Ch.389″Accept it without resistance.” (5)

But after actually entering Round 5…

—————————————–

<Round 5 Combat Initiated>

<Enemy Fleet Detected>

<Formation Status>

<Dreadnought x1>

<Annihilation Ship x1>

<Battleship x5>

<Aircraft Carrier x1>

<Battle Cruiser x3>

<Heavy Cruiser x10>

<Light Cruiser x3>

<Destroyer x20>

<Warning!>

<From Round 5, the overall performance of enemy fleets is enhanced!>

—————————————–

Unlike before, something seemed off from the moment they revealed the enemy fleet composition.

As the real battle began, it wasn’t long before…

-KABOOM!

-“Abandon ship!”

-“Battleship 3 heavily damaged! All personnel evacuate immediately!”

“Commander, Ouroboros’ concentrated cannon is fully charged!”

“Fire now! Target the center of those damn battleships’ front line!”

-“Order confirmed, main cannon firing!”

-KABOOOOOOM!!!

I could see that the users in the gallery weren’t lying when they whined about the ridiculously brutal difficulty level that now confronted me.

Of course, I wasn’t just taking hits without fighting back.

-BOOM! BOOM!

“Commander, Ouroboros’ bombardment just sank one enemy battleship and three cruisers!”

“Good, goooood.”

“Enemy fleet being flanked, one light cruiser and five destroyers approaching from the side.”

-“I’ll handle the flanking enemy fleet!”

Berial’s skillful fleet maneuvers and command buffs were impressive.

Tiamat’s buffs doubled the performance of carrier aircraft to an insane degree.

The unstoppable force of Ouroboros, Hresvelgr, and the two Kraken ships…

-RUMBLE RUMBLE… KABOOM!

-“Battle cruiser 2 heavily damaged, grounded on a nearby asteroid!”

-“Bayern returning fire, one of the enemy battleship’s main turrets destroyed!”

“Ughhhh.”

The newly acquired S-class battleship Bayern was performing better than expected.

“Enemy aircraft… no, unmanned drone swarm detected!”

-“Enemy flanking units not detected, they appear to be using a cloaking system!”

“Damn it, tell Khabarovsk to run another full-range scan, and as soon as they’re detected, have the interceptors launch a massive assault.”

-“Yes, Commander!”

The Khabarovsk that finally appeared after 9,980 pulls was also working hard.

By sacrificing common-grade ships, I was somehow able to proceed with the battle in a calm manner.

But even so, it was unbearable to watch battle cruisers and battleships having their armor pierced like tofu.

“This is insane. Berial!”

-“Yes, Commander.”

“How many ships do we have that can withstand enemy battleship-grade bombardment without being penetrated?”

-“The two Kraken-class ships, the Dreadnought, and the Bayern-class, totaling about 4 ships.”

“The Kraken?”

-“Yes, at least from the front, it’s comparable to a Dreadnought.”

‘Holy moly.’

Apart from the Bayern-class “heavy battleship” that invested more in armor than mobility from the start…

And excluding the stupidly thick-armored Dreadnought and the Kraken, which was equivalent to the Dreadnought but only from the “front”…

There were no ships here that could withstand enemy “battleship-grade” fire.

And the enemy had two more vessels with even greater firepower than those “battleships.”

-“Enemy Dreadnought advancing head-on!”

“Tell Neranjara to destroy only one of the enemy Dreadnought’s propulsion systems.”

-“Understood!”

Whether it was a final act of mercy or not, the enemy Dreadnought had armor equal to ours.

But everything else was disgustingly strengthened, making a head-on confrontation absolutely terrible.

-“High energy reaction detected ahead!”

“Ouroboros, commence firing!”

The Ouroboros, which we had successfully captured during the last event, received buffs from Partia and Berial.

It fired at 140% overcharge just to barely match the firepower of the Annihilation Ship, which fired whenever its cooldown was ready.

With everything except “armor” boosted by one level…

‘This is seriously insane.’

As mentioned above, I could once again understand why even veteran players in the gallery were cursing about Round 5.

Of course, no matter how strong the enemy was…

-BOOM!

-“This is Neranjara. I’ve eliminated 80% of the enemy Dreadnought’s right propulsion system.”

Just as I had instructed earlier, Neranjara completely sabotaged the Dreadnought’s propulsion systems.

As the brutally advancing Dreadnought suddenly veered into a sharp curve due to the imbalance in its propulsion systems…

“Commander, Hresvelgr’s strategic missiles are ready.”

“Fire immediately, and use Kraken Unit 2’s teleport to make all missiles hit the enemy Dreadnought directly.”

“Yes.”

Through Hresvelgr’s strategic missiles—a ship about the size of a heavy cruiser—all warheads made direct short-range impacts, instantly causing irreversible damage.

-BEEP!

-“Commander! We’ve successfully destroyed the main cannon of the enemy Annihilation Ship!”

“Good, now have Tiamat’s carrier aircraft prioritize attacking enemy destroyers, and if there’s capacity left, take away the mobility of the battleships.”

-“Roger!”

Using Kraken Unit 1’s teleport, we destroyed the main cannon of the annoying enemy Annihilation Ship that kept trying to engage in energy wave battles.

Effectively neutering it.

After pushing the two most troublesome ships into a disabled state, we no longer needed to engage in energy wave battles with Ouroboros.

-“All carrier aircraft retreat immediately, Ouroboros’ main cannon is firing in dispersal mode!”

-“Main cannon, preparing to fire in dispersal mode!”

Because their main ships were struggling, the enemy fleet clustered together for protection, giving us the perfect opportunity to use Ouroboros’ dispersal mode for the first time.

And when the dispersal mode—nicknamed the “flamethrower”—spewed forth…

Unlike when Ouroboros’ glowing halos rotated to concentrate energy, the energy stream grew exponentially larger as it passed through each halo.

Eventually, the torrent of energy discharged from the muzzle was amplified as it passed through each halo.

By the time it passed through the final halo, it had become a massive fiery tsunami large enough to cover an entire planet and its satellite orbits.

And the enemy fleet exposed to this torrent, as mentioned above, had “armor” not much different from other ships.

Even the Dreadnought, which normally would have withstood the attack, had taken 12 strategic missiles to its side, creating a massive hole.

-FWOOOOOOSH!!!

-BOOM! BOOM!

-KABOOM!!!

“What a ridiculous sight.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s just an expression.”

The smaller ships, as mentioned earlier, melted like plastic held to a lighter, then exploded.

Ships larger than heavy cruisers with undamaged armor somehow managed to hold on.

But for ships with severely damaged armor, including the Dreadnought…

They were being “pulverized” like pieces of styrofoam exposed to a high-pressure air blaster.

The Dreadnought in particular was a spectacular sight—its satellite-sized massive hull turning into charred coal chunks and breaking apart.

I took a screenshot of it, deciding to use it as the background for my command console for the foreseeable future.

And after Ouroboros’ 140% maximum charge flamethrower finished…

The remaining ships that hadn’t been sunk or heavily damaged and grounded on nearby planets or asteroids all rushed in to finish off the groggy enemy fleet.

Finally, the last remaining battleship evaporated after being hit simultaneously by 59 shells from our side.

—————————————–

<Round 5 Cleared!>

<Battle Result: Victory>

<Enemy Fleet Annihilated>

<Proceed to next round?>

<Y/N>

—————————————–

Seeing the naturally appearing “Proceed to next round?” message…

After a moment of careful consideration.

I very naturally gave it the double middle finger, expressing my extreme rejection.

‘I’d be crazy to do this again. Go fuck yourself.’

These crazy game operators, how could they make something like this for players to clear?