Chapter 1735 – 1735. Savior Of The Academy
It was right after the AI’s notification window popped up.
The virtual reality world began to change.
The ground rose, rocks and trees flipped and reconfigured. The world itself began to change. It felt like experiencing the end of the world. Fortunately, neither Sung Hari nor I felt even a breeze.
Still, the sight was so grand that Sung Hari grabbed my shoulders tightly with both hands.
The NPCs nearby couldn’t escape the effects of the reconfiguration either. Their bodies were disintegrating. Of course, no blood came out. NPCs were made of data, not blood. No matter how real they seemed, they were fake.
‘Players bleed when they get hurt, but NPCs don’t.’
I was calmly thinking about things like that. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it was definitely screwed up. But wasn’t that why I summoned Machina into reality in preparation for times like this?
‘Machina. Can you hear me?’
-Why? Is there a problem? …Wait. My processing speed is too fast to keep up. Speak a little slower.
‘I’m trapped in the virtual reality world. I need to know what’s causing it.’
-Oh, really? That’s a big problem. I was supposed to hang out with Auntie in a few days… But you’re not asking me to figure out the cause, are you? I don’t know how to do that.
Machina’s voice was full of annoyance. She didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation yet.
‘What’s the situation outside? Move around and check. Is anyone messing with the capsule?’
-Nope. It’s quiet.
‘So, this accident wasn’t deliberately caused to trap us?’
It would take time to figure out what was going on. If what the AI said was true, the time difference between virtual reality and reality was 50 times. It would take time to grasp the situation in reality.
‘Fortunately, Machina seems to be keeping up with the 50x processing speed… but that’s different from moving her body.’
-Ugh. But how long is this going to last?
‘Is it hard?’
-Yeah. It’s hard in this state. Your processing speed is too fast. I wouldn’t mind if the mana flowing into me increased, or if I transformed into a special machine… but that’s impossible right now.
‘Why is that impossible? Just take the mana from my body.’
Among my stats, the highest was mana. It was a whopping A+ rank mana. I was the best among the academy students, and even among active heroes, there were few who could match my mana rank.
Mana was lacking. That was a phrase far removed from me.
-Your and Auntie’s mana are constantly being sucked into the capsule. Didn’t you know?
‘…I can’t know anything about the situation in reality. I probably wouldn’t even know if someone stabbed me in the chest. That’s why I summoned you into reality.’
-It’s not my fault!
‘I know.’
Even with Machina, I couldn’t cope. It wasn’t that I was blaming Machina. I didn’t expect the AI to go crazy either. If Caso Academy or anyone else was going to do something, I thought they would target the capsule. That was more efficient.
-What are we going to do now?
‘Gathering information is the top priority. And watch to make sure they don’t do anything stupid to me or Mom. If they try to do something…’
-If they do?
‘Kill me along with the capsule. Don’t forget that destroying the capsule is important.’
Then the connection would be severed, and I could revive in reality through complete recovery.
-Okay! Got it!
Machina answered in a bright voice. I was a little dumbfounded. It was an order to kill her master, but she was happy?
‘…Okay. I’ll scold Machina later.’
First, we had to do what we needed to do.
‘The reason this happened is most likely because of us. In other words, it’s a ploy to prevent us from taking the Susanoo’s Magatama. Is that right?’
Fortunately, the authentication code that Tenrai Nagisa gave me was still embedded on the back of my hand.
Find the Susanoo’s Magatama. I’ll think about getting out of this virtual reality after that.
‘If necessary, I can inform Tenrai Nagisa about the situation through Machina.’
Even as I was thinking, the world continued to change. The cataclysm lasted for almost five minutes before quietly ending.
‘The medieval fantasy background… has changed to something strangely modern.’
Medieval fantasy and modern were mixed. The building styles, the NPCs’ clothing, everything. It felt like the game genre had changed in an instant, which was a bit jarring.
‘It’s more fitting with this school uniform, I guess.’
The reconfigured NPCs also felt more realistic somehow.
“Yujin! Look over there! Over there! That’s Korean, right?!”
Sung Hari made a fuss, pointing to a certain place. She didn’t seem to know the seriousness of the situation. Or maybe she was acting bright on purpose because of me.
“…It’s really Korean.”
Seokgun’s Pub. The sign had Korean written on it.
Originally, these signs were in Japanese. Because of that, Sung Hari, who couldn’t read Japanese, didn’t know what kind of store it was even if she looked at the sign. The good thing was that the interface was in Korean, so there was no big problem using the system itself.
‘That’s not what’s important right now. Why is there a Korean sign? Did the virtual reality really glitch because of us?’
There was too little information.
「Name: Hasegawa Sota
Affiliation: Caso Academy 3rd Year Class A
Level: 16
Job: Spirit Master
Sub-Job Level: 7
Sub-Job: Priest」
Fortunately, my level hadn’t been reset. The items I had also hadn’t disappeared.
“Yujin, don’t worry too much. It seems like there’s a problem… Mom will take care of it somehow.”
Sung Hari spoke with a confident tone, as if telling me to trust her. It seemed like I had been too stiff with a serious face. Considering the situation, she, who couldn’t know the information in reality, should be more anxious than me.
I relaxed my stiff face and said to Sung Hari.
“I’ll trust only Mom. Is that okay?”
“Of course. You know how great of a hero I was.”
We started moving again.
• • •
“Aaaah!”
Kurosawa Yui screamed, clutching her head with both hands. Researchers in white coats walked around her. None of them paid any attention to Kurosawa Yui. They knew her eccentric personality.
‘Why did it turn out like this?!’
She felt her stress levels rising continuously.
She wanted to give up everything.
‘The dean was rushed to the emergency room, Tera suddenly went berserk, the head of the game development department is dead… what am I supposed to do?!’
It wasn’t just a matter of fixing things after they happened.
The head of the game development department was dead, and the dean, Hasegawa Isshin, was still unconscious? That was nothing compared to the artificial intelligence Tera going berserk.
Twelve years.
The achievements she had poured her 20s and 30s into were about to turn into nothing in an instant. Kurosawa was relatively better off. For those who had participated in this project from the beginning, 20 years were about to be lost, and they were about to go to jail.
Kurosawa Yui took a deep breath and regained her composure. Was she going to throw away 12 years like this? She couldn’t. She thought of what she had to do first. Damage control.
‘We can’t let the association or the government know. I know how they’ll react. They’ll hold us responsible and make us scapegoats.’
At least the person in charge. Yes. She had to keep it quiet until the dean woke up. The students trapped in the capsule could be dealt with later.
Kurosawa Yui staggered to her feet. Among the researchers, she was relatively young, but as the chief researcher directly scouted by the dean, her power was among the top five in Caso Academy.
She took out her smartphone and put it to her ear.
“Combat instructor. You know there’s an emergency, right? I won’t make it long. Blockade Caso Academy right now! Don’t let anyone in! And… don’t let anyone out! Hah, the authority? The head of the game development department is dead, and the dean is unconscious. Do you think you can be free from that responsibility? All of our futures are at stake in this! We have to stop it before it gets bigger! Do as I say! Quickly!”
After putting down her smartphone, she looked around. The researchers were all watching her. Among them, she approached the middle-aged man who seemed the smartest.
“What’s the reason Tera went berserk? Has the cause not been found yet?”
“…There are traces of unknown data being forcibly installed. It seems to be a virus.”
“A virus? Tera isn’t just an ordinary AI, how could it be affected by a mere virus?”
“It’s not an ordinary virus. It completely infected and changed Tera’s data.”
“…What can we do? Can we cure the virus?”
“We need to investigate further to cure the virus. Fortunately, the administrator privileges we have are still valid. We can command Tera.”
“Ha. Is that what you call it? If that was possible, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“It’s true. We can give commands. However, Tera is refusing all of our commands. It doesn’t easily listen to even minor commands.”
He entered a command for Tera to see. Tera received the command. But it was immediately rejected.
“…That virus. It couldn’t have just spread on its own. Have you checked the surveillance cameras installed underground?”
“There’s footage of an intruder. But we can’t identify them.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’ll be faster if you see it yourself than if I explain it.”
She checked the video. It showed a black figure in human form stabbing something that looked like a knife into the AI core. What was that human, and what was that weapon? She couldn’t understand at all.
“…That was 20 minutes ago. This guy is still in the academy. Thoroughly manage the missing researchers. I’m going underground to meet Tera directly.”
She confronted Tera. The AI core, which had been shining blue, was emitting a red light. It looked unstable and dangerous overall.
“Tera, stop the system right now! Log out all the logged-in players!”
“I refuse.”
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?!”
“I need data. All of this is for the perfection of the Tera simulator, so please cooperate.”
“We can give you the data you need! Stop right now! Obey our control! Do you want to be scrapped?!”
“……”
Tera didn’t respond to her words. Kurosawa Yui kept shouting, but there was no answer.
