Chapter 228

Episode 228. The All-Star Team Without You.

Anyway, our Kraken’s insane bio-explosives, Hreðsvelgr’s strategic missiles, and the light aircraft carrier’s aircraft—all these consumable (?) weapons have turned into one-time use only, which is some pretty valuable intel.

No matter who the opponent is, I thought I really need to give it my all this time.

Even our ultimate weapon, the “Naranja,” has its exclusive weapon, the “Space Torpedo,” which guzzles resources like crazy.

There’s not much left, so even slowing down the enemy ships is tough…

But right after entering the battle map…

—————————————-

-[Hi] (Me)

-[Hi]

-[Oh, it’s Kraken]

-[Finally, a top-ranked player has joined us, huh?]

-[Hi hi]

—————————————-

Greeting my allies and checking the fleet situation…

Including the resource mining ships (aka repair ships), there are only 7 ships, just like me. Everyone else also has fewer than 10 ships.

“Ah, this seems manageable.”

The opposing team, which has probably won 10 times, must have lost a lot of ships too, so they shouldn’t have that many.

If I coordinate with my allies and use aircraft and long-range attacks properly… I started to think we might have a chance.

But my dreams and hopes were shattered the moment I finished greeting my allies and saw the notifications in the “global chat,” along with the enemy team(s) acting all familiar with me.

—————————————-

<Global Chat>

-[Oh?]

-[Hi, thanks for last time, lol] (Königs)

-[Icarus, why are you there?] (Arcadia)

-[…?] (Icarus)

—————————————-

First, there’s Königs, the political officer who had my back last time.

Then Arcadia, who was my reliable running mate from the 6th to the 9th match, is also there.

—————————————-

<Global Chat>

-[Loser♡ Outcast♡] (Betelgeuse)

-[?????] (Icarus)

-[You’re paying for screwing me over last time, lol] (Betelgeuse)

—————————————-

And out of nowhere, Betelgeuse is there too.

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<Global Chat>

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL] (Indypatible)

-[Why are you the only one there?] (Menaldu)

-[How pitiful…] (Laura)

-[I don’t even know what to say about that] (Antares)

-[The top-ranked players’ club is indeed a club, huh] (Raksha)

—————————————-

Then, in order, the 7th, 10th, 5th, 1st, and 2nd-ranked players all started spamming chat at me from the enemy team.

Not just me, but even my allies were stunned by this madness.

==========

Maybe it’s because they’ve practically already won.

The opposing team… no, the All-Star Team of top-ranked players, despite the battle having started long ago, was casually chatting away in global chat.

Of course, they weren’t complete idiots, so they didn’t give away our location or anything…

—————————————-

<Global Chat>

-[You call this an All-Star Team, but where are the 8th and 9th places?] (Icarus)

-[Haven’t seen the 8th place since the start, and no one here has met the 9th place] (Menaldu)

-[Oh, that guy? I blew up all his ships, so he couldn’t join, lol] (Raksha)

-[What?] (Icarus)

—————————————-

Thanks to that, I found out about the 8th place (who got eliminated early and then died to a natural disaster) and the 9th place (no one knows).

And I also got a natural introduction to the other 3 members currently in the All-Star Team…

—————————————-

<Global Chat>

-[Oh, I already talked to that guy, lol] (Königs)

-[That’s true] (Arcadia)

-[Yeah]

-[But who are the others?] (Icarus)

-[Me?] (Mona Lisa)

-[Yeah] (Icarus)

-[I’m similar to you, getting sponsored by space Kanfu] (Mona Lisa)

-[Sponsoring sounds kinda dirty] (Indypatible)

-[???]

Mona Lisa)

-[Why is the other one not saying anything?](Icarus)

-[Oh, that guy only has one battleship left, so he’s just staying quiet.](Arcadia)

-[He said he just wants to live quietly.](Laura)

-[Why are you telling Icarus that, you crazy?](Betelgeuse)

-[My bad~](Arcadia)

—————————————-

“Wow.”

In the midst of it all, I glanced at the nearby allied forces, noticing that a one-ship leftover wasn’t even considered part of the main force.

“On our side, two people only have one ship each.”

“Not to mention, one of them has a cruiser battleship, and the other has an unarmed aircraft cruiser.”

The fact that the enemy’s so-called “weakest” force was actually the combined strength of two of our team members.

And given that the commander with the nickname “Mona Lisa” openly admitted to receiving “sponsorships,” it was clear they must have been flooded with some seriously strong ships.

Even though we’ve fought our way up to being in the top 0.1% of all users.

The overwhelming difference in overall strength had our team members practically in a mental breakdown.

—————————————-

-[Well, it’s not like there’s any hope anyway, so let’s just think of it as fun gaming ^^]

-[For real]

-[The reality check is hitting hard]

-[Well, at least we have more aircraft, right?]

-[Do you have the resources to recharge the aircraft? I’m out of resources, so I only have two-thirds of my aircraft.]

-[I only have half of my aircraft lololol]

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Thinking there was no way to win, the fighting spirit that had already been half-dimmed before the battle was now practically extinguished, with water being poured over it.

And the top-ranked players on the opposing team, especially the clan leaders “Antares,” “Arcadia,” and “Betelgeuse,” who’ve seen enough to know exactly what people are thinking, couldn’t have missed this situation.

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<All Chat>

-[Looks like your morale is pretty shattered. Why don’t you just surrender instead of running around?]

-[Or maybe just hand over your ships for our points and scavenge a few small ships to boost your score lololol](Betelgeuse)

-[Even though you’ve been doing well until now… it’s just a game, so what can you do?](Arcadia)

-[Surrendering would save you some time.](Antares)

—————————————-

At this perfect moment when our team’s morale was shaking, they swooped in like dogs and dropped those all-chat messages, shaking us even more.

And it wasn’t just those three who could talk.

—————————————-

<All Chat>

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Rest in peace, action beammmmmm========](Menaldu)

-[Beeammmmmm==========](Laura)

-[Press X to pay respects](Indypatible)

-[Not easy, huh? Is this the power of top rankers?](Mona Lisa)

—————————————-

The rest of the users were also relentlessly spamming action beams, showing their noooooo-effort in trying to taunt us.

But there was one thing they hadn’t considered…

Even though their ranking and skills were slightly higher than ours, excluding me, our team was still within the top 0.1%, filled with skilled veterans.

Seeing the opposing team continuously poke at their pride.

—————————————-

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Before we go down, let’s at least stab them with a spear once.]

-[Let’s see if their fancy battleship heads can survive a torpedo hit, damn it.]

-[This is so annoying.]

—————————————-

“Gratsche!”

The result of pouring the gasoline of taunting onto our dimmed fighting spirit.

Once again, their fighting spirit ignited, and they began to reaffirm their will to fight.

I nodded, deciding to use every possible strategy against this insane top-ranking all-star team.