Super Mothership
"That's impossible! If the Gold Coin Pirates really surrendered, then what the hell are we fighting out here for?" the adjutant immediately snapped, as if someone had stepped on his tail. Pointing at the enemies still stubbornly resisting outside, he voiced his objection.
"Uh..." Clearly, that question was far beyond the poor communications officer's ability to answer.
Before long, more reports arrived one after another. Over a hundred ships from the Ghost Pirates sailed openly into the base without encountering the slightest resistance.
At that, not only Black Sail, but even Red Dragon, Messiah, and the others revealed expressions of utter disbelief.
The Gold Coin Pirates might have ranked at the bottom among the Seven Pirate Crews, but they were still one of the seven major pirate forces, standing on equal footing with the others.
Before the battle, they had expected only three possible outcomes for the eastern front.
The first possibility was that the Ghost Pirates would be completely overwhelmed, accomplishing nothing of significance, leaving the other three fronts to break the enemy's defenses.
If that happened, the Ghost Pirates' public debut would have been an utter failure. Their performance would have scored well below passing, earning them nothing but ridicule for overestimating themselves.
The second possibility was that the Ghost Pirates would prove surprisingly powerful, fighting the eastern defenders to a standstill and forcing Gold Dagger to withdraw troops from the other three fronts to reinforce his headquarters.
Depending on how many defenders they managed to tie down, the audience would probably have given the Ghost Pirates a score somewhere between sixty and ninety.
The third possibility was that the Ghost Pirates would pull off an upset victory after a fierce battle, becoming the decisive factor in the entire war. If that happened, they would undoubtedly earn a score above ninety.
Yet no one had expected the Ghost Captain to quietly solve an extra-credit problem on his own and force the Gold Coin Pirates into surrendering... well... one-quarter of their forces.
What could a group of pirates possibly do after entering a treasure vault? Flint didn't even need to use his brain to know the answer.
Whether "surrendering one-quarter" was because the Ghost Pirates lacked the strength to finish the job or because they had deliberately left obstacles in place, it was still the outcome Flint least wanted to see.
If forcing the enemy to surrender deserved a perfect score of one hundred, then forcing one-quarter of them to surrender...
Even Flint had to admit it deserved a score of one hundred and twenty.
When a party takes on a raid boss, the highest level of achievement isn't landing the final blow and triggering a spectacular loot explosion.
It's when the boss falls while you're still surrounded by a crowd of lesser monsters...
You can calmly and elegantly pick up the blue equipment, purple equipment, and even legendary artifacts at your leisure, choosing only the best, while everyone else can do nothing but watch with envy from the other side of the wall of monsters.
Just imagining the century's worth of wealth accumulated by the Gold Coin Pirates being rapidly loaded onto someone else's ships made Flint feel as though his heart were bleeding.
"Increase the assault! Break into the base as quickly as possible, no matter the cost!" Flint ordered grimly.
He had merely wanted to test the Ghost Pirates' true strength, not provide an assist that allowed a potential rival to gain both fame and fortune.
The leaders on the other fronts quickly realized the situation as well. Abandoning any further hesitation, they launched all-out offensives, hoping to join the feast of riches as soon as possible.
In an instant, the intensity of the fighting on all three fronts rose by several levels.
With fleets several times larger than their own attacking simultaneously, the already hard-pressed Gold Coin defenders found themselves struggling to hold on. Meanwhile, many of them had begun noticing the strange developments along the eastern defensive line.
"What's happening on the eastern front?"
"What's going on inside the base? Did someone betray us?"
"Damn it! There are too many enemies! At this rate we're all dead!"
"There's still no sign of reinforcements. What do we do? Should we surrender too?"
Just as panic began spreading through the defenders on the other three fronts, a familiar figure suddenly appeared on every communication channel.
"I am Gold Dagger. There's no need to panic. Listen carefully to my orders..."
On the screen, Gold Dagger appeared calm and composed, with nothing outwardly unusual about him.
...
Inside the command center of the Gold Dagger Pirates.
Everyone stared in horror as the completely lifeless Gold Dagger spoke once again from his chair. A chill ran down every spine as they looked toward the tiny figure floating above him, seeing nothing less than a demon.
Nie Yun's miniature clone hovered above Gold Dagger, each of his ten fingers connected to an almost invisible silver thread.
The other ends of those threads disappeared into Gold Dagger's neck, arms, legs, and other major joints.
Like an ancient puppet master performing a marionette show, he manipulated every movement with uncanny precision. Aside from the slightly vacant look in his eyes, even Gold Dagger's facial expressions were perfectly lifelike. No one could tell that the real Gold Dagger had long since gone cold.
"All fleets are to conduct a fighting withdrawal immediately, slowly contracting the defensive line toward the base. The core tactical principle is 'trade space for time.'
In addition, transfer control authority for all automated intelligent weapons to headquarters. They will coordinate with the base defense system to cover your retreat..."
As Nie Yun manipulated Gold Dagger into issuing order after order, he simultaneously began taking over the entire defensive network of the Gold Coin Pirates.
With their own "leader" calmly directing operations, the defenders finally regained a measure of confidence. They had no time to think about anything else and immediately began falling back toward the interior.
"Hmm... The Twin Dragons are still allies, and they've just taken heavy losses. I'll go a little easy on them to build some goodwill and maintain our fragile friendship...
As for Black Sail, they're the strongest and the most unruly. That's no good. It's bad for world peace. Troublemakers like them need a proper lesson..."
Nie Yun muttered to himself as streams of data cascaded across his eyes like waterfalls.
Soon afterward, the Black Sail and Madman Pirates, who were pressing their attack, suddenly discovered that although fewer enemy ships were intercepting them, the enemy artillery...
...had somehow become much more accurate.
Not only that, but several of the fortress's massive defense cannons seemed to have intentionally concentrated their fire on Black Sail's fleet, instantly blowing apart several of the warships leading the charge.
The damage wasn't enough to seriously weaken Black Sail, but it greatly slowed their advance.
Meanwhile, on the Red Dragon and Dragoon fronts, the Gold Coin Pirates' full-scale withdrawal made the assault astonishingly easy. While it wasn't exactly a rout, casualties remained minimal, and their rate of advance was hardly any slower than Black Sail's despite being the weaker force.
Ten minutes later...
While showing off his precise micro-management, buying time, and simultaneously playing an elaborate balancing game, Nie Yun suddenly paused.
He had received a conference request.
The initiator was none other than Flint.
"So he's finally come to demand an explanation... Heh."
Nie Yun had expected this reaction long ago. Maintaining two tasks at once, he accepted the call.
Soon, the screens displayed the five pirate leaders participating in today's siege.
"Ghost Captain, what exactly are you trying to pull?" Flint demanded immediately, his face dark with anger.
The battlefield's increasingly "targeted" developments could never escape Flint's sharp eyes.
"Captain Flint, what's wrong? What have I done?" Nie Yun asked with an innocent expression.
"Have you already taken control of Gold Dagger? Are you using him to issue orders specifically targeting my Black Sail fleet?" Flint asked coldly.
From everything he had observed, the Ghost Captain must have employed some special method to carry out a highly precise decapitation strike. He had likely seized control of the Gold Coin Pirates' leadership, forcing the eastern defenders to surrender while simultaneously influencing the other three battlefronts.
As far as Flint could tell, this was the only explanation for the current situation.
As a member of the Twin Dragons alliance, the Ghost Captain was the only person with both the capability and the motive to deliberately target Black Sail in this way.
"Huh? Captain Flint, you've really misunderstood me. I admit that I've infiltrated the Gold Coin Pirates' central control system and obtained some command authority, but targeting you? There must be some misunderstanding." Nie Yun replied with a perfectly innocent look.
"Flint, don't tell me that just because you've run into a little trouble, you're accusing someone of deliberately targeting you.
Have you forgotten? When we divided up the attack routes, we agreed that all spoils would depend on each side's own abilities. So what? Now that you've suffered a few losses, you're getting jealous and trying to go back on your word?" Red Dragon immediately mocked.
"Exactly. We deliberately never agreed beforehand on how the spoils would be divided. Everyone knows why. Flint, your behavior now makes you look like a sore loser." Messiah said with a faint smile, glancing at Nie Yun as he spoke.
The Twin Dragons naturally understood exactly what was happening on the battlefield, and they were more than happy to see it.
Although they were just as envious of the Gold Coin Pirates' treasure, the Ghost Pirates had earned first pick through their own strength.
Besides, it was still better for the loot to end up in the Ghost Pirates' hands than in Black Sail's.
"The spoils are one thing, but how do you explain the fact that only the eastern defenders surrendered? We agreed to cooperate in dividing up the Gold Coin Pirates. Is this what you call cooperation?
Without the three of us tying down the other fronts, would you really have had such an easy time?" Madman finally spoke up, clearly dissatisfied.
After treatment in the medical pod, Madman's complexion had improved considerably.
Nie Yun let out a deep sigh in response.
"This is all because I underestimated the enemy. I never expected the Gold Coin Pirates' central AI to be built on one of the most tamper-resistant next-generation server architectures..."
"Huh? What technology?" Red Dragon asked curiously.
"Blockchain technology!"
Everyone: "???"
Blockchain... technology?
The mainstream AI architectures of the Shattered Star Region...
...had something like that?
The pirate leaders, none of whom understood technology in the slightest, were completely dumbfounded.
"That's right! This AI is divided into four independent yet interconnected blocks. Each block controls one battle zone, and they are respectively named... Gryffindor! Slytherin! Hufflepuff! And Ravenclaw!
Unfortunately, I've only managed to capture Gryffindor so far." Nie Yun said with a regretful expression.
"Oh... I don't understand technology, but those names... sound very scientific!" Red Dragon smacked his lips before finally managing to squeeze out a comment.
Messiah covered his face.
Flint: "..."
Madman: "..."
Even though they all knew Nie Yun was spouting complete nonsense with a perfectly straight face...
...trying to explain blockchain technology to a bunch of alien pirate leaders was psychological warfare on an entirely different level.
TL Note- Blockchain....
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