People are in Type-Moon, but they practice science

"Does this association want to separate the magic side from the secular side? What's the benefit?"

Just as Shizi Jie was thinking about it, old man Beiyuan spoke, "What should we do? I have to tell you, they (the Void Commerce Bureau) don't think highly of this kind of business of human body trading. They said in the initial promotion that they have their own supply channels for spirit tombs, and they have no shortage of high-end goods. They also have the legendary Atlas Academy to supply technology. It is said that they can use nuclear energy to generate electricity and produce magic at the same time..."

Shizi Jie was also surprised by the news, but soon lost interest. "... People of our class can't afford that kind of stuff, right?"

"That's what they said," Beiyuan changed his tone again, "but... what if there is such an opportunity? If you can't afford it, they can provide leasing, trial, and even... they can recruit workers, and you can join the Void Commerce Bureau's so-called ceremonial clothing production line. As long as you are willing to completely surrender to that association, they also provide 're-education and further studies'... Can you imagine? This is equivalent to the Clock Tower's educational resources opening up to the common people!"

"——You know what? With this kind of opportunity, who would still be willing to be a numb magus? Who wouldn't want to fight tooth and nail to get this opportunity? You asked me what happened to the black market, and I told you, it was rectified. But the rectification was not just for the black markets here, it was... the entire mage community."

"Honestly, I feel like I made the right decision this time..." Shi Zijie shook off the ash of his cigar subconsciously, and then he realized that the cigar had burned out at some point. "Such a good opportunity, old man, why don't you go?"

"…What's the point? I said it at the beginning. I'm just an old man who's about to lie in the coffin. But you still have a chance to go."

"Me?" The memories in Shizi Jie's mind flashed, and those memories of the war that had drifted away for many years emerged sporadically. "I have long been a magician without any purpose. I no longer have the ambition I had when I was young. Working hard for a magic career has nothing to do with me."

----------

Xilin's memories boiled in the air, and continued to flash back in her mind in fleeting glimpses.

No, this is not her memory... this is the memory of the entire city.

'Do cities have memories?'

As she thought this, she opened her hands, then clenched them tightly, squeezing them hard, leaving conspicuous red marks on her fair skin. Was this her body? Why did she feel strange? Had she not moved for a long time?

In the distance, buildings, streets, green shade, sunshine... the landscape appears as if it has no mass, like the surface of waves floating on a body of water, but people are coming and going.

Xilin knew long ago that those were the residents of the city. They seemed to recognize this environment as a normal world and lived without noticing it.

Because they are not only human beings, but also the living memory of the city. Xilin easily sensed the busy patrol schedule of a security guard today, several vendors who rented shops were running small businesses with enthusiasm, and groups of innocent and childish students were living their youthful campus life... Everyone has their own place.

So, Xilin asked herself, what about her? Who is she?

Chapter 335 It’s broken, I am the murderer

who am I?

Xilin had no idea about this. She once tried to break into the lives of any ordinary family in this city, trying to find any trace of her existence there.

But no. No. None.

She seemed not to be anyone in this city. She did not belong here. She lived in the city's memory, but the city's memory did not include her.

Xilin walked aimlessly through the streets. She was more like a sleepwalker than a tourist. On both sides of the colorful but boundless road, Xilin came to a school of arts and crafts, the most famous college in the ninth district of Academy City. The campus environment here was full of the richest splendor and the most beautiful fantasy. Xilin had no interest in art, but she liked these colors, these colors that could be used to decorate the world.

After strolling around, Xilin set out on her journey again and came to the 15th School District, the largest commercial street. Xilin could see the exaggerated human torrent that filled her left and right. She was amazed at the "Diamond Atrium", an extremely luxurious and beautiful artistic building. A large number of memories flickered in the air, like an unprecedented dense bubble reflecting the rainbow.

"Could it be that this city is an ideal place that embodies the beautiful visions of mankind?" Xilin sighed. She had no knowledge of places outside of Academy City, but she clearly felt the beauty of life. It seemed that such a life should have been far away from her before.

Xilin came to the 10th School District, where there are a large number of research institutions, including proton collision, nuclear energy and other high-energy physics research. Due to the nature of the experiments and the consideration of the safety of the surrounding areas, the population here is obviously much less. Xilin felt the emptiness, coldness, and a sense of... resentment from nowhere.

"Did I hate this place before? ... No, I have never been here," Xilin shuttled between various laboratories, and the researchers who came and went ignored her, "But I have a reaction to this place, I hate it here, have I experienced bad things in similar research institutes before? ... "

She moved her fingers and pressed them against her forehead. "Thinking back, it should be a place similar to this place. My previous experience——"

Xilin tried to recall those things. "In my conception, it should not be such an ordinary institution. It should at least be a tall experimental tower——"

Since it is a city where memories converge, then conversely, the more it fits her cognitive image, the corresponding memory should have something in common with some part of her past, and the more likely it is that her corresponding memory will be reproduced.

"That tower also has a massive reactor."

"They have advanced technology and a large number of researchers. The experiments they conduct are——"

Xilin tried hard to recall, but what she didn't notice was that the surrounding environment began to change according to her imagination.

The false phase of this mental force field structure, as Xilin's thoughts spread, began to be like an engine opened by a key, and under the transmission of imagination, it made huge and rapid structural adjustments to the memory. The low-rise building continued to rise out of thin air, and the number of floors increased directly, reaching a height of 152 meters. The towering tower was like a huge spear that went straight into the sky.

Then, the layers of building space inside the tower were filled with a large number of researchers. They were unaware of the changes in their environment, as if they had been working here all the time.

"Eh? This is... what I did? The building changed... No, the people, the people's lives were changed by me."

For the first time, Xilin felt a tremor in her heart. She had a premonition that she had done something extremely bad. Her thought had changed everything here. And she changed this place by thinking about what might be the worst experience in her past.

Tower of Babel.

It was not even the remnant of memory, a word inexplicably flashed through Xilin's heart.

She looked at the tower from afar, and approached it with a heavy heart. She felt the changes in people, not only the environment, but also their appearance, personality, memory, and behavior. This was the impact she brought.

Honkai energy reactor.

Suddenly, another word flashed through Xilin's mind. She couldn't understand the work of these researchers at all, but as she went deeper, more and more words passed through the sea of ​​​​memory.

Artificial stigma experiment... destiny... human experiment... collapse... Herrscher... human!

"what……!"

Xilin suddenly covered her head. She had a bad feeling and bad memories kept coming back to her.

Kill them all... Kill them all... Kill all the researchers...

--wrong!

"No… this isn't me!"

The inexplicably born evil memory was like a death warrant that was about to tear apart her self-personality, making Xilin feel an unprecedented urge to escape from here.

--------

"Report, the AIM diffusion field anomaly and the appearance of the 'unknown black shadow' have been discovered again!"

This is the tenth school district of Academy City in the real world, the largest experimental base of the Engineering Department, and the main activity location of Velvet, Einsteintest and others.

"Don't panic," Einstein ordered. Velvet was developing the Krilonomia intelligence device, and she was in charge of taking over the control of these subordinate research projects. The AIM diffusion field was one aspect of it. Compared to Mobius's focus on the human body, this side was more focused on the application of AIM diffusion fields and device development.

"Don't worry about this anomaly. Current signs indicate that the disturbance to reality is almost zero. Turn on all indoor AIM diffusion field detection devices. What we need to do is to make more detailed observations and records."

After these preparations were completed, Einstein quickly saw the changing curve of the AIM diffusion field when the "black shadow" appeared and disappeared.

"...Well, it would be much better if we had prepared in advance, but the data collected is still intermittent?" Einstein saw that the lines of the data did not match up, and there seemed to be a missing section in the middle.

"——Because, a static device can't handle a moving object." The door of the laboratory opened, and the person who walked in and spoke was Tesla. "I coordinated the work with Wei Wei in advance, and she is almost done. By the way, this nanomachine technology is really convenient. It's just right to make some small changes based on the monitoring results this time, such as adding an AIM diffusion field detection."

"?" Einstein raised an eyebrow. "How do you know the results are out? We are still analyzing it here."

"Because I saw it. A shadow flashed back and forth. Even though I've heard about the Imaginary Number District, I was still startled." Tesla crossed his arms, looking a little unhappy. "When I walked over, the shadow 'ran' all the way to the road outside, but it disappeared on its own before it got very far."

Chapter 336: Paduo, you are so powerful!

"Has it changed from 'invisible to others' at the beginning to 'partially visible to the naked eye' now?"

After talking with Tesla, Einstein went on to ask several staff members near the entrance and found that some of them saw a dark shadow, some vaguely felt something passing through the air, and most of them found nothing. From this, she confirmed her guess.

'There must be some parameter change that can affect the visibility of 'her' (Xilin). The greater the change, the higher the visibility, and the more people can observe her.'

"The target has reacted violently to some element of the 'Tenth School District'... Then, the data analysis of the AIM diffusion field changes has been completed - write a report to other departments."

After completing the preliminary evaluation and uploading, Einstein put the things aside and began her regular research life.

--------

On the other side of the Academy City, in the dormitory of St. Freya Academy in the Seventh District, Kiana was not able to start her ordinary and happy new day as a student as she wished.

"Hiss... my head hurts," Kiana felt her mind was in a mess, as if she had stayed up all night playing a game of luxury flying chess with Bronya until dawn... But this was impossible. Due to the strict work and rest requirements of the dormitory and the inspections of the dormitory supervisor, she was forced to live a life like a model student with Raiden Mei, except for classes. And she had a good sleep quality before, and she always felt refreshed when she woke up.

"Kiana, are you okay...?" Raiden Mei was quite worried. This white-haired girl seemed lively and active normally, except when she looked dull during class, with ADHD almost written all over her face. Now she looked listless lying on the bed, which made it difficult for her roommates to associate her with her usual image.

"Morning classes are about to start. Our operations committee still has some things to discuss with the teacher. We still have some time, but I'm afraid you won't have enough time to wash up in your current state, Kiana... How about I talk to Teacher Jizi and ask for leave for you...?"

"Hmm... Thank you Mei," Kiana felt it carefully, and it felt like her brain was burnt. Ah, how could this be possible? She had always been a typical person who enjoyed eating and had a healthy body... Oh, no, it seemed that she had indeed been seriously ill once when she was a child in Siberia... That was not right!

This is a new world now. Even if you dream, you can't bring things that only exist in dreams into reality, right?

Kiana was thinking wildly, since the things in dreams can be brought into reality, why not give her an excellent brain... No! She has always been excellent, and she is only a small step away from the achievements of Mei and Bronya. In that case, it would be great if I could dream of super invincible and powerful power, so that you can say I am stupid all day long, but you won't dare to say that as long as I am strong enough, hehehe!

"——Sister Mei, in Bronya's opinion, this is not necessary. Miss Paramecium has been late enough times, and this one time is not a big deal," Bronya began to complain as usual. "In fact, Bronya suspects that this is a trick to escape from the school. When we come back, the bed sheet will definitely be empty. Sister Mei should not be fooled so easily."

"...Who, who said I deserted the battlefield?" Kiana said in a muffled voice under the quilt, "I will definitely stay in the dormitory and not go anywhere. It's okay, it's just a minor illness. I just need to rest for a while."

"Okay, Kiana, just lie here and Bronya, stop talking. Let's go to our morning class first."

boom.

The door closed, and the world suddenly became quiet. Kiana tried to sort out what was wrong with her buzzing mind. However, it didn't take long for her headache symptoms to return to normal. Her body was full of energy, and the previous sluggish look was swept away.

In short, the incident happened quickly and went away quickly. It was like a joke. The whole thing took less than ten minutes!

"What the hell!" Kiana sat up suddenly from the bed. She knocked her head subconsciously to make sure that nothing inside was playing a joke on her. "Humph, someone must be cursing this invincible and lovely girl behind my back. When I find her out, I will definitely make her suffer."

What she didn't know was that during the short few minutes of headache before and after, the girl named Xilin in the imaginary phase was experiencing the most intense emotional fluctuations.

"Oh, that's right," Kiana was making the bed, and she suddenly remembered that she was free now... Mei had asked for leave for her anyway, so she might as well go out for a walk, maybe she could find the source of the inexplicable headache... ahem, the point is certainly not to stroll around.

----------

30 minutes later. Outside the school garden.

"Wow, Boss Cat! You're so powerful!" Kiana watched as Padu easily took her out of the campus without alerting the guards or being discovered by classmates or teachers. "With such a secret passage, you can skip school whenever you want! So cool!"

The truant cat said that with this secret passage, wouldn't it be like a bird flying into the sky or a fish entering the sea, never to be bound again?

Then another businessman, Maomao, said——

"Kiana-san, you're thinking too well. The defense system of the Academy House will be updated once in a very short period of time. I got this information with the inside information of the 'secret channel'. In other words, next time, this channel cannot be used. ——Well, this is originally a freight channel, not a place for people to walk. It is also costly to have such a high inspection frequency."

"So that's it... Is this why we are moving forward in the dark passage?" Kiana's tone paused when she said this.

Yes, the two of them were moving forward in a narrow square passage. It was the first time that Kiana felt so uncomfortable. The width and height of the cross-section of this passage seemed to be deliberately designed so that it could just transport large enough cargo. At the same time, this size also required people entering to bend their waists almost ninety degrees to move forward quickly - otherwise, if they didn't bend down and just crawled on the ground, they wouldn't be able to move fast.

However, Kiana looked at Paddo in front of her and saw her running quickly with a bent waist, faster than her normal running speed. What kind of running method is this?

Boss Cat, you are so powerful!

Chapter 337: Even without the collapse, life may not get better

"...Yohoo! We're finally here!"

After experiencing a lot of torture, Kiana finally regained her life with the arrival of the notification from Pado.

"Okay, okay - we're finally here." Kiana weakly crawled out of the passage, her hands still on her waist, like an unrestrained adolescent... Oh no, she is actually this age.

"Hey - where is this place?"

After turning her neck and recovering her physical state, Kiana looked around and found that this place seemed to be a large warehouse with many sealed boxes around. Judging from the text marked on them, there were product labels such as "synthetic chicken", "synthetic fish", and "synthetic beef", as well as a logo marked "Oasis Animal Husbandry".

"This is part of Academy City's warehouse logistics system, including the passage we just walked through, but this is just a docking station for shops."

Paddo's tail was shaking, and Kiana noticed that something was rolled up on her tail, and then quickly handed it to Paddo herself. Hey, can the tail perform such precise operations?

"Done!" Padu shook the terminal in his hand. "All the facilities here, including the opening and closing of the warehouse, are taken over by the system. But I used to work in this field, and with the small overstepping of authority just now, I can handle the entrances and exits of these places for the time being - but this service is not for sale to the public yet!"

During the three years that Pado was working in the logistics field, this logistics system that integrated packaging, warehousing, sorting, and transportation processes was also being built simultaneously. Therefore, Pado can confidently say that, except for the builders of the system, no one knows how to complete the "Academy City delivery service" better than her!

"You know, it's Boss Cat's business secret."

Following behind Padu, Kiana walked out of the logistics warehouse.

Once outside, Kiana finally realized that she was far away from the Seventh District where St. Freya Academy was located. This was already the well-known prosperous area in the Academy City - the Fifteenth District, where the Diamond Court was located. The place in front of them seemed to be the back door of a food store called "Maruichi".

"By the way, this is the warehouse and kitchen of Maruichi Food Store, so we have to say hello to the owner." Padu led her to the front store. Kiana noticed that Padu's swaying tail gradually disappeared into the cloak. Hey, how did such a long tail get put in? Is it really fake?

At this time, the owner of the food store, Kazuko Tadokoro, has already opened the store. Maruichi Food Store not only sells fried chicken, fish, and beef dishes, but also sells bacon cheese, sandwiches, and egg dishes suitable for breakfast. Now is the time for many middle schools to have early classes, and it is also the time for many commuters to prepare breakfast before going to the company. Kazuko Tadokoro prepared a lot in advance, and there were not many people eating in the store in the morning. Most people ordered takeout, so it was relatively easy.

"Hey, Padusan, you're here so early again."

"It's not too early. There are a lot of new residents recently, so we'll probably be busy with transportation," Paddo seemed to be very familiar with the store owner, Kazuko Tadokoro. Kazuko Tadokoro was even enthusiastic about her. It seemed that Paddo had helped her in the past.

As for the topic they were talking about, Kiana next to them was a little confused. Have many residents moved to Academy City recently?

As soon as she "woke up", she was a student of Academy City. She was told that this was a world where there was no Honkai and where there were superpowers. However, she had not yet been exposed to the world outside of Academy City. Although she could follow it through media information, she had never understood the specific life outside. This was the same for other students in the Academy House.

"Really? It does seem like there are a lot more people coming in lately," Tadokoro didn't seem to take it seriously. "It's probably because of the peak tourist season. The number of visitors has increased a lot. Recently, many of my colleagues have taken advantage of the Daihastari Festival to put a lot of effort into promotion, and the effect seems to be good... ah, I have to work harder too."

Because of the official event Daiba Sei Festival, the owner of the shop, Kazuko Tadokoro, attributed the unusual flow of people to the tourist group, but in fact, there were also a large number of people sent by the Japanese government who were hidden. Among them was a mage with bad intentions.

In addition to the possible public security issues, the most critical point is the possible changes in the relationship between Academy City and the external Japanese countries. From the worst-case scenario, Japan is very likely to have an open conflict with Academy City, and it is not impossible that civilians will be endangered. In this case, it is reasonable to use the Daihastar Festival as an excuse to bring back a large number of people who are outside. After all, there is no guarantee that the government will not take despicable actions such as threatening the people.

What Paduo called "transportation" was the work for the foreign population. Since the rise of Academy City, the number of foreign residents who moved here has never stopped. Kazuko Tadokoro was one of the earlier ones. However, as the relationship between the Japanese government and Academy City gradually deteriorated, the relocation requirements gradually changed. Now, if you don't move your whole family here, I'm afraid your relocation application will not be approved.