Chapter 330: Storm of Ants

———Kenni———

<4: 43 pm>

“Whoa! I didn’t think it’d be this big!” I marveled at all the little vehicles on the ground. “They’re still like a bunch of little ants from up here even with those bulky trucks of theirs.”

“From this perspective, such an observation is only natural.” Emmie commented while looking unamused. Then again, that is just her normal expression anyway. “Mindlessly traveling on a simple directive without a hint of individuality, yet they are not part of an eusocial colony. Complacent, unremarkable, waste of individual talents.”

“Really not mincing your words here.” I commented. “I mean, all they had to do is all train in at least some magic and it’d actually be worth worrying about. Large numbers cannot be ignored so easily regardless of strength.”

“But that is not what happened.” She argued. “There is a stark difference between reliance on tools and becoming complacent. It has reached the point where it greatly hampers their potential.”

“You hate the army for a very… odd reason, you know?” I pointed out. She doesn’t seem to particularly care for the fact that they are marching towards our home, or at least she’s not really addressing it directly as the reason.

“It’s a valid complaint.” She said without addressing it further. What is she even planning anyway? Knowing how she operates, it could literally be anything.

“Well…” I said before looking back down at the army being transported and the few bystanders staring at them. No one has decided to attack them just yet, which is to be expected. The strength in numbers is an intimidating thing. Also tanks and stuff. “Anyway, what are they even expecting to achieve with this army anyway? I’m pretty sure just one of the students can probably take on a few dozen of these. What the heck are they gonna do when an actual warrior shows up?”

“Perhaps they don’t think.” Emmie gives a pretty scathing assumption. Her opinion on them is so comically low. I’m pretty sure the school board people don’t even think that badly of them.

“Hmm… I’m surprised they didn’t notice us just yet.” I can’t help but remark since we’re simply standing on a tall building. I know people tend to not look up even when making sure the path is clear, but we should still stick out like a sore thumb.

“Like drones without any inkling of sentience.” Emmie said. She is really not in a good mood right now… for some reason. I really cannot read her. Who the heck can anyway? She’s like a black box. “They don’t have as much value as I would’ve liked.”

“What? Do you have a use for them?” I asked, wondering if maybe she can give me a little hint as to why she’s acting that way.

“...No one in our class can be threatened by this large brigade.” Her response isn’t really related to what I just said earlier. “The people inside the town will provide the necessary defense. They might escape if unable to break through it, which they won’t. Escape routes need to be dealt with.”

*Zoom*

…And there she goes. I still haven’t figured out how she managed to learn to teleport to a shinepoint. It might be a pretty limited level of teleportation, but literally even a speck of space magic will garner a lot of respect. Providence elements have such an illustrious name for a reason, it’s on another level entirely.

…As for what she said, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for imagination.

———Wiina———

<5: 19 pm>

“It’s a really brazen display, right?” Karra said to her stream while I lay on the bed, completely out of sight of the stream with a curtain between us for good measure. I look at the stream from my phone with her screens being shared. The footage of the army being transported and coming our way has made the rounds. They’ll reach us on Sunday as long as they aren’t interrupted. “Hey, chat, where do you think they’re going? What’s a place so important they’re sending out so many troops?”

I looked at the chat on her stream, and there are many guesses from the plausible to the absurd. I scanned through them and made a mental list of it before sending the ones with the most traction to Karra. Her eyes subtly moved from looking at one side of the screen to the other.

“Hmm… Chat, I still don’t really know for sure which one is true. Let me look through all the evidence and then check with all the big answers you guys are giving.” She said before opening a blank text page and various posts. She begins typing down everything she can extract from the various posts and other articles with them on the screen so the viewer knows where she is getting them from. “There seem to be multiple caravans of these guys appearing in multiple areas. I think it’s pretty clear they’re not all going to the same place. Can we all agree on that?”

Indeed, there are multiple places the government has split their army to. While a majority of them that were deployed are coming our way, the rest of them going in smaller units are trying to regain control of areas being taken in rogue mages and the like. As nice as it would be to say that they’re bringing back order from chaotic usurper, it’s ultimately so they can regain some control over the country that is being slowly broken apart.

“Okay, chat. I think we need some more specific areas that they’re going to, just one of them would be good to start speculating and stirring drama. Let me make a poll and let’s see…” She then put in the names I have sent her into a poll for the viewers to vote. Most of them are correct, but some are simply not true at all. Her chat has the average internet intelligence, so it’s random what would come out on top. The fact that this is the first day they are clearly seen moving somewhere specific doesn’t help either, not a lot of clues on where they could be to an average bystander. There is obviously no announcement or anything, just being shady as usual.

Most of the popular options are correct, but that is mostly because Karra put in most of the correct options in the first place, probably by accident since I didn’t deliberately choose every valid location to send to her. This is simply a list of areas she can talk about, relevant to the situation at hand or not, true or not, she simply had to talk about any of them to garner interest.

She began talking about them with her chat after enough time had passed for the results to come about, picking the popular options to begin speculating and playing the role of a simple streamer who should not know about the ongoing behind the scene.

If it wasn’t for Useph getting some information out of his mother, then Karra probably would’ve only noticed the change a bit later and lost a bit of materials for her to talk and string people around with. It’d be a shame for her to have to do this raw with no plans whatsoever. Even if I could help mend that trouble for hers I am ultimately not the one on the camera acting for thousands of people.

…Of course, I was going to tell her about it anyway, but since there is always a chance Useph can stumble across the plan thanks to his mother being another target of the attack, I hold the news back and let it come to her naturally. That way she doesn’t need to worry about acting like she knows more than she lets on, which would’ve made her seem too suspicious overall.

While everyone in the class knows she has many sources of news, if she seems to be able to get ones that are relevant to the situation every time, they would no doubt start connecting dots that they were content with ignoring beforehand.

There is a time where we need to be confronted, but now is not the time.

“By the way, chat. What do you think they are about to do anyway?” Karra asked her viewer, having set the stage with points like their movement or the area that seems to be targeted, the motive is obviously something everyone is curious about. What would drive a group of people to send an actual army? An action this extreme is obviously something that would drive fear and intrigue at the same time.

“...Quelling ‘rebels’ felt so obvious, chat. I don’t think all the places you guys even listed have something like that happening, right?” She pointed out. That obviously includes our town, one could say it was never under their control from the start so there is no rebelling going on, but that’s obviously not a distinction they cared about. From their perspective, any sort of challenge to authority right now can’t be tolerated at all since it keeps happening over and over. While they happened in small areas, it is building up slowly and surely. No one can trust the central authority to deal with the growing level of violence that many thought has slowed down since the first few weeks. The salt rain doesn’t help either, while the damage is minimal compared to the initial incident, it does make people more alert of such an event happening again and become more paranoid. It’s hard for an event that affects the entire world to not cause some stir even if many had been quiet on the topic. “Starting war now seems kinda odd, right? I mean what would they even do with territories? They are kinda ‘starving’ for resources, right? Just like every other country that also doesn't start any new wars. Do they have the manpower to even enforce anything outside the States right now?”

Doesn’t matter too much if she’s right with what she’s saying, she’s not supposed to know what is actually happening so any falsehood or exaggeration on her part can easily be excused.

———Lerim———

<5: 25 pm>

“<I really hope they simultaneously combust or something. I don’t want those guys in my neighborhood!>” Seemi said with a nervous expression. Indeed, the idea of something like that appearing on the streets cannot be for the better, especially if they stopped.

“<Come on now, guys. We’ll all be fine, I’m sure.>” Idea confidently said. They certainly have been relaxed about the whole affair despite probably knowing full well what is happening. They probably even know what the targeted areas are as well. “<What are they gonna do anyway? Don’t you guys have magic? Just blast them back.>”

“<There are thousands of them! What the heck am I gonna do about that?>” Seemi retorted.

“<Come on, as long as you didn’t run into the army with over eight thousands troops you’ll be fine. The rest of them are more modest in numbers.>” Idea said, not even hiding the fact that they figure even that out.

“<Okay buddy.>” Seemi snorted at the callous remark. “<...Why are there even a big army and small armies?>”

“<Different targets, probably.>” Jack replied. “<...Idea, how do you even know that anyway?>”

“<The second biggest one is around five thousands, and it is marching right towards my doorstep.>” They cheerfully said, ignoring his question.

“Why?” I asked, knowing full well they aren’t kidding about that.

“<Got a lot of money and other stuff they like, I’m like a gold stash they’re planning on taking.>” They explained. I don’t think them being wealthy is a secret at this point.

“<...I don’t believe you.>” Seemi said, clearly skeptical due to their very casual remark. If there was some sort of hint of panic in their tone this skepticism wouldn’t come about.

“<Whatever. Believe me or not, they are coming for me.>” They continue to say without a sense of gravity despite how distressing that sounds. I suppose even a massive army like that isn’t a threat to them. It wouldn’t be a threat to me either, so them being unconcerned is only natural.

Hmm… I wonder what I should do tomorrow. I don’t have any plans right now and obviously going out of town is not really an option…

It’s going to be a boring few days, it feels like.