The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City-Chapter 149: Violet Got Caught in a Conspiracy! (2)

The moment our Violet witnessed the explosion was just when we had arrived at the safe zone.

"What is that?"

Violet No. 190 pointed toward the large cargo elevator. Several giant trucks were speeding toward the elevator.

Unmanned turrets near the elevator began firing, and several guards rushed in, disabling the wheels of two trucks.

But it was too late.

There were too many trucks, and they had gotten too close.

The person in one of the trucks stuck their head out of the window and shouted.

"Rescue is coming!"

Right after that, a flash of light blazed, followed by a violent storm.

"Dammit! What the hell happened?"

"Ahhh!"

People around us flinched. The non-awakened dropped flat to the ground, and the awakened began moving quickly.

"It was a bomb truck!"

"They’re using our technology!"

It was a bit surprising. I didn’t expect anyone other than us to use the Violet clones’ secret techniques!

And I felt annoyed. This was copyright infringement.

"They’ve escaped to the afterlife! Can’t sue them!"

"Bad guys!"

I assessed the situation. The cargo elevators, which had been suspended hundreds of meters to a kilometer high, had toppled over due to the earlier shock.

Realizing the situation, Violet No. 190 screamed inwardly.

"Ahh! We’re trapped!"

The team members also seemed to understand the situation, and their faces twisted.

Everyone was speechless, their mouths hanging open, except for Irene, who spoke up.

"… We’re trapped again."

I lifted my head. Above, there was a white hole in the ceiling, blocked by a structure.

According to the data I had, there was no way to climb up there with bare hands.

One side of the cliff was made of indestructible rock, so it couldn’t be scaled using an ice pick with magical energy.

"Should we fly up? If we’re lucky, we might be able to glide in with hang gliders."

"It’s possible, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk."

There was no urgency. The valuable cargo had already been smuggled out through the inventory!

As I watched, several pieces of equipment were being slowly installed near the ceiling. From what I overheard, this was an emergency elevator that had been prepared for such a situation. ȑἈ₦ỘβЁＳ

"Ugh, it’ll take time if we need to drive it up."

It would take one to two days to be restored, so we would have to wait.

Wait a minute, what will happen to the students we rescued?

---

Just as we had expected, the students were also trapped here. Fortunately, they weren’t injured. The problem was the current situation.

"The bomb terrorists are from a religious group called the Union of Unity."

The leader of the Atlas Clan, responsible for managing the dungeon entrance, was explaining the situation. The person, who introduced himself as the department head, was currently briefing the others.

We were sitting in a small meeting room in a base inside the safe zone.

The leaders and team leaders of each clan that had come here were sitting around. Among them were Adela and professors from the academy, representing Aegis Academy.

In this important meeting, Violet No. 12 and Irene were also sitting. The reason was simple: the scale of our group. Perhaps it was because it left such an impression, traveling with dozens of armed soldiers.

"I think we brought too many people."

"We couldn’t hide them all with cognitive inhibitors."

On the bright side, it meant we were considered important enough to be called to such a gathering. On the downside, we had attracted too much attention.

A burly man raised his hand and asked a question.

"Didn’t we already observe this during the interrogation? The important thing is why. Why did they do it?"

Interrogation referred to a rather destructive method of questioning involving physical means. The survivors from the truck that the hunters had destroyed earlier didn’t fare well.

The Atlas Clan leader sighed.

"Thank you for the good question. According to our findings, they appear to be preparing some sort of ritual."

"A ritual?"

When someone asked again, the leader responded.

"Yes. They’re low-level followers, so they don’t know much, but it seems they were planning to perform a ritual using rare artifacts they secured here. And they intended to use us as sacrifices!"

"What kind of artifacts?"

"This."

The leader didn’t answer immediately but turned on the monitor in front of him. A strange rectangular pillar with odd shapes and colors appeared.

Several people who saw the object gasped or whispered in shock. Our Violet clones were also surprised and murmured.

"Why is that here?"

"Ahh! We’re doomed!"

"Ah, I see, some of you recognize it right away."

The leader spoke, and the professor sitting next to Adela shook his head. His face was contorted in shock.

"There’s no way we wouldn’t recognize it. That’s a Vision Prism, a mental manipulation artifact."

"A Vision Prism? This crazy…"

"Why is that forbidden object here?"

A commotion broke out.

"Everyone, please calm down! Let’s organize the key facts. We’re trapped here, and the cultists have secured that artifact. They’re nearby. We need to defend this place until the elevator is repaired."

As the leader explained at length, I couldn’t help but think. A Vision Prism... at least we had some clue now.

"Our numbers are insufficient. Will you help us?"

The plump hunter asked with a hesitant look.

"Do you want us to stand guard? We had some injuries from the collapse earlier…"

"No, that’s not it! All you need to do is remain vigilant and report if you find anything suspicious that looks like the artifact!"

The academy professor spoke up.

"Good. Remember, after recovering the mental manipulation artifact, it must be destroyed on-site. Do not touch it recklessly!"

Everyone nodded seriously at the professor’s warning.

"The Federal Army happens to be nearby. Why don’t we request their help?"

When someone suggested this, the middle-aged woman listening nearby narrowed her crow’s feet slightly.

"The Federation people? You trust those guys?"

"What choice do we have? Given the situation, they’ll cooperate."

When the head of the Atlas Clan explained, most people reluctantly agreed.

After the explanation, people began to disperse, and I left with my friend.

"This is bad. The Vision Prism has fallen into the hands of the cultists..."

"Yeah! And it just had to happen while we were in the dungeon."

Irene spoke, sounding concerned. I nodded in agreement. The Vision Prism was more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.

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In a world where the rule of law was practically nonexistent, powerful clans could do whatever they pleased without scrutiny.

However, even among the drug-dealing and hedonistic hunters and clans, there was one thing no one dared touch: mind control.

Artifacts or devices capable of mind control were rigorously suppressed by both clans and the Federation.

This was why even something like my recognition-suppressing device was subjected to strict quarantines and regulations.

For us commoner Violets, even accessing such devices was out of the question. Why else would we have smuggled ours through Leslie, the Personnel Agency director?

Man-made magical tools like this were already so restricted. Artifacts like the Vision Prism, capable of large-scale mental contamination, faced even tighter regulation.

Its control level was equivalent to uranium or plutonium in the real world.

"How troublesome. What exactly is going on?"

Still, our job was simple. If anything looked suspiciously like an artifact, we had to report it without exception!

And we had to crack down on anyone bringing such items in. They were surely in league with the cultists.

"Won’t the Federation troops just wipe them out?"

"Maybe!"

As I mused about this, I heard faint gunfire from the dark passage ahead.

**

Just as Violet had predicted, the armed cultists of the Unification Society, transporting the artifact through the border zone, fiercely resisted the Federation search squad’s attack.

"Arghhhh!"

"Agh! It’s the heretics of the Federation!"

The cultists fired antiquated automatic rifles and hurled grenades in defiance. Awakened cultists charged with swords or hurled small magical attacks from behind cover.

Their eyes burned with determination.

"Don’t block the path to salvation!"

But their fiery faith was no match for superior firepower.

-Pzing!

A rifle bullet struck the chest armor of a Federation soldier. The old-fashioned projectile crumpled and lost momentum. The soldier only felt a dull impact.

The exoskeleton mounted on the soldier’s arm buzzed as it activated, and the Type-15 railgun in his hands spat electrical sparks.

The tungsten round it fired tore through a fanatic’s head and shoulder, leaving nothing behind.

"Ughhh!"

The fanatics, lacking proper ballistic armor or sufficient ether shielding, were shredded by the railgun’s barrage.

"My arm! My arm!"

A cultist, wailing at the sight of his severed arm, was vaporized into a mist of blood moments later. The electromagnetic cannon on the armored vehicle left no corpse behind.

Smart grenades flew through the air. A Unification Society priest preparing a fire spell behind a car was showered in shrapnel and reduced to rags when the grenade exploded precisely overhead.

Small rockets, the vehicle’s laser interception beams, and the pinnacle of advanced technology crushed the cultists one by one.

Awakened cultists injected syringes of Black Ice into their thighs, roaring with fury as they charged.

"Die!"

-Bzzzzt!

The soldiers wielding ether emitters stepped forward. The Awakened cultists couldn’t withstand the close-range torrent of magical waves and fell, engulfed in flames.

"Please... spare me..."

The last man gasping for mercy had his head burst open. The zealots were annihilated by the 60th Battalion’s search platoon. There were no survivors.

"Target secured. The artifact is safe."

As the commander reported through the radio, soldiers unloaded the Vision Prism from a burning truck.

The artifact was so massive and heavy that even three or four adults wearing reinforced exoskeletons struggled to carry it.

"Good... Hold position. The main unit is converging on your location. ETA... minutes remaining!"

Major Marius’ voice crackled over the laser communicator. The search unit soldiers diligently kept their perimeter secure.

"Hmm?"

While waiting for the main unit, a soldier on guard felt something strange. There shouldn’t have been anyone else in the area. It felt like déjà vu.

Something flickered beyond the dark passage and over the building. The multi-pattern vision equipment detected nothing.

"Hey, Sergeant. Did you see..."

The crackling sound came, and the soldier couldn’t finish his sentence. The last thing he saw was a white shimmering blade piercing his chest.

"Urghhh..."

As the soldier collapsed, stabbed, Vanguard agents revealed themselves one by one as their concealment spells faded.

"Ambush!"

The commander, shouting for reinforcements, had his head severed in an instant.

"Monsters!"

The remaining soldiers reflexively fired their weapons. Their aim was swift and precise.

Heavy metal rounds, accelerated by electromagnetic force, struck against barriers. But the rounds failed to penetrate and dropped to the ground.

"What the..."

Before they could process their shock, their bodies were torn apart and burned by magical beams. The armored vehicle, swiveling its turret in desperation, was split in two by a flash of divine lightning.

"Take this!"

An Awakened soldier, consumed by despair, pushed his exoskeleton to maximum power and charged, stabbing a rare metal sword imbued with sword energy.

Before he could understand what was happening, the Vanguard agent gripping his blade crushed his head like a tomato.

"Federation soldiers are as easy as ever. Don’t you think?"

As the Vanguard commander shrugged, the concealment faded, revealing Lera and her Mystery Investigation Division 3 agents.

"There isn’t much time until the Federation forces arrive. Move."

At Lera’s gesture, the agents loaded the artifact onto a vehicle they had brought. As mercenaries set fire to the bodies, the artifact, lightened by gravity reduction magic, was secured onto the truck.

"Ugh, the Federation troops... What is this... Urghhh!"

"Hey, rookie! Can’t you move properly? Do you think this is just any artifact?"

A female staff member, retching at the sight of corpses, nearly dropped the artifact. Watching this, Lera clicked her tongue internally.

"So naïve. If she causes an accident, what then?"

Sending someone so squeamish about killing had been a mistake. First the cogwheel orb retrieval, now this. Lera resolved to keep her out of future operations.

After the Magna Nabis team retrieved the artifact and left, only burnt corpses and vehicles remained.

When Major Marius finally arrived, he stomped the ground in fury.

"Who the hell did this? Arrrghhh!"