Chapter 315: Gussing Calls

———Lerim———

<2: 07 pm>

“Not all too alarming, really.” I dismissively said despite their earlier tone.

“<You kidding me? That looks like a nuke has dropped!>” Seemi said with quite the urgency.

“Yeah, but it’s in one of those areas. It's hard to care about an inhabitable area like that.” Obviously there is another reason why I don’t feel alarmed by the sudden report, but they don’t need to know about that, or at least it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out with Karra’s previous comments that is a goldmine for reveals. She hasn’t been that subtle about it either.

“<What about them? You do know that aside from Kara none of us has been to one… Maybe Idea has, I don’t know.> Seemi said.

“The environment can easily be restored in a few days, I don’t really know how it works but it should use a similar mechanism to how the dungeons reset.” I explained. “Now unlike the dungeons, since it won’t boot you out and you could technically live there, it’s not a reset so much as it simply grew something to take the place of the destroyed. To have some sort of equilibrium.”

“<...That sounds very easy to exploit.>” Seemi pointed out.

“Yeah, but the thing here is that it took a few days to restock, sometimes it might even take a week or more, and for anyone wanting to take the natural resources there they have to contend with monsters and the like, and they can be quite disruptive.” Who really knows what would even happen if you try to strip resources dry from there. Like, all the woods, rocks, and even the dirt. Would doing it enough times increase the size of the Earth or something? “Besides, I don’t think you are even near one. Heck, I’m not near one.”

“<For someone like you it might as well be near.>” Seemi argued. Well, it is only a few minutes flight for me, that is true… but I don’t think I ever told anyone here about that, maybe Karra and Idea, but not anyone else in the group.

“...You know, I think you should start complaining to someone else. I bet someone who lurks in here is probably as strong as I am.” The odds of that are low, but it’s not impossible.

“<Yeah right…>” She bitterly replied. Is that really a hard sell? I bet some of them are at least stronger than her. I think she might’ve forgotten that there is a reason this random mishmash of people are in the same group chat. The purpose of that has long since passed, so people are way less active nowadays.

“Whatever. Just don’t get too bitter about it.” I can’t be completely certain if anyone else still in the group chat is even on my level. “Hey, Jack, you’re still in the call?”

“<Huh? Yeah, of course.>” He said, sounding a bit tired. Too bad the town isn’t going to rebuild itself, they need all the manpower they can get.

“Hmm… Doesn’t look like anyone else is on right now.” I remarked. There were a surprising amount of people online yesterday, but I guess at this time many of them ought to be busy.

“<Haven’t had a proper reconnect yesterday. Wonder what everyone is actually up to.>” Seemi remarked.

“<Probably for the best for us to not pry into it, considering what is happening…>” Jack pointed out. “<Man, cannot wait for the apocalypse to happen already.>”

“You good?” I asked with his rather irritated and tired tone.

“<Not really. Being busy with rebuilding aside, it has just been doom and gloom for everyone else. Hard to not be infected by that.>” He answered.

“Don’t you have a wife and kids to worry about over something like that? Best to just ignore it for now.” I suggested. The vibes of my neighborhood have been good so far, so maybe I’m not in the place to be dismissive of something like that.

“<At least anything to change the awkward feeling the world has right now, like someone could just pull the trigger and be done with it and they just… don’t. It’s pretty tense.>” He said to justify the nihilistic tone he has earlier.

“I think it shouldn’t be fired at all if I could help it, but I’m not in the position to prevent that either. I doubt any of us here could do that.” Idea probably can, but they seem to be in the boat of ‘Hey I’m just an observer leave me alone’ which is just peachy. “I don’t know, try begging Idea for protection or something. You all suspect something out of them but couldn’t even bother asking for favors. Now might be the time.”

“<…Have you been doing that?>” Seemi suddenly has a ridiculous thought in her head.

“I wouldn’t say that. At the very least, I didn’t get this strong and beautiful because I asked them a few things. I suppose I did ask them for a few favors, but it’s not like I never paid them back.” I explained. “They can be quite generous, so you can put any favor on the tab if need be. At least it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“<Easy for you to say. What the heck do I even have to give someone so mysterious like that?>” Seemi quickly began complaining.

“How should I know? Maybe try your luck to see if they’ll give you a freebie. We’re all friends here, they won’t try to swindle you right away.” I pointed out. Any favor I did for them was certainly not of equal value anyway, so I’m not particularly worried about them not being able to pay anything back.

“<…Hey, so with the sightings of explosions, do you actually know anything about that?>” Jack asked, shifting the topic back.

“Plenty of possibilities I can think of, but probably something too obvious that I’ll feel stupid to say out loud.” Come on you guys, it’s not like Karra never alludes to it. She has talked about the schedule a few times on here, not like it’s a secret. “I don’t think it’s that important to talk about when violence in cities became a mainstream talking point.”

“<I mean… Oh whatever. I bet there’s going to be a report on a similar incident soon.>” Seemi said, clearly sounding quite defeated. I then click refresh on a site I left open, and then…

“Well would you look at that. It’s a bit sooner than you’re probably expecting.” I said while posting the link to the new article in the chat. Despite neither of them having their face cam on right now, I just know they have quite the pained expressions that would be good in paintings. “Don’t get all too worked up about it, don’t you two deal with invasions beforehand, now that I think about it further?”

“<Well, yeah, but mine is very much a case of a miracle.>” Jack pointed out. “<Unlike Seemi, whoever saved us was clearly a wanderer, not someone who would passively protect us due to the possible threat they pose. Actually, why are you even scared?>”

“<Look, my guy is still just one guy, he can’t always be there to protect me and the others. If I’m the juggernaut myself, I probably would’ve been way more relaxed.>” Seemi argued.

“It’s not as if being the one carrying the squad isn’t stressful in itself, you know?” I pointed out. It would’ve been great if those guys were a bit less reckless so I don’t need to be on standby for a few hours, barely doing anything. “I guess there’s no convincing you otherwise, so let’s leave it at that.”

As for the whole area exploding thing, I don’t even know which students did that, could be Karra, could be someone else. I do think the general power level of those students are terrifyingly high. It’s a miracle they haven’t been sent out to do something horrific just yet. At least nothing that Karra is willing to relay to me.

———Lynda———

<2: 21 pm>

“Phew…” I let out a sigh of relief, seeing that these giant monsters finally stopped moving.

“What an annoyance, truly.” Luik quietly complained, staring down the three giant bipedal lizards that are now nothing more than corpses on the ground. She then focuses her attention to her weapon, which doesn't look like it has chipped, at least.

Meanwhile Glery remained totally silent as we look around just to be extra sure that no more monsters will show up. Having three Titayrants show up at once is simply the most rotten luck.

“No one is badly injured, right? Either way, I think we’re done here for today.” I said before putting my axe away.

“Indeed, I am also quite tired. Any more exertion would be bad for our health.” Luik agreed while Glery simply nodded along. Guess that’s settled, let’s get out of here. We don’t have that much time to go fooling around before needing to leave anyway.

“Hmm… No, there is no need to worry about me. I don’t think such a farce would’ve affected me in any way.” When we walked back into the ship, we overheard Teacher Elrik speaking on the phone, sitting on a chair in the lobby, probably not expecting any students to come back so soon. It’s pretty rare to hear him talking to someone. He seems to notice us coming but opt to not address us for now while he continues to talk.

All of us obviously chose to remain silent as we went to get our belongings, trying to not disturb him.

“Either way, I won’t be the one to interfere, so there isn’t much for me to worry about.” He said to someone on the phone. Seems to be something serious if he’s saying it like that. “So when will this take place, do you reckon… In that case, the school schedule should remain the same.”

Have to be something big, but it sounds like it’s not happening on the weekday? It’s sounding scarier the more we overheard it. None of us want to say anything and interrupt him, since it’s clearly something way above what we should be dealing with.

“I will be in my hometown regardless, so that’s even less involvement than what you might be thinking… Perhaps I’ll watch it happen, if you happen to find someone willing to record it live.” It’s basically impossible to tell what is even happening right now. What is he really talking about? It almost sounds like it’s related to the school, but it won’t interrupt it? “Do you have anything else I need to know?”

All of us silently pulled out our phones to look at something else in the meantime while he yaps. Can’t speak without interrupting him so this is all we can do for now.

“...I doubt they will mobilize anything worth my time, but thanks for the heads up anyway.” He said to someone on the phone before his eyes darted around to look at us. “Anything else? I see… Well then, let’s end the call here for now.”

I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s not going to say anything weird to us, right?

…He just got up and left. That’s it.

“...So what the hell was that?” I asked, still confused as to what happened in that call. If it was a chat between friends or something I would’ve felt less unnerved about it.

“No idea, but if I had to guess, it’s nothing pleasant.” Luik stated the obvious. With how things are going right now, expecting something pleasant is perhaps being a bit too optimistic.

I know our town and a few more places scattered throughout the world are pretty safe, but most of them aren’t like that, even in a place that seems okay on the surface.

“Probably something related to the state of the world instead of the school specifically.” Glery suddenly spoke up. That sounds… correct. I feel like if it was something about the school he wouldn’t even be comfortable talking about it in the lobby. I know that sounds weird, but there is a lot of secret to this institution that is perhaps more well guarded than whatever is happening in the world right now that could make anyone worried and unable to sleep at night.

“Hmm… Perhaps that is the case.” Luik remarked while all of us simply lazed around, just trying to rest the exhaustion away…