The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City

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“So, what do we do now?”

After Violet calmed down through some means, 1st Unit was finally able to speak amidst the confusion, fear, and absurdity.

In front of 1st Unit lay a single Violet face down. It was 2nd Unit.

Just a moment ago, 2nd Unit had held a self-defense gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger. Thanks to that, we all regained clarity.

Golden particles of magical power scattered, and 2nd Unit’s corpse vanished.

“···I never expected this to work.”

The regenerated 2nd Unit shook her head.

One of the downsides we Violets have compared to ordinary people is that when we receive a serious mental shock, the impact is amplified more than when we experience a singular shock. Once negative emotions are born and surpass a certain threshold, they sweep through our minds along the network, massively amplifying them.

The flames of these amplified emotions erupt continuously, like a nuclear fission chain reaction, sweeping through everyone’s minds. In such a state, calming down with mere words or positive thoughts becomes impossible.

To find tranquility, we needed an even bigger shock to dispel the emotions swirling in our heads. Perhaps a physical shock.

2nd Unit slowly raised her hand and began to explain to the others in a gentle tone.

“Okay, everyone calm down. It’s just three months. And you know? We won’t die. We only have to leave school a bit earlier. For now, wouldn’t it be better to maintain the status quo?”

7th Unit, who was sitting with her arms crossed, ‘glared’ at 2nd Unit. To be precise, the 7th Unit sent the feeling of glaring at 2nd Unit mentally.

“You’re an idiot! Polaris was a massive chalet! We’re just microorganisms cultured on top of it. It’s no different from the secret laboratory we were in…!”

At the mention of ‘laboratory,’ the calm in our hearts began to tremble like it was shaken by an earthquake once again.

Laboratory? Right, that place where they applied electric shocks to our necks every day, fed us disgusting baby food, and beat us up when they were bored? A pseudo-mental hospital where we couldn’t see the wind, the sun, or soil. And that gloomy woman with a ponytail!

I don’t even want to think about it. There were nothing but bad memories there. If it weren’t for Kalia, I wouldn’t have made it out alive.

And… ugh, my head. It’s pounding again. Just trying to remember gives me headaches; I wonder what this blank memory really is.

Moreover, apart from the psychological burden, real danger still lurked.

“They’re saying it’s three months, but that could change. By October? By November? Suddenly, a researcher or a doctor could shout, ‘Wow! Eureka!’ and finish their plans in a day or two!”

“It seems their plan involves emitting ether waves to do something. What if we become ghouls? We also need to consider the situation where our unique abilities get nullified.”

2nd Unit fell silent at this unexpected insight. Taking that opportunity, other Violets, who had been quiet, started to rally.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here! Why did we shoot those researchers and run away? For freedom!”

“That’s right! Three months, but it could be sooner!”

“Let’s escape quickly! We have money, right? We don’t need anything! We’ll get a Hunter’s license separately.”

“Freedom! Freeeeeedoooooom!”

As the excited Violets each shouted their piece, the mental commotion around us grew even louder. Soon, the discussion turned into a meaningless emotional waste dump, throwing rubbish into the trash.

In the midst of that chaos, 21st Unit, leaning against the wall with her head in her hands, suddenly recalled something and shot upright.

“Hey, guys. What about the others?”

“What others…? Oh, those guys? Who cares if they live or die? Professor Albert said they were trash.”

Some Violets looked unconcerned, while others scoffed. Having seen nothing but the rough and dirty side, our affection for our school had long since plummeted beneath the basement.

I intellectually recognized the evil plot and the impending tragedy as bad, but I couldn’t understand why I should bother to stop it. I just happened to fall into this world.

And, our goal was to achieve a peaceful and rich life. Sure, in the shadows of the academy city Rustroom, wicked plots and various black ops were lurking, but assuming we lived with our eyes closed in the sunlight, we could live fun and comfortably if we just had enough money.

Saving the world? Achieving justice? That’s a job for the Scholarship Officer five years from now. Not our concern.

Above all, the opponent plotting in the school is a colossal organization that combines a certain crime private military company and conglomerate that would charge a thousand kilometers into a capital on Earth. If we recklessly charged in at our level, it would be a miracle if we drank glowing black tea and got off lightly before being pursued by a clan’s private troops like exterminators hunting cockroaches.

If that happened, we would barely escape with our lives. Just our lives.

21st Unit, having caught a glimpse of our horrific imaginings, waved her hands.

“I get it! I’m not saying we should suddenly become the apostles of justice. But…”

Receiving everyone’s attention, 21st Unit trailed off and took a deep breath.

“What about Daphne? And Irene? Are we just going to leave them behind? I don’t know how they survived in the original story, but considering we exist as a variable, who knows?”

At 21st Unit’s observation, our minds sharpened.

Right, those two were decent people. They could be important characters in the game, but whatever. They had previously helped us, so it felt wrong to just abandon them.

“Then, if the situation seems to worsen, let’s just extract those two. We weren’t planning to run away immediately anyway, right?”

35th Unit, who had been quietly listening without joining the conversation, pulled something from her memory and presented it to us.

“What about the girl who gifted us cake to thank us? And the big guy who took me to the health room when I was out from a hangover?”

“What were their names again? Levi… and the other was Granite? Alright. We occasionally see them in class, so let’s just say hi to them from time to time. We’ll pick them up later.”

With that, we wrapped up the discussion. After everyone dispersed, they headed towards their respective tasks. In reality, since it had been a long time since we ordered out or went hunting, more people were likely heading straight to bed.

As we quietly exchanged words, we were certainly better off than before, but a sense of unease still lingered in a corner of our hearts.

Is this the right thing to do?

Most people in the academy were strangers to us, and we had seen plenty of bad sights. Still, among them, there might be a few innocent ones. Even if some had wronged us, feeling that they might face death or become ghouls was unsettling. I was unsure if it was right to stand by when I knew an unprecedented disaster was looming.

‘What would the Scholarship Officer have done?’

Suddenly, the game’s protagonists, Seijis and Sophie El, came to mind.

Those two, being the protagonists, would probably gather the students and comrades and figure something out somehow.

‘Ugh, I don’t know.’

By now, I was quite hungry. Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I should deal with it simply.

– Kuuuung!

Oh? A noise came from the corner of the warehouse. Something had hit the ground and broke. Did one of us make a mistake? But no one seemed flustered enough for that.

The noise was emanating from one side of the room.

“That room… weren’t we using it earlier? Speaking of which, the person we caught…”

BANG!

A man burst out, kicking the door open. In the sudden situation, all of our gazes turned to him. At the same time, we looked back at him.

“Freedom!… What the heck?”

Yurik, who had been shouting vigorously as he rushed out, stopped. His eyes widened like lanterns. And it was no surprise. Reflected in his eyes were over ten identical-looking girls.

“What… what the heck… more… identical girls… clones?”

Yurik seemed to forget his intention to leave as he froze. With a dumbfounded expression, he trembled while pointing at us. He seemed to be so shocked that he was stuttering.

“That’s right! I completely forgot to dispose of that person while we were discussing. By now, the sleeping pills should have worn off!”

“What?”

The Violets jumped in surprise. Wait a minute, did he just see our faces?

Our thoughts synchronized at lightning speed, and we charged at him like a thunderbolt.

“Catch him!”

“Rush! Rush!”

“AAAH! AAAAAAAAH!”

Only then did the man snap to his senses and attempt to escape, but within the blink of an eye, he was pinned to the ground by the Violets who had rushed at him.

How in the world did someone untie the ropes? Oh my. A broken chair was visible in the room. I guess the chair broke when he slammed into the ground, loosening the ties.

“Monster! Clone army! Help me! Somebody… ugh! Ugh!”

I covered his mouth as he started to scream.

I thought this guy was just an ordinary intellectual, but seeing him try to escape after untying himself showed he was more capable than I expected. Plus, he had just seen our faces. Now, we couldn’t let him go.

“What do we do? Kill him?”

While the man was muffled in resistance, one Violet murmured something that turned his face pale. I quickly knocked him out.

We deliberated over what to do with the unconscious Yurik.

“Kill someone? Who would want to kill an innocent person!”

“But he saw our faces! Our unique abilities might get exposed!”

“Yeah! He recognized who we were. He’s a good person who hasn’t done anything wrong. If we can’t let him go, let’s just lock him up in our place! We happen to have an empty room, and we still have shackles and a beast cage from when we planned the kidnapping.”

“What? You mean we’re going to drag him to our lodging? …Hmm, that makes sense.”

Killing an innocent person is a bad deed. But now that he has witnessed our secret, we can’t let him go. If rumors of countless identical girls spread, the advantage of Violet being able to appear anywhere would vanish.

Until we find another way, it would be safest to manage him directly.

“Hey, look at this, tons of texts are piling up on the screen. Messages from Professor Sturgis.”

Checking Yurik’s smartphone revealed a mountain of messages asking about his willingness to participate in the project, one from a registered ‘Prof. Advisor’ and the rest from names we didn’t recognize.

Since we had already extracted all the important data, I immediately smashed the smartphone and collected the remains. I planned to burn it all later to melt it down.

“Accommodation team, clean up an unused room and grab a lock. Let’s head up.”

In the end, we decided to keep this Yurik guy confined for a while.

Feeling a bit guilty about the unconscious man, I thought he was suffering for no good reason because of us.

“Since it’s our fault for capturing him, let’s give him top-notch meals and other welfare. We ought to take care of his ‘pay’ too.”

“Let’s do that.”

Once we securely packaged Yurik with ropes and handcuffs in the truck’s cargo area, we prepared to head towards the Central District. We cleaned up all traces, so we shouldn’t have to worry about being traced.

Just as we were about to start the car and leave, a Violet on the school side sent out an emergency signal.

It was a Violet from the underground facility.

“Hey! Everyone! Attention! It’s bad news! Right now…!”

An unexpectedly strong mental shockwave swept over us.

“Hyyaaaak!”

My vision went completely dark.