———Wiina———

  <6: 13 pm>

  “It’s been a week since then, and the usage of combat-reted facilities has gone up.” I recounted. I have access to the records, though obviously as a student I am barred from seeing all of it. Might ruin some surprises, as they say. “And in terms of the outside world, I guess they’re getting more awareness of this whole deal. Have to wonder if it’ll sway the wrong kind of people, or the right one.”

  “We’ll just have to see.” Karra said, ying on the bed and scrolling through the feed. “By the way. You’ve been doing something? There are rumors of you appearing in pces. No photos though.”

  “Ah. That?” Can’t really be from me investigating something, I made sure to conceal my presence on every level. Spotting me would be like spotting a fast and tiny flying drone. You probably have no idea what you even just saw. In the first pce, I was exploring areas rarely explored by humans. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was impersonators or lookalikes. Wasn’t I compared to that white-haired dy in EX-VR before? It’s not like I have a completely unique appearance.”

  “I guess so.” She said, looking slightly worried. I doubt those people can do anything. It would be fgrantly obvious if it was a fake, since if they are anything even remotely close to myself, I would’ve likely been made aware already. “By the way, have you heard? The dungeons might open up soon.”

  “Really? What’s with the change?” I asked, wondering where she got this news from. Was it published just now?

  “I think there was some talk about scavenging the materials inside these pces. I guess they’re looking for items to analyse and use after a long period of nothing new happening.” She specuted. It still feels oddly-timed. I don’t think they have sent their own men in, have they? It’s barred off completely to everyone.

  “There must’ve been some recent development. They wouldn’t risk human resources unless something urgent could come about.” I said, wondering what that development could be.

  “Who’s to say? The world is full of secrets.” She said, having just about as much idea as I do. “By the way, how does a story like this usually go?”

  “A story like… Oh. I see.” Had she been reading up on those as of te? I barely ever mentioned them in our conversation. “I guess there would be actual adventurer guilds built for explorers, licenses, stuff like that. I can’t actually see them doing exactly as in the stories, the actual thing would probably be a lot more stuffy and annoying.”

  “Hmm…” She mumbled something under her breath. “It would be pretty annoying if I can’t go down there without going through all the troublesome procedures…”

  “We’ll just have to wait and see on that front.” I said before sitting down and booting up my PC. “So what will we be doing during mid-term breaks? That’s like two weeks off from now.”

  “I don’t really know. Maybe if the dungeons are opening back up, maybe I could do some long streams down there.” She said. I mean. That’s not exactly what I have in mind…

  “I’m thinking about a short date in another country, personally.” I said, remembering that I haven’t really visited other pces in a while, at least not to rex.

  “Really? You were always such a homebody, so I didn’t expect that.” She said, surprised at my idea.

  “You’re not wrong. I wasn’t really suggesting a long stay anyway.” I replied. Despite all the changes, old habits die hard. I could easily go anywhere at any time to rex, but unless there’s a good reason, I like to stick to the neighborhood. “I was pnning on teleporting or flying us there.”

  “...Wouldn’t we quickly get caught?” She asked, probably concerned about trespassing.

  “That is if we got caught.” I said with a smirk. You couldn’t possibly expect people to immediately know when someone crosses the border, especially when they came in fast as lightning. “I can easily bail us out if we get in trouble.”

  “That’s one of the most daring things you’ve ever said.” She remarked. “But… Where would we even go, in that case.”

  “Wherever is fine, I can easily memorize nguages, so we don’t need a guide.” I confidently said while tapping my head. Though I haven’t actually looked through all the nguages just yet, and I still feel awkward trying some of them in practice.

  “That just… kinda makes me have too many options. Don’t you have anywhere you want to go?” She asked. I guess that is a bit of a dilemma, but thankfully I already have a pce in mind.

  “I do, actually. You know what kind of stuff I read about by now, so you already know what I’m talking about.” I answered. Always wanted to go there, but I’m too much of a homebody to commit to it, as in even attempting to ask my parents. Since I don’t really need to bother with any of that, and can return here whenever I want, those things aren’t a real issue anymore.

  “Hmm… Then we’ll go with that, but…” She answered, before taking pause. “If we can really move around as fast as you said, then we could do it anytime we want, right? Even right now?”

  “You’re not wrong about that.” I said while checking my log-in bonuses. “But I don’t want us to get carried away. Drunk with power is a scary scenario to think about.”

  “This is what you think will lead to that?” She said with a bemused smile.

  “It’s always the small things that build up habits. I need to look out for those.” I said before searching for something on the net. “It’s like using cheats in a game, you start using it more and more often.”

  “You know. I don’t think you ever eborated on how much you can do.” She remarked, and there’s a good reason for that.

  “I can’t possibly list them all.” I repeated the answer I gave her st time. It’s probably good for the least amount of people to know, really. “I know I said that more than a few times already, but that’s just how it is.”

  “Not exactly a satisfying response…” She remarked before walking over, staring at the monitor. “I know it’s weird to ask this now, but when did you have such a fancy setup?”

  “After that little commission job. Got paid handsomely for it.” I answered. I still don’t know where Walsuna gets all her money from. All those remarks about vampires having a crap ton of money was more of a throwaway joke than anything, but my paycheck was absolutely massive, so I don’t know what to make of that.

  “I see…” She said, as if lost in thought. “You even have some streaming gears around, what is all that even for? I thought you only did it for fun and to archive VODs?”

  “I just buy them for funsies. I mean. Might as well, if I’m gonna stream anyway.” I answered. Why shouldn’t I buy them if I got the chance. “I can lend them to you, if you want.”

  “No, it’ll be fine.” She quickly replied. Really, I think it’d be fine to give those to her, but this is a pretty small topic so it’s not worth fussing over.

  “Alright then.” I said as I finally found what I was looking for.

  “...Why are you looking up that?” She asked, justifiably so. It’s rather disconnected to the things we’re talking about so far, but it is something interesting and a bit personal.

  “Something fascinating to look through. I think you’ve talked about it before in one of your shorter recent streams, right?” I said while checking the study.

  “Yeah? I stumbled upon a discussion about it and thought about you, so I talked about it for a bit.” She expined. “So does this report show anything important or…”

  “It mostly reinforces the idea that the Mythical Eclipse forces people out of the closet. It’s a rather amusing turn of events. Many religious people would consider these people to be bsphemous and go against their teachings, and yet a greater power validates the tter.” I said with a small grin on me. Of course, the two gods aren’t exactly popur or really have a specific religion they are patrons of. It’s more of a broad stroke myth than a religion, even. Some have changed their goal-post while others believe the incident was the work of the devil, refusing to compromise their less than humane belief.

  “Huh. That is quite the ironic twist.” She remarked. “Still. Why are they throwing such a hissy fit? It’s reality shoved right in your face. Wouldn’t accepting it be way more dignified, at least?”

  “Having your belief challenged tends to make people irrational. It’s an emotional response. Of course I don’t actually know how much of it is due to a belief in greater power or just personal prejudice masking as such, so it’s pointless to get into more details than that.” I’m more interested in the reactions than anything. Rather amusing, and easy to make fun of.

  Anyway, let’s also look at a different topic… Oh, would you look at that. More people talking about the school stadium event.

  “Did you get hounded like I did once the event is over and-

  “Yes.” She didn’t even let me finish asking the question, but considering how annoying those ‘viewers’ can be, I can’t bme her. “Trying to hurry me up when I have something else in mind to talk about, impatient little bastards.”

  “Makes me wonder if other students got hounded badly online too. It’s not like we’re the only two with social media access.” Some of them ought to post about it and get hounded further by online denizens.

  “Who really knows. At least none of our cssmates got hounded. They know better than to be active on social media like we do.” Karra said in jest. They don’t really post much of anything, including Kenni who is always one to do dumb stuff for ughs, which would make her a prankster which isn’t uncommon… but then again, those online ‘pranksters’ are a different, and very unsavory, breed of people. You’d have to have a very low standard to act like them, and I do trust her to have some standards.

  “Indeed they are.” I replied, not having anything to add to that point. I guess this is something we shared, even before all of this. Of course, the motivation is vastly different, but we do technically share an interest at the end of the day. “I do wonder. Will you have any of them in your stream again, or are you gonna wait for whenever the new status quo comes about.”

  “I’d rather not bother them with that, but if there is a good opportunity for good content, and they just happen to be there, then sure.” She said without putting much thought into it. Considering that they don’t really have a social media presence, it’s very doubtful they’ll be interested. At most they’ll be interested in what Karra is doing, and that’s why they joined.

  Now what else can we talk about on this… Oh right, what she talked about earlier about a dungeon possibly being opened up to the public again. I might as well check out the articles on that while I’m searching.

  “Let’s see here… And it looks like it is only in the discussion stage, and it has been that way for a few weeks.” I remarked. Karra didn’t exactly say when this is all being talked about, but looks like that has been the case for a while, just now the story is fring up for whatever reason. “Why are people talking about this now if it has been… Whatever. Looks like they might go through with it, if this article is accurate.”

  “I hope the procedures for getting in aren't troublesome.” Karra said, hoping for something that is rather unlikely. We’ll just have to wait and see how that goes. It would be real convenient if it’s already something familiar.