Ch.591Icarus The Honey Sucker. (2)

Of course, if other users knew this fact, they would have expressed extreme rage and flooded the forums with 570,000-character hate posts directed at Icarus.

Surprisingly, until now, not a single user knew about the existence of the ‘Neranzara-class’ among my ships.

As a result, no user could have possibly imagined that I might be creating spatial rifts between asteroid gaps with a tiny periscope poking out, voyeuristically watching them.

*Crunch crunch*

“This is the best—watching others fight like dogs.”

“Wise words, Commander.”

I had hidden my ship in subspace with just the periscope peeking out between asteroid gaps.

Despite my villainous behavior of munching popcorn while watching other rankers engage in “10,000-person tag where you get screwed the moment you’re caught,”

No one could stop me.

And what made this situation even more delicious was the fact that “you can’t hit me, but I can one-sidedly beat you up.”

“Hmm, Captain?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“See that Dreadnought being chased by other users? Fire a spatial torpedo at its propulsion system to immobilize it.”

“Understood. Torpedo tube #3! Prepare to fire!”

“Ready to fire!”

From my safe hiding spot, I could cripple passing large ships…

“Commander, a destroyer just activated stealth mode at 3 o’clock.”

“Both cloaking and stealth? Impressive catch.”

“What would you like to do? Judging by the lack of spatial ripples, it seems to be stationary…”

“Are there no electronic warfare ships nearby?”

“No, there aren’t.”

“Then we should teach them some manners. Get the coordinates and blast them with a spatial torpedo.”

I could mess with fellow “honey suckers” who tried to hide after electronic warfare ships were eliminated, and engage in all sorts of disruptive activities.

This allowed me to enjoy an unprecedented level of entertainment unlike any previous event.

Of course, if the preliminary round had lasted more than a week, I would have eventually been forced to emerge due to Neranzara’s submersion time limit.

After that, I would have quietly pressed the forfeit button to avoid the frenzied users screaming, “Whoa, that bastard has something weird! Kill him!”

Unfortunately for other users, the preliminary round lasted exactly 24 hours.

Meanwhile, our Neranzara had been diligently leveled up, extending its submersion time to 24 hours.

“Captain, how long after arriving did we submerge?”

“Exactly 13 minutes and 52 seconds, Commander.”

“Good.”

Learning that I wouldn’t need to deactivate submersion for the remaining time and could just leisurely watch,

I once again adopted a relaxed and carefree mindset.

Until the end of the preliminary round, I couldn’t score kills directly due to Neranzara’s chronic firepower issues,

But that didn’t stop me from happily racking up assists with spatial torpedoes, regular torpedoes, missiles, and more.

By the end of the preliminary round, I had achieved the impressive kill-death-assist ratio of 1:0:(immeasurable).

And immediately after the preliminary round ended…

—————————————–

Title: Survival Means Strength

Author: Icarus

Content: [Toad faces photoshopped onto cartoon character images.jpg]

I, the strongest.

I, the almighty, have arrived.

[Message showing successful qualification through the preliminary round by surviving.jpg]

Comments:

-[How the fuck did this bastard survive?]

-[???]

-[Where were you hiding?]

-[This fucker survived alone while all the other rankers died lolololol]

-[But seriously, how did you survive?]

-˪[I won’t tell you](Author)

-˪[You bastard]

—————————————–

—————————————–

Title: Look How These Bastards Only Spared Icarus

Author: Tarantula

Content: [Image of a crying toad]

You bad bastards

Is it okay to discriminate against people like this

[Image of Tarantula’s cruiser being sunk less than 5 minutes after the event started.jpg]

Comments:

-[It’s “okay” not “is it okay” you idiot]

-[Welcome to the fastest eliminated ranker in the preliminary]

-˪[Where do you live, bastard](Author)

-˪[I’ll never tell you~]

-˪[Oh, I found you](Author)

-˪[You can’t PVP during the event period, right?]

-˪[What about after the event period ends](Author)

-˪[Oh shit]

-[The comment above is self-destructing by needlessly provoking]

—————————————–

While proactively mocking others who were eliminated early,

I finally understood the profound and magnificent truth of why people engage in forum trolling and constantly mock others!

==========

After smoothly completing the preliminary round thanks to the Neranzara-class bus and returning to my sweet home…

“Good work, Commander.”

“Well, there wasn’t much work to speak of.”

Receiving Jessica’s greeting as I returned to the command center, I decided to prepare thoroughly for the upcoming second round…

Or rather, the “main tournament.”

Of course, when I say “prepare,” it’s just a figure of speech.

The one-week preparation time given before the event started was by no means short, so preparations had already been perfectly handled long ago.

In truth, I was just looking for something to kill time with since there was an awkward amount of time left until the main tournament began.

But that didn’t last long, as a new event message appeared when the preliminary round ended…

—————————————–

<<<‘Battle Tournament’ Preliminary Round Complete!>>>

<The main tournament will be held in 3 days!>

<In the main tournament, ALL fleets under the commanders’ control can be deployed, so please remember to properly prepare your fleet forces!>

˪<‘ALL fleets’ includes mercenary units hired by commanders, garrison mercenary units, and faction delegations.>

˪<However, only up to 5 ‘garrison mercenary units’ are allowed.>

*(This message is only visible to Commander ‘Icarus’.)

˪<Unlimited mercenary units are prohibited>

˪<If those were allowed, other commanders would absolutely stand no chance in the tournament>

—————————————–

“Wow.”

“They’re allowing garrison mercenary units too? That’s surprising.”

“Indeed it is.”

Seeing that they were allowing not just users fighting each other but also deploying mercenary units,

I felt that this would be quite a massive battle despite being 1-on-1 fights.

Of course, as clearly written in the message…

“It’s interesting how the administrators are specifically singling out Commander.”

“Well, it’s a message only I can see, so that makes sense.”

They’ve completely cut off unlimited mercenary units, which would be impossible for individual users to counter if deployed in full force.

They’ve also shown their determination to prevent clan leaders of large clans from running wild with dozens or hundreds of garrison mercenary units from their territories.

It seemed our administrators were making quite an effort to properly balance things, which gave me complicated yet excited feelings.

The important thing now was understanding that I could deploy not just my main force, but also various garrison mercenary units under my command, and even Oxianor’s faction delegation.

Realizing I would need to mobilize and control far more forces than initially planned, I found myself nodding involuntarily.

“Now that things have turned out this way, I’ll have to completely scrap the original plan and create new formations and strategies.”

“Then I’ll immediately call Berial, Decarabia, Tiamat, and the rest of the mercenary commanders.”

“Yes, please do.”

I decided to work with our superhuman commanders to develop new strategies during the three days remaining until the main tournament.