Chapter 80

Chapter 80. Feel the Weight of the Armband (3)

This was a first for me, and I was utterly baffled. Of course, it wasn’t just me feeling this way—other users in the gallery probably had similar reactions.

“What kind of nonsense is this? Why did they stop the update halfway?”

“Yeah, this is the first time I’ve seen something like this too.”

First off, since this bizarre situation might only be happening to me, I decided to check my Status Window to see if these jerks had pulled another fast one. After about 10 minutes of digging around, I concluded, ‘Alright, I didn’t miss anything.’ Once I confirmed it wasn’t my fault, I immediately opened the chat window to vent my frustrations at the developers.

But as soon as I opened the chat, what greeted my eyes was…

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··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···

-[You’re good at kidnapping people, but why can’t you finish an update?]

-[A week of waiting just for an extended maintenance, lolololol]

-[Regular maintenance followed by extended maintenance, lololololol]

-[Wow, this is a total mess]

-[What are the devs even doing?]

-[They didn’t even take the server down, so what’s the problem? Lolololol]

-[Lolololololololololol]

··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···

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“…Hmm.”

The chat was scrolling at dozens of messages per second. Realizing I wasn’t the only one affected, I opened the gallery to check the public sentiment. And just as the chat suggested, it was chaos.

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··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···

-[Regular maintenance lolololol extended maintenance lololololol what’s next, emergency and temporary maintenance? Lolololol] (65,235)

-[If you like the burning gallery, hit like] (1,633)

-[The firepower here is insane] (8,721)

-[You shall all burn] (15,222)

-[Why did they stop the update? Buddha, why?] (34,115)

··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···

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It wasn’t like we had been fighting a large-scale battle for days on end. Everyone had been conserving their Resources and Fleets for days, avoiding combat in anticipation of the new “event.” But it seemed our dopamine-addicted comrades couldn’t handle this extended maintenance (?). Even though there was no need for such an overreaction, a significant number of people were going absolutely wild in the gallery.

Of course, when I actually clicked into the posts…

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Title: The firepower here is insane

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [Image of a girl doing a V-sign in front of a burning house]

Well, there’s nothing else to talk about here anyway.

Comments:

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[Ah, these spam bots are really pissing me off;]

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[You lunatics, calm down]

-[Notification spam, damn it] (Author)

-[Devs, you bastards, why aren’t you updating?]

-[I shouldn’t have posted, now I’m getting notification spammed]

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‘…Are they idiots?’

I couldn’t help but think that. Either these people had too much time and energy on their hands, or there was something seriously wrong with their heads. They were mindlessly spamming the gallery and posts.

“Commander, it seems like some Commanders have lost their minds.”

“Yeah, they’ve definitely gone crazy.”

While I was chatting with Jessica, this happened…

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Title: MUST READ) Attention to those posting in the gallery right now!

Author: Arcadia

Content: [Screenshot of the Chaos Clan’s verification]

Right now, some trolls from the Chaos Clan are spamming comments on every post in the gallery.

Don’t enable comments unless you want to get notification spammed. It’s best to stay quiet until the mods handle it.

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“Just as expected.”

“Guess everyone has too much time on their hands, overflowing with energy in the weirdest places.”

“Tell me about it.”

I nodded at the post by the user ranked 4th and decided to close the gallery, waiting for the update while getting back to my usual tasks.

==========

At that moment, users like Icarus and others temporarily stepped away from the gallery and returned to their “daily lives.”

Meanwhile, the former Villain Alliance, which had gathered most of the trolls in the game under the motto of “free play,” had grown into the largest single clan in size.

In the command center of the now “Loki Clan”…

“Clan Leader, isn’t this enough for the gallery spamming?”

“Yeah, just throw a few more in and tell the rest to pull out.”

“Alright, everyone heard that? Pull out quickly and tank as planned.”

“Ooh.”

They were finishing up their “spamming operation” in the gallery and preparing to quietly withdraw.

Of course, this kind of “trolling” was something their numerous trolls often did.

As the Justice Clan, led by the 4th-ranked user, pointed out, it was clear they were just setting things on fire out of boredom…

But the members of the Loki Clan, the actual perpetrators of this chaos, and their Clan Leader, Betelgeuse, looked far from satisfied.

In fact, their faces were filled with frustration, more annoyed than anything, probably because they couldn’t cause as much havoc as they wanted.

From the perspective of the users being spammed in the gallery, they might have yelled, “What the hell are these idiots so smug about?”

Unfortunately, those users weren’t present here.

And from the Loki Clan’s perspective, their current reaction was completely justified.

“Clan Leader, is this really it?”

“…”

“Come on, we gathered here to have fun freely, not to get pushed around by others… Let’s be honest, we didn’t join to become the developers’ dogs.”

“Exactly! Exactly!”

“The Vice Clan Leader is right! Why should we do what they tell us to do!”

As absurd as it sounds, their “gallery terror” operation wasn’t something they wanted to do from the start.

“Ugh… This is driving me crazy.”

As Betelgeuse, sitting in the command seat, rubbed his head in frustration, the contents of the “message window” made it clear.

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[Order]

[Take control of the gallery and chat room for 3 hours]

[The update is delayed, so please follow further instructions]

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[Additional Order]

[No more public opinion manipulation needed, update is in progress]

[Reward: 10x Gacha Tickets, 10,000 Minerals, 1,000 Rare Resources for Loki Clan members]

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Surprisingly, they were acting on direct orders from the game’s “developers” to manipulate the community.

Of course, as a reward, they received 10x Gacha Tickets and resources, which were quite hard to come by these days.

But even so, Betelgeuse and most of the clan members felt that the compensation was far from enough for what they were forced to do.

“Tch, they better not think of using us like this again, damn developers.”

“Right!”

“Our Clan Leader is the best, I always believed in you!”

Inside the clan’s command center, they continued to vent their resentment toward the developers.