Chapter 340: Rumors and Mana Cost

———Karra———

<10: 25 am>

“<Looks like she is finally out of steam and the ability to continue. It was a great fight by our brave challenger nonetheless, so let’s give her our flowers!>” Rico announced with more flair than the previous match as that girl collapsed to her knees for a moment before standing back up to retrieve her items and was teleported away. “<Now let’s see how well she did!>”

The screens show the scores rising up until it hit the new record of 689. Quite a jump from the previous record… Maybe. Considering how the performance was there is still a lot of improvement to be made. Who knows how many points any of us could get.

“There’s progress made, that’s nice.” Gregori said, sounding slightly sarcastic about it. “We still can’t order anything to eat outside of the drinks. That’s annoying.”

“<That sure was an exciting battle, I hope the next challenger came up to show even more promise.>” Rico said, trying to make more people volunteer to fight. “<Ooh! Looks like we got the next one coming right up.>”

“This guy is a chump.” Gregori said before the fight even started. He doesn’t look impressive, but I wouldn’t say that the moment I laid my eyes on him.

“Are we even gonna have enough time in the day for everyone that is entertaining to watch to participate? Or do we have to do this early?” Kenni asked as the fight began.

“I want to see the five people with the weapons try, at least.” Orrel said. “And I don’t think most of us here even have the desire to fight her. It’s not actually that many people.”

“It’s going to take a long time for each match though. If Emmie is holding back then the fight is gonna drag on forever.” Gregori pointed out. “Maybe those five wouldn’t even get to fight her, for all we know.”

“Considering the points threshold, the organizers at least expect a few of us to participate, maybe they’ll even force us to if push comes to shove.” Orrel speculated.

“Huh… I wonder if they can stretch it for another day…” Jeff muttered, probably not taking the idea seriously. “...Was there any homework needed to be submitted tomorrow? I remember that there aren’t any.”

“Just because there aren’t doesn’t mean there is an event.” Gregori argued. “There also aren’t any to be submitted this Friday, nor were the few days without homework last week had any events occurring.”

“He’s down already, but at least he swings his weapon pretty often.” Orrel remarked as our focus shifted back to the battle that had already ended.

The final score is 312. That is the third highest so far, but the performance still pales in comparison to the other two.

“Man, this is really gonna drag on. At least use a few flashy spells before going out.” Gregori complained. I don’t think it’s that bad, at least the others seem moderately entertained.

“If it annoys you that much, you can go in.” Nicks jokingly suggested, but Gregori simply chose not to reply.

“...By the way, do you think someone is gonna leak the story about Emmie?” Useph spoke up about a topic unrelated to the main event.

“Probably. It’s tempting to talk about it, I’m sure.” I replied to that line of inquiry. We can just check now, if we need to.

“Like anyone is gonna believe one person did all that anyway. Not even some of the most prolific killers that came out of the woodwork did something like that.” Gregori added. Even in a time like this people are still skeptical. I blame all the nonsensical rumors and propaganda for that. Seriously making it hard to separate what is true or false. Actually creating smoke and mirrors out of garbage data.

———Lerim———

<10: 32 am>

“It’s more likely than you think.” I offered my opinion. “The idea of one individual being able to defeat a hundred is starting to sound acceptable to many. Why shouldn’t killing thousands be a leap?”

“<Because they have guns and stuff? They’re not random thugs that even an untrained man could’ve shake off.>” Seemi argued.

“<Firearms became… less effective when someone gets past a certain threshold. Unless the entire army is trained in the way of magic, they wouldn’t feel that different from random thugs.>” Nowcat meanwhile seems to have a similar opinion to myself. “<Too bad Kara isn’t here to verify that for us. She would be the one person to know it for certain.>”

“<…Ah, right. She is from there.>” Seemi said, her tone making it sound like she just forgot. Perhaps due to Karra usually not bringing it up either here or in her streams, but it’s not exactly a secret. “<Too bad it’s school time right now, otherwise she might be able to answer.>”

“<It’s still all just hearsay at the moment, right? We didn’t even get to see who did it.>” Jack pointed out. From the wordings of the few posts it’s hard to tell who was responsible. All that was known was that it was done by one person.

“<Bunch of vagueposting. As if we didn’t have enough of those.>” Seemi remarked with annoyance.

“They’re probably venting out what they learn and never intend on clarifying. I don’t think they believe a lot of people would’ve believed them anyway.” I don’t even think someone from more chaotic areas similar to Nowcat would believe that either. “Probably only people from their social circle would believe them, maybe those guys can tell who it was just from the wordings.”

“<That whole deal aside. What even caused all the troops to be recalled, actually?>” Nowcat asked. From what she has said the past few days she definitely knows that her area has been targeted, and from my understanding of it, she should have an usurper ruling the area. She should know why they came, but not why they left.

“Beats me. Something must’ve gone wrong, but what?” I played dumb. While I could be a bit more honest about the situation with my neighbors, I feel like these online-dwelling folks will have looser lips. I know we have been hanging out for years, but it’s still sensitive information that I can’t just share with anyone.

“<Hopefully it’s not another country attacking. That’d be such a bad scenario.>” Nowcat said.

“<There’s no way no one won’t notice that.>” Seemi pointed out.

“<I mean, considering how sneaky our government has been, do you really think the others wouldn’t do the same?>” Nowcat argued. “<Honestly, those guys seem to be dwelling in all sorts of shady actions. I think you guys have heard about the underground labs by now, apparently they are government-funded.>”

“<Isn’t that still not confirmed?>” Jack asked, clearly not wanting to believe it with just hearsay. Widespread hearsay, but still hearsay.

“<You’re dreaming if you think they’ll confirm anything. As if the trust in them weren’t low enough as is.>” Nowcat said, and that is definitely something worth keeping in mind. I know for a fact that those unethical facilities were born from their twisted mind, and that makes me feel very little sympathy for whatever problem they faced. Actual congregation of serial killers.

It’s kinda scary to think that maybe the big guys of other nations have extremely dirty secrets as well. I wouldn’t doubt that in the slightest.

“It’s genuinely in the dirt right now, their credibility, that is. Even those that lick their boots can’t defend them when they are kicked out of their homes because the government can’t do anything about their opposers that are gaining unnatural strength.” I added. “Those resentment came down hard, especially during the First Few Weeks, as we know. It does feel like time is ticking down until everyone is looking out for themselves and… Eh, I think the downfall of everything is gonna take a lot longer.”

“<...I still don’t get why the government isn’t also roided up with magic.>” Seemi remarked.

“<Complacency. They are too reliant on both the systems already in place and how they have all the resources that the common man don’t have, and they fear that tapping into something new could upend the balance on their side. It’s why they got into the scandal about demi-humans, and why they don't encourage the use of magic.>” Nowcat explained.

“<But magic is really strong, right? You don’t need to worry about your guns not working or the tanks being destroyed.>” Seemi further questions the decision, no doubt feeling that it is all rather baseless.

“Mana doesn’t choose based on privilege, no doubt a huge sore spot for them, and by its nature it tends to flare up one’s ambition, whatever they may be. It could easily influence the mind of someone who might even have a fleeting idea of rebellion. That’s why they are still relying on purely non-magic forms of combat. They still work, mind you, but it’s no longer the only way to dominate the battlefield.” I explained since Nowcat remained silent on the inquiry. “Especially during the first period of exposure to magic. It creates a power high that will either exaggerate certain traits of yourself or cause lapse in judgement, no doubt a reason for the severity of the First Few Weeks. They want to avoid encouraging that sort of incident, gambling on that probably isn’t worth it in their eyes especially after a large chunk of them has already resigned.”

“<...I don’t remember it doing something like that to me.>” Seemi said, sounding a bit spooked out. “<I thought they went berserk because they were changed or were having existential crisis.>”

“They were, it’s just that using mana doesn’t help.” I clarified. If using magic brings that much trouble naturally then you’d think Earth would’ve been a scorched wasteland for thousands of years by now. “There is a mental leap when using magic that people instinctively know but can’t quite articulate, and that leap can have unforeseen consequences, especially for those that are fragile in that regard. Trauma, illness, bad job satisfaction, all sorts of things can break one’s mind for just one inopportune moment.”

“<...Why do we even use them in the first place again?>” Seemi sheepishly asked.

“Also, naturally, there’s no real way to regulate magic outside of a very specific set of items they don’t have, and hiding an important mana-related technique isn’t hard when it’s innate. It’s not as if you could use a mana detector or something, everyone has mana, end of story.” I added that fact while ignoring that trivial question. That’s an important bit of information that shouldn’t be left out, just in case she forgets about it already.

“<...Sometimes I forget that you actually know a lot about this and aren't just mindlessly training.>” She sure is making a liberal use of the fact that she’s not in a face-smacking distance. “<It’s weird. It’d sound less jarring if it came out of Idea or Kara’s mouth.>”

“...Why did I even bother?” I can’t help but to complain.

“<I mean, it’s still useful to know. I appreciate that.>” Thanks, Jack… “<Seemi, did something happen again? Why are you making remarks like that?>”

“<Nothing is happening. I’m bored.>” She answered, or is avoiding it, most likely.

“<Probably got on the wrong side of bed.>” Nowcat remarked.

“Could just be that. Feeling like being a jackass today because she hasn’t gotten into her daily quota of troubles.” I added to the speculation. “If you’re that bored, watch something in the background, we won’t judge.”

“<That just makes it sounds like you’re gonna judge!>” She protested.

“You’re overthinking it.” I flatly replied.

“<Yeah.>” Jack said.

“<You need a break.>” Nowcat joined in. Ironic coming from someone who is usually busy.

“<I don’t have anything to even watch! The good content farm is dry!>” Seemi snapped back. Is there even such a thing as a ‘good’ content farm?

“Don’t you at least have a backlog?” I asked.

“<Do you?>” She replied, clearly annoyed that we’re now pestering her despite starting the whole thing in the first place.

“How about watching the broadcast of the deepest depths of the ocean? I have a link to that. Good visibility, you might see the old creatures slumbering in the depths moving once in a while.” I playfully said.

“<...That’s interesting.>” Nowcat remarked.

“<...You’re serious about that?>” Seemi said, looking skeptical.

“Very. I’ll broadcast it right now if you guys want.” It’s not like we actually have anything worth talking left anyway, unless we wanna reheat old topics. “Maybe don’t eat anything while watching this, just in case you see something scary.”

Of course, from the looks of it there shouldn’t be any movements from anything worth discussing over today, but at least these guys should be a bit shocked by the concept alone. That’d be a little bit entertaining for me.

…Karra is probably witnessing something more interesting to talk about, if I were to guess. But that’s just how it has been since the Eclipse, so nothing really worth mulling over.