“Speedrun!” Brilliance yelped. “What do you mean?” 

Yuriko arched an eyebrow, though neither cape could actually see her face. The motorcycle helmet wasn’t hermetically sealed, and had speaker holes for air as well as for speaking. Manipulating her voice was easy enough to accomplish, but hiding her face and emotions meant it was harder to communicate. She’d thought of that when she picked the costume, but there was too much risk of associating Regalia with Lilibeth Lawson, and she didn’t want to roll both identities into one just yet. 

She could already feel the connecting threads forming, though they came from the beaten-down thugs and capes. There was a bit of it coming from Brilliance, but it wasn’t a major thread. The brightly-glowing girl was certainly amusing, in a bratty sort of way. 

“They’re getting away!” the other cape, Speedrun, and come to think of it, he was probably the same one Yuriko encountered almost a week ago. She noticed how his limbs moved significantly faster than the rest of his body. Well, currently, it was only his legs that were almost a blur. He ran towards the escaping capes and tripped them up. 

Curses filled the evening air, and while Speedrun was handling the villains, Brilliance was still eyeing her up, her countenance wary. 

“Are we going to fight?” Brilliance asked. 

Yuriko shrugged and said glibly, “You’re the one who attacked first.” Brilliance’s blush was concealed by her glowy light, but Yuriko saw it clearly and smirked. Cute. 

She mumbled something unintelligible and flew down to the street level. Yuriko returned to her perch on the rooftops, though now she saw several rubberneckers with their phones pointed at her. Brilliance and Speedrun caught up to the gangers, but the capes escaped. Well, the Caplan Gang did. As for Multiman and Cardsharp, the Duo apparently soon found themselves bound with zip ties.

Yuriko heard sirens wailing in the distance, and the police arrived soon after. The driver came away from his hiding place, his face and shirt wet with nervous sweat. By the time he met with the police, he seemed to regain his confidence, by the way he gesticulated fiercely. He came close to stomping all over the captive gangsters, but then pulled back with a shiver. 

Clearly, the authorities had things handled, and she wasn’t inclined to stick around. She stepped back from the edge of the roof after a cheeky wave to the guy videoing her, then flew off. She wasn’t quite sure why, but Neo Prism City seemed to have a rather hefty increase in violence lately. Specifically, on the eastern docks, Brookshield district. Even as she flew away from the robbery, she heard gunfire. 

By the time she got there, it was already over. A police car was parked by the curb, the officers taking statements from bystanders. But there was no sign of the criminals, and the only evidence of violence was chipped cement and bullet holes. Yuriko didn’t know what happened, though she caught the tail end of the statement. A robbery gone violent? Though there were no victims…so perhaps a warning shot was fired? Either the mugging had been successful, or the muggers had been fought off. Yuriko didn’t stick around after satisfying her curiosity. 

She flew up to a thousand paces from the city, closed her eyes and reached out into the dreamscape. The dream was a reflection of the material, and perhaps she could use it to watch, and reach, points of conflict. But then again, should she bother using it during the heat of the moment? 

She exited the dream after a couple of minutes. She had an impression of something towards the east. Not knowing what else to do, she followed her hunches. She was rewarded with some success upon coming across another point of conflict, though this one had already passed. The only evidence left was broken concrete and blocked off portions of the pavement. 

The second point of conflict was already at the tag end. Another Altered Human conflict. Against each other, much like the first one she watched. Oh, capes, she meant. Cape on cape violence. 

A familiar figure fought against another. Shielder, the Protectorate’s poster boy, and Homelander—a terrorist? She wasn’t sure, as there was little information about the latter, just that they had always been rivals and Homelander wanted to create a better world of Altered Humans. An idealist, except he didn’t mind crossing a few lines when he enacted his plans. She also saw the two of them brawling during her first week in Astoria. They were doing the same song and dance, except they were going at it at nearly the same altitude she flew at. 

Well, they exchanged a few blows, stopped, spoke to each other, and then parted ways. Odd. She couldn’t hear what they said. Thankfully, neither of the two headed in her direction, though she was sure Homelander glanced her way a couple of times. 

Reflexively, she tried to rub her chin while thinking, only for her fingers to stop at her motorcycle helmet. Well, she was still new to using her Regalia costume. 

Witnessing the end of the fight was just as satisfying as anything else, and the hour grew late. She still had to meet with Zach and head over to the little rendezvous with Graham Lowe. Assuming it wasn’t a trap, of course. Curious that the cameraman turned Altered healer would request a meeting just before capes became a reality and law. 

Just as she was about to leave, probably to return home, she noticed a beacon of light hazily moving a few hundred paces behind her. It was easy enough to recognise Brilliance, even if the other girl tried to hide herself in the clouds. The other’s light was dim enough that it could be mistaken for a star, if one looked from below. But since Yuriko was hovering above said light, it was painfully obvious that it wasn’t. 

Yuriko shot towards Brilliance, and the girl realised barely in time what happened and wound up dropping a few dozen paces in surprise, followed by a startled squeak, and a pale redness that suffused her face. 

“Wha-wha-wha?” Brilliance sputtered as she got control of herself while Yuriko smirked. Invisibly, of course, since her expression was hidden by her helm. 

“So, any reason you’re stalking me?” Yuriko—Regalia—asked. 

“I, uh, well, sorry?” 

“Are you apologising or asking me to clarify?”

“Uh…both?” Brilliance’s adorable ignorance and the tilt of her head had Yuriko reduce her estimate of the other’s age. Brilliance was probably younger than she was, and not just by a year or so. 

“Well, accepted in the first part, and I’m asking why you’re following me around. And why you left your…partner…behind?”

“Oh, it’s to say sorry, for jumping to conclusions and attacking you immediately, I mean,” Brilliance said…well, brightly, by how her illumination intensified. 

“I see. Did you deduce I’m not a villainous cape?” 

“I, yes?” 

“Hmmm, that is true, but I could also have been pretending.” 

“Oh! Are you?” 

The honesty and sincerity in Brilliance’s voice and features were too disarming. Yuriko sighed, “No, I’m not a villain. But I guess I’m not a hero either, considering the need for heroes to be accredited.” 

“Ah. Rogue, then?” 

“And the difference between Rogue and Independent?” 

“Accreditation.”

“And those who are entangled directly with the government?” 

“Protectorate.” 

“I see.” Yuriko hummed, then asked, “You’re younger than I expected. How old are you?” 

“Wha-wha-wha! No, you can’t ask personal questions that could lead to my civilian identity!” 

Yuriko nodded. “You seem remarkably prepared with that answer. Longer than the week the revelation of a major change in law and government response could account for.” 

“Oh. Well…” Brilliance fidgeted.

Yuriko’s Mien, while not directly enthralling the younger girl, was still at work. It wasn’t as if she could completely turn it off. Even without direct action, any kind of communication with her would cause the Mien to affect them. Yuriko just made sure that she wasn’t shooting Love-me rays at everyone. Or at all, really. She preferred lovers who chose to be with her because of her, not because her Mien twisted their minds and emotions to be dependent on her. It was probably a futile endeavour, and not a little bit hypocritical, but she could reach for an Ideal rather than give up without even trying. 

“It’s been…going on for longer than that? At least a year, I think…anyway. I’m not sure why it happened, just that those of us who were so inclined just got a message a few weeks ago.” 

Yuriko hummed in thought. She’d been rather busy with her own things and hardly paid attention to the world around her. Did things shift so suddenly while she was preoccupied gaining worshippers? What drove the change? Altered Humans had been reviled by the masses for long decades…

Unless…

Unless Altered Humans have infiltrated the government. Unless there were so many of them that it was functionally impossible to distinguish them from norm—mundane humans. If her sudden insight was correct, what is the current ratio for mundanes to Altered? Last she checked, it was estimated at around two to three hundred to one, but that only considered those whose Alterations were visible or powerful. Those who tried to use their powers outright would overshadow those who were trying to keep a low profile. 

Less than a second passed while Yuriko used some of her strands of consciousness in her ruminations. She actually used her true body’s allocation to further her thoughts, not that the distraction was unwelcome. 

Her true body was currently in meditation, though she could feel Gwendith just outside the door, an amorous look on her face. Well, this night was hers, after all. After that first foray into Shangria’s biomes, she hadn’t gone back. Instead, the morning after, she introduced Carina to the team, and after a little bit of friction, mostly between the greenette and Ilvara the silverhead, mostly with regards to team positioning and roles, they’d spent the past week researching what an expedition beyond the third layer would look like. 

Spatially expanded bags didn’t work beyond the fifth layer. Not that the things broke, but rather, they couldn’t be opened. That meant that in order to reach the ninth layer, they would have to pack supplies that would last someone years. Not only was it a large burden to bear, but it was also incredibly expensive. Ration bars would have been great, or rather, if she still had the ration bar maker with her. Why did she return the thing to Finan anyway? It wasn’t as if the princeling had any use for it. 

A wave of regret filled her at the uncharitable thought. Finan had merged his body and Anima into a tree of life, and it was because of his sacrifice that Rumiga was still floating along, even if it was diminished. She shook her head and shelved the thought. Perhaps there was a bit of trauma remaining there, but her disgust with what he tried to do warred with pity at his Fate. Thankfully, it was rather unlikely that anything would come up to put his actions to the forefront again. Although…she would like to get back to Rumiga before her little sister grew up. She just wasn’t sure how feasible that was now. Perhaps her incarnation body could get there somehow? Unlikely, though, but possible. She was learning quite a few things browsing the Network.  

Either way, it took crossing a hundred biomes to get to the area that allowed one to delve deeper. It remained the same for every layer, except for the fact that the layer below each one allowed one less biome to pass per day. So in the second layer, one could only cross nine layers before being trapped. Plus, each layer had larger and larger biomes than the one above, so there were areas where crossing a layer could take long enough that it would be impossible to actually reach the limit for the day. 

Thankfully, things weren’t quite as difficult as they seemed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep