Chapter 194: Convo After Op
———Wiina———
<10: 03 am>
“Haaah!” He screamed out as he thrust his spear forward.
*Stab* *Drip*
He stabbed clean through the dogkin’s body, causing him to bleed out and staining his fur.
I couldn’t see inside that ridiculous helmet of his, but it’s clear that the fight is at its conclusion. He wins, end of story.
And Kenni already won her match with no problem. She didn’t spend much energy in her battle at all with how outclassed everyone in this scenario was to the two of us.
Not even an hour has passed and it’s already over. Of course, it’s not like my job is officially over. I still have to wrap things up all cleanly.
“Attention! Everyone inside this wretched town. Stop whatever you’re doing and listen up.” I said with my voice amplified so the entire town could hear it. I then projected the image of his death all over the entire town, be it in the air, projected onto the buildings, or even on the roads. “Your leader, Drog Dunkner, as well as his two lieutenants, have been disposed of. You no longer have a cause to keep going, and I will be taking all of you into custody starting now. Do not resist, and for those who might be coerced due to your loved ones being taken hostage. Rely on them to bail you out, that’s all I have to say. This is Wiina, signing off.”
After that I quickly summoned a horde of collars and went to town, putting it on everyone within the town and then teleported them all to the other area I have secured.
“By the way, big guy. If anyone asks me who killed that guy’s left and right hand, I’m gonna say it’s you, got it?” I said as I dispelled all the holograms.
“What? Why?” He asked, sounding his confusion.
“I don’t think people need to know that crow is involved. It’s a long story.” I’m sure he has a lot of things to worry about right now, and not the time to think about other people’s story.
“You two got everything done by now?” Kenni asked as she finally came to the rooftop.
“More or less. All that’s left is to give the refugees some instruction and then send them back here, but not before I clean up this place a bit. It’s so darn dirty and uncivilized.” It looks only a few steps away from some post-apocalyptic settlement. “Alright, let’s get going.”
———Karra———
<10: 11 am>
*Tap* Tap* *Click* *Click*
Agh! Another loss. This game is still frustrating as always. Maybe that’s enough for today. Playing it is way less fun than watching the pros play it. Kinda sucks that their attitude is that of children making them hard to watch outside of tournaments, but it is what it is.
I’ll log out and go do something. Let me get the rest of this pasta here…
*Slurp* *Slurp*
Ahhh… Nothing better than cold and creamy pasta. She sure made a lot, as if she’s gonna take that long resolving the whole issue. Speaking of which, were there any reports on any social media or anything? Let me take a looksie here…
Some sightings of lightning near there? Doesn’t seem like enough. I read up more on it and it was said that there will be supplies coming in due to the hostages. Maybe those poor suckers can help testify what’s going on, assuming it wasn’t already over by then.
Just because she resolved the issue quickly doesn’t mean everyone would just magically know what happened. It’s gonna take a while since it seems like she’s doing some pretty complicated things to make sure the casualties are at the absolute minimum.
Now how is my inbox looking? Not exactly pretty. That massive stream definitely brings a lot more attention from all sorts of people, unfortunately. Nothing I can’t mark as spam or blocked and move on, but there is a lot to look through.
…While Wiina has quite a bit on her plate. I’m kinda on the opposite of that spectrum. I’m gonna be bored all day until nighttime, which doesn’t sound particularly fun.
“Hmm…” I mumbled to myself while looking at the rest of her room. Looking to my right and there is another copy of this computer. Did she make this during midnight? I could’ve sworn that when we go to sleep there was only one.
I’m not gonna mess with it. I’ll just stick to this one than she basically gives me free reign to. I’m kinda surprised there isn’t anything suspicious in the files. I know I probably shouldn’t say it, but the type of people with a similar set of hobbies as her doesn’t really have the best of reputation for a reason. I didn’t actually check everything, but I don’t think I should breach her privacy to that degree, there is a limit to everything.
…I supposed I could just go check stuff up on Ourshow and other places. I feel like I haven’t been looking through trending things for a good while. I don’t think much is gonna change and there’s gonna be a lot of doomposting, but might as well check.
…Uh huh… Hmm… Ew… Oh, this guy finally uploaded something after a while. I’ll check on that later… People begging for gaming news…
Feels like creative media in general has taken a bit of a nosedive, not in quality or anything, but just the amount. Kinda can’t blame them, despite bringing a lot of joy to all kinds of people it is often the most heated topic and rather stressful to create. There is definitely more raw content like streaming and stuff, but we already know that for a long while now, and even that has its own risk with a lot more violence going around. IRL streaming is a risky business even before all of this, now there is a bigger risk of dying than just less than a percent.
I guess I’ll put one of these videos in the background while I keep scrolling through stuff and see if anything interesting is happening. I wonder if there’s a shop or something trending happening nearby… Oh, right. How are those posts from yesterday doing? I haven’t been looking at them until now since I was planning on just not elaborating on it at all, so I didn’t bother checking them for updates.
…Works like a charm. Aside from the nice foods I posted which also confuse people about how I even go across states again, I show a little bit of Wiina, or Navi… Feels like I barely called her that during the stream, I used Edea’s pseudonym a heck of a lot more often.
A lot of comments wondering why I am with her and very obviously looking like I’m trying to hide her. It’s fun to just string people along. I’m not planning on saying anything official on the matter, the payoff will come naturally. I don’t need to say or do anything else.
Others will eventually learn about Navi, or Wiina, sooner or later. Secrets don’t last forever, no matter how hard you try. Even if you can split into multiple bodies, even if you have a massive array of powers, even if you have crazy abilities that make you look like a god, something will eventually leak out, and so will the rest.
At the moment outside of Emmie and Kenni no one in our class even knows about Navi and Jass being the same person, let alone that Wiina is also both of them.
A lot of complications will occur if they knew about it now rather than later for many reasons, not that I know all the specifics, it’s just something Wiina said to me, but I can guess more than a few reasons. Like the chance of secrets slipping out now when it’s more inconvenient, or them starting to rely on her more than needed. While I trust all of them to be mindful of currying favors, we all know that power of any form tends to corrupt all but the most pure. No one is gonna boast about being so lacking in desires. Wiina is definitely not gonna be happy if that kind of scenario panned out.
…Lots of comments speculating but it really is that simple that I’m screwing with them. There isn’t going to be any payoff for years, most likely.
*Slurp* *Munch*
That was a lot of food, and she still hasn’t come back yet. It has been almost an hour by now. I thought she’d come back before that time… Then again, you can’t fast forward your explanation. I’d imagine that she needs to at least clarify a few things to different people before she can come back. It’d be pretty inconsiderate to not give everyone a bit of explanation about what has happened and why. If anything, giving no explanation probably would’ve led to more chaos later on. Lack of information can hurt quite a lot, no matter what kind of situation you’re talking about, and if they start making their own conclusions, that’ll be even worse.
…Eh. I think that’s enough hard thinking for today. I think I could go for a walk after being holed up in here since yesterday afternoon. I can come back to all of this at a later date.
“I’m back.” Oh, would you look at that. That’s a rather convenient timing. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much.”
“Not really. I only just recently woken up anyway. Only feel like you have only been away for an hour max.” I don’t even know when she actually leaves to enact this plan of hers. I was clearly still completely asleep by then. “So, got everything done all nice and tidy?”
“About the best I could do. There was one factor I couldn’t quite control as smoothly as I wanted, but that’s just because of how she is.” She? Who in the world did she find inside that town? “...I’m talking about Kenni, for the record.”
“Ah. I see…” That makes sense. I guess there was always a chance she would show up in a place like that to cause some havoc. For her, a place to let loose is always good for her…
…What in the world is her problem anyway? Last I checked, she has had nothing traumatic happen in her past at all. At least with Emmie we literally know nothing about her origin. In fact everything about why she acts the way she does is an enigma in itself. This isn’t even talking about the massive elephant in the room that we aren’t gonna talk about further because it's just… so hopeless to even think about, let alone talk.
“I get how infuriating it can be to have a loose cannon like her around. She obviously has a few lines she wouldn’t cross, but the numbers aren’t exactly reassuring in the first place.” Wiina said, probably after just reading my facial expression. “I know there is also that… thing. But let’s just ignore it and stop wondering why two of our friends are unhinged lunatics who kill enough people to go past the two digits at this point. Probably.”
“...So how did the operation go?” Let’s stop talking about either of them for at least this day. We’re gonna see them tomorrow anyway when the school opens up.
“Smoothly except for that one small variable we talked about earlier.” She basically just repeated what was already said. “I actually still left a part of myself there to meditate. Need to weed out who is good and bad and all that. A good chunk of people working under that guy were forced to due to the hostage situation.”
“Must’ve been nice to be able to have more than one body moving around.” I know there is the whole ‘dividing your power’ thing going on, but that’s such a small downside for someone like her. If I do get that power I’m probably just gonna end up as two corpses on the ground.
“It definitely gives me a lot of options, and something to debunk any excuses to be lazy.” She said while putting her hand on the chin. “There is a reason someone stronger than me might not have that ability, but that’s a conversation for another time.”
“How many conversations are we gonna keep pushing back, exactly?” I asked, feeling like there have been more and more topics being avoided.
“As much as possible. A lot of these topics last multiple hours of nonstop explanation. Best to go at it at a much slower pace.” She replied with a straight face. It’s hard to argue against her when she seems so insistent, and there is probably truth in those words. I doubt she’ll outright deceive me since she’s the one who opened up about… a lot, to me specifically. “We got plenty of times. At least ten thousand years.”
“...Alright then. Guess we’ll put that on hold.” How serious is that ten thousand years comment anyway? “So I guess we can expect updates to the public soon then?”
“Yeah. Very soon. I’m sure some are already texting on their phone to their loved ones or on social media. I just give back the confiscated items including their phones. It’s a good thing I stole them before any fights could take place, especially with Kenni in the picture.” She explained. “Anything else you want to know? You’re the one who gave me this mission, so to speak.”
“...Not really? I’m just glad everyone is okay, at least from how you’re explaining it.” Nothing else I really need to ask… “What about confirmed kills?”
“Three. Two from Kenni, one from a guy who was holding a grudge against the big boss. He was opposing him for a long while during the week.” Looks like there is a bit of story there.
“Huh… I guess you take the rest into custody?” Not sure why I even asked, what else would she have done.
“Yep, I sure did. I don’t think the nearby prison has enough room for all of them. A surprising amount of them are self-serving and depraved in some way, and definitely need punishment and imprisonment that current day can’t really afford.” She said. That is one thing that probably isn’t talked about as often as it should. Nowadays people drop dead before they can be put in jail, let alone prison. “...Can’t you just make your own prison on a deserted island somewhere?”
“I really don’t feel like managing it.” She bluntly answered. “There are legitimately too many of them for the justice system to handle, it’s gonna take a long while to prosecute all of them. I think the best thing to do at the moment is keeping them locked up in the area I am holding them in right now.”
The consequence of it all really does seem like a massive headache… Glad I’m not the one doing it. Sounds like a nightmare to deal with without compromising more than a few important things. Good thing Wiina is so busted in many regards.