The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City-Chapter 166: Violet Will Store Magic! (3)

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

The challenges continued into the early hours of dawn. By the time noon had passed, we had made little progress.

「So frustrating!」

Someone, unable to resist the boredom, came up with an extreme idea.

「I discovered something interesting. Do you know the fragments of memory chips stored in our heads? When I looked at the formulas, there was a commonality. Every single time, someone died during the casting. The creation of memory chips seems to be closely related to this fact.」

「That’s true, isn’t it?」

If an interesting idea came up, Violet’s way was to challenge it immediately. A hundred Violets gathered again and began preparing magic. This time, there was also a Violet with a crossbow beside her.

As a trial, we prepared the Tracking Blade spell, which was relatively simple and almost guaranteed to succeed. As the formula materialized, we moved the orb and manipulated the mana.

「It’s almost done. No. 78! Go ahead!」

Just before the formula was completed, No. 78 aimed a crossbow at one Violet’s head and pulled the trigger.

「Kyaaa!」

When the Violet casting the formula died, the spell was canceled. The Violets waiting in the network stood up and searched the surroundings.

「Found it, over here, something that looks like a vision memory chip.」

Shortly after, No. 678 found a rectangular memory chip. It was smaller than the previously discovered memory chip fragments but nearly intact.

「Activate it!」

When we struck it with a hammer to break the chip, as expected, a Tracking Blade shot out of the staff and tore the target to shreds.

「It worked! As expected, the key was us dying!」

「Great, let’s start mass-producing them!」

Hours later, while celebrating our success and mass-producing the spells, we had to accept the sad truth that we had popped the champagne too early.

「Why isn’t it working? We definitely killed someone!」

The production yield of the vision memory chips was extremely low.

Despite shooting our heads while casting spell after spell, only one or two attempts out of ten were successful. Each layer we peeled back revealed a new obstacle, leaving us feeling hopeless.

「Of course...!」「I guess magic just isn’t for us. Maybe we should focus harder on swordsmanship instead?」

「But if we do that, all the effort we’ve put in so far would be wasted!」

After dinner, we decided to try a different method of suicide to improve the memory chip yield.

Laying out weapons before us, we held a gun in our mouth while casting the formula, when someone knocked on the factory door.

"Mmhh?"

"What’s this? The door was open. Hey, I’m coming in… What the—what are you doing?"

I locked eyes with Lucian, who barged in without warning. His eyes were filled with shock.

"What the hell? Why didn’t you knock? You perverted creep! Trying to peek into a young lady’s room, how shameless!"

"You’re calling me a creep? You’ve got a gun in your mouth... Wait, what?"

As he grumbled, his expression hardened. His gaze shifted to the bloodied weapons laid out before me. Suddenly overcome with panic, he shouted.

"Irene! Daphne! Where are you? Come quick! Violet’s lost it and is trying to kill herself—mmph! Mmph!"

"It’s not suicide!"

Panicked, the Violets grabbed him and covered his mouth, afraid someone might hear. Looking outside, thankfully, no one seemed to have noticed.

We shut the door and held him down until he calmed. A long while later, we uncovered his mouth, and Lucian glared at us.

"Let me say this upfront: we’re completely sane.""...But you were committing suicide, weren’t you?"

"Ugh, fine, technically yes. But we had our reasons!"

When I finished speaking, Lucian stared at us in disbelief, muttering, "Crazy girl..."

His words made my blood boil.

"Damn it! Do you think we’re doing this for fun? I want to master magic too, you know!"

"Magic is worth all this? You, of all people, wouldn’t understand with all your bragging!"

Before I knew it, we were surrounding him, venting our frustrations.

"That’s right! You were the first to get knocked out by the Vanguard in the dungeon!..."

Ah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.

By the time I realized my slip-up, it was too late.

When I finished speaking, Lucian, rarely looking solemn, nodded.

"Damn it... You’re right. I am just a braggart. And last time, I was practically useless. I’m sorry."

"Oh… No, I misspoke. I’m sorry!"

It was then I noticed the sadness in his face. The defeat and despair he felt from being destroyed by the Vanguard must have been overwhelming.

The Violets, feeling ashamed, apologized to him one after another.

"I’m sorry!"

"We won’t say anything harsh again!"

Lucian scratched his head, seemingly uncomfortable with our barrage of apologies.

"No, it’s fine... I mean, you weren’t wrong. Sorry for calling you crazy. I was just worried something might be wrong with you, the team leader..."

"Oh, don’t dwell on it too much! I don’t mind."

Truthfully, I am a bit crazy.

After some time, we had the opportunity to explain.

Once our lengthy explanation about memory chip production was over, Lucian asked.

"Wow, parallel computation? I never would’ve imagined. Only you could manage that. So the memory chip was created because you died during computation, right? In your head, I mean."

"Yeah! But the yield is way too low."

He pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Wait, last time you explained that you don’t truly die. When you die, you go somewhere else. Where was it again?"

"Violet Network!"

"What a bizarre name... Hmm, never mind. Anyway, if the memory chip is created the moment you die during spell computation, shouldn’t you consider the possibility that the place your consciousness goes to is the cause?"

"...Oh?"

As soon as Lucian said that, missing puzzle pieces started clicking into place in the Violets’ minds.

「Wait a second, he might be right. We may have been confusing cause and effect!」

「If we die during spell computation, of course the dead Violet would be transferred to the Violet Network. Some part of the computation formula might have been carried along during that process.」

「Professor Albert emphasized the importance of a framework to stabilize the formula and a container to store it. For some reason, we can freely manipulate the inside of the Violet Network! Doesn’t that mean we can meet those requirements?」

When curiosity strikes, it cannot be ignored. Offering polite words, I sent Lucian out.

"Sorry for saying harsh things! Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy you anything! Don’t you need a gaming console?"

"Uh, no. You don’t need to apologize like that..."

After sending him out, the Violets once again activated the computational formula for the Tracking Blade spell.

The intricate formula appeared before our eyes as we focused our mana and meticulously manipulated the orb.

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

Up to this point, it was no different from usual. The crucial moment came when the formula neared completion.

「Alright, everyone, cut off your mana and transfer to the network simultaneously. Got it?」

「Focus. One, two, three!」

At the moment the formula concluded, we withdrew our mana.

Simultaneously, the Violets transferred into the network. In the Violet Network, there is no time delay.

In the blink of an eye, a hundred Violets moved to the plaza within the network.

And there, in the middle of the plaza, was a luminous slate, shining resplendently.

The slate was flawless, with intricate circuits and orbs that were precise and immaculate.

「It’s done, a perfect memory chip!」

As if possessed, we began producing memory chips in succession.

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

Soon, the Violet Network’s plaza held a stack of ten Vision Memory Chips. As I touched the chips, I imbued them with resolve—it just felt like the right thing to do.

Mana flowed out, and ten Vision Blades appeared simultaneously, with perfect precision.

「They all succeeded. A 100% yield!」

「It’s a magic industrial revolution!」

My heart swelled with pride. Now, Violet could stockpile magic as if filling an armory with ammunition.

For now, it was limited to low- or mid-tier spells barely above the basics, but what if our numbers increased and we became more adept at formula calculations?

We could mass-produce Vision Memory Chips containing high-level attack spells and store them within the Violet Network.

With enough manpower, we could even stockpile fusion beams, like artillery shells.

Above all, activating magic through Vision Memory Chips required no preparation time. If sufficient mana was available, dozens of spells could be unleashed simultaneously right in front of an enemy.

This greatly expanded our strategic and tactical options.

"Wowww!"

We cheered as we exited the barracks. Outside, the Violets picked up Lucian, who had been loitering around, and tossed him into the air.

"We did it! It’s all thanks to you!"

"Hooray for Lucian!"

After tossing him a couple of times, we set him down. Lucian chuckled weakly and muttered.

"Is that so. Well... Damn it, I guess I’m useless now..."

I tilted my head in confusion.

"No way! You’re a part of our team!"

"But..."

Hmm, it seemed he was still downhearted from his past defeat. I decided he needed some cheering up—with meat.

"Tonight, we’re having a meat party!"