Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Golden Generation (3)
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"Haa."
In the end, I couldn't fall asleep, and the sun rose.
My conversation with Phyllis had wrapped up in the middle of the night, but the problem was how shocking her words had been.
By the time I'd calmed down Sena, whose delayed explosion finally hit, and finished up the remaining work, it was already 5 a.m.
It was too awkward a time to try sleeping now, so in the end, I ended up greeting the morning sun with wide-open eyes.
"Guess I should get ready."
For the morning meeting, I needed to slowly start preparing the documents now.
Normally, my secretary Alice would handle it, but since I had time today, I figured I'd prepare the portions for the other executives too.
'Come to think of it, right after the entrance exam ends, there's the department head meeting, right?'
Unlike the daily meetings where just the executives gather to discuss, the department head meeting brings together all the student council department heads to review each department's status.
They check if the policies being implemented in each department are running smoothly, and if there are shortcomings, they vote on revisions to ensure even smoother operations.
It could be called the most important meeting for deciding the student council's overall course of action.
This time, with the entrance ceremony and a huge influx of new students, I expected a lot of agenda items related to that.
Well, for now, I needed to prepare for the daily meeting.
'Sena won't be here today, so preparing for three people should do it.'
Vice President Sena had built up fatigue from the dispatch, so I'd told her to rest for the day.
I'd even nailed it down, telling her not to come even if she wanted to, so she'd be spending the day quietly at home.
On entrance exam day, the entire student council would be busy, so she needed to recover her energy by then.
"Then let's wrap up today's meeting here."
"Good work."
"You did great."
10 a.m.
Seon-hwa approached me as I organized the documents after finishing the meeting, which had covered more agenda items than expected.
"Master, you need to stop by the control tower today."
"The control tower?"
Did Hiho summon me?
When I asked, Seon-hwa nodded just as I'd anticipated.
"Yes, she said she has something to say about that demon."
"Hm. Got it. I'll head there right away. No important schedules right now, right?"
"Yes, there's the research district inspection, but we can send a proxy."
I nodded at Alice's words as my secretary.
"Then send the accountant in my place. Tatiana, report back immediately if any issues come up during the inspection."
"Yes, I'll check everything thoroughly."
She gathered the items needed for the inspection, gave a slight bow, and quickly disappeared.
"Alright, let's get moving."
I said shortly and opened the door to step outside.
Academy City, the core governing body known as Acropolis, has three symbolic structures.
First is the Acropolis used by the student council.
Second is the Agora Grand Hall used by the representative council.
And finally, the Central Control Tower, Babel, managed by the board of directors.
Among them, Babel—the control tower—is managed by the board, but its true master is the control AI, 'Hiho'.
A futuristic AI created when Academy City was founded long ago, sharing the city's history.
A rare relic of a great hero left on the continent, famous as a dedicated artifact, it still serves as Academy City's control AI even after thousands of years.
'...That's the commonly known facts.'
However, to me—a hardcore veteran of the Failure Hero series—'Hiho' was familiar for a different reason.
'The navigator unit of the Failure Hero series.'
The NPC commonly called the guide character was none other than Hiho.
'She appeared steadily not just in Failure Hero 1, but even in the prequel 2, supporting the protagonist.'
Though not a romanceable heroine, her unique cute and clumsy charm had earned her a huge fanbase as a popular NPC.
'Especially since she was the first NPC the protagonist meets, she played a huge role.'
As the guide character, she determined the game's first impressions and even served as the game's icon—a flagship NPC.
Maybe that's why.
Skyana had put extra effort into her, making her quality stand out.
The mascot NPC of the game, with solid character traits supporting the protagonist.
Plus, one of the few ever-present NPCs across the entire series.
And on top of that, she was a solid good-aligned character helping the protagonist.
So it was only natural that users like me loved her.
Even after finishing her journey with the protagonist in 1 and becoming Academy City's control AI, she provided Alex with all sorts of info in 2 to protect the peace the protagonist of 1 had safeguarded.
Despite being an AI, she had emotions no different from other NPCs.
'And her lore even had her never forgetting the protagonist of 1 and longing for him.'
Her character was surprisingly well-built.
Thanks to that, she was popular in reality too, and I'd been looking forward to meeting her...
"Eek! Help! Help! President, save me-ho!"
"I wish you wouldn't show this side quite so much..."
True to her ditzy character rep.
Hiho was dangling in midair, her body caught on the wires she'd installed herself.
With her fairy-like tiny body tangled in the wires, her already precarious outfit was emphasized even more, revealing itself starkly.
"Eeeek! I'm dying! Dying-ho!"
The more she flailed to free herself, the tighter she got bound, for some reason.
Her water-blue hair swayed this way and that with her movements.
"Presideeeent! Don't just stand there, do something-ho!"
"I got it, so stay still."
The more you move, the less it unravels.
I scooped Hiho into my arms and carefully removed the wires binding her one by one.
Once all the wires were off and I'd set her down, she cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Ahem! Th-that... thanks-ho. I nearly stayed tied up forever-ho."
"How the heck did that even happen?"
"Well..."
Her explanation was, as expected, just her usual foolishness at play.
"I got tired of recharging for meals every time, so I thought it'd be nice to stay perpetually charged-ho."
"..."
Then she overcharged, and the wires went haywire...
I swept a hand over my face in abject dismay.
Hiho seemed aware of her own idiocy, folding her wings and sitting obediently.
"D-don't look at me like that-ho! It wasn't on purpose-ho!"
"...Sure."
I gave her a cold, jaded stare for a moment before getting to the point.
"Anyway, you said you called me?"
"Right-ho."
She spread her wings again, floated into the air, and projected a monitor in midair.
"It's that demon I mentioned before-ho."
"Disguised as a professor, huh."
That matched what I'd heard before.
"After hearing from you, President, I put 24-hour surveillance on him-ho. And from the close watch, I caught some suspicious movements-ho."
With that, Hiho raised one hand and began manipulating the monitor.
The screen flew by quickly, showing various scenes, before finally displaying one demon.
A demon glancing warily around before entering his lab.
"Tried to surveil the inside too, but there was a powerful barrier-ho. Kept trying to hack, but it had layers of signal jamming, magical, and ritual defenses, so it took time-ho."
"Took time means you broke through the security anyway?"
"Heh. Heh. Heh! Hiho is an excellent AI-ho! Cracks low-level security like this in no time-ho!"
She proudly puffed out her tiny chest and showed the lab interior on screen.
The revealed lab didn't look much different from other professors', but that changed when the demon activated a crystal orb.
"Communication? Who's he contacting?"
"Hmm... no idea-ho."
Hey, weren't you just bragging about being an excellent AI?
"D-don't look at me like that-ho! Long-range comms are usually super easy to hack, but this one specifically wouldn't budge-ho! Not many demons can hold up this well against me-ho!"
With that, Hiho shared her guess.
"Demon of Fear-ho. Only that guy's slippery enough to evade Hiho's eyes-ho."
"The Demon of Fear, huh."
Info on him was scarce due to his sneaky nature, but I remembered him as a rear-line disruptor who never stepped onto the front lines.
Poisoning rivers or spreading nasty rumors in rest-stop villages to crush morale.
Anyway, his underhanded tactics didn't leave a good impression.
'Never saw him in person even on the front lines.'
"The Demon of Fear specializes in psyops-ho."
"Psyops?"
"His raw power isn't much for a Four Heavenly Kings level-ho. His strength is the diverse debuffs he wields-ho."
Confusion, fear, madness, charm, and so on.
He manipulates local opinion with various debuffs.
Then drops the entire area's morale and shatters the unit.
"Without lifting a finger, he's wrecked more units than he has hands to count-ho."
"You've got surprisingly good intel on him."
"You might not know, President, but he's been popping up sporadically on the Crim Kingdom front lately-ho. A guy who'd never shown his face suddenly appears, so the alliance is buzzing-ho."
"Crim Kingdom..."
Crim Kingdom was definitely the northern front lines.
The Demon of Death had wiped it out before, and now this guy shows up there...
'He's definitely plotting something petty.'
Not much evidence yet, so hard to act specially, but worth committing to memory.
"Anyway, contacting the Demon of Fear means he's definitely one of his executives-ho! And check this out-ho!"
The next footage showed dazed-looking people installing suspicious devices in streets here and there.
Starting from mountains near Slaine, back alleys near Gold Star, streets around Yeoncheol.
"Those are... SKY guys."
"Right-ho. They're installing gate generators around SKY-ho."
"Gate generators?"
"Dangerous things that summon beasts-ho. Normally used for training, but he's modded them to go berserk-ho."
If one activates, it'll tear space and summon beasts way stronger than training ones.
Hiho looked at me with serious eyes as she said that.
"That's why I called you here right now-ho."
"..."
"I have the mission Hwarang left me to protect Academy City safely-ho. I tolerated the demon spy for your request and info theft, but this is different-ho."
I nodded silently at her words.
With her obsessive fixation on the city's safety, she couldn't tolerate this terror plot.
Sure enough, she crossed her arms, glared, and declared:
"I won't let a single beast into Academy City-ho. So I order you: recover the devices now and eliminate the demon-ho."
"However, I refuse."
"As expected! I knew you'd understand, President-ho! Then right now..."
"..."
"...Ho?"
Hiho's face went blank at the same time.