Chapter 348: Outside News Discuss

———Lerim———

<3: 02 pm>

“Hey, Nowcat, you know something about the rumors this morning?” I asked since she seems like the type to be tangled in them. I could call on Karra for that but she’s not online at the moment.

“<Nothing of the sort.>” She quickly answered. Quite the shaky rumors if no one seems to have more insight into it. “<Aren’t those just random words being thrown around for the sake of fear mongering? A bunch of online trolls who cry wolf even in a time like this.>”

“<Weird for them to start shit up when there are bigger fish to fry…>” Seemi remarked. I guess she’s talking about the incident in Russia. Whatever attack that was got drove the entire nation into disarray. It’s not the first nation to be in such a state, but this is the most high profile example with how it hasn’t died down and how much damage has continued to pile up, it’s looking very grim. There was a video of a giant energy bean being shot out and destroying the city it was fired at, whoever stood there to record it has quite the nerve.

“That incident and a few others are way beyond our scope to talk about. There’s not much aside from the footage to parse through.” I remarked in regards to those elephants in the room. Not even the news channels are willing to cover those, and the articles online are sparse with sources to say the least. “There is really only that one thing that we can really react to and talk about without feeling like we’re just aimlessly yapping, and that’s pushing it.”

“<That was yesterday, it’s not as if we can gain much information from that. They’re not going to say anything, the humiliation would be too much. You have seen how other countries have responded to similar situations in the past.>” Nowcat pointed out. Public officials in general have been quiet on many issues since they genuinely have no way to combat the new threats. Back in the past even if they loved to twiddle their thumbs and not much else it’s not as if they lack the tools to get rid of things people were worried about.

“Even still… Do you think anyone will try to raid the White House or other important government buildings?” I asked, since it wouldn’t be the first time those places were attacked. I wonder how many people still remembered that attack. It was an explosive above the White House and if memory serves… that was Wiina’s doing.

“<Probably sooner rather than later at this point. They do have some impressive-looking gears on deck, but I think it’s not going to be on the level of those armies. They need those troops as at least a deterrent, they couldn’t risk spreading them thin at all important locations>” Nowcat speculated. I doubt a war between nations is even that likely with how other countries are also running low on cannon fodder, but I suppose there are also other problems with doing that.

“<Scary-looking gears though. Where the hell do those giant tanks even come from?>” Seemi asked.

“<No doubt something that is highly confidential in nature. My guess is that they might be part of some kind of superweapon initiative.>” Nowcat threw out that bit of conspiracy… which isn’t really a conspiracy. There was a scandal involving a walking nuke machine a few years back. Someone leaked it and it caused a lot of sensational headlines until the project was cancelled due to varying circumstances. “<Even discounting that nuke thing way back in when they no doubt have a lot of other projects involving highly advanced killing machines. They obviously need all hands on deck so even those things are being publicly displayed now.>”

“Really had to wonder if they’ll even be effective… I mean, to an average spellcaster it’d still be, but the top tiers are going to turn them into steel slabs before they could perform a single cannon fire.” I said, wondering if it’ll actually matter if they were to accidentally piss off someone like Wiina again.

“<It’s really jarring how massive the gap between the average and the strongest are. Do we even have a good point of reference for them?>” Nowcat asked. I wonder if she has ulterior motives for that.

“There was that sighting of Wiina fighting someone above the ocean, moving at speed that would probably make all aircraft green with envy, and the report of her destroying a building, but that’s not as impressive… Hmm…” While there are a lot of reports on destructive events very few can pinpoint on who did it, if a lot of them could be attributed to a single person then it was clearly no fluke or chalked up to a large preparation time. “I could hazard a guess that at least someone of her level could easily level a city with one clean attack formed in only a few seconds, at minimum.”

“<You sound very confident about that.>” Nowcat remarked. Considering what I am capable of at the moment and this gut feeling that the gap between us has only widened instead of shrinking, I am seriously lowballing her power.

“I can confidently say that I am downplaying her, at least.” I said without sounding all too serious about it. I’m not even the second person with the most credibility when it comes to topics involving her. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the only one within her power range. I think people involved in that magic school are probably close or even surpass her.”

“<That place…>” Nowcat muttered in contemplation. “<Weren’t you there a few times?>”

“Of course. That’s why I can even make that kind of assumption in the first place.” I added. I have seen a few peculiar individuals, some of which are part of the faculty while the others are not, but the conclusion on them is still the same, a vast gap in strength that could be felt but not quantified. Multiple individuals match that criteria and that is a terrifying prospect that I wouldn’t dare make widespread. If Karra and Idea aren’t doing so, I shouldn’t either. “Definitely more than one person on Wiina’s level, and that just means higher odds of them accidentally provoking someone they shouldn’t have, which is… Eh, it’s inevitable, I think. If they aren’t adapting to the new way in fear of betrayal from the inside then someone is going to run them over eventually.”

“<Weird that they’re not. It’s not like they have anything to lose by that logic.>” Seemi pointed out.

“<We don’t fully know their inner workings, for all we know they have a secret plan that could perhaps turn things around as long as no one on the inside gets a funny idea. Maybe it has something to do with those underground labs and other things.>” Nowcat speculated.

…Now that I think about it, it’s not like they never resort to using dungeon divers like us when the situation escalates. Why don’t they do that more often, we are practically working under them since the guild system was built under their supervision.

That’s confusing, did something happen at the top for them to stop doing something like that? I really do not have any insight on their inner workings at all.

“<Those things are weird…>” Seemi said, dragging her words out as she found it hard to comprehend what the hell they were doing with those things. I don’t really get it either despite seeing all the weird stuff in the files and the many failed experiments. It feels like it was part of a bigger conspiracy that was maybe interrupted at a certain point? Could just be the Eclipse causing all plans to be derailed and they hastily pivot. There’s a lot to keep track of and I can’t quite recall all of it right now. I do have files of them on a hard drive but I don’t really care to think further into that right now.

“<The one in my city was already abandoned, and any files or other data were scrubbed.>” Nowcat recalled. There is a lot of information that we don’t have access to since they turn tail and run. Probably back into the good graces of the higher ups, or maybe not.

“Certainly feel like something that should be addressed way more, but they already left and gone into hiding. Who really knows if they can even do anything afterward.” The high profile incident involving monsters breaking out of one of their laboratories and later footage of their other facilities means they can’t exactly be covert.

“<A lot of these incidents certainly have no follow up. It has been a bunch of mysteries piling up without any answers.>” Nowcat said with a hint of frustration. “<Hey, Lrem, do you know much about that monster tamer?>”

“Are you talking about Terry?” I asked even if she is the only one anyone would default to when the concept of a monster tamer came up.

“<Yeah.>” She confirmed. Now what is this one about?

“What could lead you to asking me about that?” I have my guesses but it’s best to withhold that.

“<I’m just curious, there has been more discussion on her as of late, as you know.>” She vaguely explained. Yeah, it’s definitely about that incident.

“She’s definitely strong, I think we all know that by now…” I started off with that, but even so I’m not sure what I should or shouldn’t mention. “Her monsters are obviously very strong, but her strength isn’t lesser than them. She’s a swordswoman, she likes to stream and show off new monsters, though oddly with how she worded it it seems like she had plenty of them in store before the Eclipse.”

“<That’s an interesting theory. Is there a more concrete basis?>” Nowcat asked, clearly interested in what I have been saying.

“Not really. She has a lot of secrets, much like those who are oddly competent when the chaos broke out. Nothing that felt fishy or nefarious, but still an alarm in my head saying there is much to her she will not disclose.” Obviously we have one such person in this group chat, but they are not online at the moment. Karra is also not around despite it showing that she is online for a moment, no idea what she is preoccupied yet.

“<Hmm… In comparison to yourself, how strong is she? Not counting her monsters.>” I seriously hope she doesn’t have any funny ideas by continuing with this line of questioning.

“Way stronger. I know it doesn’t look that way because she doesn’t fight that often, but there is no doubt that she is very formidable. Best to not try anything funny.” I explained. I think I have entertained her line of questioning more than enough. With her previous statements and how she has talked about her offline presence she probably has an important position in one of those rebel bases. She doesn’t hide it very well, probably just due to believing that no one would make what felt like an absurd connection. I don’t think Seemi or James made that connection either, but Idea and Karra certainly do.

“<Huh…>” Nowcat muttered to herself. I really hope she really doesn’t have any bad ideas. I know she is not the type to take reckless action, but a lot could have changed even in just a few months.

“<I’m surprised you can admit that so readily.>” Seemi remarked.

“It’s an objective metric, I’m just saying how I see it.” I explained. There’s no value in lying about it, so why should I? “This is a pretty trivial detail anyway, were you expecting me to throw myself at her or something?”

“<No, I’m just curious.>” She flatly said. Let’s hope it stays that way.

“I bet you are thinking about that giant thing that flies through the sky. We still don’t know if it’s actually because of her or not.” I pointed out that little conversation we had about an hour back. “I would advise against trying to anticipate anything. We still don’t know what that even actually was about.”

“<Oh shut it.>” Nowcat said, clearly trying to deflect.

We really need more than three people in the voice chat with the topics running low. It’s getting boring here.