Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Orrel———

“Damn you Jass!” Kenni loudly complained, after all is said and done. 

She was close to actually landing a fatal blow on Karra, but Jass intervened and took a shot at her while she had tunnel vision.

Considering he had no way of out-gunning any of the remaining students, he chose to take cheap shots at the others who are stronger than him. It’s definitely quite a dirty move, but not one I’m above using if given the chance.

Too bad I was caught up in the crossfire alongside Useph just before the finish line. Everyone starts piling up on each other at the end. It was a clusterfuck, to put it bluntly.

“Alright, settle down.” Rico said to calm down the tension. “So, here’s the result.”

A large leaderboard hologram appeared, showing the results of placement and kills. It looks about the same on both fronts.

“I’ll send you the replay data after the class, in case you were curious what’s going on with each perspective.” Rico said, giving us quite the valuable gift. It won’t really be usable outside of the simulator rooms, but it is to be expected considering the vastly different tech.

“Everyone is gonna hear me insulting them behind their back…” Kenni said, feigning being horrified. I somehow doubt she said anything inflammatory.

Now as for how practical the idea of reviewing this battle royale match goes is going to be hard to gauge. This is new territory in many ways, and I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time to look through it. Maybe my time would’ve been better off studying something else. It’s something I need to assess before committing to-

“Hey, Orrel.” Useph called out to me while Rico was saying something.

“What is it?” I asked, wondering what he has to say while I’m lost in thought.

“What do you think is gonna happen with all these training sessions? It almost sounds like-

“Hey now, no talking in the middle of the class. We’re almost done here.” Rico called him out before he could finish conveying his message.

This is something we need to talk about later in the day, just between the two of us.

———Karra———

“” Seemi answered. Wiina’s previous presence is a massive deterrent in itself. She’ll be fine.

The same can’t be said about the others. It’s hard to not be worried about their safety.

“What about you, Jackman?” I asked him just in case.

“” He answered. Considering he has a family to look after, he can’t be risking his life even a little bit. “”

“You know how it goes. With all that happens around here, people are real afraid to try anything funny.” There’s so many unknown factors that would intimidate any remotely sensible person from trying to start chaos and flinging spells everywhere. “By the way, heard some news about police brutality getting worse? How is that even possible?”

“” Edea chimed in. “”

“” Seemi remarked, sounding rather spooked out. “”

“” Edea said, bringing up the rather dreadful statistic. “”

It’s really hard to imagine something like that happening if I didn’t follow the news. When you live in a peaceful bubble… relatively peaceful bubble, it becomes hard to comprehend that such great strife exists elsewhere.

“” Seemi said, corroborating the claim. It does look like large-scale attacks are not the only reason things got so bad. The increased and uncontrollable strength that came with that big change caused accidents in general to be more frequent as well, especially during scuffles that probably didn’t mean to end up with someone dead.

“” Jackman said, sharing a similar experience. “”

“” Edea explained the logic behind these accidents.

“You’re making it sound like the gap is that big, even if their mana pool is small.” I know it can greatly enhance one’s combat capability, but would it really help someone who never used it before?

“” They elaborated further in response to my remark. “”

“” Seemi said in disgust. I don’t think that term is literal…

“” That is barely any better, let’s be real.

“” Seemi sarcastically replied.

“” Edea further elaborated. “”

“” Seemi asked, rightfully confused at the tone of their voice.

“” They replied flatly. “”

“Do you really need to point that out?” I asked, seeing no need for it.

“” They continue with their critique.

“” She lightly complained. “”

“I’m surprised they even let you live after all of that.” She was actively fighting them off during that period when she went offline. Why would they keep her around when they don’t have anything like Wiina’s Convict Generator Collar is beyond me.

“” Edea said, dismissing the idea of us ever figuring it out. “”

“” Jackman pointed out. It does feel like a rather hyperbolic statement, but it is anything but.

I know they have been in contact with Wiina herself a few times, so it is no wonder they have insight into her true nature. Obviously, there’s no reason to elaborate on that point, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.

“” Seemi asked, still oblivious that she’s the reason Wiina was there.

“” Edea said with a hint of sarcasm.

“How many times are you gonna ask that?” I replied, feigning ignorance like always. “You have asked us a few times, especially Idea and I. At this point you should go on a manhunt for her. If you want an answer that badly.”

“” Jackman said, and of course it is. Why would someone who lives in a completely different state go to another one as a part of her morning… afternoon walk?

She only went there at my request, which was very considerate of her to do so.

“Either that group did something to piss her off, or there’s something of value there. We sure as hell don’t know which is true, and if so what and why, and that just leads to more questions.” I said, echoing the theories that have been floating around about the incident. I guess it would lean more towards the latter, but even then, just barely. “What were we even talking about at first?”

“” Edea recounted. “”

“” Seemi remarked.

“” Jackman jokingly said.

“...Aren’t you a family man? Don’t you have jobs to do?” I pointed out. Out of all of us he’s the one with the least amount of time to fool around.

“” He said with a small amount of bitterness. “”

“” Seemi tried to deflect the question back at us.

“The homework is rather light. I’ve done all I need to already.” I answered quite simply so.

“” Edea said, making it adamantly clear that they want to remain anonymous. These two already have a lot of suspicion about them, but don’t want to be too intrusive, so ultimately there’s nothing they can do aside from speculate and ask for crumbs.

*Beep*

Hm? A ping in the classroom group… Now what is this about…

“Oh. Sorry. My classmates are asking me to join the call. Have to leave early. See ya.” I said before getting off the call. I don’t have anything else to say anyway.

*Beep*

“What’s up?” I greeted as I joined the call with a few people online.

“” Useph is the one to speak up. Guess he’s the one organizing this. So what does he wanna say? “”

…Ex-fucking-scuse me?