Chapter 27

Chapter 27. Lone Wolf vs. Troll (5)

Of course, it was obvious that the guy, whether he was Melon or whatever, seemed pretty shaken after seeing the community gallery’s reactions.

<Melon has requested a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

<Melon has requested a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

<Melon has requested a 1-on-1 chat with you!>

He kept spamming chat requests, clearly panicking.

But I had been preparing for a long time to physically mess him up, so…

“Nope, not interested, go away.”

<<<You have blocked 'Melon'.>>>

<You will no longer see this user's chats or chat requests!>

I immediately blocked him, then turned to look at Belial, Ignis, and Pashtira, who appeared on the command center screen.

“Alright, everyone, you’ve all memorized the operation plan, right?”

– “Yes, Commander.”

– “All preparations are complete.”

– “Just leave it to us, Commander♡”

“Good, then let’s move out!”

– “Yes!”

==========

At the same time, inside Melon’s base command center.

“What the hell! Why aren’t they accepting my chat?!”

As a professional troll, he was genuinely freaking out in this unexpected crisis.

<Chat request denied.>

“You damn bastard! Just take the beating already!”

<Chat request denied.>

<Chat request denied.>

<Chat request denied.>

It was clear to anyone that he had been blocked, but he was so desperate that he kept spamming chat requests, a truly pitiful sight.

Of course, just a few hours ago, he had been overflowing with confidence. The post he made on the ‘gallery’ played a huge role in this, proving that life is full of ups and downs.

Though, even if he heard that proverb, Melon wouldn’t understand it since it’s not from his country. He’d probably just yell at people to stop using “x language” and act all superior.

“Commander, please calm down first…”

“Calm down?! How the hell am I supposed to calm down right now?!”

– *Whack!*

“Ugh?!”

In the midst of this, Melon, who had been mercilessly beating his innocent cat-girl adjutant Maya, started throwing things around the command center in a fit of rage.

– *Crash! Bang!*

But while Melon was busy destroying his own stuff to vent his anger…

– *Beep! Beep!*

Maya, despite being hit by her commander, managed to stay conscious and noticed the alert sound from the thrown command console.

Her cat ears perked up as she quickly picked up the console to check the situation…

And then…

“Commander… Commander!”

“Huff, huff… What the hell is it now?!”

“Enemies! The enemy commander’s fleet has appeared!”

“What the hell?!”

Hearing Maya’s urgent report, Melon’s face instantly turned pale.

But as he listened to Maya’s follow-up report, his face quickly returned to normal.

“Enemy numbers: 7 ships… 2 destroyers, 2 escort ships, and 3 patrol ships!”

“…Really?”

“Yes, and the 2 destroyers… they’re both transport types!”

“What?”

The moment he heard the last part…

Melon, as if his earlier fear had been a lie, shouted,

“Good, mobilize all fleets and superhumans except for base defense, right now!”

“Yes, Commander!”

“Damn, they said he was a veteran, but he’s just a beggar after all! I was right, wasn’t I?!”

“That’s correct, Commander!”

To intercept Icarus’s ‘fleet’ that had appeared, he began deploying his main fleet, including his flagship, the Overseer.

Unaware, of course, that the fleet was just bait set by Icarus to lure him out.

==========

At the same time…

– “They’ve taken the bait.”

– “Confirmed, fleet turning 180 degrees to retreat.”

Once Melon’s main fleet, which had been holed up in the base, was confirmed to have moved out…

Belial immediately ordered the bait fleet to retreat.

At the same time, while maintaining enough distance to avoid detection by the Overseer…

She began pursuing Melon’s fleet.

“Why is it so slow?! Move faster!”

“Yes, Commander.”

And Melon, completely unaware of this, continued to chase the fleet.

But of course, no matter how high-performance the Overseer was…

It couldn’t…

The fleet’s performance wasn’t particularly better than Icarus’s fleet.

Melon’s fleet, which was delayed in sortieing due to being holed up in the base, soon lost track of Icarus’s fleet.

“Eeeeeek!”

Thanks to that, Melon, whose temper had once again reached its boiling point, began throwing objects around, showing signs of anger management issues.

But that was short-lived.

-Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

“Commander, there’s a destroyer moving ahead.”

“Ugh… just one?”

“Yes, it’s another transport type… please wait a moment, this one… it’s fully loaded with resources!”

“Oh.”

Whether by coincidence or not.

Near the place where Melon had lost the enemy, a transport-type destroyer, packed to the brim with resources, was wandering around.

Naturally, with no escort ships around and armed with just three lasers, the basic destroyer posed no threat to Melon.

Melon immediately mobilized her fleet and began charging mindlessly to attack and plunder the destroyer.

“Enemy destroyer is turning around and fleeing!”

“Chase it! This time, I’ll definitely catch it!”

Of course, upon spotting Melon’s fleet, the destroyer immediately turned its bow and began running for its life with its engines roaring.

Unfortunately, due to the large amount of minerals in its cargo hold, the ship was more than twice as heavy as usual, resulting in sluggish movements and slow speed.

Soon after, the railgun shells fired by Melon’s proud ‘Overseer’ hit the destroyer.

-KABOOM!!!

True to its reputation of firepower rivaling that of a battleship, the Overseer’s main gun showcased its prowess by destroying the destroyer’s propulsion system and keel in a single shot.

Despite Maya’s attempts to dissuade her, Melon, determined not to let this one slip away, quickly approached with only the Overseer to attack.

This led to the problem of the escort fleet and the Overseer being separated… but from Melon’s perspective, they were only 2-3 minutes apart.

She thought she could quickly gather the resources from the destroyer and wait for the escort fleet to catch up.

But that very moment was part of Icarus’s plan, using the destroyer and its mineral resources as a second bait.

The moment the Overseer, the flagship of Melon’s fleet, was separated from the escort fleet.

-KABOOOOOM!!!

“Whaaat?!”

Twenty patrol ships from Belial and Ignis charged towards the isolated Overseer.

“Commander! The Overseer is in danger!”

“Damn it, fire! Shoot them all!”

Naturally, Melon, watching from the command center, panicked and tried to counterattack the ambush with the Overseer’s powerful main gun.

Unfortunately, while the Overseer’s main gun was powerful, it was still a single attack.

The Overseer’s counterattack only managed to sink two patrol ships before the ambush closed in.

At the same time, since a cruiser had to sacrifice many things to possess the firepower of a ‘battleship.’

Its ‘rate of fire’ and ‘defense’ were inevitably compromised.

This meant that, despite being a cruiser, it was capable of a ‘direct assault breakthrough’ using assault pods.

As they closed in on the Overseer, Belial and Ignis each boarded separate assault pods.

They were launched like projectiles, infiltrating the Overseer’s interior to begin a boarding operation.

Of course, the alarms from the boarding naturally reached Melon’s command center.

“Ahhh, no, my Overseer!”

Desperate, Melon tried to use the ‘booster’ function to bring her fleet, which was only about a minute away, closer.

But just as Melon’s escort fleet was about to reach, Icarus’s patrol fleet, having finished their task of deploying superhumans onto the Overseer, immediately dove in.

“Ahhh!!! Go away! Damn it, go away!”

“Commander, calm down and focus on eliminating that fleet first!”

“Ahhh!”

As a result, the booster she had just used became useless.

Due to the booster’s use, Melon’s fleet entered combat with a -50% mobility debuff.

It was the most disastrous outcome Melon could have imagined.