Within Number Thirty's memories, Administrator witnessed the following events.
At the Throne—the system console located in the Dark Territory—Alice had seen Cardinal successfully load herself into the human's body. Cardinal had left this world and entered the real one, where she greeted Alice through a communications screen.
The humans in the real world had promised that if Alice returned and launched a surprise attack on Administrator, she and Cardinal would be allowed to log out together and enter the real world, freeing Alice from the Final Load Test.
Alice's family did not qualify to be logged out, but the real-worlders promised to protect them as they continued living in this fabricated world.
Alice had therefore accepted their mission and agreed to assassinate Administrator with the dagger Cardinal had created.
In truth, the dagger was not meant to injure Administrator directly. Once it pierced her, Cardinal's attacks would be guaranteed to hit.
It was effectively the same as physically connecting the two of them with a data cable. Cardinal would no longer need to attack Administrator wirelessly through Wi-Fi. She could launch a direct attack through a wired connection.
A wireless signal could be blocked, but there was no escaping a hardwired lock.
Cardinal now possessed the physique of a fully grown man. Once she launched a physical attack through that connection, the scales would tip in her favor.
However, while Alice had agreed to the plan openly, she had never intended to carry it out.
She could not accept the real-world humans' plans. She was furious that they had created this entire world merely to produce what they called true artificial intelligence—something they ultimately intended to exploit as data.
As Alice saw it, the moment she logged out, she would be completely under their control. She would be powerless to protect her family in this world, and the humans could dispose of them whenever they wished.
That was why Number Thirty's hatred for the humans of the real world surpassed even her hatred for Administrator.
She wanted Administrator's help to sabotage the humans' plan and take revenge. Even if it ended in their mutual destruction, Alice refused to let those people have their way.
Excellent.
Simply wonderful!
Administrator already had a plan—a plan to turn the enemy's scheme against them.
She could stop examining Number Thirty's memories now. Nor did she intend to alter them.
Her plan required Alice to remain exactly as she was. Otherwise, Cardinal would realize something was wrong with Number Thirty and become wary of her, making it difficult for Alice to approach.
"My, there's no need to be so angry. I was merely worried that you might be lying, dear Alice, so I took a quick look through your memories. I have a plan. Would you like to hear it?"
"What plan?"
No longer restrained, Alice suppressed her murderous intent and responded coldly.
The outcome she desired was the destruction of everything—including Administrator herself.
"We'll turn their own plan against them..."
Administrator proceeded to explain the details.
"Well? Who are you more willing to trust—the humans of the real world, or me, someone who was born in the same world as you? Aren't we the ones who are truly kin?"
Number Thirty fell silent.
After a long pause, she finally answered.
"Understood."
"Excellent. Then I'll begin making preparations immediately!"
Administrator dispelled the soundproofing art and ordered the Chief Elder to bring her a particular nun she had selected—a spare Fluctlight vessel she had prepared in advance.
Administrator had erected the soundproofing barrier the moment Alice began revealing the truth about their world. If the Integrity Knights had overheard any of it, the consequences could have been disastrous.
A short while later, a nun who appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old stood bewildered before Administrator.
Administrator gently caressed the girl's face. Honeyed words flowed from her lips as she mesmerized the nun and guided her through a system command.
The hand stroking the girl's cheek slowly withdrew. Administrator extended one finger, traced it upward, and finally placed it against the nun's forehead.
When she crooked her finger upward, the nun—Administrator's spare Fluctlight vessel—trembled slightly. A flicker of resistance crossed her face, only to vanish almost immediately.
Her eyes gradually became empty as Administrator drew a crystal from her.
Administrator glanced from the corner of her eye at Alice, who had watched the entire ritual.
After seeing this, Alice had surely realized what the countless crystals decorating the ceiling truly were.
"Are you looking for the crystal containing your memory fragment? Once our plan is complete, I'll return it to you."
"Hmph!"
Alice answered with a cold snort.
There were so many crystal fragments. They revealed just how many victims Administrator had preyed upon.
She had extracted their memories one after another, robbing them of their former identities and leaving them unable to remember their own pasts. That was practically no different from erasing their very existence.
The true number of victims had to be even greater than the number of crystals decorating the ceiling. Some had probably died when something went wrong during the procedure.
Alice's gaze sharpened.
Administrator was now forcing a triangular object into the girl's brain. The sight made even Alice's scalp prickle.
The object sank in little by little while the nun's body trembled and convulsed uncontrollably.
Then her body began to change.
She was growing.
By the time Administrator had pushed most of the triangular object inside, the girl had grown to approximately the same height and build as Administrator.
When the object was inserted completely and fused with her brain, the nun transformed into an exact duplicate of Administrator.
The only difference was her vacant eyes. She looked like nothing more than a doll.
That was precisely what she was—a puppet waiting to be controlled.
After the real Administrator chanted another incantation, however, the puppet gradually came to life.
It now appeared as though two Administrators stood in the chamber.
Looking closely, Alice could still see the emptiness in the false Administrator's eyes. She remained a puppet under someone else's control.
The real Administrator then cut off her magnificent, waist-length hair, leaving only enough to fall to her shoulders.
After chanting another spell, the severed hair transformed into a dagger, which the puppet accepted.
At the same time, the real Administrator summoned a door behind herself and stepped through it. Both she and the door vanished.
The puppet substitute approached Alice and handed her the dagger, which Alice concealed.
"Whether this succeeds now depends entirely on you, dear Alice."
After saying that, the puppet retreated five mel.
In the next instant, the puppet's expression changed dramatically. She began chanting an incantation, and a Sacred Art surged to life.
Boom!
Alice was blasted backward.
Thrust!
Alice drove one of the daggers into the puppet's shoulder, sending her flying onto the enormous circular bed.
Cardinal's dagger immediately began to glow.
Crackle!
Lightning erupted, and chaotic bolts reduced the entire bed to ashes. The puppet screamed even louder.
As the lightning faded, a group of people appeared in the chamber.
Among them was Cardinal, inhabiting the real-worlder's body, accompanied by two Integrity Knights who had defected to her side. One of them was Alice's teacher.
Meanwhile, the screaming puppet summoned the Integrity Knights stationed on the floor below.
The chamber descended into chaos.
Cardinal seized "Administrator," pinned her to the floor, and began chanting an incantation.
The two Integrity Knights who had sided with Cardinal intercepted the knights summoned by the false Administrator.
"Damn you, Number Thirty! What have you done?!"
Alice answered that shrill cry with a slash of her sword, preventing the oblivious Chief Elder Chudelkin from approaching Cardinal and the puppet.
"You insolent brat! So you really are a traitor! Not only did you injure Her Holiness, but now you've allowed some filthy man to pin her beneath him!"
His final words came out as a furious, high-pitched shriek overflowing with jealousy.
At the same time, Chudelkin unleashed a ferocious barrage of Sacred Arts at Alice.
When one attack after another failed to break through her defenses, he screamed:
"Come forth, my genie!"
The clownish Chief Elder summoned a gigantic burning jester—a creature that, in a certain sense, looked remarkably like him.
The Flame Genie clenched its fist and brought it down savagely upon Alice, forcing her to defend herself with everything she had.
Was it still not time?
Alice continued to struggle against its attacks, being driven farther and farther back as she waited for the right moment.
Then she saw it.
Now!
The human body Cardinal had been inhabiting suddenly went limp. It collapsed as though unconscious, landing on top of "Administrator."
That meant Cardinal had entered the false Administrator's body.
At that exact moment, Chudelkin launched another devastating blow.
Alice deliberately "failed" to withstand it and was sent flying toward Cardinal and the puppet.
Just before she collided with them, Alice twisted in midair and regained control of her body.
A second dagger had already appeared in her hand.
She drove it into one of them.
(End of Chapter)
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