Ch.432The Birth of the Central District’s Guardian, Deathsung. (2)

While Icarus was rambling about all sorts of random things…

And at that very moment when he was threatening to devour Princess Luca’s precious escort fleet like a nephew on a holiday…

…or rather, quite some time before that.

Because he had no interest in creating factions or clans, Icarus had a rather lone wolf personality. And unlike Icarus, who had unlimited mercenaries and sufficient military power through them…

The users docked at the Level 5 stronghold in the Central Zone had already established quite an intricate communication network.

To be precise, since they had to manage a large stronghold and its docked users without a clan structure…

Unlike other zones where users could simply create a “clan” for clean management, here a single user had to handle everything individually.

Whether they liked it or not, it was a makeshift solution for survival by sharing operational “know-how” with other users.

One year, two years.

No, after three years had passed since the “clan system” was created…

The simple chat room created to share operational know-how had transformed into a space for political maneuvering among the “mayor” users of Level 4 and higher strongholds in the Central Zone.

And the know-how that was originally meant for operating the stronghold itself had somehow changed into “how we can maintain long-term power in the stronghold.”

It had morphed into strategies for maintaining this tight system, and if nothing major happened, the Central Zone was destined to remain forever divided by the invisible hands of users functioning like a shadow council.

Unfortunately, reality far exceeded the users’ imagination.

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[Sigh]

-[Is it true that Earth Federation actually fell to Humanity?]

-[With 180,000 users banded together, how could they possibly withstand it?]

-[Ugh]

-[This is troubling]

—————————————–

First of all, one of the four major powers that seemed eternally unshakable had collapsed under a user clan.

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[I told you we should have just stayed quiet instead of getting involved]

-[What did you say?]

-[Weren’t you the one who agreed back then?]

-[You insolent little brat]

—————————————–

Some users tried to check the Central Zone users who had participated in Humanity’s mercenary business, unnecessarily inciting certain users.

The problem was that in the process, these incited users provoked other users, and those provoked users incited even more users, spreading like the Black Death.

When the mercenary users returned after being backstabbed, they immediately launched vengeful counterattacks in their fury.

Still unsatisfied, many users began acting like they were in UFC rather than WWE.

During this process, the “instigators” transformed these UFC-acting users into Yellow Turban Rebels who started burning down Central Zone users and strongholds to take them for themselves.

As a result, the Central Zone users’ power rapidly weakened, and users who had been defeated or grown tired of power struggles in other zones flooded into the Central Zone.

These newcomers began forming large-scale clans in the Central Zone.

The Central Zone stronghold users destroyed the bases of those who caused this situation and drove them out, keenly feeling the desperate need for a solution to this mess.

The problem was that no matter how successful these users were in the Central Zone with their strongholds, there was an obvious limit to what they could do when they only numbered a few hundred, even counting all the users docked at their strongholds.

Until recently, there had been a perception that “Yellow Turban Rebels and others can’t touch Level 4 strongholds and above!” But…

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[Wait what]

-[?]

-[Spiralis got raided]

-[?]

-[Wasn’t that a Level 5 stronghold?]

-[<Gallery link: Spiralis changed ownership 5 times in one day>]

-[It’s true]

-[Wait what the hell]

—————————————–

When it was proven that even the defense facilities and fleets of Level 5 strongholds they had so trusted were hopelessly powerless against the endless waves of user fleets…

The users who controlled Level 4 and higher strongholds continued to monitor the situation, feeling the need for something to turn the tide.

But regardless of feeling this necessity, they had absolutely no means to address the fundamental question: “So what exactly can you do about it?”

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[We can’t just sit around doing nothing]

-[Those Yellow Turban bastards and users from other zones keep mindlessly increasing their numbers and forces, clearly planning to take our strongholds]

-[Wasn’t Spiralis just unlucky?]

-[What makes you think that won’t happen to us too?]

-[But what can we actually do?]

-[Uh…]

-[Slander them?]

-[We’re not the majority anymore]

-[Ah]

—————————————–

The previous underhanded slander tactics had only been possible because most Central Zone users were truly “solo” players.

Additionally, those who had taken strongholds would subtly gaslight isolated users by mobilizing themselves and some of their followers.

The problem was that such isolated users no longer existed.

And since there were many other issues as well…

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[Can’t we figure something out?]

-[Would they even fall for slander tactics now?]

-[If it were me, I’d think “How annoying” and just join the Yellow Turbans]

-[Ah]

-[That’s probably true]

-[We might just end up making more enemies]

-[I think it’s time to accept reality]

-[Sigh]

-[We can no longer maintain the Central Zone’s independent status by ourselves]

-[If we just try to maintain the status quo, we’ll lose our leadership to Yellow Turbans or users from other zones]

—————————————–

The self-proclaimed mayors of the Central Zone, elected by users and exploiting their positions, all decided to accept reality.

They strongly sensed that they alone were insufficient to manage both the original Central Zone users and the newcomers from other zones.

At the same time, they feared that if they made a wrong move, they might lose all their strongholds and positions…

Shortly after.

—————————————–

<Central Stronghold Mayors’ Meeting>

<Notice: The current situation isn’t good. Please be careful.>

-[Let’s push for Icarus as the Central Zone leader]

-[Agreed]

-[He probably won’t like it, will that be okay?]

-[If we all push for it together, it’ll work out, right?]

-[For real lol]

-[Besides, we all know what happens when someone gets power]

-[That’s true]

-[So should we call it the “Central Zone Stronghold Alliance”?]

-[Sounds good]

-[Let’s go with that]

—————————————–

And so, with an incredibly devious scheme, they began pushing our Icarus to become the Central Zone leader.