Laughter spilled like the soda from the upperclassmen. Cutlery clinked against porcelain. Students from every corner of the kingdom and beyond, each bearing their own uniqueness, ethnicity, traditions, and stories. As Isaac predicted, the emotional intelligence of this world was much higher than that of not only the original story.
But Earth as well.
His burden of proof lay in the fact that everyone is getting along too well. They share their dreams and ideals from their native regions with utter ignorance of mispronunciations due to accents. There is a surprising lack of racism even between the students whose histories had controversies before.
Specifically, this one single fact that Isaac found to be the biggest annoyance.
"Excuse me? Did you just say you're a… Commoner?" Noble Evander Christarion spoke.
"O-oh… Y-yeah. Sor–"
"No…"
EAA Royal were fucking bitches and bums. I pity that gi—
"Yo… No way! What the hell?! Dude, holy shit! There are so many talented commoners in this cohort! Ay girl! Dap me up."
"Hu—"
The clueless common girl was forced to receive the manliest 'dap up' of her life, the clap echoing in the hall. Her cheeks rose red at the touch of his smooth hands, less than her respect for him.
???
WHAT?
I REMEMBER THIS FUCKER CRUCIFYING COMMERS FOR BRUSHING HIS CLOAK!
Why is he treating them so nicely?!
Hmmm… The only explanation of how they are already garnering and befriending such a vast amount of students is the fact that they are smarter, if not more friendly. Deadass though? Even if an increase in oxytocin (the empathy hormone) results in more social interactions, the basis on which oxytocin acts is on the state of cognition of the individual.
That being empathetic and intelligent enough to accept and converse.
Even if it was cruel, Isaac wished the superiority complex that led to the deaths of many more commoners in the original narrative were to return to these nobles. This divergence of attitude would cause the dynamics and game theory of every interaction that follows to be altered. Starting first with this apparent friendliness of Lady Celeste and Princess Anzhelika, causing a sweep of the Esyphyr Table, ladies admiring and boys crushing.
Like bro… You fucking insulted them in the past, not play into their ideals of a perfect princess… Unless you're faking it, then you shouldn't be laughing with us but at us, no?
I vividly remember your Ideology of being above every commoner and your shallow Character Depth—
FUUUUCK! Why is this all I can think about?!
This damn | Media Literacy | Attribute is giving me all this useless shit!!!
I really don't give a flying fuck about their character.
"Hah~" He sighed.
Jeez.
Intellectual / Emotional divergence.
Lower Class Clause-Constructs flickered in the air like fireflies from Princess Sephalyn and her Veledônic followers, all having the same dream of one day In-Threading with the Princess, fulfilled. Though it may be harmless incantations traded between peers, these displays of talent masquerading as play were the catalyst for some tears of happiness in the Tleli table.
For a moment, Isaac almost allowed himself to believe in the intoxicating warmth of the scene.
Almost.
But beneath the mirth, an annoying truth pressed against his thoughts like a pain behind his eyes.
The narrative had shifted 100%; there are a lot of threads tangled where they should run straight.
The story was alive, yes, but alive in the way a wound festers. If left unattended, it would spread, rot the foundation, and consume everything.
He could not afford to forget.
Not here, not now. No matter how bright the hall seemed, his purpose was not to bask in borrowed light. His role was to find the fracture and fill it right, before this world collapsed under the weight of its own deviations.
He would have to hold it down.
Fuck I don't even give a shit about what my appearance would do to OG EAA's plot. That's a minuscule thing as compared to what makes it even harder for me to judge.
There are three new teachers who never existed in EAA.These three wild cards, their motives, and their influence are completely unknown to me.
How will they shape events? How will they alter the Dynamics of the main cast? The economic and political side of the world? I'm sure that as teachers of EINA, they have a great deal of influence on the World-Building.
Fuck again! Even while self-yapping, I can't help but think of 'World Building' and 'Dynamics'... This bloody | Media Literacy | attribute has been nothing but a fucking pain in the ass!
I just wanna rest, and this shitty attribute is forcing me to think about all this.
Isaac forced himself to be no longer lulled by the warmth of laughter and firelight. The story's river was flowing differently, diverted by choices and coincidences that should never have been.
At its heart, EAA was nothing grander than a poorly-stitched classic:
An adventure-academic story, full of predictable plot points, stock characters, and the shallow promise of growth through trial following the main cast, Caelum Veldt (The Dramatis Personae), Princess Sephalyn Veledônia (The First Heroine), Princess Turaiya Elenos (The Second Heroine), and Princess Anzhelika Knyagatyrsk Golatsyn (The Third Heroine) across ten defining Acts.
As for today, I'm in Act I: The Corrupted Professor.
In this Act, a certain someone on stage with Headmaster Orthellius will stab the entire Institute in the back. Sent by a cult in an attempt to sow the seeds of doubt inside the Institute. The professor will set up a ploy in the field expedition into the Thalionic Spiral, leaving the cast stranded in the iron helix.
Specifically, I'm in Arc I: Orientation Arc. I'll have to do the Magical Classification Assessment Test and the school tour.
Tsk…
How the fuck am I gonna deal with all the new terminology being thrown around, bro…
Noësis this Noësis that, Catalysis this Catalysis that…
Urghhh… The aspect of 'The Unknown' should be the main aspect of 'MAGIC' in my opinion. If there is nothing or no proof, if there is something to believe, we believe it anyway, that's what makes it Magical.
For a story, that means, to me, there should be a suspension of belief.
By these FUCKERS operationalizing the Magic of EAA and forming a secondary belief.
I feel as if… This entire world… is forgetting the entire point of human belief…
And perhaps that's why I still feel so alien here… That no matter how many times this | Media Literacy | attribute tries to help me understand this world.
I can't.
As always, Mrs Fate has her own way of screwing with Isaac. For he had remembered a crucial detail blurted out by the Headmaster upon their first interaction, one that he had been putting off till now.
Fucking hell~
His true problem, the one that really… really annoyed him the most. The annoyance that kept on rising and rising in his heart. Was not the Unmagical Magic. Not the politics, nor the fact that three extra NPCs have been dumped into this world.
No.
It's the appearance of the three other factions outside of Thaumitonic Theory.
Cultivator? Vidvān?? Esoteric Kabbalist???
MOTHERFUCKER!!!
WHAT???!!!
These fucking terms thrown around by Orthellius sting~ HOLY SHIT THEY STING! My ass like a damn hairpin. OG EAA was a fantasy, single-player RPG ecst Story game based solely on Magic and a little bit of science/decent world-building.
Yet here.
Somewhere beyond the borders of Veledônia, Elenos, and Knyagatyrsk, there's are entire kingdom, maybe multiple that rely on the fiction of other stories, assimilated into a conglomerate mess of a world.
Is this fucker deadass saying that there are people who treat ascending to Godhood as a career path!
Where people have 6 arms and the wrath of damn Asura!!
Where people drink potions and perform divinations like some Fool!!!
Because that's what this shit means!
Why the FUCK are there THREE EXTRA power systems???
Cultivation ripped straight out of ancient Taoist texts, where self-proclaimed 'immortals' spend centuries sitting on mountaintops, hoarding Qi like misers with gold, grinding their ass toward fuckass enlightenment cuz of some spiritual sigma grindset.
BREAKThroUGhS. trIBulatioNS. coRE fORmAtiONs.
All that pretentious Xian Xia Wu Xia bullSHIT!
And then whatever the fuck that Hinduist Power System is.
Instead of grinding Qi, you climb the endless ladder of dharmic bureaucracy, where every rebirth is basically a patch update from the cosmic game devs. Karma is your EXP system, except it's rigged, because apparently that ant you squashed last life is now fucking your enlightenment points, hell, it could even be a future reincarnation of YOU!
Want powers?
Fine, go fucking cultivate tapas by starving, fasting, or standing on one leg until the Gods get so impressed, or annoyed, they hand you boons like cheat codes.
Do you think Daoist lightning tribulations are bad? Try pissing off Indra mid-meditation and catching divine thunderbolts as he tests whether you're worthy of your new ascension.
Oh~
OHHHH~~~
DONT GET ME STARTED ON FUCKING ESOTERICISM!
Any game I've played with it is like the early access beta of every religion's DLC, except the patch notes are written in fucking riddles, reversed Latin, and whatever fucking fever dream the mystic had during a three-day fast into an orgy session.
Enlightenment?
First, memorize seventy-two correspondences between planets, colors, and bodily fluids, then chant them backwards while facing northeast at exactly 3:33 AM on a waning moon for a luck enhancement ritual.
aLcheMY? TARoT? KABbAlAH? hermetIcisM? GnOticsm?
It's all the same damn shit of 'hidden wisdom' where half the power is convincing your cul—
Church! Church, of course.
Just convince them that you actually know what the squiggly divination symbol means.
But funny. What a bloody good joke.
Nobody does!
ONLY THE DAMN OUTER GODS OF YOUR SEFIROTS!
The real breakthrough isn't turning lead into gold, it's by fucking turning confusion into Authority over Sephirots! Oh my god~ Don't forget the initiation rituals, because apparently enlightenment comes with a cover charge.
You want the Big Secret?
Sorry, bro, you're stuck in a pocket dimension.
YES POCKET DIMENSION until you cough up both a piece of history and YOUR SELF RESPECT MOTHERFU一
FUCKING HELL!!!
GIVE ME A DAMN BREAK!!! I'M SICK OF THIS SHIT, MAN!!! WACHAO I WANNA SLAP THE SHIT OUT OF THESE GAME DEVS!
Raging on the inside, yet showing a casual smile for the rest of the Esyphyr Students on the outside. Isaac Mun, a nerd who used violence on classmates in high school for arguing against his thesis papers, back when he was on Earth, is contradictory to what an actual genius would have done.
He knew how to fight by the rules of boxing, with the addition of the dirtiness of the streets, kicked their nuts, pinched and twisted their tits, shoved his hand, and pulled their cheeks instead of using logical words and debates to win arguments.
If he knew it, he might as well use it fully.
After all, nothing's worse than being someone who you know that, out there, someone can out-speak, out-fight, and out-wit you, yet chooses to out-fight you over anything else.
He was called Mr. Crashout for that exact reason.
It seems he has carried it into this world, too.
…
Inhale.
"Hhhhhh…"
Exhale.
"Haaaah…"
Inhale.
"Hhhhhh…"
Exhale.
"Haaaah…"
These powers are a fucking gangbang of a story.
The amalgamation of multiple other stories with EAA.
Has finally begun.