Chapter 432

Chapter 432. The Birth of the Central Zone’s Guardian, Death Woong. (2)

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Icarus was spouting all sorts of random nonsense.

At the same time, Princess Luka was threatening to devour her precious hobby (royal guard) fleet like a hungry niece during the holidays…

…But that was a while ago.

Because Icarus had no interest in creating factions or clans, they had a somewhat lone-wolf personality.

Unlike Icarus, who had unlimited mercenaries and sufficient self-sustained power through them.

The users docked at the level 5 base within the Central Zone had a fairly tight-knit communication system.

To be precise, since they had to manage a large base and the users docked there without a clan.

Unlike other zones where you could just cleanly create and manage a ‘clan,’ here, users had to handle everything individually.

Whether they liked it or not, sharing operational ‘know-how’ with other users was a kind of stopgap measure to survive.

One year, two years.

No, by the time the ‘clan system’ had been around for three years…

The simple chat room created to share operational know-how had transformed into a space for political maneuvering among the ‘market’ users of level 4 and above bases within the Central Zone.

And the know-how for simply managing the base itself had shifted to ‘how can we maintain long-term control over the base.’

And how to keep this robust system running.

If no major issues arose, the Central Zone was expected to remain divided forever by the invisible hands (?) of users, much like a shadow council.

But unfortunately, reality far surpassed the users’ imaginations.

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[Sigh]

-[Wait, are you saying the Earth Federation fell to Humanity?]

-[With 180,000 users united, how could they hold out?]

-[Ugh]

-[This is bad]

—————————————–

First of all, one of the four major factions, which seemed eternally unshakable, collapsed under a user clan.

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[I told you not to act recklessly and just stay put]

-[What are you talking about?]

-[Weren’t you the one who agreed back then?]

-[You insolent brat]

—————————————–

Some users, who had unnecessarily provoked others while trying to counter the Central Zone users participating in Humanity’s mercenary business, ended up inciting a portion of the users.

The problem was, in the process, the incited users stirred up others.

And those stirred-up users incited even more, spreading like the Black Death.

As a result, the mercenaries who had left got betrayed en masse, and upon returning, they were filled with rage and immediately launched a revenge spree.

Even then, some users, not satisfied, went full UFC instead of WWE.

In the process, the ‘instigators’ turned the UFC users into outright rebels, burning Central Zone users and bases, trying to take over.

This led to a rapid weakening of the Central Zone users’ power, and users who had lost or grown tired of faction wars elsewhere flooded into the Central Zone.

As these incoming users started forming large clans within the Central Zone.

The base users of the Central Zone smashed the bases of the instigators and drove them out.

They were now feeling, very, very acutely, the need to find a way to handle this situation.

The problem was, no matter how well-established they were within the Central Zone.

Even with all the users docked at the base and themselves combined, they were only a few hundred strong, and the limitations were glaring.

Until recently, there was a belief that ‘At least level 4 and above can’t be touched by rebels or whatever!’ but…

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[Wow]

Wait a minute]

-[?]

-[Spiralus got wrecked]

-[?]

-[Wasn’t that a level 5 base?]

-[[Link to a gallery post saying Spiralus changed owners 5 times in a day]]

-[It’s true]

-[Wow, wait, wow]

—————————————–

Even the defense facilities and fleet of that level 5 base, which we trusted so much, proved to be utterly powerless against the endless waves of users’ fleets.

The users who had been holding level 4 and above bases were watching the situation closely, feeling the need for a turning point.

But apart from feeling that need, the fundamental question of “So what can you guys even do?” had no answer.

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[We can’t just sit still, you know]

-[Those Yellow Turban idiots and guys from other zones are recklessly increasing their forces and seriously trying to take over bases]

-[Isn’t Spiralus just getting bullied?]

-[That bullying could happen to us too, you know]

-[But what can we even do?]

-[Uh…]

-[Hmm?]

-[We’re not the majority anymore]

-[Ah]

—————————————–

The sneaky, underhanded tactics only worked because most central users were truly “solo” players.

Additionally, those who took over bases subtly mobilized their followers to gaslight solo players.

The problem was, those kinds of users don’t exist anymore.

And there were plenty of other issues too.

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[Uh, can’t we just figure something out?]

-[If we try underhanded tactics now, will they even accept it?]

-[If it were me, I’d be pissed. We should’ve gone Yellow Turban on them]

-[Ah]

-[That seems about right]

-[If we mess up, we might just end up increasing our enemies]

-[I think it’s time to accept reality]

-[Sigh]

-[We can’t maintain the independent status of the central zone on our own anymore]

-[If we just try to maintain the status quo here, the Yellow Turbans or guys from other zones will take all our authority]

—————————————–

The self-proclaimed market leaders of the central zone, who had been exploiting their elected status, decided to face reality.

In the end, they realized they couldn’t manage both the existing central zone users and the new users from other zones on their own.

At the same time, they had a strong预感 that if they messed up, their bases and status would be completely wiped out…

A moment later.

—————————————–

[Central Base Market Meeting]

[Notice: The current situation isn’t great, everyone please be cautious.]

-[Let’s push Icarus as the central zone leader]

-[Yeah]

-[They might not like it, but is it okay?]

-[Isn’t it fine if we just push it as a group?]

-[Lol, true]

-[And we all know what happens when someone gets power, right?]

-[Yeah, that’s true]

-[So, how about the title ‘Central Zone Base Alliance’?]

-[Sounds good]

-[Let’s go with that]

—————————————–

Based on a ridiculously sneaky plot, they started pushing our Icarus as the central zone leader.