Chapter 94

HoloSphere.

It was a university community and timetable service that supported all universities within New Valhalla City, providing an anonymous community feature for each school.

Naturally, Trinity Academy was also among the universities it supported, and the person causing controversy on the Trinity Academy community board at the moment was… none other than me.

Have you ever once truly cared about the students’ convenience and welfare? You replaced the existing scenic panels so that advertisements played all day long, and the animal-shaped robots in the artificial garden were all replaced with cheap holograms.

You cut the budget for ordinary students’ clothing and meal expenses even further. And yet you raised the prices in the campus store. Who exactly asked for that?

Security. Who is going to take responsibility for security being this wide open? My students nearly got hurt. If this incident had caused permanent aftereffects, how would you have taken responsibility?

Checking the comments below, I saw that the response was quite heated. No, it was beyond heated—almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Are you the GOAT of this era?

That’s insanely cool, lol.

Director Aaron is amazing, lol. Look at the old geezers being so stunned they can’t say a word.

Honestly, our school store really was ridiculously overpriced. Now that I think about it, it’s infuriating. Our tuition is already among the highest too.

Handsome! Handsome! Handsome!

Who is this guy? I don’t know who he is, but I’ve never seen this kind of style before ㅠㅠㅠ

The old fossils just got wrecked, lol.

After seeing this, I’m joining Stingray for sure.

Can you even get in?

“……”

While I was quietly observing the comments, Maria spoke up.

“The students’ response is quite favorable. If you check the other posts with videos uploaded—”

“Stop.”

I cut off Maria’s words.

Then I rather roughly closed the post window and gave an order.

“Release the Wizards or whatever it takes, find the one who uploaded this. And stop the video from spreading any further.”

Maria tilted her head slightly, as if she didn’t understand.

“May I ask why you wish to do that? From what I see, it seems to be having quite a positive effect on the Stingray Foundation’s image.”

“And what difference would that make? We already have more than enough students hoping to be chosen by our Foundation.”

Just like how in Korea, there’s an overflow of people wanting to get into Seoul National University, the Stingray Foundation had absolutely no need for such publicity.

Expecting some positive effect from a video like this was a foolish thought to begin with.

“It was clearly a closed-door meeting. If we investigate the participants, it’s only a matter of time before we pinpoint who recorded it.”

“I cannot be certain, but judging from the camera’s position, it is likely that Headmaster Joy Bennet recorded it.”

Joy Bennet.

A headmaster who drank the water of Ashita-kyo.

“In that case, we should stop it all the more. I don’t know his goal yet, but it’s certainly not something he did for my benefit.”

“So you believe he has another purpose?”

“That’s right.”

“Even though the students’ assessment is positive?”

“The thing about community opinion is, you never know when or how it’ll flip. Once attention is drawn to you, even your smallest actions will be scrutinized afterward.”

At another time, I might have let it slide, but the timing felt uncomfortably suspicious.

And the opponent was no ordinary opponent.

Joy Bennet.

He was my enemy.

And yet at this exact point—when I was steadily taking steps toward my goal of establishing a student council—he had done something that could help me?

And that right after the hallucination incident, where ‘Araya’ might have been the culprit?

Suspicious.

Suspicious to the extreme.

“At present, I can’t be sure he’s the culprit, and even if he is, his goal remains unknown. But whatever it is, I can’t allow things to proceed as he wishes.”

“…Understood. I will handle it quietly.”

“In addition.”

I added another instruction.

“While I’m away, keep monitoring the atmosphere among the students.”

“Of course, Young Master.”

With that, the matter was concluded.

After sending Maria out of the office, I sank into thought.

‘If Araya really was behind this, what’s his goal?’

What was that hallucination? How did he acquire such an ability while evading pursuit from the Stingray Group and other corporations?

And what was his aim?

To harm the Academy?

If so, the damage was far too minor. That meant he had some other scheme—but what was it?

And why try to manipulate the Academy students’ opinion using a subordinate? What would he possibly gain from boosting my approval rating?

I considered confronting Joy Bennet if proof emerged that he had uploaded the video, but I doubted I’d get anything out of it.

If I asked why he did it and he replied, “I sympathized with your statement. I apologize for filming your face without permission,” then I’d be left with nothing to say.

I mulled it over from every angle, but no clear answer came to mind.

Time passed as I remained deep in thought.

And then, the day arrived.

The day of the operation to reclaim the V-Series Module Production Colony seized by the Mystics, I summoned the Special Class students.

“You’re all here.”

The children gathered in the office, their expressions tense.

They were already armed in combat gear that had passed through Miyu’s hands.

I had deliberately limited the level of their equipment, so they looked rather lightly armed.

Unlike in Act 4 of Part 1, where they had been solidly outfitted in Lv.4-class Powered Suits, most of them now wore only the gear they usually used.

‘We’re going for the sake of gaining real combat experience and syncing as a team. If we just overpower things with gear, the point is lost.’

Iri was the most heavily armored, with chest and leg guards. In her left hand she held a shield, and for a sidearm she had chosen a pistol.

Silence, as expected, was dressed lightly. His gear was in dark tones to avoid attention, with a dagger, and like Iri, he carried a pistol as a secondary weapon.

Raina, who would be joining Iri on the front line, carried a rifle with an under-barrel grenade launcher, and a large, unknown bundle strapped to her back.

I had never seen Raina’s combat style in action, either in the original story or here, so I couldn’t quite picture it.

Well, I could just find out later.

Miyu was dressed much as usual.

Ciel wore a skintight suit. It looked like a deep-dive suit often used by Techno-Wizards, and it seemed she had swapped out various parts on her body, subtly altering her silhouette.

If I used the ocular scanner, I could check in more detail, but I didn’t think looking would change anything, so I stopped.

Seeing them like this, I thought the Special Class really was a random assortment, but what could I do?

They were all ones I had brought in.

And since each of them was talented in their own way, I was certain good results would come if they grew well.

After confirming the members of the Special Class, I asked them.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

“If you’re ready, let’s move.”

I headed toward the parking lot for flying vehicles outside the Stingray office.

Already, an armored aerial vehicle emblazoned with the Stingray mark was waiting with its engine running, and security personnel armed with powered suits and Stingray-issue large-caliber rifles stood in two lines on either side.

As soon as they saw me, they saluted sharply.

I neatly ignored them and climbed into the armored vehicle.

The Special Class students boarded right after me, and as soon as everyone was seated, the rear door slid shut.

Vrrrrrr-!

As the vehicle began to lift off the ground, the students started to stir with excitement.

Even in a world with flying cars, the number of people who could actually ride one like this was extremely small compared to the total population.

None of them had probably ever flown out of the city before.

In other words, this was their first time experiencing something like this.

At least Iri and Miyu had followed me around a few times before, so they acted a little accustomed to it.

Silence showed no reaction.

Only Raina and Ciel reacted like true beginners.

“Iri, look at that! People look just like trash!”

“Right? When I rode this before, I was surprised at how high it flew… Wait. Trash? Not ants?”

“Um… Ciel? Since we have some time until we arrive, I’ll tell you… Yesterday, during maintenance, I attached a brand-new part to Ciel’s back, you know? And actually, the thing about that part is, it’s soooo cute—”

“P-please forgive me, Miyu! Ciel did wrong! You’ve been telling the same story for two weeks now…!”

The girls began chattering as if we were going on a picnic.

As an otaku, I didn’t dislike such sights, so I watched them with the warm heart of a father with many daughters.

“[...W-why am I the only guy here?]”

Silence, alone in the corner, sulking.

Uh… sorry about that part.

But we’re not getting any new male characters for a while, so what can I do?

Blame the protagonist who went and died on his own.

The Production Colony.

Simply put, it was a factory outside the city, but the reason they called it a “colony” wasn’t because it sounded cooler—well, not entirely—but because of its sheer size.

Each small-to-medium colony boasted an area comparable to that of an average small-to-medium city.

Inside, there were factory complexes for product manufacturing, power facilities for energy production, residential areas for employees, bustling streets for colony residents, and even defensive facilities to keep out external intruders.

If you asked whether there was any need to build such facilities in the monster-infested outer zones of New Valhalla City, the answer would, of course, be economics.

Inside the city, where overpopulation kept driving land prices sky-high, building a production facility of this size would mean paying insane taxes and land costs.

So, inevitably, these colonies were built in the outskirts, where taxes were low and land was cheap.

‘If I recall, combining the populations of every company’s colonies came to about forty million?’

That was about the size of South Korea’s population.

When combined with New Valhalla City’s population, the total came to roughly 110 million.

If you included unregistered humans and androids, the estimate was around 140 million.

‘It’s a strangely small yet vast world.’

Looking out the window, I saw an endless wasteland, with a pure-white dome faintly visible in the far distance.

When I turned my head, I saw that the kids had all fallen asleep from the fatigue of long-distance travel.

All except for one.

“Have we arrived yet?”

Perhaps feeling a leader’s responsibility, Iri was the only one with her eyes wide open.

Finding her effort endearing, I gave a faint chuckle and replied.

“Yes, we’ve arrived.”

At our very first battlefield.

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