Ruler of Milano-V (1)

Now that we're at this point, I should mention it again, but basically, the Milano-V planet we're on right now is crawling with Red Scourge everywhere.

The ones we subjugated before weren't even the biggest swarm out of all those spread across the planet—far from it.

Which means, just like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we heard, there are still Red Scourge swarms out in the wild that we haven't touched, steadily building up their forces and continuing their infiltrations.

So, it's not entirely impossible for one of them to grow strong enough to completely overrun a city.

Plus, as veteran players have pointed out time and again, this whole Red Scourge event chain is meant for the mid-to-late game anyway...

The news that Valokian, a pioneer city three times bigger than us (and way stronger in combat), had fallen to the Red Scourge hit us hard.

Veteran players reacted like it was par for the course: "Here it comes, right on schedule."

And it wasn't just the gallery users showing that reaction—the people right in front of me, dealing with the fallout in real time, were the same.

"Valokian fell to the Red Scourge!?"

"The survivors from Valokian are flooding into Heisenberg City and other nearby cities right now."

"Most are coming here because Heisenberg is the safest, but the other cities have thousands of refugees too."

"Shouldn't we evacuate to the planetary capital while we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can?"

"...That's a sample of the public opinion spreading across Heisenberg City's internal network right now."

"It's a tough situation. Valokian was the biggest pioneer city near Heisenberg."

"Ugh, my head hurts."

"Given the circumstances, we don't have much choice, Consul Benya."

I was listening to Elena's briefing alongside Mayor Lime on video call, and it hit me why the veterans freaked out the moment they heard about the Red Scourge event.

Of course, even though it wasn't a formal setting where I could call him casually...

The mayor suddenly addressing me as "Consul" instead of by name made three question marks pop up over my head.

I took that doubt to the gallery, and the users explained.

Turns out, the default title for players here is "Consul"—something I only learned ten days after possessing this body.

But that wasn't important right now, so I brushed it off and moved on.

While I was lost in these trivial thoughts, spacing out a bit...

Our reliable duo—Elena and Mayor Lime—were deep in discussion, assessing the situation and brainstorming solutions.

The problem was, even up to this point, the headache was already enough to split my skull.

Then—

Beep-beep-beep, ding!

"Elena... Assistant, movements in the surrounding cities are getting suspicious."

"Mayor, I have an urgent report..."

"Hmm?"

"Huh?"

Suddenly, subordinates from our side and the mayor's rushed in with urgent looks, handing over documents loaded with intel.

The moment Elena and the mayor checked them, their faces hardened...

They turned to me, explaining how the situation was even more serious than thought.

So what exactly was the problem? They said:

"With Valokian fallen, the consensus among pioneer cities is that the Red Scourge swarms on Milano-V have grown beyond what any single city can handle."

"Yeah, obviously? But why bring it up now?"

"The fact that they're saying it outright means the pioneer cities are forming a united front to fight the Red Scourge."

"And sending this to us means they want us to join the operation."

"...Oh."

This was on a scale way bigger than anything we'd done so far.

Even I, clueless about this stuff, felt a serious chill the moment I heard it—not cynical, just straight-up grave.

Then came their follow-up explanation, tailored to my level:

"But mobilizing their own city guards won't be easy. They're not asking the planetary government for help?"

"Probably not. Harsh as it sounds, if pioneer cities beg the capital for aid before they're established, they'll likely end up as exploited slaves later."

"Hmm... Even so, city guard forces average a battalion each, with maybe 30 armored vehicles. Air support is just 1-2 destroyers for spaceport security and VIP evac."

"As much as I hate to say it... Most would rather the cities fall than become the capital's puppets."

"Yeah, that's how centralization works on frontier planets—the capital takes over weakened or indebted cities."

"Hmmm."

Given Milano-V's frontier status, Heisenberg City and other pioneer cities had rocky relations with the infrastructure-rich capital.

Requesting aid for Red Scourge extermination would turn the requester into the capital's slave, so they were forced to handle it themselves.

I couldn't help but think, People are the same everywhere—politics and power games give everyone headaches.

Back in my old world, it wouldn't matter to me; I'd just tune out and focus on my own stuff.

But now? I was smack in the middle of it.

Beyond like or dislike—this was life-or-death, and I had to focus here, which left me feeling unnecessarily pissed off.