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Core Collapse Chapter 34
🕑 Added 2024-04-05 12:50:24 +0000 UTCChapter 34
Once everyone was dressed and most were convinced to acquire their system, many of the helpers from Fenard’s palace dispersed. Those that remained herded the disoriented people from Earth into the recently constructed Guild Hall, where an auditorium had been constructed for lectures, meetings, and this very situation.
As the people took seats on the benches that Tom had crafted from dungeon stone, Jessica looked around for anyone her age. She’d been a little disappointed that none of the women had been too young, but she held out hope that there was a boy she could relate to among the summonees.
She wasn’t lonely, or particularly homesick, but it would be nice to have someone who understood some of her references. She spotted an Asian boy hanging out near Tom and quickly made her way over to them.
“Hello! I’m from Earth too, although I’ve been here a while, so I’m a little more comfortable than everyone who just came through. It’s nice to meet you, my name is Jessica,” she said in English.
The boy blinked in surprise. “Ah, sorry, English no good,” He said. “Watashi wa nihonjindesuga, gakkōde wa eigo ga sukina kamokude wa arimasendeshita. Naze kyōtsū gengo de hanasanai nodesu ka?”
Jessica blinked in surprise, and the boy laughed.
“Yes, you see, it’s not so fun when someone does it to you, is it?” he asked in Welsian.
“Sorry. I guess that was pretty American of me assuming that you’d understand English,” Jessica said. “Some of the ladies in the women’s tent refused to speak in Welsian, so I’ve been translating for them. It’s not that they can’t speak Welsian, they just refuse to. It’s so frustrating.”
“That does sound aggravating. My name is Yamamoto Akira,” the boy said.
“You’re Japanese?”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “It’s very strange that I’m hearing and thinking new words for the first time and already knowing their meaning. Do you know how that magic works?”
“Not a clue, but everyone in this world speaks the same language. There’s a bit of regional accents going on, but the language is literally downloaded into their brains by the Cores,” Jessica explained. “I guess the same thing happens to us,” Jessica explained.
“Yeah, thankfully,” Akira said. “It would suck to have to learn to speak in this new world the hard way.”
“So how did you die? For me it was cancer,” Jessica asked casually.
Akira frowned. “I’m not certain I want to talk about that.”
“Oh, sorry. Yeah, that kind of just slipped out,” she admitted. “I suppose it’s pretty fresh on your mind. Some of the women were crying and screaming when they came to.”
“Oh, it’s not that. I don’t think I’m traumatized,” Akira explained. “I realized I was about to die and then I was dead so fast that I barely felt any pain, and then I was waking up in this world. It’s just embarrassing.”
“How embarrassing?” Jessica asked. “Like, I slipped in the shower and broke my neck embarrassing, or autoerotic asphyxiation embarrassing?”
“No! Neither of those!” Akira said quickly. “It was a traffic accident.”
Jessica paused to consider that. “How is that embarrassing?”
“I got a visit from Truck-kun,” Akira explained.
It took Jessica a moment to understand the reference, then she began laughing. Akira blushed.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh at your death, but it’s just so funny,” she said. “You’re in high school, right? Or you were at least?”
“Of course,” Akira said. “I am a Japanese high school boy named Yamamoto Akira who died in a traffic accident and was sent to another world by magic.” He paused. “And my class is Magic Swordsman.”
Jessica began laughing even harder.
“Do you think that I am the biggest walking Isekai cliché possible?” Akira asked.
“Only if we were actually going to send you to fight a demon lord,” Jessica said.
“There’s no demon lord?”
“Not that I’ve ever heard of, although I’ve only actually been here for like six months now,” Jessica explained. “No, we’re just going to ask you to join the Adventurer’s Guild and help us delve dungeons. That’s all.”
Akira looked surprise. “There’s actually an Adventurer’s Guild in this world? And I thought I was the cliché.”
“I know, right? And the guy who suggested we found it was like ‘this is a completely original idea that nobody has ever had before’ when he pitched it too,” she said. “Fortunately our summoner is mister money-bags, so he’s throwing money down the well to get the ball rolling.”
“Who is our summoner? Or was it many people working together?” Akira asked.
“Ah, well, that’s actually me,” Tom said, inserting himself back into the conversation.
“Is it?” Akira asked, looking surprised. “I thought it would be some old wizard.”
“Ah, no. I’m only fifteen. But I have an ultra-rare class that allows me to summon people from Earth and control Monsters and many other things,” Tom explained. “I’m a Controller.”
“You mean to say that you’re responsible for this, young man?” a grating voice asked, and a nearby woman stomped over to confront them. “Who exactly do you think you are to put us through this situation? I demand that you send me back right now!”
Tom’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Um, I can’t. It’s a one way trip. Anyway, weren’t you dead before I summoned you?”
“Nonsense! Dr. Mallard is a very skilled surgeon. Whatever you did, you must have literally plucked me off of the operating table. If I suffer long term complications because of your recklessness, then I swear that I will sue you for every penny your family will ever make!” she exclaimed.
“Oh great, we got a Karen this time,” Jessica commented.
“Karen?” Akira asked, while the woman in question huffed in outrage.
“Yeah, you know, as in ‘I demand to speak with your manager,’ or something like that,” Jessica explained. “I guess that’s an American thing though.”
“Oh, you mean an Okyuusan?” Akira asked.
“Do not insult me and then talk like I’m not even here!” the woman exclaimed. “Young man, I demand to speak with whoever is in charge of this outrage!”
“Yeah, okay, sure,” Jessica said. “Let’s just call up the director of Isekai affairs.”
She raised a hand to the side of her head and pretended it was a phone. “Bring bring,” she said. “Bring bring.”
“Do not mock me you little--”
“He’s not answering. Strange, usually he’s very prompt about this sort of thing,” Jessica said.
“Do not mock me you little brat.”
“Whatever. I’m going to put you on mute now,” Jessica said, and she used a touch of magic.
The woman opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Jessica casually ignored the outraged person and turned back to Akira and Tom. “I’ll keep her quiet for now. Hopefully reality sinks in eventually and she realizes that apparently Dr. Mallard is presently being sued for malpractice by her family.”
“I’m so confused by everything you have been doing since the other Summonees arrived, Jessica,” Tom confessed.
“Yeah, sorry. Cultural stuff,” Jessica said.
“Are you doing that?” Akira asked, motioning towards the woman, who was red in the face from trying to scream, but making no sound.
“Yeah, pretty cool, right? I’m a magical girl and I control fire, sound and light,” Jessica explained.
“Do you transform when the bad guys show up?” Akira asked.
“I bet you’d like to see that,” Jessica teased. “Especially the scene in the transformation where it’s implied that I’m naked.”
“What if I said yes?” Akira asked.
Jessica looked surprised. “Oh.”
“Seriously, I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” Tom said.
The woman stomped away in outrage, as silent as she was frustrated. “Anyway, we should take a seat, and Tom I think Grant is calling you. It’s about time for the orientation presentation to begin.”
“Oh, right,” Tom said, and he rushed over to where Grant was waiting for him.
“He’s a good kid. Kinda went crazy when we met and turned an entire dungeon against me. Thought I was going to die a second time,” Jessica said. “But aside from that one time he tried to kill me, he’s sort of like a little brother to me now.”
“That sounds like an interesting story,” Akira said.
“No, the interesting part is who saved us,” Jessica said. “There’s a guy from Earth who’s literally more than a century old. He’s level one-oh-six and so badass that the dragons are scared of him.”
On the stage, Grant stepped up to the podium. He cleared his throat, and the murmuring of the new arrivals slowly quieted. Grant was wearing a suit with an Earth-style tie rather than the cravats which were popular among the Welsians.
“Hello, fellow Earthlings, and welcome to Welsius, a kingdom on the planet of Reus,” Grant said. “Like all of you, I used to live on Earth, until my death at the age of eighty-three. As you can see, like yourselves, I was given a new body and a new life thanks to the magical abilities of this young man here, Tom Weaver.”
Tom nervously stepped forward and made a little wave.
“Wait, that’s the person who brought us here?” A voice from the crowd asked incredulously.
“Tom has a very rare and powerful Class,” Grant explained. “Summoning people from Earth from beyond the veil is one of his abilities.”
“I can do other things too,” Tom explained. He Conjured up a staff and twirled it around for a second, then Customized a chair to sit in from the stone on the stage. They had arranged that he would display those abilities before hand, as Grant had explained that seeing such skills would be impressive to someone from earth. Indeed, upon seeing his skills, the audience erupted into discussion.
“How did he do that?” One of the summonees asked above the roar of other voices.
“Literally magic,” Grant answered. “And he’s not the only one who can do it in this world.”
Grant Flickered out from behind the podium, then flickered around the room for a moment. Jessica wasn’t part of the display, but in order to help out she made several illusions of Grant appear to make the scene more impressive.
The discussion continued, with many of the people from Earth refusing to believe what they were seeing. When Grant Flickered back before the podium, the talking eventually died back down as the audience waited to hear what he would say.
“In case you’re wondering, many of you likely have some sort of magical abilities as well,” Grant said. “Most of you have already touched the Core Stone and unlocked the System of this world. I can tell the difference between those who have and who have not simply by the way that your faces are twitching as you’re dealing with the unfamiliar notifications in your vision. Don’t worry, you get used to it very quickly.
“I suppose that you might consider this a sort of orientation to this new world. Allow me to explain the basic differences between Welsius and Earth,” Grant continued, and he spoke for twenty minutes.
Occasionally he paused to answer a question. Occasionally Jessica helped by literally silencing the woman who kept demanding to speak with whoever was in charge, or to be sent back to Earth, or whatever else she could think of to make herself obnoxious.
When Grant had run out of the list of topics that he, Grant, and Jessica had prepared for the occasion, including such things as the level of technology and the fact that sewage literally evaporated in Welsius, he opened the room up to a question and answers session.
“Okay,” one man said, “Let’s start with the obvious one. Why were we brought here?”
“Ah, yes. Well, there’s several reasons. It seems that Reus has had individuals like Tom throughout most of its history, and has been Summoning people from Earth for centuries,” Grant explained. “The simple truth is that, for whatever reason, people from Earth tend to either be more powerful than those who were born on Reus, or they tend to have some other advantage such as specific knowledge of a certain subject, or both.”
“So we’re, what, slaves or something?” A person asked.
“No! Certainly not,” Grant said quickly. “There are several opportunities that have been prepared for you. If you don’t accept one of those offers of employment, then you’ll be given funds that should allow you to live comfortably for three years while you adjust to the world and find your own path forward.”
There was more debate after that, until eventually Grant announced that it was late and that rooms had been prepared for everyone in the local inns.
