Chapter 226

Chapter 226. The higher the skill, the more one sticks to the basics.

As Marian said, the two of them listened to me much better than I expected.

But still, it was quite strange for me that even Betelgeuse, let alone Arcadia, followed my orders so obediently.

As the battle began, I decided to casually discuss the matter with Jessica.

Of course, Jessica didn’t know everything, so she only gave me a troubled look in response to my questions.

“Commander, I don’t know everything, you know.”

“You can do it, you…!”

“???”

However, it didn’t take long for me to realize why Betelgeuse was so obedient to my words.

That time was…

-“What’s this, Icarus? That fleet.”

“…A lot has happened.”

-“Pathetic♡ Disqualified from the rankings♡”

“Hmm, so how did you maintain that fleet?”

-“Not telling, why should I tell you?”

“…Hmm.”

I tried to subtly fish for the secret of how they preserved their fleet like that.

But perhaps it was a matter of etiquette, as Betelgeuse suddenly turned serious and refused to answer.

-“Pfft, the so-called 3rd rank can’t even manage a fleet properly and only has 6 ships left, tsk tsk.”

“Ugh.”

The conversation continued with them throwing shade at me like that.

Honestly, I wanted to give that mocking head a righteous knuckle sandwich.

-“Picking fights like that, you must have no friends.”

-“Huh?”

-“Oh, excuse me, Icarus? Let’s ignore that pathetic pink girl and focus on our work.”

-“If you put it that way, you’re also…”

“Ughhh.”

If I let those two fight freely in the team chat…

—————————————-

-[Enemy spotted at 3 o’clock.]

-[Your 3 o’clock or the main force’s 3 o’clock?]

-[Obviously mine, duh.]

-[Dude, you’re on the opposite side of us, wtf.]

-[Oh crap, they’re using battleships for scouting!]

–<Blanca’s Havoc-class Destroyer has been sunk by Auria’s standard Battleship.>

-[Those guys don’t seem to have small ships for scouting, they’re just throwing battleships and cruiser battleships into the asteroid field.]

-[Ah, if only we could spam torpedoes from the escort ships right there.]

-[Dodge!!! Main cannon!!! To the corner!!!!]

–<Starlight’s Chatter-class Light Cruiser has been sunk by Lanchart’s Overseer-class Heavy Cruiser.>

-[Wouldn’t it have been better to dodge before chatting?]

-[Almost said that~]

—————————————-

“…”

It would be quite disruptive to the team members who are busy fighting on their own.

So, whether I liked it or not, I ended up relaying their opinions in the chat and inadvertently became the team leader.

But at this rate, I might end up with stress-induced hair loss.

However, that suffering was short-lived.

-“Oppa, I have something to ask you… Oh, were you in the middle of a conversation?”

-“Hic.”

As soon as Marian appeared on the comms screen, her reaction, along with the smug expression she had just moments ago, disappeared.

Instead, she started hiccuping and struggling to maintain her composure…

-“Uh, of course, I’ll tell you!”

“Huh?”

-“You’re curious about how I preserved the fleet, right? I’ll tell you!”

Her face turned red as she blurted out her words, suddenly becoming very Icarus-friendly(?).

I didn’t know why, but I thought Marian must have had a good reason for being so confident.

Even as we fought the opposing team, I decided to listen to Betelgeuse’s real-time fleet preservation techniques.

Even Arcadia seemed secretly curious, pretending not to care but keeping the comms screen open and watching.

=========

And a few dozen minutes later…

—————————————-

–<Icarus’s Kraken-Class Assault Battle Carrier has sunk Lanchart’s Overseer-class Heavy Cruiser.>

–<Arcadia’s Hood-class Cruiser Battleship has sunk Mania’s Berlin-class Cruiser Battleship.>

–<Betelgeuse’s Odin-class Battleship has sunk Chupacabra’s Seraphias-class Aircraft Carrier.>

-[They’re all going down!]

-[Main fleet down!]

-[LOLOLOLOLOL now we just need to push forward.]

—————————————-

The enemy’s main force…

Only after enough time had passed to split the class in half did I finally understand what Betelgeuse meant.

“So… you’re saying it’s because you went all out with the political maneuvering?”

-“Isn’t that obvious? No matter how well you do alone, there’s a limit due to the nature of the game.”

Unlike before, when he was just showing off his pretentiousness and trying hard to act cool, now he seemed to be overflowing with confidence in every action and word, probably because he was actually excelling in his field.

How should I put it…?

It was like Gryanarr proudly showing off his research results.

In the end, it seemed that by engaging in appropriate political maneuvering, he minimized the losses of his fleet while defeating enemies by pitting them against his own team.

It seemed like he wasn’t just called smart for nothing, and I nodded my head in agreement…

But I felt that if I praised that arrogant pink-haired guy directly, it would feel like a defeat.

“Wow, as expected of the 6th rank and the leader of the 2nd ranked clan.”

I immediately went for the mockery, giving Betelgeuse a ‘scratch’.

-“Nuuuuuh?! Wh-who was it that made me drop to 6th place?! If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been 2nd!”

Of course, caught off guard by my unexpected sneak attack, Betelgeuse’s face turned red for a different reason this time, and he let out a high-pitched, childish scream.

Unlike me, who just brushed it off, Arcadia immediately expressed doubt about Betelgeuse’s words.

-“Wait a minute, wouldn’t that prevent you from getting proper points and negatively affect your ranking?”

“Oh.”

-“If you’re preserving your fleet to that extent, you probably didn’t get proper sinkings or assists, right…?”

But to Arcadia’s criticism, Betelgeuse just snorted.

-“Did you think I wouldn’t consider that? How rude~”

“…”

-“I told you, right? I used appropriate awareness and political maneuvering.”

“How exactly did you do that?”

-“It’s nothing much. Just when charging with other allies, subtly slowing down or delaying the deployment by a few seconds so that other ships take the aggro.”

“…”

It sounds simple.

But doing that while thoroughly controlling dozens to hundreds of ships?

-“After falling back slightly, I just diligently supported from the rear and picked up kills and assists appropriately.”

“Hmm.”

-“Of course, if I didn’t take any damage in the process, my allies might team-kill me later, so I deliberately sacrificed some ships I brought as meat shields to create a perfect alibi!”

“Hoh.”

Hearing that he quickly selected appropriate ships to ram into the enemy fleet to simultaneously secure kills and an alibi, I couldn’t help but nod in agreement, thinking that this is what it takes to be a clan leader.

Of course, he mentioned that this method only worked up to the 7th battle…

-“From the 8th battle onwards, it felt like the users’ intelligence skyrocketed, so they didn’t fall for it anymore.”

“That makes sense.”

-“But so what? By that time, the number of other users’ ships would have drastically decreased anyway.”

“Oh.”

-“So in the last battle, I just crushed them with overwhelming numbers. That’s what it takes to be a top ranker, right?”

It was impressive, but it felt surprisingly mundane for Betelgeuse, who’s famous for his outlandish strategies in the Loki Clan.

And it wasn’t just me; Arcadia seemed to feel the same way, making a strange expression and raising the question…

But in response to our questions, Betelgeuse just shook his head with a pitiful expression.

-“Thinking that just because someone is smart, they’ll always use outlandish methods is a trap in itself.”

“What.”

-“In fact, the more you do that, the more someone who masters the basics will win.”

As he said this, tapping his head with his finger, he proceeded to take down another enemy ship with a textbook strategy.

Once again, I was reminded of the truth that mastering the basics is the best.