The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 454: Arguments

Arlo, Cora, Tyler, Lucy, and Kiara all turned to Lane, staring at him with their eyes so wide they looked as if they might fall out of their sockets.

Had he really said what they thought he had?

And with such nonchalance?

’It wouldn’t necessarily be so bad?’ If the real world, THEIR world, also looked like that?

Seeing their faces, full of disbelief, Lane couldn’t help but chuckle.

"No, I mean it," he said, still with utmost confidence. "I get how you feel, but even if our world were fully Manaformed, it wouldn’t be so bad... At least not all of it."

"...How can you be so sure?"

"Well, think about the Forbidden Zones! They are fully Manaformed, no?"

Everyone instantly relaxed a little bit.

Right, there were the Forbidden Zones. They had forgotten about it a moment ago, out of fear and exhaustion, but they had even discussed it earlier, before the raid. How, despite the Forbidden Zones being Manaformed, people still lived there. Illegally, of course, but that was not the point.

Still...

"You don’t know how things are there," Tyler pointed out. "Besides, even if it is fully Manaformed, it is still a limited area... The Association might be keeping it in check-"

"The Association doesn’t do shit about the Forbidden Zones," Lane interrupted Tyler again, rolling his eyes. While it was an understandable misconception to have, it pissed Lane to no end. After all, it was his underlings who were keeping the Forbidden Zones in check... Of course, they weren’t doing it for the Association, but rather to take care of their environment and community, but still. If the Association had been the one handling it, any of the towns and cities within the Zones would have long fallen into ruin.

Lane didn’t want to get into the details with his teammates, though, since there was a risk he could end up exposing himself in the process by revealing knowledge that even regular residents of the Forbidden Zones might not have. Everyone was so tired that it was unlikely that they would clock in on that even if he DID slip up, but why take the risk when it was unnecessary? He had spoken up because he didn’t want his potential future recruits to get swayed by the fear, but there was no need to take it too far.

It wasn’t like he HAD to recruit Cora, Arlo, or anyone from his current team (other than Damien. It seemed impossible, yes, but Lane still hoped to recruit Damien in the future. Once he could use husband privileges and all). They would be a nice addition to his forces, but the secret organization could get by perfectly fine without them.

So, before anyone could ask him to elaborate on the Association’s uselessness, he shifted the topic by explaining his earlier point, "The monsters aren’t necessarily interested in invading our cities. They all have their preferred habitats, and the cities ain’t it. Like, think about those spider monsters - do you think that they would enjoy themselves in the Capital?"

The team members exchanged glances. What Lane had said made a lot of sense... The city streets were completely different from these dark, warm tunnels. If they were to think about the monsters as anything like their world’s animals, then they likely wouldn’t settle in the cities. However,

"What about the dungeon breaks, then? They leave their natural habitat and flood our world."

"Tsk. Those are special circumstances, aren’t they?" Lane rolled his eyes again, annoyed at the stupid question. It was probably out of exhaustion that his teammates couldn’t think clearly, but the reasons behind dungeon breaks were widely known! Still, in order to move the conversation forward, he explained, "Monsters leave the dungeons out of overpopulation. And, to begin with, they only leave in massive waves due to our world not being Manaformed... It’s not like that in the Forbidden Zones."

"Right, right, we know it. But don’t the monsters leave the Gates all the time in the Forbidden Zones?" Tyler argued.

"Well..." Lane shrugged his shoulders in response. "Kind of, but... What do you think is better: the monsters rushing out of the Gate in a massive wave, or two or three monsters getting out every now and then?"

Tyler opened his mouth, ready to argue again, but then, he shut them back up without saying anything. Even he had to admit that what Lane had just said made sense... It would have been one thing a year or two ago, when the situation seemed stable and everything was peaceful, with no dungeon breaks having happened for years, at least not in the urban areas - there had been a few cases where there had been undiscovered Gates erupting out in the wild, in places where no one ventured too often, but, due to them happening away from human settlements, they hadn’t resulted in many casualties - but now...

Even the Capital had five Restricted Zones, and the future seemed uncertain. Thinking back to the dungeon breaks they had experienced, they couldn’t say that they were better than the possibility of stray monsters occasionally wandering out of their Gates...

Seeing that the rest were more or less convinced, the corners of Lane’s lips lifted up in a smile. Striking while it was still hot, he finished the argument by saying, "Besides, even the monsters that leave the Gates don’t spread over the whole Zone. Some return to their dungeons, while others settle in specific territory. It might seem scary when listening to it, but people living in Forbidden Zones are used to it and can get by just fine, even those who have yet to have their awakening, so, you see, it’s possible to adjust. And think about all the ways that the Mana could be used in all areas of life, like technology and healthcare, for example..."

The last sentence was particularly convincing for the team. While Lane’s previous arguments could still be argued with, as they depended on the point of view, the healthcare argument was hard to debunk...

Healthcare had already been revolutionized by Mana. The only problem was that many of the treatments or medicines were still expensive due to a shortage and the difficulty of procuring the necessary materials, as well as the fact that most of them only worked on the Awakened, as civilians didn’t respond to Mana. If the whole world were Manaformed, however, not only would that reduce the shortage problems, but should also lead to the whole population awakening...

As Arlo, Cora, and Lucy all went silent, convinced by Lane’s arguments, Tyler picked up on something else, though, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Lane.

"How... do you know so much about the Forbidden Zones?"