Chapter 7

Episode 7: The persuasiveness is one of the elements that can be compensated by the beauty of a beautiful girl’s face.

“You’re the one I haven’t seen before. This should be the beginner’s Dungeon at Factom General Academy, right?”

The girl replied in a muffled voice.

Clam couldn’t help but be captivated, but upon closer inspection, she was wearing a rugged mask around her mouth.

It looked like a gas mask and emitted bright light in some places, clearly still functioning.

At that moment, Clam realized.

“Ah, the name of the academy…”

: Factom General Academy?

: Location revealed, lol

: Where’s Factom?

: Oh, I think there used to be a strong school like that.

: It’s my mom’s alma mater, lol

Despite the sudden exposure of the location, Clam continued the conversation while screaming internally.

“I, um, am exploring this rumored Dungeon… or rather, broadcasting it.”

“Broadcasting?”

The girl frowned unhappily.

Clam instinctively knew it was bad. Hurriedly, he closed the chat window projected from his Dive Gear and moved the live camera drone out of the girl’s sight.

Then he raised his voice to cover up.

“That’s not important!”

Trying to cover up, Clam approached and desperately began speaking.

The girl looked at him with an utterly annoyed and cold gaze.

“I’m being chased! Probably one of the defense mechanisms in this area…”

Just as he was about to explain further, the sound of a door being destroyed echoed behind them.

It seemed the monster had finally caught up with Clam.

“Kyaaa!”

Unlike Clam who screamed in fear, the girl simply stared at the monster with a cold expression.

“That thing is chasing me! Be careful!”

“So what?”

Her indifferent response was as if she didn’t care at all. Despite facing a literal monster that Clam couldn’t even dent with all his weapons, the girl casually pointed and said,

“Can I kill it if I want?”

“Wha- Can you kill it!? I couldn’t even scratch it properly!”

The girl didn’t nod.

However, stepping forward as if shielding Clam, she extended her left hand horizontally.

At that moment, Clam noticed something attached to the girl’s arm.

(A red Dive Gear? I’ve never seen this model before.)

It was vividly red like blood but also had a dull rust-like quality that absorbed light. Strangely captivating, the bracelet on her wrist faintly glowed.

“Well, that level isn’t a problem.”

In response to her words, a massive scythe materialized from the bracelet.

“A black… scythe?”

Larger than the girl herself, the pitch-black great scythe appeared. Its surface looked almost organic, and in some cracked areas, red light could be seen.

The moment the great scythe appeared, the monster began moving in a completely different manner, seemingly fleeing.

Before Clam could process the strange behavior of the monster, he let out a scream.

“Kyaa, it’s coming!”

“It’s fine.”

Her concise reply was followed by perfectly refined movements.

With speed surpassing any attack aimed at Clam, the girl gracefully dodged the incoming strikes as if dancing.

“It’s child’s play.”

She said dismissively and swung the enormous scythe effortlessly with one arm.

The arm reaching for her was finely cut apart. She avoided the spurting blood with apparent irritation and then simultaneously sliced off both legs with a horizontal slash.

With a heavy thud, the severed legs fell, causing the monster to collapse onto the ground.

After shaking off the blood on the scythe, the girl distanced herself to observe the monster.

Seeing this, Clam immediately said,

“That thing has an astonishing regeneration ability! No matter what part you destroy, it regenerates!”

“So what?”

She probably already knew.

Without showing surprise at its incredible regeneration ability, the girl plunged the tip of the scythe into the ground.

The sharp blade sank deeply into the ground.

Pointing the gun-like muzzle on the bizarrely decorated handle towards the monster, resembling a snake coiled around it, a grip appeared near the girl’s hand at the same time.

She gripped it and placed her finger on the trigger.

And then she said, as if singing,

“—Star Reader’s Staff”

In response, the great scythe stirred.

It was undeniably alive, gathering immense magical power at the end pointed towards the monster.

(Clustered magical power convergence!? It should take time to converge such power, yet only a few seconds? Besides, there was no process to construct the convergence program.)

A dimensionally superior efficiency and process compared to the convergence artillery Clam knew.

Suddenly, Clam realized he was trembling—not from fatigue or tension.

It was a primal fear towards the girl standing before him.

“—Have you ever seen the twinkling of stars?”

In a voice delicate like a young girl’s.

Yet, it sounded like an executioner announcing death.

Beautiful yet cruel, the question coincided with its release.

“Wah!”

An overwhelming heat and wave of magical power made Clam involuntarily cry out.

At the center of a world dominated by silver light, the girl continued firing without changing her expression.

For three seconds.

But Clam felt as if he’d witnessed that scene for much longer.

(What… was that just now?)

“Fuuu,”

Facing Clam, whose mind was filled with questions, the girl exhaled softly.

At that moment, Clam instinctively spoke.

If he delayed even a second, he felt the girl would disappear somewhere.

“Wow, that was amazing. What exactly was that?”

The live broadcast camera was still active.

Clam tried to extract information without the girl realizing, continuing his words.

“Is that called Solciera? Is that the name of your great scythe? Or rather, which academy do you belong to!? No, first of all, what’s your rank—”

“I have no obligation to answer.”

The girl spat out those words with a cold glare and tossed the scythe into the air, making it vanish. Then she walked away through the wall she had just broken.

“Well, I’ll be going. You should go home quickly too. There’s nothing left here anyway.”

Her words subtly implied something.

Clam instantly understood it referred to Demons Gear and attempted to pursue, but stopped as he stepped forward.

No, he couldn’t stop.

“Huh? My legs are shaking…?”

Realizing what had happened to his body, Clam unintentionally slumped to the spot.

Attempting to regain composure, he opened the chat box again with his trembling hands, only to find the topic naturally centered around that girl.

: What was that just now!?

: Super powerful, what rank is she?

: S Rank maybe? One of the eight ranked individuals in Academy City?

: Never heard of ‘Solciera’

: Jouka is just a step below A rank, B rank. Yet she easily defeated the monster that Jouka couldn’t. So S seems reasonable.

: Everyone says S, but usually, wouldn’t we get an announcement from the Epis Council if someone was S rank? Maybe it was just good compatibility.

: If someone like that exists, any weak academy would become famous.

: She was pretty… Can you stream more?

Jouka chuckled at the unprecedented acceleration of comments. Unknowingly, the trembling of her body had subsided.

“Everyone, that was impressive earlier, wasn’t it? It was lucky to capture footage like that! Since I’ve never seen a student like her before, please DM me if you have any information—”

She had returned to her usual self enough to say such things.

“So, what shall we do next?”

Clam was a lone broadcaster resisting against Kisou Academy.

Hence, even if intimidated by just one girl, there was no way he could simply accept it.

While considering whether to chase after her, an eye-catching comment stood out among the lengthy discussions about the mysterious beautiful girl in the chat.

: If the location was exposed, won’t Enforcers come?

“…Ah!”

Change of plans.

Clam hurriedly ran off.

“Um, that’s all for today! Anyway, I believe we have evidence from this session, so it might help dismantle Kisou Academy! Well, I’m about to run from the Enforcers coming soon, so see you later!”

Clam currently had no weapon.

There was no way he could continue broadcasting in that state.

Without any spare time to care about comments, Clam dashed towards the exit.

“Next time we meet that girl, maybe we should try interviewing her?”

His face, planning the next broadcast, looked cheerful.

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