Chapter 133: Waking Up Scare
———Fiss———
<7: 54 am>
“Mhmhmm…” Ugh. My head. I felt weird. Did something happen last night? I didn’t think I did anything after that whole dungeon run thing. It was more stressful than I thought.
The light shines through the window, showing the scenery of the world outside. Pretty sure it’s just a camera footage and nothing more, but it’s better than no light at all.
“Ugh…” Alright… Let’s clean myself up a bit before… Eh, I can do that later. It’s not like I have any plans today. I don’t need to go outside early today.
Hmm… Did I wake up before Mom and Dad? That’s pretty rare. Anyway, I should at least check my phone, hopefully something fun to watch to start the day… Nothing, well that sucks. Maybe I should go for an early morning bath just to kill some time. They don’t charge extra for these things anyway so might as well make the most use of it.
*Splash*
It’s so nice to just sit in the bathtub and relax… It’s nice that the gills on parts of my body don't really make my time in the bath any different. I thought that maybe my body would’ve really hated all the soap and stuff put inside the water. My body thankfully knows what to do in a case like this.
Hopefully Mom and Dad won’t interrupt, it’s not like we don’t have another bathroom for use. I can just keep this one locked up for a while…
Mhmmm… I wonder… How important those skills will be in the future. We’ve all been taught it to some extent in this school. The strength to fight, the knowledge of magic… What does the rest of the world think about such a thing…
“Haaa…” Sleepy… Maybe I’ll think about this later. Right now the bath feels so nice. I could stay soaked for maybe an hour or even more…
…Okay. I think that’s enough for now. Let’s… I’ll go back to bed and maybe check the news or something. I am really lacking in plans today.
Patted myself dry and made sure it’s all nice and clean. Can’t have my hair all wet and messed up… There we go. Time to go back to bed and kill time with some scrolling.
Let’s lay back down and check these social media, hopefully with few if no disheartening news.
…Doesn’t look like anything important is really happening, especially around here. What else is new? This area has been known to be quite safe compared to the majority of places. Very unlikely that any incidents will happen.
Hmm… Talks about categorizing and identifying strong people? First off, they ought to come up with a term for that, and secondly, like hell anyone is gonna bother setting that up during the holidays. What are these politicians doing? Their reputation has been in a gutter for years at this point and it’s a miracle they haven’t been overthrown yet. Vigilantism is at an all time high right now. It felt like the only reason no one is doing it is because no one could bother filling in their shoes.
…Doesn't this school already have something like that? I think those power readers can rank and measure our strength in much more definitive terms. It’s been a while since we had to check how strong we are. Maybe they’ll have us do it once we are actually back in school for real, and not just going on trips when most of us have nothing else better to do.
…Speaking of that trip. I don’t think there has been any details about how it would go down. From what I know a lot of these monster habitats are very far away. Even the closest ones are still way further than the nearest dungeon that isn’t next to the school.
Is it something like how those two classes go to the floating island? I should’ve asked Lynda about how in the world they traveled there. Unless plans have been changed we probably won’t get to go there ourselves until the school fully opened back up again. Though it could just be that one of the trips would be to that floating island.
I think it’s a no-brainer to prioritize everyone getting to go there. It’s clearly a very special place and definitely not a place anyone can have easy access to. Technically we could go to one of these Fantar… whatever land. We could just take a long road trip to one, but a floating island is impossible without the school’s resources.
Also, what else is on the news that’s worth talking about… Incident in Brooklyn… The talk of regulation on dungeon exploration going absolutely nowhere… Someone finding a secret compartment in an ancient ruin due to mana-sensing? Now that one is quite fascinating. It does go with the rumors going around about how magic has existed for a very long time and how certain mythologies and fairy tales are actually historical fact, just more dramatized.
Anything else I should read up on… Oh, more internet drama, how shocking.
Okay. I think that’s enough scrolling for now… Hmm… Let’s eat some breakfast and… I don’t really know, should I holed up in my room all day today? That doesn’t sound healthy, but possibly jogging out in the snow also doesn’t sound fun.
Whatever, let’s fill my belly with something first, then ask questions later. Let’s see what they sent us today. Yesterday it was an apple and beef with rice.
Just pressing a few buttons on this terminal here on the dinner table and receiving my portion of today’s breakfast…
Oh! It’s… three bananas and miso soup. What a weird combo. They haven’t really been giving us typical American breakfast at all. Some combinations are quite weird, but they’re all usually some fruits or vegetables and small lunch items. No toasts or pancakes or even cereals.
Whoever manages the breakfast and dinner program for us schmucks living down here seems to be very health-conscious. It’s appreciated, but I don’t really know how many people here appreciate not having the usual morning snacks.
Well. I’m no picky eater, so no complaining from me. Let’s dig in.
———Lynda———
<8: 49 am>
“Huh. That’s weird.” I muttered, looking at the opened gate. For a place with such tight security this is such an anomaly.
“So much about security. What in the world are they plotting?” Histon said while the others looked understandably worried. The people running this place obviously don’t have a history of crimes or anything, but considering the amount of power they wield, it’s only natural to be worried.
“It’s definitely deliberate, no way they just left this shit open.” Uires said, looking rather worried just like the others.
“Mister Pellek, you don’t have any clues on what just happened?” The girl with light brown hair asked. She was with Uires earlier, probably a friend of hers.
“How in the world should I know? I have no idea what is going on in the head of that woman.” He said, sounding as equally lost as the rest of us. He’s probably talking about the principal, who never denies being involved with all sorts of crazy events this school pulled out.
“...So can we actually go inside?” Kroin asked, wanting to know why this oddity happened.
I feel like maybe we’re getting caught up in the moment here. I mean it’s just an open gate… right? How about I try to peek through and see if anything has changed…
“Weird trees…” I muttered out loud as I tried to make out anything new that popped up. The layout of the roadway also looks rather different. Weird. I don’t think there's any new big buildings inside this comically large school campus.
I really should have asked for Fiss’ phone number. She should be able to roam around just fine without needing to ask any permission, since she lived here for now. I could’ve asked her for more details. Surely she knows why there have been some sudden changes to the place.
———Fiss———
<8: 54 am>
“What the hell is going on!?” I screamed out once I fully stepped out of our living space and into… wherever the hell we ended up at.
Wasn't the space connecting all the rooms here just a simple corridor? What in the world happened!? I know there’s a teleporter in our room, so we can just go out like that but… What in the world?
This looks more like one of those fast food restaurant play areas, just a lot more detailed and less childish attractions. There are obstacle courses, some weird trees, and also what seems like an area with monsters in them? Why are there monsters here!?
It looks like they can’t move out of the area they’re in, at least, but how the hell should I know? At least these seem to be weak creatures like those fuzzy things in the first floor of the dungeon, and they are all roaming in an area with clear borders.
…Also, why is there a sky? I thought we were still indoors? It’s probably a fake sky, right? Do I have a pebble to throw at it from here? What about those mechanical guards roaming the area? Faceless androids that move around quite fluently.
One thing I don’t think people here talk about enough is how advanced the tech here is. Last I checked, it’s a struggle for humanoid robots to even walk properly, let alone have some autonomy.
I guess those are here to make sure we don’t actually get into any trouble? I still don’t really know what the point of all of this even is.
More importantly, when in the world did this even happen? Yesterday it was just a mundane corridor, now it’s… a weird fantasy playground?
It is also very open, the old corridor seems to have expanded into a very wide room with a lot of space to move around in. There are even high grounds and stuff! That doesn’t sound super safe. There is a lot more to take in the moment I turn around to check another area. I think this is still a corridor, technically speaking. Still a straight path with a bunch of doors, but it’s a lot more wide with a lot of extra fluff in the middle.
I think I need to lean back and- Ow! What the heck? When was this screen installed next to the door? I didn’t even notice it.
I guess I should at least check this out? Virtual weapons? What does that mean? There seems to be a help option at least. I can actually know what in the world all of this event meant.
Let’s see here… ‘Welcome to the augmented reality realm. In this place everything is a virtual construct which shouldn’t cause any real harm to the user. For the students and staff members of the school, this will have a similar effect to the simulation rooms used for lessons and free time. Monsters cannot inflict lethal damage, and obstacle courses will shift itself to not cause harm to the visitors. Due to the possibility of coming into conflict with other humans, androids are put in place to stop conflict that could result in serious harm. For more information, please check out the below sections in the help menu.’
…There’s a lot of text here, and some accompanying pictures, thankfully. Should I look through all of them or only just the basics? What in the world is all of these even for anyway?
———Lynda———
<9: 05 am>
“You were not kidding. Weird trees.” Trener remarked, seeing the weird purple tree with odd glowing fruits on it. It’s not the only weird plants existing around here. There’s also a giant flower with a gaping maw, which looks like it could genuinely kill someone. Also, there are just a lot of other plants in general, exotic ones or not. Before this a large amount of area didn't have much greenery outside of a simple grassfield and some trees near the building and park. “...So I guess we can just walk around here with no repercussions then? Is this really all they have to show us?”
“You’d have to be an idiot to think that.” Histon replied before walking towards the school’s park. Did he spot something new there?
“Hey! What was that comment for?” Trener complained as everyone followed him, Pellek looking rather bothered by the lack of respect. He’s the adult in the group and he didn’t get any say at all, sucks to be that guy.
Everyone follows Histon and sees the teleport pad surrounded by a few big trees all with unusual colors. Are we not gonna comment on the park being expanded to be even bigger with more benches and other kinds of greenery? The central area with the fountain is also much bigger as well.
“Doesn’t look like there’s any sign or anything to tell us where it leads.” Uires’ pal commented. Considering it’s out in the open and seems to be active with no interface, it probably won’t lead us anywhere dangerous.
Still really not sure what in the world is happening to the school, but it looks like nothing dangerous is happening at the moment, unless we could those weird plants that might be able to kill us.
“Hmm…” Histon looks unsure of how to approach this. There is nothing that would answer that particular question until one of us took it for the team…