Ch.561″That bastard is a con artist!”

“Tsk, it’s disappointing but can’t be helped.”

“The situation is what it is.”

Honestly speaking, would I hire “myself” if I were them?

As Tzmelling-Weiss said, if I were to suddenly deploy my Unlimited Mercenary Corps, what would have cost a clan a few million could balloon to tens of millions.

No, in severe cases, it could reach hundreds of millions, so I completely understood why they’d be reluctant to hire me.

Anyway, for reasons like that, my attempt at mercenary work ended in failure…

But the fleet leveling issue I’d pointed out wasn’t just my concern—other users were somewhat aware of it too.

—

<Official Chat Room of the Most Noble, Great, Holy, and Unique Icarus Republic>

<Notice: Let’s all be friendly with each other>

-[Looking for people interested in friendly matches]

-[?]

-[What’s that?]

-[Mock battles where ships don’t get destroyed and superhumans don’t die]

-[Oh]

-[But can’t players on the same team not attack each other?]

-[We’re not on the same team]

-[Strictly speaking, we’re just solo players renting space in Icarus’s territory lol]

-[Ah, that’s true]

—

Title: Friendly matches happening in the Icarus Republic.

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a poster with the plan card “The Most Noble, Holy, and Whatever Championship”]

Nothing special

Just seems like they’re having battles without destroying ships or killing superhumans

Apparently it’s not as good as fighting elsewhere, but it helps with leveling in its own way

Comments:

-[They’re becoming more like a clan as time passes]

-[Isn’t this something large clans often do? They use it to level up fleet members who are falling behind]

-˪[Oh really?](Author)

-˪[It’s a bit primitive, but similar]

-[Heh, seeing something here that I last saw back in the Biomass days lol]

—

‘Why are these guys so good at figuring things out on their own…’

They quickly created their own method for leveling up.

Seeing this, I nodded my head in genuine admiration, then decided to casually join in on these friendly matches between users.

—

<Official Chat Room of the Most Noble, Great, Holy, and Unique Icarus Republic>

<Notice: Friendly matches in progress, speak up in the chat if you want to join>

-[Raise your hand if you want to join the friendly matches!]

-[Hand](Icarus)

-[What?]

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[The President himself has graciously appeared, consider it an honor!]

-[Final boss suddenly ON]

-[“Latin music bgm”]

-[Aaa~aaaa~aaaaa~]

—

The problem was that as soon as I showed interest in participating, they started making all sorts of weird boss-meme jokes.

Or that damned President joke again.

—

Title: Icarus is joining the Most (abbreviated) Republic’s friendly matches

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Screenshot of Icarus declaring participation in the Most (abbreviated) Republic chat room]

User who casually tried to join friendly matches suddenly finds themselves in a final boss battle

Comments:

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Do we have to face Cerberos and Urong in phase 1?]

-˪[Phase 2 is fighting the Unlimited Mercenary Corps, and if you beat that, the Leviathan Squadron appears for phase 3]

-[Is it real that a mere user has a 3-phase boss fight…?]

-[How did Icarus end up being treated like a 3-phase boss?]

-[Latin music will probably start playing when phase 2 begins]

-˪[LOLOL]

—

“The slander against me is truly running wild.”

“Isn’t that just a testament to your commanding presence, Commander?”

With all these strange slanders overflowing, I could only shed tears.

—

And while that not-quite-leveling work was going on, a random story was circulating in the gallery.

The problem was that this story was extremely significant to most users.

—

Title: Hey, is building a shipyard slightly faster now?

Author: Anonymous

Content: [Image of a frog shrugging its shoulders in front of another frog with a question mark]

Building a shipyard seems to get faster over time, unlike other base facilities

Apparently it’s because they’re roughly built with huge mechanical arms

So later on, as the internal facilities get optimized, everything gets faster

Comments:

-[What are you talking about?]

-[So you’re saying if we demolish existing ones and rebuild them, the construction speed gets faster? Or the ship production speed?]

-˪[Ship production speed. Actually, it seems like you shouldn’t use acceleration rights for construction](Author)

-˪[Hmm…]

-[Is this for real?]

-˪[Dunno?]

-˪[If this were true, there’s no way it wouldn’t be in the wiki]

—

The problem was that this information wasn’t from “authoritative” sources like the wiki tab, so most users were just tilting their heads in doubt.

But some users, perhaps because of the current situation (war on all fronts), decided to take action.

—

Title: Gallery first?

Author: ChimiKen

Content: [Image of demolishing a shipyard and building a new one]

Let’s go

As they say, well begun is half done, so the sooner you start, the sooner you’re halfway there

Comments:

-[A man of action…]

-[Holy shit]

-[Someone’s already demolishing it?]

-˪[Demolished and rebuilding it]

-[Why demolish it so quickly?]

-[You’re completely defenseless during the days it takes to demolish and rebuild, and you’re willing to risk that?]

-˪[Sometimes a person must do what they want to do](Author)

—

Thinking that even a slight speed increase would be beneficial, they went ahead and demolished their shipyards to rebuild them.

They truly embodied the “spirit of action,” making that silly joke about “well begun is half done” a reality.

But despite their experimental spirit, the results weren’t so impressive…

…No, beyond unimpressive, they were completely meaningless.

Exactly two days after this experimental spirit was displayed:

—

Title: Sharing experiment results

Author: ChimiKen

Content: [Image showing no difference in shipyard production speed]

Whoever mentioned this first, come out right now

Stick your neck out, you bastard

Comments:

-[So it means nothing?]

-˪[Yep](Author)

-˪[Not even a 1-second difference](Author)

-[LOLOLOL]

-[It obviously wasn’t going to work, why would you experiment with that? LOLOL]

-[Well, gotta respect someone who takes action]

-[Upvote]

-[Action upvote]

—

Title: Hehe sorry, my mistake~

Author: Anonymous

Content: [GIF of a cute frog asking for forgiveness]

But it was fun, right?

Let’s have a drink~

Comments:

-[It wasn’t fun at all, damn it]

-[You jerk]

-[It’s exactly the same…]

-[The action-oriented gamer has been fooled again]

-˪[Sob, so sad]

—

In truth, all the other users thought “it can’t be true,” but when it was proven false and the presumed culprit brazenly showed up…

Watching users who still maintained their playful spirit despite fighting each other on all fronts, I felt a strange emotion that was difficult to put into words.