Chapter 80

Violet quickly escaped from the broker group and Circlef. Fortunately, there was still no one chasing after them.

After driving for a while, they stopped for lunch. With some time to spare, the brokers finally introduced themselves.

Their official title is [Rapid Manpower Corporation].

From their name alone, it sounds more like a construction site than a group of brokers. There are a total of four members in the Rapid Manpower Corporation.

First, a regular middle-aged man dressed in casual formal attire.

“I’m Leslie. I’m the manager. Nice to meet you.”

“Manager? Not the president?”

“Given our size, if we called ourselves president or chairman, everyone would just laugh.”

He chuckled lightly.

Next, a brown-haired bartender woman introduced herself.

“I’m Ayina. I handle contact and accounting for the manpower corporation.”

A slightly smaller guy wearing a t-shirt and headset also spoke up.

“I’m Mark. I’m in charge of information collection. I know my way around computers a bit.”

A big man dressed in short sleeves and a vest hesitated before answering.

“I’m Kashian. I handle various administrative tasks… and security… Manager? But I’m not getting fired, right? Right?”

“What are you talking about? It’s fine. Nothing like that.”

From his words, it seemed he was a former Class C Hunter. He must’ve been humbled after getting beaten up by some resolvers.

“By the way, what should we call you, Resolver…?”

Hearing the manager’s question, we fell into thought. Now that I think about it, we hadn’t introduced ourselves. What would be an appropriate title?

“Captain? Nah, that’s too grand. Commander sounds weird too.”

“But he’s the manager, right? If he’s higher than us, let’s just call him president.”

“Call me Ariel! Just call me president.”

“Alright then, understood. President!”

After wrapping up the chatter, they continued driving towards the Central District.

By afternoon, several suspicious cars began tailing them on the road. There were even motorcycles charging at them with swords drawn.

“Fire!”

-Peew! Tatatatang!

“Graaaah!”

Of course, they smashed them every time. It was a wise choice to bring several cars from the gang’s hideout.

The motorcycles chasing them were splattered with bullets and bolts that flew from a nearby escort car, crashing into the roadside.

The brokers were in awe at the sight.

“Wow…”

“Indeed, that was a clever choice…”

Once they crossed into the Central District, no one was chasing them any longer.

The next morning, I headed to the spot where they were unpacking.

The members of Rapid Manpower Corporation had settled relatively close to our base. I had purposely directed them to stay near the dormitory of the Violets.

“Quickly get me some jamming equipment. Ideally, I’d like masks.”

“Understood! I’ll get it as soon as we’re settled.”

They might not know it, but I still couldn’t fully trust them, so I planned to keep them under surveillance 24/7. Even now, Violet sentries were already positioned around them.

For now, I should assign them some tasks to test their connections and information-gathering capabilities.

“Can you handle disposing of stolen goods?”

“We can do that!”

The immediate answer came. I asked more questions.

“You mentioned you deal in information? Do you do background checks?”

“That’s a basic service. We don’t do it ourselves, rather, we ask our contacts around. Who are you looking for?”

Is this guy just showing off? It sounded suspicious that he could do everything.

I sent a series of personal information via his smartphone.

“Two students? That shouldn’t be hard. It’s interesting that their names are both M-related. Their last name is Perian, and since I already have the data, I’ll find them right away. Do you need anything else?”

I sent more materials.

“This is…?”

“The student council of Polaris Academy, the school administrative office, and the board of directors’ list. Investigate all the people written here. Focus on the student council president, vice president, and treasurer. Also, investigate the people in the administrative office thoroughly. Where do they live, what are their family relations, do they have romantic partners, and where do they frequently go. Also, check their reputation, rumors, and economic conditions.”

“Understood. Looking for weaknesses, right? Let’s see… the board of directors…”

As the manager examined the list I provided, his expression turned serious.

“Nightis Valefor? This person is a war hero! Former head of Magnavis! This might be…”

He waved his hands in haste, prompting me to quickly add a few explanations.

“There’s no need to dig too deep. If it’s too much, you can skip that person. I just want you to find out things that the public isn’t aware of, is this level of work possible?”

“I’ll try. I don’t know what your goal is, president…ah, never mind. I’m not interested. However, since they’re part of the Four Great Clans, we must proceed discreetly, so it might take a while.”

“Can you manage it within a month?”

“I’ll have the results in two weeks, no, a week.”

I lightly nodded.

Just searching the internet or books wouldn’t yield the information I needed. Even if I attempted to sneak in, I needed to know what and where to hide. It was much faster and more efficient to entrust such tasks to experts.

Of course, I still couldn’t fully believe that these guys would do the job properly. I had to keep watching them.

Suddenly, a few more names popped into my head.

“Right, find two, no, three more people for me!”

“Who are they?”

“Ospri Rodriguez, the neighborhood vigilante leader.”

And he is also Kalia’s uncle.

The Brotherhood members were still hard at work trying to find their leader, but they hadn’t glimpsed a hair of him. I didn’t even know if he was dead or alive.

Kalia seemed indifferent on the surface, but whenever news about her uncle came up, she reacted vehemently as if someone poured oil onto a fire.

Last time she was kidnapped by those Laplacians, her surroundings advised against her personally getting involved.

“And the other two are siblings. Their names are Seijis and Sophie El.”

“Don’t you know their last name? How do they look?”

“I don’t know their last name! They have black hair. I’ve heard they’re affiliated with the Inspection Bureau, but I want to know if these two are still working there and what their positions are.”

I also need to check on the status of the Scholarship Officer.

Manager Leslie pondered over my words before slowly starting to respond.

“The Inspection Bureau? They are a bit of a closed-off organization. It takes time for a background check. But I’ll give it a try.”

“Great! Then good luck with it!”

“Yes, president. You can look forward to it!”

With the manager seeing me off, I took my leave.

It felt awkward being addressed honorably by an older man in the body of a young girl. However, in this world, Awakened Ones generally stood in positions of power. And those people have witnessed my strength directly or indirectly, so I held overwhelming advantage.

I need to get used to being called president quickly.

*

The Violets had plenty to do beyond managing the newly hired personnel. First, they needed to sort out their loot.

Currently, the Violets were inspecting weapons obtained from the workshop where they made bombs.

“I wish we could’ve gotten more. We should’ve used Molotov Cocktails more judiciously!”

“When we fought against the resolvers, most of it broke or got damaged.”

The gang members surprisingly had some decent weapons.

Most of the firearms were low-grade, like the [P-15 Automatic Rifle ☆] or [Type 5 Automatic Rifle ☆], and [M-12 Submachine Gun ☆], all around one star.

You could tell at a glance, they screamed ‘I’m cheap!’

The item used by the gang boss was a two-star weapon, dubbed the [Burned Monster Hunting Rifle ☆☆]. It got wrecked during battle.

Basically, the management state was awful, so they decided to keep a few for cloning and trash or sell the rest.

However, they did find something valuable in the meantime.

In my hand, I held a clunky, crude combination of metal and wood.

The grand and magnificent name of this weapon was [SBS-4 Riot Control Shotgun ☆☆☆], with three shining stars next to its name. I pulled the loading handle and removed the shell from the chamber.

The yellow and thick brass casing glinted.

“Four gauge? What does that even mean?”

“Must mean it’s quite powerful. Look at the bullet, it’s thicker than our fingers!”

There hadn’t been a decent ranged weapon for close combat, so I thought I’d give it a try later. I was curious how it would fare against monsters or people.

But the real reward was something else.

“It’s a sniper rifle!”

“No, it’s a battle rifle. It can fire multiple rounds too.”

In front of the Violets lay three futuristic-looking gray rifles.

Various types of scopes, tripods, vertical grips, laser sights, and long suppressors were attached as accessories.

This item is called the FSR-15 Combat Rifle; they barely salvaged three out of the six the gang had.

It’s a four-star weapon! Four stars!

Holding it for too long without enhancement was making my arm sore.

The bullets were longer than our hands, resembling the size of ammunition from the medium machine guns I saw during my military service prior to being reincarnated.

-Bang!

To test its power, I set up a mannequin outside the workshop and fired. The sound wasn’t as loud as I expected. All the parts moved smoothly. The recoil was gentle.

However, sound and power are two different matters. The mannequin’s upper body blew apart with a bang.

“Ah! How on earth did we beat those gang members?”

“No wonder the walls were getting pierced through.”

How chilling. If I took a direct hit from that, I’d turn into a Violet donut.

After attempting to clone once, the outcome bore similarities to cloning the Flame Blade.

“Four-star weapons degrade too, huh?”

“Such a shame!”

The [FSR-15 Combat Rifle ☆☆☆☆] transformed into a [Rough FSR-15 Combat Rifle ☆☆]. Externally, they looked the same, but I wondered what differences remained.

“Should I give it a shot?”

I stepped outside and aimed at a distant pile of dirt. I loaded one bullet into the chamber and pulled the loading handle. Unlike the original, the moving parts became stiff, and the handling had worsened considerably. The trigger pressure was dreadful. The scope didn’t function correctly.

-Bang!

Black smoke billowed from the muzzle and chamber. The bullet missed the target.

“Ouch! My shoulder hurts!”

I noticed a similar situation when cloning the Flame Blade; when copying equipment of certain grades, the performance drastically decreased compared to the original. According to the status board, it dropped two stars. The Flame Blade lost its flame attack ability from the original, and the combat rifle became a rough imitation.

“Why is it that bullets and bombs don’t clone well?”

“I wonder if overly complex chemical substances are involved? Yet I don’t understand why swords and guns can be cloned.”

Similar issues arose even when attempting to clone homemade explosives. It was possible to make them, but out of ten, eight or nine would misfire. The remaining one would have dramatically reduced power.

“It looks like our abilities are still lacking.”

Just in case, I rummaged through my memory of the original story, but I couldn’t grasp any insights.

In the main story, the boundless Witch also used to clone weapons like swords and spears. However, I was unsure if she could clone guns effectively. The Witch Violet, due to her tastes, was set to use only melee weaponry.

She frequently used explosives, but I couldn’t tell whether she gathered them externally or cloned them.

“In the end, it’s something time will resolve. Don’t stress too much.”

“Let’s wrap up and take a break!”

The Violets diligently made lists and organized the ammunition and weapons. I also saw other gear salvaged from the resolvers’ corpses. Unfortunately, they were all three-star weapons. That hammer staff might be somewhat useful.

“We need to test the newly acquired weapons in a dungeon soon.”

“Right! Let’s get the multidimensional storage bag sorted quickly. We should figure out who to give it to as well.”

Once this week’s tasks were finished, I might take one of my friends to Novaastia Dungeon. Since there’s one multidimensional storage bag left, it seems better to hand it over to someone trustworthy than just leave it lying around.

*

Thus, I spent my time training and managing various small investigations and tasks.

“I really can’t concentrate on my studies…”

While I was resting in the dormitory, Daphne complained and placed her books down on the table. After hearing about the academy’s situation from me, Daphne’s enthusiasm for her studies had been doused like a splash of cold water.

It made sense. The academy was supposedly conducting suspicious human experiments on its students, so what significance would studying hold? Currently, the books Daphne was holding weren’t even majors. They were guides for transferring or enrolling.

“Violet, didn’t you say you would explain what we’ll do later?”

“Yes, that’s right. I plan to hold a big meeting later on, where I’ll discuss everything then…”

If my declaration of demolishing the school was understood in terms of ‘exposing the schemers’ plans and normalizing the school’ by Irene, then Daphne interpreted it as ‘punishing the bad people mercilessly,’ which was relatively closer to my actual intentions.

“I believe in you, Violet, whatever you do. But be careful and don’t take on anything too dangerous, alright?”

“Yes!”

We had already done enough dangerous things the day before, but I shouldn’t mention that. If they found out I waged war against dozens of gang members, I would be scolded for doing something so reckless.

Suddenly, as I caught a glimpse of the transfer-related documents Daphne was looking over, a thought struck me. How did the surviving minority from Polaris, including Irene, end up transferring to other schools after the academy failed?

This was a very significant issue. I didn’t want to end up cooped up in a room alone after punishing all the bad guys. A return to school life could still be enjoyable.

“Let’s think about reality. If a school were to cease functioning for certain reasons, the Ministry of Education would push for special transfers to nearby schools. I wonder if that’s the case for Polaris too?”

“Oh, you’re right! Why didn’t I think of such a simple thing? Let’s look into it.”

The Violets searched for the information, and not long after, they confirmed the answer.

“Wow, it’s real. There are related regulations.”

<··· If a school loses its functions and closes for certain reasons, a special transfer must be permitted within the scope of enrollment numbers.>

There is! In this case, it is more of an administrative process dealt with by an academy city institute rather than the Ministry of Education. There were actually several previous cases as well.

“Atlas Professional Academy, involved in a gate incident during experiential learning, resulting in the death of many staff and students, leading to the school’s closure—efforts were made to transfer surviving students…” it stated.

“Midline Academy, the entire school burned down due to a magical experiment, and the board declared bankruptcy… This was a case where the whole school burned down, resulting in a special transfer.”

“Oh ho, this is it.”

We looked over the cases and chuckled contently to ourselves. Yet another reason for us to blow up this academy.

“Wait a minute! Just because it’s a special transfer doesn’t mean they’ll accept anyone! They look at academic performance.”

“What?!”

The Violets looked further into the situation.

“Typically, they just transfer students to nearby academies. To get into a good school, you need to perform well academically.”

“Ugh! I hate studying!”

An idea sparked in my mind. The Violets all chimed in their thoughts simultaneously.

“Then let’s cheat!”

“Let’s steal the test papers!”

With only a few days left until the October diagnostic exam, should we attempt to sneak in? We laughed lightly at the thought.