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ArabicGenshin Impacti: This Priest is Cringe, But She's Also Unbeatable — Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Social Death Aftershock
The referee’s announcement was like a thunderclap, jolting the petrified audience from their collective trance.
The dead silence that had fallen over the arena was instantly shattered by a deafening roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the stadium.
A tidal wave of discussion, exclamation, and countless suppressed, distorted bursts of wild laughter crashed over the entire venue.
Celeste stood frozen in the center of the stage, feeling like a newly discovered species being pinned to a board, dissected from every conceivable angle by thousands of piercing gazes.
The ten-second transformation timed out with pinpoint precision.
The crisp civil official’s uniform and the wire-rimmed glasses on her face dissolved in a shimmer of light, returning her to the familiar black and white of her combat suit.
With movements as stiff as a rusted automaton, she fled the stage, the sticky weight of countless stares clinging to her back.
But the aftertaste of her social death was only just beginning to ferment.
“Holy crap! She changed back! What the hell was that? Some new kind of optical camouflage?”
“Camouflage my ass! Did you see the power behind that staff strike? The one that shattered the ice armor? That was the real deal!”
“So… that outfit is her combat form? This awakened ability is way too weird!”
“Weird or not, who got a recording? I need an HD copy, stat! Senior Celeste wearing glasses, that stoic and intellectual vibe… I’m dying! Isn’t this a million times better than some hot-blooded fight?!”
The gazes felt like molten glue, sticking tenaciously to her back. There was scrutiny, there was shock, but most of all, there was the barely contained glee of people trying so hard not to laugh that their faces were turning crimson.
Some of those stares were so hot they practically burned her skin, especially those coming from the student reporters who had their Light-computers raised high, their eyes sparkling with the unholy fire of gossip.
“Student! Classmate Celeste, please wait a moment!”
A boy wearing thick glasses charged through the crowd like a small armored vehicle, clutching a sketchbook to his chest. His cheeks were flushed a deep red with an excess of excitement.
“That uniform you were just wearing was so unique! Which unit’s civil officer uniform from the Lost Era was it? And the glasses, were they some kind of special Catalyst for mental amplification? Can you describe the feeling of the transformation in detail? This is critically important for my thesis!”
Celeste’s footsteps froze.
Right now, all she wanted was to find a hole to crawl into and pull the dirt in after her.
“Yes, yes!” Another girl, this one from the History Club, squeezed through the throng, her voice brimming with an excitement she couldn’t hope to control. “And that gesture, pushing up your glasses! It was filled with the quiet authority of a master strategist! Our club is currently restoring ancient military etiquette; this is a major discovery, I’m sure of it!”
Before she could finish, a staff member in an official uniform, a committee badge pinned to his chest, parted the crowd and strode over. He was making a conscious effort to keep his face straight, to maintain the dignity of his position, but the fire of raw curiosity in his eyes burned brighter than anyone’s.
“Classmate Celeste, I am a Special Observer from the Tournament Organizing Committee.”
“Regarding the transformation ability you displayed during the match, we’ve checked all available records and found no precedent. This falls outside of standard procedures. Could you please explain exactly what it is?”
Celeste stared at the three pairs of eyes, all practically exploding with curiosity. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw her own sister, Selene, clutching her stomach and shaking with silent laughter, her phone’s camera still pointed unwaveringly in her direction.
Her chest heaved. She forced a smile onto her face that looked more painful than a grimace.
In a purely subconscious move, she raised a hand and pushed at the bridge of her nose, where a pair of non-existent glasses had sat just moments before.
At this moment, she summoned every last ounce of her acting talent, imitating a professional tone so cold it was almost inhuman, and spoke one deliberate word at a time:
“A type of… unstable Heroic Spirit Summoning Possession Technique.”
“The trigger conditions are… random.”
She intentionally emphasized the words “unstable” and “random,” desperately hoping to douse the flames of their curiosity.
“Just now, for example, it granted me the ‘Insight into Weakness’ trait.”
“Heroic Spirit!” The boy with the glasses became instantly ecstatic, the tip of his pen scraping against his sketchbook with a piercing shriek. “I knew it! That glasses-pushing gesture and the way you spoke must be the combat habits of that civil official Heroic Spirit! This is priceless! Living historical data!”
The committee observer’s eyes widened in understanding as he quickly tapped notes into his terminal. “Weakness Insight… no wonder she could pierce the ice armor in a single hit. ‘Unstable’and’random’… we will note this with the highest priority. Thank you for your cooperation.”
[Ding! Passive social death has triggered intense joy in a specific group (Researchers/History Enthusiasts/Official Observers). Elation Coins +88! Host, you see? As long as you find the right audience, social death can also bloom with the flowers of happiness!]
Celeste’s eye twitched violently.
‘I’d like to thank your entire family tree for these damn flowers!’
Unable to take it another second, she grabbed the still-laughing Selene and, using every bit of strength she had, sprinted away from the scene like a hundred-meter dash champion, leaving a trail of cries in her wake. “Student, don’t run!”, “We mean no harm!”, and “Just a few more words, please!”
Only after ducking into the Hover Bus heading home, the closing doors finally cutting off all outside gazes, did she collapse into a seat, feeling her soul slowly seep back into her body.
Having finally laughed her fill, Selene wiped the tears from her eyes and put away her Light-computer, handling it with the reverence one might reserve for a peerless treasure.
“Sis, that expression on your face… wanting to murder someone while having to keep smiling… Hahaha… it’s definitely the best footage I’ve filmed all year! Don’t worry, I’ll treasure it forever. I’ll even keep it under triple-layer encryption for you!”
She paused, then added with surprising sincerity, “But seriously, that outfit with the glasses-pushing move was so cool. You really had that stoic battlefield commander vibe going on.”
Celeste gave her a weak, withering glare. “You truly are my dear, loving sister.”
“I’m not joking,” Selene leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, her eyes full of stars. “Is what you told the officials true? Is it really Heroic Spirit possession? You didn’t just make that up on the spot, did you?”
Celeste rubbed her temples, knowing she couldn’t hide it completely from her sister. She could only explain with a carefully curated mix of truth and lies. “It’s a type of… unstable special ability. The trigger conditions are ridiculous, and the effects… well, you saw them.”
As expected, Selene’s gamer brain immediately latched onto the concept. She patted her sister’s shoulder sympathetically.
“Got it. A passive skill with an unknown cooldown and random effects that you can’t manually turn off. Sis, you’ve had it rough.”
But then her eyes lit up again. “But the effect is seriously strong! You pierced right through Xu Bingbing’s turtle shell in one go! That’s practically a god-tier armor-piercing skill!”
At the mention of this, Celeste also managed to calm down.
Although the process had been agonizing, the “Weakness Insight” and “Ignore Defense” effects the system had provided were, indeed, incredibly powerful.
It left her with a complicated mix of teeth-gritting dread and a helpless, morbid anticipation for whatever the system’s unreliable abilities would throw at her next.
However, the moment she thought of the Venti trial card lying quietly in her system inventory, Celeste’s mood instantly plummeted back into the abyss.
Venti’s outfit…
That was a hundred times more embarrassing than Pela’s uniform.
On a stage watched by thousands, transforming into a bard wearing a frilly shirt, a corset, a green beret, and—worst of all—gleaming white tights… and then having to strum a lyre and recite poetry?
That was no longer just social death.
That was social extinction.
She secretly made a vow. She would never, ever use that trial card in the tournament, not even if it killed her.
‘Even if I have to use it later, I have to save it for the Domain points competition…’she thought frantically.’At least in a Domain, the live broadcast cameras might not follow me the whole time. Besides, social death through a camera is infinitely better than social death in front of tens of thousands of people in the flesh!’
‘Yes, it’s settled!’
With this resolution made, Celeste’s mindset actually relaxed completely.
What was the worst that could happen? Her most embarrassing side had already been seen. For the next matches, she’d just leave it to fate.
As long as no more weird transformations were triggered.
She even began to seriously consider how to allocate her stamina and mana for the quarter-finals. Her opponent was a defense-oriented warrior student named Gao Shen. She needed a strategy to wear him down as much as possible without revealing any more of her trump cards.
After all, a support class making it into the top eight was an unmatched record in Yi City’s history.
Her name, Celeste, was destined to be recorded in the school’s annals.
And her brief, accidental “Heroic Spirit Summoning” would surely become the greatest, most ridiculous legend of this year’s Martial Arts Exam.