Data Collection
Data collection.
"Professor Felix, identity confirmed. And the person behind you…"
"Ah, she's a student assisting with this project."
"Hello."
"Understood. You're cleared to enter."
"Thanks. Keep up the good work."
"Oh… that's actually pretty cool? Professor, huh? Kinda stylish."
"Right? This body of mine — a professor."
After finishing their meal, Felix had seized on the free period and dragged Rosaria off somewhere. Now he held up his identity card, striking a pose as he muttered to himself.
Every student at the academy carried a magical tool that verified their identity. Once registered, the device automatically stored the student's credentials — an essential medium for proving who you were within the academy grounds.
Even students without any personal mana could use it, since the tool drew on its own internal power. The devices had become so universal that mercenaries used them as identity tags and public officials carried them as staff badges. They had melted into daily life the way a Korean ID card, student card, or employee badge once had — utterly familiar, utterly ordinary.
"So, where is this pla— whoa. This is huge."
Following Felix inside, Rosaria's eyes lit up with open admiration.
The ceiling alone soared past ten meters, and the floor space was nearly half the size of a parade ground. The entire interior was painted a stark, unbroken white — eerie and fresh at once, radiating a near-future atmosphere that prickled the skin.
"This is the training room. It's usually used for sparring and drills, but we've taken over the whole thing for this project."
"Training in here? There's nothing in it."
"That's on purpose."
"Anyway, what are we doing here?"
"Just stay put for now. I've got somewhere else to be."
"What? Just hang around here? Where are you going?"
"Warm up a little~ You'll figure it out soon enough."
"Huh? Hey! Hey! You're seriously just leaving?"
She'd been brought all this way only to be told to wait and stretch, and Felix was already walking out. Rosaria reached after him, but he never looked back — and then he was gone.
"…Tch. What the hell is he planning. Fine. Warm up and wait, is that it?"
Suddenly alone and more than a little bewildered, Rosaria nevertheless did as she was told. She began a light round of warm-up exercises, loosening her body.
And then—
"Aaah. Can you hear me?"
"Wha—?! What the hell!?"
Felix's voice boomed through the room, loud enough to rattle the walls. Rosaria nearly jumped out of her skin.
"I'm watching you from the control room, Noona. I have to operate everything from here separately."
"…Got it."
"Like I said earlier — we're going to have you fight monsters in here, using something close to augmented reality."
"Monsters? Just like that?"
"We check whether the circuits we've built so far are working properly, we test the firepower of that weapon of yours, and we collect combat data while we're at it. Three birds with one stone, right?"
"Even if you suddenly tell me to fight monsters, I don't know how I'm supposed to—"
"Ah, right. Hang on… I'll set up an environment you can focus in."
"Huh?"
Seeing her flustered reaction to the sudden monster-combat announcement, Felix seemed to fiddle with something on his end.
And then—
Shhhhhrrrk—
"How's that? Easier to get immersed?"
"…Huh? The, the surroundings… they just changed?"
In an instant, the training room — until moments ago nothing but blank white walls — transformed into the damp, clammy interior of a dark cave. Torches mounted along the layered stone walls flared to life, casting a sharper light through the gloom.
"Whoa… and this isn't real? I can touch it. I can feel it."
Startled at first, Rosaria soon found herself marveling at the scenery shifting before her eyes. She ran a hand along the cave wall — and the cold, moisture-slick stone pressed distinctly against her palm. Not a mere illusion. That made it all the more astonishing.
"Mmm… in a sense, it is real."
"It is?"
"Unlike hallucination magic, this gathers fine particles of mana and molds them into solid form. As long as the spell holds, you can touch it — it's no different from reality. Think of it as shaping mana like clay and decorating the place into a cave."
"…How is that different, then?"
"…Look at theme-park attractions. They use props to dress a set up as the White House or a haunted house, right? This is the same idea — only we've fabricated it out of mana, disposable-grade. Make sense now?"
"…Okay. So it's basically like a studio set."
"Close enough."
"Huh… neat."
"Alright. The monster you'll be fighting is about to generate."
"You made the monsters the same way?"
"For the monsters, it's closer to designing a golem — with a mana-stone core at the center — to look and move like a real monster. The key of this test is how naturally that core can drive the golem. So give it your best, yeah?"
"Hmm… still, it feels kinda like a game. The vibe's good."
Click—
Listening to Felix's easy explanation, Rosaria nodded with a look of settled resolve. She swung the gun she'd been carrying on her back around to the front and settled it into her shoulder.
"What about ammo?"
"Suppression rounds should be enough. Too much firepower and the training room itself won't hold up."
"Okay."
"Right then — I'll summon the first monster, nice and simple!"
Rosaria finished seating the magazine and racked the bolt, chambering a round. In front of her eyes, fine particles began to clump together, gradually taking shape.
And before long—
Grrrr—!
Keruk—keruk—!
Kerrr!? Keruk—!
"For starters, let's keep it light — three goblins."
No sooner had Felix finished speaking than green-skinned monsters materialized in Rosaria's field of vision.
They stood about as tall as a lower-elementary schooler, with scrawny ribcages and grotesquely swollen bellies. Their skin was green, pocked and twisted in places like scarred flesh. Their ears were long and pointed, their noses broad and flat, and their fangs jutted every which way — giving their lower jaws a spectacle that was impressive for all the wrong reasons.
Clubs in hand, rags hanging from their waists — textbook starter monsters straight out of a game.
Goblins. Rosaria's opponents had arrived.
"Whoa… never thought I'd see goblins for real after only ever watching them on a screen… they're way uglier than I expected."
The goblins she'd slaughtered endlessly in games looked, up close, like something else entirely. Rosaria marveled and tore into them in the same breath — drooling, leering little faces that she tore apart with pure verbal contempt.
Kerrr—!? Keruk—!
Keke!! Kerruk—!
Kerrrrruk—!!!
Whether they somehow understood her scathing "critique" or not, the goblins spun toward her and began to scurry about in a frenzy.
And then—
Keruk!—!!
Kueee—!!
Kerukkeruk—!!
They gripped their wooden clubs and charged straight at her.
They were only elementary-school height, but they were monsters — beasts in all but name. Their speed was surprisingly sharp. The goblins that had been a good ten meters away were suddenly right on top of her, fanning out to close the circle.
But—
"First time shooting something that moves, but I don't think I'm gonna miss."
Bang—
Kueruk…!?
Rosaria lined up her front sight on the goblin charging most recklessly down the center and squeezed the trigger. The creature jerked as if its body had snagged on an invisible wire midair, spun, and crumpled to the floor, twitching. A small, clean hole was punched straight through its chest.
"One down."
Cha-kang—
A smile tugged at her lips as the shot landed dead-center. She racked the bolt again, chambering the second round.
But—
Keruk—!!
Swaaaaash—!
One of the remaining goblins — utterly unbothered by its fallen comrade — closed the last of the distance and swung its club.
Not a chance—!
Thwack—
K…eeek…!
Rosaria had already read the move. She spun the gun around and cracked the goblin across the skull with the stock first. Its head dented slightly; the creature collapsed, tongue lolling, body convulsing.
K—kueee…
"Last one!"
Baaang—
Kueek!?—kk…
Even a goblin couldn't help but freeze when two of its packmates dropped in the span of a breath. Rosaria didn't waste the opening. Her second shot lifted the last goblin clean off its feet; it sailed through the air and hit the ground the same way the others had, going limp.
"Oh, clean work."
"Hoo… are these seriously golems? The realism is insane."
Having dropped every goblin, Rosaria felt less the satisfaction of a kill and more a creeping unease. She'd been told they weren't living creatures — just golems — and yet the goblins had been so vividly, unnervingly alive.
"Of course! Do you know how much blood, sweat, and tears I poured into these? The second goblin especially — I nearly lost my mind coding in the habit of licking its fangs before it charges."
"Haa… why would you even put that in."
"Realism! Realism!"
Even after a clean sweep, Rosaria still wore a dazed expression. Felix's proud rundown of every little detail only earned him a long-suffering sigh.
"By the way — you're plenty strong even without Ariel, huh?"
The thought struck him mid-conversation. Rosaria had just put on a dazzling physical display without Ariel present, and Felix couldn't help asking.
"Ah. Early on, Ariel had to stick close and regulate everything for me to reinforce my body or do much of anything. But now I can do it anytime, even when she's not here. It's like there's an invisible string tied tight between us."
Rosaria lowered her muzzle and looked proudly down at the back of her left hand — the proof of her contract. The windmill-shaped tattoo she'd received upon contracting with Ariel glowed brightly in answer to her awareness.
In the earliest days of the contract, she'd been so clumsy with Ariel's power that she could barely use it without the spirit at her side assisting. But whether it was growing used to the bond, or simply growing closer to Ariel herself, these days she could freely draw on physical reinforcement without Ariel needing to manifest at all.
"Hmm… so that's what a spirit contract feels like. Another thing learned."
"Yeah. Wait — where did the goblins just—?"
"Shall we move on to the next stage, then?"
Felix had been listening with genuine interest. Then something shifted on his end, and the limp goblins began to crumble into fine white powder, their forms dissolving away.
"When the mana runs out, or the central mana stone is destroyed, the core holding the form together vanishes — so they revert to their original state as pure mana."
"And since we're collecting data anyway, we can't wrap this up that easily!"
"…What other monsters are there?"
"Next up: orcs, kobolds, lizardmen, goblin wizards, and so on. We're going in the order we finished building them."
"Orcs… kobolds… lizardmen… and goblin higher species…"
"Ah, but relax! They have physical form and they will attack you — but the force is dialed way, way down. Your life is in absolutely no danger."
"Is that so? Alright! Feels a bit like clearing a game, too! Moving like this is pretty cathartic! I'll play along as long as I can keep up!"
Rosaria hesitated for a beat at Felix's words — but she had a rare chance to fire her guns freely, and more than that—
Now it finally feels like I've been isekai'd into a fantasy world…! Fantasy is all about carving through monsters!
Dropping those goblins had driven the reality of her reincarnation into her bones. The fantasy of going full unstoppable against monsters you'd only ever seen in games and novels — every web-novel reader had daydreamed that scenario at least once.
"Alright! Who's next!? I'll take you on!"
Caught up in the thrill of feeling like a broken overpowered protagonist, Rosaria threw her head back and shouted, raising her muzzle high. The sheer swagger of it could have been a cutscene from a fantasy game — distinctive, magnetic, and entirely her own.