19th of April, 2023
There's a lot of friction going on between the Army and the clearers lately. I think it's kind of funny, sort of like mom telling the kids to be safe when both of them know they're in a war zone. Don't get me wrong, I think what the Army's been doing is great. They've gotten good enough to clear out bosses themselves, and I think they really provide a service to all the clearers by being a meat shield for those who can actually do things. But the Army's been saying for a while that the clearers are immature, battle-crazed maniacs who risk their own safety for the sake of clearing floors. It's true, but the Army's saying that like it's a bad thing. If we were all timid like them, we'd be cowering on the first ten floors and never make our way home.
Their solution is to swarm the boss en masse and kill it with minimal injuries. It's good in theory but you'd never level up in a group that large, and they'll quickly fall behind in terms of levels. In a normal world they'd be better keeping the peace in the lower levels. Slums and everything else it entailed. I sometimes wonder what the situation is like down there, if there are anymore mass suicides, or if there are kids down there; but, being around Jaden hasn't made me that caring. I just have to focus on what's important. That's what I always tell myself when I see people in trouble and don't help them no matter what Jaden says; that's why I don't resent the guards for "intruding" on the clearers, even though the front lines don't really belong to anyone.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if I saved the people I could. We see on average a group a week that needs help, and I don't know how many of them survive. Jaden doesn't like it but I've made it clear to him that I do what I want and he's following me, not the other way around. But would they be grateful and follow us? maybe they'd just thank us and leave. Or would they feel insulted that we thought they needed help? I know this curiosity is a symptom of my wanting to help people, but I can't weaken or waver. Is this what curiosity what my younger brother felt when he started to jack off? The desire for something new he knew was forbidden?
I'm pretty sure some guys are doing it. I'm starting to realize Akihiko had some really sick sense of humor, even factoring in the feeling of an orgasm. I was scanning through the whole menu, and saw the switch for Ethics Mode. I asked Jaden about it bluntly, and he just looked away and talked about dinner. I actually find it kind of funny, but the knowledge that rape actually is possible kills it. Jaden would say I'm paranoid, but it isn't paranoia if there isn't a decent possibility it'll happen. Thousands of guys with only hundreds of girls, who knows how long we'll be here? Maybe we'll keep up the pretence of decency now, but in two, three, four years, who knows?
It's funny, I haven't cried when I thought of my family for a while now. Now that I think about it, I stopped crying after I met Jaden. It wasn't like he comforted me or anything, he just distracted me so I didn't think about them. After that it was more pride, not wanting to show him that I was weak and pitiful underneath. And after that the wound had scabbed over and I felt guilty about crying after all Jaden went through. I think I was just too scared the first month after the announcement. I'm not going to stay by rules I set myself when I was terrified. I have to change or else I will crack like those who committed suicided. They couldn't accept that their world had changed. I am strong enough to do that. I have to be.
22nd of May, 2023
Well, some people are fucked. As in, the Army. Don't these idiots read anything? It said specifically in the manual that the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 100th floor bosses would be extremely hard, but did anyone listen? No, they just went in and I can just see all the clearers raging at Akihiko for his dirty tricks because they're too immature to admit they're wrong.
Jaden just told me that he hasn't seen me look that cynical in ages. I guess cynicism is my defence when shit's about to go down. The tension really built up between the Army and the clearers prior so I did kind of see this coming. The Army really is stupid, maybe because there are just so many of them so the stupidity compounds off each other, or maybe because the noble cause of all the saving damsels in distress drew every testosterone-filled incompetent into a huge group. Then we have the clearers who are arrogant and testosterone-filled as well, but at least they are competent arrogant testosterone-filled players. That competence lowers the bragging and posturing and posing that goes on in the Army since the incompetents there are too insecure to do anything but bluster. Anyways, with all that stupidity fermenting there, it was easy for them to be provoked to doing something idiotic, like, I'm not sure, charging the 25th floor all by themselves.
The boss room isn't found yet, but it's only a matter of time, and this time that Army wants dibs on the glory of beating the 25th boss. They charged up there today and said that within the week, they would advance onto the next floor.
I'm not sure if it was all orchestrated by some of the clearers. Definitely not Heathcliff's bunch, they're way too honourable for that. But I could definitely see some of the clearers with brains working out that getting the Army to charge the boss while they mopped up would minimize our losses and get rid of a huge thorn in our side. I used to be fine with the Army, but lately they've been getting cocky, thinking they can storm everything because they have justice on their side in the form of making sure everything down on the bottom is alright. They thought they had the right to command clearers because they represented civilization, but the clearers, me included, thought that they were a bunch of pussies who grouped together and used the front of justice to hide their incompetence.
We're not sure exactly when and what happened, but when we woke up today all the people in the Army were gone, and there wasn't much guessing as to where. We looked around the lower floors, and everyone on the 15th floor above had been drafted into that suicide mission. There's a lot of mobilizing of clearers, they're calling all clearer guilds anywhere near this floor and they're going to charge the boss 's been running around helping with that, but I'm not too sure if I even want to be around the dungeon.
A/N: Well, that's the next chapter. Special thanks to my new beta-reader, Desdendelle, for pointing out lots of mistakes, commenting on my story, and raising the quality of the story in general.
I suppose this is the build-up to the next arc is over, and the action section of the arc starts. Hope you enjoy!