]

-[If we try to make a clan just to live on our own, won’t we end up like that Walpurgis or whatever?]

-[I’m from that alliance and I’m telling you, don’t do it]

-[Hmm]

—————————————-

Though it’s hard to call it the same situation, seeing how even a clan of 500 members was miserably crushed by invasions from surrounding users…

No one could attempt the same approach even if they wanted to.

And other methods besides forming a clan were also suggested.

—————————————-

<Clan Village Chat Room>

-[Then let’s gather more resources and gold, and call in other users to drive away these plunderers]

-[The current plunderers are the ones who were called in like that and then settled down]

-[Oh]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Ha, it’s all the same in the end]

—————————————-

In such a hopeless situation, everyone was feeling nothing but despair.

But while everyone thought there was no solution, someone suddenly came up with an ingenious idea.

—————————————-

<Clan Village Chat Room>

-[Wait, talking about Walpurgis reminds me]

-[?]

-[You know that user who invaded them and failed]

-[Icarus?]

-[Yeah, that guy, but why?]

-[That guy has a stronghold, and he’s holding it alone]

-[Yeah]

-[What if we petition him to take us in?]

-[Huh?]

—————————————-

The suggestion was to approach Icarus, the very person who had inadvertently shown them what true “peace” was.