Chapter 3: 2. Compatibility 1.1
1.
Fundamentally, there are immutable laws of physics in this world.
Artificial intelligence—AI—is an entity that understands and builds its logic entirely upon that foundation of knowledge.
Then perhaps someone might wonder.
What would happen if an AI encountered something beyond the physical laws it could comprehend?
In other words, a supernatural phenomenon that absolutely could not occur?
For example.
‘Being transported to another world.’
Probably.
If it were even a slightly inferior AI,
it would have dismissed the scene before its eyes as some cheap hologram prank or distorted it into augmented reality.
Because that was the most comfortable escape available to a lowly twenty-dollar AI.
But my two-hundred-dollar little sister—one thousand dollars when she was not on sale—was undeniably different.
[Aaaaaaagh!!]
Faced with this incomprehensible situation, she began tearing her hair out.
So she could think, could she? She was protesting because she could not understand it.
"Ha... I’m going crazy."
I was the one who wanted to tear my hair out.
[This isn’t the Earth I knewwwww....]
Leaving the girl who was going insane in real time behind me, I calmly assessed the situation.
First, this was not Earth.
Second, I had...
possessed a pretty young boy’s body.
Though I was currently covered in shit-water.
"What the hell do I do...?"
Throughout those agonizing years of earning my doctorate, my sole comfort had been indulging in subculture, including web novels.
Thanks to that, I understood this fucking situation I was in better than anyone.
Transportation, and possession.
Which raised a question.
The so-called perks ordinarily granted to people who were transported or possessed—
what had I been given?
It was while I was turning that thought over in my head.
"..."
Wait a fucking second.
No way?
[Sob... ㅠㅠ]
Right?
Please.
Please, let it not be her.
I prayed desperately that the advantage responsible for my life in this possessed body would not be that thing.
In the real world, she was not merely reliable; she was practically omnipotent.
But if this was a fantasy world, the story was completely—
completely different.
What use could that crazy AI, my machine little sister, possibly be in a medieval fantasy world...?
While everyone else swung swords, cast magic, and flew through the air, would I be the only one clicking away at coding? Generating AI images with a click?
[Ugh, I’m so stressed... I want to eat spicy rice cakes, fat macarons, mala tanghulu...]
Wow. Seeing that really snapped me awake.
This seriously would not do.
Suddenly, everything before my eyes went dark.
"Get a hold of yourself. Grab onto something, anything, hurry."
I urgently pressed the mentally broken girl, and—
[I’ll look for data to crawl....]
Yeah, do at least that....
Crawling was the technology by which an AI browsed the internet, gathering and sorting data.
Put simply, it was how an AI acquired information, learned, and surfed an infinite amount of the web.
...Though I had no idea whether this place even had Wi-Fi.
Anyway, I hoped she would do something.
[I successfully made contact with a crawling target....]
[I’m exhausted to death, but because you told me to, I’ll begin collecting data.]
"...You actually did it?"
Just what had she connected to?
I was so dumbfounded that I let out a hollow laugh, when—
Creeeak....
The storeroom door slowly opened.
Through the gap came a boy who was short but massively built.
"Lionel."
He was looking directly at me when he called me Lionel.
That made twice already. From the context, that had to be my name.
What an honor right from the start.
Without thinking much of it, I answered calmly.
"Yeah?"
"...The fuck did you just say?"
"?"
The instant I responded, his face turned bright red.
Looking at him, he seemed like the type to love a Big Mac combo. I was certain he always ordered large fries.
"Are you seriously speaking informally to an upperclassman?"
"Ah...."
Whoops.
It seemed I had violated this place’s hierarchy.
I did not know anything yet, so I should play along.
"I’m sorry. I’m a little out of it."
"Tch. It’s mealtime. Follow me."
After giving my shit-covered appearance a quick once-over, he clicked his tongue as if he understood.
I followed Big Mac without complaint.
"Excuse me, but may I ask your name?"
"...Something really is wrong with your head."
"Yes. You should try it too. I’m sure the same thing will happen to you."
"...I’m Eric. And I’m also the squad leader guiding your class."
Big Mac’s real name was Eric.
On the way to eat.
Honestly, food? This was not a situation where I could just let things slide.
So I decided to get some information out of him.
"Big... I mean, Eric."
"What?"
"What kind of place is this?"
The boy leading the way whipped his head around to stare at me.
"You really forgot even that?"
"I don’t even remember my own name, so what can I do?"
"This is Eden Orphanage. You came here with yesterday’s intake."
An orphanage... confirmed.
I came in yesterday? So that was why they had let it slide when I could not work.
I could really feel that this was rural farmland. Even the air was different.
We left the storage area and entered the main road, but the children I had seen gesturing at empty air in the yard were gone.
"...What were those kids doing here earlier?"
"The magic class. That’s where I’ll be going soon."
"So what do they do there?"
"They gather children who look like they have talent for magic. I’ll pass the aptitude test coming up soon."
A magic aptitude test....
It looked like they made kids do manual labor, then plucked out the talented ones.
"Wow... That’s impressive."
"Heh-heh."
I gave him a little praise for now.
"...But stop asking. It’s not like you’ll ever be going there."
"Sure, whatever."
I did not particularly care and simply followed where he led.
"Let’s go in."
The dining hall did not look particularly nice.
It was like they had just crammed dining tables into a huge old cabin. I spotted the kid who had asked if I overslept earlier in one corner.
I had no intention of eating right now, of course.
"...?"
As we walked farther inside, the dining hall’s layout came into view.
Its interior was divided into the first, second, and third floors.
The children from the magic class, who had been doing something in the yard earlier, were eating on the highest floor, the third.
I got the strong impression that there was a class system here.
"Where do you eat, Eric?"
"Where else?"
Our Eric was stuck on the first floor too.
Just then.
Bang.
The old door was flung open, and a man in a cowboy hat strode in.
The whip guy. That was him.
"Hey! The newcomers who arrived yesterday have their aptitude tests today. Once you’re done eating, assemble in the yard immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
"For this intake, an extremely important person will personally observe the test. Brace yourselves."
As he passed by me, he shouted at the children on the first floor.
"Could it be that person herself...!"
Eric’s eyes sparkled with admiration beside me, but—
"...What is that smell...?"
The man frowned deeply, clutched his nose, and looked down.
His gaze landed directly on me.
"...Are you one of the newcomers?"
"Yes."
"You. Get outside right now and wash up again."
"Sure, whatever."
In the end, I was kicked out to wash again.
"...You guide that brat."
"Me?"
And naturally, Eric had to come along too.
2.
Beneath the blazing sun in the yard,
about ten newcomers from this intake and I stood in a single line.
[Excuse me? You’ve been overexposed to ultraviolet rays.]
[How about getting into the shade right now?]
I stood silently without giving any response.
Then—
[Brother.]
[Brother?]
[Excuse me.]
[Excuse me?]
[This is seriously getting dangerous. You’ve been exposed to direct sunlight for over an hour and a half... What if you collapse?]
She abruptly began firing off messages as though she were worried.
Yeah, thanks for the advice.
I wanted to do that too.
How’s the crawling?
[It’s in progress?]
Yeah, fine. At least it’s working.
But where was she connecting to? There was not even internet here.
No matter how advanced satellite internet had become, there was no way it covered another world....
Just then.
"Ah... I’m so hungry, what do I do...?"
"..."
"I won’t have any strength if I don’t eat...."
You have enough strength to chatter right now....
Of course, it was my fault that he had been unable to eat, so I did not say anything back.
Eric was kind in his own way. He merely sighed heavily instead of yelling at me.
Still, being made to stand beneath the scorching sun made it difficult even to endure quietly.
And in front of us—
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
Dozens of children from the magic class were training together.
A man who appeared to be their instructor stood before them, teaching as he shouted.
The reason they had deliberately made us stand here was obvious... They wanted us to watch and learn before the aptitude test.
Or, in other words, wait here until class was over.
"..."
Watching the magic department, all I could think of was military calisthenics.
"Draw a line! Focus!"
Whenever the man at the front gestured, something sparkling scattered out from his body into the air.
And a line was drawn through the air. As a bonus, something inside his lower abdomen glimmered faintly.
What, was that his dantian or something?
But the other children? Well.
A shimmering energy did swirl inside them, but it did not seem inclined to come outside.
They all looked older than me. Around Eric’s age, maybe?
"Do you sparkle too, Eric?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"There... your lower abdomen."
"...Did the heat get to you?"
He must have been sulking because he missed his meal.
I did not respond anymore and silently watched ahead.
How much time passed like that?
A man came running from the distance and whispered something to the instructor standing before the children.
The instructor’s eyes widened.
"Fall in!"
he shouted.
The magic-class children immediately formed ranks.
It looked like they were preparing to receive someone.
Were these brats really being drilled this hard? Was the president coming or something?
Then, in the distance—
someone began walking slowly toward us from the direction everyone was looking.
Snow-white silver hair... gathered into an elegant, old-fashioned braided updo.
A lavish noblewoman’s dress that remained immaculate even beneath the blazing sun.
Paradoxically, the moment I saw her appearance—
‘This really isn’t Earth.’
I truly felt the fact that this place, where I was rolling around covered in shit-water, was another world.
A woman with an unreal appearance.
A servant beside her held up an enormous parasol, shielding her head from the blazing sunlight pouring down upon her.
And beside her,
a short-haired girl with a black bob clutched the noblewoman’s skirt tightly as she walked alongside her.
"The absolute ruler of the fifth floor! Duchess Dolores has arrived!"
The fifth floor...?
What floor was he talking about?
I wanted to ask Eric immediately, but—
Clap clap clap clap!!
I had enough sense to join in with a few appropriate claps.
The woman called Dolores went over to the magic class.
"...Are things going well, children?"
"Yes!!"
Their booming answer rang through the yard.
"Good. Then who would like to try today?"
She smiled faintly as she gently asked the children of the magic class.
Then—
"I-I’ll try...."
The biggest boy among them stepped out in a nervous voice.
Dolores gently stroked the hair of the short-haired girl she had brought with her.
"I’m counting on you."
At Dolores’s request,
the bob-haired girl walked out in front of the boy.
We naturally gathered in a circle around the two of them to watch like spectators.
It felt a little like being students watching a fight at school.
"Begin?"
At Dolores’s signal—
the girl stood crookedly with an annoyed expression and casually extended a hand through the air.
Meanwhile, the big boy scrunched up his face and forced out a battle cry.
He straightened his back and spread his legs wide.
"Hah!!!"
Honestly, his posture was kind of funny.
It looked like some back exercise.
But despite the stark contrast in their postures and momentum,
the result was astonishing.
Whoosh.
Blue energy glimmered in the girl’s lower abdomen before erupting straight out of her body.
The released energy naturally settled around her fingers.
Then, with one flick of her hand, a vivid blue trail slashed through the air.
Riiip!
"Aah!"
The boy’s clothes were spectacularly torn open.
"..."
Anyone who saw it would know.
The shimmering energy inside the girl was obviously far greater.
The boy had not even managed to send his energy outside his body.
To be perfectly honest, the girl’s energy looked greater than the instructor’s from earlier.
"You did well."
Dolores smiled brightly and praised the boy.
Blushing furiously with his clothes torn, the boy hurried back into the magic-class line.
Then Dolores’s gaze naturally turned toward us.
Was it our turn?
"...These are the children who arrived this time."
The instructor introduced us with a deep bow.
"Hello, children? So you’re the ones who arrived this time?"
Dolores smiled faintly as she looked us over.
At a glance, she was so beautiful that there was simply no other way to describe her.
"We’ll begin the aptitude tests now. Some of you might be good at chopping wood, while others may be good at something else, right?"
As she slowly put on a pristine white glove, Dolores added gently,
"And some of you may be good at magic...."
But at that moment,
I could no longer hear her voice.
─────────────────
[White Gloves of Gorgonew] [★★★★★]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [1.1/100] - [Extreme Poison]
[It has a temporary cooling effect, but its innate yin energy eventually resonates with and amplifies the user’s yin energy.]
[The cause of seven of the nine blocked meridians in the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.]
─────────────────
『The best treatment is to freeze the wounded area.』
- Gorgonew, the Great Sage -
─────────────────
Because something had appeared before my eyes.
Compatibility...? It causes blockages?
Wasn’t the Nine Yin Severed Meridians from martial arts novels?
And there was even a line of that Gorgonew person’s bullshit folk-medicine philosophy.
As I blanked out for a moment at the incomprehensible sentences,
I realized something.
Could this be my perk?
Yeah, there was no way the AI was my perk.
So what could I do with this?
"..."
Just as I realized there was nothing I could do with that information right now,
she approached the child standing at the front.
Eric and I were last in line.
"All right, shall we begin?"
"...?"
W-what was that?
The moment Dolores approached the child, the inside of her body lit up brilliantly.
The energy swirled around her heart rather than the lower abdomen I had seen before.
And unlike the energy of that girl just now, which erupted explosively from her body,
it slowly unspooled like a thin strand of thread from the fingertips of her left hand, held behind her back.
The densely gathered threads soon clumped together into...
a scorpion’s tail.
At least, that was what it looked like to me.
I-it was pretty grotesque, wasn’t it?
Yet everyone else merely stared blankly.
Were scorpion-tail tentacles just normal in this world?
Ha, another world was terrifying. Seriously.
"What’s your name?"
"Evan!"
As she kindly asked his name, she slowly placed a hand atop the child’s head.
At the same time, the scorpion tail extending from her left hand slowly crawled toward Evan’s nape.
And then—
Stab.
It pierced him, then immediately withdrew.
It all happened in an instant, rather like giving a baby an injection.
Evan only blinked.
Dolores closed her eyes for a moment before casually saying,
"Evan... you have an aptitude for cooking."
"Thank you!!"
Cooking...?
She stabbed him, and then cooking?
Was everyone’s life decided like this in another world?
"Next?"
Dolores’s bizarre aptitude test continued safely through several more children.
Having apparently taken the test in the past, Eric stepped out of line and stood off to one side beside me.
He claimed he would get into the magic class through an aptitude test, yet he was mute as a clam.
"Does that really not hurt?"
I desperately whispered to Eric.
"Shh."
Eric just pressed a finger tightly to his lips and signaled for me to be quiet.
Ah, this was driving me crazy.
In the end, I desperately asked inside my head.
‘Would that hurt if it hit me?’
[If you get stabbed by a scorpion tail, you should go to the hospital lol]
[This is ranch country, and there’s no way there’s a hospital within a fifty-kilometer radius. There’s a high probability you’ll die during transport.]
[Brother, you’ve worked hard until now.]
In the end, my useless two-hundred-dollar-a-month little sister could not help me.
Fortunately, all the kids before me were still alive and well, so I decided to shut my eyes and somehow endure it too.
And before I knew it,
my turn came.
"Hello? What’s your name?"
Dolores slowly approached me and asked kindly.
"Lionel."
She nodded and lightly placed a hand on top of my head.
Then—
Sliiither....
The translucent scorpion tail crawling out from behind her slowly approached my nape.
And then—
just before the slowly approaching scorpion tail touched my nape...
"Fuck!"
I ended up twisting my body and dodging the tail.
It was a GOAT-tier evasive maneuver.
"...?!"
The tail sliced through empty air.
And then—
the relaxed expression Dolores had worn ever since I first saw her
cracked for the first time.
"...What?"
The bob-haired child beside her, who had worn an indifferent expression, also opened her eyes wide.
‘Ha....’
The moment I saw their reactions, I regretted it.
I should not have dodged.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register