61 Grand Opening

[Moar]

I'm standing on the top of the school building, my hand on the floating bell.

I want to look stronger than I am, so my soul wave is conveyed through the school via various magical devices I implanted all around the school.

-Welcome to Moar Gakuen, everyone! As you all know, our activities will start the next cycle, during the time left, you're free to do as you wish.

I wink knowingly at the crowd. No one will get it, not even my test subjects, but it was so funny to say something with a double meaning that I couldn't hold back from winking.

[Sofia]

I look at the small silhouette on top of the school.

The way the wave is conveyed is definitely unnatural. Most people can't tell why they have this feeling, but I can tell it feels like there are several seeds.

This person is definitely linked to Master. The leak for only the seed owners must be voluntary.

The permission to do as we wish is real.

My followers both were given a unique item that was never seen before right before coming to school, just like my Teddy Bear. It's to be expected that Master would do something to hide such particularities. It means that we can act without much risk of being discovered.

But no one is used to having such an item yet, except my enemies, if I'm paying attention to it, it should be possible to notice people who are already used to having such an object.

And to increase the chances of such a thing happening...

I'll just find the best moment to throw my bait.

[DarkSasuke]

Starting to expand your influence after this is only natural.

If I make my move now, no one would find it strange.

I see Anna leaving the crowd, alone.

It's a rare occasion, and the best there is. I follow her.

[Anna]

I intentionally leave the crowd without saying anything.

Recently, I always had people around me. It should have made it impatient. If my enemy wants to make a move, it'll make it now.

I get on the other side of the school building. For some reason, all the buildings are soul-wave proof. I didn't have time to test if they had other resistances, but at least, any conversation behind them will stay private.

Once I'm behind the building, I walk a few meters before stopping.

I'll first look clueless.

-What do you want with me?

[DarkSasuke]

-Oh, you noticed me?

I used the seed to hide most of my soul wave, just letting a bit out. It's a simple test, but it's useful to test her again.

Her leaving like that was too much of a coincidence, it feels like bait.

I'll have to revise my judgment, she might be an enemy.

Everyone will make their move right now, not just us, I won't give her anything to confirm my position.

-Then you must know what I am here for.

-Of course, you want my people to help you, right?

There wasn't a single worry in that answer. She is even still smiling. Is she really an enemy? Why not lie and say you don't know?

-Here is my deal, I'll give you protection, you'll find any information I need for me.

I'm getting ready for a long negotiation.

[Anna]

Idiot, I already found out what I wanted to know about you.

I keep smiling, keeping my act.

-Yes, I'm fine with it. I'll lend you my influence!

Anyone would be impressed with how he hid, that's why no one would distrust the strength of someone able to hide his presence to such a degree.

For this exact reason, I need to have him believe I'm plotting something too. But not as an enemy, but as a non-threatening side character.

I just need to call him often to help me in various situations, and he'll assume that I wanted to get him as a henchman.

If I didn't let him feel something was wrong, he wouldn't let himself get used as a henchman, and as such wouldn't believe in me as an ally.

Everything I needed to confirm his position was what he wanted.

No one, especially at the level he displayed, would be looking for information like this unless he needed to hide his own existence. Unless he had an enemy to hide of.

[...]

[ ]

In an obvious plagiarism of Sword Art Online, hexagonal patterns started to appear on the sky.

One by one, from the corners of these patterns, drops of blood started falling. Each time a drop fell, two would fall in the next moment.

Under this blood rain, the students of Moar Gakuen discovered one by one that they were unable to shield themselves from the rain.

As their feet were soaked by the blood and the floor became a huge single puddle, they finally noticed they couldn't fly as well.

Their usage of soul strength and laws was restricted.

The rain stopped.

In the midst of the panic, the puddle of blood formed bubbles that exploded on its top.

One of these bubbles got bigger and bigger, increasing, meter by meter, without exploding.

When it finally did, the whole puddle started to raise in a column.

That column slowly shaped into a cloaked silhouette.

Despite its size, no one could see the face under the cloak. The cloak seemed to absorb all the light.

[Moar]

-Surprise!

I form a party horn in blood and blow in it.

-Come on, don't look so scared! Today is the day you all start school! I hope you all like your dormitories because you're going to live here for quite a while!

I see a few students try to leave the school just like they entered.

-It's no use to try leaving, the school is sealed!

They are bounced back, a few of them get some bones broken, and one even dies on the spot.

-I told you! I'd like to avoid as many deaths as possible, so if you could please try to live a bit longer, it would be nice. I had a hard time getting so many worthless children. Do you know how rare children their adopted parents do not care about are?

That last sentence was probably the killing blow for most of them. They will behave now.

I look with interest at how good Anna is at her job. She's using the moment to comfort others. She'll become a strong figure others will rely on. They probably won't say anything if she teaches them the seed. She won't have a hard time then.

After a bit of silence, I get back to talking.

[A/N: Big cycle = 3 years, cycle = 11.5 days, small cycle = 28 hours]

-Every cycle, after sleeping, you'll go up all the way through the school building. You'll have a small cycle to do so. If you succeed within the allocated time, you get three points. If you succeed before the end of the cycle, you get a point. If you don't, you lose a point.

-Everyone will start at 0 points. You are free to give each other points. If your points get under -10 points, you have a small cycle to get back to a higher number. If you don't, you will die.

I see it created quite a commotion, down there. They can't see how it could be hard to get to the top of a two hundred floors building. It's true it's just 7 floors per hour, but I planned something else...

-If you get to the top of the school building, you will get a mission with similar terms to complete before the end of the cycle.

I release the blood. After getting back to a puddle, it slowly seeps into the ground, looking like it never existed in the first place.

[Sofia]

Now!

Using the chaos to hide its source, I release a powerful soul wave, encrypted with the seed.

-I know who you are.

It's not true, but it should be enough to allow me to find who I'm looking for.

Right now, everyone is limited in their physical and soul capacities. They can send, but cannot receive soul waves. But the seed isn't.

Most owners of seed would think that people are still picking up soul waves, but it's not the case.

As such, to keep an act, they would act surprised of getting a strange soul wave.

One only?

[Anna]

I should have noticed. I've been comforting people, but I should have noticed that they only saw me doing comforting gestures, not say anything. Them thanking me at first was just them having the same misunderstanding as I had. The misunderstanding that people understood me.

I look at the guy who approached me. He didn't react slightly to the wave. He's good at hiding.

At least he didn't notice my own move. He shouldn't be the one to have sent the wave.

I nervously touch my hairclip.

[Sofia]

If I wasn't sure before, now I know.

-I got you.

She looks terrified indeed. What will I do with her, I wonder...