The situation was unfolding in a strange direction.
‘Send me to school? Suddenly?’
The bald research director’s abrupt declaration that I would be enrolled in school left everyone except him dumbfounded.
What was this? Delusions of grandeur? Did his intelligence fly away along with his hair follicles?
The researchers, full of confusion, began murmuring among themselves.
One of them cautiously stepped forward, seemingly ready to take the lead in addressing the absurdity.
“Excuse me, Director. You just mentioned enrolling this test subject in an academy. May I ask the reason for that decision?”
“The way you ask questions, I like it! First, we need to recognize the situation we’re in right now.”
With that, the bald director waved his hand dismissively, gesturing for me to be taken out of the room.
Wasn’t the genre of my life supposed to be dystopian human experimentation in a sci-fi setting?
Drifting into a school-life story all of a sudden?
That was way too random!
I was led out of the room by staff members.
At the same time, I focused on the hearing ability of the clone I had hidden in the ventilation ducts.
The sensation of manipulating the clone’s senses while moving my main body still felt awkward.
Inside the office, the sound of heated debates and occasional table-slamming could be heard, followed by a moment of silence.
“Alright, everyone, look at the intelligence evaluation report. Test Subject 10-6-8 has the highest IQ among the awakened test subjects in their teenage years. They also possess a unique ability. Their speech might be a bit clumsy, but that’s manageable.”
Well, great.
I had deliberately botched the intelligence tests to seem like an idiot, but it seemed I had failed.
“Anyway, I managed to pull some strings and got this one admitted to a specialized academy for awakened individuals. Now, we just need to assign someone to ensure they achieve average grades. Once we have results, we’ll keep it a secret initially and then announce it. Wouldn’t the higher-ups view us differently then?”
“These days, the best way to increase the value of awakened individuals is through academies. I’ve heard that other companies also admit subjects integrated with their technologies into academies to verify their capabilities.
Moreover, after checking, it turns out the unique ability here is quite rare. It’s clone creation. While it’s underdeveloped at the moment, imagine the potential with improvement. It could lead to a one-person army!”
The researchers seemed to start nodding in agreement.
The director, sounding more confident, raised his voice.
“And hey, how much longer do you want to be stuck in this backwater, cracking open the heads of losers? Don’t you want promotions? Don’t you want to be transferred to headquarters? I’ll package this up nicely and present it, so all you need to do is watch. Got it?”
The bald director’s heavily embellished persuasion drew enthusiastic cheers from the researchers.
“Bravo! Amazing!” someone exclaimed, followed by a round of applause.
They all seemed to have lost their minds.
Damn it. So, they were selling me out just to add a line to their résumés?
Seeing “My child gets great grades and is so smart!” type of academy parents in a place like this was definitely a surprise.
But an academy? Wasn’t that overkill?
No one tries to enter a world championship of pocket monsters with the intention of selling stray cats for a fortune.
Of course, I wasn’t some dirty stray cat but a beautiful young girl!
That said, still.
I was about to sever my connection to the clone’s senses and dissolve it when something I couldn’t ignore reached my ears.
“But Director, what about the girl in the sealed room?”
“The pink-haired one? Headquarters contacted me about her anyway. Send her to the city with 10-6-8 on the day of departure. Don’t forget to implant the tracking device. By the way, are there any other useful test subjects left? It’s about time to sort them out. We need to start on the next project soon…”
What? Kalia was going to be taken to headquarters?
The plan Kalia and I had devised originally went like this:
First, contact the Osprey Brotherhood, the group Kalia belonged to.
Depending on how the Brotherhood decided to assist, the details of the plan would change. However, the key point was to stall the research facility’s response until they could arrive to rescue us.
In the worst-case scenario, we would resort to extreme measures, like taking hostages or releasing all the monsters on the second floor, to create chaos.
The plan’s success depended on how we managed to establish contact with the outside world.
Since Kalia was confined and restrained, finding a way to communicate externally fell entirely on me. But I was stuck at the first step.
“You know, I hate to complain when so much of this depends on you, but… haven’t you found anything yet?”
“Ugh… Just give me a little more time… These guys are surprisingly airtight when it comes to cutting off external access!”
Staff members had to surrender their phones at the entrance.
Internet access?
Forget it. I had even snuck into empty offices while avoiding surveillance cameras, only to find they used an intranet.
Sometimes, I overheard bits of their security training while hiding above the ceiling.
They talked about threats of external attacks, which seemed absurdly paranoid.
I was even considering just using Kalia as a front to take hostages and force our way out.
But then things took a turn for the worse. Emergency mode activated!
That evening, I met with Kalia.
“What’s going on?”
When I crawled through the ventilation ducts in a rush and tapped on the bars, Kalia’s sharp eyes picked up on the urgency in my demeanor.
I explained everything I had learned to her in detail.
“We’re in big trouble! We have to scrap the plan and switch to Plan B right away!”
“Calm down. We still have at least a day or two, don’t we? If it comes to it, we might be able to escape during the transport process.”
When I tried to spill my thoughts out in a torrent, she calmed me down.
“I thought about that at first too. But it’s not going to work. They said they’re going to implant tracking devices in both of us.”
“This project is wrapping up soon, huh? But I didn’t know they had such a method of control. This way, even a small team can manage things effectively.”
“These are bio-trackers that fuse with the body, making extraction nearly impossible. It’s experimental tech. It arrived with today’s shipment. Remember to inject it into the test subjects before the day after tomorrow.”
While waiting until evening, I couldn’t sit still and had used my clone to investigate, overhearing that unsettling information.
Hearing this, Kalia let out a troubled sigh.
“That’s… not good. We haven’t found a way to contact the outside, and while my condition has improved thanks to you, it’s still not perfect. Do we have anything we can use as weapons?”
“I told you before. The best I’ve got are tools. Either we go down to the second floor or take out some guards to steal their equipment.”
“Then we’ll have to move the timeline forward… Sorry. I hate that I’m relying on you so much in this state.”
She shook her arms as if to emphasize the restraints on her wrists, the chains clinking softly. Her expression darkened.
“No! You’re a vital part of our plan. You’re incredibly special!”
“…Thanks for saying that, even if you don’t mean it.”
Hey! I wasn’t just saying that to comfort her!
She might be a standard 4-star character in the beginning, but she’s a playable character, which meant she had to be special in this world.
Standing before her, I launched into exaggerated praise.
“You’re super strong! Your pink hair alone makes you tough! And you’re a beautiful girl, too!”
“Ha… What’s that supposed to mean? Are you teasing me?”
Kalia looked at me, shook her head in disbelief, and let out a faint smile.
It was a rare expression on her usually stern face, framed by her short, light-pink hair.
In that faint smile and her gaze, I could read a mix of emotions.
Gratitude for my help, guilt over not being able to repay it, and a tinge of self-reproach for her helplessness.
Looking at her, I remembered something.
The fact that this was the past.
The Kalia I knew as a character on the screen was a strong and confident woman.
But beneath that lay a tender heart, shaped by her sense of responsibility and her reluctance to burden others.
And now, we were years before the events of the main story. She was just a girl, not yet out of her teenage years, who had suffered humiliation and pain in this facility while searching for her missing uncle.
No wonder she felt guilty about relying on me. But there was no need for that guilt at all.
“Ugh! Whatever! You’re special, okay? So don’t get discouraged, got it?”
“What? Who said I was discouraged? You little…”
“Heheh.”
“What’s with that laugh… You really are an idiot.”
Watching Kalia, I thought to myself how nice it would be if she could become the strong girl she was in the main story again.
She was so cool.
“Since we can’t secure a way to contact the outside, escaping on our own is the only answer. Right? Whether it’s taking hostages or a frontal assault, let’s try everything we can. Oh, and no setting fires, okay? Got it?”
“Alright. Then it’s happening tonight, around 4 or 5 AM. Got it?”
“It’s dawn, so I’ll get some sleep in advance.”
I withdrew my clone to conserve mana.
I needed to recover my mana by dawn since it was almost depleted.
Strangely, my mind felt unusually clear.
Was it because my body was tense?
When I checked the desk clock I had stolen from the office, I saw that the time was near.
I created a clone.
One on the floor, and one on the ceiling.
I needed to control two clones simultaneously.
Although I had occasionally done group exercises or dances during experiments, this was my first time moving two clones separately.
The visual information pouring into my head was three times the usual amount.
Even when my main body lay still with my eyes closed, I had to handle twice the usual load.
It was difficult.
“I need to keep my wits about me and move carefully from now on.”
The clone moving on the ceiling of the third floor was designated as No. 2, and the clone on the floor of the second floor was called No. 3.
And I was No. 1.
This was a kind of mental suggestion to facilitate smoother control.
First, I moved No. 2 toward the corner of the ceiling where I had hidden the items I had stolen earlier.
I slung the large, old sack filled with items over my shoulder like a bag and carefully started heading back.
But… oh no, I had taken the wrong path.
“It’s so dark that I got confused again.”
As I turned to retrace my steps, I felt the presence of someone nearby.
I paused, waiting for them to pass.
I could hear the voices of several people talking.
A moment later, I also heard the sound of running water.
“What’s going on?”
Even after a long while, the voices of the conversation didn’t fade away.
I peeked through the gap I often used for spying, located above the second toilet stall in the corner of the ceiling.
“…Over there! Perfect. I think I’ll have some free time after this project is over. I’ll be there too! Haha… Thanks, man! Hahaha…”
A researcher was enthusiastically chatting on the phone, holding a smartphone in his hand.
Wait a second. A smartphone?
I had heard that bringing personal phones into the lab was strictly prohibited by the rules here.
Hold on.
That bespectacled researcher… he looked familiar.
“Oh… let’s just let it slide. I’m just using Messenger for a bit…”
“The watchdog’s being a damn stickler about it. It’s just an old phone, dumbass…”
Now I remembered.
That researcher was the same sly guy who had once handed an old phone to a security guard!
“So there’s a means of communication here!”
Considering my desperate situation, I had no reason to be cautious anymore.
Nor did I have the luxury to hesitate.
“It’s a good thing I brought this along.”
I carefully climbed down the partition and landed on top of the toilet.
The bespectacled researcher was too engrossed in his conversation with his friend to notice me.
I cautiously pulled out the hammer I had taken from the storage room earlier.
<ITEM STAT>
[ForgePro™ Alloy Hammer ☆☆]
A hammer produced by Rustlum’s specialized tool manufacturer.
Crafted from rare, otherworldly minerals, making it durable and expensive.
The tool company went bankrupt due to reckless investments, but the ForgePro™ brand was later reevaluated as a weapon.
The tool of creation becomes a weapon of slaughter.
Isn’t that ironic?
…
One peculiar feature of the status window was that when I held an object and focused on it, a brief description of the item’s capabilities or traits would appear.
If I concentrated while holding an object, it would display things like <Plastic Bottle ☆> or <Rusty Box Cutter ☆>.
It was truly fascinating.
In the 『Deep Crimson Academia』, one-star or two-star weapons were usually scrapped for enhancement materials, but for me right now, even a two-star weapon was a godsend.
I opened the stall door.
“Take this!”
“Huh? Who’s th—ugh!”
I struck the back of his head with all my might, making a loud thwack sound.
<CRITICAL HIT!>
[You attacked from behind, triggering the synergy trait: Backstab Critical. Damage has been amplified!]
Thanks to the enhanced damage effect, the bespectacled researcher collapsed from a single blow.
Just in case, I struck his head two more times.
Blood splattered.
After checking again, I confirmed that he wasn’t moving and wasn’t breathing.
He seemed to be dead.
“For the first time… I’ve killed someone.”
The sensation when I struck his head, the impact when the hammer collided—it all felt deeply unpleasant.
But surprisingly, I was eerily calm.
Had something gone wrong with me?
I quickly snatched the smartphone from his hand and dragged his body to the farthest stall in the restroom to hide it.
I nervously splashed water to scatter the bloodstains, hoping no one would notice.
Using his fingerprint, I unlocked the smartphone’s security and climbed back up into the ceiling with some effort.
“What luck!”
Good.
Originally, there was something else I needed to do, but now, that was unnecessary.
I directed No. 2 to go to Kalia.