Chapter 170: Early Morning Grind
———Karra———
<5: 37 am>
“Mhmhmm…” I can’t help but groan as I wake up, feeling… kinda weird and a bit uncomfortable. I did eat a ton of food yesterday. I think my body shut down quickly after eating all those sweets and other stuff by the end. Thankfully Wiina carried me home and got me up on a nice warm bed… What time is it right now? Let me check my phone here… Not even six in the morning? I must’ve fallen asleep the moment I hit the bed.
…I saw a block of complete darkness in the room. What in the world is that? Is this just my eyes paying tricks on me? It feels like some sort of void, but I’m not really sure what’s going on inside it… Isn’t it covering Wiina’s computer?
…I’m just gonna go back to sleep. This is all too much for me to wake up to.
———Wiina———
<5: 41 am>
*Click* *Click* *Tap* *Tap* *Click*
Another easy game won… Let’s see here. I am now near the top one hundred of this leaderboard. If I keep going for an hour or two I should be able to get to the top fifty… Hmm…
Then again, considering my choice of characters some might start really scrutinizing my gameplay and cause unnecessary drama. This isn’t my main game of choice anyway.
Let’s put the controller down and play another game. I haven’t touched the main game in a while. I should at least try to get to the top at least once now that I have the ability. I have been slacking way too much on my rank grinds.
*Ring* *Ring*
Huh. My Harmonia app is ringing up, who is calling me so early in the morning? With my other account as well?
“What’s up?” I asked as I logged into the game.
“<Yo, saw that you are online early. I know you don’t really need much rest in general, but it’s quite rare for you to actually stay up all night.>” Rico said through the call.
“So what’s the reason you’re calling me today? It’s rare for you to call me in the first place.” Ignoring the call she made two days ago about the Fantasy Land thing.
“<Well. You see. Remember where we are going tomorrow? Here’s the thing. There has been a conflict near it, you see?>” She said while I waited in the queue.
“So what? Do I need to go do something about it?” I asked, wondering if I have to go immediately or what. I’m in the middle of something here.
“<Nah, it’s barely morning right now. No one is gonna make a move this early in the morning, and the whole conflict only started at around… nine at night. It’s pretty recent and there hasn’t been any news on it.>” She clarified. That’ll explain why I didn’t see anything related to it yesterday. Why did she only bring it up now though? It’s not like I can’t deal with the conflict in only a few minutes if I needed to. “<Truthfully speaking, you don’t really need to do anything. I got the order to kill anyone trying to interrupt the trip, which I ain’t gonna complain about.>”
“I know it won’t be too hard to cover it up, but aren’t you a bit concerned about your killing spree damaging the school’s reputation?” I asked, now in the game and start fighting already. It has only been a minute and a fight is already starting.
“<Why would I care? That old hag is the one who cared about it in the first place. Besides, what parents in their right mind wouldn’t want to send their kids to a school that looks more like a luxury hotel than a hellscape.>” She smugly said while I’m playing and making sure my team doesn’t mess anything up. “<Also, let’s be real here. From an outsider’s perspective, that place is screaming the word shady and conspiracy all over the world already. A few killings here and there won’t change anything, I don’t really care.>”
“That’s definitely not how I’m seeing it…” In the first place, she doesn’t want to blow her own cover, so she is already restricting herself on how much she could kill in the first place. No matter what, she is already following a guideline. “By the way, what would happen if no one stepped in? If it has only happened yesterday, it shouldn’t escalate even if a few days have passed, right? Can’t imagine either side getting much set up.”
“<That is true…>” She said while not sounding like she was conceding. “<If we were just talking about normal military stuff, that might be the case, you know how teeny tiny the number is in comparison to the start of last year.>”
“Yeah. Everyone is completely demoralized and in complete disarray, not to mention the discrimination and other stuff. No one wants to work for a country that can’t even get its shit together, not that any country has done that successfully so far, some fare better, but that’s about it.” And that’s another squad wipe, my gameplay aside my randoms are very strong in this match, if maybe way too kill-happy. “Not to mention the rise of gangs and other criminal groups. I know the current government is trying something shady at this point, but I shut down most of it already, same with you.”
“<Yep, they’d be lucky to even catch one person who will do their dirty work at this point. They’re probably extremely scared for their lives.>” She said smugly. “<The countries also have a similar situation going on, in a place with really bad case of dictatorship definitely got hit the worse with so many people on shitlist of people who suddenly got their powers. Many did die because they didn't know the full extent of how to use it, but a few became quite the terror everyone is afraid of, which means the soldiers got demoralized quickly once their guns and other equipments aren’t really effective anymore.>”
“...So, what are the forces trying to stir things up at the border near the Fantarban Realm? You wouldn’t bring it up if they aren’t gonna be at least a little bit of a problem, right?” I asked, realizing that she wouldn’t make a long winded discussion.
“<Yeah. They aren’t actually part of any military. Just two gangs full of destructive magic-wielder, though organization is probably the better word with how many of them there are. Like I said, they aren’t really a problem for you or me, but if they were to see a giant ship flying overhead, they might try to claim it for themselves, like that wolf guy from last week.>” She finally clarified. “<None of us have really looked into it, but it wouldn’t be surprising if there isn’t at least one city-buster on each side of the conflict. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been so eager to fight for land at the border between nations.>”
“Well even people at that level wouldn’t really be any issue. You’d need at least an atomic bomb to damage that ship.” I said while still in the middle of this match. “You mean city-buster as in something akin to those people called warlords, right?”
“<Yeah. I doubt they have someone with nuke-level spells. If they did they’d be all over the news already.>” She answered. “<Even that frog lady Kenni killed yesterday, even with all the damages she done to two large cities, didn’t cause all that damage with a single attack.>”
“So you already know about that…” I muttered. While Kenni did talk about it in the group chat, she most likely didn’t disclose this fact to anyone else. I doubt any of us would snitch either, considering how much of a commotion it would cause if something from that group chat leaked. “I guess I could go do something about it. I don’t really have any real plans today.”
“<Aww… Really? I guess I don’t have to drag my ass there and do the dirty work then… Eh, what can you do about it.>” Why do you have to say it like that? Do you want to go or not? “<Want me to help by splitting the kills?>”
“I’d rather not kill anyone. In the first place, don’t you have a private prison you keep around to harvest fear and agony like it’s hell on Earth? Why are you even killing people?” I asked, since it seems rather counterintuitive. That place is like a factory for demon fuel.
“<Whoa there, you really want them in that torture chamber? Talk about insanely cruel.>” She mockingly said. “<Death is a mercy in a lot of ways, you know? There’s a reason why certain bad actions are considered unforgivable while killing can be excused.>”
“I don’t need a moral lesson from you of all people.” I said as the final zone is closing in on us and very few teams are left standing. “You know what, I’ll just incapacitate them and leave them at your mercy. I don’t think most prisons are even that well-maintained. At least your place is clean.”
“<Yeah right, cleanliness is more important than whether or not you’re being used and squeeze like a lemon… Then again, most prisons nowadays aren’t much better. You know what? You have a point.>” Her tone quickly changed only after that proposal. “<We can go in the afternoon, I’m sure you have to go tending to your pretty little horse princess.>”
“Come on now, she’s not that needy. It’s not like she’s like your kitty cat who… Well, I guess what she went through was rather traumatizing, I won’t comment further than that.” I was close to saying something rather insensitive. Let’s not start acting like one of these old heads who has gotten apathetic to many things in life. “...What had Cevin been saying? By the way?”
“<Don’t worry about the little old me, that guy couldn’t come close to even causing a crack on my horn.> She said, probably with a smug smile on her face. “<Don’t worry about it, and it’s not as if we’re actually hooking up. I think making someone I rescued fall in love with me is a bit too exploitative for my taste. You know I’m not a huge fan of stringing people along.>”
“I… do not know that. In case you forgot, I’m not Walsuna, the one who keeps prodding about your worst moments in your lives.” I don’t really need someone with multiple lifetimes of experience to start complaining and trauma-dumping on me in the middle of my gaming session. Better for her to just keep it to herself for now.
“<Oh, right. I thought she snitched and told you a few things about me already to use you against me. Can’t believe she hadn’t gone that far yet…>” She said in a somewhat playful manner. Considering they can work together, it’s clear that all of these back-and-forths are more of a comedy routine between them… Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it used to be unironic at some point.
“Everyone has their own standards, you know?” I said to her right as the match finally finished. That was a quick round, people are still dying way too early.
“<Yeah yeah.>” She dismissively said. “<By the way, there’s going to be a grand reopening of the school next week. We’re gonna do rehearsal on Saturday. See ya at one in the afternoon at the border.>”
*Beep*
…Freaking hell. Did she really have to say that right at the very end? I don’t even get paid for this crap. Admittedly it’s because money isn’t any issue for me anymore, but they’re not giving me much to work with.
Anyway, time to keep playing the game, just staring at the big bright screen for an hour or two unless Karra is waking up and needs some assistance. Yesterday everyone just kept eating and eating. I know there are now more activities that burn your calories by a ridiculous amount, but a stomach still has limited capacity, and most of them are still regular humans without an extra large stomach or modified metabolism. What Malk did was pretty damn reckless.
As for me. I could keep eating as long as I want, but within my guise, I can’t really eat that much without raising some suspicion. Not that I even really need to eat that much with how efficient my body is, so it’s not an issue to keep the charade going.
Very few actually walk out of that room with a non-nauseous face, thankfully no one actually needs to go to the hospital or worse, partially because there is a healer or two around.
But enough about that, let’s focus on gaming.