Chapter 21
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: The Lost Cruiser (1)
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After receiving a secret mission from Ataraxia.
I spent time figuring out the faction dynamics in the Gallery.
The Gallery was broadly divided into three factions.
Among them, the strongest and most influential was the Alien Hater faction, colloquially known as the Xenohate Squad.
According to Ataraxia, the Xenohate Squad was led by the go-nicks 'Cleaning Specialist' and 'Ragna Rothburg'.
Both were names familiar to me.
They were the go-nicks who almost always showed up whenever I posted, leaving comments.
I'd just thought of them as Gallery addicts.
I had no idea they were named characters with such weight.
'Who knew they were such scary guys.'
The next largest faction was the Alien Lover faction, or the Xenophile Squad.
The Xenophile Squad was different from the Xenohate Squad in every way.
While the Xenohate Squad was run by the strong leadership of those two go-nicks,
the Xenophile Squad operated in a relatively democratic manner.
The go-nick 'Alien Rights Activist', whom I knew well, was the leader of this faction.
Finally, the neutral faction.
This was the faction that Ataraxia's Armband Squad belonged to.
They were called the Neutral Squad for short.
The Neutral Squad had no particular stance on Xenos.
They were only interested in their own hobbies or work.
That's why there were many science geeks, archaeologists, merchants, and the like.
Naturally, the leader of the Neutral Squad faction was Armband '★ Ataraxia ★'.
The Neutral Squad faction was a bit different from the others.
They were so fiercely individualistic that they couldn't unite well.
Paradoxically, that led to the tradition of the Armband Squad leading the Neutral Squad faction.
The Xenohate Squad and Xenophile Squad had an extreme aversion to armbands coming from the opposing faction.
For that reason, they reached an agreement to elect relatively harmless Neutrals as armbands.
Neutral armbands ran the Gallery fairly.
This had gone on smoothly for 500 years without major issues.
But lately, tensions between the two sides were escalating.
They were clashing so fiercely that they were even mentioning 'civil war'.
Ataraxia's worries as magistrate were deepening as a result.
No matter what, we have to prevent a civil war.
My mission was straightforward.
Prevent civil war by any means necessary.
'To do that, nothing beats clowning around.'
According to Ju-dak, the faction fights had completely vanished since I arrived.
Everyone was so busy talking about me that they had no time for faction squabbles.
You could tell just from how the Xenohate Squad leaders 'Ragna' and 'Cleaning Specialist' spent all day talking about me.
Newbie, Please Look at Me Just Once
Author: Cleaning Specialist
I'm seriously going insane. It was just a joke, why are you taking it this far? Do you really want to see me lose it? Look at me quick, leave a comment for me, call my name, pay attention to me!
Has this guy completely lost it?
Whoa... this chick is seriously dangerous.
Newbie's gonna have fun with us. You mentals can go stand in the hallway and watch us play.
What?! I oughta smash your battleship to bits so you know who you're dealing with?!
Whoa, we can't have that...
Newbie, Listen Up
Author: Ragna Rothburg
(Image of a massive battleship parked in some planet's orbit)
If you don't leave a comment for me by 20:00 today, I'll destroy that planet.
You crazy bastard! lololol
Are you insane?!
Don't even say stuff like that as a joke!
A joke? lol Do I look like I'm joking?
This guy's totally nuts lololol
Damn, going mental and threatening to blow up a whole planet? That'll pop the Anomaly stack for sure.
If it means getting his attention... I don't care about some Anomaly stack...
Guys like you are why humans have such a shitty rep in the galaxy.
Alpha? Do I have to care what Xenos think too?
Just warning you, if you actually bomb for some retarded reason, we won't sit idle.
Yeah, come at me. I'll rip you all apart.
I sat in the mess hall eating while browsing the Gallery.
Not that there was anyone else there besides me and the Eggies.
Anyway, I had some thoughts this time.
These Xenohate Squad guys are definitely not right in the head.
Threatening to bombard a planet just because they're not getting attention.
What kind of thought process leads to ideas like that?
Newbie, the mood's getting really nasty?
How about stopping now and leaving some comments?
That's when Gallery notifications started popping up.
It was a message from Magistrate Ataraxia.
I jumped straight into our secret chat room.
Ragna and Cleaning Specialist are going completely off the rails right now... Mind dropping a comment soon?
I'm worried they'll actually bombard a planet at this rate.
I'd been thinking it was about time anyway.
Those guys might start fighting again if this keeps up.
Got it. Posting right now.
I hit the post button immediately.
Hey, Calm Down, It's a Joke
Author: Auto-Nickname 1582
No way I'd seriously try to block you guys, right?
After all the help and attention you gave me from the start.
I'm not ungrateful enough for that.
And you guys weren't seriously thinking of kidnapping me and stealing my gear, were you?
I was just messing around too.
Right, right, just a joke! No way I'd seriously steal your gear, Newbie. You know how much I like you.
Exactly. I would never have evil thoughts of kidnapping Newbie, stripping their gear, disarming them, locking them on my ship, and hogging all the Gallery's attention.
You were totally gonna kidnap them, you bastard.
Do you really think those guys were joking?
Hush.
At this point, I couldn't tell if it was their concept or if they were serious.
But no way it was serious.
Ragna and Cleaning Specialist had been Gallery addicts, but not weirdos, from what I'd seen.
'Probably just pulling aggro to chase popular posts.'
I brushed it off like that.
Soon, the Gallery returned to normal.
We spent time chatting about trivial stuff as usual.
Just when the boring routine was dragging on...
The incident happened.
Uh?
Author: Ragna Rothburg
My ship's shields just vanished all of a sudden?
What the hell is this???
Engines forcibly shut down too, can't move ;;;
I'm stuck in this planet's orbit now?
Serves you right. Who parks in someone else's planetary orbit without permission?
What happened? You didn't do something insane like parking at a Tier 2 civ planet, right?
No way, ffs. You think I'm crazy? I'd get shelled and crash immediately.
Tier 3 civs don't have the tech to mess with our ships?
A bit ago, go-nick Ragna had parked their ship in a Tier 3 civilization's planetary orbit to pull aggro on me.
The problem was, when they tried to leave orbit after things calmed down, the ship suddenly broke.
Thanks to that, our go-nick Ragna was stranded, unable to go anywhere.
Ragna didn't post for a while.
The Gallery users started worrying about go-nick Ragna.
Ragna was one of the strongest in the Gallery.
No, not just strong—one of the top fingers.
If even Ragna was in danger,
this wasn't an ordinary situation.
After a bit more time passed.
Save Me!!!
Author: Ragna Rothburg
(3158230, 1580209, 4679158)
Helpppp!!! Save me!!!
He left just that one desperate post and vanished.
The Gallery exploded.
What the Hell Is Going On?
Author: Cleaning Specialist
So urgent they couldn't even fix typos before posting.
Doesn't someone need to go rescue them?
Anyone with no Anomaly stack buildup?
I'm at stack danger level, can't go.
I'm at like 90% too, no go.
You go then.
My stack's at 97%, blows up if I meet anyone. Can't go.
What? No one in Xenohate Squad who can go right now?
Yeah ;; They cause so much trouble usually, no one's available.
The Xenohate Squad often clashes with Xenos.
So their Anomaly stacks are always at dangerous levels.
Well-managed, it's not a problem.
But in a situation like this, it was.
'Xenophiles have no reason to rescue. And ultra-individualistic Neutrals are even less likely.'
I started pondering.
If no one goes to save them,
will Ragna just die like this?
'They did leave a lot of comments for me usually.'
The heavy concept play was a flaw,
but no go-nick paid as much attention to me as Ragna.
Plus, my Anomaly stack was near zero.
I could probably go rescue them.
'Gotta ask the armband about this.'
I hopped into the chat room right away.
Hey, Armband.
Yes, go ahead.
You said my mission was to get friendly with the faction leaders, right?
Yes, exactly!
Then isn't now the perfect chance?
Nothing builds friendship like helping in a pinch.
If I could build inner rapport with him through this,
I'd gain the Xenohate Squad's trust.
You make a good point.
I've thought of that too.
But if it's bad enough for Ragna to be in crisis, it'd be too dangerous for you, Newbie. That's my worry.
I was concerned about that too.
Still, I really wanted to do this.
If you back me up, Armband, I think it's doable.
More importantly, he's been helping me a ton since I first joined the Gallery.
Separate from the mission, I want to repay the favors I've received.
Before being a faction leader, isn't he one of us?
I think it's the right thing to do if we can help.
I sent the message and waited for a reply.
'Even I think that's well-written.'
Ataraxia must be moved.
That's what I thought while waiting—
Alright. Operation approved.
But there's one secret you need to know about them.
What is it?
Ragna that friend? Not 'he', but 'she'.
????????
That macho dude-talking Ragna is a girl?!