Ch.523Ancient empires were filled with romance. (1)

Unfortunately, despite my hopes, I couldn’t find any information about the “Grand Cross” even in the trusted Wiki tab.

It wasn’t just that the information was “insufficient” like with previous events…

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Title: Wiki Historians Not Doing Their Jobs?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of no search results for “Grand Cross” in the Wiki tab]

Wake up, Wiki historians and veteran players!

Why haven’t you compiled information about the new event?

Show me what you know!

Comments:

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[Hey, aren’t the Wiki historians neglecting their duties?]

-˪[For real lol]

-[It’s so annoying when Wiki historians slack off]

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<Wiki Tab “Grand Cross” Search Results: None>

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“Nothing there.”

“Nothing at all.”

“Just like the chest fat of Ignis and Bendalofe and Dornia.”

“Commander, if you say that in front of the people concerned, two of them will burst into tears, except for Bendalofe.”

The complete absence of information left me and other users quite perplexed.

But that confusion was soon cleared up when some veteran players…

…no, I should say the demons who had been playing the game until that time when users like myself were collectively possession-kidnapped, posted explanations.

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Title: It’s Only Natural There’s No Info About the Grand Cross Event, You Idiots

Author: Emperor Penguin

Content: [Images of people insulting veteran players, “demons,” and Wiki historians], [Image of a toad looking down contemptuously]

Of course we don’t know either, you bastards

What the hell is this thing?

We don’t know either

Comments:

-[Controversy leads to “I don’t know lol”]

-˪[We genuinely don’t know, why are we getting the “I don’t know lol” treatment?]

-[Was it never in the game before?]

-[Hasn’t the game been in service for over 5 years? But there’s nothing?]

-[It’s a new event, dammit!!!]

-˪[Oh damn]

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That’s right.

Even those demons were seeing this event for the first time, so naturally there was no information about it.

“Wow! A new event!”

“Is it completely new?”

“That’s right!”

“That’s amazing.”

Of course, when this revelation came out, I and other users started getting quite excited about the emergence of something “unknown.”

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Title: Let’s Speculate About This Event

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Screenshot of event announcement message]

First, the event title is “Grand Cross”

If we go by the dictionary meaning, it’s just a big fucking cross

But it’s rarely used in that sense, and actually refers to when planets align in a cross formation in a planetary system

Many people confuse this, but planets aligning in a straight line is a Grand “Alignment”

Anyway, using such terminology in this SF world obviously refers to planetary alignment

Considering that Super Dreadnought class in this universe is literally satellite or small planet-sized, no joke

I think this event might involve utilizing the alignment of planets

Comments:

-[That makes sense]

-[But wouldn’t that scale be too small? Some of the larger strongholds are treated as entire planetary systems]

-˪[Wasn’t Earth divided into multiple strongholds within the planetary system?]

-˪[Of course Earth would be more detailed, idiot, it’s a game made by humans]

-˪[When you put it that way, it makes sense]

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Title: Maybe It’s Some Kind of Planetary Exploration Event

Author: Menaldu

Content: [Screenshot of past “exploration” events]

Since it’s related to planetary alignment

It might be time for a pure exploration event without combat for a change

Honestly, many of you just like floating around space looking at stars without thinking much

Comments:

-[But the 4th anniversary and previous events were also non-combat style, another non-combat event?]

-[We want blood and pain!]

-˪[You bloodthirsty fighters]

-[Woong, baby wants blood and flesh]

-[Exploration is nice, but would that really come out at this timing?]

-[If you want to travel in space, do it alone, damn it]

-˪[We’re possessed in a world at fucking war and these guys keep going “uwu I don’t want to fight” damn]

-˪[Don’t be so fucking ridiculous you Emily-ish bastard, shut your trap and go explore by yourself]

-˪[Why u talk like dat?](Author)

-˪[Gay, the person who wrote this has mod privileges, how dare you curse at them so boldly]

-˪[Oh]

-˪[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

——————————————-

Of course, while all kinds of opinions were being exchanged, some users picked fights with “moderators” and caused trouble…

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Title: Today’s Ban List

Author: Menaldu

Content: [Image showing user “Chick” receiving a 15-day gallery ban]

Yep

Watch your language

Comments:

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOL]

-[Gone in a flash]

-[Lord, another one ascends todaaaay!]

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In this way, they were cleanly dealt with by the moderator and, metaphorically speaking, their necks ended up hanging in the street as a spectacle for all to see.

It was a chaotic yet somehow ordinary scene playing out all over the gallery.

==========

Meanwhile, unlike users who were discussing things within reasonable bounds of the game’s lore, there were also users sharing opinions that could only be described as “brain-dead.”

For example…

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Title: If It’s About Planetary Alignment, Wouldn’t It Be About Firing Some Awesome Cannon?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [MS Paint image depicting a “Stellar Engine”]

Like with some awesome engine like this

[Image of something firing a massive beam through planets aligned in a row]

Like this, you know?

Seems like it would be cool

I bet smaller ships would come out from inside instead of carrier aircraft and stuff

Comments:

-[This is a bit…]

-[Our game scale is huge, but a ship that size is a bit…]

-[Planetary system-sized things are just strongholds, that’s probably not it]

-˪[But planet-sized still has some possibility, right?]

-˪[Remember that Super Dreadnought class is somewhere between a planet and a satellite, and faction flagships are one level above that]

-[Brain-dead idea]

-[Go finish writing in your elementary school fantasy notebook, baby]

-˪[Hmph](Author)

-[Even if something like that appeared, honestly, we couldn’t handle something that big and massive]

-˪[This is right, even relatively small strongholds require dozens to hundreds of siege battleships to barely make any impact]

-˪[Planetary system-class strongholds are beyond what users can handle, even super-massive clans with only a dozen Super Dreadnoughts]

-˪[Is that so](Author)

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In response to such users, most others simply reacted with “It’s big and beautiful, but how would we handle something like that if it appeared?”

But the next morning, after the gallery had been bustling with such discussions and whispered rumors…

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<General Announcement>

<<<‘Grand Cross’ Event Notice!>>>

<Information about the ‘Grand Cross’ event for our dear Commanders!>

<From the distant past, the Titan-class mobile fortresses ‘Grand Cross’ created by the Ancient Empire have awakened from hibernation and begun their activities!>

<The mobile fortresses ‘Grand Cross,’ created using entire planetary systems, possess three incredibly powerful Stellar Engines and a black hole at their center.>

<And using the gamma-ray bursts from that black hole, they attack with the ‘Grand Cross Cannon,’ named after the fortress itself, giving them extremely powerful area bombardment capabilities!>

…(continued)…

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“It’s real.”

“It really is.”

I and all the other users felt chills running down our spines as we realized that the “brain-dead” user’s words were actually true.