How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 241

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (241)

I had no desire to see someone’s head exploding on the front page of the Imperial Newspaper.

The screams of reporters and cameramen came through the filter. Similar noise could be heard from the hallway and arena.

Thud— Splat—

The sound of a player collapsing to the floor could be heard.

“What, what….”

“….”

The sight of a neck snapping won’t disappear from before my eyes.

This is not simply suicide.

All evidence and the atmosphere before and after the incident indicate that the player was essentially murdered. Behind this incident, there must be terrorists that the government failed to stop.

The front page of the Imperial Newspaper was now empty. The newspaper began deleting all content as if nothing had happened and started displaying yesterday’s articles.

However, this place that had become a scene of carnage remained as it was. The person who was alive just moments ago but was now a corpse remained as well. The fact that it wasn’t simple suicide remained unchanged. As expected, the fact that the enemies hadn’t ended things, the fact that the government ultimately failed to prevent terrorism, and judging by the firearms that were brought in, the fact that there were gaps in security screening—none of this changed. I watched the black letters appearing one by one in the newspaper and threw it to the floor. Whether there was confusion in the Imperial Newspaper’s internal decision-making, yesterday’s articles had now disappeared and the phrase ‘Awaiting broadcast’ filled the page.

In the staff hallway, people began running somewhere with pale faces. From the audience seating just beyond one wall, voices of doubt and fear still came together as one mass. Someone was vomiting, probably from seeing human contents.

Ding—!

「 Chapter 7. Truly, truly I say to you…. 」

“….”

Pure white text began writing itself in cursive before me. This was noteworthy.

The chapter titles in the status window had always been proverbs from this country, but this time it was scripture. Where was that from. Of course, I didn’t have the leisure now to leisurely recall which book that sentence was written in.

‘…I.’

Surely I had a way to make up for everything at times like this.

I slowly looked around. Elias was covering his mouth with a dazed expression.

Though I had expected the terrorists wouldn’t give up on this tournament, the shock of seeing someone commit suicide against their will hadn’t faded.

Knowing I couldn’t just stay like this, I quickly thought of an answer.

I need to turn back time.

‘Retry window.’

[Uh, where should we go? Where to?]

[Get out quickly! Why isn’t warp working?!]

The pure white text of the retry window appearing before my eyes wasn’t readable. Instead, people’s conversations came through as a buzzing sound.

Why isn’t warp working. Because the government had blocked bidirectional warp between the event venue grounds and the outside.

Now we were trapped here. The government would never lift this restriction, if only to identify the culprit.

Beep—

[Lucas. Can you hear me?]

“….”

[Tell me if there’s anything I can help with right now.]

Leo’s voice could be heard.

I listened to his words while staring at the pure white text written before my eyes.

The retry text glowed white.

Just calling that would return everything to before all this happened.

But….

‘…That won’t work.’

I need to be careful.

It might be different if it were before someone died, but the incident had already occurred. As I’d always thought, if I was going to spend points to turn back time anyway, it would be best to gather as much information as possible before doing so.

“Do what you were doing. Don’t do anything conspicuous.”

[….]

“Not now. We need to wait.”

[Got it.]

The information I need to know is these two things.

First, what kind of threat did the player receive. Why did he have no choice but to commit suicide.

Only then can I know how to save him—that is, how to prevent the new terrorism that will start from this.

Second, how will the terrorists move after this time. Will they actually commit terrorism, and if so, in what manner will they do it.

Blindly turning back time without obtaining these two pieces of information would be like throwing eggs at rocks.

Beep— Beep— Beep—

An alarm sounded from the artifact.

It was a summons order.

[Notice to Imperial Mage Association members 90th through 101st….]

I turned around and left the staff hallway, heading to the opening ceremony venue.

Having decided to observe more, as long as they didn’t make me do something completely stupid, I needed to stay here and follow orders to understand the terrorists’ movements.

And there was one more reason I needed to follow orders for a little while, which was important but not particularly special, so now wasn’t the time to think about it.

The emergency committee had just ordered mages from the 90th to 101st of the Mage Association to move people from the opening ceremony to the warp coordinates that guided them. That location was the plaza at the eastern end of the Penthalon event venue grounds.

They didn’t seem to have any intention of lifting the warp restrictions on the area. After moving them to the plaza, they probably planned to thoroughly screen for culprits or suspicious individuals using divine power, then have them travel on foot.

Narke was exempt from this summons as well. He had to set up divine power barriers at the opening ceremony venue together with the Imperial Court’s arcane mages.

Whooom— Beep—

[Notice to all spectators. As of this time, the 1st Penthalon opening event is temporarily suspended. Authorities are currently conducting investigations and safety inspections. Accidents are expected due to entrance congestion, so please remain in your seats and wait until support staff arrive. Once again, please remain in your seats and wait.]

[101st, can you hear us?]

The announcement echoing outside overlapped with the sound coming through the artifact.

“We can hear you.”

[Please move the new-human spectators in sections 35, 36, 37 to 390:567:183. 390:567:183, 390:567:183.]

[Lucas, Elias! Go to section 37. It’s 258:281:402.]

Unlike earlier when his soul seemed to have left him, Leo sent us a notification in a sharpened voice.

We now had to warp all the spectators to the plaza. Though the sectioned spectators headquarters mentioned were all composed of new-humans, like most humans, they would be those who couldn’t warp alone due to insufficient mana.

It wasn’t because we were rookies that we were assigned menial tasks. Since warp magic requires considerable mana, they were deploying mages with high mana capacity to rescue and damage prevention work.

Elias, who had somehow regained his composure, looked at me with a stern face and asked.

“Will you be okay?”

“I’m fine. I have to do it.”

Elias also seemed to think there was no other option, nodding with worried eyes. He took my hand and moved to section 37’s warp point. I shouted to the people in section 37 who immediately stood up and crowded toward us upon seeing us.

“Everyone can be moved. If you don’t keep order, it will take longer! Please hold hands in groups of ten starting from the top row!”

At times like this, it seemed Pleroma and everything else didn’t matter. They looked into my eyes and didn’t care at all. They just grabbed my arms.

Elias tactfully began running down to the lower part of the seating. At least the people who were below began crowding toward him.

“Don’t grab more! Don’t grab!”

“What if we can’t go!”

‘They said 390:567:183.’

I swallowed and closed my eyes.

At that moment, the wind from the plaza hit me head-on. I felt like my internal organs were turning upside down, but unlike other times, perhaps because I knew well that this was a crisis situation, my whole body maintained its strength.

“Thank you. Thank you. You should get out quickly too.”

Someone grabbed my shoulder and spoke in a trembling voice.

Even though only one person had committed suicide, humans indeed knew well that this was a precursor to terrorism.

Upon arriving at the plaza, people began running toward the checkpoint visible in the distance. Though they wouldn’t be able to leave immediately anyway.

I immediately closed my eyes and memorized the warp coordinates Leo had called out earlier. Again, all sorts of noise from humans pierced my ears. Whether someone had been pushed and fallen below the railing, I heard the sound of something heavy falling and someone’s scream.

“There, they’re here!”

Someone grabbed my hand. I no longer needed to count how many people were connected through mana. My mana could cover twenty anyway, and though I’d never tested it, more would probably be possible. I recited the coordinates again.

How many times did I repeat this. Though I hadn’t eaten anything, I began to feel nauseous. It seemed like I was more dizzy because I wasn’t opening my eyes.

[…101st, can you hear us?]

“….”

[Please move sections 38, 39 to 390:567:183. These are the last new-human sections. 390:567:183, 390:567:183.]

They were now just shooting out orders without even doing headcounts.

Since there was a shortage of mages, it was natural.

The Royal Guard’s mages had probably been deployed to this site again, but the current situation was different from screening situations where there was time to spare. The number of mages, not even 20,000, was too few to evacuate all the millions of spectators—with the opening having started and people entering to watch performances outside the arena, it would definitely be millions now—who had entered this place.

I grabbed the hands of people looking for me in section 38 and warped. After repeating this three or four more times, I was almost sleeping while standing and warping when I opened my eyes at the sound I was making.

“Ugh….”

When I opened my eyes, I found I had stepped back for a moment and was in the bathroom.

I don’t even know when he came. My stomach churned even more from the sound I made, so I retched a few more times, then went to the sink to splash water on my face. I roughly wiped the water flowing down my neck and glared at the mirror.

‘Now.’

I’ve waited long enough.

It’s time to stop following orders and devise a new strategy from this location.

It’s not that I’m trying to slack off because warping is difficult.

I looked at my wristwatch while listening to the sound coming from the crumpled Imperial Newspaper on one side of the sink.

The current time is 12:32.

The suicide occurred at 12:12, and now 20 minutes have passed since then.

‘For 20 minutes, evacuation has been carried out openly, yet the culprit isn’t taking any action about it.’

Quite a lot of people have already gathered at Brandenburg Park, but they’re not doing anything special there either. Everyone is preparing to flee, yet they’re resting so peacefully.

In other words, this means that the Antagonist currently has no intention of committing terrorism at the arena and park.

‘This won’t be the end.’

They definitely have more prepared, so how long do they plan to hide it?

I thought that far and took a deep breath while listening to the Imperial Newspaper. They were reporting on the current situation and countermeasures. Though the sound was quiet due to the water, I could definitely understand it.

[Our government’s security department stated that regarding this suicide incident, considering the continuous malicious attacks on Penthalon, the fact that the player was in an interview situation at the time of suicide, the player’s unstable condition, and the words spoken just before death, ‘this cannot be viewed as a simple suicide’ and there is a high possibility that this is Pleroma’s attempted terrorism on Penthalon.]

“…”

[Emperor Friedrich declared that ‘we will thoroughly punish Pleroma, which threatens world safety, and will prioritize securing the safety of our citizens as well as tourists from 56 countries participating in Penthalon’…]

Crackle—

[Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.]

Rumble—…

An urgently trembling voice.

Unlike before when field sounds were mixed in, this time the audio quality was clear.

Along with the sudden audio switch, the ground where I stood shook finely once or twice. I turned my head to look at the Imperial Newspaper.

The screen was still showing the reporter in front of Pentalon Main Stadium, but unlike before, the reporter had a flustered expression and was saying something to the people behind the camera.

The screen was going one way, the sound another way, separately.

Beep— Crackle—

[…! Are we back? Yes, can you hear us now? They say they can hear us. There seems to have been a brief error.]

“…”

‘Worth remembering.’

‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’ Right. Good. It’s a very unrealistic thing to hear during an emergency broadcast that the Empire’s top newspaper is conducting with huge investment in broad daylight. It makes me wonder if I’m dreaming.

Thinking that, I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

Just talking about travel with Elias until a moment ago feels like something from another world. Leo also seemed to be planning something, judging by how he suddenly spouted bland nonsense, but I wonder if that plan is still an executable plan.

Because we in this timeline won’t be alive after the opening ceremony.

‘Though I’m thinking of changing that from now on.’

Still, I need to clearly recognize that we will be massacred in this original timeline.

The foundation of all battles is information, and first among that is knowing myself. Knowing myself means clearly understanding what our current strength is, what terrain we’re positioned on, and what situation we’re in.

In understanding the current situation, I must recognize only the facts without any bias.

But am I being too despondent while saying I must ‘recognize only the facts without bias’?

Is this premature pessimism? Or am I being too extreme?

‘No.’

I slowly raised my hand and removed my leather glove.

Now, as I was organizing my thoughts to readjust strategy from this location, I unexpectedly obtained the second piece of information among ‘the information I thought I needed to obtain earlier.’

Information about whether they would really carry out terrorism after this suicide incident, and if so, how they would carry out the terrorism.

First, they have already committed terrorism.

Second, the method was executed like this.

I looked expressionlessly at the blue mana glowing faintly in a cross shape on my palm.

“…”

Magic has been cast on my body right now. And this magic isn’t cast on me alone.

This is what they planned to do from the beginning.

The suicide is a preview.

The main event starts now.

The mana currently rippling like seawater on my palm didn’t come from within but was given from outside, so it’s drawn as a kind of magic circle. There’s an identical cross mark drawn in the same position on my other palm too.

[Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.]

This must have been a type of curse magic. When the conditional statement is recited, the magic they had laid in advance moves according to its programming.

Judging by how the ground shook, the terrorist cast magic on this space. Evacuation to Brandenburg Park is meaningless. That’s why the terrorist watched idly even as we worked hard to evacuate the audience.

Why? Because they’re currently using divine power to search for the terrorist there, and most people haven’t been able to get outside yet.

‘To think of doing this to millions of people, how remarkable.’

Where did this level of technology come from, and whose plan is this?

Of course, I could deduce enough from the information obtained so far.

Beep—

[Adrian Ascanien. Can you hear me?]

“…”

I heard the voice of the Doctor who had taken me to some underground strategy room during the mana lamp terrorism incident earlier.

[There’s an elevator in front of the North Gate of the Corridor for Personnel on the first floor. Please come there. I’ll come to escort you.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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