Chapter 159

Chapter 159. Without You Knowing. (2)

At that time, Antares and the Humanity Clan were busy doing this and that for their grand scheme.

When the Earth Federation moved its main forces and “intentionally” leaked the information to the Pirate Alliance side.

The Loki Clan, having received that information, was going through a truly agonizing period.

“Clan Leader, it seems like these bastards are planning to push forward in our direction, huh?”

“Since they’ve temporarily neutralized Justice and those noble types, it looks like they’re going for a decisive showdown, right?”

Naturally, upon hearing about this, the upper echelons of the Loki Clan went into a frenzy, suggesting that they should respond accordingly to Antares’ plans.

However, the Loki Clan’s Clan Leader, ‘Betelgeuse,’ showed a rather indifferent reaction.

“Sigh… That guy is really only doing the most annoying things.”

“What do you mean, Clan Leader?”

“That Antares guy, the way he’s acting is like throwing rat-poisoned cheese at us.”

It was understandable because Betelgeuse, having a similar level of intelligence as Antares, could clearly see the reasoning behind Antares’ actions from her perspective.

But that didn’t mean she could just ignore the situation, as she was well aware of the dangers involved.

‘Damn bastard, I’d love to just ignore this, but… he’s making it impossible to back out.’

Recalling the face of that annoying golden-haired man, Betelgeuse realized that Antares had set up the board in such a way that she and the Loki Clan couldn’t possibly back out.

Despite feeling deeply annoyed that a clan named after the god of mischief and schemes was being used in someone else’s scheme…

She couldn’t help but feel that, like it or not, she and the Loki Clan had to play along with Antares’ “play.”

“Haha, damn that Antares, that f***ing gay bastard, hohohohahat.”

“Wow.”

“Our Clan Leader seems to be losing it a bit, huh?”

“I agree.”

While hurling curses at Antares, she acknowledged the situation.

To counter the Humanity Clan’s aggressive push, she decided to send reinforcements from the clan’s direct forces and allied clans to the border area between the Pirate Alliance and the Earth Federation.

Of course, separate from that decision…

“Hey, we have some guys from the Earth Federation on our side, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, we do.”

“But most of them are lying low in the Federation’s territory, so it’s hard to use them, no?”

“Well, of course, we gotta mess with those bastards who dare try to use us, right?”

“Ooh!”

“Let’s gooo!”

With a devilishly mischievous smile, Betelgeuse laid out her plan, and the Loki Clan reacted with, “That’s our Clan Leader for you!”

They immediately decided to mobilize their sleeper agents within the Earth Federation’s territory to pull off some intense trolling against Humanity.

===

However, there was one thing Betelgeuse and the Loki Clan failed to notice.

That Humanity’s attempt to attack the Pirate Alliance was hiding “something.”

What that “something” actually was.

But most users simply saw it as Humanity taking advantage of Justice being neutralized to crush the Loki Clan.

The upper echelons of the Loki Clan vaguely thought, “Ah, this isn’t the real goal, there must be something else~”

Even the Clan Leader, Betelgeuse, thought that maybe Antares was trying to divert attention to the Pirate Alliance to attack somewhere else.

She was getting close to the truth, but…

She still hadn’t reached Antares’ true goal of “subjugating neutral users and conquering regions.”

“Hmm, is this a chance to completely screw over Justice from that Arcadia woman? Or maybe Ratenwater in Xenobia?”

Staring into the utterly ambiguous fog, she could only tilt her head in confusion.

Of course, as Betelgeuse mentioned earlier, given her intelligence comparable to Antares’, if she had just a bit more time, she might have realized the true goal of Antares and the Humanity Clan.

Unfortunately, by the time our pink-haired Betelgeuse could figure it out, the distance was too great, making “command” difficult.

Not long after heading to the nearby area with her commanders = users and troops…

“Hey, Betelgeuse.”

“Yeah?”

“The Pirate Empress has something to say to the Clan Leaders participating in this war, and she’s inviting us to a nearby pirate fortress.”

“…The Pirate Empress?”

Marian, who had once beaten her to a pulp in a serious sparring match, was summoning her and the other Clan Leaders.

But when they gathered to talk, there was nothing particularly unusual, just some general talk about Humanity and the Earth Federation…

Listening to the movements of the old federation’s main force, I felt a brief moment of relief.

Thinking there wouldn’t be any major issues, but my lower abdomen kept twitching, making me dream of revenge for the way I was trained.

“And, hey, could the leader of the Loki Clan stay behind for a bit? I have something to say as a leader.”

“…Ah.”

“I heard your faction is the largest among the commanders… so I thought we could exchange some opinions.”

Being singled out by Marian, along with…

“Ooh, our Clan Leader is the best.”

“Fighting!”

“Go and negotiate with the Empress, we believe in you.”

“…”

‘You bastards.’

Receiving completely unhelpful cheers from my clan members, I ended up having a secret one-on-one meeting.

After meeting with Marian, who I had no choice but to see, and experiencing some intense and violent situations, I awakened as a masochist, struggling with my mental resistance. Because of this, I completely missed out on understanding Antares’ true intentions.

And so, it all just fizzled out.

==========

Meanwhile, Betelgeuse, who was supposed to stop Antares, ended up walking the path of a masochistic pervert through a TS transformation.

As a result, Antares and the Humanity Clan’s plans were progressing smoothly without any interference.

Though, to say it was completely smooth would be a stretch.

“Ah, why aren’t people following along?”

“Honestly, looking at the current situation, isn’t it normal to think that the Loki Clan is about to engage in an all-out war?”

“Sigh.”

The operation was so secretive that most users thought the disguised frontlines were the real deal. Plus, due to the Loki Clan’s trolling, there were constant obstacles in deploying Humanity Clan users to the Central Zone.

“There’s no other way, we’ll have to mobilize users from subordinate clans instead.”

Unable to move freely due to trolling and interference, the Humanity Clan decided to secretly mobilize subordinate clans to attack neutral users in the Central Zone and surrounding border areas.

Considering that solo players, with their specialized skills, could easily defeat clan users in one-on-one battles, the leadership thought…

“Let’s have at least 2-3 users per target.”

“Of course, those solo players are too skilled for one-on-one battles.”

To ensure the success of the operation, they arranged for users to invade solo players with at least 2-3 times the numbers.

While all this was going on…

“Wait, Clan Leader, isn’t the rank 3 player living here?”

“That’s right, sigh…”

When Icarus, who was firmly settled in the Central Zone, came into view…

“Looking at the posts this guy made in the gallery, 2-3 users won’t be enough.”

“Considering the posts where other users complained about fighting him… it’s only natural.”

“Agreed.”

Remembering the recent ‘warning post’ in the gallery, along with Icarus’ back-to-back rank 3 status…

“Then let’s throw in a small clan of 5 users.”

“But that means we can’t attack another user base.”

“Since we’re assigning 2-3 users per target anyway, we can’t invade all at once. Let’s just make sure we do it properly.”

“Plus, that guy’s base has the Pirate Empress’s fleet and unlimited mercenaries… we should assume he’s worth at least two users.”

“Agreed.”

Not taking any chances, they decided to deploy an entire small clan to take down Icarus.

And our Icarus, who had no idea about any of this…

==========

“Whaaaaaaa—!”

“Commander, please calm down first…”

“Damn cheaters!!”

Facing the relentless Eagle Five Brothers, Icarus let out a tearful scream.