Chapter 510

Chapter 510. Cold, gloomy, and complicated. (3)

The Central Base Alliance initially maintained a rather indifferent attitude toward the events happening in Icarus’ territory.

Although it was true that they had pushed Icarus as the central figure and engaged in various political maneuvers…

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[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Announcement: Let’s communicate with each other]

-[I heard users in Icarus’ territory are forming clans.]

-[Clans?]

-[Icarus wouldn’t allow a large clan, so it must be small-scale.]

-[If it’s not a large clan, it’s practically meaningless.]

-[Let’s just ignore it.]

—————————————–

They only paid lip service, praising this and that.

Because Icarus turned out to be less power-hungry than expected, the original plan of “creating a massive clan in the Central Zone and manipulating Icarus from behind” went down the drain.

After that, even when Icarus was being harassed by other factions or even invaded by the Xenobia Empire, they just shrugged it off with an “Oh, well.”

They had practically become strangers at this point.

So, at first, they thought, “What’s the point of users forming small clans if Icarus himself isn’t involved?”

But as they kept seeing these discussions popping up in galleries and other places, an idea started to form in their heads: “Maybe we can use this to our advantage.”

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Announcement: Let’s communicate with each other]

-[We can probably use this.]

-[How?]

-[Well, there are users docked at the central base, right?]

-[We can gather those users, form a clan, and quickly capture the base simultaneously.]

-[Oh.]

-[Even if Icarus mobilizes the base defense fleets, if we deploy a bunch of superhumans to take out the command center quickly, it’s over.]

-[Just like we did before.]

-[Ooooh.]

—————————————–

However, more than half of the alliance users shook their heads in disapproval at their own plan.

Of course, the reason was purely practical.

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Announcement: Let’s communicate with each other]

-[It’s an interesting idea, but it’s impossible.]

-[?]

-[To be precise, it’s meaningless. Even if we take out the command center and seize the base’s defenses and fleets…]

-[What’s the point? The Leviathan Fleet is under Icarus’ control.]

-[Ah.]

-[At best, it’s a Level 5 base. No fortress main guns, and aside from Avalon, it’s not even suitable for defense.]

-[He’s right. If the Leviathan Fleet shows up with Jörmungandr and Ouroboros raining fire, the base is toast.]

-[Can’t we handle it with sheer numbers?]

-[Out of the 2,500 ships in the Leviathan Fleet, 2,000 are battleships or higher. It’s pointless.]

-[Avalon only has 525 battleships combined between its guard and combat fleets.]

-[And even among those battleships, 200-300 are super dreadnoughts or higher…]

-[Even if we gather all the docked users, they’d get crushed by the Leviathan Fleet’s battleships.]

-[True.]

—————————————–

Putting aside all other reasons, the outcome of capturing the base was obvious.

So, as always, they planned to take the attitude of “Do whatever you want, it’s your problem,” but…

Right at that moment.

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Announcement: Let’s communicate with each other]

-[Wait, why are we always trying to directly capture the base?] (Durian)

-[?]

-[Shouldn’t we just use our political skills to win?] (Durian)

-[Huh?]

-[What are you trying to say?]

—————————————–

A user named “Durian” flashed a moment of brilliance, suggesting that the Base Alliance should rely on their specialty: “sneaky political maneuvering.”

When the suggestion to “cast a spell” was brought up, users started focusing their attention on the one who brought up such a chat, wondering what on earth they were planning to do.

And right after that…

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Notice: Let’s Communicate]

– [As I said earlier, if we just rush into a direct fight, there’s no solution, right?] (Durian)

– [Yeah]

– [So, village chiefs or other users should create clans, and we’ll control the opinions of those clans.] (Durian)

– […Interesting]

– [Keep talking]

– [Literally, except for that Arc Light’s Oden Tank guy who openly rejected us in the gallery, we’ll take control of the opinions of the other bases and clan villages.] (Durian)

– [Through that, we’ll completely dominate the internal public opinion of Icarus’s kingdom.] (Durian)

– [Hmm]

– [That actually makes sense]

– [But what if Icarus ignores it? If we work hard to raise a clan leader, and Icarus just cuts them off, that’s it.]

– [What does it matter? By then, the opinions of the users within Icarus’s kingdom will already be in our hands.] (Durian)

– [Ah, I see]

—————————————–

Even if the ‘clan leaders,’ swept up by the public opinion they control, mess up and get purged by Icarus…

By then, the internal public opinion of Icarus’s kingdom would already be under their control.

If over 7,000 users rise up, even if Icarus has unlimited mercenaries or the Leviathan Fleet, there’s a limit to how much they can handle.

By manipulating the public opinion of the users in their grasp, even Icarus, being human, would eventually…

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Notice: Let’s Communicate]

– [So, you’re saying we’ll manipulate the entire user opinion to shake Icarus’s mentality?]

– [Yeah] (Durian)

– [Of course, we won’t shake their mentality from the start. We’ll slowly and steadily erode it.] (Durian)

– [Wow, this sounds tough]

– [Where do we start? Are we doing it all at once?]

– [First, we’ll gently nudge the village chiefs or clan leaders.] (Durian)

– [Good idea]

—————————————–

The sinister, politically adept hands of the Central Base Alliance were reaching out toward our Icarus Kingdom in such a manner.

==========

Anyway, the Base Alliance was trying to pull off a “Hey, you’re village chiefs and mayors, why not create clans and stick around for a long time?” move.

Unfortunately, unlike what our Alliance friends thought, reality took a much worse turn…

—————————————–

[Central Base Alliance Official Chat Room]

[Notice: Let’s Communicate]

– [Looks like we messed up from the start]

– [?]

– [Why?] (Durian)

– [[A screenshot of the chat where ‘Venom,’ the village chief of Avalon, says, “I’m too lazy to be a clan leader, and I’m quitting the village chief position soon to retire to farming. Bye.”]]

– [Avalon flat-out refused]

– [Avalon too? Arc Light also rejected us]

– [Arc Light rejected us from the start, why even mention them?] (Durian)

– [Haha, sorry;; lol!]

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Contrary to their rosy dreams, two bases outright refused to associate with them from the start.

Fortunately, the village chiefs of the remaining bases, including Barracuda and Spiralus, seemed to join their cause.

But for the Base Alliance, the real problem was elsewhere…