Episode 671. When the war ends, the time of chatter arrives. (4)
And before I could react to that thing, that absurd conspiracy theory had already begun spinning off into a new tangent on its own.
Though, not all of these tangents were necessarily threatening.
<h3>Title: Actually, Icarus isn’t part of Justice but belongs to the Monster Faction</h3>
Author: Anonymous
Content: [Image of an Anchorage-Class battleship piercing through the Hyu-Ma coalition fleet.]
Otherwise, how could it be that as soon as the monsters were in trouble, Icarus separately from the Pirate Alliance deployed an army of six million? Right?
This is super suspicious.
Comments:
<ul><li>[???]</li>
<li>[Yeah, true, isn’t it? Icarus is indeed affiliated with the Monster Force.]</li>
<li>[Sir, are you maybe confusing Icarus using the Unlimited Mercenary Force with the Pirate faction?]</li>
<li>[Ah](Author)</li>
<li>[bs kekekekekekekeke]</li>
<li>[If you’re going to criticize, at least do it properly kekekeke]</li>
</ul>
‘What’s this guy doing?’
Mistakenly assuming my faction was part of the Monsters instead of Pirates…
It seems those who voice suspicion often end up making fools of themselves in various ways.
Not long after, most of the hit-and-run posts were buried by users shouting “This is boring, take it out of the gallery!”
Of course, among the buried posts, there were still some insightful comments here and there…
<h3>Title: Is it true that Icarus hired external mercenaries?</h3>
Author: Anonymous
Content: [A screenshot of the Justice chatroom where Clan Leader Arkadia offers resources to Icarus.]
Isn’t this just Justice scrambling to throw resources at Icarus when they started falling apart?
[An image showing that Icarus stopped listing resources for sale in the ‘Trade Market’ shortly before participating in the monster campaign.]
Otherwise, why would Icarus stop selling resources weekly in the Trade Market? Obviously something’s up.
Comments:
<ul><li>[Hmmmm]</li>
<li>[But if it were about hiring external mercenaries, there’s no clear connection between the Justice Clan and Icarus, right?]</li>
<li>[The participation was because Icarus is officially part of the Monster Faction.]</li>
</ul>
Similarly, it seemed like users were growing tired of conspiracy theories, and collective intelligence began stepping in to address these allegations.
In cases like discussions about external mercenaries…
<h3>Title: Clarification Post.</h3>
Author: Arkadia
Content: [Clarification regarding Icarus being an external mercenary.]
Unfortunately,
Icarus is not our external mercenary.
However, during this monster campaign, Icarus was prioritized as the most efficient mercenary hire for strengthening our forces, and thus received resources accordingly.
Moreover, this resource trade between us and Icarus is the first of its kind, so claims about him being an external mercenary don’t hold water.
Comments:
<ul><li>[So polite.]</li>
<li>[When this person first joined, they acted like everyone else, but since becoming Clan Leader, their writing style has changed.]</li>
<li>[Ohhh]</li>
<li>[That makes sense.]</li>
<li>[Then did Justice cover all the costs for hiring Icarus’ unlimited mercenary force? d*mn.]</li>
<li>[Daily resource consumption is 80 million dddd;;;]</li>
</ul>
Just as expected, a clarification post came out under the name of Justice Clan Leader Arkadia, squashing the rumors.
Additionally, questions like “How did you manage the cost when the Unlimited Mercenary Force collapsed and hiring a new one doubled the expenses?” also arose…
<h3>Title: Can the unlimited mercenary resource consumption rate really be covered with just 80 million during the monster campaign?</h3>
Author: Anonymous
Content: [A mysterious calculation showing that maintaining the Unlimited Mercenary Force after their near-total annihilation would increase costs by 1.5 times.]
Huh?
Something doesn’t make sense here. If Icarus isn’t an external mercenary, then spending over 100 million resources daily on someone else sounds ridiculous, right?
Comments:
<ul><li>[Sir, the monsters provided resources to the users they supported this time.]</li>
<li>[There was a mention of the monsters requesting support mid-campaign, and the responding users received resources proportional to the scale.]</li>
<li>[Ah, really?](Author)</li>
<li>[With partial support for mercenary hiring fees, the pressure should be much less.]</li>
<li>[Regardless of the pressure, as pointed out earlier by the conspiracy theorist, Icarus accumulated resources quite aggressively.]</li>
<li>[Not only accumulating resources, but Icarus also cleaned out a lot from the Trade Market this time.]</li>
<li>[I didn’t see that, how much exactly?]</li>
<li>[At least 700,000 gold worth, I think.]</li>
</ul>
Without me needing to intervene, the users were handling things themselves, discussing and resolving issues.
Truly, watching such peaceful resolutions, I nodded, satisfied that yet another messy bait had fizzled out.
Of course, it was too early to relax completely.
Just as I was about to close the gallery tab, thinking it was time to focus on my tasks…
<h3>Title: But putting aside other matters, isn’t the Central Zone no longer neutral territory given the current situation?</h3>
Author: God in the b*tt
Content: [A captured message declaring Daedalus as Princess Luka’s “main base.”]
Upon reflection, isn’t it true that the monsters’ main base now resides within Icarus’ stronghold?
To be precise, half of the remnants of the devastated monster forces have relocated there.
In any case, doesn’t this effectively mean the Central Zone = Monster Territory?
Even if not, won’t everything from the original monster zone to Daedalus be considered monster territory?
Comments:
<ul><li>[Uh, yeah.]</li>
<li>[Hmm.]</li>
<li>[Sounds plausible and intriguing.]</li>
<li>[Despite the monsters suffering heavy losses and invasion, their territory has somehow expanded?] </li>
<li>[Miraculous territorial expansion method stc.]</li>
</ul>
‘Hmm, a sharp observation.’
At first glance, this appeared to be an interesting and convincing argument, and other users seemed to agree with the poster.
Feeling compelled to address this directly, I reopened the gallery window I was about to close.
Ignoring Jessica’s meaningful glare implying “You’ve got work to do,” I quickly posted a reply.
<h3>Title: The Central Zone will not immediately fall under any specific faction control anytime soon.</h3>
Author: Icarus
Content: [A SWF clip of Princess Luka and Oxianor claiming they are merely renting space in Daedalus, with faces pixelated and voices distorted.]
As always, we’re just tenants living in Daedalus.
That’s what they said.
Comments:
<ul><li>[What do you mean ‘for now’?]</li>
<li>[Ah, please…](Author)</li>
<li>[Kekekeke]</li>
<li>[Despite being a faction’s main base, it’s treated like tenant housing lol.]</li>
<li>[Why hide faces and distort voices when you’ve already exposed everything?]</li>
<li>[Is treating the princess so casually real life?]</li>
<li>[Even with Armageddon, Typhon’s group, and the monster headquarters facilities, you’re still calling them tenants?]</li>
</ul>
Through the content of the post, unlike previous conspiracy theories, users perceived that I was thoroughly maintaining strict neutrality.
Finally, the endless conspiracies about me circulating in the gallery began to lose their tenacity and fade away.
Of course, according to the law of equivalent exchange, every action comes with a price.
<h3>Title: Rescue Princess Luka, who has been kidnapped by Icarus!</h3>
Author: Anonymous
Content: [A screenshot of my post referring to Princess Luka as merely Tenant #1, unfortunately capturing her appearance in a way that resembles a criminal surrendering.]
Uw! Uw!
Icarus! Release Princess Luka immediately!
Comments:
<ul><li>[Crazy b*stard kekekekekekekeke]</li>
<li>[The treatment of the princess keeps getting worse.]</li>
<li>[If NPCs could see the gallery, they’d probably rush to beat up Icarus and the others.]</li>
<li>[Armageddon vs. Icarus in a 1:1 showdown is sharp.]</li>
</ul>
As a consequence of quelling the conspiracy theories, I ended up being labeled as an unscrupulous landlord who only views Princess Luka as a tenant.
