Ch.395Call me Icarus. (1)

Even though my flawless “first-strike-wins strategy” of teleporting strategic missiles for close-range attacks had been completely blocked since acquiring Kraken and Hræsvelgr…

Ironically, while Hræsvelgr and other ships were tanking the enemy fleet’s surprise missile attacks…

I couldn’t help but be amazed when I finally identified the enemy’s “special ship.”

And for good reason—not only was there that damned stealth battleship forcing me to use Hræsvelgr purely as an anti-air vessel…

But unlike the rest of their ships, which all thoroughly focused on “concealment” as stealth-cloaking vessels…

One of the enemy special ships identified through communications from the reconnaissance aircraft I had just deployed, and Khabarovsk’s appropriate analysis, was…

“It has a really unique shape.”

“Hmm… I wonder why that thing is even there.”

Surprisingly, it was a ship in the form of a massive space monster, similar in size to Kraken Unit 1, which had now grown to its maximum size.

And the shape of that ship… or rather, the giant monster, was truly unique, just as Jessica said.

Its overall appearance was similar to Kraken, but unlike what you’d expect from a monster ship, it had neither “giant tentacles” nor “biological cannons.”

It also lacked the cave-like hangar that Kraken used to spew out its biological fighters.

Instead, its hull surface was covered with numerous long, thin appendages resembling antennae, hair, or feelers.

At the rear, it had something protruding that was fewer in number than Kraken’s four so-called “teleport wings,” but at least twice as large—not wings, but some kind of elongated structures.

Perhaps it looked like a fusion between a tailless stingray and a coral reef?

Not only Jessica, who had openly called it unusual, but other NPCs in the command center and the Superhumans connected via communication were all showing expressions of doubt.

But unlike the others, Oxianor, who was a monster by birth, showed a very interested expression.

-“Fascinating. That’s something rarely seen even in our ‘nests.'”

“Is that so?”

-“Absolutely. It’s such a difficult entity to create that even most large fleet formations rarely include one.”

“It certainly is an uncommon vessel.”

As I nodded in agreement, Jessica began poking my side, urging me to finally give her the answer.

In response to her behavior, I pulled her rabbit ears and gave her a clean answer.

“That’s a wide-area stealth detection monster that’s only occasionally seen in monster fleet main forces.”

“You mean… it’s similar to our Khabarovsk type?”

“Exactly.”

Seeing that Jessica understood my explanation, I nodded and continued with additional information.

“Well, its firepower is poor for its size, and its maneuverability is terrible, but…”

“Hmm.”

“It has the overwhelming frontal defense typical of monsters, and unusually for a monster, its sides and rear are also armored better than most battleships.”

“Is that so?”

“Moreover, being such a rare creature, it can detect stealth and cloaking over a much wider range than our Khabarovsk, and…”

“And?”

“Though I haven’t seen the details, it even blocks teleportation in the surrounding area.”

“Ohhh.”

It also provided buffs that increased the hit rate of guided weapons like missiles fired by other ships and improved evasion rates.

Because of this, the interception battle with Hræsvelgr and its subordinate ships, which should have been overwhelmingly advantageous, had become evenly matched.

Jessica nodded as she finally understood why I had Hræsvelgr focus solely on anti-air defense rather than deploying it separately.

After nodding, she immediately expressed a hopeful comment.

“But the appearance of something like that means you can capture it and include it as a new force, right, Commander?”

For a moment, I felt indignant at her reaction, as if I were some kind of plunderer…

‘…Frustrating but true. Still frustrating!’

But thinking about it, such a comment was natural coming from Jessica, so after a brief moment of contemplation (5 seconds)…

I shook my head from side to side, explaining that it was impossible.

“Unfortunately, that’s a ship users can’t utilize. To be precise, it’s something only NPCs could use, while users could only access it through mods.”

“What?”

“According to the lore, if it’s about to be captured by non-monster entities, it self-destructs.”

To be exact, it was a ship used exclusively by NPCs and had never been granted to users even once.

Seeing Jessica’s expression that seemed to question whether this made sense, I decided to search the gallery for information about the “Anatoria” class to increase the credibility of my statement.

—————————————–

Title: Has anyone seen the monster ship called Anatoria class? Can it be captured?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [‘Anatoria class’ moving with escort from other monster ships.jpg]

This huge thing looks tempting. If I eat it, will I become a classy super-large battleship owner?

Comments:

-[Users can’t get that one]

-[It self-destructs if users try to capture it]

-˪[Really?](Author)

-˪[Yep]

-[Yeah, since that update, not a single user has ever used it]

-[You found a legendary Pokémon lol]

-[Say “Thanks, thumbs-up hedgehog” and you’ll get lucky]

—————————————–

After learning that my words were true, Jessica nodded, saying it was truly surprising that such things existed.

But unlike the Anatoria class, which was easily identified because I knew about it…

“Then Commander, what’s that ship behind it?”

“…Good question?”

The other special ship detected by Khabarovsk had a strange structure attached to the Anatoria class, connected by glowing energy chains.

At the front, it had something that looked like a massive “anchor” or “harpoon” similar to what was embedded in the Anatoria class, resembling a gigantic artillery ship…

The problem was that I couldn’t identify what kind of ship it was just by looking at it.

‘What is that nonsensical structure?’

In a SF world of long-range particle beams and optical beams, suddenly there’s something like a whaling ship shooting harpoons?

Faced with this bizarre and nonsensical ship, I immediately clicked on the wiki tab I had open in the gallery.

Searching for terms related to “harpoon,” I was finally able to discover the identity of the ship.

However, once I learned its identity…

—————————————–

Title: Anchorage-class Forced Salvage Ship Explanation.txt

Author: Wiki Historian mk-22

Content: [Anchorage-class beauty angle concept art.jpg]

A ship infamous for both its appearance and nonsensical concept, and since it came out when the game was dying, not many people know about it.

But if you get one, it’s super fun with 3D maneuvers and ridiculous power, so what does it do?

It has an “extremely” massive anchor-like thing at the front, which fires with a kind of energy chain attached to it.

It’s a harpoon, yeah.

Frankly speaking, it’s like a whaling ship, but similar to Kraken, it can teleport the harpoon into enemy ships at will.

The problem is that the physical size is insanely large.

Actually, it’s not teleportation but creates a small wormhole to fire the harpoon.

When this damn thing embeds in an enemy ship and pulls, the ship gets dragged along the small wormhole.

Since the wormhole is small, the ship gets crushed as it’s pulled through, like a crab getting sucked into and crushed by a damaged underwater gas pipe.

The issue is that the wormhole’s suction power + the pulling force of the anchor-harpoon is just ridiculously strong.

Once caught, anything “battleship” class or below is a guaranteed one-shot kill.

Forget salvaging—if you’re caught, you’re dragged along until you crash into the wormhole before you can destroy the anchor.

Even if you try to resist, it bends your hull, so there’s no answer.

Of course, if the target is a larger ship, it might pull the Anchorage instead.

But in that case, you just release the anchor, so no problem.

The hit rate is terrible though.

Comments:

-[So it’s just a whaling ship?]

-[Huge harpoon, huge damage!]

-˪[What dildo?]

-[From the receiving end it feels super unfair, but the user gets stressed too because of the hit rate issues lol]

-[“Where the hell are you aiming that grab?!!!”]

-˪[Lolololol]

—————————————–

‘Is this a trolling ship?’

I felt a strange sensation from its bizarre combat method, which was as nonsensical as its appearance.

But that feeling didn’t last long.

After closing the gallery wiki tab and shifting my gaze back to the screen…

Seeing the Anatoria class that shouldn’t be here, as well as the Anchorage class with one of its only three harpoons permanently embedded in the giant monster…

‘Ah, this is a gimmick-breaking scenario.’

I realized this round involved removing the Anchorage class’s “harpoon” embedded in the Anatoria, allowing the captured Anatoria to regain its freedom.

Then, using the Anatoria that had changed from hostile to “friendly neutral,” we would need to take down that large stealth fleet in a gimmick-based battle.