Damn Gamma. Damn Beta. They used me for everything they needed, then banned me from going outside. Shadow Garden without Master is unbearable. I can't stand another day here!
Deep within the dim underground chamber, Eta lay sprawled comfortably on the floor. On the surface, she appeared to have accepted her fate and given up resisting, but inwardly she was furiously cursing Gamma and Beta for being shameless opportunists who discarded her the moment she was no longer useful.
Ever since she came back, Gamma had tripled her workload.
Tripled it!
And she was required to finish all of it.
Absolutely inhuman. Capitalists like her deserved to be hung from streetlights!
After finishing her internal tirade, Eta got to her feet and opened a virtual screen above the workbench in front of her. A rare trace of amusement appeared on her face.
"Damn the Hero Faction! Robbing us once wasn't enough, so they actually took advantage of the world ending to loot us a second time! They'd better pray I never find out where their headquarters is, or I'll bring people over and kill every last one of them!"
The moment Eta entered the group chat, she saw one of its members bitterly venting.
The Cult of Diablos's plan to destroy the world had somehow been deciphered in advance and leaked to a certain terrorist organization. As a result, the tragedy from a month ago had repeated itself. The Evil Dragon army seized the opportunity to attack the major factions once again and thoroughly cleaned them out.
There was no better way to find joy in one's own misfortune than to see the people who had mocked you suffering even worse.
Eta gave an emotionless little smile and took a closer look.
Wasn't the person complaining in the chat "I'm Not the Weakest," the one who had traded alchemy to the Cult of Diablos in exchange for a massive amount of resources?
Eta found it even funnier.
She had warned him back then that the so-called Father of Alchemy would eventually be screwed over by the national treasure he had sold off, but he had refused to believe her.
Now he had brought it on himself, and everyone else had profited instead.
Scanning the group chat, which gathered schemers and scientific prodigies from the major factions, Eta finally saw what she had been waiting for.
"Seeker of Truth, you really went too far this time. That thief from Olympus gave you alchemy, and you actually used the forbidden technique inside it to refine Philosopher's Stones, sacrificing that many lives."
It was the same person from before, the one with the crow avatar who had tried to mediate disputes. His username was "God of Meteors."
At last, someone had fired the first shot at Laugus on Eta's behalf.
Still, Eta could only roll her eyes at his reasoning.
Please.
Hadn't Hermes given that incomplete alchemy to that bastard Laugus precisely because he was confident in his own superior technique and wanted Laugus to wreak havoc in someone else's territory?
He simply had not expected the Cult of Diablos to be insane enough to drag an entire world over and unleash a massive global AOE attack.
Then there was Eta, who had figured out what the Cult of Diablos was planning and leaked the information to the Hero Faction, letting them take advantage of the chaos and rob everyone blind.
Otherwise, these morally bankrupt people in the group would never have cared about what happened.
"Enough. Instead of blaming me, why don't you think about who leaked my plan to the Hero Faction and caused all of you to suffer such enormous losses? Isn't that person the real source of all evil behind your losses?"
"But even if you say that, practically everyone in this group has some kind of connection with me. Are all of you planning to turn yourselves in to your bosses or organizations?"
Just as everyone in the group chat was getting worked up, the Evil Dragon who had been silently watching the show suddenly jumped in and taunted everyone at once.
He was taking advantage of the simple fact that none of them could gang up on him through a screen.
"Speaking of which, Laugus, you really weren't being fair this time. You planned to destroy the world and didn't even invite the Hero Faction to join in? We've really been underestimated. Still, I have to thank a certain someone for the intelligence. My draconic collecting instinct has been thoroughly satisfied."
The Evil Dragon continued taunting the entire chat without restraint.
Aside from World No. 3 itself, the Evil Dragon army had been the biggest winner of the recent world crisis, and they had the loot to prove it.
The very next second, exactly as Eta expected...
[The Strongest Evil Dragon] has been muted by an administrator.
See?
No matter where you went, people who abused their permissions were always irritating.
After that, the previously outraged group fell silent.
Just like during Eta's earlier conflict with Laugus, the most anyone here could do was mute the other person.
No one could simply go offline and kill the other.
That was the entire point of this group chat. It existed so they would not meet in person, lose their tempers, and start cutting each other down.
And even if the creator of the chat program were willing to expose the real-world location of Laugus, who had now angered everyone, nobody would dare go after him.
After all, Laugus had never made much effort to hide where he lived.
World No. 3.
Who the hell would dare go there?
The weak would probably get devoured by some unknown force before they even found him.
As for powerful Transcenders, they would worry that while walking over there, someone might suddenly take offense to their existence and cause an Atomic bomb to appear over their heads, killing them instantly.
"In the end, the problem must have been with my preparations. I calculated everything on the assumption that I would blow this planet and all five of the World's Strongest to pieces. So how did Shadow still break through the pressure of the blockade and forcefully save the world?"
"Was my data on the World's Strongest wrong, or is Shadow simply an entire level beyond the other four?"
In the end, it was Laugus who broke the silence.
Strangely enough, the people who had been cursing him moments earlier immediately began comforting him, as though the previous argument had never happened.
"Thank you for the encouragement. I know none of you mean well, but I don't care. Talking to you people is still far better than talking to those idiots."
"Even now, after everything is over, they still haven't realized that I concealed the fact that I doubled the data."
Laugus complained about the incompetence of his colleagues.
He truly felt that those companions of his had wasted their thousand years of life.
Even now, they still believed the data he had given them was accurate and had completely failed to realize that he had intended to kill them along with the entire world.
What annoyed him even more was that this same group of idiots still managed to keep him completely under control.
His plan to "take the money, run away, and become king" still had not succeeded.
It was all the evil Shadow's fault!
"But thanks to how incompetent and stupid they are, they never suspected that I had hidden anything in the data."
"I've already submitted an application for an even larger plan, and it was approved."
"I'd like to see how Shadow plans to save those idiotic companions of mine this time."
"Just watch. I'll wipe out my stupid colleagues and Shadow in one go!"
God of Meteors: "Congratulations. I hope you succeed soon and kill Shadow!"
I'm Not the Weakest: "Congratulations. I hope you succeed soon and kill Shadow!"
Fallen Angel Governor General: "Congratulations. I hope you succeed soon and kill Shadow! If possible, take the Lord of Netheril with him!"
...
"PFFFFT!!!"
Eta sprayed the water in her mouth across the workbench.
She stared dumbfounded at the screen as everyone began congratulating Laugus after his grand declaration.
Forgive her limited experience, but she genuinely did not understand what she was looking at.
Wiping her mouth, Eta ignored the workbench now covered in water and grabbed the virtual screen.
"Are you people insane? He almost destroyed the world!"
"You really don't understand anything, purple-haired Elf. So what if he almost destroyed the world? It wasn't actually destroyed, was it?"
"At worst, everyone lost some resources. That's a trivial price to pay if it means dealing with the World's Five Strongest."
An anonymous group member whose real identity Eta did not know immediately criticized her.
"..."
Eta typed six dots and fell silent.
She admitted that she looked down on everyone except Master and herself, considering them life forms on entirely different levels.
But her understanding of how ordinary people thought was still normal.
Which meant...
There might be some unspoken rule she had failed to notice.
"What do all of you think about the World's Five Strongest?"
After thinking for a moment, Eta asked the question that went straight to the heart of the issue.
"Arrogant beings who do whatever they want, trample on the dignity of the most honored people in this world, and refuse to follow our rules."
"Cowards who force us to fight other worlds to the death on the front lines while they stay behind us and intimidate everyone weaker than themselves."
"Troublemakers. Every action taken by one of the World's Strongest causes us enormous losses. Monsters like them should never have existed."
"They've managed to make attacking the World's Five Strongest behind the scenes politically correct across the entire world, regardless of how everyone acts publicly. How do you not know that? Which faction are you even from?"
"Excellent experimental material. Those powerful bodies, filled with beautiful conductive structures and absolute mass or unusual energies... I want them."
"To summarize, they contribute nothing to this world. They brought us the enormous problem known as the World Battlefield, constantly stab us in the back, destroy morale, and could run away at any moment. The world doesn't need the Five Strongest."
Everyone in the group wanted nothing more than to stab Laugus to death for nearly destroying the world.
But since they could not hunt him down offline, what else could they do?
In that case, either Shadow or Laugus might as well be the one to suffer.
Let the two of them fight each other.
If Laugus could actually kill Shadow, they would not even mind making him the group owner.
As for the world being destroyed?
What a joke.
If disaster struck, the strongest people would be the ones forced to deal with it.
They could let the apocalyptic crisis and the Five Strongest wipe each other out.
It was not as though the people in this group could stop it anyway.
They had heard that the last time a Throne Angel tried to destroy the world, the Infinite Dragon God had been successfully left severely injured.
If that was true, then only Great Red in the Dimensional Gap and the Lord of Netheril, the God of Magic, still remained among the World's Strongest at full strength.
Once those two were gone, everyone else could settle their own scores and decide who came out on top.
Eta quietly watched the flood of insane messages filling the chat.
After a moment of silence, she smiled in relief.
"It's been pleasant knowing all of you."
"Goodbye forever."
Without hesitation, Eta left the group chat and immediately destroyed the magic program.
The entire sequence was smooth and decisive, leaving herself no way back.
Only after everything was done did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She was absolutely loyal to Master.
At most, she occasionally did minor things like trying to extract memories, things Master would not care much about.
But she had never once considered becoming a rebel and turning against Master.
She had never touched anything that crossed Master's bottom line.
How was she supposed to know that such an unspoken rule existed outside?
Better to quit immediately while she still could.
There was absolutely no chance of winning against Master.
A true genius never did anything unnecessary.
As for the rebels in that group...
Eta wished them luck.
If they wanted to die, they could do it without dragging her along.
She still wanted to live with Master for a little longer.
...
Beta grabbed Zeta, who was looking uncomfortable and clearly wanted to escape, then turned toward Christina and the others as they hurried over with a radiant smile.
"Let go of me."
Unable to simply tear herself free, Zeta glared fiercely at Beta.
"What's the problem? They don't know your real identity. If you run away now, you'll only make yourself look suspicious, and then I really won't be able to explain anything."
Beta whispered back before waving toward Christina.
Looks like we came at a bad time.
Watching the farce unfolding in front of them, Cid exchanged a glance with Alexia beside him.
Then both of them seemed to realize something at the same time and turned their heads away.
Cid looked toward Kanade.
Looks like we came at a bad time.
You're treating me like a backup option, aren't you?
The exchange made absolutely no sense in context, yet somehow fit the situation perfectly.
Kanade glared viciously at Cid, turned away in a sulk, then almost immediately turned back with curiosity burning in her eyes.
Hey, hey, Cid-kun, what happened between you and Princess Alexia? Did you two have a fight? Can I swoop in while there's an opening?
We pretty much did have a fight. But there's nothing to worry about. Worst case, we just never speak to each other again. I'll sacrifice our friendship if it helps fix that twisted personality of hers.
Cid gave Kanade a bright, carefree smile.
Kanade understood the meaning behind his gaze.
Her face immediately went blank, and she answered with a look of silent mourning.
You're really brave, Cid-kun. Do you seriously not realize that as the Second Princess of the Kingdom of Midgar, Alexia has practically unlimited authority? I'll burn incense at your grave next year.
You worry too much. If she really had that kind of determination, I wouldn't dare be friends with her so openly in the first place. Besides, I know Princess Iris too.
Tch. Looks like I can't exploit the situation and drive a wedge between you after all.
After their silent exchange, Kanade suddenly shuddered.
She sent Cid another string of information through her expression, one he could not understand at all, then turned away with a completely blank face and refused to meet his eyes again.
Cid thought for a moment and followed the direction of Kanade's last glance.
He found Alexia staring darkly at Kanade.
Then their eyes met.
After several seconds of staring at each other, Cid's expression darkened.
It quickly turned into a helpless sigh.
Could these two sisters just swap personalities?
At least Princess Iris was not as awkward and stubborn as Alexia.
Cid had already given Alexia every possible opportunity to back down, yet she still refused to take any of them.
It really put him in a difficult position.
His sigh successfully left Alexia flustered and at a complete loss.
Cid then turned toward Christina and the other two, who had already reached Beta and Zeta.
He might as well see what kind of comedy these three were about to produce.
"Natsume-sensei, what a coincidence! I was just about to message you and ask you to come over. And..."
Christina looked toward Zeta, and an delighted smile appeared on her face.
"So you're a friend of Natsume-sensei? That's wonderful. Hello! Thank you for saving us last time."
"You said that if we met again, you'd tell us your name. May I ask what it is?"
Wait.
What did she mean, saving them?
Other than that one time, you've met them before?
Beta stared at Zeta in astonishment.
Zeta merely answered with a mysterious smile.
Well, now she would not be getting away anytime soon.
Then stay and talk with me and Gamma a little longer.
Only after noticing Beta's cold gaze did Zeta realize that she had fallen into a trap.
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