Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Fiss———

“Yo.” Someone called out to me while I was still contemplating things and recalling them.

“Eh!?” I said in surprise seeing who actually called out to me. It’s that foxgirl that punt me right into the biome ring. That was two days ago? I mean. It’s like an hour ago? I don’t really know. Even when I was playing EX-VR I’m still not super sure of what I should really say in regards to time, it has always been a confusing mess. “What are you doing here?”

“Socializing, obviously.” She said before putting down her plate of food full of Japanese stuff. “I’d imagine that you are still shaken up about the whole ordeal. I mean getting targeted by Emmie probably leaves a few mental scars at minimum.”

“I’m… not that shaken up.” If it was a real world thing then maybe, but it feels like since I know in the back of my mind that I wasn’t truly in danger I didn’t feel traumatized. It was still scary and shocking in the moment though, why me specifically?

“I see... I see…” She muttered with an amused smirk… I didn’t notice it at first, but her shrine maiden uniform is just a shirt with long sleeves with red painted on to look like one. She doesn’t even bother to get a pair of pants that would kinda look like the skirt they would wear. It’s clearly half-assed. “What’s your name? I don’t think we’ve ever introduced ourselves. I’m Evalyn.”

“Fiss. Not from around here.” It’s a bit weird to converse with people outside my class. I’m not even from this town and am only staying because of the protection to school provided to my family. We have to go back at some point or another.

“That’ll explain why I rarely see you around.” She remarked before putting a piece of sushi in her mouth.

“...And I guess you’re more familiar with people here?” I’m not really sure what else I’m gonna say. I don’t really know these people all that personally. Lynda was more due to chance.

“Obviously. We got a bunch of crazy folks around here, but hey, as long as we’re not hit with a terrorist attack every other day like in a superhero comic, who am I to complain?” She replied with a chuckle. “Crazy to think we experience over four days in less than two hours. That technology is still crazy despite existing for a long time now, kinda.”

“The weird VR tech no one knows about… Is that ever gonna be addressed?” Even now with EX-VR’s server still running and all the weird quirks that game has, it honestly feels like we should all be demanding answers about how it’s related to the world of magic.

“Heh. I doubt it.” She replied. “What were you doing after I smacked you? I saw you during the final fight, but honestly didn’t expect you to even get to that point.”

“Just moving around… Kinda got lucky since I found a spot to hide in for a long while.” That cave helped me a lot. “Also, I was floating on top of a pond since I need to heal from most of my body being broken by a certain someone.”

“Really? I swear I didn’t hit you that hard.” You call that not hard!? I can’t remember the specifics but considering I had to stay there for what felt like hours there’s no way that’s not hard! I really don’t know what to say to that! “What’s with that face? I’m pretty sure I only use like half of it, maybe three quarters? Mind you the recollection of the events for everyone is pretty hazy. You know, jet lag and all that, it’s quite a headache.”

…I’m not sure what else to really say in that regard. I don’t even really know how strong everyone is compared to each other. Like I honestly still don’t get how strong that Emmie person is. When I was killed it was by… fishing net? Wall net? I don’t know what to call it. Even by that point I still have no idea how strong she actually was. It looked like she destroyed a massive chunk of the massive city with just one attack after taking a crap ton of punishment from people who looked like they could do the same thing.

“So… It looked like you lasted almost as long as me, which more than most people can say.” She remarked while looking at something on her phone. Right, there seems to be a scoreboard or something updated onto the school’s site. She could see my stats there. “Guess you really were lucky, you should’ve been folded in half at the start of the raid, let’s be real.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m weak and all that, I get it.” The most I’ve done is a sneak attack. Outside of that I haven’t really been doing anything aside from donating some points and pills to that healer. “How the hell are all of you so strong that buildings looked like nothing but props anyway?”

“Same reason you didn’t die from getting hit by me. The P.E. class or the poorly disguised magic class. Even though I do frequent the local dungeon and go pretty deep into it, nothing hit quite as hard as training from an expert.” She explained. Does it really help that much? “I know you don’t look like the type to stir up trouble, but even the weakest of us would probably turn a regular guy into mush.”

“…Eh?” That’s such an outlandish thing to say. I know there are super strong people in this school, both students and teachers, but saying everyone is like that is a bit too much, right? “I feel like if that were the case there would’ve been a lot of broken tables and walls. I swear there are a bunch of rowdy folks in the cafeteria and other areas during break time.”

“Two reasons why that ain’t the case. One, they basically forced us to master power control, be it sensing or utilizing it, making sure we don’t accidentally use it during mundane tasks. Second, the walls and floors of these buildings are absurdly durable, even if we hit it with full force it wouldn’t budge.” She gave out reasons for it.

“Uh huh…” Do I even wanna test that out even if it’s true? Feels like a bad idea no matter what. How can she even say that so confidently anyway? Has she killed someone before?

“…You do know that there are other outlandish things you could try instead of making a mash human? When was the last time you went to a dungeon?” She asked after somehow figuring out what I was thinking.

“At least a month ago?” I don’t really have a good recollection of that since I kinda stopped caring about it after going there with Lynda.

“I see… No wonder you have such a bad grasp on the general power level of the people here.” She said with a hand on her chin. “Well. In that case you probably ain’t all that interested or have much knowledge on battling in general, not that it was a hard guess.”

“...What about you then? You’re clearly very strong. What do you even do all day?” I asked, since she looks like she likes to chat.

“Normal stuff. Doomscolling, talking with friends, playing games, doing homework.” Does she really think I would believe that? “Eh. I guess I could throw in going into the dungeon at least twice a week. I’ve been setting new records as of late.”

“...I don’t really know what you get from that.” I have gotten the permit for it but I never had the drive to go down there and check things out again.

“Mostly combat experience and a bit of spare change. They don’t pay you a lot for bringing in materials, but it’s enough to go get some snacks.” She explained, not sounding too interested about making me contemplate going in there again. “...Hey. So do those fish parts do anything?”

“Mostly just letting me have a better time in water. I still haven’t figured it all out.” I don’t really know what to do to fully figure it all out.

“Is that so?” She said with her fox ears twitching. “At least compared to most it looks like you got something a bit fancy then. I don’t feel like I get anything particularly good from the ears and tail, outside of fashion points.”

“...Why does it feel like this place has a lot of crazy combat fanatics?” It’s really feeling like the conversation will just stay on that topic and nothing else.

“Probably because it’s run by a few of them, at least that’s my guess.” I think that’s not too hard to parse, but would that even extend to the students?

“Then why are you so interested in it?” I think that’s probably a better question to ask.

“It’s fascinating. That’s the main thing.” She began explaining. “In case you forgot already, we didn’t have magic until last year. It’s the new thing that appeared out of nowhere and now we gotta live with it. It’s clearly not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Last year…” It hasn’t been a full year, and even now I don’t really know what to make of it all.

“I think a lot of people are mostly complaining online because of all the terrorists abusing it to do their thing, but that’s also their fault for not utilizing it, that’s my take on that matter.” Hey, that seems kinda like a heavy topic to suddenly bring up, ain’t it? “Anyway, just be a warrior and do things yourself, that’s also my take.”

“...Would most people even have the time to do that? It’s not like students have the time for it, or people working jobs.” I argued.

“Well someone gotta do it, and it’s not gonna be me since it’s not my problem, and I’ve already walked on this path anyway.” She said, not looking particularly pressed.

“...Is there even gonna be some sort of career made from being a fighter?” I wondered out loud. That sounds like something she is implying, right?”

“Hell if I know, at least the guild is a thing. It feels like a fad, but maybe something will rise up in its place, or maybe just continue to persist.” So even she isn’t all too sure about that. “One thing for sure though, you could use the threat of your strength for appeasement, but that’s on the side of the morality scale you probably aren’t comfortable with.”

“Yeah that’s… very icky.” But why did she even bring that up in the first place then?

“...By the way, has your tastebud changed at all since changing? Mine hasn’t but I wanna check.” She suddenly changed the topic while looking at my plate full of what I usually like to eat, some dumplings and spaghetti.

“Nope. I just still like what I like.” I don’t feel like eating more seafood than I already do or have taste for some weird exotic stuff, it’s just normal.

“Really makes you wonder what exactly changed outside of the aesthetics…” She pondered before finishing the stuff on her plate. “...You would think experiencing over four days in a short time would do weird things to your appetite, but I don’t feel super full or hungry just from a single plate of a buffet, and this is way bigger than a normal buffet plate.”

“I mean the jet lag was nasty, but aside from that I ain’t feeling a thing.” I already noticed that before this area even opened. I think I feel just as hungry as I am before the event… “Feels like I was gonna go hysterical a few minutes into that event, what was it like for you?”

“Seriously? I wasn’t expecting someone to almost go crazy in there.” …I wasn’t expecting to be mocked for what I thought was a pretty reasonable reaction. I mean, normally being kidnapped and put into a killing game would normally make you panic, even if this time it’s not an actual killing game, it’s more of a simulation of one. Still a dick move that there’s literally zero warnings for it, not even a hint if memory serves. “I was surprised at first but I get moving pretty quickly, killing anyone who gets in my way and waltzes into an area that I can stay and relax in. I bet most people like me have a similar game plan in mind.”

“...Do you never think that maybe that sort of reaction is weird?” I asked, wondering if she is at least self-conscious of that.

“For normal people, maybe. For us who have been trained in a simulator at least… twice? Maybe three times? For us it shouldn’t be that shocking. Surely your class also gets something like that.” Of course we do, but…

“Not by surprise like that.” I said while scratching my head.

“...You have really not adapted super well to the new age.” She remarked. “But that’s fine, you have plenty of time to adjust and be less surprised by all the absurd things this school and the world at large can throw at you. We have a few months left, at least.”

Let’s hope that’s true… or not. I’m not really sure how to feel about having my common sense warped like that…