Chapter 288: Two Times Meeting
———Karra———
<9: 55 pm (10: 55 am)>
“Things are getting real intense out here.” I remarked as the match played out. We’re going into the endgame with how many teams still up? It’s gonna be a massacre. “What’s happening on the B Stream?”
“Showing some teams scrapping right now while it looks calm on the main stage.” She said while showing the footage on her phone. What else is new? At least it’s good that they’re not overlapping, even if people sometimes complain about it. “...Things are getting quite close. Not that we have a lot of iconic faces in the first round of losers to make it more nail biting.”
“I hope no one picked up that comment…” It’s kinda harsh to say that even if it’s true. There’s not that many iconic faces for the game at the moment, and even some that are don’t even stream that often for a bit of extra revenue and exposure which is mental to think about. Surely they can drop calling people slurs for a session or two to get pocket change. Even now online entertainment still has good numbers. Some probably don’t even have the choice to do anything else with their time considering the state of the world means going outside still poses some risk. Some like to play it cool while the others are… a wreck, let’s just say that.
“If they put in more effort than perhaps such a sentence wouldn’t be uttered. It’s not like I’m saying it out of malice.” She said while sounding quite unapologetic. After this we have quite a bit of time to review what the main casters missed and then just chill for a while. “I’m not going to say going all-in on something as fickle as e-sports is the best idea, but if you don’t want to hear that sort of comment and can't commit to it anyway, not really on me.”
“...By the way, how is it that stuff like this can even happen with all the stuff happening all around the world? It’s kinda crazy ain’t it?” I know there aren’t wars or anything, but things are rarely stable nowadays. There are still some travel restrictions last I checked.
“My protection alone provides enough security for this place. Nothing can really get past my detection. Besides that, the number of large-scale attacks have decreased considerably over the last few months, so that’s one thing to take solace in.” She gave me some explanation. “Also there are a few quite strong people active in Japan, so the amount of incidents here aren’t very high to begin with. Quite fortunate of them to already plan on hosting the tournament here.”
“Still feels really risky despite it all. Not like everyone has an eye on the back of their head, or in the sky, or in the ground, or anywhere else.” I don’t think many people can boast being as close to being omniscient as she is, though I do believe she had said that some people can reach a similar level of awareness as well, as crazy as that sounds.
“It’s natural to feel that way, perhaps being ignorant would’ve helped keep your nerves calmed, but I’m not interested in performing lobotomy.” And she could also choose to not say that out loud! I know she wouldn’t do it anyway, but maybe don’t bring up the possibility in the first place so I might have some doubts?
“Ah!” I let out a sound as the final two teams were duking it out, and soon this round’s winner was declared. “Three games left, right?”
“Indeed. The points are well-distributed, it’s anyone’s game at the moment. The cut-off at tenth place remains steady.” Wiina pointed out. At this point you really can’t mess up even once, going out in twentieth place from this point is a sure-fire elimination unless you got a twenty kills win or something crazy like that. I know the lobby ain’t the strongest but can someone in this lobby specifically can even pull that off? The vibes don't seem to be there as harsh as it is to point that out. The only option is playing consistently.
“It’s looking quite brutal. It doesn’t help that the current meta is so tanky, everything takes forever to die so it’s not like raking up kills will be easy, right?” A big game for anyone seems unlikely based on that as well.
“Perhaps, but it’s not as if it’s impossible. Third party is still a thing, and a good game plan can easily kill even a maxed out team.” She seems to think it could happen. “Not in this lobby though, we’re a bit too late for that. Probably the next one.”
“Huh?” Ain’t that the most stacked lobby? That’s the one with the heaviest hitters, kinda the opposite of this one.
“Which also means quite high potential for quite a disgusting game. I’m just saying to anticipate something.” She said, being quite vague with it. “There are some pretty aggressive teams in that group, I’m imagining a twenty bomb.”
“…I don’t want to bet against you on that front.” If she looks that confident then she probably knew what happened next, so I would rather not challenge it.
It’s gonna take a while for the next match to start up, there shouldn't be any technical difficulties throughout the entire tournament, so it’ll hopefully start up quickly.
“…I guess I had to ask since I didn’t really watch the VODs, but how did the event actually go? I know Emmie won it like you said, but nothing past that.” I asked during this brief break.
“Everyone that survived to the final day fought Emmie. It was one against over two hundreds and she still won decisively despite deliberately holding back her strongest moves. She had only used two of her Innate Abilities throughout the fight, and had she been serious she would’ve only needed one to clear the board.” She summarized the event. Did it seriously go that badly? I could’ve sworn she wasn’t more than twice Kenni’s strength last time we checked.
“What the heck did I miss?” I said out loud in bewilderment. I’m pretty sure the status quo has changed while I wasn’t looking.
“Her rate of growth simply outstripped Kenni by a significant margin. It seems that the result of that has made itself crystal clear.” Wiina said while shrugging her shoulders.
“I could’ve sworn even a week ago the gap wasn’t that big.” I can’t help but to point that out. Surely her strength didn’t skyrocketed like that.
“Oh, you didn’t remember wrong, she simply is built like that. Look away for a moment and suddenly she realized she has another Innate Ability in her pocket.” She said it like that doesn’t sound extremely concerning. It was a week! How can her strength jump multiple times over like that? What day did that even happen? Or was it two days?
“Absolute freak.” I said it, feeling completely overwhelmed by the implication and possibilities.
“Hey now, I’m pretty sure I can do something like that easily.” She said with a grin.
“At least I know why you can do it! Do you even know how she did it?” I retorted.
“I never bothered to monitor her, so I can’t say I know for certain.” She said while looking away, being coy about the topic. So does she know or doesn’t know? “Oh look, they’re dropping in.”
“Haaa…” I let out a sigh before turning my attention back to the match at hand.
———Lynda———
<10: 11 pm>
“Weird how this place is still open even so late at night, ain’t it?” Evalyn said as all of us sat down at the same table.
“They can open it for however long they want. I’m sure the resources they have means they can keep this open for centuries, even.” I said before I began eating.
“You seem quite confident about that estimate.” Galed remarked. “…So where is Thansa anyway? Did she really leave us on read?”
“She has always been bad at socializing, so it’s not all too surprising.” Curin replied. “Who knows what she’s up to. Hopefully not brooding somewhere.”
“Couldn’t care less. I doubt she’s gonna say anything even if she came here.” Evelyn said before stabbing her sushi with a fork. That ragebait won’t work on me, pal. “Anyway, what are we even doing here again?”
“Coincidentally meeting up so we’re acting like we’re in a secret meeting, waiting for Thansa to respond to no avail.” Galed recounted the situation. It’s certainly not as important and mysterious as we’d like to make it out. In the world where that kind of meeting is probably legitimately a thing, people talking about secretive stuff in a place people wouldn’t expect, with people you wouldn’t think will group up, and talking about something revelatory.
“We’re just talking nonsense then?” Evalyn asked.
“What else are we gonna do? At least we can do this for a while and oversleep tomorrow.” I chimed in. There’s really only one thing connecting all of us here at the table. “So, what did you all think of the raid?”
“Could’ve been a lot better. Can’t believe we barely get any hits in throughout the fight.” Galed said despite being the one who was probably the most consistent throughout the entire raid. Mainly because she’s one of the most agile members alongside Curin who likes face-tanking a little bit too much. Also the niche of air combat helped a lot. “Say, Lynda, what was with that gun you had?”
“Oh, that? It was something I picked up during my time traveling to the center. It’s way stronger than I thought it was gonna be, not gonna lie.” It’s kinda weird that that was my win con, but it is what it is, I guess.
“Did you even do anything cool with that axe of yours?” Evalyn asked despite not having a great performance either. Galed and Curin manage to get some good hits in but the rest of us kinda don’t do that much compared to the Perfect Class, which is about to be expected, I guess.
“It boosts my [Hydro Cannon] spell early in the fight, but I guess that’s something all of your weapons also do.” I didn’t expect her to conjure a shield powerful enough to counter it like that. I also didn’t think her power level would be on a different scale in the first place.
“Yeah, I think it just boosts our strength for just wielding it, nothing new.” Evalyn replied. “Still have no idea how a weapon can do something like that, but it’s hella cool. Like equipment in video games.”
“A shame that she seems to have something similar as well, so it really didn’t help with the gap.” Galed remarked. “It just looks stronger than our weapons in general, it feels like.”
“Stronger gimmick, at least. What do you mean those thrusters doubled as gun barrels?” Curin chimed in. I think her spear does have a strong ability as well, what was it again, turning the spear head into a forest of spikes? “Hey Galed, doesn’t she just steal your gimmick?”
“I guess, but what am I gonna do about that?” She said, not sounding particularly bothered. “At least I know what my weapon does, what about the other three?”
“I’ll have you know that it being a sword that can revved up is already a nice gimmick on its own.” Evalyn smugly argued. That’s not a fucking sword!
“Right…” Galed awkwardly replied. “...I don’t believe our weapons were forged with any intent of connecting to each other, unless you guys think otherwise.”
“I kinda doubt it. If it was, I'd imagine they would all share more common elements.” I chimed in. “They’re not traditional weapons, they don't look archaic or futuristic…”
“I have a sword.” Evalyn. Shut the hell up.
“I would’ve thought that they might all even share the same gimmick, but that’s clearly not the case. Aside from looking like it was made by the same person, there’s no link there.” There’s more connecting us than there are these weapons being connected to each other, if that makes sense.
“And yet that still created quite a weird group.” Evalyn remarked. “I don’t think we all have that much in common aside from getting into troubles, right?”
“Don’t lump me in with you.” Galed quickly interjected. I wouldn’t want to be lumped in with her either. “I think strength might be… No, that’s not it. How did all of you even get your weapons?”
“From someone in the Perfect Class, duh.” No need to state the obvious like that.
“No idea. I just got one handed to me, no elaboration or anything.” Curin is the first to answer. “Should we even be talking about that without Thansa around?”
“Perhaps not.” Galed said before staring at her empty plate. “Perhaps we shouldn’t even say or assume too much at this time. Perhaps it’ll be more reasonable to wait.”