Chapter 239

Chapter 239. Third place for three consecutive times, huh?

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For some reason, the admins have blocked users from going outside the zone.

And they’ve also stopped those pesky pirates from getting in.

“So peaceful.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Pirates, wild space monsters passing by, Earth Federation scouts, remnants of defeated troops, or even Xenobia Empire patrols—all their attacks are completely blocked at the source.

Because of that, there’s no “alarm” or anything about zone invasions. Just a quiet, peaceful life.

I sipped the cocoa Jessica made for me, slurping it down, and fully enjoyed this rare moment of relaxation.

-*Slurp*.

‘Now I get why high-ranking people retire to the countryside. This is so good.’

After all the *freaking* battles, *freaking* management, and the *freaking* hardcore event battles that followed, this break is just what I needed.

Ah, how sweet it is.

Waking up to no “pirates are invading” nonsense, just casually sipping morning coffee.

Then lightly clearing daily quests and taking a stroll around the base… though it’s so big I gave up halfway.

So instead, I rode around on the nuclear fusion superconductor battery(?) Segway Gryanarr made.

Or watched Ignis and Partia’s real-life muscle party(?).

Sometimes, I dealt with Gryanarr’s escaped chimera(?) that went around nom-nom-ing the NPCs living in the base.

And occasionally, I checked the construction progress of the cruiser battleship we started building right after arriving here.

It’s random but healing(?), and honestly, such a fulfilling, peaceful daily life helped me recover my shattered mental state.

Of course, unlike me, the users in the gallery…

Well, to be precise, users in all zones except the southern and central zones—so, most users—were bored out of their minds with this healing(?) situation.

—————————————-

**Title: The zones still aren’t open yet**

**Author: ㅇㅇ**

**Content:** Every day, I think, “Today, the zones will open,” and move forward.

They didn’t open.

I want to ram my massive, bulging grand fleet into those weaklings nearby and plunder everything inside.

It’s an old thought.

**Comments:**

-[????]

-[Poor thing…]

-[If you’re bored, why not host a martial arts tournament for superhumans to watch?]

-˪[Author]: Tried it, but no damage is dealt…

-˪[Judging by the comment time, you already tried it, huh?]

—————————————-

And maybe to relieve that boredom, the gallery users suddenly started a creative contest.

But even with gacha characters who are basically walking sex appeal around…

The desires of these horny friends are truly hard to control, huh?

—————————————-

**Title: Creative Contest) Current status of submitted works.txt**

**Author: Neodymium**

**Content:** [Various mosaic-covered images]

87 posts, 103 images.

But 90% of them are drowned in bizarre fetishes.

Why are they sticking *that* into *that*? Damn it.

**Comments:**

-[“Open your eyes, come this way.”]

-[LOL]

-[They’re sticking it in chests, nostrils, the imagination is wild.]

-˪[Author]: I didn’t want to know about those tastes.

—————————————-

**Title: They’re trying to legally unleash their weird fetishes through the creative contest**

**Author: Indypatible**

**Content:** [Group block image]

Do that stuff in your private chats.

**Comments:**

-[As expected, the armband-wearing ones handle the big stuff.]

-[Kyaaa, Madam!]

-[Who’s the contest host?]

-˪[Author]: That person’s a victim, so I’m not touching them.

-˪[True.]

—————————————-

The poor contest host, who suddenly became a generator of cursed images, and the participants who posted cursed images and lewd content were swiftly dealt with.

But even that finally came to an end today.

-*Slurp slurp gulp gulp* *Burp*.

“…?”

“The day has finally come, Jessica.”

“Huh? Oh, right, the event results announcement is today.”

While doing this and that, a week flew by like an arrow.

After the sword dances of those wristbands ended and the creative contest wrapped up successfully, the gallery returned to normal.

Users started posting expectant messages and their own analyses.

—————————————-

**Title:** If you think you’re in the top 1%, drop a like lolololol

**Author:** ㅇㅇ

**Content:** [Image of a toad smiling mysteriously]

First, me~

**Comments:**

– [This guy’s definitely bluffing, I can tell]

– [It’s fine]

– [Oh, got it bro, just drop a like here, right?]

– [Next time, give us a heads up in the group chat, bro]

– [Look at these jerks trying to sabotage me right away] (Author)

– [Lololololol]

– [Lolololololol]

—————————————-

**Title:** What will this season’s ranking look like?

**Author:** ㅇㅇ

**Content:** [Image of rankings during the “Price of Favor” event]

Will the current top players maintain their positions?

Or will everything get shaken up?

Personally, I hope it’s the latter.

**Comments:**

– [Most will probably stay the same]

– [Go watch the 3rd place vs. All-Star team video. Except for 8th and 9th place, the rest of the players went on a 10-game winning streak]

– [Why no 8th and 9th place?]

– [Heard from a friend that 8th place got wrecked early on by 2nd place, losing their entire fleet, and 9th place… I don’t know either]

– [Oh, thanks]

– [So there’ll be about 2 new top players]

– [Probably?]

—————————————-

Aside from those, there were tons of speculative posts, with many people pushing their friends as potential new top players.

But even that marketplace-like chatter…

With a *ding*, the official “Event Results Notification” popped up, and both the gallery and the always-noisy global chat fell silent for a moment.

—————————————-

**<Global Notice>**

**<<<Results of the 'Remnants of the Ancient Empire' Event!>>>**

**<A message to all Commanders!>**

**<The results of the 'Remnants of the Ancient Empire' event have been fully calculated!>**

**<The scoring system is as follows:>**

**<Plus factors: Wins, ship and superhuman kills/assists, leadership, mobility, scouting, tanking, etc.>**

**<Minus factors: Losses, ship and superhuman losses, below a certain level of combat contribution, team kills, fleet annihilation, etc.>**

**<The rankings from 1st to 10th place are as follows:>**

**<1st. Antares>**

**<2nd. Raksha>**

**<3rd. Icarus>**

**<4th. Arcadia>**

**<5th. Betelgeuse>**

**<6th. Laura>**

**<7th. Indypatible>**

**<8th. Menaldu>**

**<9th. Königs>**

**<10th. Mona Lisa>**

**<Top 10 players will receive special rewards!>**

**<Additionally...>**

… … … … … …

—————————————-

In that brief silence, I saw the event message and couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation upon realizing I had secured 3rd place again.

“Wow, that’s great… but I lost the 10th match. How did I end up in 3rd place?”

Fortunately, as if anticipating the confusion, an explanation of the ranking calculation popped up in front of my eyes just seconds later.