The atmosphere shifted.
I could feel the change in the air.
"Lord Leo! The Leonidas Squad has located and destroyed the Relay Machine! All surrounding Corpse Eater fleet activity has ceased! We are commencing rescue operations for the Persion fleet!"
Polina provided the report.
As expected of my brother! He actually took out the Relay Machine!
So they were operating on a relay system, then? Just like the Zork...
"This is your partner fairy here! Reverse engineering is complete. I've developed a virus to upload into their network."
"What are the effects?" I asked.
"Since their lines are analog, I’m going to jam them by blasting a thousand years' worth of loud, dirty joke songs and erotic videos on repeat!"
"...O-Oh."
I felt like if I asked where she had even acquired such things, I’d already be losing. I refused to play the straight man to that!
"First, use nanomachines to attach parts of that destroyed Relay Machine to one of the Ghoul ships floating around," she instructed.
"Can we really be that sloppy about it?!"
"Those things aren't exactly delicate creatures! Come on, do it before that battleship dies completely!"
"Leonidas-kun, did you catch that? Can I leave it to you?"
"Leonidas Squad, acknowledged."
Wait a minute. If they were broadcasting such a bizarre Correspondence Course...
"Hey, Fairy-san. I just had an idea."
"Is it about Tatiana-chan's barrier? You’re probably thinking of remotely injecting a self-destruct code, aren't you?"
It seemed we were on the same wavelength.
"It’s likely a bug similar to how humans suffer hallucinations from sleep deprivation or die from the sheer shock of pain and terror."
If this worked, we might not have to rely solely on Tatiana’s manpower anymore. Then again, the codes were probably different for every species, so universal application was still a distant dream. Insects and mammals have completely different biological structures, after all. A pesticide that kills aphids won't necessarily work on spider mites. Implementing instant-death magic in the real world was no easy feat.
"Since we don't know the specific codes this time, let's just stick to interference," Fairy-san said.
"Roger that."
Blasting meaningless code to cause malfunctions—that alone would give us the advantage. It was basically like trying to work out while having enough electricity pumped through you to make your muscles cramp.
We attached the relay device to a cruiser-class Ghoul Ship. It was a remarkably slapdash job.
"This is Leonidas! We’ve attached it as instructed! The nerves appear to have connected as well!"
"Here we go! Launching!"
The hijacked Ghoul Ship set off with... truly revolting movements. It was pulsing and twitching violently. It didn't look like a stylistic choice for the sake of being gross; it looked like the ship was having a massive seizure.
Was this actually going to be okay?
"Ahahahaha! Behold! The crystallization of human malice!"
Fairy-san let out a gleeful cheer. For once, I actually felt a twinge of sympathy for the Corpse Eaters.
The clearly malfunctioning Ghoul Ship reached the enemy’s defensive line. From the perspective of the Corpse Eater central command, it was just another lone vessel. It went completely ignored. Their security was full of holes—though I suppose that's only natural for biological entities. The Zork were the outliers, possessing a central intelligence capable of complex security responses. Then again, the Zork Queen had her own weakness: being prone to errors in judgment. I wasn't sure which system was superior.
Almost immediately, the battleships and fighters flying near our modified Relay Machine began to act strangely. They started to twitch and convulse in sync.
"Let’s go! Attack while they're vulnerable!"
Was it underhanded? I didn't recognize that word!
By this point, I had moved past the Persion rescue site and engaged the Corpse Eaters directly. Their movements were visibly sluggish. My unit, the Massacre Night, tore through the enemy ranks. This was far easier than fighting the Zork, who had been immune to pulse machine guns and forced me into grueling close-quarters combat. Now, I just had to dodge and fire.
Whoop, there! Dodge and... boom!
Alright, one destroyer-class confirmed down. My shooting skills had really come a long way. Hahaha! It’s all about getting used to the heat of battle!
"Gahahaha! I have arrived!"
Ah, right. I’d forgotten about him.
The Great King of the Kishin Nation, whom I had tried to keep in the rear, had reached the front. He brought the Imperial Guard units along with him.
"I am so sorry about my father..." Salia added, his apology trailing behind.
The Former Great King—Salia's Dad—had updated his machine through our technical support for this operation. Even without the divine protection of Himorogi-chan or Zashiki-warashi, he was perfectly handling a new high-spec "unruly horse" of a unit. This old man... was an absolute monster.
Hmm, my throat had been feeling scratchy for a while now. I think Leonidas-kun mentioned he wasn't feeling well either... I decided to pop a candy.
It had a medicinal, menthol flavor. What was that... a faint scent of gasoline? It contained ingredients to ward off drowsiness—the safe kind, supposedly. Honestly, they could have made it a little sweeter, or maybe just a regular peppermint. I suppose they made it taste bad on purpose so people wouldn't eat them for fun.
Salia's Dad was busy hacking and slashing through the enemy’s non-humanoid fighters. The Imperial Guard and I provided supporting fire.
Hah-ha!
Wait. Things were going smoothly, and yet... I’d been having a bad feeling for a while now. Not the Depressing Development kind, but something else.
"Did I keep you waiting?"
"He's heeeeeeere!"
My intuition was spot on. Katori-sensei had arrived.
"You’re supposed to be a civilian!" I shouted.
"I've joined as an employee of Amada Security, haven't I? Look, here's my ID card."
A private military company had just barged onto the front lines!
"Well, whatever. Leo, listen up. Don't overextend. Right now, our priority is buying time for the rescue teams."
Even if he claimed he’d dropped out, he was still an Officer Academy graduate. The tactical advice from Katori-sensei, who had actually studied the craft, was remarkably sound. It was such a relief to have someone sensible around.
"Understood, sir. What about the Great King?" I asked.
He was currently "hyahhoo-ing" his way deep into enemy territory.
"...I'll handle him. Leo, you stay back. Hey, old man! Fall back!"
"Hahahaha! O renowned Swordmaster Katori! Let us fight side-by-side!"
The old men surged forward. Between the two monster-class pilots and the Imperial Guard Knights—the strongest of the Ogre God Nation—they began to push back the front line that Persion had nearly collapsed. Their movements showed they perfectly understood the flow of this Territory Game.
Damn it! They’re usually such idiots, but they’re so competent when it counts!
"This is One-O-One! The Zork Squad has successfully persuaded and redirected the Taikyoku Fleet!"
It seemed Shi-yun and the others were at least slightly more level-headed than the Persion fleet had been.
Right, so, since this was a Territory Game... we just had to keep destroying them and expanding our area of control. I understood the theory, but the execution from here on was the hard part. It was exactly the kind of thing I was bad at. Especially since I couldn't even control the movements of my own allies.
I really should have at least practiced Go... This was basically a real-time simulation where I was constantly drowning in resource management. My subordinates were doing most of the heavy lifting, but still...
Sun Tzu, save me-e!