Chapter 162: Great Chaos and Great Invasion (7)
“Now that everyone has calmed the initial confusion, you should understand what’s happening in this world. Allow me to reintroduce myself; I am Chancellor Mikhail, leading the alliance that seeks freedom against the evil and dictatorial forces of the Legion.”
He led the meeting nonchalantly. Despite having seized power after the Great Purge, he introduced himself shamelessly as if it were little matter that three of his faction’s planets had been raided, with two completely falling into enemy hands.
“I’ve said it before! We cannot fight alongside those pixies!”
“W-What?! Pixies?!”
However, the meeting was not smooth despite his efforts. A burly warrior slammed his fist on the table, and the pointed-eared woman sitting across from him growled, clearly appalled.
In truth, they were not the only ones. They were all too intricately entangled. Many of them didn’t even know how to escape their own world but insisted on calling strangers their foes.
“Y-Your Excellency. It truly seems impossible to gather such individuals in one place. It will be hard to proceed smoothly.”
“Is that so? Victor, don’t you have something to say after hearing about that ridiculous game?”
The advisor, who was aware of the extent of power the superhumans gathered here possessed, whispered to him with cold sweat, but the chancellor only shook his head with a grin.
“In my view, the true meaning of that ‘game’ isn’t about their bickering. Those of us not involved are also significantly affected by it. Thus, we cannot ignore it.”
As he continued to laugh at the attendees who were barking and clawing at each other, he raised the pistol he had been holding and shot into the sky.
The gunfire, which would be of no impact to those superhumans, was at least enough to draw their attention.
“In my opinion, we have no reason to fight. If you have truly come as representatives of each faction, it would be best to abandon all this talk of games and players. Why should the majority of us be led around by them?”
He set the atmosphere, and his words rang true. Of course, many disagreed.
However, at least the level of species gathered here was not large even among the Units. This was due to the system design, wherein the higher the assigned level of a Unit, the fewer numbers it held.
“What do you want to say?”
“I understand the circumstances, and we all do. Ultimately, some must become enemies. I ask you, do all warriors of the Gaisahn tribe need to kill the fairies of Elden?”
Mikhail asked, smiling faintly at the grumbling warrior. The warrior could not answer, as he, to begin with, was neither a player nor a unit.
As the tribal chief, he had come seeking the rebel alliance because a Unit, his brother, had led his kin in asking for help, and opposing the fairies of another world was simply because one of his subordinates was a player from the competing units.
“No, I mean…”
Thus, it was natural that a response from the perspective of the entire tribe would be sought after.
In the end, both players and units were but a handful in total.
“I don’t know what exactly that game is, but I find it incredibly displeasing from a leader’s position. I can’t just burn the lives of so many over such trivial matters.”
“But there are those who must stake their lives on the game.”
“That’s up to them to decide. I, of course, think of the greater good for more people.”
The fairy, who had rebutted him softly, closed her mouth upon hearing his counter-response.
Also, as his ideology and situation were quite similar to that of the demon realm leader, Casaras, the attending high-ranking orc from the nobility listened to his words with interest.
“So, let’s exclude the units and players for now and discuss what the representatives of each faction want to share. Surely, you have something you desire from each other.”
Mikhail expanded this issue to a scale that completely transcended the hands of players and units.
His logic was flawless, and ultimately, the units or players that could not forsake the locals had to prioritize them.
“Our alliance aims to use this opportunity to become a hub connecting many worlds we have not known before, and to be the center of exchange. The purpose, as you all know, stems from the dreadful monsters that recently attacked us.”
“If we had just a little more time and troops, we could have won.”
“Indeed. Hence, I am saying we must increase that time and those troops.”
The warrior, who had foolishly added a comment, let out a grunt and fell silent.
“We want that mysterious healing kit.”
“We, we need food right now. And… ah, maybe those metallic carriages floating outside…”
Once they began speaking up, negotiations progressed rapidly. After all, there was no reason to linger as long as they all wanted something.
Mikhail accepted all their proposals with a smile. After all, what the rebel alliance needed now were superhumans capable of sniping the small crafts of the high-mobility enemies.
‘We can exert great force against the Legion as well. But those bastards won’t stay idle; this feels a bit strange.’
Of course, his true goal wasn’t just the suddenly appeared cosmic monsters.
It was the Legion, his long-time enemy and the strongest rival faction. But one point of curiosity lingered—the information agents he had planted within the Legion were alarmingly quiet.
Could it really be that the Legion still did not know about the game, and that a faction closer to the truth was thoroughly hiding and monopolizing that fact? He had not even considered that possibility.
“So let us strengthen security further. It seems they are hiding information; we must also keep the detailed facts secure for as long as possible.”
“Understood, Your Excellency.”
Hence, Mikhail secretly ordered his direct information department underlings to enhance security during the banquet he had arranged afterward.
“You have far too many parasites inside you.”
“…What?!”
“So many I can’t even count. If I followed that, I could draw your blood vessels.”
Thus, the representative of the fairy tribe, with her faintly glowing blue eyes, scanned an information department employee from top to bottom and caught the words she spat out.
“W-Wait a minute! What is this…!”
“The advanced bio-nanomachine that doesn’t catch scrutiny is exclusive Legion technology.”
“Are there really little creatures filling his blood vessels?”
The intelligence agents swiftly arrested the employee. She shook her head, wondering what the problem was.
“They’re small things that I can’t tell if they’re living beings or what. Very tiny, but they don’t seem to be parasites.”
“Thank you. If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask for one favor.”
They immediately captured the Legion’s infiltrating agent, and using the eyes of the fairy they had gained cooperation from, they swiftly apprehended those who had been unnoticed without incurring any loss.
This marked the moment when the eyes of the Legion were completely erased from the heart of the rebel alliance.
“Why should we use this power against those ignorant monsters?”
“But your Excellency, those monsters…”
“I know. But just wait and see how those monsters will act next.”
With a sincere sigh as if genuinely disappointed in the chancellor, he soon grinned, anticipating the monsters’ next target.
Most expected the monsters, who prioritized reproduction and expansion, to immediately invade the nearby planets, but Mikhail did not.
‘They are not ordinary beasts. They might make a different choice.’
This was purely a gut feeling, but he surprisingly felt certain that it might be right.
—
“Are we going to strike the rebel alliance like this? But doing so would only strengthen the power they are gathering.”
While they were holding their own meeting on another planet, Eve was, as usual, reviewing plans alone.
“But if we’re not careful, we might be attacked from both sides.”
“That’s true. Although the Legion and the Alliance are enemies, I don’t think they would dwell on past feelings when dealing with monsters.”
She was not entirely alone. She actively accepted the opinions of Reina and Liam, who contributed through the Collective Consciousness.
“But the Legion is also hurrying to prepare, and most importantly, the other factions within the Legion, not Ares, are unaware of Earth’s existence.”
Eve judged this to be the perfect opportunity. She aimed to attack the Legion, whose defense was still weak compared to the rebel alliance, and gain more than one planet.
‘…Is it possible?’
Liam, the commander to the core, muttered uncertainly.
Eve chuckled and pointed to the Nest they were currently standing on.
“Four fully completed nests and one incomplete nest. The forces that can be produced from here are incomparable to the previous ones. If they’re complacent, it’s entirely feasible. It doesn’t matter if they’re stronger. They can learn. In fact, I hope they do.”
The Subminds did not refute Eve’s laughter. That statement was true. Right then, even Liam himself had never encountered more than a hundred thousand units in his fleet. In fact, this was not even their full strength.
‘The average fleet protecting a single planet is less than 30 ships. Regardless of the disparity in firepower and quality, this is…’
The Legion’s craft were being continuously produced from each Nest, seemingly seeking to resolve their inferior durability, size, output, and firepower purely through numbers alone.
Despite significant differences in specifications, as long as they densely packed and infiltrated the interior with troops, Liam believed that they could not lose.
