Chapter 274

Chapter 274. The world always keeps you on your toes. (1)

<Fleet Association under construction...>

<Time remaining until construction completion: 25 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 50 seconds>

“Ugh, this is taking forever.”

Of course, it’s no surprise that the required resources have hit an all-time high compared to previous auxiliary buildings. The construction of the Fleet Association demanded a whopping month-long timeframe. Even the other auxiliary buildings like the Air Command and the Special Design Management Bureau took over 20 days each. Since I had already anticipated this, I wasn’t particularly shocked.

After initiating such constructions, I habitually checked the resource status with Jessica…

“Jessica, what’s the current resource situation?”

“About 520,000 minerals and 290,000 rare resources.”

“…Hnnng.”

Wait, is this really us? The same bunch of noobs who used to run out of resources after building one measly structure?

“My heart feels so grand.”

“Mine too, Commander.”

Jessica seemed to share the sentiment, her ears twitching excitedly as she responded.

==========

Anyway, after basking in a bit of self-praise…

“Hmm, the calm after battle.”

With nothing urgent to do, I decided to use the spare time to check the status of the facilities integrated with the fortress. But during the process, I wondered if it was because I hadn’t given clear orders beforehand, or if they were just trying to replicate what they used to do at the base in the fortress.

-“Commander, it seems the tentacles and cells from the ‘Nest of Life’ are slowly infiltrating the interior of the fortress.”

“…What’s doing what now?”

-“It appears that parts of the fortress’s clone production facilities, the bioengineering lab, and some dormitories are being overtaken by the universal cells of the monsters.”

“Oh…”

-“Commander, Gryanarr is asking to connect a bundle of tentacles and pipes to the fortress’s organic compound warehouse. Is that okay?”

-“Oh, Commander? Some of the fortress garrison have recently turned into chimera units. Is that fine?”

“…”

“…”

“Jessica, tell Gryanarr to report to the command center immediately.”

“Got it.”

“And call Oxianor too.”

“Understood.”

Gryanarr, who had started randomly infecting the fortress with monster-like substances, and Oxianor, who just stood there watching, were summoned to put an immediate stop to this mess.

Of course, Gryanarr, dragged in by my call, immediately pouted and grumbled.

“Don’t engage in any infiltration activities without my orders.”

“Hmph, fine.”

Only after I scolded him did he reluctantly withdraw the infiltration from the central generator of the fortress.

But apart from that…

There were all sorts of sneaky attempts. Like trying to turn the soldiers’ living quarters into ‘living-incubation chambers,’ or transforming the toilets into ‘flesh toilets,’ or experimenting with chemicals in the soldiers’ dining hall ingredients. And a bunch of other mad scientist-like shenanigans.

When I pointed out all these actions and firmly told them to stop, Gryanarr puffed up his cheeks and expressed his dissatisfaction.

But I couldn’t just let them turn the fortress, which we had just secured, into a monster nest. From his perspective, it was about expanding the monster territory, so I told Oxianor, who had been turning a blind eye to Gryanarr’s actions.

“Keep an eye on Gryanarr so he doesn’t pull any more stunts.”

“Hmm… understood, Icarus.”

==========

Anyway, after sorting out all these issues and stopping Gryanarr’s antics…

“I’m exhausted.”

I strongly felt that inspecting the fortress interior as originally planned would be too physically draining. Since I had already completed all the daily quests while dealing with everything, and after witnessing the bizarre sight of soldiers cutting off the mindlessly spreading tentacles and cells to eat them as mountain octopus, I decided to head to the ‘Commander’s Room’ and sprawl on the bed to check the gallery.

The problem was, after taking over the fortress, there was more to handle than I expected, so I hadn’t checked the fleet certification photos for nearly two days. As soon as I opened the community menu, a flood of ‘report’ notifications filled my alert box.

To manage the gallery, I had to deal with the reports first, which were piling up like crazy…

I spent my “very, very short” break time handling hundreds of reports that had accumulated in just two days.

And about 10 minutes later, after clearing out all the duplicate reports (which were annoyingly abundant), I finally entered the gallery.

It had only been two days since I last checked, but I noticed a new juicy topic had already started brewing.

And what was this topic, you ask?

Well, it seems like there was some backlash or something because I, as a user, was the first to conquer a Level 5 base.

—————————————–

**Title:** Breaking News) ‘Laton Water Clan,’ home to the 2nd ranked player, plans to attack a Level 7 fortress city

**Author:** ㅇㅇ

**Content:** [Screenshot of Raksha, the leader of Laton Water Clan, announcing in the public chatroom ‘Space Kanfu Zone Meeting Room’ that they will siege the city.jpg]

For real.

ㅇㅇ

**Comments:**

– [Oh]

– [We’ve got no pride, but no skills either!]

– [Isn’t it the opposite?]

– [Oooooh]

—————————————–

Out of nowhere, the ‘Laton Water’ clan, known for gathering purely based on user skill, boldly announced they would siege the city.

This topic kept rolling, creating quite the buzz.

And it wasn’t just about the 2nd ranked clan, ‘Laton Water’…

—————————————–

**Title:** Breaking News) ‘Magellan’ Clan, led by the 10th ranked player, announces support for Laton Water

**Author:** News Boy

**Content:** [Screenshot of ‘Magellan’ Clan declaring their support for ‘Laton Water’ in the public chatroom.jpg]

Straight facts.

**Comments:**

– [Wait, what?]

– [Suddenly, it’s turning into a wild party]

– [The hype is real]

—————————————–

The ‘Magellan’ Clan, reportedly led by the newly ranked ‘Mona Lisa,’ publicly declared they would assist ‘Laton Water’ in their Level 7 city siege.

Unlike previous events, this time it’s clear that the top 10 ranked players, proven by their skills (or maybe ship power), are involved.

Not to mention, the siege includes top-tier players within the top 100 ranks from Laton Water.

The gallery was buzzing with curiosity about whether these two clans could successfully take down the Level 7 base.

And with that, real-time ‘betting’ started heating up the atmosphere.

Of course, for latecomers like me, it was hard to understand the hype. Some newbies even posted questions like, “What’s going on?”

—————————————–

**Title:** What the heck is happening?

**Author:** BoggleBoggleWiggle

**Content:** [Image of a toad shrugging with question marks above its head]

Why are you guys the only ones who know the story?

Tell me what you know too.

**Comments:**

– [Hmm… are you clueless?]

– [I won’t tell you the story you want to know]

– [A few days ago, the 3rd ranked player used unlimited mercenary hiring to mobilize 50,000 ships and took over a Level 5 base by themselves]

– [Wait, seriously? That happened?] (Author)

– [Yeah, so the 2nd ranked player’s clan announced they’d siege a Level 7 city as a clan, instead of solo]

– [And then the 10th ranked player’s clan joined to support them, trying to snatch victory. That’s why the gallery is on fire right now.]

—————————————–

Thanks to the natural flow of responses, I finally understood what was going on.

“Ah, I see, I totally get it now.”

But of course, after understanding the situation, another question popped into my head.

“Is it even possible for a small clan like Laton Water to conquer a Level 7 base?”

No matter how I thought about it, what Laton Water was doing felt like pure suicide—unlike my own achievements.