Going Up 3

Even though I had received the mission, it didn’t mean I had to head straight to the Central.

As the Governor-General of the lower layer, I had things to take care of. Besides, even though Oriana told me to go up immediately, it was more like a joke, so she said I could take a reasonable break before going.

‘Besides, it doesn’t seem that urgent for something they called a rebellion…’

If it were a truly urgent and serious rebellion, the mission wouldn’t have been given to me. First-Class Overseers like Oriana or Fira Dunhill would have gone straight there and executed the rebels without exception.

“Number from the right.”

“1.”

“2.”

“3…”

I was meeting the dolls and Marlang for the first time in a while.

Originally, I was going to upgrade the dolls’ internal systems and firmware, but I was suddenly caught by Fira and dragged into the Abyss, so I couldn’t properly take care of them.

Marlang had followed me all the way to the Ark, but I had only given her work and hadn’t played with her properly, so I decided to pay some attention to her this time.

“48.”

“49.”

“50.”

“Marlang! Number’s done!”

“Good job.”

I stroked Marlang’s head as she shrugged her shoulders like a captain, and the texture was quite nice.

“Anyone have anything unusual to report?”

At my words, all the dolls raised their hands.

Marlang hesitated for a moment before subtly raising her hand.

This was probably because I had taken away the computational power connected to the dolls while fighting Luichella.

The 50 dolls were set to have me as their master and were directly or indirectly connected to me.

Just as electronic devices are affected by the wavelengths of surrounding electronic devices, the 50 combat dolls were quite similar to me.

Of course, since their humanity had been removed and a new combat personality as dolls had been created, no doll could remember their past life.

Instead, the dolls had the advantage of being able to self-upgrade and replace body parts like me. Most of all, by connecting with me, their internal systems and computational structure changed, greatly increasing their inherent performance.

In other words, each of those dolls was now my terminal and avatar.

The dolls could assist my computational power and overload system, and conversely, I could assist and upgrade the dolls’ abilities.

‘It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call all of these children Alice already.’

If I wanted to, I could transfer my personality and open my eyes in the body of a doll.

“Anyone have problems with their internal systems? Raise your hand.”

All 50 raise their hands.

Interpreting and reverse-calculating the magic they were hit with wasn’t easy, but I didn’t realize that I had burdened them by borrowing their computational power in the lower layer.

But Marlang also raised her hand again.

She must have been bored.

“Since I’m set as your master, I’m going to run internal firmware, software, and diagnostic systems from now on. You can leave if you have any objections or discomfort.”

“No.”

“None.”

“Our master is Alice.”

“We have straightened out the security of the lower layer according to your orders.”

“We exist thanks to you taking us in.”

“We do not doubt you.”

Even though people say dolls have no humanity, seeing them say things like this makes me think they are slowly recovering their humanity and emotions, even if only a little.

Besides, when I saw them last time, they subtly revealed their individual preferences and tendencies, so it’s certain.

Anyway, as I felt the sensation of brain cells being destroyed and restored with a slight creak, Theresa somehow pulled out a mechanical tendril from my spine and started plugging it into the back of each doll’s neck.

I was relieved that none of them seemed to be in pain.

【Conducting diagnostics.】

As soon as the diagnostics began, the minds of the children and my mind began to synchronize.

Since the children originally lacked humanity, my mind wasn’t overwhelmed, but conversely, the dolls would be overwhelmed by my mind, quickly recovering their humanity or experiencing an upgrade in their system’s computational system, so they would be out of their minds.

But this is a necessary process.

Just as I upgraded all the modules, parts, and systems in my body when I became a Second-Class Overseer, it was essential for these children as well.

Especially since I will have to go to the Central soon.

There will be threats different from those in the lower layer and the Abyss, so it would be better for my mind and body to go up in a stronger state than to remain stagnant.

【System integrity 18%】

【Main system Alice – Subordinate entity system Dolls – Cleaner initiated】

【Thought connection complete】

【Thought acceleration complete】

【Computational system synchronization complete】

Listening to Theresa’s words, I slowly strengthen the connection with the children.

This feels quite strange.

I am clearly one, but I feel like I have become 50.

I feel like I am 50 and yet one.

I am me.

I am a doll.

A doll is me.

A doll is you.

Ugh… my head.

Is this what it feels like to take drugs?

“Marlang!”

In the middle of all this, Marlang took one of my tendrils and plugged it into the back of her neck… well, nothing will happen, right?

She’s not a machine, and she’s an immortal girl who recovers in one second even if you plug a mechanical tendril into her head.

“Oh, a mental connection?”

“It’s a parallel thought connection. It’s not that advanced.”

Oriana appeared behind me, sipping a mixed coffee.

Perhaps because she became a First-Class Overseer by handling artificial spirits, she seemed to know what I was doing.

Oriana must have created artificial spirits and implanted them countless times in her own body or in others, and of course, the artificial spirits implanted in the body had to have smooth communication and cooperation with the owner of the body, so she must have made countless mental connections between humans and spirits.

What I was doing with the dolls was a bit different, but the direction itself was similar to Oriana’s artificial spirits.

“Listen while you’re doing that. The Academy suspected of rebellion is Ruincrest Academy.”

“That’s a strange name.”

There are many educational facilities in the center of the Ark.

However, among them, the Academy is not just an educational institution, but also a succession of power and a transfer of vested interests, and one of the important institutions with complex political relationships.

It goes without saying that it was one of the places where the Ark’s top graduates, the rich, and the high-ranking officials gathered.

Now, signs of rebellion have been detected in such a place.

“But there’s something I don’t understand.”

“What is it?”

“If they’re from the Ark’s privileged class, they’re living without any shortages, right? Why would such people dream of rebellion?”

I don’t understand it well.

Isn’t one of the easiest ways for politicians to make citizens ignorant is through bread and circuses?

First, make them warm and full, and even with the citizens of the middle and lower layers as a comparison, what revolution would the privileged class dream of?

“Certainly, as you said, there haven’t been any humans dreaming of rebellion in the upper and central layers for the past 200 years or so. It’s not that there aren’t any, but there are some ominous signs, but the situation has never escalated to the point where an Overseer has to step in.”

“I find it a bit strange that this kind of thing is suddenly happening to me. Besides, if it’s the Academy, they’re people who have learned enough, in addition to being rich and high-ranking, right?”

“That’s the problem, they’ve learned just enough to be dangerous.”

Oriana chuckled and picked up her personal cup.

Judging from the warm steam and smell, it was mixed coffee.

“The Academy days are when pampered young masters who have never faced real monsters and disasters shrug their shoulders and see everything in the world as being beneath their feet.”

Come to think of it, Oriana has liked mixed coffee since the first time I met her.

I heard that coffee itself is extinct, so the existence of artificial mixed coffee is quite rare?

“Young nobles who are complacent in peace, so they see the death outside as a joke. There are more than just one or two of those kids.”

The Academy is the best educational institution that produces high-quality manpower such as executors and Overseers, and it is a place that cultivates the next generation of talent to protect the Ark, but that doesn’t mean they can be made to face True Ancestors.

Well, the students there are full of arrogance and misjudgment, saying that they can win if they face the True Ancestors as they learned at the Academy.

From Oriana’s point of view, the students of the Academy were not just brats, but just flowers grown in greenhouses and flower gardens who thought that everything in the world belonged to them just because they had grown some sprouts.

In short, they were rookies.

Oriana took a sip of mixed coffee and continued.

“But if they’re just simple brats, you can just ignore them. It’s common to see children’s whims, young people full of passion boldly shouting that they will change the Ark.”

“So that’s not the problem?”

“The Academy, not just Ruincrest Academy, is basically an educational institution for the upper class. It’s understandable that students think the whole world revolves around them. The level is quite high, and the level of consciousness is also high, so there are many who are concerned about human rights. Thanks to that, if they get involved in rebellion, it will be difficult to handle later.”

“Is Oriana on the side that believes human rights should be persecuted?”

“Not at all. It’s good if human rights are protected. Who would hate people living more like people? If you hate people and hate protecting people, you’ll fall out before you even become a First-Class Overseer. But even at this moment, calamity is drooling over the Ark, and you can’t protect everything. You have to compromise on what you can compromise on.”

Certainly, Oriana seemed to have a slightly cynical side, but she was sincere in protecting the Ark and humanity.

She’s sneering at the Academy students, but that’s probably because they’re rookies and showing signs of causing a rebellion.

“The story has gone a bit off track. Anyway, to sum it up, the Administrator has received information that Ruincrest Academy is teaching students quite dangerous ideologies, including rebellion.”

“Dangerous ideologies?”

“The current Central Administration is rotten. Humanity will not develop and will only be left behind with the current system. We must actively catch and kill calamities, and the current rulers who are shaking hands with calamities are incompetent and their very existence is betraying humanity… well, it’s a common incitement.”

I, who had directly faced the calamity, know.

True Ancestors are True Ancestors, but Twisted Gaia is also quite terrifying.

[‘Did you call me?’]

‘No, be quiet.’

[‘Hmph…’]

To be honest, Gaia is not someone I have the ability to defeat or overthrow.

No, not just me, but perhaps even a First-Class Overseer like Oriana wouldn’t be able to handle such a terrifying monster.

It imitates the body and abilities just by looking at it once, and possesses regenerative power that is immortal with endless vitality.

Even this is just a fragment.

The real Gaia’s main body is breathing deep underground, and the vitality it absorbs from the entire planet is impossible for me to measure.

But Gaia was voluntarily absorbed into me just because she liked me.

If Gaia were to begin to antagonize humanity and cause disasters in earnest, the peace and order of the Ark would likely collapse in an instant.

‘And this is a world where we don’t know how many calamities of Gaia’s level are outside.’

The students who lived peacefully in the Central Academy can raise their voices and say that they should not compromise with calamities, but this is a question of whether humanity will be destroyed or not before compromise.

The students of the Academy wouldn’t know such a thing, so it’s natural that they would easily be influenced by such ideologies.

As Oriana said, it would be full of young, passionate, and clueless people without any countermeasures.

“As Alice said, the Central Academy is full of privileged and high-ranking people. How many of them do you think will become real Overseers or know the bitterness of the world in advance?”

“…Well, none, right? How much would kids who have eaten and grown up with good things know that the outside world is dangerous? So what happened to this rebellion? Have you already caught any evidence?”

“No, unlike the mega corp’s rebellion, it’s difficult to find material evidence in the Academy.”

“You can’t punish rebellion without solid material evidence, right?”

“I’ll tell you about that from now on.”

Oriana threw the personal cup into the subspace pocket, probably because she had finished drinking the mixed coffee.

“You have to enroll.”

“Huh? What?”

“Enroll in the Academy.”

“…Who?”

“You.”

“….”

Oriana looked down at me with a rather mischievous smile.

“Our cute Alice has to enroll in the Academy and cut down those traitors and rebels one by one.”

“…Suddenly, I really don’t want to do it.”

“What can you do? It wouldn’t suit me very well to wear a school uniform and go in there at this age, would it?”

“No, if it’s just a massacre, you can just give me a massacre mission. Why do I have to wear a school uniform and enroll in the Academy?”

“The higher-ups want to kill everyone involved in the rebellion, but frankly, killing children from the Central privileged class is a big political burden for the Administrator.”

“So?”

“Alice, you will infiltrate Ruincrest Academy in the form of a transfer student. You have to go and directly examine the atmosphere inside and directly judge the dangerousness of the ideology and whether or not there is rebellion.”

“…”

This is not just annoying, but the difficulty of the mission itself is quite hard.

I have to directly judge the dangerous ideology and rebellious education.

“Alice’s mission is to go directly into the Academy, identify those involved in dangerous ideologies and rebellion, and kill those who meet the Ark’s rebellion standards on the spot. If possible, secretly.”

“Secretly?”

“Frankly, you can kill them openly, but if you do, there’s a high possibility of a direct conflict with the Academy students and faculty, so assassination is much easier. And conversely, you can save the people you want to save.”

Ah, damn it.

Did I take on this mission for nothing?

Should I refuse now?

“Hey, Oriana. I think I…”

“I brought a gift for our troubled Alice.”

With those words, Oriana somehow took off the suit and coat I was wearing and used artificial spirits or mana or something to put new clothes on me in an instant.

It’s a school uniform.

Not just an ordinary school uniform, but a long coat that is a symbol of the privileged class that only Academy students wear, and a cool school uniform.

“Ta-da, Ruincrest first-year transfer student Alice~ It suits you quite well?”

“Ah, damn it. Really…”

If I hadn’t been aligning my thoughts with the doll kids, I would have torn this outfit off right away.