episode_0080

Violet quickly left Circcliff with the brokers. Fortunately, no one was chasing them yet.

After driving for a long time, they stopped for lunch. Once they had some breathing room, the brokers belatedly introduced themselves.

Their official title was . Just from the name, it sounded less like a brokerage and more like a construction site where middle-aged men would come and go. The Rapid Manpower Agency consisted of four members in total.

First, there was an ordinary middle-aged man dressed in a casual suit.

“I’m Leslie. I’m the Section Chief. Nice to meet you.”

“Section Chief? Not the CEO?”

“Given our scale, everyone laughs when we use titles like CEO or Chairman.”

He chuckled.

Next, a brown-haired bartender woman introduced herself.

“I’m Aina. At the manpower agency, I handle liaisons and accounting.”

A slightly small-framed man wearing a T-shirt and headphones also spoke.

“I’m Mark. I’m in charge of information gathering. I can handle computers a bit too.”

A large man in a short-sleeved shirt and a vest also hesitated before answering.

“I’m Kasian. I handle various support tasks and… security… Section Chief-nim. But I’m not getting fired, am I? Right?”

“Fired? No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

From his words, it seemed he was a former C-rank Hunter. He’d been beaten by the Fixers and his pride had been wounded.

“By the way, Fixer-nim, what should I call you?”

Listening to the Section Chief, we fell into contemplation. Come to think of it, we hadn’t introduced ourselves. What would be an appropriate title?

“Captain-nim? No, that’s too grand. Commander-nim sounds strange too.”

“That person is the Section Chief, right? Since we’re higher, let’s go with CEO.”

“Call me Ariel! Address me as CEO.”

“Understood, CEO-nim!”

After finishing the discussion, they continued to drive towards the Central District.

In the afternoon, several suspicious cars pursued them on the road. There were even motorcycles with people wielding knives.

“Shoot!”

*Whizz! Bang bang bang!*

“Ughhhhh!”

Of course, they were destroyed every time. Taking a few cars from the gang hideout had been a good choice.

The motorcycles chasing them were showered with bullets and bolts from the nearby escort vehicles, crashing into the roadside.

The brokers watched, amazed.

“Wow…”

“Indeed, it was a wise choice…”

Once they crossed into the Central District, no one pursued them any longer.

The next morning, I headed to where they were unpacking.

The Rapid Manpower Agency personnel set up relatively close to our base. I had intentionally instructed them to be near the Violets’ barracks.

“Quickly get me some perception-inhibiting equipment. A mask would be best, if possible.”

“Understood! We’ll get them for you as soon as we’re settled.”

They didn’t know it, but I couldn’t fully trust them yet, so I planned to keep them under 24-hour surveillance. Even now, Violets assigned to surveillance were already positioned around them.

First, I should give them a few tasks to test their connections and information-gathering abilities.

“Can you handle stolen goods?”

“We can!”

The answer came immediately. I asked something else.

“You said you trade information, right? Do you also do background checks?”

“That’s a basic service. We don’t do it ourselves; we find out by asking around our contacts. Who are you looking for?”

Is this guy perhaps just bluffing? It seemed suspicious that he could do everything.

I sent a series of personal data files to his smartphone.

“Two students? That’s not difficult. It’s unusual that both siblings’ names start with an ‘M’. Their surname is Perian, and with the provided data, we should find them quickly. Is there anything else you need?”

I sent more data.

“This is…?”

“This is the list of Polaris Academy’s student council, school administration, and board of directors. Investigate everyone on this list. For the student council, focus on the student council president, vice president, and treasurer. Investigate the administration staff thoroughly as well. Things like where the employees live, their family relationships, if they have a romantic partner, where they frequent. Also, find out their reputation and rumors, and their financial situation.”

“Understood. You want us to find their weaknesses, right? Let’s see. The board of directors consists of…”

The Section Chief’s face stiffened abruptly as he examined the list I had given him.

“Noctis Valefor? This person is that war hero! The former Commander-in-Chief of Magnabys! This is a bit…”

As he waved his hand, I quickly added a few more explanations.

“You don’t need to dig too deep. If it’s too much, you can skip that person. I just want you to find out things not commonly known, within your capabilities. Can you do that much?”

“I’ll try. CEO-nim, I don’t know what your objective is… Ah, no. I’m not interested. However, since the target is one of the Four Great Clans, we’ll need to move discreetly, so it will take some time.”

“Within a month, can you do it?”

“Two weeks, no, I’ll find out within a week.”

I nodded lightly.

There was a limit to the information the Violets could obtain by searching the internet, poring over books, or doing legwork. Even if they tried to infiltrate covertly, they needed to know what was where to sneak in. Entrusting these tasks to experts was faster and more efficient.

Of course, I still couldn’t trust whether these guys would truly do the job properly. I would have to keep an eye on them.

Suddenly, a few more things came to mind.

“Oh, right, find two more people, no! Three more people!”

“Who are they?”

“Osprey Rodriguez, the leader of this neighborhood’s vigilante group.”

And he was also Kalia’s uncle.

The Brotherhood members were still diligently searching for their leader, but he was nowhere to be seen. No one knew if he was dead or alive.

Kalia, though outwardly indifferent, reacted violently, as if oil had been poured on a fire, whenever news of her uncle surfaced. However, others discouraged her from taking direct action due to a previous incident where she was abducted by the Raphlaxia guys.

“And the other two are siblings. Their names are Seijis and Sophieel.”

“Do you know their surname? What about their appearance?”

“I don’t know their surname! Appearance-wise, black hair. I heard they belonged to the Inspection Bureau, but I want to know if these two are currently working there and what their positions are.”

I also needed to find out the current status of the scholarship officer.

Section Chief Leslie listened to my words, pondered, then slowly began to speak.

“The Inspection Bureau? That’s also a rather closed organization. Identity verification will take some time. But we’ll try.”

“Alright, then good work!”

“Yes, CEO-nim. You can look forward to it!”

Escorted by the Section Chief, I left.

It felt awkward to be addressed respectfully by an older man while in the body of a young girl. However, in this world, awakened beings generally held the upper hand. And those people had directly or indirectly witnessed my power; I held an overwhelming advantage.

I need to get used to the title of CEO quickly.

***

Aside from managing the newly hired people, the Violets had a lot to do. First, they had to organize the spoils of war.

Currently, the Violets were inspecting the weapons seized from the workshop where bombs were made.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t salvage much. We should’ve used fewer Molotov cocktails!”

“Most of them were damaged or broken when we fought the Fixers.”

The gang members, surprisingly, had many good weapons.

Most of the armament consisted of cheap 1-star weapons like the [P-15 Automatic Rifle ☆], [Type 5 Automatic Rifle ☆], or [M-12 Submachine Gun ☆] used by research lab guards. At a glance, they screamed “I’m cheap” with their whole bodies.

The item the gang boss used was a 2-star weapon, named [Burnt Beast Hunting Shotgun ☆☆]. It was damaged during the battle.

Their general maintenance was also a mess, so they decided to keep a few for replication and discard or sell the rest.

However, they found something valuable among them.

In my hand was a crude, brutish combination of iron and wood.

The name of this large and beautiful weapon was the [SBS-4 Riot Control Shotgun ☆☆☆], and I could see the three shining stars written next to its name. I pulled the loading handle and extracted the bullet from the chamber.

A thick, yellow brass casing gleamed.

“4 gauge? What does that mean?”

“It means it’s really powerful, that’s what. Look at the bullet. It’s thicker than our fingers!”

I didn’t have a useful projectile weapon for close range, so I should try this later. I became curious about what would happen if I used it on a monster or a person.

But there was another true reward.

“It’s a sniper rifle!”

“It’s not a sniper rifle, it’s a battle rifle. It can even fire in bursts.”

Three futuristic, grey rifles lay before the Violets.

Various accessories were attached, such as different types of scopes, bipods, vertical grips, laser sights, and long suppressors.

The name of this item was the FSR-15 Battle Rifle, and they had barely managed to salvage 3 out of the 6 that the gang had.

It was a 4-star weapon. Four stars!

Holding it for a long time without enhancement, my arm ached.

The bullet was longer than our hand, similar in size to the heavy machine gun rounds I’d seen during my military service before being possessed.

*Bang!*

To test its power, I set up a mannequin outside the workshop and fired. The sound wasn’t as loud as I expected. All the parts moved smoothly. The recoil was also soft.

However, the sound and the power were separate matters. The mannequin’s upper body shattered with a *thump*.

“Ahhh! How did we even defeat those gang members?”

“No wonder the walls had so many holes.”

It’s chilling. If I got hit directly by something like this, I’d become a Violet donut.

I tried replicating it once, and the result was similar to when I replicated the Blade of Blazing Flame.

“So 4-star weapons also degrade.”

“What a waste!”

The [FSR-15 Battle Rifle ☆☆☆☆] became a [Crude FSR-15 Battle Rifle ☆☆]. They looked identical on the outside, but what was the difference?

“Should I try firing it?”

I went outside and aimed at a distant mound of dirt. I loaded a bullet into the chamber and pulled the charging handle. Unlike the original, the moving parts felt stiff, and the handling was much worse. The trigger pull was also awful. The scope didn’t function properly.

*Bang!*

Black smoke billowed from the muzzle and the chamber. The bullet missed the target.

“Ow! My shoulder hurts!”

As I also felt when replicating the Blade of Blazing Flame, when replicating equipment of a certain grade or higher, its performance significantly decreased compared to the original. Just in the status window, two stars were lost. The Blade of Blazing Flame lost its original flame attack ability, and the battle rifle became a crude counterfeit.

“Bullets and bombs don’t replicate well either. What’s the problem?”

“Is it because complex chemical substances don’t work? Then I don’t know why swords or guns do.”

A similar thing happened when replicating homemade explosives. I could make them, but out of ten, eight or nine were duds. The remaining one also had significantly reduced power.

“Looks like our ability is still lacking.”

Just in case, I rummaged through my memory of the original work’s knowledge, but I couldn’t get a good grasp of it.

In the main story, the Witch of Limitless also replicated and used swords or spears like me. However, I didn’t know if she could skillfully replicate firearms. The Witch Violet was set to only use cold weapons due to her preference.

She enjoyed using explosives, but I didn’t know if she acquired them externally or replicated them.

“Ultimately, it’s a problem that time will solve. Don’t worry too much about it.”

“Let’s clean up quickly and rest!”

The Violets diligently made lists and organized the ammunition and weapons. Other equipment salvaged from the Fixers’ corpses was also visible. Unfortunately, they were all 3-star weapons. I wondered if that hammer staff would be somewhat useful.

“I need to test the weapons we got this time in a dungeon.”

“Good! While we’re at it, let’s quickly deal with the multi-dimensional storage bag too. I should think about who to give it to.”

Once this week’s tasks were done, I should take one of my friends to the Novastia Dungeon. Since there was one multi-dimensional storage bag left, it seemed right to give it to someone trustworthy rather than leaving it as is.

***

And so, time was spent on training, work, minor investigations, and management.

“I can’t seem to focus on my books…”

While I was resting in the dorm, Daphne complained and set down her books on the table. After hearing the truth about the academy from me, Daphne’s passion for academics had been extinguished as if water had been poured on it.

It was understandable. If the academy was conducting suspicious human experiments on students, what importance could studies possibly hold? The books Daphne was currently holding weren’t even textbooks. They were guides for transfer or re-enrollment procedures.

“Violet, you said you’d explain what you’re going to do later, right?”

“That’s right. I’m going to have a big meeting later, and I’ll tell you everything then.”

If Irene understood my declaration to “destroy the school” as “exposing the conspiracy of lunatics and normalizing the school,” Daphne understood it as “thoroughly punishing the bad people.” Relatively speaking, Daphne’s understanding was closer to my actual intent.

“No matter what you do, I trust you, Violet. But please, don’t do anything too dangerous. Okay?”

“Yep!”

I did a lot of dangerous things the day before yesterday, but I should probably not mention it. If she found out I waged war against dozens of gang members, I’d probably get scolded for doing something so reckless.

Suddenly, looking at the transfer-related documents Daphne was reading, something came to mind. How did the few survivors of Polaris—including Irene—transfer to other schools after the academy was destroyed?

This was a very important matter. I didn’t want an ending where I punished all the bad guys, only to be stuck in my room unable to attend school myself. School life, after a long time, was quite enjoyable.

“Let’s consider a real-world scenario. If a school closes for some reason, the Ministry of Education pushes for special transfers to nearby schools. I wonder if it’s the same for Polaris?”

“Right, why didn’t I think of something so simple? Let’s look it up.”

The Violets searched for information, and before long, they found the answer.

“It’s true. There’s a related regulation.”

“”

It exists! Although in this case, it was an administrative procedure handled by an agency within the Academy City, rather than the Ministry of Education. There were several real-world examples too.

“Atlas Vocational Academy, caught in a gate emergence during an experiential learning trip, many faculty and students died, closure decided—transfer of surviving students promoted… That’s what it says.”

“Midline Academy, school building completely burned down during a magic experiment, board of directors declared bankruptcy… This is a case where the school was completely burned down and the board went bankrupt, leading to special transfers.”

“Oh, this is it.”

We looked at the examples and smiled inwardly with satisfaction. Another reason to blow up this academy had arisen.

“Wait a minute, even with special transfers, they don’t just let anyone in! They check grades.”

“What?”

The Violets examined the situation a bit more closely.

“Usually, they just transfer you to a nearby academy. To get into a good school, you need to get good grades.”

“Ugh! I hate studying.”

A good idea came to mind. The Violets simultaneously blurted out their respective thoughts.

“Then, let’s cheat!”

“Let’s steal the test papers!”

The October diagnostic test was only a few days away. Should we infiltrate somewhere? We chuckled lightly.