Ch.465″Smile while you flip them off.”

The story from the anti-faction friends wasn’t really beyond my expectations.

—————————————–

<Anti-Faction Leader-Icarus Chat Room>

-[Hey]

-[Hey you]

-[?](Icarus)

-[Join us in taking down the pro-faction]

-[Since you’re solo, you’ll side with us, right?]

-[Right?]

-[He says he agrees]

-[WTF is this](Icarus)

—————————————–

To be precise, they exceeded my expectations in a different direction.

They were so blatantly presumptuous in their approach that, as the person involved, I couldn’t help thinking, “What the hell is wrong with these guys?”

And naturally, there was no way I’d respond nicely to such behavior.

—————————————–

<Anti-Faction Leader-Icarus Chat Room>

-[Get lost ㅗㅗ](Icarus)

-[What nonsense are you talking about](Icarus)

-[Wait a sec]

<You have blocked Anti-Faction Leader.>

—————————————–

After showing my incredulous reaction and immediately blocking them,

I decided to post on the gallery to openly express my negative reaction to their outburst.

—————————————–

Title: People who fearlessly mess with factions are doing something extremely dangerous

Author: Icarus

Content: [Image of Kraken devouring another starship.jpg]

Take the monsters for example

The main fleet must have tens, hundreds, or even thousands of ships equivalent to my Kraken

Did you forget that?

[Screenshot of anti-faction chat with Icarus, names blurred.jpg]

At least I’m not going to fight against the factions

Yeah

Comments:

-[Scared?]

-˪[Yeah, scared](Icarus)

-˪[If it’s real, can’t be helped]

-˪[At times like this, don’t just accept it, say something back dammit]

-[Come to think of it, that’s true]

-[As expected, complete honesty]

—————————————–

Of course, the guys who sent me those inexperienced-sounding messages started making their own rebuttals to my post.

—————————————–

Title: We have Rafflesia-class and Gigantia-class too!

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of Rafflesia-class and Gigantia-class ships moving together.jpg]

Why should we fear the faction fleets!

Let’s go!!!

Comments:

-[They’ll stop soon due to lack of fuel lol]

-[“But… I’m out of oil.”]

-[Lololol]

-[But don’t the factions have more and better ships than those?]

-˪[For real lol]

-[The more they talk, the uglier they look]

-[Are these people always like this?]

-˪[Yep]

—————————————–

They were only proving their own inadequacy, resulting in them being ridiculed in galleries and chat rooms.

Seeing their behavior, I couldn’t help but shake my head.

Anyway, with that thought, I closed the gallery and focused on my own tasks like completing daily quests and weekly quests.

I was also continuing to level up my Rafflesia-class ship when…

-Beep beep! Beep beep!

“Huh?”

“Oh Commander, Marian is contacting us again.”

Since I had just finished talking with Marian moments ago, I was curious about why she was calling again, but I immediately told them to connect the call.

And when the communication connected…

-“Ah, is that you, oppa?”

“Ma-Ma-Ma-Marian, what’s the matter that you’re calling again?”

-“Well, you know, oppa? I think it would be better if you stay in the central zone and don’t move to other zones for a while.”

“…Oh.”

It felt like being in an American school movie where someone is nice to the bullied kid for once and then says…

‘Go to the bathroom right now saying you have a stomachache, and wait there without coming out.’

After a moment of silence following this ominous warning…

“Well… I didn’t have any plans to leave here anyway, so… do whatever you need to do?”

-“Hehe, you’d better keep your word, okay?”

Nodding at Marian’s warning, I decided to stay quiet and ignore any mercenary requests from other zones for the time being.

==========

But Icarus wasn’t the only one receiving such warnings.

Monalisa and Princess Lapis of Xenovia, whose relationship with Icarus was most similar to that of Icarus and Marian, were also giving similar warnings.

“Miss Monalisa, did you know?”

“Whaaat…?”

“There’s going to be a large-scale subjugation order soon, so please inform your commanders well, okay? Hehe.”

Additionally, when warning messages from the factions were sent to representative clans like the Loki Clan and Justice Clan,

The executives of these mega-clans, sensing something unusual was about to happen, began actively managing and supervising their clan members.

Naturally, due to these large-scale movements, there was a continuous stir throughout all four major clans except Humanity.

—————————————–

<Public Anonymous Chat Room>

<Everyone please use polite and proper language to maintain etiquette.>

-[Hey guys]

-[Does something feel off lately?]

-[You think so too?]

-[Honestly, all the clans except Humanity seem like they’re preparing for war]

-[Not war, but they seem to be preparing for something, don’t they?]

—————————————–

—————————————–

Title: Hey, doesn’t the atmosphere seem strange lately?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Screenshot of chat discussing strange movements within the 4 major clans.jpg]

Something’s definitely up

Those people seem to know something but aren’t telling us, just doing things among themselves

Comments:

-[Could it be an event where factions clash?]

-˪[Oh that would be awesome]

-[Wow, a big event involving so many users]

-˪[Events always involve all users]

-˪[That’s not what they meant, damn it]

-˪[Roughly speaking, Loki has about 65,000 or 70,000 members, and Justice has slightly fewer?]

-˪[Magellan was said to have only 30,000 or 40,000, so all together they’re slightly more than Humanity and allied minor clans combined]

-[Ohhh]

—————————————–

From chat rooms to galleries.

Every community was detecting that “something’s not right” and showing various signs of unrest.

Of course, since these suspicions were based on the unusual movements of clans, which are essentially “user groups,”

Most users were just thinking, “Are the clans going at it again?”

After such a confusing and complicated day, the next day…

—————————————–

<<<GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT>>>

<Information about the ‘Factions Strike Back’ event!>

<The four factions have always been quite irritated by commanders capturing their fleets in their territories.>

<On top of that, with the Earth Federation collapsing and commander clans taking their place,>

<Plus the recent increase in fleet captures and robberies reaching unacceptable levels,>

<The remaining three factions, excluding the now-defunct Earth Federation, have finally drawn their swords!>

<Event Details>

<The event will begin in one week.>

<The event will run for exactly 4 weeks.>

<Commanders will be tracked for ‘Goodwill’ with each faction, separate from existing trust relationships, either individually or as clans.>

<Commanders and clans whose Goodwill falls below certain levels will face full-scale invasion and suppression from those factions.>

<More details will be provided during the update in one week.>

—————————————–

‘Ohhh.’

Seeing such an exciting event about to unfold, both myself and the entire user base showed various intriguing reactions.