Ch.323I, Who Am I? “The King of Neutrality.” (4)

It’s been a week since that incident.

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<Base Level 9 Upgrade in Progress…>

<Time Remaining Until Construction Complete: 32 days 18 hours 56 minutes 32 seconds>

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“Checking the Level 9 upgrade timer again?”

“Of course. It’s about time for the real super-carriers to make their appearance.”

I was proceeding with the Level 9 upgrade using resources that had accumulated faster than expected, thanks to the “usage fees” paid by the large number of users docking at my base.

Well, the upgrade itself had already started three days ago…

Anyway, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I had grown impressively, now ranking among the top 10% of users.

‘Who am I? Rank 3 in the top 10%.’

Perhaps because of that.

Every time I looked at that upgrade progress window, I couldn’t help but smile like a proud father.

Of course, some might wonder why I’d react so strongly to a mere upgrade progress window…

-CRASH!

“…”

“Commander, apparently some newcomers got into an argument and their battleships collided.”

“…”

“Commander, now that we have over 500 people, incidents seem to be happening quite frequently.”

-“ARGH, YOU BASTARD!”

-“Oh, were you distracted?”

-“Who’s the asshole responsible for the paint vandalism on the base?”

“Haha, shit.”

I thought it was a good idea to accept docking requests from user bases serving as branches(?) of the three major clans, as long as they certified they wouldn’t join any separate clans.

But perhaps because of that, my territory was seen as a completely neutral zone.

People who wanted a place where they wouldn’t be attacked flocked here from all over, and proportionally, a bunch of “pranksters” came along too.

As Jessica mentioned, once the user count exceeded 500, incidents were occurring almost daily.

Some idiots even misunderstood despite my clearly stating that I had no intention of forming a “clan.”

I even made that intention clear in my gallery verification post.

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Title: I also came to Avalon neutral zone lol

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Verification Image]

It’s called neutral but isn’t this basically a clan?

Now that I’m part of a ranker clan, I’m set to reap the benefits lolololol

Comments:

-[Goodbye]

-[You won’t go far]

-˪[?](Author)

-˪[If you try to form a clan at Avalon, Icarus will beat you up and kick you out]

-˪[Oh](Author)

-[I’ve already seen this, so just leave on your own](Icarus)

-˪[Please spare me](Author)

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Lord, another idiot who doesn’t read the announcements is here today lol]

-[It’s quite entertaining watching these illiterates]

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Because of people like that, whether they were trolling or trying to promote clan formation from within,

I had to repeatedly beat them up or quietly kick them out. Whether I liked it or not, I needed to find healing by at least looking at the upgrade window.

Well, except for those issues… hmm.

Everyone else was just doing their own thing, living quite smoothly and uneventfully.

If things were a bit more relaxed, I thought I might be able to live like a village chief of sorts.

And if there was one fortunate thing, it was that more than half of the users docked at Avalon had almost no fleet or other military power.

Thanks to that, even when conflicts arose between them, I could just throw a Kraken at them, and they’d quickly learn their manners, which was quite convenient.

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Meanwhile, besides those 500 or so users, there were other new users who had arrived.

Most of these users chose not to wait for a vacant spot at Avalon.

Instead, they opted to stay at “Barracuda,” which I had newly occupied.

Of course, those who didn’t come to check with their ships first but just warped their bases directly…

Unfortunately, they ended up becoming homeless in front of Avalon without exception.

However, one user was able to naturally claim one of Avalon’s docking areas.

“By the way, Jessica, has there been any complaint from the ‘Biomass’ side?”

“No, honestly, it seems like the Biomass side just sent a representative because everyone else was sending one.”

The reason was simple: this user came as a representative of “Biomass,” a massive clan following the “Big 3” clans of Humanity, Loki, and Justice.

Biomass was a large clan that firmly controlled the space monster territory.

What could other users say about it?

Complain?

What could an individual user say or do against a clan with over 20,000 members?

If someone voiced a complaint, the representative user might report the situation to clan headquarters.

Then Biomass, upon learning of this, might express extreme anger and seek revenge(?).

And there was no one anywhere who could stop the wrath of an enraged Biomass.

So everyone, whether they liked it or not, had no choice but to welcome with applause the Biomass clan representative taking a docking spot.

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However, in the case of the Biomass clan, as mentioned above, they really gave off the strong impression that “we’re only here because everyone else sent someone.”

Other clans were subtly trying to do “business” here while simultaneously attempting to recruit me into their clans.

The Biomass clan showed no interest in such matters, strongly tending to remain secluded within their own base.

Additionally, the Biomass clan’s base itself had a very unique structure.

What kind of structure? Well…

Since my base was also affiliated with “space monsters,” one corner housed a massive “nest of life” that was writhing in a grotesque manner.

“By the way, the Biomass guys’ base seems to have gone completely overboard.”

“Overboard?”

“That’s what it is.”

The Biomass user’s base went beyond my “infested” base structure.

The base itself had reached a state where it could be considered a single living organism.

Only the “docking area” and various external facilities and installations protruding outward proved that this was an “Astral Base.”

The thick outer armor plates consisted of beautiful muscle masses with pulsating blood vessels and exoskeletal carapaces.

The external mooring facilities maintained the same structure with ships docked at widely extended facilities.

But for some reason, large and beautiful tentacles protruding from inside the mooring facility passages were attached like umbilical cords to monster-type biological ships.

External work that should be done by cranes or other work equipment was being handled by freely moving “tentacles.”

In some places where radar should be, large eyes or antennae of biological monsters were growing.

In many ways, it looked like what our base’s “nest of life” might become if greatly expanded.

But more than the base’s appearance, there was something else that terrified me, Jessica, and commanders who had never been to the space monster territory.

That part was…

-“Icarus, why don’t you try getting a biological modification too?”

“Ah, yes… I’ll think about it.”

-“You don’t know how convenient this is until you try it!”

The commander with a half-human, half-insect appearance, as well as the superhumans of that base, had all undergone extreme “monster-type” biological modifications.

And since these “monster-type” biological modifications had quite perverted tendencies,

After ending the communication with “Wiridi,” who came as Biomass’s representative, I shook my head and said:

“This looks like something we’d see if Griyanar gathered about two more people.”

“Exactly.”

The commander himself had tentacles or third and fourth arms attached to his back or shoulders for convenience.

The other superhumans occasionally visible on screen were also somewhat… how should I put it?

Their clothing writhed with living tentacles like Oxianor’s.

Eyes embedded right in the middle of their clothes blinked and stared at me.

In many ways, from clothing to body, everything had been extremely modified…

Well, to be frank, it was just a very perverted structure that made observers feel quite strange.