Chapter 213: The World Watches
Evening settled over Mythal as Sora sat down in front of her setup, stretching her arms overhead until something in her shoulder popped.
"Okay..." She rolled her neck. "Let’s see how crazy chat is today."
She pressed Go Live.
The viewer count climbed almost immediately.
2,000...
5,000...
9,000...
14,000...
Comments exploded before she’d said a single word.
FINALLY!
SKYVINE!
WHERE’S KAI?
DID THEY LEVEL?
DID THEY KEEP THE MANTIS?
I MISSED THE DAILEY STREAM OF HIM!
Sora laughed. "I’ve literally been live for six seconds."
"They’re already yelling."
More comments piled in.
Sorry.
Not sorry.
Talk about Kai.
She smiled, leaning into the mic. "Fine."
"But only because I was going to anyway."
...
The replay began. Kai and Sera stepping through the gate. The massive trees rising up around them. The giant leaves catching the light.
Sora paused it on the first wide shot of the canopy.
"This dungeon was beautiful."
"Honestly..." She tilted her head at the screen. "I’d visit it."
Chat disagreed instantly.
You’d die.
Instantly.
Five minutes.
She laughed. "...Okay."
"I’d visit it from very far away."
The replay reached the giant leaf scene, the wind catching it mid-air, Kai and Sera riding it up through the canopy.
Chat exploded.
BEST PART.
ROLLERCOASTER!
DO IT AGAIN.
Sora grinned. "I don’t think Kai planned that."
The replay moved on to Kai testing the Rootbreaker, the shockwave splitting through the roots and sending monsters flying.
Sora paused it again. "There. He always does this."
Someone in chat asked, What?
"He gets a new weapon..." She grinned wider. "...and immediately stress-tests it."
Chat responded fast.
Monster testing services.
Poor monsters.
They never volunteered.
Sora nodded, laughing. "They really didn’t."
...
The replay reached the mantis fight, and Sora slowed it down, letting it run frame by frame through the final phase.
"You know..." She traced the screen with her finger, following Sera’s spear as it swept a vine aside a half second before it would have hit Kai. "They barely talk anymore."
Chat seemed confused.
What?
They talk.
No.
They communicate.
She rewound the clip, showing a tiny shift in Kai’s stance, barely a lean. A heartbeat later, Sera moved to cover exactly the angle it opened up. No words between them. No signal either of them gave that a camera could catch.
"That’s what constant fighting together looks like," Sora said.
Chat went unusually quiet for a moment.
Then the relationship jokes started rolling in, fast and predictable.
She rolled her eyes at the screen. "No. I’m not answering that."
...
The Hunter Association had already confirmed the numbers by the time she pulled them up.
Kai: Level 59.
Sera: Level 61.
Sora whistled. "They’ve been back in dungeons..."
"...two days."
Chat lost it.
WHAT.
They don’t rest.
Kai thinks sleep is optional.
Sora laughed. "I think that’s actually true."
"I’ve seen him at three in the morning reviewing case files. I don’t think he understands the concept of a break the way normal people do."
Someone asked if Sera was any better.
"Sera at least pretends to relax," Sora said. "Kai doesn’t even do that much."
...
She minimized the Skyvine footage and pulled up a world map instead, the room on stream falling quieter as the image filled the screen.
"You all saw Juno." She let that sit a second. "And Kalem."
"But..."
She zoomed out, and lights began appearing across the map, one at a time.
One.
Three.
Six.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Then eighteen, scattered across the continent like scattered embers.
Chat slowed dramatically.
What...
When did that happen?
So many.
Sora nodded slowly at the screen. "It happened almost overnight."
She began clicking through them one by one, each city’s name unfolding into a short summary beneath it.
Juno
Peacemaker
Military efficiency.
Kalem
Dictator
Community governance.
Another city appeared.
Verhollow
Gold Master
Trade economy exploding.
Another.
Cresthaven
Builder Class
Infrastructure expanding rapidly.
Another.
Dawnreach
Guardian Class
Every citizen receiving combat training.
Sora leaned back in her chair. "Do you see it?"
Chat asked, See what?
"Every city..." She let the pause stretch. "...is becoming a reflection of its Authority Holder."
The chat went silent for a long moment, the number of messages per second dropping off a cliff.
...
She pulled up a set of forum threads next, letting them scroll across the second monitor so chat could see them too. Sora laughed at the pile-up. "I don’t think anyone understands Classes anymore."
I gave up yesterday, someone posted.
Another comment came in a moment later.
What class would Kai become?
Sora thought about that for longer than she expected to.
"...That’s actually scary."
More guesses flooded in.
Explorer?
Commander?
Monster?
She laughed at the last one. "I don’t know. But whatever it is..." She shook her head slowly. "It’ll probably confuse us too."
...
At the Hunter Association, a cluster of hunters sat around a table eating dinner, one eye each on the stream playing on the wall screen above the counter.
One of them shook his head slowly.
"...I’ll stay here."
Another nodded, not looking up from his plate.
"Mythal’s crazy."
"But it’s our crazy."
...
In the marketplace, two merchants argued over a cart of dried goods, the stream forgotten behind them.
"Juno’s trade system is incredible," one said, gesturing with a receipt in hand.
"It also controls everything," the other shot back.
The first one paused, considering that.
"...Fair."
...
At the blacksmith shop, the smith turned the Rootbreaker over in his hands, running a thumb along a fresh nick in the blade.
"...He’s already scratched it."
His assistant glanced over from the forge.
"...He got it yesterday."
The blacksmith sighed, setting the sword down carefully on the counter.
"I knew it."
...
At Leo’s school, the teacher stood at the front of the classroom, chalk in hand.
"If you became an Authority Holder," she asked, "what kind of city would you build?"
The students argued immediately, hands shooting up before she’d even finished the sentence.
"A strong one," one boy called out.
"A fair one," a girl across the room said.
"A fun one," someone else added, and a few kids laughed.
Leo, near the back, said quietly, "...One people choose."
The teacher looked at him for a moment, something thoughtful crossing her face.
"Interesting answer."
...
In his office, Mayor Ko sat alone, the news muted on the screen behind him. He looked over the latest reports from Mythal, then flipped to Juno’s numbers, then Kalem’s, comparing them line by line in silence.
"...We’re all racing," he murmured to no one, setting the tablet down.
...
Out at a construction site, a group of workers sat eating lunch on a stack of lumber, the stream playing from someone’s phone propped against a toolbox.
"I like Kalem," one of them said.
"I like Juno," another said.
The third just shrugged. "I like getting paid."
Everyone laughed, and the argument dissolved into that instead.
...
In the market square, a group of children ran between the stalls, sticks and brooms serving as weapons again.
"I’m Kai!"
"I’m Sera!"
"I’m the giant mantis!"
"You lose!"
"No!"
"Fight properly!"
Nearby parents laughed, watching the chaos unfold without any intention of stopping it.
...
Back on stream, Sora glanced at her viewer count. A new record, still climbing.
She smiled at the camera. "You know..."
"When Gates first appeared, everyone asked..."
"Can humanity survive?"
She looked at the map still glowing on her second screen, eighteen lights scattered across it. "I don’t think that’s the question anymore."
Chat slowed, waiting.
"The question now..." She let it hang a moment. "...is what kind of humanity survives."
The chat went quiet, the kind of quiet that meant people were actually reading instead of typing.
"Mythal."
"Juno."
"Kalem."
"Eighteen different answers."
"And..."
She leaned toward the mic, voice dropping just slightly.
"I don’t think we’ve seen the most surprising one yet."
...
She wrapped the stream not long after, the room falling quiet once the camera light clicked off. She stretched again, looking back at the Authority map still glowing faintly on her monitor.
Nineteen cities still in progress, scattered dots waiting to light up.
One of them flashed.
Authority Selection — Final Stage
Sora smiled at the screen. "...Looks like tomorrow’s going to be busy."
...
Across the world, in homes and guild halls and schools and military barracks and quiet coffee shops, people were having some version of the same conversation, in a dozen different languages, over a dozen different tables.
If our city chose someone...
What kind of future would they build?