episode_0023

My phone rang with a trill. I turned off the alarm and got up.

“A powerful and joyful morning!”

Thankfully, I didn’t have a nightmare the next morning. Thanks to that, I woke up feeling refreshed today and folded my blanket.

As I rubbed my sleepy eyes, Number 2 hummed beside me like someone drunk.

“Attending Polaris Academy~ My life has changed~”

“Shut up, Number 2. You’re the one going out today.”

“Whine…”

After washing up, I headed to the first-year dormitory cafeteria. I often saw male students with messy hair on their heads. The male and female dormitories were separated, facing each other, but they used the same cafeteria.

But people were gathered in front of the menu board. When I went to see what was happening, someone had written something below it.

“What? Are they crazy?”

“This is absurd!”

Students who came down for breakfast, both male and female, were horrified by the bizarre announcement.

“What in the world is this ‘New Student Management Committee’…?”

“I wonder too…”

I’m going to have to eat something terrible for breakfast again. Am I going to have to face the ‘Great Catastrophe of the British’ again?

「Number 2, weren’t the second and third-year dorms right next door?」

「That’s right. Aha! There was that method.」

While talking with Number 4, a fun idea came to mind.

“I’ll be right back!”

“Where are you going?”

After telling Daphne to wait for a moment, I rushed out the door.

This academy is large inside, so each year uses separate dormitories. The guidelines mentioned there were also luxury dormitories for honor students or special students, but I didn’t know where they were.

The second-year dormitory was right in front of my nose. As I carefully slipped through the slightly open door, I saw a cafeteria with a delicious smell wafting from it, right inside the door.

‘I’m not even wearing a school uniform, am I? They won’t know who I am!’

I subtly slipped into the line of senior students. Just as I expected, they didn’t seem to care who I was. On the trays stretched out in front, I saw dishes piled up, like fried rice. This cafeteria was serving an East Asian style meal for breakfast today.

「These guys were even snatching our food and eating it!」

「What kind of beggars are they? Waking up early in the morning just to steal juniors’ meals…」

On the shelf on the opposite side, the food that should have been served at the first-year cafeteria was spread out. I picked up two plates, discreetly took the food, and headed to a corner seat.

A few people looked at me strangely, but they quickly lost interest and turned away. They probably didn’t expect a new student to openly come here.

Taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, I transferred the food-filled plates. Two plates full of food were transported into the hands of Number 4, who was waiting in the dorm.

Looking around carefully, I returned to the first-year dormitory.

“Ruzilin, where did you go? You just suddenly told me to wait…”

“I don’t have time to explain right now, so follow me!”

Dragging Daphne, who had been waiting for me with a dubious expression, I headed to the dorm room.

“Look! Daphne, Daphne. I brought delicious food.”

“Oh my goodness..! What is all this?”

“I brought it from the senior dormitory next door!”

“What? From the seniors’ cafeteria? What if you get caught? They seemed like really scary people…”

“I have a way for all that. Don’t worry!”

I pointed at Number 4, who was lounging around on the bed.

“A clone… I don’t know the details, but it seems you used your unique ability. Thank you very much, but please don’t do anything so dangerous next time. If you get caught, Ruzilin, you could get into trouble.”

“Thanks for worrying. Still, you have to eat a hearty breakfast!”

Ignoring Daphne’s worried gaze, I picked up my fork.

「Delicious…!」

「Great!」

The Violets in my head exclaimed in admiration.

「But was there originally this little?」

「Hehe… I ate some.」

Oops, Number 4 snuck some of the delivered contents.

Still, since we had a hearty breakfast, isn’t it a good thing anyway? We happily finished our meal in the room.

***

The morning’s happiness, which had started pleasantly thanks to our full bellies, was quickly shattered.

“Frontline Exploration Department new students! Everyone jump in!”

“Aargh!”

“Hyaak!”

“Gyaah!”

While walking through the campus, I saw a group of students in the distance, jumping into the lake in their uniforms. It was an initiation ceremony.

The lake those poor fellows jumped into is currently called ‘Bluefang Lake,’ but in the game, it’s a place named ‘Silent Crimson Lake.’

From what I remember, that place was a habitat for aquatic magic beasts…

“Kiiyaaak!”

“Ugh! It bit me! My finger!”

“Aaahh! Get it off! It stings!”

The lake lived up to its name. The new students ran out screaming, with aquatic magic beasts resembling piranhas dangling from them like clothespins.

Since they were all Awakened Ones by default, they all seemed sturdy, and no one seemed to have been torn apart, but it looked quite painful.

Besides that, from yesterday until today, I’ve seen all sorts of bizarre things. For example.

“25th batch, Frontline Combat Department new students! From now on, we will begin a baptism ceremony for you rookies, filled with our abundant friendship!”

“Ugh! It’s hot!”

Some bastards would line up students in front of the building and throw low-output fireballs, calling it a ‘baptism.’

“New student. See this? This is a Skullkit that survived for a whopping 10 years in the mountains behind this school. That means it’s your senior. Come on! Say hello to your senior! Kiss~”

“Roar!”

“Kyaaaak! Save me!… *sobbing*”

There was also a psycho who dragged a growling Skullkit and shoved it in front of the face of a terrified, crying female student. It was truly a spectacle to behold.

–Is this perhaps a Marine Corps camp?–

Of course, there were also students who talked back.

“Screw off! What’s the big deal about coming in a year or two earlier? I paid my own money to come here, so why are you acting crazy?”

“Talking back… to a senior?”

「*Pow-pow-pow!* **“Kkuaaaaaah!”**

The seniors, enraged by the ‘fact violence,’ surrounded one student and brutally beat them. As they grabbed and beat one person, the terrified students couldn’t move a muscle.

「It’s definitely the military. Later, they’ll probably even start talking about ‘comradeship.’」

「That’s a bit dangerous.」

「*Gasp!*」

Traversing all those bizarre sights, I safely arrived in the classroom. I gradually saw students entering the classroom, and I also saw people whose hair had turned white, as if they’d been covered in flour.

While pretending to focus on the unenthusiastic instructor’s meandering orientation, I chatted with the other clones.

「Do we also have to do some kind of initiation ceremony?」

「I don’t know! We haven’t received any contact telling us where to go yet.」

Thankfully, I hadn’t gone through an initiation ceremony yet. This was because I hadn’t received any contact from my department seniors.

「For now, let’s go, and if they tell us to do something weird, let’s jump out the window.」

「It’s strange! Other schools weren’t like this, were they? Why only here…?」

I absolutely don’t know the reason either. Who knew that a failed school would actually be such a cesspool?

I briefly organized some knowledge in my mind.

The academies in Lustrum were established to systematically educate Awakened Ones.

Legislation such as the definition of ‘Awakened One Academies,’ their academic system, and transfer admission regulations are stipulated under the autonomous statutes of the Academy City Central Education Committee.

However, since the academies are under the influence of various clans that divide and autonomously manage the city’s districts, their detailed educational methods differ.

「Even if it’s fantasy, isn’t it too much to call in children, make them do things like this, and put them through 6 years of hell?」

「That’s why it probably failed! If it’s not right, let’s quickly grab the items and run away.」

The academic years at Awakened One Academies are approximately 6 to 7 years long.

It’s an academic system that unnaturally twists together high school and university courses for the sole purpose of war and combat. Therefore, it’s unreasonable to directly compare it to real-world education.

When enrolling, you choose a major and enter. For first-year students, they undertake an integrated curriculum across both semesters. Specialization by major begins in the second year.

However, because the number of students is enormous, even the same classes are divided into different time slots.

I wanted to take classes with my roommate…

For reference, my major is ‘Dungeon Strategy Management Department.’ It’s truly an awful-sounding name.

Suddenly, I felt Number 4 lounging on the dorm bed. Everyone had something to say.

「Number 4! Even if you’re on standby, aren’t you being too lazy?」

「I was looking at books anyway.」

Currently, about 7 of us have been summoned and are active, dividing roles.

First, one clone takes turns attending classes on a daily basis. While one person attends school classes, the others engage in external activities, taking on exploration and information gathering.

The dorm standby personnel are the 5-minute standby team and spare lives. If something goes wrong, they also have the role of packing up fastest and escaping outside.

「And stop eating cup noodles! Daphne bought those. If something goes wrong, you can just receive the sensation of eating.」

「You ate some yesterday too!」

「If you starve, you’ll just disappear. Everyone had a hard time when we felt Number 5’s hunger back then.」

「Alright, everyone calm down. It was proven in yesterday’s experiment, wasn’t it? Let’s buy more ramen later to replenish it.」

Number 1, who was heading to the forest behind the academy, stopped the two.

Ramen, huh. I should go to the convenience store later.

This was because I (Number 2) ate all of them while doing some experiments. Sorry, Daphne!

While listening to the orientation yesterday, those of us who remained in the dorm conducted an experiment to find out the limits of our abilities.

We needed to confirm how the maintenance time was compared to previous clone techniques, and how much the activity range had increased.

The status window was unhelpful and lacked proper explanation.

The results were peculiar.

A clone that ate more than 2 cup noodles a day (they also ate snacks) continued to be maintained even after 24 hours, and it is still maintained.

However, a clone that completely starved, or a clone that ate only one cup noodle, naturally disappeared after 24 hours.

The calorie content of one cup noodle we ate was 500 calories. Calculating the snacks, we also ate about that much.

This means that if a clone consumes approximately 1,500 calories or more per day, it will be maintained.

Also, we roamed all over the university campus, and there was no particular feeling of the senses breaking between the clones. These were things we couldn’t know in the confined space of a narrow laboratory.

Once all the questions were resolved, we immediately began collecting items.

This is the power of multitasking!

「I’m jealous… You guys are comfortable inside..」

「We have to be active outside!」

「I know. We also feel how hard it is for you. Take breaks in between.」

While Number 2 was attending class, Number 7 went to the library, and Numbers 1, 3, 5, and 6 packed their tools and headed to the back of the school. It was a kind of auto-play.

Since it would be an obviously strange sight if identically looking students were spotted outside, we moved around wearing masks, hats, or hoods when we were outdoors.

In the game, is an area accessible from the mid-point of Part 1.

Excluding certain gimmicks, it’s a place that only gives junk items like . However, the forest in this area contained a medicinal herb that we needed right now.

The name of the herb is Blue Crystal Flower.

When used, it has the effect of permanently slightly increasing the total mana capacity and mana regeneration rate.

“Where in the world is it..? Is this the right place?”

“The in-game areas don’t perfectly match the scale of reality. I think it’s right to take that into account when searching.”

“Could it be that it doesn’t exist because this is the world from 5 years ago?”

We barely managed to recall our memories and examined the map marking the in-game locations. After wandering around the dense forest for a long time, a flower emitting a faint blue light was seen under the shadow of an old tree.

“Wait! Isn’t that it?”

“That’s right. Blue Crystal Flower!”

We ran with quick steps and plucked the flower.

“I thought maybe, but it was there after all!”

“But how do we use it? In the game, it was just one click.”

We fell into thought for a moment. While contemplating, Number 6 picked up the flower.

“Let’s just try eating it!”

“Good. Since there are a total of 10 flowers in this area, even if we fail, there’s nothing to regret.”

As Number 6 gulped down the flower, a strange sensation of ether spreading through their body immediately spread.

“Oh? This is…!”

“Status window! Check the status window!”

As a result of checking the status window, we could confirm that the mana, which was 3000, had increased to a whopping 3500.

“About 500 mana is consumed each time a clone is created, right? So if we find and eat all 10 flowers…”

“The maximum number we can create at once will increase to a whopping 16!”

“Mana regeneration rate has also increased. Mass production of clones will become easier too.”

To think we’d achieve such a great result already! It’s so good! We excitedly high-fived each other.

“Go for it!”

The Violets cheered and diligently explored the forest.

“One! Two! One! Two!”