Ch.423As Always, a Damp(?) Back Alley Story (1)

It was truly an incomprehensible situation.

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Title: It’s time for the royal broadcast of Central Commander Icarus I!

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of Icarus issuing a 1-day ban.jpg]

Ohhh Your Majesty Ohhh

Praise that cold-blooded judgment

Comments:

-[You’ll be banned soon too]

-[A true loyalist who praises His Majesty even when facing a ban ddddd]

-˪[We agreed to call those people sycophants, not loyalists]

-[Why are users from other zones going crazy instead of Central Zone users where Icarus actually is?lol]

-˪[Because it’s not their problem so they’re just enjoying the show?]

-˪[Ah, I see]

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“These bastards, they were constantly threatening to kill me, and now suddenly why are they acting like this?”

“I wooonder.”

I really couldn’t understand why users were suddenly calling me Commander and trying to kill me without actually killing me.

Witnessing this incomprehensible mass hysteria(?), I could only feel utterly dumbfounded.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one thinking this way.

—————————————–

<Triangle Zone Official Chat Room>

<Notice: No clan – Icarus>

-[What? Were we part of a clan?]

-[Check the notice, we weren’t]

-[False accusation that’s not a false accusation]

-[Confused, I’m confused]

-[May you live long and prosper, King of the Central]

-[He says he’s not making a clan and you’re trying to make him king?]

-[Hmm, what a mess]

—————————————–

This was the content of the Triangle Zone users’ chat room, who had rushed over because of the Leviathan Squadron’s appearance.

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Title: Well, Icarus is the only top 10 ranker in the Central Zone

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a toad resting its chin on its hand.jpg]

But is that really a reason to hype him up like that?

Honestly, he really hates when people do this

Isn’t this just trolling by his fanboys?

Seems like they’re deliberately trying to provoke him to mess with him

Comments:

-[Does that make sense?]

-˪[Well, such people don’t exist… or maybe they do](Author)

-˪[Honestly, it does feel a bit like fanboying, yeah]

-[Just laugh about it, why so serious;;]

-˪[Still better than those who try to shove forced memes down our throats and attack when we call them unfunny](Author)

-˪[WTF did you just say?]

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Title: Isn’t this Icarus manipulating things?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a toad shouting “Interesting”]

Now that things have come to this, is he planning to create a real mega-clan in the Central Zone?

I mean, even now it’s practically no different from a clan

And right after the Leviathan Squadron joins, suddenly all these fanboy jokes start?

This is really interesting

Comments:

-[Serious Central Zone PVP fetishist out]

-[But didn’t he explicitly state in the notice that he’s not doing it?]

-˪[Just saying~](Author)

-˪[Just saying my ass, these possessed idiots haven’t grown mentally at all in over three years]

-[Hmmmm is it that serious?]

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While some users considered this bizarre hype just a fun event…

Others were looking at me with suspicious eyes, wondering if I was actually trying to form a clan in the Central Zone.

As users continued to emerge with various suspicious circumstances about the current situation, it was all very confusing.

But watching me like this, Jessica the Bunny Bunny said:

“Commander, do you really need to rack your brain over this issue?”

“Huh, what?”

“You’ve already made it clear in the chat room notice, gallery posts, and repeatedly stated before that you have no intention of forming a clan.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Since you’ve emphasized your position again with that chat room notice, I think it’s better to just carry on with your work and observe from now on.”

“…Hmm.”

Since her advice made a lot of sense, I nodded and decided to follow Jessica’s suggestion.

And indeed, shortly after.

“Commander~ Do you have a moment??”

“Captain Lepan, and Aquarias and Bendaloph? What’s the matter?”

“Well, you see, we have something to report regarding the battle from the other day.”

When Captain Lepan, who had a large and beautiful chest rivaling Pashtra’s, appeared with our base’s superhumans…

I mean, with the two sticky-note girls, no, Aquarias and Bendaloph, who barely balanced out the serious large-small chest disparity among our “executive” staff, and asked to talk.

The previous thoughts in my head were instantly buried in a corner of my mind and disappeared.

==========

But while our Icarus was busy working hard on his daily duties, unconsciously avoiding this matter…

At that very moment, at the command center of Arcadia’s base, which was currently docked at “Bellatrix,” the headquarters of “Justice” – one of the three major clans, or rather the 3+1 mega-clans…

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<Justice Secret Chat Room>

<Notice: Operation I to Y in progress.>

-[Some people are starting to catch on]

-[Those are from Humanity and Loki clans, just label them as serious nerds and we’ll be fine]

-[Humanity seems busy manipulating their own public opinion, but Loki is concerning]

-[Let’s stop at this level of positive influence on I’s clanification and just focus on eliminating any spies who get caught]

-[Agreed]

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Surprisingly, it was revealed that the “Icarus = Central Zone’s representative and king” jokes were actually public opinion manipulation pushed by the Justice clan.

Of course, while Arcadia might be different, the Justice clan itself hadn’t been particularly positive or negative toward Icarus.

Normally, such opinion manipulation would be extremely awkward for them, but…

—————————————–

<Justice Secret Chat Room>

<Notice: Operation I to Y in progress.>

-[Good work](Arcadia)

-[Through this operation, it’s important to force I into becoming a faction to use as a means to check other clans.](Arcadia)

-[The clan leader is right]

-[Humanity has become too powerful, so we have no choice, right?]

-[Loki has grown similarly strong too]

-[They haven’t really gotten stronger, they’ve just mindlessly expanded their territory]

-[Anyway, the important thing is that our growth is relatively less compared to them, right?]

-[Yeah]

-[Since the Magellan clan still lacks both the ability and will to check Humanity, we need I whether we like it or not]

-[Agreed]

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As mentioned in the secret chat room, while they had grown stronger themselves… they were admittedly in a somewhat precarious position.

Since the Magellan clan was rather unreliable, they were implementing a big picture plan to promote Icarus as a new power to keep all factions in check from the Central Zone.

Of course, as mentioned above, this was merely Arcadia saying “My big picture is like this~” and the clan executives accepting it as reasonable.

As for Arcadia, who actually brought this up…

“I will… make Icarus… king.”

“You sound like someone about to get their stomach pierced by a lava fist, Commander.”

Being Icarus’s fanboy, he was simply indulging in his fandom using the clan, nothing more.