Emmet’s second year second semester went about just like the previous semester, just even more rigorous. At his job, he tackled more and more advanced formations, bringing the time taken for each down to just three days, and decreasing still. In fact, at this point, he was probably the premiere master of debugging on campus. Even Maisy admitted that in this specific field, she couldn’t compete - although Emmet vehemently denied it.
The thing was, he had probably spent the most effort debugging formations out of anyone. Who in their right mind would dedicate all their mental space just to become the most skilled at debugging others’ formations? To many raised within the high-falutin formations world, it didn’t look too good to have that title. Thus, most would only do it if they had to, for works sake. But Emmet was different. He treated it as his passion. Every day, he would come in with high spirits, excited to tackle some more debuggings. Days full of challenging puzzle-solving - could he ask for anything more?
Thus, one could say that he was becoming the dominant face of the company. Among employees and even among clients, his nickname especially was becoming more and more famous. The ‘madman.’ Quick, clean, and crazy. Many would specifically request to have their formations debugged by him, as they would always come back lightning quick and neatly fixed, often even with added improvements.
As for the other aspects of Emmet’s life, they only went further and further as well. Every week, he continued to tackle on task after task, each getting larger in scale and more intricate than the last. Still, he completed them with gusto. Each one was varying in subject - warding formations, locomotive constructions, research, locomotive upgrades - there wasn’t anything Emmet was unwilling to do.
As for his self studies, he was now deep within the library of middle level topic textbooks. For some subjects, he even read through the advanced level textbooks, although they were extremely wordy and sometimes hard to understand. However, their concepts were much broader in scale and much more fascinating, so he would always try to read over them until he understood, asking Maisy when he needed help.
Like this, two months passed.
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“Wow…” Emmet’s mouth gaped wide open like a fish.
Maisy’s Mega Marvel. That was the name of the enormous blue rollercoaster construction that currently lay in his vision. Made up of enormous, solid tervoriam pillars holding up long stretches of track, it impressively stretched nearly half a mile outward, weaving around numerous greenery and buildings in the distance.
“Pretty ‘marvelous,’ huh?” Maisy laughed, patting Emmet affectionately on the head. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, absolutely. It’s incredible!” Emmet immediately nodded in agreement. The thing was absolutely stunning… colored a nice royal blue, its peak stretched nearly two hundred feet, approaching even the height of some of the surrounding skyscrapers. Although too many tall buildings blocked its view for it to be visible from far, anyone who got in range would immediately notice it. It was just too conspicuous.
Emmet had gotten a glimpse of this enormous construction the previous year, during his first semester when he had first witnessed Maisy go wild with her constructions. However, at that time, it wasn’t even half the size of its current monstrous proportions. Clearly, Maisy had been hard at work. Since that time, she had extended the length of the meandering track by nearly 50%, creating an extra peak that stretched nearly two hundred feet into the sky. Just looking at it gave off an intimidating feeling.
Again, Emmet was shocked at the sheer show of wealth and power. Not just the price of the enormous volume of materials, the cost of leasing the space out was definitely astronomical, and would likely alone wipe away the savings of any other couple dozen students, and then some. It was precious Gemini Academy campus ground! How could it not be in high demand?! Further, how did she even get permission to do such a thing, to built such a structure on top of the land? - Emmet still didn’t know. Not to mention, actually physically constructing the thing - Maisy even had to build numerous helper constructions to provide the manpower to put the thing together, and even then, took over a year. The scale was enormous.
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“After a full year, I’ve finally finished this thing,” Maisy smiled excitedly. “Last week, it passed safety inspections, and finally, it’s ready to go! I’m planning on opening it up to the public at the end of this week. 25 points per ride, do you think people will bite?”
“Of course!” Emmet nodded enthusiastically. He truly meant it. Something like this, something so one of a kind, how could people not flock toward? He reckoned most had never seen anything like it!
Emmet had personally never even heard of such a concept, and had had to have it explained to him. He had been stunned after hearing it. People would pay money to ride this kind of huge, crazy machine, riding wildly within that railcar up and down slopes, in order to give them thrills? He supposed he understood it. In his past days of fighting animals with Yorick, it had introduced him to a thrill that got more addictive the more you experienced it. The rollercoaster was probably similar.
Although, stuff like this was definitely a bored wealthy person’s activity.
“Hehe… how about it, Emmet?” Maisy snuck Emmet a sly smile. “I didn’t bring you here just to look. How about we take it for a whirl? We’ll be the first ones on the entire campus to do so!”
“Wha… Can we?” Emmet’s breath sunk into his throat. Maisy was letting him ride it?
He glanced toward the enormous structure, feeling a bit nervous. Although the thing looked scary and intimidating, he was sure it was safe. It was Maisy who had built it, after all. He trusted anything she created whole-heartedly.
“Hahahaha!!!” Maisy tilted her head back and let out a guffaw. “It’s just like old times, Emmet. Let’s go!”
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Emmet had never been so frightened in his entire life.
The buildup was at first exciting. After the two had strapped themselves in, the railcar was gradually pushed up by a powerful locomotive lifting function up the slope. At the time, Emmet had looked around and just marveled at the amazing technology and sights. But as the car lifted higher, a nervous feeling in his heart began to grow. The surrounding ground got smaller and smaller, becoming a distant visage in the background. As the cart continued to rise up the slope, finally approaching the top, Emmet finally felt the beginnings of fear. Would this really be alright?
It was right at the top of the peak of the hill when Emmet finally felt a stomach-full of regret. The railcar had just started to tip over toward the edge, and as his wide-eyed gaze shifted downward toward the distant ground, he felt a true fear for his life. At that moment, the cart traveled in slow motion, like a flashback before death. All he could do was tightly grasp the harness as if his life depended on it.
“WOOO!” It was then that Maisy yelled out, raising her arms up unrestrained, like a total maniac.
The cart shot down, plateaued smoothly at the bottom and then soared up, fierce buffets of wind assaulting both their faces. Emmet literally felt his butt leave his seat as he floated up in his strap, and then just a moment later, crushed into his seat with a force surpassing anything he had ever felt before. Truly, it was an out-of-body experience. He could only feel himself hunker down and clutch his harness bar like it was the most precious thing in the world.
When the car finally slowed and creaked back into the base of the rollercoaster, Emmet’s face was completely white, his eyes wide open in numb shock.
“That was amazing!!!” Maisy screamed out excitedly. “Again, again!” She casually slapped the side of car and channeled her mana in, once again powering it on.
The track mechanized again, once again gradually raising Maisy and Emmet toward the top.
“W...wait…” Emmet could only weakly protest.
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The duo went through the ride for a total of three times. The first time, he had to admit it, Emmet had been scared witless. The second time, however, he began to get a feel for it and even felt a bit of excitement. By the third time, he was screaming along with Maisy, laughing alongside her at the end of the ride.
As the two joked excitedly at the end, Emmet had a sudden realization. He had been aware of this simple fact, but it wasn’t until now, having a giddy time with her, that it suddenly sank in. This was Maisy’s last year at Gemini Academy. In merely four months, she would graduate, gone from this school forever. Surely, she would go into the real world and do amazing things.
The thing was, as soon as he was finished at the school, Emmet was slated to head directly back to his migrant farming tribe, which was over 5000 miles away from this place. So would he ever see her again?
Thinking about these things, Emmet glanced toward Maisy and could only smile bittersweetly as she teased him about his funny reactions.