Chapter 320: Rich Place

———Useph———

<11: 08 am>

“Lemme tell you, she is seriously brutal. Why can you two get off easy?” I just had to complain at how unfair that was.

“Huh? How is that our problem? Maybe all four of you just had been slacking off too much!” Qyunda immediately strikes back with some harsh words. “Besides, when was the last time any of you got seriously hurt anyway? You know what Malk and I do? Not stopping until one of us bleeds!”

“And that’s real freaky behavior! What kind of training goes that far!” Nicks chimed in.

“One that works! Clearly!” Qyunda replied. It’s undeniable that they are way above the rest of us. It’s a hierarchy of everyone else, then these two, then Karra and Jennla, Kenni, and then Emmie up in space or something. The gap between the first two groups is the second most prominent after Kenni and Emmie.

“But is that really the reason?” Nicks said while shrugging his shoulders. “Could just be that you two are more talented in general, or all we know.”

“I wouldn’t say that, they do have the drive to strive further than most of us, that’s a pretty big factor in itself.” Orrel chimed in after remaining quiet for a long while. “When it comes to methods, each has their own, I wouldn’t want to dabble and try to untangle that.”

“Good thing she isn’t an actual enemy, otherwise your mom would probably go crazy if she found out you were turned into a corpse.” Gregori spoke up.

“Said the person who would’ve died before then…” I pointed out. “Let’s not mention all the safeguards in place as well, why don’t we?”

“I was talking about a hypothetical where she changes her mind and suddenly decides to go full villain mode. Trust me, I know full well that in no normal circumstances can we be in danger.” He defended his earlier claim with that. I know he sounds confident, but there is a chance he genuinely slipped up, right? He definitely isn’t being specific enough.

“...By the way, I’m surprised Jeff isn’t involved at all. He seems like the type to barge in and check every single day.” Nicks spoke up.

“He had complained about not coming on time, so he probably was expecting something to happen but was off by a few minutes, it’s not voluntary on his part.” Orrel pointed out. “...It’s really feeling like this strange doppelganger knows everyone’s schedule and therefore when to strike. She didn’t appear for a few days for that reason, perhaps.”

“...That’s hella creepy. I know with greater powers means you can do that in less time or whatever, but that’s still stalker behavior, right?” I can’t help but to frown at that disturbing observation.

“Perhaps. It’s either that or this shapeshifter is someone we know. It must be said that their imitation is faulty on purpose. It’s meant to imply their current fighting style instead of deception. More than likely, they are roaming around town freely, completely confident that they can stay beneath notice, staying in their original identity.” Orrel speculated. “This means that searching for them would be a waste of time, especially if this conversation breaks out and they anticipate some sort of questioning, just in case anyone in our friend group has such an idea.”

“...Look, if Emmie isn’t willing to tell, I don’t think we should pry, especially because as you said, they are probably beneath notice anyway.” Gregori chimed in. “It doesn’t help that almost everyone in the town has passing knowledge of us at minimum, and we got a lot of acquaintances in general with no doubt a large overlap, the number of suspects is not short.”

“Was anyone even serious about finding the real identity of the perp?” I pointed out. “They waste a bit of our time at best, none of us suffer any lasting damage. It amounts to a harmless prank in hindsight.”

“It’s more than a prank, as all of you should understand by now.” A new voice entered the room.

“Ah, Sully, what’s up?” I greeted her as she entered the room. Guess whatever business my mother called her for is done already.

“Your mother has analyzed the energy fluctuation of the four of you over the past few days, and as she suspected, all of your energy caps and output have increased significantly.” She explained… When the hell did my mom even find out about stuff like that? Did she find someone to stalk us!? “Qyunda and Malk doesn’t have any notable boost as far as she’s aware, but both of them should get a bigger bump on the day of that battle.”

“Not exactly surprising. One tends to break their limit when facing great adversity. It’s hard to find something like that that won’t also kill them.” Orrel remarked. “Since our energy fluctuation remains stable and calm even during sparring matches, none of us can be certain if there is a notable shift in it. It’s like not being certain how much lifting strength you now have or how fast you can run. It’s not impossible to check, but we never had the incentive to check it at least daily.”

“Emmie interrupting us might’ve been the reason for that.” Malk speculated. “I think our strengths are already quite adequate, and it’s not as if we’re slacking anyhow, so it’s no big deal.”

“I really want to say that as well, but clearly that woman disagrees.” Gregori remarked. “I don’t think she is weaker than Emmie, so she should be able to fend her off and continue the fight if she wants to, but the fact she didn’t means only one thing…”

“Yeah yeah, the two of us are pretty awesome and don’t need any change.” Qyunda smugly said. “Too respected to be trashed around like the rest of you.”

“If she was like that don’t you think she would’ve trashed both of you around to maintain the distance between the rankings?” Gregori argued.

“Maybe because she doesn’t give us pity like she did with the rest of you.” Qyunda said back. “How about we all check how well all four of you fare now? Two on four?”

“Enough with that, I don’t need a workout right now.” Malk said before chugging down another glass of milk. “I don’t need you vomiting after the duel is over either.”

“We’ll be fine! It’s not like these guys aren’t stuffed with fancy mansion food either.” Qyunda pointed out. “How about we schedule this in the afternoon then? That’ll work, right?”

“If that’s the case, the facility in the back can be used for that purpose.” Sully suddenly chimed in.

“Ah? Really? I have always been curious about what’s back there.” Gregori commented. “If we can go there, I have no objections. Guess we can stay and indulge a bit more of the mansion food.”

“...I have nothing better to do today anyway.” Nicks responded.

“I suppose that’s fine then.” Orrel replied while I simply nodded. I live here anyway so what do I care about them hanging out here a few hours more?

“...Sully, what is my mother busy with anyway? Can you tell?” I asked, seeing as this argument is done for the time being.

“No, Young Master.” She bluntly stated. Still being very mysterious… Had to wonder if she holds more or less revelatory secrets than those guys in the school…

“What is even back there anyway? Useph, you’ve been there, right?” Gregori asked.

“Not since I was a little kid, and it was by accident.” I obviously don’t remember anything about it by now, it's been way too long for a stupid kid’s brain to remember. “There’s a lot of areas in the mansion and surrounding area that I know nothing about, really. Just not my time yet.”

“Who even needs this much space anyway? At least with the school campus there’s a ton of people going in and out of it.” Gregori said while scratching his head.

“Who knows what the one percent are thinking?” Nicks mockingly said.

“Oh shut it, you guys freeload off me and this place often anyway, you guys are like… the two percent.” Yeah, I think that’s right?

“Heh, well I ain’t complaining about that.” Gregori said with a chuckle. “Sully, get me a milkshake, and also another leg of Iberian ham.”

“Give me a wagyu A5 beef bowl with freshly grated wasabi.” Nicks chimed in.

“I’ll take more crispy pork belly sandwiches with truffles.” Orrel gave his order.

“More BBQ meat platter. I want a lot of smoked briskets.” Qyunda said hers.

“I want a massive pile of lobsters slathered in butter. Also a big unagi bowl, multiple eels worth.” Malk ordered.

“I’ll take more of the usual chicken pie.” I am the last to order the next course of the meal.

“Very well, I have contacted the maids in the kitchen to prepare the order.” Sully said while fiddling with the tablet she is holding.

“...You know, it has been a while since any of you ordered really expensive stuff off the menu.” I remarked.

“Is it expensive if it’s free?” Gregori sarcastically said. “If we seriously wanted it expensive we’d have them covered in gold. Your mother finds that absolutely ridiculous so we can’t even order that as a joke.”

“It’s literally to bump the price at nothing else, obviously it’s ridiculous. Actual waste of gold.” Mom is a self-made woman so she finds those spending habits unacceptable, at least that seems to be the impression I got as to why she doesn’t act like she has billions at times. Obviously I don’t know if her other expenses can be said to be reasonable, but I ain’t gonna question that. As for Dad I have no idea what his spending habits are like when he’s rarely around.

“The better question is how does she have seasonal items in stock at all times that can just be given away?” Orrel said. “I suspect she got one of those ‘item boxes’ that doesn’t abide by the flow of time and can store a ridiculous amount of items in a small area, unfortunately we got no reply on such a matter.”

“Hey, as long as we can leech off our rich guy here, who am I to question it?” Qyunda said while shrugging her shoulders.

———Lerim———

<12: 04 pm>

Huh? Nowcat is online again? It’s been a while since she got on, I almost seriously thought she bit it.

‘Yo! Welcome back!’ Was what Seemi said in the chat. ‘The heck have you been to?’

‘Don’t just pepper her with questions already, bet she was super busy.’ Jack chimed in.

‘I’m pretty sure some of the infrequent chatters weren’t actually busy anyway, they just kinda forgot about this place.’ Idea pointed out.

‘Huh? I was gone for only a week, right?’ Nowcat said, clearly confused about their remarks.

‘In internet time and with everything happening right now that basically means you got murked, you basically come back from the dead.’ Seemi jokingly explained.

The sad part is that it’s not much of a joke with all the casualties going around it’s pretty easy to assume the worst. Thankfully that’s not the case here, and not to mention Idea’s plans. It should be fully implemented at this point, though I still don’t know the full scope of it.

I don’t really know how they’re supposed to protect everyone here without any of them being the wiser, but I trust their weird techs and abilities enough to not worry about it. Just don’t worry about the hows and whys, only the results.

‘I guess that’s fair to assume?’ Nowcat texted. ‘What about the rest of you? No troubles at all?’

‘None that I can think of, it’s suspiciously peaceful, even.’ Seemi asked. Guess she does have a bit more perception than I would’ve assumed.

‘Same here, I can’t say it’s unwelcomed though.’ Jack said.

‘Yeah same.’ Idea said despite being the one causing that situation in the first place.

‘Same.’ I typed into the group chat. It’s all thanks to the group’s designated rich person, though in this case they don’t quite realize it yet. Everywhere else is still quite chaotic.