episode_0090

The warm sunlight welcomed Violet 212 as she arrived in the Southern District by high-speed train. Savoring the sunlight, Violet 212 pulled a hotdog from a vending machine and took a bite.

“This is my first time in the Southern District.”

“Oh my god, robots!”

Moving just a few hundred kilometers, the cityscape was vastly different. If the Western District was an ordinary modern European street, this place was a new city straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Delivery drones flew back and forth in the sky, and sleek-looking robots scurried around the streets.

Violet roamed the streets as if they were her own home, fully relishing a fragment of the future that humanity on Planet Trist might have encountered if they hadn’t faced demon beasts.

.

Although it was her first time visiting, as she walked around, many familiar places made her exclaim, “Ah, here!” and smack her knee.

The shops, restaurants, street trees, and decorations—all of them looked familiar.

“Look, that’s that restaurant!”

“Definitely, this street feels familiar too!”

It made sense. This place was somewhere she’d walked around countless times in the game.

As 212 walked down the street, her gaze focused on one spot.

At the end of this wide street, buildings of similar appearance were clustered together. Futuristic structures with soft white walls and geometric exteriors made of steel frames and glass shined in the sunlight.

That sight was particularly striking even in this futuristic area.

Violet gasped briefly. Anyone who had played Crimson Scholar couldn’t possibly be unfamiliar with this landscape.

“We’ve arrived!”

“This is…”

Our destination, the prestigious Awakener Academy in the Southern District: Aegis Professional Academy.

***

As they approached the school, it was time to re-examine her pre-possession memories.

They briefly rummaged through the pile of thoughts within the Violet Network. After searching through a messy library as if organized by a lazy librarian, they recalled a few things.

“That damn Yeom Sajang.”

“Even if he couldn’t finish the ending, he should have at least released Part 3 and Part 4.”

Crimson Scholar (global service name Crimson Scholar) is a game developed by Chinese game company, Dragon Sky Interactive™.

This open-world game, originally planned for five parts, unfortunately went bankrupt due to unavoidable circumstances of adults, and the CEO went missing.

“But wasn’t it not Mr. Yeom’s fault? He just had bad luck. Of all things, his family…”

“That’s true.”

When Violet 2 interjected a remark among the other Violets who were whispering, everyone nodded their heads.

Yeom Sajang’s real name is said to be Yan Min. Because his surname, when read in Korean, is ‘Yeom阎’, he was called Yeom Sajang in Korea.

When gacha rolls went disastrously, his name was often invoked as part of a ritualistic act. If it went well, he was Yeom Dda-geo; if it went badly, he was Yeom-byeong. Given that the CEO’s mother’s location and momentum changed depending on the gacha situation that day, it could truly be said that the game contained principles of quantum mechanics.

Although it never reached number one, there were various reasons why a game company that was quite successful even overseas, including in Korea, suddenly disintegrated.

Some pointed to sensitive elements within the game, while others argued it was the party’s will to severely crack down on the gaming industry, which caused addiction and reduced productivity.

Meanwhile, there was also a half-joking assertion that it was orchestrated by the Chinese President, ranked as the number one desirable male by China-X Forbes whom women wished to marry, who wanted to eradicate China’s social outcasts who were obsessed with young beautiful girls, spending their time on smartphones and advocating for ‘tangping’.

This is an example of how absurdly this incident was perceived, where a company, ostensibly one of the nation’s key cultural export enterprises, simply evaporated.

Of course, there was a separate, biggest reason.

It was due to the ‘Yahong Group Real Estate Scandal’ involving Yeom Sajang’s father, who was the chairman of a large corporation. The aftermath of the major scandal, which erupted with ample fuel, was enough to make a chaebol heir’s otaku hobbies disappear into the mighty currents of the Yangtze River.

“It’s true we don’t know anything after the Part 2 prologue, but we know Part 1 well, don’t we? That’s enough.”

“…That’s true.”

Actually, knowing wouldn’t change anything. We’re not even students at this school. It’s five years in the future, so some haven’t even enrolled yet.

Organizing her thoughts, she headed towards the main gate of Aegis Academy. Aegis Professional Academy is one of the main settings for Part 1. It’s also where Irene transferred after Polaris Academy was destroyed by a large-scale experiment.

“…Didn’t someone named Lucian come here too?”

“Right! He did!”

As they approached the main gate, students could be seen coming and going. Perhaps because it was a good school, even the uniforms looked modern and sophisticated.

“Will we be able to see him? He’s the student council president right now.”

“He’s the student council president, isn’t he? I don’t think it’ll be easy to see him.”

They whispered, half-hopeful, half-concerned.

Before coming to the school, she had already investigated the school’s geography and personnel composition to prepare for Violet-style material requisition—what the world called theft.

Since the information was publicly available, she couldn’t know the exact details.

However, while searching through the student council roster, she was fortunate to find someone with a familiar name and appearance.

“Adela! Adela is here!”

“She was still a student back then.”

Among the 5-star playable characters from Aegis Academy, there was someone currently at the school. And not just anyone, but the student council president.

“It would be nice if we could meet her.”

“No. We didn’t come here to play. Check if what you investigated is correct.”

“Understood.”

Violet 212 lightly touched the fence around the academy.

When she tried to project magic beyond the wall, it seemed blocked, and no doppelganger was created. Her unique ability was blocked, just like during Professor Albert’s test.

“As expected, this method doesn’t work.”

“It’s a barrier. Truly top-tier security for a first-rate academy.”

She had expected this much. Aegis Professional Academy had a defensive barrier that blocked external attacks and suppressed gate creation as much as possible. Of course, there were some who could tear through it, but only powerful villains could do that. This was consistent with both her pre-possession memories and her current life’s information.

So, would the Violets’ journey towards the crystal flowers end here? Not at all. Every security system always has a loophole, and there’s an easier way to enter through the main gate than climbing over the fence.

“We’ll be late. Hurry!”

Heeding the urgings of the other Violets, Violet headed towards the crowd gathered near the main gate. A guide holding a picket sign was waiting for people there.

Most of the participants in the tour were young students. There were quite a few children who looked slightly younger than her.

“Alright! We’ll be departing soon!”

Once everyone had gathered, the guide checked the number of people and handed out visitor badges.

Aegis Professional Academy operates a group tour program for external visitors. Tourists and academy aspiring students frequently participate.

Using this method, they could enter confidently.

“Pass complete!”

“Good, now create a doppelganger if an opening appears.”

Playing the part of a harmless girl, she safely passed through the sharp gazes of the guards, inspections, and surveillance systems.

When she looked around with her magic-seeing eyes, she could see complex formulas intertwined with countless orbs and lines, and flows of magic deployed everywhere. If any suspicious magic movement was detected, an emergency alarm would immediately ring.

“It’s a good thing we didn’t try to enter the entrance using the perception-inhibiting device.”

“That was clearly a gamble.”

When the guard swiped a card and opened the turnstile, they could finally enter. A new world unfolded before them.

“Wow…”

A gasp escaped her lips as soon as she looked around. Aegis Academy’s campus was quite sophisticated. While Polaris’s architecture mainly consisted of antique neoclassical buildings, the buildings here were futuristic and neat. It truly looked like a prominent school. Even the students’ pure white uniforms looked clean and pretty.

“As expected, it looks like a school fit for a protagonist…”

“I want to transfer!”

Places like this probably have better food and don’t do strange things to students. Lost in her admiration, she snapped back to reality. It was time to work.

Under the guide’s direction, she toured the school with the others. She subtly slipped away under the pretense of going to the restroom and then created a doppelganger.

“Alright, let’s get to work quickly. I checked, and there’s no surveillance magic inside.”

“These guys are surprisingly sloppy too.”

After hearing 212’s explanation, 156 and 230 nodded their heads, then put on some disguises and injected magic into their perception-inhibiting necklaces. The appearance of the two Violets, as seen through 200’s eyes, strangely transformed.

“We’ve tested it a few times, but it always feels awkward to see. If we weren’t connected, I would have thought they were strangers.”

The perception-inhibiting device has two effects. First, the device appropriately refracts external light, making the target’s appearance less conspicuous to external observers. In addition, it continuously emits waves that affect the mind, dulling perception. As a result, surrounding people perceive the person as a rolling stone or a tree on the roadside.

As you might guess from its mind-affecting nature, this device is expensive and rare.

The two Violets moved cautiously. The perception-inhibiting device merely distorted human perception; it wasn’t a device that made them invisible. This was clear from how passersby avoided them. However, their attitude towards the Violets was similar to how they would treat a lamppost on the street.

“Indeed, it’s effective.”

“Be careful, if you bump into something, the effect will temporarily wear off.”

The Violets headed to Aegis Academy’s garden and forest. There, among unnamed medicinal herbs and mysterious-looking extradimensional plants, crystal flowers were being cultivated in the numbers they had expected. Feeling the amount of magic they contained, she wanted to pluck and eat them right away, but she resisted.

“If we even touched them, the guards would rush over.”

“We’ll have to wait until night. Don’t forget, the operation starts at midnight!”

Surveillance cameras were monitoring the surroundings. They shouldn’t touch anything now.

After reconfirming the locations of the crystal flowers, the Violets headed to a secluded area inside the school. Then, they created doppelgangers in ceiling vents or dug-out burrows and disappeared. Some of the created doppelgangers remained motionless in their spots, as if dead.

“Let’s start the operation at midnight.”

For this operation, she planned to test out a newly acquired ability as her unique power grew: ‘hibernation’.

Existing doppelgangers are always created with a personality inserted.

However, if the hibernation ability is used after creating a doppelganger, the personality leaves the body and returns to the Violet Network, leaving behind only a lifeless body in a state of suspended animation, with no heartbeat or breathing. It seems a body in suspended animation can last for over 24 hours without food.

Of course, if needed, the personality can be immediately returned to the body, and the body’s condition can be checked. If utilized well, she could create and store many bodies.

While the material requisition team was on standby, Violet 212 continued the tour with the guide. Since most of the participants were young students, they were looking around with eyes full of admiration and awe.

Meanwhile, a female student approached and spoke to the guide.

“They’re young students, may I guide them myself?”

“No, there’s no need to…”

She exchanged a few brief words with the guide, then approached them.

“Who is that?”

“Looks like a student here…”

As the tour participants murmured with curiosity, the female student approached with a neat and elegant stride.

The moment she got a closer look at the female student, she couldn’t help but gasp in admiration once again, just as she had with Daphne.

“Wow, she’s beautiful…”

As if she heard her words, the girl approached her. She flinched for a moment.

This person, it’s *the* person I know! Could such a coincidence exist?

The woman approached her with a curious demeanor, then stared blankly at her for a moment without speaking.

‘Did I do something wrong?’

While she was pondering, the girl smiled gently and spoke.

“Oh my, how cute…! What’s your name?”

“…Eh?”

She was stunned by the unexpected question.

The first meeting with Adela, the student council president of Aegis Professional Academy, began quite strangely.