Chapter 95: Introduction
[Edited by Arthur300000, Bunny, and ArchmageNaoki.]
“It’s an open world sci-fi game. You can build a base under the sea or fly to outer space. The magic system in the game is very innovative. It lets the player create and customize their own spells.” Valerie explained the game where her avatar came from while we were riding the shuttle bus to the biology department.
“Then, aren’t you invincible? If you can create any type of spell, can’t you just create an immortality or time stop spell?” I asked.
“No, it’s all about magnitude.” She replied.
“Magnitude?” I tilted my head.
“You see, between the time stop and fireball spells, which one would you choose?” Valerie asked while smiling serenely.
“Time stop, of course.” Well, fireball is cool, it is the staple magic of RPG games after all. But you could do a lot more with the time stop magic.
“Then how about...” She paused while twirling a lock of her hair before continuing. “With your entire energy pool, you can only cast a microsecond worth of time stop or a spell that let you send an ultra-powerful fireball to anywhere in the world. Which one do you think is more practical to use?”
“That intercontinental ballistic fireball is a lot cooler.” If I still remembered my science class right, a microsecond was about one in million seconds. And I couldn’t do much with that.
“Yeah, that’s the limitation. Anyway, what kind of game did your power come from?” Valerie turned to ask.
“I-It’s an adventure game.” I shyly answered her. Compared to her game, the Dragonborn from Skyrim was just a glorified caveman-
“The biology department station. The biology department station. Please mind your step when leaving the bus.” Thankfully, the announcement from the bus’s speaker saved me in the nick of time. I took advantage of the moment to pull Valerie off the bus.
The air outside wasn’t that cold. According to Skynet, it was only minus three degrees. However, Valerie was visibly shuddering. I tightened my grip on her and ran to the nearby building.
While we were sloppily running, I noticed that the campus here was a bit different from the adventurer school. People here seemed to be more carefree and less alert. Almost half of them walked while watching their devices or reading books. It made them look like easy prey.
Still, the scenery here looked normal… ‘normal’ according to the standard of this world, I mean. There were still strange looking buildings. Some of them had vibrant green lawns sprawled out in front of them, despite it currently being winter. Also, several people from different fantasy races were walking around with miniature furry mammals floating about. It looked rather normal… I think-
“There you are!” After we passed the front revolving door of the building, a strange girl accusingly yelled at us.
She looked like an older version of Valerie. Same platinum hair, pale skin, and red eyes. If I didn’t know beforehand that Valerie was an outsider, I might believe that the two of them were siblings. On closer inspection, there seemed to be two things that were different between them, their body scent and the two tiny sharp fangs in the vampire girl’s mouth. It was easy for me to connect all the dots and realized that this girl must be Valerie’s vampiric roommate.
“I was looking all over for you!” The vampire girl stomped her way to us and grabbed Valerie’s wrist. Then her pupils began to dilate as she noticed me hiding behind Valerie’s back. “Don’t tell me! You kidnapped a girl!?”
“No!” Valerie tensed up and went back to her taciturn mode.
“Hello, sweety, it’s alright, we aren’t going to suck your blood or anything.” … Was that supposed to calm me down? The vampiric girl sat down beside me and flashed a charming yet naughty smile. Damn, if I was still a man, I wouldn’t mind having her suck another kind of liquid from me as much as she wants.
“A-Actually, I’m her friend.” I steered my mind away from the gutter and tried to fix the misunderstanding. Valerie also nodded along. Still, the vampire girl kept staring at me.
“Why do you like this girl?” The vampiric girl pointed at Valerie while sexily tilting her head, showing the nape of her neck in the process.
“She makes delicious food.” I absentmindedly picked one of Valerie’s good points while my gaze drifted down from the nape of her neck to her cleavage.
“So… somehow, she intruded on your house and made a meal for you? And your mom never told you not to let a stranger enter the house?” Did my mom ever tell me that? … I don’t think so. Anyways, that’s not the point here.
“She isn’t a stranger, I knew that her name is Valerie.” … I realized how stupid my argument was after I said that, but what’s done is done. Damn, her revealing dress was unfair. Why can’t you just walk around naked for the peace of my mind.
“Oh, poor thing. How gullible can you be!?” For some reason, she looked devastated and hugged me. Of course, I also hugged her back.
Strangely, her body was cold and harder than it looked. It felt like hugging a marble statue rather than a person. Anyways, considering her sexy figure, I believe I was soft enough for both of us.
“Release her!” Valerie turned serious and grabbed the vampire girl’s shoulder which caused her expression to change. She immediately released me and yelped. “Ouch ouch ouch!”
“Jeez! Be careful with your strength!” She complained as soon as she escaped from Valerie’s grasp. Then just before Valerie could say sorry, the vampire girl suddenly smiled and danced away while singing, “Valerie is jealous! Valerie is jealous!”
“I’m not!” Valerie yelled and ran after her into the hallway.
“Well, at least they get along well.” I shrugged and walked to the information desk situated nearby.
Welcome to the biology department
Where the real work is done
On the back of the information desk, there was a large sign hung on top of it. Next to it was a bleached out graffiti read ‘Work me up, baby!’ Well, it ‘was’ graffiti. But it looked like that the person who tried to erase it had done a lousy job. Those erased characters were bleached more white than its dark creamy surface, and that made the sentence blatantly clear to read.
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“Hey, pumpkin pie, what can I do for you?” As I went to the information desk, a woman in her late forties behind the counter greeted me. She had a stylish grey lock of hair and wore a deep blue security uniform. Judging by her giggling, she seemed to have noticed the recent commotion.
“Uhm, I’m supposed to deliver some monster corpses and dungeon flora here.” I did my best to ignore what just happened a moment ago.
“Oh-” The information desk woman was going to answer, but suddenly, an announcement chime rung followed by outrageous words: “Attention to all staff, attention to all staff, if you see a cute black haired girl 138 centimeters tall, wearing a white shirt, denim shorts, a black leather jacket, and a red scarf, please escort her to the dean’s office immediately.”
The announcement repeated itself one more time before ending with a soft and familiar melody… Well, it could be another lost girl, I told myself while everyone was staring at me. Who was I kidding!? That description was exactly me!
“Don’t worry, I will take you to your mommy. Please follow this big sister.” … When did she become my sister? Wasn’t she older than my mom!? Wait, that wasn’t the point here. I had to solve this misunderstanding, fast.
“Uhm, maybe it was a misunderstanding. I’m an adventurer.” I tried to explain while she dragged me through the door next to her desk. But before I could show my ID card to her she replied.
“Well, you might be not lying. But even if I let you go now, other staff will try to take you to the dean’s office anyway.” Oh, she had a point there. At least this way, I could complain to the one who wasted my time.
.
.
.
Luckily, the self-proclaimed sister of mine had a car, so it only took ten minutes for us to travel to the administrative building. Its interior was decorated in a futuristic style and all of its walls seemed to be made of LCD displays. Sometimes it felt like we were walking through an aquarium, and sometimes there was somebody's face and the academy history displayed on them.
While watching those interactive walls, I was planning my complaining strategy along the way. Alright, I will ask them to drive me back to the biology department when this misunderstanding ends. But as we rode the escalator up to the dean’s office floor, I overheard an argument coming out from the biggest door in the hall.
“It’s my responsibility to protect my students from harm, and her mad-dog-attacker rank is very dangerous for children!” Some guy was yelling.
“Kuro isn’t dangerous! She is cute!” That sounded strangely like Pristia.
“Then can you explain why she was evaluated as the most volatile of adventurers?” The unknown guy argued.
“You know that test was just a written exam. Anybody can make a mistake like that. Also, may I remind you that one of your responsibilities is following my orders?” A woman said. It sounded like Ms. Bluebell, the billionaire and my Saturday employer… Wait, why was she here, wasn’t she a super busy billionaire? For some reason she keeps suspiciously popping up around me from time to time.
“Excuse me, I have the lost girl.” Ms. Self-Proclaimed-My-Sister ignorantly told the pretty elf girl at the front desk. And the brown hair, green eyes, elf girl looked up and smiled.
“This way Ms. Velvori.” The elf girl politely led me through the door. Her movements were even more elegant than my elf uncle and trap cousin.
“Be a good girl, and don’t run away again, alright?” … The late-forties woman sent me off.
Anyways, as I entered the office, I noticed several people waiting for me. Ms. Bluebell and her bodyguards, Pristia, and Cocoa were also here. Last but not least, there was an elder man with a long, white beard. Behind him and his grand, dark wood table was a stunning huge portrait depicting himself in a posture that made him look like a sage who was standing still yet moving at warp speed. Well, I had to admit that the ever-changing portrait background was very flashy. Under the portrait was written.
Henry Baker, Dean, since 94680
Maybe he made himself look like that to attract people like Barbara. I thought that while walking into the room.
“Uhm... What is this all about-” I was going to ask that but Pristia suddenly hugged me.
“Don’t worry Kuro! I’ll protect you with my body!” Pristia suddenly proclaimed. The ‘with my body’ part made me worry a bit more than that painting.
“Miss Velvori, it appears that someone wants to kill you.” The white-bearded sage behind the table said. How he could keep a straight face with that embarrassing portrait behind him was beyond me.
“Eh? Me? Dead? Why?” Valerie’s incomplete sentence communication seemed to rub off on me.
Anyways, why would anyone want me dead? The only bad thing I did in this world was collecting lingeries, trying to peek under a magical girl’s skirt, cop a feel on a superstar’s ass, hugged my niece, molested a loli nine-tailed fox girl, she was already 26 years old mind you, walked naked into the girl’s bathroom, and watched a lot of girls taking a bath while smiling creepily… Well, the list was long but that shouldn't be anything that made others want to kill me, right?
“It’s your loot from the dungeon that you went to yesterday. I found this inside one of the bandits’ storage devices.” Cocoa opened up a beautiful wooden box. Inside it contained four stacks of shiny iridescent gold coins. From my estimate, it should be about one hundred of such coins inside the box.
“What are these coins?” I picked one of them up and inspected it. It was so shiny that I could see my own reflection on it. The strange thing was no matter where I touch, I didn’t seem to leave any fingerprint marks on it. I also tried to bite it a bit to check that whether it has something hidden inside like a coin that’s made of chocolate, but it was hard and unyielding.
“It’s a form of currency used by criminal syndicates. It’s made of practically untraceable synthetic alloy. Each of them is worth around 10,000 credits.” The meanest looking of Ms. Bluebell’s bodyguards explained.
“Okay, someone hired those thugs with these coins. But I killed them all. So, wasn’t the problem solved?” Not to mention that a hundred of them might be worth a million credits, yippee I’m rich again. Now, how do I cash them up?
“The problem is, the group you killed wasn’t a bandit group. They are from an elite group of mercenaries. And with their code of conduct, they will try again.” The bodyguard replied… How pitiful can my luck be?
“Wait, how can you be so sure that the target is me? Maybe I just stumbled into their den like those three adventurers. Also, who are you anyway?”
“He is an ex-mercenary, so you can trust his evaluation.” Ms. Bluebell answered and handed me my picture. “This was recovered from the same storage device.” She added.
“So… do you know who hired them? Aren’t the ones who sent me to the dungeon a part of this?” I glanced at the sage behind the table. Maybe he knew something about it.
“That’s an ongoing investigation. Also, I’m the one who sent you there.” The sage replied. But before I could point at him and dramatically proclaim that he’s the culprit, he added. “It was because of your nefarious adventurer position. Honestly I don’t want you here.” … He admitted it by himself!
“So, you want to have me killed.” I confirmed.
“Oh, god, no! The dungeon is supposed to be safe… Not that safe but who would know that a group of elite mercenaries are after you?” He added the latter part while dabbing his sweat with a lace handkerchief after I stared at him. What a useless dean he is. Can I ask for a replacement?
“That’s why, no outside activities for her anymore.” Ms. Bluebell interrupted.
“But the students.” The useless sage still protested.
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.
.
We were arguing about this matter for quite a while. In the end, we agreed on having one of Ms. Bluebell’s best combatants following me around. This way we can ensure my safety and the students at the same time. I didn’t know how strong Ms. Bluebell’s best fighter is, but having one more meat shield seemed to be wise when there is someone out there that wanted to kill me.
“Alright, send him in.” Ms. Bluebell spoke. Then an average looking guy walked in and bowed.
“Kael, reporting for duty.” He said in an overly dramatic fashion.
“Hey, no one told me that my bodyguard is a man. And from how he acts, isn't he still suffering from eighth grader syndrome?” I whispered to Pristia while Ms. Bluebell explained the situation to him.
“He is just being formal.” Pristia whispered back. Her eyebrows seemed to be unusually drawn together though.
Anyways, on a second glance, the guy really looked average. He had black hair and dark eyes. His features was more on the skinny side rather than burly. Well, he did have some muscle, but that’s it. Nothing outstanding at all.
Wait… I think I skipped something important here. His voice… it sounds familiar somehow…
“Uhm, excuse me, Mr. Bodyguard… Could you yell ‘I’m cumming with the force of the sun!’?” I interrupted their briefing and tried to confirm my theory.
“You are the nosy neighbor!” ...He wrongfully accused me.