The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 446: Conspiracy

"Actually... I watched a ViTube creator talk about it yesterday. They said it’s a government conspiracy..."

"Huh?"

With this, everyone’s attention suddenly turned to Arlo.

Especially Cora’s.

"Eh? What’s that about? I haven’t heard about it!"

"Guys, I think you should cut it off. Are you really going to believe in some conspiracy theories..." Tina tried to intervene before everyone got even more carried away, but it was too late. Cora and Arlo were enthusiastic gossipers by nature, and once they got hold of an interesting topic - which conspiracy theories regarding dungeons, monsters, and their government certainly were - they were practically unstoppable.

Unless perhaps Damien was around. But their Team Leader was currently too busy handling the final raid preparations, while Damien’s resident boyfriend was a gossip enjoyer as well, thus Tina’s protest fell on deaf ears.

"There’s this ViTuber that’s been analyzing all the videos with those sentient monsters recently, both the old content, as well as the newest uploads. He’s a freelance Guide, so he knows what he’s talking about," Arlo started explaining. Once he mentioned that the ViTuber was a Guide, everyone’s expression instantly grew more serious, and they started listening even more intently...

There was a difference between a civilian’s perspective, and that of an Awakened, after all. Or at least most of them believed so. ’An Awakened can understand Awakened issues more than a civilian possibly could,’ was a common sentiment.

Of course, it was just a bias. Yes, the Awakened could use Mana, while civilians couldn’t... But that on its own didn’t suddenly make them experts when it came to dungeons, monsters, and so on. There were many Awakened, even among those who were licensed, especially the Guides, who had never even faced a monster. On the other hand, there were civilians who had survived a dungeon break... Neither of them was an expert either way, not unless they educated themselves on the topic, just like someone who had undergone a surgery wasn’t suddenly a medical expert... But, perhaps because the Awakened were still a minority, people still tended to treat them as if they were more competent than they actually were.

Although Lane was a bit doubtful about it, he didn’t question the ViTuber’s authority, at least not for now. He just waited quietly to hear what Arlo was going to say.

"First of all... Those experts had been posting videos for months, showing steady progress in trying to establish communication. Anyone who had watched all the videos could see how they first started by learning single words, then having simple conversation, slowly increasing their understanding until they could talk about more complex topics..."

"Well, have you watched it?" Tyler interrupted, scoffing. He had been among the people who were eager to believe in Hallie’s earlier reassurances, and was a bit unhappy about how Cora and Arlo were now destroying the fragile peace of mind he had been able to barely achieve.

However, his efforts to undermine Arlo’s story were unsuccessful.

"I haven’t watched ALL of them," Arlo admitted, "But I’ve seen snippets that showed the progress. And ManaSceptic, that ViTuber I mean, had downloaded all the videos before they disappeared from the original channel, and they are available on his online disk for everyone to see. So, anyone who has any doubts about the truthfulness of his words can confirm it for themselves."

"But... You didn’t."

"Well..."

"I actually did," Lane joined in. Although he hadn’t been planning to admit to it initially - and it wasn’t exactly the truth, since he had also only watched some snippets, as the videos were too boring - he wanted to end this stupid argument, so that Arlo could continue.

"You... had?" Tyler, as well as a few others, gave Lane odd glances. Pretty much everyone could tell that he was lying... They had been together on the team for long enough to have a good idea of what kind of person Lane was.

And he most certainly wasn’t someone who would willingly watch hours upon hours of boring content showing how some linguistic experts were trying to understand monsters’ language. Whenever they had any meetings, which were more engaging than that, he was either dozing off, or secretly playing games on his phone.

Unless it was Damien who made him watch, it would be simply impossible that Lane would last through it all.

Even if everyone knew that it was bullshit, though, no one could exactly verify it at the moment, as no one had watched enough of the original content to be able to quiz Lane on it. They wouldn’t even be able to get a chance to do so anyway, because Cora instantly grabbed onto the opportunity that Lane had created.

"It’s confirmed, then!" she announced, as if Lane’s words were an irrefutable argument ending the discussion. "So, Arlo, can you continue?"

"Right!" Arlo nodded enthusiastically. "Where was I... Ah! Right, so, from the way they developed their understanding of the language, applying it to various subjects, it’s easy to tell that there was little room for any serious misunderstandings. Not to mention, their translation of the myths is supported by the murals..."

"Didn’t you think that they perhaps mistranslated it precisely because they were led by the murals?" Tyler interrupted once again. "The murals showed what looked like the Gates, but it was still pretty vague... Perhaps those linguists misunderstood because they were trying to draw a correlation between the dungeon and the real world..."

Arlo paused for a moment, before turning to Tyler. "Then why hadn’t they given any alternative explanations since then? They just said, ’it doesn’t mean what we previously said,’ and then went on to pretend that they can’t understand the monsters’ language at all..."

"Well, MAYBE they did it because they didn’t want to spread any more misinformation? Since there are clearly some people out there willing to believe in every word they hear without thinking for themselves at all..."

"Huh? Who’s believing in every word? You’re the one who doesn’t seem to be thinking critically at all."

"I AM. That’s why I don’t rely on unreliable translations, but rather-"

"Tsk." Lane clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes. "Can you shut up?"

Tyler stopped in the middle of the sentence. "...What?"

"Just, shut it. If you don’t believe it, then don’t. But I, for one, am curious about what Arlo has to say."

Tyler blinked, not knowing what to say. Lane didn’t care about him, though. Not that he had anything against the man, but it was getting a bit annoying. He wanted to finally hear what people were saying about the conspiracy...

"Well?" he tilted his head, looking at Arlo.

"Right!" Although also a bit taken aback, Arlo quickly snapped out of it. "Based on all the evidence, it is safe to assume that the original interpretation is more or less accurate. And yet, once the video started gaining traction, it was suddenly deleted, together with most of the other videos on the channel... Why do you think that is?"

He paused for a moment to build anticipation, before continuing, "Because someone didn’t want the information to spread! And who would be able to pressure them into erasing everything? The government!"

"Or one of the powerful Guilds," someone pointed out, but Arlo only rolled his eyes.

"Well, technically. But, when you think about it, the Guilds wouldn’t have much to gain from it, would they? They’re not the ones to set the rules, and they’re not responsible for public security. They’re just private entities that hunt monsters and gather resources for money! They would be able to continue doing so even if the world were to be Manaformed. The only difference would be that instead of entering the Gates, they would do their hunting here, in our world."

"But... Wouldn’t that be less profitable?" Lucy asked.

"Not necessarily. In Manaformed environment, monsters breed, Mana plants grow, and Mana stones crystallize. In other words, new resources will always appear."

"Uh..." The team members glanced between each other. They were the Association’s members, they didn’t know in detail how the Guilds operated and made their money, so they couldn’t refute it.

Well, even if they could come up with something, their arguments would have been shot down by Lane. Because what Arlo had said was correct - the Guilds didn’t have anything to lose by letting the Earth Manaform.

Seeing that no one was raising any more protests, Arlo concluded the subject, "The government, on the other hand, is responsible for managing everything dungeon-related. And you know how things are... The Association can hardly handle anything on its own. We can’t even properly manage the current Restricted Zones. At the same time, the higher-ups don’t want to look incompetent, even though they don’t have any solutions... Which is why it makes sense that they would try to cover it up. Because if people were to find out the truth, they would demand something to be done..."

No one said anything for a good moment, as they were trying to process it.

"Well, that makes sense. I was wondering why there was no mention of it in the news." Unsurprisingly, Cora was the first one to react. "The government might not be able to control social media, but they might be able to at least delay the spread in the traditional ones... I wonder what they plan to do next, though?"

"Maybe there’s no plan," Lane couldn’t help but add a few words from himself. "Let’s be honest, with the Association’s current force, what can they even do?"

"Uhh... Well, you have a point, but..."

"AHEM!"

All of a sudden, someone cleared their throat right behind their backs, making everyone flinch.

Especially Lane, whose heart stopped for a moment, skipping a good few beats. He slowly turned his head...

Only to meet a pair of emerald eyes, that were sternly staring down at him.