A/N: I wanted to introduce the setting in a more traditional way instead of doing it as I did for the whole novel. It's more professional and more respectful of most writing conventions. I mostly didn't do it before because it was a fast-paced comedy and describing the setting is often just not useful. The jokes were the only important things, so if the setting has no interest then it didn't need to be described. For this one, I'll do things differently, because even though it is not completely serious (the MC is still Moar), it is still a more serious arc. We'll mainly follow the test subjects, and to me, a change in perspective means a change in writing style. Moar makes everything to be light and funny, but actually what's happening in this novel since the start is everything but light. A lot of grave things happened:
-taking over a family's properties through deceit
-creating war weapons
-taking over a baby's body by crushing its soul
-marrying through deceit, not doing anything to the genocide of the entire planet's life
-conquering several universes
-founding a faith through deceit
-tricking children into producing faith for him
-and now having them be concurrent who will kill each other for your own entertainment because it's funnier and easier than directly conquer the center universe
[...]
Moar Gakuen.
A newly established institution.
Its activities officially start next cycle, but this cycle was when students will arrive at Moar Gakuen.
The first to arrive was subject A, DarkSasuke. Truthful to his strategy based on heavy preparation, he planned to study his future battlefield before anyone else.
Nowadays, most living spaces were actually space fold, but the buildings here were made out of solid materials. No matter how many looks one was willing to take, one couldn't tell what the style of this school was.
From the outside, one saw four huge stone towers that seemed to stretch infinitely through the sky, joined by walls just as high.
On the inside, a single building, seemingly inspired by the typical design of Japanese high schools, went as high as several hundred floors. On its top, magically floating, a huge bell was motionless.
Around it, every few floors, a floating island was moving unpredictably, the whole, like a ballet, forming a hypnotic choreography.
Each island, seemingly straight out of a fantasy world, had its pointy bottom embedded with multicolored crystals, from which a similarly colored aura seemed to emit, slowly dissipating with the distance.
Anyone looking up would see a palette of colored fog slowly descending from every island while disappearing.
Each island's surface had different equipment. Some had targets destined to be used in courses, some had entertainment such as a bowling course, and one even had an open-air library.
DarkSasuke quickly started exploring everything.
[...]
A small ripple spread from a part of a wall.
Slightly later, the wall strongly rippled as Anna arrived. With a slight resistance, the wall stretched on a few meters before Anna went right through. The wall then bounced back into its original position.
Entering after Anna were other students, who didn't manage to find the entrance and were stuck outside.
While Anna did spend her time being inactive until she was adopted, one shouldn't think lowly of her intelligence. Now that she had to act, she would do everything she needed to accomplish her goal. If stalling didn't work, then she wouldn't give up on life.
She touched her hairclip, the faith item that was given to her by the Master, and resolutely went to talk to the other students.
[...]
On the other side of the school, hidden by the tower, Sofia, holding her teddy bear, followed by her followers, entered.
One mustn't underestimate the advantage of entering from the backdoor.
While Anna took a more direct approach that would have given her away, Sofia entered by the opposite side of the school. They were all dropped on a single side, which means that no one would enter by the backdoor.
Just like DarkSasuke, Sofia expected there to be competitors under the same Master. Rather than taking risks, Sofia preferred to slowly transmit faith to her Master. She didn't see anyone else with followers, so she estimated that there were little chances of anyone else having followers yet, which means she had an advantage in faith. She would wait patiently until someone made a mistake that would give themselves away.
In the meantime, she would just do the same as she did so far. Get weak and desperate followers when everyone isn't looking. Slowly but surely.
[Anna]
After approaching the other students, I started inquiring about the status of my family.
Master may have given me a good family to start with, but he might as well not have. I don't know how important faith is to him, which means he may not want to help me more.
It also depends of his influence. I know Master isn't the one who adopted me. He'd need a much higher status than my adopter to get him to adopt me. Getting information about my adopter would help me estimate my Master's position in this world, while also helping me determine how I will proceed to get followers.
Let's do it basically. I send a wave.
-Hi, I'm Anna, of the Surli family.
I observe their reactions attentively, though both their bodies and the variations in their soul waves.
I smile.
It seems like I'll have an easy time getting followers.
[DarkSasuke]
I didn't get anything out of my exploration yet, except knowledge of the place's configuration.
I'm on the library island. I don't know what these are, but from the way they are arranged, they must hold something.
I take a book. It's blank, but from the way pages are arranged, I guess it is supposed to hold information by marking the paper. The information must be hidden in some way or another. Until I get information on how it works, I'll pause that.
Let's just take advantage of my position right now to observe the other students below.
One of them seems really enthusiastic about talking to others, she even seems to be using her status to coerce others into following her.
She might be an enemy. Such a thing won't bring faith, but it must be some part of a plan or something.
I'll just test her.
[Anna]
Just as I was talking, I just got a soul wave. It seems to come from above. It's undecryptable, so it might be a message from Master.
I try to understand it directly, using my seed. The message is asking if I'm enjoying the place.
I stop myself from answering.
Something is wrong.
Master always send undetectable messages, in some or another.
Why would he send a soul wave that everyone can detect. Everyone around me clearly is troubled by a soul wave they can't understand. It means that I wasn't the only one to get it.
It must be someone else. It seems like I wasn't the only one.
I nervously touch my hairclip. Should I hide it?
No, it must always be in plain view for faith gathering. If I only show it once I get faith, it'll just reveal me. It's Master's best interest for us to not know of each other easily, so everyone must have a different object, so they might not get it even if they see it.
I act like the others, just slightly more confident. I can't give up an occasion to get trust. Trust can be manipulated into faith. I just need patience.
While talking about patience, if it's my enemy testing me, he'll come to me once I get a big enough network. What better ally is there than someone who leads most other students in the school. My enemy won't be able to resist.
If there are others, there must be more than one enemy, and the best about my plan is that if I get revealed "working for him", he'll be the one revealed, not me. I can just switch of "client" until there is only one left to overthrow.
[DarkSasuke]
It seems she's safe. She didn't react slightly to the wave.
I might be able to use her later.
I'll make my move right before school starts.