Ch.345Tannhäuser Workshop Battle (1)

Incidentally, there were quite complex reasons why our Icarus mobilized his fleet specifically during nighttime.

First and foremost, since he was employing an army of 400,000 mercenaries who gulped down a total of 4.7 million resources in daily contract fees, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the biggest factor was a manifestation of his miserly spirit—trying to squeeze out a few more hours of use from them.

But as mentioned above, there were other reasons too.

Setting aside various minor details, if we were to name two additional reasons besides his stinginess…

One was that users targeting strongholds, like the “temporary clans” from before, were positioned all around. He wanted to strike preemptively before these users woke up and began their activities in earnest.

And what was the remaining reason?

“Commander, so what’s the last reason?”

“Remember when we captured Barracuda last time? We charged in too openly and users swarmed in from all directions.”

“Ah…”

“I’m trying to avoid that.”

As they say, too much attention can be harmful.

During daytime, there would be more active users, which would only attract unnecessary attention. In the process, his strategies and other information might be exposed, so he chose this time to avoid such issues.

Of course, all these were ultimately secondary concerns. The fundamental reason was that he didn’t want to waste time and wanted to conserve as much as possible.

After the battle ended, he planned to catch up on some sweet sleep for whatever time he lacked.

———-

However, contrary to Icarus’s expectations.

The number of users who stayed up late at night was surprisingly high.

But that was understandable. After all, if you paid 3,000 minerals, 800 rare resources, and 2 million gold every week, you wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted by mobs or passing high-level players anymore.

Some users spent their time drinking and partying among themselves, or endlessly playing games installed on the base computers.

Others, instead of engaging in combat with their adjutants or superhumans as they should, were busy enjoying “enthusiastic underwear wrestling,” either giving or receiving(?).

Moreover, even if such users hadn’t existed…

“Whoa?”

“Wow, how many ships is that?”

“It’s incredible.”

The 2,535 mercenary groups that Icarus had summoned after more than 10 minutes of intense negotiation were warping in one after another as soon as they were hired.

-BOOM! BOOM! THUD! CRASH!

“GAAAAH! Let me sleep!”

“Commander, I don’t think this is the time for a good night’s rest.”

The ‘thunderous noise’ and ‘vibrations’ that occurred with each warp-out were striking the base, serving as a powerful ‘wake-up alarm’ for users who had been enjoying their sweet sleep.

Our users, who got up irritated, were half annoyed wondering what was going on, and half questioning if these were raiders coming to plunder them and Avalon, so they headed to the command center…

“HIEEEEK!”

“I expected you’d react that way.”

They were shocked to see over 400,000 ships disappearing somewhere through the ‘gateway’ connected to Icarus’s base docked in the center, which doubled as a <Super-large Fleet Long-distance Teleport System>.

The problem was that unlike the times when there were ‘village communities,’ most of the currently docked users were those who frequented communities including the gallery, so…

—————————————–

Title: Late night, posting shocking pics.jpg

Author: Anonymous

Content: [gif of thousands of mercenary groups continuously warping in]

Actually a gif, sorry

Comments:

-[What is that?]

-[Is some clan doing a stronghold siege in the middle of the night? That’s a lot coming in]

-[Oh, mostly small ships. Are they planning a head-on suppression?]

—————————————–

As users who were angry about being woken up posted ‘verification posts’ on the gallery to vent their frustrations.

Icarus’s plan for a ‘covert operation’ was ruined from the start.

———-

Of course, such verification posts themselves didn’t have much impact on the usual flow of the dawn gallery, which was always full of crappy memes, old-man-hair-loss pics, various garbage posts, adult images, and strange fetishes…

—————————————–

<Humanity Staff Chat>

<Notice: Forced exit if you don’t respond within 10 seconds of entering>

-[<Link to verification post of 400,000-ship fleet spotted at Avalon>]

-[Urgent]

-[Icarus spawned 400,000 ships]

-[???]

-[What?]

-[400,000 ships?]

-[Not another clan attacking, but him alone with 400,000 ships?]

-[Yeah, actually more than that. Ran a number-checking program and it’s at least 400,000 ships]

-[Wow]

—————————————–

—————————————–

<Loki Clan Truth Room☆>

-[Clan leader, seen this?]

-[<Link to verification post of 400,000-ship fleet spotted at Avalon>]

-[He mobilized 400,000 ships alone]

-[Is he crazy?]

-[Hahaha]

-[Is that even the right scale for a solo player? That’s practically on par with a large clan]

—————————————–

—————————————–

<We Are The Justice>

-[<Link to verification post of 400,000-ship fleet spotted at Avalon>]

-[Oh damn]

-[So this is why our clan leader suggested recruiting Icarus?]

-[We already finished that discussion]

-[If you guys hadn’t objected back then, Icarus would be on our team by now. What a waste]

-[Let’s all calm down]

-[Okay]

—————————————–

Since there were so many users, clans that had established their own 24-hour surveillance systems knew that the 400,000+ ships Icarus had mobilized was an insane force that no single user should be able to—or should—command.

And besides these three major clans, other ‘sizeable’ clans also confirmed the reports about Icarus’s fleet.

As they chattered among themselves and evaluated the situation, they managed to push aside the gallery’s crappy memes and adult images, changing the gallery’s hot topic to Icarus’s fleet.

Of course, most users who had come looking for adult images initially resisted, complaining about pointless attention-seeking from verified users with badges.

But that didn’t last long.

—————————————–

Title: The reason everyone’s talking about Icarus right now

Author: Anonymous

Content: [gif of fleets moving somewhere through the base teleport system]

Looking at the verification post, it’s at least 400,000 ships

At this level, no joke, he’s surpassed mid-tier clans and is barely qualifying as what we call a ‘large clan’

You might think we’re overreacting

But considering that the average base level of users in successful clans is level 8

And assuming users also fully purchase force dispatches and mercenary groups

The number of ships Icarus mobilized is equivalent to what a mid-tier clan with ‘thousands’ of members would deploy with all their forces

In other words, he alone mobilized the power of a medium-large clan

Frankly, this far exceeds the scale of a single user

That’s why all kinds of clans are discussing Icarus’s military power

Comments:

-[I see]

-[Oh shit]

-[Hmm, is that so]

-˪[Anyway it’s awesome so just shut up and watch]

-˪[Don’t want to]

-˪[So back to posting crappy memes?]

-˪[On second thought, analyzing Icarus’s military power seems better]

-˪[Behave yourself]

—————————————–

When the attention-seekers with nothing better to do realized they weren’t posting crappy memes and hair-loss pics because they were focused on analyzing Icarus’s military power, users who had been showing negative reactions naturally jumped on the bandwagon.

And as a result of all this…

By the time Icarus had gathered his fleet for the Tannhäuser attack and was about to begin the assault—having taken quite some time due to the sheer number of ships moving simultaneously—thousands of stealth ships from users who had come to watch were swarming from all directions.