Chapter 19: The World and 【World】
“Are you sure we aren’t going to be discovered by anyone here?”
3 hours later, the five of us, Dale, Bai Yueguang, Aliyah, Tai Shixi and I, followed Tia into a building’s courtyard near the academy.
But, Tia did not open the door to the building at the courtyard, rather, she went around to the side of the building, and grabbed onto the ledge of the window. She first pushed it up, and then, pulled it down.
The stone wall was pushed back, and with a ‘huaa’ sound, it split into two and opened. A downward-heading passageway then revealed itself.
“Don’t worry, in this position, no matter from which angle, it can’t be seen. Let’s go.”
“Hey hey, just how did you guys complete a construct like this?” “This is just a small base, we only spent two days to finish this.” She then did a victory sign.
“No, no, what does this have to do with the time spent… Hey! Two days!? Are you
guys monsters!? What I meant to ask was how did you guys create a basement like this without startling anyone!”
“Well, about that… Obviously we obtained permission to dig out a basement, but we simply added a few extra things, that’s all… Oh, right, we have to really thank you guys for merging with Doge Military School. The number of students entering the school increased, so requests to dig out basements like this could be considered to be pretty normal.”
“I see, looks like we should obtain permission to add a few more rooms to our base too… Oh well, that can be done later.”
“Alright, are you guys still going to come along?” “Of course.”
Tia laughed, and then entered the entrance.
When we followed after her into the passageway, only did I realize that the entire basement was made out of metal. Rather than it was constructed, it should be more correct to say that this entire metallic basement was inserted under the building.
“I really have to take my hat off for you guys, to actually be able to construct something like this. It must have costed a lot to start up this thing.”
“Well~ It wasn’t that much~ Fortunately, there’s black markets in this world, which allow us to save quite a lot of trouble when we have to sell our products.”
“Really…”
“When you’re free, you guys should try it out too. Selling items in those black markets is basically crazy. As long as you possess something that no one else has, you will be able to set your own price. It’s really very convenient~”
“I see…”
I turned my head to look at Dale, and he revealed his ‘I refuse to make any comments’ expression.
Looks like this guy did indeed make a big sum of money off the black market, huh. “So you guys specialize in… making computers?”
“Un, the rest of the members are able to program, manufacture the components, and process the materials.”
“… Again, I have to take my hat off, to think you guys were able to gather together like this.”
“Well, in most cases, we somehow found each other in a black market, and then, we began to look for other companions by heading to the black markets in various cities.”
“I see…”
Looks like Dale’s actions back then could be understood… Or does all these people like shady places more?
“Fir, back then if you haven’t found me, I might have been discovered by them instead.”
Dale suddenly spoke up.
“That’s right, if that were to happen, we would discover the existences of laptops with railguns installed in the future.”
“… That’s not a bad idea. It’s worth a try.” “Hey hey…”
“Then how many people do you guys have?” Bai Yueguang asked.
“About 50, I guess?” “50!!?”
The five of us exclaimed at the same time.
“Hey hey! How can there be 50 people!?”
I immediately opened my messaging function.
The number of people on the messaging list had never went over 10, and it never happened even after the many places I visited, why…
“Looks like you people have really underestimated us. We’re after all still an alliance that have connections across the entire continent… Oh right, you guys probably aren’t able to feel us, since in our various bases, we have an interference equipment installed in every one of them, which prevents our built-in messaging function from revealing us.”
Just when she said that, all the names on my messaging list, after a little static, disappeared in an instant.
Not just that, even the HP Bar, stats, and titles, all of them disappeared from my vision as well!
Just as she had said, in their territory, our systems were completely disabled! “They really disappeared, huh.”
Aliyah tried waving her hand in the air, but it did not seem to work. “Incredible!”
“Your technology… has it already surpassed the rules bounded by this world?”
“No, rather, I should say that it has surpassed the rules of our world. No matter how mystical this world is, we’re still viewing this world as if we’re looking at a game in a computer screen. In other words, we appeared in this world because of some sort of technology from our world. So, as long as we surpass our own technology, we will then be gods!”
“You guys…”
Wait, interference?
Suddenly, I recalled the weird robot that attacked the academy in the past. Back then, the systems suffered interference as well, and it even led to a special quest being issued.
“Did you guys come to this academy in the past?” “Un? In the past? We shouldn’t have.”
“A few months ago, there was a weird robot that attacked our academy. And, it even shot out some disruption signal that interfered with our systems. Do you know about that?”
“… Well, I don’t really know about that. You just have to ask our boss about it later.”
“Who is your boss?”
“Huhu~ She’s the genius who created the first ever terminal.”
Opening the door in front of us, a space with a size of about half a basketball court appeared before us.
These people sure are daring. They actually dug out such a big space under our school.
“Welcome everyone, I’m very happy to meet even more people in the same situation as us… No, I should be saying, how was your day, my cute little students~”
The corner of my lips twitched.
That’s right, it’s that twitching when you suddenly realized that you had been tricked the entire time.
This level of trickery is probably about the same as when you find out that your girlfriend is actually your long lost little sister. Of course, that applies to big sisters as well.
In any case, if this person wasn’t someone I’m familiar with, I would have really wanted to punch him in the face.
Ah, no, it should be ‘her’.
Speaking of which, back then, I really did not think of using【Phad’s Eye】to directly reveal her titles, and because of the interference now, they’re completely invisible.
This person is really terrifying. Why have I never thought of this possibility?
“I really never expected it would be you… Geez, and here I was wondering why I felt such familiarity from a lazy, shameless person who lives life without any needs. But I did not expect that it would actually be you, Ms. Mari!”
“Arara~ That’s your mistake, alright? To be fooled so simply by the system, is also a mistake of yours.”
That’s right, the person in front of me was Mari Steppe, our homeroom teacher.
And here I was wondering why she reminded me of something, so her true nature is actually someone who loves to hole herself up in her laboratory!
Now I really have no idea if that’s her real name. She actually had such an identity hidden so deeply…
“Trusting a system that would even take away your memories, don’t you find that hilarious?”
“……”
Speaking of which, back then when I had the conversation with【World】, I did indeed not raise this question, but… I seemed to have treated this as a matter of course.
“Regarding the issue of our lost memories, it seems the later one enters this world, the more memories one will lose~ It must not have been even a year since you guys arrived in this world, right? We have all been in this world for ten whole years, so the things we remember should be more than any of you.”
“There’s actually such a thing?”
Aliyah and I both came into this world at the same time, so we were in the same situation.
As for the rest…
“The two of us came into this world about three years ago.”
Bai Yueguang said, and then Tai Shixi, who was beside him, nodded. “I should have came into this world… about seven months ago.” Dale thought for a moment before answering.
“Then what do you know!? Just for what reason were we sent into this world!?” “About that, well… I don’t know~”
Ms. Mari helplessly shook her head.
“I don’t have memories on that matter either, but… what I do know is that all of us actually… belong to the same organization. However, as for the name of that organization, none of us remember it, and we don’t remember what that organization does either.”
“Organization? Hey hey, why do I feel something’s completely wrong with this setting!? Are we all actually experimental subjects or something?”
“Who knows. This is the conclusion I came up with after talking to the 56 people in this guild who came into this world at different times. According to the estimate, people who came into this world less than five years ago would no longer remember about the organization.”
“Then who was the earliest person who came into this world?”
“The earliest… was a person who came into this world 30 years ago. But when we discovered him, he had already turned completely insane, and we don’t know why either.”
“30 years ago…”
Wait a minute, there’s someone who might know! That person’s level is actually a whopping 200!
“Demon King…” “Eh?”
“I know of someone who might be the earliest person who came into this world, it’s this world’s Demon King.”
“Demon King… So the Demon King is actually one of us as well? Then we might as well conquer and unite the world!”
“Stop joking already…” I shook my head.
“Alright, we have drifted quite far from the main issue. We can talk about returning to the Abyss in the future. Currently, we only have a single question, in this academy war, which side are you supporting?”
“Well, I guess that’s right~ What’s important is the things currently happening right in front of us~”
Ms. Mari nodded, and then laughed. “The most interesting side of course~”