Chapter 146

Chapter 146. Kekeke, that guy is the weakest among our rankers. (2)

Anyway, clans are great.

It’s not like I didn’t know that from the beginning.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s just that I didn’t join because of my personal trauma and habits.

“Commander, I think it’s time for you to rise above the sorrows of the past…!”

“Hmm… I guess so.”

At this point, I thought that for the sake of the future, whether I liked it or not, I should join a proper clan.

But apart from that thought, we had a small problem…

“So, which clan can we join?”

“Hmm… How about Humanity, the biggest one? I heard there’s a forward base just across the border!”

“They won’t accept us unless we’re part of the Earth Federation.”

“Ah.”

They’re trying to transform the Earth Federation, which reminds me of the Star Trek Federation, into the In- Federation from some 4X sci-fi game.

There’s no way they’d accept pirate wannabes or monster fanboys, so that’s a pass.

Then I wondered about other major clans…

“Commander, what about the Justice Clan? I heard they accept anyone from the four major factions.”

“There was a forward base nearby, but it got destroyed in the recent faction conflict.”

Unfortunately, the Justice Clan, which would have been the most neutral option, lost its forward base.

Until they build a new forward base, they can’t exert control over this airspace.

And since their influence has disappeared from this area, there’s no way to join even if we wanted to.

As for the remaining clans…

“Hmm… The Loki Clan…”

“That would be too much, wouldn’t it?”

“Right?”

Even though we have a compromising video of Betelgeuse, the pink-haired self-proclaimed high school girl who leads that clan.

If we just go and ask to join, would Betelgeuse really accept us?

Or would she accept us as fellow clan members but then try to use us?

Given that she’s clearly much smarter than me, she might try to strip me of everything I have.

Or she might react by wanting me to experience what she went through, so that’s a pass.

And after going through all this, I realized, to my surprise, that there’s no clan around here for us to join.

It’s not that we’re being picky and refusing to join a mediocre clan.

Even if we just wanted to join anywhere to gain some benefit.

Literally, there are no clans around here at all.

Jessica and I were left wondering what the hell was going on, and we had to go through a deep period of anguish.

But that was short-lived.

After digging through the gallery to solve the mystery.

We soon found out that the reason was none other than our very own Marian…

—————————————-

Title: Why the hell is this crazy place always in chaos with factions fighting?

Author: Nassau

Content: [Image of hundreds of thousands of Pirate Alliance ships gathering, with 100,000 Earth Federation main fleet ships nearby for deterrence]

Damn, pirates keep showing up with hundreds of thousands of ships.

And when they leave, Earth or Empire guys bring in 100,000 ships.

Then monsters mobilize a million, and it’s just chaos.

Because of that, our clan’s command center has been destroyed twice already.

We’re thinking of moving the entire clan to another area.

We tried to hold on because the resource zone was sweet, but…

Comments:

-[LOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Damn, I know where that is LOL]

-[That place has always been accessible to all four factions, so it’s not easy to build a clan there, for real.]

-[Like the comment above said, it’s not an easy place, so it’s your fault for building a clan there LOL]

—————————————-

Title: If you build a clan where Jumma pointed out, you’re screwed LOL

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Image of a gloomy toad]

That place itself is a border zone, so the tension is already high.

Pirates keep popping up in large numbers and sweeping through the surrounding areas.

And then other factions come out and start fighting.

If there’s a clan led by someone from a faction opposing the local faction?

They’ll just attack the clan right away.

Like last time, when the Justice Clan set up a forward base there and got hit by monsters, the Empire, and Earth in a triple combo and had to flee.

What the hell, that top clan…

Humanity also tried to take over that airspace, got smacked, and got kicked out. After that, they built a forward base in a sector further away from the front lines, yeah. But even then, fleets from other factions keep crawling into that area, causing chaos and whatnot.

—

Comments:

– [Thanks to that, there aren’t even large clans there, let alone any clans at all, yeah.]

– [Those bastards attack any clan nearby if there’s another area around, yeah.]

—

Title: Our clan is surrounded, what do we do?

Author: Yeah

Content: [A monster fleet of over 100,000 ships swarming near a base with a ‘shield’ activated], [A screenshot of the monster fleet viewed from the base’s command center]

Save me, damn it LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

—

Comments:

– [“Just give up.”]

– [Surrender quickly and run?]

– [There’s no solution to this;;]

– [There are at least 10,000 large monsters there, GG.]

—

‘Oh my goodness.’

The reactions in the gallery were all over the place, but to sum it up, Marian ended up releasing pirates everywhere to protect us, and other factions also kept deploying their fleets to protect their own territories. In the process, all the nearby clans got wiped out, leaving only individual players.

‘Holy crap.’

It literally became a sanctuary for solo play. We realized that in this area, whether we liked it or not, we couldn’t leech resources through clans anymore. A wave of sadness hit us.

Of course, I wasn’t about to blame Marian for it.

‘Tsk tsk, weaklings. If you’re a player, you should endure NPC attacks and hold on, tsk tsk.’

Despite the fact that it was realistically impossible to stop, I blamed the weak(?) clans and decided to give up on the resource buffs from clans.

But as I pondered this and opened the chat window for the first time in a while, I wondered how other solo rankers were gathering resources and decided to casually ask around.

Of course, at the ranker level, how much resources you gather is usually kept secret, so if they didn’t want to share, I wasn’t going to push further.

—

– [Hey guys, do you guys gather resources well?] (Icarus)

– [Yeah] (Laura)

– [There’s a limit to gathering resources solo, so I trade with nearby solo players or pull resources that way.] (Indypatible)

– [?] (Menaldu)

– [What do you mean by pulling resources through trade?] (Menaldu)

– [Nothing special, just fight as a mercenary and get resources as payment.] (Indypatible)

– [Or beat up some guys who’ve been picking fights and use them as automatic resource gatherers.] (Indypatible)

– [Oh…] (Icarus)

—

Somehow, everyone seemed to be living better than me. Instead of just gathering resources like me, they were running a pillaging economy and working as mercenaries. Thanks to Golden Sun, who surprisingly shared a lot, I got some really useful info.

So I thanked them for the info and thought that once my fleet was rebuilt, maybe I’d try working as a mercenary for other players. But…

—

– [By the way, why don’t you join the solo chat?] (Indypatible)

– [?] (Icarus)

– [There’s a chat for solo players, and I’ve never seen you mention anything about it.] (Indypatible)

– [Yeah] (Laura)

– [???] (Icarus)

– [Wait, did you not know about it?] (Menaldu)

—

As I read the chat that followed, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being left out. Was I being excluded? The thought crept up on me.