Chapter 1146 Cognitively Dissonant
Chapter 1146 Cognitively Dissonant
The Osan Woods' Butcher fiasco had caused unrest throughout the kingdom of Edinburgh.
Many cultist organizations used the butcher as a metaphorical scapegoat to conduct their activities, putting the consequences in his name. Sara's family also suffered from the unrest that was created in the butcher's name. It moved to a completely different location without telling anyone.
Sara only kept contact with Katalina from her pre-shift life. And since the latter had her own life as a ranker, Sara stayed low-key in her new place with her parents.
Sara learned that there was a Rank-0 artifact available inside the capital city of Edin. It could pair up with a range of array disks and use them as inputs to render a visual image directly inside Sara's head.
The artifact had multiple functions. All of them were attuned to helping blind mortals "see" the world around them.
Sara wouldn't have been able to buy the Rank-0 because it could only be bought using Extols as currency. And as a mortal, Sara and her family were used to dealing with Eddies. In Edin, the conversion from Eddies to Extols was horrendous.
However, Sara had received a huge sum of Extols from Katalina. Of course, to Katalina, it didn't seem like that much of a big deal. But to Sara and her family, the sum was enough to overcome her handicap.
Sara discovered that there was a graduation event taking place in Edin's capital city. So she decided to check it out with a couple of cousins she had.
***
"Why are you only following Eren Idril's battles, Sara?"
One of Sara's cousins asked while staring at her spectral screen. She snatched the array dial from her hands and switched to a different battle POV.
"Hmm… this is much better. Look, this is His Highness Cedrick Renar."
Sara's cousin then took out the second array dial and paired it up with the first dial. Shen then placed both of them back in Sara's hands.
The function of the Rank-0 artifact that Sara had recently bought was activated. It converted the spectral screen's feed into special kinds of visual signals and sent them directly into Sara's frontal cortex. It allowed her to "see" the battle between Cedrick Renar and his opponents.
Sara felt like she was imagining a battle taking place between Cedrick and his opponents. Her mortal brain couldn't visually render all the information it was provided with.
As a result, the imagery would become blurry and less detail-oriented from time to time. It was a completely different experience from the ability to actually see events with one's eyes.
However, Sara didn't complain. She was happy with the fact that she could visually observe the world around her with the help of her most recent and most expensive purchase. Only Katalina knew how much Sara had thanked her for it.
Sara had decided that she would travel to the city of White Raven to meet with Katalina Reich to surprise her. It was just that she needed to make a bunch of travel arrangements for a safe and secure journey. After all, the sheer distance between her current location and the city of White Raven wasn't a small thing for her.
Sara was not happy with her cousin's behavior. She scrunched her nose before changing the feed on the spectral screen, switching it back to Eren's battle with other participants.
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Sara activated another function on the array disk and looked at her cousin before responding with a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Tch. You always do this, Sasan. Don't make me watch something I have no interest in. And don't make decisions for yourself because you are bereft of critical thinking."
Sasan Stark felt wronged by Sara's behavior. However, he couldn't say anything back to Sara because he did not understand what "bereft of critical thinking" actually entailed. Or it was just that he did not know how to make a comeback after being labeled that way.
Sara had a peculiar personality trait. She had a knack for verbally berating people without hurting them.
Eren had experienced this better than anybody in the past timeline. She would often call him "cognitively dissonant" whenever he said something or did something she did not particularly approve of.
The butcher never got to know that Sara was actually calling him stupid all that time whenever she metaphorically slapped the "cognitively dissonant" label on his forehead. One could say that the blind girl had her own way of having fun.
Sara took a special interest in Eren's battle for some reason. A reason she couldn't explain herself to. She watched the butcher's moves keenly despite the brutality it generated everywhere around him.
She didn't feel scared or repulsed by witnessing something like that. Instead, she felt that there was some form of harmony in his moves. It was as if she was seeing someone do their daily chore with such effortless grace that the chore stopped looking like a chore.
Being blind for so long, Sara interpreted people's actions with a different perspective than other mortals and rankers. Through her focus on obvious details, she was able to observe something most others could not.
Sara could immediately tell that Eren was a special person because of the way he moved and performed inside the Sansara World. She also felt that she was becoming biased toward Eren because of the links he shared with Katalna.
'Should… should I ask Expert Eren if he could give me a lift to the city of White Raven?'
Sara thought to herself as she watched Eren chop off the limbs of another ranker. He allowed the safety mechanism of the Sansara World to activate on his body, allowing him to escape the death penalty he could have dished out anytime he wanted.
Sara decided she would try to meet Eren if possible and see what kind of ranker he was in person. She thought of asking him for a favor only if he was accommodating enough.
In the next moment, however, Sara got even more irritated. That's because Eren's battle feed was disconnected from all the spectral screens midway. And the viewers who were consuming his feed could not understand the reason behind it.