Ch.424As Always, a Damp(?) Back Alley Story (2)

Meanwhile, as Arcadia was focused on massive public opinion manipulation to make Icarus fandom a clan-wide activity…

At that very moment, suspected public opinion manipulation teams from the Loki Clan and Humanity Clan were clashing with Justice’s public opinion team in the gallery.

“The situation is developing quite interestingly.”

“Indeed it is.”

The game administrators, who generally left users alone except when dealing with those posting disturbing images or pedophilic content in the gallery, or when appointing new moderators—or more specifically, who left users alone as long as they “didn’t expose their activities in the community”—were finding the current situation quite fascinating.

This was because Ranking 1st Antares, who fearlessly negotiated directly with them while they were observing users without direct intervention and guaranteeing their autonomy, had caused an enormous incident that defied their expectations.

“I thought they might take advantage of the clans’ weakened forces after the event to start a large-scale clan war.”

“But they went beyond that and completely devoured another faction.”

They had expected clans to merely sabotage each other.

The administrators never anticipated that the massive Earth Federation would be completely consumed, so they were expressing admiration for Antares and the Humanity users who had exceeded their expectations.

Of course, separate from their genuine admiration, if Humanity Clan completely absorbed the Earth Federation, it would be impossible for other clans and users to handle the Humanity Clan’s power…

The administrators had already implemented a “balance patch” as a moderate yet subtle intervention.

Their approach was to give “appropriate buffs” to other users and clans while simultaneously applying indirect debuffs to Humanity, aiming to restore the collapsed power balance.

As a result, they enabled the “Leviathan Squadron,” which would otherwise have been completely destroyed, to escape Humanity’s encirclement.

They arranged for the Leviathan Squadron to flee alongside the Earth Federation’s leader, the “Security Council President.”

“Has the Leviathan Squadron completely escaped?”

“Yes. This should prevent Humanity from hastily invading neighboring territories even if they consume the Earth Federation.”

Furthermore, there were no “major clans” with enough concentrated power to resist if Humanity quickly reorganized their forces and finished regrouping.

“Even though Ranking 3rd has Marian and powerful mercenary recruitment capabilities, it would be difficult to withstand Humanity’s invasion, wouldn’t it?”

“Certainly.”

“Currently, Ranking 3rd’s maximum recruitment capacity is limited to a fleet-class mercenary group of about 9,700 users per day.”

“If Humanity decides to invade the Central Zone, they could mobilize at least 30,000 to 40,000 users.”

“Hmm.”

Since even Icarus, one of the few “major powers,” had obvious limitations, they decided to use the Leviathan Squadron to protect the “Central Zone,” which was likely to be Humanity’s first target.

So while buying time by sabotaging the “gateway stronghold” closest to the Central Zone, they placed the Leviathan Squadron in Icarus’s hands to prevent Humanity from readily invading the Central Zone.

Of course, as mentioned above, since the administrators generally maintained a stance of “neutral observation,” apart from giving Icarus the Leviathan and temporarily sealing the “gateway” to the Central Zone…

They intended to distribute “help” for balance patches to other zones as well.

However, contrary to the administrators’ intentions…

“It seems the users are handling everything on their own better than expected.”

“Oh?”

“This is truly remarkable.”

“They’re exceeding our expectations.”

Betelgeuse’s Loki Clan was countering Humanity by squatting in and taking over parts of the former Earth Federation territory.

They were also attacking and absorbing clans from other factions to increase their strength.

Arcadia’s Justice Clan, unlike their usual behavior, was actively conducting public opinion operations to check Humanity.

At the same time, they were trying to strengthen Icarus’s position in the Central Zone to establish a separate power base.

Even the Magellan Clan led by Monaliza, the ultimate victor in the Xenovia Empire, while appearing to bow to Humanity on the surface…

Was actually plotting sinister schemes, with everyone implementing appropriate countermeasures or planning to do so…

Seeing the users trying to balance power “in their own way,” the administrators held a brief meeting and concluded:

“Well, if they’re going this far.”

“Perhaps we don’t need to intervene any further?”

“It certainly seems that way. Further intervention might actually be counterproductive.”

“I agree.”

They decided that further intervention in the current situation was unnecessary.

They stopped additional interference and decided to simply observe the users’ actions for the time being.

Of course, such “observation” only applied to users’ battles, political maneuvering, and other such matters…

“Well then, let’s get back to our own work…”

“More sexual deviants in the gallery again.”

“Ah.”

“Aaaaargh my eyeeees!”

“Sigh… I don’t understand why they keep doing this.”

“It’s probably stress relief.”

“This too is part of our responsibility.”

As always, users posting all sorts of bizarre, disturbing images and deviant sexual content just because they were bored appeared.

The administrators had to continue their role as “erasers,” deleting grandma and grandpa poop images, gore pictures, deviant sexual content, and other insane posts while suffering visual terrorism.

And while the administrators and various clans were spinning their sinister plots…

What was our protagonist Icarus A.K.A. “Emperor and King of the Central Zone, Ruler of the Triangle Zone, Protector of Tannhäuser, Avalon, and Barracuda, 3rd in Luck, 3rd in Skill, Eternal 3rd Something Something” doing?

==========

“Ah, I want to capture a new stronghold.”

“Suddenly?”

After dismissing all the mercenaries I had hired with the sewing machine and sending them back…

I found myself freshly wanting to capture a new stronghold.

Preferably one “at the same level as Tannhäuser or higher.”

Of course, this was nothing more than my meager hope.

“But Commander, all the empty strongholds nearby are below level 3.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the problem.”

As Jessica pointed out, there was a severe shortage of available strongholds in the area…

It wasn’t that there were “absolutely no” level 5 or higher strongholds.

However, my previous conquests and those of the former Rattan Water-Magellan Clan had been widely shared through the gallery, spreading stronghold conquest methods to other users for quite some time now.

“Wait, are there really none?”

“No empty strongholds, meaning ones held by NPCs.”

While strongholds level 6 and above remained unconquered due to users’ numerical and coordination limitations…

Strongholds level 5 and below had been captured by users who couldn’t reach the Triangle Zone but joined forces with nearby users.

After succeeding in siege warfare, some groups even rotated control of the central docking monthly like electing a mayor…

Despite now being able to capture new strongholds whenever I wanted, I found myself in the ironic position of having no strongholds to capture, creating quite a peculiar feeling.