Chapter 261: Chore and Gossip
———Messi———
<1: 59 pm>
“...Haaaah…” I let out a long sigh once I got back and sat down.
“Yeesh, what got you so worked up like that?” The guy next to me asked. I didn’t even notice him earlier.
“Just a really troublesome request. Nothing more to it than that.” I dismissively replied. It’s a bit of a chore is all. More boring than exhausting. “What about you? You were bitching about James yesterday. Did you finally bring your complaint to the man in question.”
“Oh come on. I’m not that crazy.” He said with a nervous smile.
“Someone said something about me? I’m quite curious.” Then as if on que, James approached the two of us and sat down, making him sweat bullets as he tried to figure out how to avoid talking about it.
“Nah. It’s nothing serious, dude.” He nervously said as if James was gonna kill him for speaking up. No one here is that petty, at least the ones here. I can’t confidently say I know the character of everyone who walked into the guild.
“...Really?” James teasingly said as he looked at that guy straight in the eyes.
“Y-Yeah! So how was the party yesterday? You were there all night or what?” He asked, trying to steer the conversation.
“It was quite luxurious. Admittedly in terms of entertainment there isn’t a lot, but the food and ambience makes up for it. You probably saw it all over social media, all that free expensive food we got for free.” He said with a slightly smug tone to it. “There’s also that fight. I think mine has been recorded more than a few times by now.”
“Never seen you on the backfoot like that before.” I remarked. He genuinely looked lost from the little I can make out from that fight. “Just how strong was she anyway?”
“Can’t tell. The gap was too wide for me to accurately gauge it. Even saying she’s a hundred times stronger than me feels like I was downplaying her. That’s how bad it was.” He casually answered with quite a terrifying number. Considering he’s the strongest one in the guild that doesn’t bode well for how we look in the greater scope of things.
Then again we already know full well we’re far from the biggest fishes in the sea. Heck, it’s looking like we’re some of the smallest. It just came out not too long ago that the most powerful and profitable guilds got a whole party invite to yesterday’s party. It’s a pretty bad look that they only invite an individual on our end.
“Had to wonder what would happen if she slipped up for real.” The guy next to me morbidly asked.
“Assuming the safeguard in place doesn’t work, I’d be dead.” James bluntly answered. “No chance in hell I would avoid a slip up from someone that strong. That’s like asking me to outrun a hurricane or a tsunami.”
“...Can’t some people do that nowadays?” I pointed out.
“That’s not the point. Also, what else am I supposed to say?” He replied in frustration. I guess that’s fair. A lot of those sayings have become outdated. Saying ‘it’s like getting hit by a truck’ feels way less like a hyperbole and more of it’s just an accurate saying. The amount of damage those monsters can do to a regular person would turn them into paste. It would probably take a while until we came up with a new saying for those things. For now, we’re going with the same old same old.
“...You’re not salty about that, right?” I asked just in case this is a somewhat sour topic for the time being.
“Nah. I think we all know at this point that there’s a bunch of crazy strong lunatics out there. At a gathering like that there would no doubt be plenty of them casually roaming about. One of them taking an interest in me is a different matter. That is something I didn’t expect.” He explained.
“What even happened after the duel? Why did that even happen in the first place?” I asked, since he never elaborated on it since he came back.
“She just wants to spar, I guess. All of us used the same type of weapon which is why she invited us. No idea where she got that intel from, who really knows how those people seem to conveniently know everything.” He said with a level of suspicion. I think maybe she just asked someone who happens to have that specific info? I doubt it’s anything that complicated.
“…With someone that strong running around, why have we never heard of her?” The guy next to me asked. “It’s hard to not talk about someone with the strength comparable to an entire army, right? Surely she would’ve been noticed before now.”
“Ah. That’s just not true at all.” James said, not sounding particularly bothered by his rather presumptuous claim. “There is simply nothing that requires that much power output to be demonstrated out in the open, so there is no way for anyone with so much strength to be exposed. They will simply use as much power as needed, either as much as they want inside a dungeon and away from the public eye, or usually the amount that most people can muster when going about their regular schedule. You don’t really see me go around destroying buildings do you? Unless you wanna see that.”
“I-I’d rather you not.” He replied while leaning back a bit due to nervousness.
“Just messing with ya. So I think it’s clear that unless something catastrophic comes up, don’t expect to discover anyone extraordinary.” James said with a small smirk. “I think all of you should focus on yourself. I have carried the guild on my back so far, right? You all should be pulling your weight a bit more.”
“…Not everyone can be at your level, man…” He complained with a face of resignation.
“Not with that attitude.” James said while dismissing that man’s mild despair. “It’s all just based on how much time you have.”
“…Don’t we all have the same amount of time? Just a bunch of unemployed people.” I pointed out. So none of us here really have any excuse for our lack of dedication or whatever. I do some freelance stuff before for anyone needing some muscle, but nowadays I just do guild requests which are… less consistent. Selling monster parts is also a thing of course, but it’s less consistent than that, and we only have so much carry capacity. Like after twenty floors going any further is just choosing which loot to keep. It’s also random if we’ll even get anything good from those boss drops.
“Do you really have to bring that up?” The guy next to me asked in frustration. It’s no surprise that all of us are living on the edge with the kind of work we’re doing. Not that people with normal jobs are doing a lot better with many still reeling after the damage done in the first few weeks of the Eclipse. Too bad most of that went undocumented, we still don’t really know what happened outside of a lot of the world being damaged by the aftermath of everyone being under hysteria. Not literally everyone, but enough that it causes so much chaos that no one has any of what to do. Crisis of faith, shattered worldviews, all that jazz just causes so much chaos that no one knows what to do. Turned into the wild west. The first week especially was really bad from my recollection. Thankfully not much happened around here during that time, but I certainly can’t help but be afraid for my life back then… I do wonder what would happen if I managed to figure out the magic thing within that time. Things might’ve been… worse off, actually. Probably on power high like most of those criminals were.
All those hypotheticals aside… I have some questions for him, since he’s the only one who went there.
“Do you have any gossip to share?” I asked, since he might overheard something interesting that I’m not aware of.
“Gossip? Hmm…” He mumbled to himself as he tried to remember anything interesting happening there. “I made out a few silhouettes at the VIP floor that exist high up in the venue. People were complaining about people editing celebrities in and such, so I made sure to memorize and take any picture I could.”
He then put down his phone and showed off the few blurry pictures he got… Hmm… Do I know anyone from these? I have seen the rumors about who participated and who didn’t…
…I don’t actually know about celebrities, so I can’t really comment on it? I mean I do know about this Edea person, who came up in that group chat a few times, but that’s about it. I see them in one of the pictures.
“...Is that Jamac Nerwan?” The guy next to me exclaimed in surprise.
“Who?” I asked just on instinct. I haven’t heard of the guy before.
“You don’t know? He’s pretty famous as a war hero. More specifically his espionage work. I believe he retired a few years ago and was on a headline for turning into… Uhhh…” He tried to explain but seemed to get confused and awkward all of a sudden.
“Hermaphrodite. Appears feminine and looks indistinguishable from most women, but technically a hermaphrodite.” James clarified. I guess that explains the long white hair. Good thing he no longer works as a spy I guess, those hair would definitely get in the way.
“Okay, but this doesn’t only happen to anyone who is… Uhh…” The guy next to me said while looking bothered again. Why is he so hesitant on that topic? Is there a talk that’s needed?
“Not necessarily. Aside from what we already figured out I guess you could say it can happen to anyone who considers themselves a bit more flexible in their identity, but that’s clearly not a topic you’re comfortable with.” James answered. It does seem to hit some random people who don't seem to care about it all that much. No idea why that’s the case. “Anyway. He is obviously a controversial figure in the wider world with how efficient he is and how much damage he causes to the enemy nations. He’s said to be a one-man army capable of dismantling any projects that could’ve threatened the States before it could go off.”
“I’m surprised he is even roaming around freely as someone who made so many enemies.” The guy next to me remarked. “From all the rumors it seems like he wasn’t in the good graces of the other factions within the US military despite how invaluable his skillset is. It’s not like his enemies are all outside the States.”
“That’s not something we have a lot of info on. People were definitely afraid of him considering how terrifying his predecessor was.” James replied. I seriously don’t know anything about that guy at all, but it seems like there is a lot of history there. “Anyway, there is also that kid Edea. I’m surprised they were invited since most billionaires weren’t. There were a mix of people there that no one really recognized so someone like them stuck out like a sore thumb.”
“Why are we calling someone in their early-twenties a kid again?” He asked.
“It’s just a name that stuck. I can’t help but call them that.” James bluntly answered. It’s a pretty blatant misnomer, but I guess it’s not like that person is in the room with us to complain anyway. “The fact that they are invited brings more questions than answers. The death of their parents was already a mystery considering how accomplished they were in both scientific and technological fields.”
“We all heard all sorts of crazy conspiracies about that person more than enough. I think.” I interjected before we fell into baseless and meaningless speculations. Let’s just leave the gossip per person short.