Curse the Mainframe! 382 Sunday At The Transmigrator Academy

It was Sunday, and the transmigrator academy didn't have 'lessons' on this day, yet the students were all riled up by the presence of the instructor.

With the added instructions from the academy to head back to the classrooms, many of them were agitated and excited.

They didn't consider it a hardship at all that their rest day was gone.

Though, Alec had a feeling that even if none of them had rest days, they would be more than happy to continue throwing themselves into the competition with other students.

Feral dogs indeed.

Not only did the situation deviate from the norm, the instructor had suddenly announced that they were going to be testing their skills out in the forest as a 'field trip' that the inspector could pass by later if they were lucky.

Alec narrowed his eyes.

'Could pass by later'? Heh.

It was more likely that the inspector was already there, having narrowed down the 'class' in which the traitor came from. It made no sense that theirs was the only class going out into the forest otherwise.

The only thing Alec was unsure about was whether or not the person that had come was a Meister or Grand Meister.

However, both options were bad. It was just that one was worse than the other.

A Grand Meister could level the entire country without a problem, while Meisters could level the city.

It was a difference in pure strength and quality that couldn't be overcome with rank alone.

To be honest, the only people that knew what the difference between the two were those who had achieved Grand Meister status themselves.

Those who were below Grand Meister were clueless, and it was the Meister's bane that they couldn't find an accurate description in order to advance.

Some people never advanced in their entire life, leaving only a small handful of Grand Meisters behind. There were countless Meisters over the course of the years that had perished due to old age, never breaking through.

Apparently, it was hard to describe it, and the people would have to achieve it themselves before they understood.

Yet, there were so few Grand Meisters that had ever existed that one could control the entire continent if one wanted to.

As of today, Alec didn't believe that there were any left. If there were, they were probably trying to maintain their lifespan by going into hibernation.

Against a Meister, Alec could still use Loeri's mind control spores to affect them, but against a Grand Meister, he could only hope to be captured without struggling.

Then again, they probably didn't expect him to be able to struggle either against a Meister.

Alec had only caught a quick glance at the inspector earlier on, and they appeared like a genial person. But that was only their appearance. Their eyes weren't gentle at all, and their true personality was likely very different.

They looked like they were in their mid-forties and she had a pleasant smile on their face, unlike the instructors who only ever kept a stern and strict face every day.

It was the classical carrot and stick method, where the people training them were the stick, and the mentors and inspectors were the carrot.

Unfortunately, it seemed to work almost too well in this case.

With the damn brand that was on the transmigrators, it was almost a miracle that Sekai had managed to maintain some of his stubborn state of mind, to remind himself that it was not how he had originally been.

That his loyalty was to himself and not the company despite all their efforts to brainwash him into a loyal tool.

Sekai had managed to do it through a mix of his sheer, stubborn will, as well as the natural inclinations of his Societype that railed against having rules bind them down.

Yet, for some reason, most of the transmigrators that Alec saw here in the academy belonged to the other three categories. Brights, Chers and Everys.

It was very surprising. Or, was it that they didn't think it was worth it keeping a Sin transmigrator around that they couldn't control?

Alec actually thought that it was because the instincts that came from being a Sin rebelled so strongly against the way the seal was trying to force onto them that most of them suicided or went insane.

At that thought, Alec's eyes chilled a little before regaining their normal look.

Had Alec not had the means to remove the brand from himself, he wondered if he would end up going insane like the rest of them?

Despite how he portrayed himself, Alec was very individualistic, and he didn't like someone giving him rules and regulations to follow.

It was pure irony there, that he had previously been a System under the Mainframe that loved to follow the rules and regulations.

Now, he liked to make the rules and regulations for others to follow instead.

Alec paused for a moment, realizing that they were already in the forest, hiding.

He was next to Nicholas, and he frowned fiercely.

He didn't even remember entering the forest, nor making any conscious decision to hide here away from the other classmates.

His mind had wandered unnaturally in that time, and from the look on Nicholas' face, he too was lost in his thoughts.

The teen's face was blank and slack. One look and you knew that he wasn't paying any attention.

Alec's alarm suddenly spiked when he realized that wasn't normal.

He sharply prodded Nicholas in the side, causing him to yelp loudly in the stillness of the forest around them.

"What?" Nicholas said, turning around with a frown on his face.

"Were your thoughts wandering?"

"Nonsense," Nicholas instinctively denied, then paused. It was true. His thoughts had indeed been wandering in useless places.

Nicholas' face grew serious. "Let's move!" he said instead.

Alec nodded. He had been about to suggest that as well.

Even now, he still didn't know where the inspector was, or if it was just someone else in their class that was affecting them using their Magitype.

The two of them moved forward silently, but and they stopped under a tree.

Alec boosted Nicholas up before hopping up there as well.

The two of them kept a lookout for the other teams. Well, Alec was looking for the inspector, while Nicholas was looking out for the other teams.

This far up in the tree, they had a better vantage point.

They could spot the various partners moving around as they fought against each other in a 'controlled' environment, but neither Alec nor Nicholas were interested in joining the dog fight below them.

Instead, they were alert in the tree.

Alec was waiting for Loeri to return before he did anything.

At this moment, Loeri slowly made its way to the base of the tree. Alec waited for it to hop up to return to Alec's palm, but instead, the mushroom 'shouted' at him across their link.

"Master! There's someone else in the tree with you!"

Alarmed, Alec controlled himself not to whirl around, but his senses never told him that there was anyone there.

Even now, when Loeri told him that there was someone else with him other than Nicholas, he could not feel anything.

Unbeknownst to both Alec and Nicholas, the genial-looking inspector had always been standing on the tree with them and had even been there when they were lost in thought at the other place.

But neither of the pair could see the woman at all.

She had always been following them, but everyone looked past her like she wasn't there.

Now, Loeri had seen through her, but it could only inform their master. They did not have the strength to resist.

"So, you've discovered me," the inspector said with a slight smile on her face.

Serious chills went up and down the pair's arms as they turned around cautiously.

However, that was the last thing that they did.

Chapter end

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