Chapter 187: Humanity Can Never Escape Curses
The world is often like this: if you have no talent, no matter how hard you work, the end result might not even match the casual effort of a "genius-type" individual. By the same logic, sometimes the effort of racking one's brains and spending vast amounts of time to solve a problem cannot compare to a single moment of inspiration.
Quantity—that was the key node Emiya realized in that instant.
Of course, the so-called "quantity" didn't refer to the number of jujutsu sorcerers, but rather to another critical direction: the number of "curses" themselves.
If one were to use empathy and change perspectives slightly, they should have thought of it: why were the missing sorcerers all core strength members at Grade 2 or above? What exactly did they have in common?
Aside from overt clues like cursed energy volume and combat strength—which any normal person would notice instantly—there was a hidden variable in the shadows that was equally important: the number of curses each person had exorcised.
A powerful sorcerer naturally exorcises curses much faster than a weaker one, especially in the current Shibuya District.
Because of the monitoring equipment designed by Romm, the number of newly discovered "curses" even slightly exceeded the speed at which over a hundred sorcerers could exorcise them. This left the sorcerers with almost no downtime to rest.
Under the premise of constantly receiving target coordinates and being guided directly to scenes for exorcism, there was no way the speed of a low-level sorcerer could match that of a high-level one; after all, the raw disparity in strength was right there.
This was a variable easily overlooked due to the superficial factor of "strength." Coupled with the massive "outbreak" of curse numbers, it was only natural for the college to subconsciously ignore it. Furthermore, when had there ever been a special case where the trigger condition of one curse was linked to the exorcism of other curses?
People confined to specific mindsets find it difficult to jump out of their inherent boundaries.
However, saying that the number of "curses" had suffered a "massive outbreak" wasn't entirely accurate. Those curses had always been lurking there; it was just that people previously had no way of discovering them.
Just because you haven't found termites in your room doesn't mean they aren't there. And the moment you see even a single termite, it proves that countless others are already hidden in the shadows of the room.
"Quick, do you have records of the number of curses each sorcerer has exorcised?"
Emiya immediately asked into the comms after realizing this.
"The number of exorcised curses... Please wait a moment!"
Fortunately, the liaison officer responsible for communicating with Emiya wasn't slow. After a brief stun, he immediately realized the information Emiya was after and notified the technical staff on the other side to compile the relevant data.
Waiting less than two minutes, the other side brought Emiya the statistics for known "curses" and the number of "curses" cleared by the missing sorcerers. The results coincided perfectly with Emiya's guess—
The missing sorcerers had all cleared "curses" in the double digits over the past two days; the most prolific one had even personally resolved over thirty known "curse" cases.
In contrast, among the sorcerers who hadn't gone missing, those who had managed to reach double digits were few and far between.
This meant they could almost directly confirm that the trigger and selection criteria for the unknown "curse" were based on the quantity of curses exorcised within a short period.
As for why such a bizarre link existed?
That wasn't a question Emiya needed to ponder. His only concern was how to find the true form of this curse, resolve it, and bring back the missing sorcerers.
"Very well. Since we can confirm the condition for being 'tainted' by the curse lies there... you should still have many detected but unhandled curses on your end, right?
Send me the coordinates of those nearby. I need to verify the accuracy of this intel... Too much time has already been wasted."
Emiya had always been a man of action, and he was never one to feel fear toward a sliver of the unknown.
"But Emiya-san, even if this is true, we only know the trigger condition. We're still far from uncovering information about the curse itself. Wouldn't making contact so rashly be too dangerous...?"
When facing danger and the unknown, one must deliberate carefully first. This is certainly the most correct and stable plan, one that would never be wrong. However, while Emiya and everyone on the outside could wait, the sorcerers currently missing and interfered with by the "curse" could not.
"You can't put it that way. The state of 'danger' is clearly not meant to describe us.
The sorcerers truly in danger are still waiting for our aid. And even if I am dragged into some so-called danger...
For me, it might not actually be dangerous."
"I understand."
No matter what, they—who didn't even dare step foot into Shibuya—had no right to make choices for Emiya; at most, they could offer minor suggestions. After receiving the affirmative answer, the operator stopped wasting words and quickly sent the real-time compiled data to Emiya's phone.
When Emiya finally saw the map marked with "curse" locations, his brow finally couldn't help but furrow slightly.
It wasn't because the number of curses was too scarce to meet the criteria. On the contrary, Emiya found it troublesome precisely because the number of "curses" was so staggering.
The map he received was densely packed with red dots; a rough estimate placed the count at well over three hundred.
Emiya could easily gather ten curses within a two-kilometer radius of his current position.
Keep in mind, this was just the Shibuya District. If one used this average to calculate for all of Tokyo, wouldn't the number of curses easily reach the tens of thousands?
"How can there be so many curses?"
This was the state of things after over a hundred sorcerers had spent two full days clearing them without sleep. Didn't that mean the original number might have been over two thousand?
"Because, Emiya-san, the conditions for a curse to form might be even simpler than you previously imagined.
The negative emotions of just one person can potentially give birth to a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, and everyone in society has more or less negative emotions... Likely, the negative states of most people occupy about half of their time.
The cursed energy and curses hidden within society are actually far more numerous than sorcerers imagine. It's just that most of them can only give birth to weak Grade 4 spirits that are barely a nuisance.
And because human negative emotions are generated every single moment, it is absolutely impossible to clear curses completely.
According to our previous calculations, a count of around three hundred curses is likely the 'baseline' in Shibuya that can hardly be lowered further..."
Humanity can never escape "curses," just as they can never escape their own "negativity."
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