Chapter 124: Recapping Crazies
———Lerim———
<4: 18 pm>
“And there you have it. I didn’t respond for a while since I was taking a very long nap. You all look excited about something else too.” There, explaining parts of my perspective. Got my paycheck and went for a long nap right after, so I didn’t chime in and got caught up to speed. Looks like I missed something pretty notable. “It looks like you guys found more troublesome things to talk about. Hopefully none of that is happening anywhere close to me.”
“<Right…>” Kara sounds rather awkward, as if having a lot to say. Considering her track record, she probably does. She is in the proximity of a lot of powerful individuals who seem to know way too much for my liking. It’s like they know all of this nonsense is going to happen and will probably look down at us with a few laughs. I don’t really know what an exposure to those kinds of people will do to your sensitivity. At least with Kara here it looks like she is still constantly caught by surprise and remains grounded.
“<Well let’s go in chronological order then. First off, Wiina and someone no one could make out is fighting in the North Atlantic Ocean. One cruise ship got unlucky enough to be in the way of the fight. It’s the one Seemi is on, even.>” Jackman recounted. So… Huh. Wait. Wasn’t there talk about people being overly paranoid about sea travel with all the monsters appearing? Of all the things that would interrupt those kinds of vacation, it’s two individuals fighting with a lot of power behind every punch and kick… The thing Wiina is fighting is a person, right?
“Hm… Does anyone have any clue on who the person she fights is?” I asked, since I don’t want to make any assumptions.
“<No one got a good look at the person, I’m pretty sure.>” Jackman replied.
“<Yeah. Unlike with Wiina no one managed to get a good look at her opponent. Heard some crazy attacks were thrown at her, so whoever that was can’t be weak.>” Kara pointed out. Just a strong guy, nothing more to say? “<It’s not as if we know a lot about Wiina as a person, let alone any enemies she might’ve made throughout her life. Can’t imagine someone so prominent to not have a lot of eyes on her.>”
“‘We’ know next to nothing about her, sure. I don’t think you can be included in ‘we’, though.” I pointed out. Isn’t she the one with her contact number and also having her around on a few streams? Seems like there are some connections there she won’t tell anyone.
“<What? It’s not as if I could just call on her to ask her about every single question I have! There are times she won’t even pick up the phone!>” She loudly protested.
“<One thing for sure is that she is such a mysterious person that we can’t really make out even her personality aside from being cold and aloof. Asking to know more than that is a bit much.>” Idea chimed in. I know those two are relatively close with each other compared with the rest of us. Less we forget, they were the one who supplied her with that magical weapon. I think we kinda glossed over that way too soon. No way a normal person would have access to something like that. I know they said they have the connections to have something like this made, but that’s barely any less noticeable. For all I know, they might be one of those people who already know that magic does in fact exist.
“<Can’t you maybe ask her for a public speech or something? To address people’s concerns?>” Jackman asked.
“<Not exactly an unreasonable thing to ask her to do, but she is probably going to be dismissive about it. She probably doesn’t seem to think of it as a big deal if the fact that she doesn’t address it immediately is any indication.>” Kara said, sounding more like she is covering for her than anything else. “<Also, I already have something planned today. I’m not gonna trash it all just because of stuff I have no control over.>”
Huh. I guess she also has that as an excuse.
“<Hmm… I wonder why Seemi isn’t talking that much in the group chat. It’s not like she doesn’t have internet access.>” Jackman asked.
“<Probably blackout drunk or something. She’s probably trying to enjoy her time on the ship as much as possible.>” Idea suggested. I would probably do the same thing, really. I wouldn’t worry too much about my online friends while enjoying my time with the luxurious trip.
“<We shouldn’t bother her, at least. I’m pretty sure that battle was more than enough headache for the day.>” Kara commented. That’s a fair thing to say.
“Okay then. So we have nothing else to say about that aside from ‘Wiina fight someone strong, full stop’?” There seems to be very little that we know about that particular incident.
“<And if we are to go in chronological order. What did you do?>” Kara suddenly asks… me? I think? “<Lrem, what did you do? What was that giant corpse about?>”
“Oh, right. Guess I never did elaborate on that.” So she was referring to me. I was only vaguely alluding to it before now, I guess I can go into more detail, not like any of these stuff are confidential as far as I’m aware. “Well. The local guild asked me to try fighting one of the giant beasts inside one of the new monster habitats. Last time I went I opted to not fight it since there was no need, plus there are weak chumps I need to keep safe from a different guild. It was a whole thing. Anyway, I killed it and it was pretty damn durable. Honestly if the other monsters didn’t try to jump me during the fight, it would’ve ended in less than half the time and I might not need the long nap.”
“<...So why does the landscape look so… barren?>” Jackman asked. Did he seriously analyse the photo I sent in the group chat?
“Oh. It’s because of all the super strong attacks I sent out during the fight. Kinda inflict massive collateral damage to the habitat, but who is gonna care about that? It’s a monster breeding ground after all. People should be praising me for that if nothing else.” I said with a small smug smirk on myself. They don’t need to know that I threw out a bunch of panic shots once I got too annoyed by all the monsters trying to swarm me. Of course some attacks that I aimed at the giant monster did have an aftereffect, like how an explosion is more than just the initial impact. Anyway, they don’t need to know that I got a bit carried away and not all actions were planned or well thought out.
“<Hmm…>” Kara seems to be pondering something, based on her expression.
“<Why did they even ask you to do it?>” Idea asked.
“Hell if I know. They just want to gauge its strength and say that if I can kill it, then I get extra pay.” I don’t really get any clear answer, and honestly trying to force out an answer seems like more trouble than it’s worth. “I’m going for the extra pay, of course.”
“<So what do you think of that giant monster? Like that thing is super big from what we saw, how strong is it?>” Jackman asked. He seems quite interested despite probably still sticking with the dungeon which doesn’t really have this type of monster roaming around randomly.
“It’s very strong, but I don’t really know if my account is really good for these sorts of things. I doubt there is much overlap in how the habitat I go to functions compared to other monster habitats.” I’m sure they all have their own quirks which can’t really be applied to each other. “I think it’s way stronger than the monsters I fought in the dungeon. Honestly, if it was a boss monster deep in the dungeon instead, I would probably be in a lot more trouble. Dungeon run is very exhausting.”
“<No freaking kidding.>” Jackman shared my grievance. “<Hey, Kara. Why can’t Wiina install those teleporting runes or whatever at other dungeons?>”
“<I don’t freaking know.>” Kara said, sounding unamused. “<I’m sure she has a lot to do that none of us can understand, or at the very least she doesn’t think we can understand.>”
“Well, not too hung up on that myself. It’s pretty simple, fight something and get money for it. Wiina’s circumstance is probably a lot more complicated.” I said just so I’m not the main topic of the conversation anymore. From the earlier part of the chat it seems like there are more to talk about. I also see a few words trending as well, probably related somehow.
“<I guess we could go on to recap the next incident…>” Kara said with a small bothered sigh.
“<Right. It’s also a case of two people fighting each other, but they’re clearly not the previous pair. What is with people fighting in the sky today?>” Jackman started the discussion. So it’s another one of those? I guess we also have next to no information on any of that?
“<It started in my neighborhood and somehow ended in Philadelphia. My home isn’t very far from it, but the fact that they reach the middle of that giant city is saying a lot.>” Kara elaborated. No wonder she seems so bothered. Having a similar kind of fight happening is probably not good for her peace of mind.
“<I think there were reports of three people in total fighting, I think it was… One person fighting two people, one at a time.>” Idea further explained. So one person was getting jumped, basically. “<There were only minor damages, all of them were mended in an instant. Probably someone supervising the whole thing to make sure no one actually got hurt.>”
“<Could be anyone. My place is full of those kinds of people.>” Kara chimed in. Are they talking about the whole ‘territory’ thing? Some powerful people hidden in plain sight or in the shadow overlooking a specific town or city. It could also just be Wiina. That woman seems to be capable of a lot. “<Anyway, they all vanished at some point with no trace. Probably still alive.>”
“<There is talk about those people coming from the school you went to, isn’t it?>” Jackman suddenly brings up quite an interesting tidbit.
“<Yeah? What about it? I can’t be super confident it’s them. I’d like to think my friends aren’t crazy lunatics spewing out attacks that could destroy a city for who knows why.>” Kara sounds extra bitter at the things Jackman said. It probably makes her seem like a terrible judge of character if nothing else. “<I’d rather not think about it right now, honestly.>”
“Did you not ask your friends about it?” I pointed out a pretty simple way to solve the misunderstanding. Surely there’s no need for her to get that worked up.
“<I did and I got no response! That just makes me even more worried!>” She replied, raising her voice. So the chance of it being them is quite high, isn’t it…
“<Say. I looked through a few interviews of people witnessing it. It looks like the people fighting are all insanely strong. No one could accurately gauge their strength. Hm, would that be of any help?>” Idea chimed in with what seems like a small chuckle sprinkled in. Right. Power-sensing. I think it’d be hard to use those statements to help affirm their identity. I know that there is a ‘color’ to each person's mana, but it can’t really be expressed in words, and when the power you sense is so overwhelming, you are completely blinded by pressure and can’t discern anything else.
“<You know full well that won’t explain jack.>” Kara snapped back, her face is one of obvious dissatisfaction at the unhelpful suggestion. “<...Ah. Sorry. I need to get off. See you guys tomorrow.>”
And she left the call. Guess this must be about the plans she said she had. Hopefully today’s incidents won’t cause too much of a problem for her. If it’s a stream then she would probably be flooded with questions. Can’t imagine that going all too well.
“<Hm. Best of luck to her.>” Idea seems to have a similar inkling, considering their remark.
“Was there anything else I needed to catch up on? My place has been surprisingly peaceful for… a day.” Aside from the giant monster nonsense, I feel pretty relaxed right about now.
I think all the pressure is gonna be on other people for once, which is nice.