Last Updated:
2021-08-21 17:00:09
MokouFriedChickenI'm not used to writing like this anymore. Care to give me Gems? It helps my motivation to do better. To those wishing to contact me, kindly do so in my Discord. I accept private messages. My server's a bit dead at the moment, but feel free to join anyway: discord.gg/NZA6Jun Conversely, follow me on Twitter @FriedMokou.
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XXXI: The Primes
In her relatively short life in this world, Tesla never considered herself a fighter. Even after being tested for having the potential to be a Num, the teenaged girl couldn't even fathom the thought of hurting another person in her life. Sure, her sheltered upbringing had not exposed her to the harsh realities of the Empire, but she could still see the reasoning in why most people turned to crime and banditry to make ends meet. As a soldier, she did her best to resolve incidents with the least amount of bloodshed possible; a feat that somehow elevated her into a Factor position, and eventually, into being a Prime before she could even protest such a decision. At first, Tesla thought that her new position as one of the Thirteen could help her prevent the growing unrest in her country. But as her orders came and went, the grim reality of her true purpose was made known to her.She had to kill people.
The Least Common Denominator LXXVII.I Multiplicity
The concept of stress was something that I had to contend with back in the old world. Proper sanity management was a very important thing for me. The fact that I explicitly skipped classes simply for mental reasons was a big part of how and why it deteriorated in the first place. I suppose that short-term gains really suck for the long-term viability of actually passing my exams, but it still worked out, I guess. I mean, I just knew that I was only an allowance away from buying pesticide and killing myself back when I was still in med school. Still, the amount of shit that I had gone through had molded me into someone that panics first, then thinks clearly later. It circles back into itself every once in a while, but in general, I can cycle through emotions fast enough that I could somehow get myself out of the horrible holes I dug myself into.Unfortunately, now wasn't the right time for me to be useless
The Least Common Denominator LXXVII.II Multiplicity
The ride went relatively well. That was what I wish I could say as I squirmed around in the driver's seat. No. The ride was a fucking nightmare of me doing maneuvers that I haven't even done in real life up till now. Meanwhile, poor Lace was just about finished bandaging up the rest of my body, which in turn, gave me some sort of breathing room in terms of feeling like I wasn't going to die in the next five minutes. It wasn't an ideal scenario, of course, but it was still leagues better than bleeding to death in a tattered dress and crashing everyone to death along with it."You know what to do, Leader," Lace nodded more to herself about a job well done. "No sudden movements or your wounds start bleeding again.""Of course," I scoffed. "Just focus on keeping everyone alive.""Will do."And with that, the nominal medic o
The Least Common Denominator LXXVII.III Multiplicity
Right... That's over and done with...Dressing the last of Love's injuries, Lace and I finally let ourselves sag into our seats as exhaustion tried to overtake us. And while Lace was easily more capable of going for more, I was already on my last legs even before I participated in this shit. My already tired body was absolutely raring to fall apart like a house of cards; my chest tightening with such an alarming degree that I almost think I was about to have a heart attack. Well, at least it wasn't caused by Essence exhaustion this time. If it happens at all."Thank you, Lace, Lady Crimson."I could only pant as I watched Love stand up from her prone position. With her back wrapped in sturdier bandages than before, the fact that she moved like it was nothing was infuriating my doctor senses. Already, the former Prime was raring to go out and return
The Least Common Denominator LXXVII.IV Multiplicity
Carrying a ration of deer jerky and a batch of bandages, I returned to Tesla only to see that she had collapsed against the walls of the APC. Her shoulder-length white hair draped her face in a way that made her look far older than she probably was. Meanwhile, her staff laid broken in front of her, blood staining the breaks in a way that told me that she did it herself. Kneeling to look at the broken weapon, I contained a whistle as I noticed something peculiar.The staff was made of metal, and yet she somehow managed to break it in half with her bare hands. Granted, looking at her hand showed that it didn't come without a price, but it was still impressive that she could cause a clean break using her raw strength alone. That, and a clever application of lightning based on the small chars littering the points of failure.Letting out a sigh, I placed the ration down beside her
The Least Common Denominator LXXVIII.I Vector Quantity
Exhaustion. Tiredness. The primal force to simply not go on and give up... To be quite honest, I didn't really think I was the type of person to just drop everything and say 'fuck it, just kill me now' back when I was a kid. I sincerely thought I was capable of doing what my parents told me to do. Be a good girl, get good grades, maybe even get a scholarship in a good university, be successful. Then again, I was probably capable of doing it if I didn't just roll over at the first insurmountable obstacle that caused my self-confidence to come crashing down. It was stupid, I know, but I guess getting gaslit by everybody you knew that you were hot shit had dire consequences when the world suddenly hits you with a reality check so massive that you almost killed yourself. Heh... Perseverance was the one thing I lacked. Maybe I had it with games, but real life wasn't something you could just fail in with an unlimited number of times. Fail
The Least Common Denominator LXXVIII.II Vector Quantity
The engine roared to life just as I managed to get back inside the APC. Ruby and Phillipe had already strapped themselves back in for a bumpy ride, Anne had a few bags under her eyes but still looked determined, and Lace was visibly vibrating from where she sat. Arya was still unconscious, and Tesla looked absolutely terrified in her small corner of the vehicle, which instantly reminded me of the fact that I still had a bunch of rations with me. I did promise the young Prime that she could eat whatever the hell she wanted. That, and the fact that I wouldn't hurt her. Wait..."Lace, get on the wheel. Anne, we move on my command, okay?""Got it.""Oui, Madame."With my orders given, I stepped towards our security risk. The reality that her fellow Prime must be looking for her right now would probably be the last thing I needed to help work
The Least Common Denominator LXXVIII.III Vector Quantity
Grigori gave me a small glance as he made sure to position himself near the back of the vehicle. With everybody- wait... I seriously forgot to get someone to be on coal duty, didn't I..."Shit!"Ducking my head back under the hatch, I turned my gaze to the two unoccupied members of the party. I didn't really care which of the two wanted to do it. What mattered was that someone got in there and began shoveling before we literally ran out of steam."Ruby! Phillipe! I need one of you to get in the coal chamber!" I yelled out. "I don't care who, just that someone be there and do it!""But-"I didn't bother hearing another one of Phillipe's protests as I returned to the more important job of being a lookout. All around us, the people were honest-to-god screaming and gasping at us as we moved forw
Latest Chapter
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
- The Least Common Denominator
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat
