A Madman's Strategy Only Works Sometimes

Once the full-spectrum show of force began — pressing not only the bases but the residential clusters as well — the players decided this had gone past "interesting" and straight into what they called absolute peak entertainment. They scrambled to write posts across the galleries and every other corner of the net, amplifying and remixing the situation in every direction imaginable.

No — it went further than simply spreading information. There was no hard proof, only a gut feeling, but it felt as if the two village chiefs, Venom and OdenSoup, had stuck their fingers in somewhere. Details that should have been known only to three people were slipping into the posts, if only in fragments.

In any case, talk like that kept circulating through the galleries and far beyond, inside the territory and out. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠while I was mobilizing my fleets in earnest and starting a proper show of force, I also left them a way out — made it clear I was willing to show mercy — so they still had a corner to run to.

The chiefs of Barracuda, Spiralis, and one of the Level-1 bases, X33, along with the "clan" players who had joined them — the ones who took one look at the Leviathan Fleet or my own armada and nearly soiled themselves — surrendered one after another of their own accord, ready to bring the curtain down on this ridiculous little farce.

Or rather, they were about to.

The problem hit right at that moment.

"Hm?"

"Commander! The commanders at Base B554 have eliminated the base's defense fleet and its command staff!"

"W-w-wh-what."

I had no idea what they thought they were doing, but the report landed anyway: players who had taken a mere Level-1 base — not even a Level-5 — had wiped out that base's defense fleet.

A madman's strategy works sometimes. Other times, it really doesn't. (1)

And if they had just been thrashing around among themselves, that would have been one thing. These lunatics, for reasons known only to them, started openly broadcasting calls for support in every direction they could reach.

And it wasn't just half-hearted "please come crush him for us" support requests. Plenty of them were calling people out by name. On top of that, they weren't limited to the galleries — they flooded the global chat rooms and every channel they could find, doing everything in their power to wage a public-opinion war.

But for all the frantic thrashing from the users at Base B554, most other players just shook their heads or laughed in their faces. A few at least delivered a sharp dose of reality.