Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Lynda———

<8: 31 AM>

Walking on the street, barely any sound aside from our own footsteps. The spotless road stretches out and branches into other parts of the metropolis. Filled with buildings both large and small. Slightly less monochrome looks than all those city blocks we’ve come across.

It felt… way more familiar, which only makes it more eerie when coupled with the silence.

“...This place certainly doesn’t look like a bunch of copy-pasted assets.” I remarked as we kept moving.

“This is clearly meant to be the main stage of the final battle. The people who organize this certainly predict that something like this will happen.” Kenni said in response.

“It is quite a hard area to navigate around, isn’t it? It’s quite likely that during the battle we will end up crashing and stumbling into many buildings.” Glery pointed out. It’s certainly no open field. Even if the metropolis is massive with a lot of room to move in and with wide roads expanding and connecting all parts of this massive location, all these buildings will cause a lot of speed bumps during the fight.

“You gotta need those when dealing with someone as destructive as her. Without these set pieces do you think there will be any breathing room for everyone involved?” Kenni argued. “It helps cut lines of sight and all that. Even if all of us are trained to be able to sense even small mana fluctuation, it’s still a ‘feel’ and not completely precise coordinates. Not like you have a wallhack.”

“...And how do you know all that?” I asked.

“Why else? Just from experience and a few incidents!” She said without a hint of shame. “And is another reason why they want this in the center of the map though. I think both of you already know why. The same reason there’s a bunch of random city blocks disconnected to everything just out and about in the wilderness like they were poorly copy-pasted.”

“Sense of scale. A good point of reference.” Glery spelled it out. “Nothing hit quite as hard as an entire building collapsing before your very eyes.”

“For real. Those things were never meant to be torn apart like cardboard by a human.” Kenni said as if bragging about something. “Nothing feels less terrifying than something that is meant to last and shield you from the outside world crumbling like it’s nothing.”

“Just gotta make it sound extra dramatic for the flare…” I remarked, feeling a bit exasperated by the conversation we’re having. “Do we really have no destination in mind?”

“Obviously not. We’re just looking to join the others for the raid. We’re just strolling around for fun, maybe visiting a cafe or something for a drink.” She casually admitted. “Considering her points hadn’t really increased at all since this morning, I think it’s fair to say she has been keeping herself on the down low.”

“...If it wasn’t confirmed on the leaderboard that the people who were eliminated were due to a forfeit I would’ve been panicking pretty hard right now.” I put that fact out there. I kinda forgot about the forfeit option. It costs a lot of points and the amount is reduced by half each day. Right now you can just leave with only 1,250 points.

“We’re still left with over two hundred and fifty people. Once the number stabilizes it probably won’t go down until the big fight actually starts.” Kenni speculated. “It’s good that those guys chose to bail out the moment they did. They would’ve been a liability otherwise.”

“...By the way. How come she has become so strong that even you can’t catch up? Last I remember you were only a little bit weaker than her.” I asked as we kept moving and just talking in the middle of the empty street. There are a few cars and bikes, but unsurprisingly, there is no one around to manned them.

“How should I know? She has always been a mystery. She’s like a fog. Something hardly tangible but exists. You don’t really know what to do about it or where it came from. She’s more akin to a force of nature given form than a person, if that makes sense.” Just who in the world is that woman for a notorious troublemaker like Kenni to describe her like that? “Everything about her is a mystery one way or the other. It’s best to not think about her as anything more than either an asset or an obstacle.”

“Kind of a heartless way to talk about your friend, ain’t it?” I know she can be pretty callous and weird but this seems kinda off?

“I don’t think it’s a stretch to call her that. When you interact with her enough you’ll know exactly what I mean.” She said without a shred of hesitation. I know her vibes are kinda off but talking about her like that seems a bit…

“So according to the information on her abilities yesterday…” Glery then bring up what was discussed back yesterday.

“We can talk about that later once we find the others.” Kenni dismissed her words. “Hmm… We have been walking around for a long while now. Still no one else to be seen or heard.”

“It’s still early in the day. I’m pretty sure most people haven’t even gotten close to the metropolis. Not to mention its sheer size.” Glery pointed out. I still don’t really know how big this thing is, but considering that it looks like it took up somewhere around twenty percent of the map it’s clearly insanely massive. It’s not weird at all that we’re not finding anyone so early in the day.

“...Maybe it’d be better for us to go wait in one of the fancy buildings or something. I think there is a cafe not too far from here.” Kenni said as we kept moving with her in the lead.

“...Say. Where do you think Emmie is at right now?” The metropolis didn’t open up too long ago and it’s not like she can enter it faster than us. I think we would’ve felt something if she was rushing.

“Probably already at the main building in the middle of the metropolis.” Kenni speculated. Speaking of that building. It’s so big and gaudy that it seems impossible for it to be standing there without any sort of hiccup if it were placed in the real world, but maybe it’s made with a special material or something.

“That looked like it would’ve taken her a few hours of running.” Glery remarked. “Without expending mana I can’t see how she can get there so fast. The metropolis only opened up two hours ago.”

“She’ll find a way. I’m pretty confident about that.” Kenni said with no sign of insincerity. “Hm?”

“Ah. It’s you.” The woman with a snake tail said, accompanied by the man who is her eternal rival. “Looks like you brought those two along. Not a bad catch.”

“Doesn’t look like you two found anyone to join in yourself.” Kenni remarked to those two. “Were you two slacking off the whole time? Neither of you have that many points.”

“It’s called being resourceful. We’re saving up our strength for the final battle.” Malk replied to the snarky remark. “I don’t see you having many points either.”

“Yeah, because I was slacking.” She said without a hint of shame. The two of them can only wince in irritation.

“...Whatever. Where were you going anyway?” Qyunda asked her to move on from that stupid thing she just said.

“One of the big cafe buildings. Seems like a good place to relax.” Kenni answered.

“...Same with us.” Malk said in a way that makes it seem like they’re bewildered that both sides have the same idea.

“Ah. Good. Talk about convenient!” Kenni said before all five of us kept moving and going with our original trajectory. “We can reminisce and chat, killing some time before the inevitable.”

———Fiss———

<8: 58 AM>

“You got a whole group ready as well, it looks like.” The one with purple and pink hair said. I think I have seen them somewhere before? “I’m surprised. You were always a quiet one.”

“I’ve been cleaning up messes before it could get worse, then bring any reasonable people along.” This catboy said, remaining as composed as ever, even sounding a bit bored at times.

“Guess you get a type of charisma going, or just intimidation factor. Either way works.” They said with a slight smirk. The others behind them don't look too amused. Maybe they were also dragged by that person just like I am with this guy.

That guy that was also dragged into this mess with me did clarify on what was happening or why everyone was freaking the hell out seeing that guy approaching us.

Apparently he is a part of the group that was said to be the strongest and the most intelligent. They are supposedly so terrifying in both aspects that make them nearly unapproachable for the majority of their schoolmates. It’s like there's a class of elites among the peasants.

I have heard something about this multiple times already, but this is the first time the topic is directly discussed to me.

It’s kinda weird that there is supposedly a class with such a massive disparity in competence compared to the rest of the school. Apparently they were all in the same class way before the Eclipse, so it doesn’t look like they were lumped together due to combat prowess or anything.

“Hmph. Where were you heading to anyway?” The catboy said.

“Just looking to rendezvous with anyone in our class. Now that I find you I think we can all relax for a while.” The fruity one said. “We can go to a nearby restaurant or cafe or whatever. Just chatting and all that.”

“I was hoping to go to the center building. That seems like the most obvious place to go to.” Our leader said in response.

“Oh. I think we’ll probably go there eventually. It’s just that we should walk as a big group and make sure no one gets jumped by any crazy people who still think they can treat this like a normal battle royale.” They replied. “Right now we should all relax and get to know each other a little more. Who can do what and all that.”

“I suppose that’s fair. I’m sure all of you want to relax a bit. As I have said, from the looks of it we have the whole day to prepare.” He turned around and said that to us. If he’s that confident then I guess it must be true. The person he is talking about should be someone he knows very well, so I should be able to take it for granted. Even without that, being under his protection is better than not, so I should just stick close to him and his friends.

———Luik———

<9: 06 AM>

“Well this is quite a pickle we’re in.” Curin remarked casually with multiple people surrounding us. Looks like there are still people who don’t realize the gravity of the situation. Instead of peacefully bowing out or joining forces they choose to do this.

“Let’s just get this-

*Dash* *Claw* *Splat* *Shred*

Before I could finish my sentence someone already jumped in and dealt with these people before either of us could move. Such an insane speed and strength being showcased…

“Just have to go out like a bunch of mooks. How tragic.” The guy who did them in remarked to himself before turning around to meet us. “So. I assume you two aren’t foolish like them?”

“...No. We were trying to look around for our allies in the upcoming battle. Unfortunately we ran into a problem.” I answered for the both of us.

“I see. I suppose you two at least find me as a result.” The man with reptilian claws and tail said. “I sensed a disturbance and came to check it out. They weren’t being subtle.”

“Something they would’ve realized if they thought things through a bit more. The people who entered this area are most likely among the strongest ones with a great mastery in energy sensing.” It is probably a lack of battle experience kicking in. Something on this scale is not what most would’ve anticipated, let alone train and theorize over.

“Heh. Thanks for the compliment, though that’s not really what I’m here for.” Wers replied. “Let’s get going. We should go find a public area where people will most likely gather.”