Ch.473War Not, Punishment It Is. (3)

Unlike other users who were quite relaxed with the attitude of “As long as they don’t come after us, it’s fine!”

“Oh shit, shit, shit, shit.”

“Commander, perhaps you might try counting numbers to calm yourself down?”

I was feeling, in many ways, extremely, considerably pissed off.

The reason was none other than having to stop the Xenovia Empire’s punishment fleet that I’d rather just let pass through.

To be precise, it wasn’t even voluntary but essentially forced upon me…

—————————————–

<Quest>

<Time for an Unpleasant Leadership Check>

<Description>

<Including you, Commander, truthfully no one wants a direct confrontation with Xenovia’s punishment fleet.>

<Unfortunately, that’s just the commanders’ perspective, and other entities don’t seem to share this view.>

<Particularly from the Space Monsters and Pirate Alliance’s standpoint, if you allow the Xenovia Empire—with whom you have no connection—to pass through your territory that they’ve been ‘considerate’ enough not to enter until now.>

<Their attitude and thoughts toward you will clearly change in many ways.>

<Moreover, from the perspective of the Leviathan Squadron that fled after the Earth Federation’s collapse, and their upper echelons…>

<They’ll see you not as clearly neutral, but as someone who might surrender to external threats at any time.>

<And if they witness another faction’s main fleet passing through at will, they’ll judge your territory as unsafe.>

<They might embark on a long journey to find another commander or clan that maintains firm neutrality.>

<Objective>

<Reject and repel the Xenovia Empire’s ‘Punishment Fleet’ from passing through your territory>

<Warning>

<If you do not reject their passage, the following will occur:>

˪<‘Space Monsters’, ‘Pirate Alliance’ Trust -50, Friendliness -50>

˪<The Leviathan Squadron will disappear from your territory.>

—————————————–

‘Don’t do this to me!’

Feeling this was the most unfair of unfair situations, I was experiencing incredibly sad emotions.

At least with the Pirate Alliance, thanks to Marian, even if trust dropped, friendliness had surpassed 200, so it wouldn’t be a major issue if it decreased.

The problem was that Space Monsters’ trust and friendliness had just barely crossed the 100 mark.

If those suddenly dropped by 50 each as the quest warning stated, it would be equivalent to eating every possible shit sandwich.

If I messed up, not only would everything I’d built turn to bubbles, but similar unfair events might emerge in monster form.

‘This game is seriously fucked up.’

Realizing this situation, I couldn’t help but feel tears welling up inside.

But even more critical than the potential storm of declining trust with the Pirate Alliance and Space Monsters was the fact that the Leviathan Squadron would desert us.

‘This is truly awful, I can’t handle the users without those guys.’

With approximately 5,500 users total—including those docked at Tannhäuser and other bases, plus those living undocked.

While half of these users were casual players who couldn’t fight or were just passing through…

The other half were mercenaries who, befitting the central zone, lived well, ate well, and fought well.

If the Leviathan Squadron disappeared and those users suddenly revolted, I wouldn’t be able to respond even if I wanted to…

“Jessica, how many users were in that temporary clan formed during the Tannhäuser operation?”

“I think it was just over a thousand? But why do you ask?”

“Just suddenly remembered.”

Although users had been living peacefully until now, and we managed fine even before the Leviathan Squadron existed.

But with the potential removal of this restraining force that had newly emerged, I couldn’t predict what mischief they might cause.

So, crying while eating mustard, I shouted “you fucking bastards” at the game operators and decided to hurry preparations to confront the damned punishment fleet.

==========

Looking on the bright side, unlike the previous mercenary work I did for Humanity…

This time they were attacking our territory, so with luck, we might be able to capture some ships.

If fortune truly smiled upon us, we might get our hands on the “flawless” Rafflesia II-class that NPCs use, contrary to what the wiki says.

Or perhaps the super-large Anomalocaris-class carrier, Monalisa’s trademark, only deployed to the Obsidian Squadron and Border Defense Fleet.

Or even the “Diamond-class” super dreadnought, considered an ordinary vessel in the Obsidian Squadron but serving as the flagship in the Border Defense Fleet.

Thinking about all these delicious possibilities if we went all-in, I somehow managed to stabilize my mental state.

I resolved to recoup and repay any losses from this incident, burning with determination.

However, unlike the previous battle with the Earth Federation Border Defense Fleet, this fight presented one extremely serious problem…

“Commander, I understand you want to fight the Xenovia Empire’s fleet.”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Jessica.”

“Really?”

“The mercenary corps, that’s the issue, right?”

Exactly.

Due to the ongoing event affecting me and other users, I couldn’t use my trademark “unlimited mercenary corps”—which was practically my defining feature.

Of course, since they were invading, we could mobilize Tannhäuser’s defense fleet as well as fleets from other bases through the internal gateway network, and fire away with the beautiful fortress cannons…

“But Commander, even if we combine all the base fleets in our territory, we can’t stop the punishment fleet, can we?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly the problem.”

To stop the insane punishment fleet, our base defense fleets and my fleet alone were woefully inadequate.

While their punishment fleet could deploy over 100,000 battleship-class vessels “at once,”

Our side had limits to how many defense ships could be pulled from each base, as I’d explained before.

“Damn it, this might end up being just sequential deployment.”

“Exactly.”

“Even if we deploy the Avalon defense fleet, combined with Tannhäuser we can only deploy a maximum of about 1,600 battleship-class ships at once.”

“Even combining your main fleet, direct subordinates, and base mercenary corps, we can’t mobilize even 1,700 ships total.”

‘Fucking crazy.’

While our side would have to scrape the very bottom of the barrel, combining security fleets and main combat fleets to barely reach 100,000 ships…

They were bringing 100,000 battleship-class vessels alone. How could this possibly make sense?

‘Holy moly shit.’

With no solution in sight, I was deeply contemplating what to do when…

“By the way, Commander, if we fight the punishment fleet, they’ll be coming to Tannhäuser, right?”

“I suppose so, they’d want to take out the head first to make the fight easier…”

“But if we fight the punishment fleet, wouldn’t other commanders help you whether they like it or not?”

“Huh? Oh wait, ah.”

As Jessica pointed out, the punishment fleet was planning to pass through our territory to punish the anti-faction forces.

And this Tannhäuser gateway fortress was sitting right in the center of that route.

If I committed to fighting the punishment fleet, the users docked here would have no choice but to fight alongside me to survive(?).

While keeping the quest details strictly secret, I decided to use the gallery and chat to demonstrate my determination to fight against the punishment fleet!!!

Though to be precise, rather than showing determination…

I was essentially creating a situation of “being forced” to fight back, a kind of “unfair” circumstance.