The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 444: Viral Videos

Chapter 444: Viral Videos
The atmosphere in front of the Gate was tense. As they gathered inside the gymnasium, doing last weapon, equipment, and provisions checks before heading inside, what accompanied many of the team members was anxiety. Although they all had faced high-ranking monsters before, that was mainly during the dungeon breaks. Most of them had never been on a proper raid inside an A-rank dungeon, let alone an S-rank, as this one was assumed to be...
It was only natural that they feared for their lives. And even if not that, the perspective of spending two or more WEEKS inside an active dungeon, among the monsters, was terrifying. Some with weaker convictions even started to regret their choices. If they knew that things were going to be like that, they should have joined one of the Guilds... They would still have had to raid dungeons, but at least they would have had better equipment. And more money.
Alas, there was nothing they could do right now. Not even after they return. Unless they found a Guild that would find them valuable enough to be willing to pay the severance fee for them...
"Hey, have you seen the videos?" wanting to change the tense mood, Cora leaned forward towards her teammates from her original team, lowering her voice to a gossipy whisper.
"What videos?" Arlo lifted his eyes from his sword. He had already checked it at least twenty times, and was in the middle of checking it for the twenty-first, just to be sure, but he was more than glad to be interrupted. He was only doing it to have something to do as they waited for the order to commence the raid, anyway.
"The ones from that stinky dungeon we were in last year! You know, with those sentient monsters that kind of look like teddy bears... They’re all over social media now!"
"...Ah." Hearing Cora’s explanation, everyone let out a collective sigh.
Of course they had seen it. It would be harder not to. As long as anyone was using any social media platforms, it was nearly impossible not to come across any mentions of it. The news was spreading like wildfire, with more and more people commenting on it...
"Oh?" Lane also tuned in. He had been playing a game on his phone out of boredom (because why would he bother checking his equipment, when he had spares in his spatial bag anyway?), but now, he turned off the screen, and turned his attention to the group.
He actually hadn’t been on social media for the past week. Unlike the other members of Damien’s team, who had only transferred into the elite team starting from this raid, he had been with the elite team all the time, spending most of his time on the raids. As for the little time out of dungeons he had left, he used it all on spending quality time with Damien, seducing Damien, trying to please Damien, offering his services as both the top, as well as the bottom...
All so that he could quickly move past this hiccup in their relationship caused by Ethan (or rather, Lane’s murder attempt on Ethan, but that was not the point), and get back to how things used to be. Thus, he had no time left for mindless scrolling.
"So, what do you think?" Cora asked again, with excitement mixed with morbid curiosity, one that a person might have when discussing unsettling topics such as true crime or ghost stories.
Or a potential apocalypse, where the world would be overrun by monsters, as it was in this case.
"Well..." Some of the teammates exchanged glances, neither knowing where to start. Everyone had their own thoughts about the situation, but they were hardly coherent. They were just a mix a lot of confusion, disbelief, and denial. Most of them hadn’t even started thinking about how to handle the situation if the Manaforming was truly unavoidable, as it would be pretty much the end of the world as they knew it...
"I’m not sure. I think that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions," Hallie was the first one to speak. "Those are just myths that those sentient monsters believe in. But, let’s be honest, how many of our own myths are factually correct?"
Tyler and Lucy nodded their heads. Hallie had a valid point... Humans had also come up with various mythologies in ancient times, creating myths about the gods and the origin of the world... And they had long been disproved by science. There was no saying that the same thing wouldn’t apply to some intelligent beings from another world...
Of course, to assume so was to ignore the fact that the teddy bear monsters’ myths were backed up by what was happening on the Earth, but... It was certainly a nice thing to believe in. It could have meant that the world wasn’t doomed just yet.
"Besides," Hallie continued, "Is the translation even accurate? It hasn’t even been a year since the experts began the communication efforts. Their knowledge of the monsters’ language is severely lacking, as can be seen from those videos. It is possible that they misunderstood the monsters’ words... They had even posted an update since then, explaining how their interpretation might be incorrect, and apologizing for spreading misinformation."
"Ah, is that so!" Lucy clapped her hands, a wave of relief washing over her face. "Now that’s good to know!"
Tyler and Kiara also seemed to have relaxed a bit. Hallie’s explanation, although was still within the realm of speculations, was definitely reassuring, and nice to hear.
Lane, on the other hand, only lifted his brows slightly, giving Hallie an amused glance.
There was no way that Hallie truly believed in what she was saying. She was a smart woman who worked as a Vice Team Leader in Damien’s team. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean that she couldn’t be swayed by whatever the experts had ’claimed’ in their newest update video, but...
If he were to take a guess, she was only saying it to calm down the group. Just like the video must have been posted to quieten down the conversations and prevent mass panic. Although Lane hadn’t seen the newest update, he had watched the original video, and from the way that the experts had been talking with the teddy bears, it was obvious that they at the very least had the basics of their language down. In a way, the way they now tried to cover it up only made it seem more...
"Suspicious."