Chapter 166

After class ended, we continued our attempts to manufacture memory chips, suffering between uncertainty and ambiguity.

As dawn broke past midnight, the challenges persisted. It was already past noon, but we had achieved little.

“Ugh, this is frustrating!”

Unable to endure the boredom, someone came up with a radical idea.

“I’ve figured out something fun! Remember the fragments of memory chips stored in our heads? Looking at the formula, they all had one thing in common: someone died during the casting every single time. Could the creation of the memory chip be closely related to this fact?”

“Really?”

When an interesting idea springs up, it’s Violet’s stance to dive right in. A hundred Violets gathered again to prepare for magic. This time, there was a Violet armed with a crossbow beside us.

For starters, we decided to try a relatively simple and low-failure-risk tracking blade spell. Once the formula came to mind, we moved the marbles and manipulated our magical power.

“Alright, we’re almost there. Clone 78! Start!”

Just as the spell was nearly completed, Clone 78 aimed the crossbow at Violet 1’s head and pulled the trigger.

“Eeeeeek!”

As the Violet casting the spell died, the magic was canceled. The Violets waiting in the network stood up and began searching the surroundings.

“Found it! There’s something here that looks like a Vision Memory Chip.”

Before long, Clone 678 discovered a rectangular memory chip. While it was smaller than the fragments we had previously found, its shape was almost intact.

“Make it work!”

As I brought the hammer down to smash the memory chip, just as expected, a tracking blade shot out from the staff and ripped through the target.

“It’s a success! As expected, dying was the answer!”

“Great, let’s make one right away!”

After celebrating our success and entering mass production of magic, we had to face the sad fact that we had popped the champagne too early a few hours later.

“Why isn’t it forming? We definitely killed it!”

The yield for manufacturing the Vision Memory Chip was way too low.

Every time we cast the spell, we shot ourselves in the head to death, yet out of ten attempts, we were lucky to succeed once or twice. It felt disheartening, especially when new obstacles kept popping up like layers of an onion.

“Of course…! We must be somehow incompatible with magic. Wouldn’t it be better to just practice swordsmanship more diligently?”

“But that would make all the effort we put in way too precious to waste!”

After dinner, we decided to try a different kind of suicide attempt to manage the yield of memory chips.

Laying out the weapons in front, I bit down on a gun and started the spell when someone knocked on the factory door.

“Uugh?”

“What the heck, it was open. Hey, I’m coming in… Oh crap, what are you doing?”

I met eyes with Lucian, who abruptly entered. His gaze was filled with incredulity.

“What’s this? Why didn’t you knock? You perv! Trying to peek into a maiden’s room, how lewd!”

“You’re calling me a perv? You, the one with a gun in your mouth, have the nerve to say that… huh?”

Lucian’s previously disgruntled expression stiffened. His eyes fell upon the bloody weapons laid before me. Shocked, he suddenly shouted.

“Irene! Daphne! Where are you? Come out quickly! Violet is going crazy and trying to kill herself… ugh! Ugh!”

“It’s not suicide!”

The startled Violets covered Lucian’s mouth in fear of being seen. Thankfully, no one heard us outside.

We closed the door and held on to him until he calmed down. After a long while, when he finally spoke, Lucian glared at us.

“I’ll say this in advance; our minds are perfectly sound.” “…But you did try to kill yourself, didn’t you?”

“Ugh, well, you’re not wrong. But we have our reasons!”

Once I finished speaking, Lucian stared at us in disbelief, muttering, “You crazy girls…”

Hearing that, my anger flared up.

“Geez! You think we’re doing this for fun? I want to be good at magic too!”

“Is being good at magic all that matters? What do you know, you show-off!”

When we regained our senses, we found ourselves surrounding him, venting our anger.

“Right! You were the one who fainted first after getting hit by Vanguard in the dungeon!…”

Oh, no, that’s a bit too much.

I realized I had made a slip of the tongue too late.

Once my words finished, Lucian nodded his head with an unusually gloomy expression.

“Damn… it’s true. I’m just a show-off. And it’s also true that I wasn’t much help last time. I’m sorry.”

“Uh… no! It was a slip of the tongue! I’m sorry!”

Only then did I read the depression in his face. It seemed like the shock and frustration from being demolished by the Vanguard agent in the last fight had really affected him.

Feeling ashamed, the Violets immediately apologized to him.

“I’m sorry!”

“I won’t say anything harsh again!”

Perhaps feeling burdened by our repeated apologies, he scratched his head.

“It’s not… I mean, I guess you’re not wrong. I’m sorry for saying you’re crazy. I was just worried that something might have happened to you, the team’s representative…”

“Ah, don’t take it to heart! I don’t mind.”

The truth was I was a bit crazy, after all.

After a while, we finally got our chance to explain.

Once my lengthy explanation about our memory chip manufacturing wrapped up, Lucian asked.

“Wow, parallel computation? I never imagined it. I guess it’s possible because it’s you. So, the memory chip was born because you died during the computations, right? In your head, that is. Is that correct?”

“Yeah! But the yield is way too low.”

He pondered for a moment before speaking up again.

“Hold on, according to what you explained last time, you said you don’t truly die. You go somewhere else when you die, right? Where did you say you went?”

“To the Violet Network!”

“That’s quite an odd name… Hmm, no, I take that back. Anyway, if the memory chip was formed at the moment you died during the spell calculations, shouldn’t we consider the possibility that the place your consciousness shifted to caused this?”

“…Oh?”

As soon as I heard Lucian’s words, the puzzle pieces that had been missing in the Violets’ brains began clicking into place.

“Wait a minute, that could be right. We might have confused the cause and effect!”

“If we die during the operation of the magic formula, it makes sense that the deceased Violet would shift to the Violet Network. It’s possible that some part of the operational formula was taken along by the Violet!”

“Professor Albert emphasized the importance of the framework and the container for fixing spells. For some unknown reason, we can manipulate the inside of the Violet Network as we wish! So wouldn’t it be possible to meet those demands?”

When curiosity strikes, I can’t hold back. I sent Lucian outside with kind words.

“Sorry for saying harsh words! Is there something you want to eat? I’ll buy you anything! Don’t you need a game console?”

“Ah, no. You don’t have to apologize that much…”

Once I sent him off, the Violets powered up the calculation spell for the tracking blade once again.

As intricate spells appeared before our eyes, we concentrated our magic and diligently calculated while moving the marbles.

So far, everything was the same as usual. The key point began to emerge once we reached the moment where the spell was almost complete.

“Alright, everyone, cut off your magical power all at once and move to the network, got it?”

“Focus. One, two, three!”

The moment the spell completed, we retrieved our magical power.

At that moment, the Violets moved to the network. There’s no time lag in the Violet Network.

In the blink of an eye, a hundred Violets were transported to the plaza inside the network.

And there, we saw a brilliantly shining tablet in the center of the plaza.

The tablet was flawless and intact, the circuits and the marbles were intricate and neat.

“Alright, it’s a perfect memory chip!”

We seemed to be possessed by a ghost, making memory chips one after another.

Once, twice, five times, eight times, ten times.

Before we knew it, ten Vision Memory Chips had piled up in the Violet Network plaza. I caressed the memory chip, breathing my will into it. Somehow, I felt that was necessary.

Magical power surged out, and ten Vision Blades appeared all at once with not a single deviation.

“We succeeded! 100% yield!”

“It’s a magical industrial revolution!”

My heart swelled. Now the Violets could stack magic like stacking ammunition in the armory.

For now, it may only reach the level of low-class or intermediate magic, but what if we increase our numbers and become adept at formula calculations?

We could produce a ton of high-level attack magic Vision Memory Chips and stockpile them in the Violet Network.

If we could gather even more people, we could stockpile Melting Rays, just like artillery shells.

Above all, if we use Vision Memory Chips to activate magic, there’s no need for preparation time. If enough magical power exists, we could unleash dozens of spells all at once right in front of our enemies.

This would greatly expand our strategies and tactics.

“Waaaah!”

We cheered and rushed out of the barracks. The Violets hoisted Lucian, who was lounging outside, in celebration.

“We did it! It’s all thanks to you!”

“Long live Lucian!”

After tossing him a couple of times, we finally set him down. Lucian smiled faintly, murmuring.

“Is that so? I see… damn, I’ll be of no use from now on…”

I tilted my head.

“No! You’re one of our team members!”

“But…”

Hmm, it seems he’s really down due to our previous defeat. Maybe I should feed him some meat.

“Tonight is a meat party!”