The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City

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Before I could start a riot on the third floor, I mindlessly moved the Third Clone on the second floor.

No, actually, it felt like the clone was moving on its own. As if it had a will of its own.

The researchers, perhaps having other tasks, didn’t come my way.

After a moment, I—uh, I mean the Third Clone—moved into a large room storing the beasts.

The entrance to the beast holding pen was blocked by a particularly thick steel door due to its danger. The laboratory would take out one beast at a time from here and send it to the testing area as needed.

‘Alright. Shall I open it now?’

I swiped the key card. A heavy mechanical sound echoed down the hallway, and with a pulley sound, the door opened wide.

As I heard a sound like a whale exhaling, a stench that pierced my nose assaulted me. That smell reminded me of a livestock farm.

In the dimly lit room, the only sound was the heavy breathing of a beast asleep in its pen.

‘Perfect, it was just sleeping.’

I crept forward and began to unlock the locks of the beast enclosures one by one with the card. I could feel the beasts’ coarse breaths inches away. I was very nervous.

Just after I had unlatched all the entrances, I realized something important.

‘Wait, how do I wake them up now?’

I could provoke them to wake them up. However, with my slow movements, I might be caught and killed before retrieving the clone and causing it to disintegrate.

Of course, ‘I’ here is the Third Clone, so I wouldn’t technically die, but it would hurt a lot. The main body and the other clones would feel pain as well.

And it would be more advantageous if it appeared as a spontaneous escape incident to disturb the laboratory side. Then they would have less time to speculate that someone intended to escape.

It would be great if I could use a weak researcher as bait.

Just then, I heard someone approaching.

I poked my head out from behind the pen door and spotted a familiar face.

‘Ah! It’s the guy with the buzz cut who zapped me!’

That trash who always harassed me alongside his ponytail buddy!

Just then, I remembered the electric shock collar I had deactivated from the main body. I quickly transferred it to the Third Clone’s hand. In one hand, I held the collar, and in the other, the switch.

“That’s strange…? Didn’t anyone lock up the beast holding pens properly when quitting?”

I waited at the corner of the pen, and as he approached the entrance, I threw myself towards his legs.

“Ugh! What’s this?!”

As he tumbled over, dazed, I quickly strapped the electric collar onto his leg. I just had to press one button to activate it. It worked nicely.

“Wait? You’re the 10-6-8! What the hell are you doing here…?”

While the buzz cut hadn’t grasped the situation yet, I kicked one of the pens in the corner of the beast holding area and bolted outside. The loud sound of metal clattering filled the room.

—Grrr…

—Ohh…

—Kyaruhng….

—Grrr!

I crouched safely at a distance and watched. The beasts that had their sleep disturbed started waking up one by one. When one roared, it set off a chain reaction, causing many others to cry out like dominoes.

“Uh…? Uh…? What in the world…?”

The buzz cut researcher took a scared step back, glancing toward the dark holding pen. It looked like he was trying not to provoke the beasts.

But, what if I used the electric stimulation?

—Zap!

I started off by feeding it the minimum voltage.

“AAAAAHHH!!! Cough..!”

He flopped backwards, screams escaping as the excited beasts stepped out of their enclosures.

“My leg? Why is this attached? Aah! No! Don’t come here!”

The buzz cut panicked and began to run away in the opposite direction from where I was. Sure enough, as an adult male, he could still run quite well. The beasts instinctively chased after the researcher.

When he had run a reasonably good distance, I set the switch to the maximum setting and pressed the button.

“I won’t forget the grudge of that electric shock you did to me!”

—Zzzzzt!

“KYYAAAAAAAAA!”

Lightning-like pain coursed through the buzz cut’s leg. He screamed like a cat with its tail stepped on and tumbled over.

The first thing he met when he fell in fear was a wolf-like beast, the Skullcat.

“Ahh… Uh, be nice? Go away! Please, no!”

“Grrr!”

Here’s a setting from “Crimson Scholar,”

The Skullcat loves the flesh of cowards.

“Fleee…AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

The buzz cut’s desperate scream echoed all across the laboratory.

“What’s that? What’s that scream? What’s going on?”

“Beasts! The beasts have escaped! Emergency! Emergency!”

That very place where the buzz cut was fleeing happened to be in the direction where many people were.

The beasts, having tasted blood, now had their eyes turned red and began to dash towards the people. Sirens blared throughout the entire laboratory immediately thereafter.

“Well, I guess it’s time to retreat.”

Just then, the main body broke the buzz cut’s head.

I retrieved the Third Clone.

I was recalled.

***

Right after the elevator doors opened, Kalia was stunned as she looked at the chaotic second floor.

There was something that mixed screams, gunshots, explosions, sounds, and commotion all together.

A researcher was being dragged away, screaming, by a tentacle that came flying from one side, while a guard wielding an axe was wrestling with a human-shaped monster swinging its mantis-like arms, and someone was dancing while on fire.

“Hey… Violet… What the hell did you do?”

“I already told you, I released the beasts!”

“I thought you meant letting one or two of them off their leashes.”

As we stepped out of the elevator, the laboratory staff recognized us.

“Why is that elevator door opening?… Test subjects?”

“No! They’re escaping!”

“It’s Kalia Blaze! That pink-haired girl has escaped!”

“What? Damn it! Call the Team Leader!”

The guards, upon seeing us, immediately opened fire.

I quickly shoved the Pig Researcher in front of me.

“Ah! No! I’m a member of the research team! Don’t shoot! Aaaaah!”

The guy collapsed with holes all over him. Thanks to that, I and the other test subjects had time to duck or hide.

From the corner of the wall, our gazes turned towards the elevator going down to the first floor beyond the hallway.

“Seriously, wouldn’t it be better if we just went down in one go?”

“Kalia, I’m sorry! With just one elevator, we can only go one at a time per floor. It’s a security issue.”

“You said before you’d wait for the Brotherhood guys, but you’re really doing whatever you want…”

“I was initially planning to stall until the Brotherhood did something! I don’t know anymore. Let’s just smash everything and get out!”

Kalia clutched her head in frustration.

“Violet… I’ll lead, so just follow me. Got it?”

I summoned Clones 2 and 3 and stayed close behind.

Bright purple flames flared up all over Kalia’s body. Large and small flames flickered up and down like blooming petals.

‘So, that’s Kalia’s Unique Ability.’

The floor beneath Kalia crumbled with a crunch as she charged forward.

“There she comes! She’s coming!”

The guard who had been the first to shout at us aimed his submachine gun.

There wasn’t time to aim properly.

Tatatatatat! The bullets rained down like a storm; they were supposed to.

Too late. The barrel that should have been aimed at us was caught by Kalia’s left arm and pointed toward the ceiling.

Simultaneously, her right fist, engulfed in flames, crashed into the guard’s solar plexus. Boom! With a small explosion, the guard flew backward, his chest caving in. A clean hit.

“Ahhh! Die!”

A startled researcher behind us fired a shotgun. Bang! Bang! I felt a thick solid mass buzz over my head.

One of the test subjects got hit and screamed.

Kalia realized that if she dodged, the others would be hit.

She crossed her arms in an X shape and stepped into the line of fire. Two more shots rang out, and flames erupted fiercely from her arms.

I could see heavy slug bullets bouncing off. Kalia’s leg swung toward the researcher’s side. He bent sideways and smacked against the wall. The shotgun he dropped floated in the air.

–Clang!

Kalia felt something odd and stepped back. A white-bladed mace flew where her head had just been.

An Awakened guard smashed through the partition next to the hallway. As Kalia stepped back, she kicked the falling shotgun into the air. She grasped the shotgun in reverse.

The flames from her arms traveled along the barrel all the way to the stock. The surface of the now fire-infused shotgun split like red spider silk.

The unyielding flames, Kalia Blaze’s Unique Ability. The effect is simple. The flames generated from her body enhance her physical abilities and the objects she holds. The resultant enhancement is secondary.

It is a simple ability, yet its power is lethal.

She spun her entire body and slammed the fight with the Awakened guard with the stock of the gun.

–Bang!

The Awakened guard’s head exploded, sending flames flying.

I gaped in shock, my mouth agape. What kind of madness…!

The body, now headless, thrashed about while she shouldered it forward to throw it.

“Uagh!”

“Team Leader! Where the hell are you! Ack!”

The armed researchers charging in were knocked over like bowling pins by the flying body.

She pushed forward like a spear cutting through the chaos, smashing through anything that got in her way, whether it was a guard or a beast.

I sprinted behind her, shouting excitedly.

“Indeed! Kalia is so strong!!!”

“Shut up with the pointless noise!!”

“Let’s smash everything and get out of here!!!”

When I glanced back, the test subjects were following us, carrying out violence in kind.

“Revenge! You science bastards!”

“Eek! Stop hitting me!”

“Die! Just die!”

“AAAHHH!”

In front of me, I spotted the elevator we were aiming for.

“Wait! Why is that locked?”

All but one of the three elevator doors in the lobby were sealed shut with fire doors.

Even the one remaining door wouldn’t open despite me placing the key card.

Nearby, a researcher was getting beaten by a test subject, so I ran over and aimed my gun at him.

“AAAAH! Don’t shoot! I’m sorry! Please spare me!”

“Hey! You! Why won’t that open? I won’t shoot, just answer me!”

“Security system! It’s because the emergency security system is activated! That door! That elevator can’t be opened unless it’s by the head researcher or the security team leader!”

“What?”

No, there was such a thing? It’s stuck here?

Hearing that, the test subjects panicked.

“What the hell! We can’t get out of here?!”

“No! This can’t be reality…!”

Kalia calmly asked the researcher.

“Then, where exactly is this head researcher or security team leader? Don’t tell me they’re on the lower floors?”

“I don’t know! Ack! Don’t hit me! The head researcher was here on this floor just a moment ago…!”

I was seething with anger and struck the researcher on the head with the butt of my handgun. He fainted.

But from the right, a group of people cautiously approached us.

“Are they enemies?”

As I prepared to fight again, an impressively shining balding middle-aged man came into view.

“Damn! What in the world is going on?”

“When are the reinforcements coming? Where is the security team leader?”

The head researcher was cautiously approaching with armed researchers, keeping an eye on us.

“The security team leader is coming up right now! The reinforcements are coming with him, just wait a little more!”

“Kalia! That’s the head researcher!”

Kalia dashed off again like an arrow.

“Stop right there! Baldy!”

“What! Who are you guys! Don’t come closer! What are you doing! Protect me! Uhhh?!”

The researchers parted ways like the tide, dropping their guns and running away.

“AHHH! I’m sorry, head researcher!”

The frightened bald man took out a handgun from his lab coat, but was immediately grabbed and disarmed by Kalia.

I took charge of him and dragged him to the front of the elevator.

“10-6-8? Kalia Blaze? It was you who made this mess…!”

“Shut up and open this door, bald man! I hear you know how to open it!”

“Funny! Do you think you can get away with this? You’ll never get out! Is Laplacian some sort of convenience store? You’re all dead!”

Kalia gripped the head researcher’s neck and threatened him with a low growl.

“Hey, if you don’t open it, you die.”

“Ah… Wait! I never said I couldn’t open it… Calm down! Calm down… Ouch..”

Suddenly, one of the test subjects in the back pointed at the elevator.

“Wait! Look over there!”

The indicator screen in the lobby that had been dark just moments before lit up with an arrow signal that indicated it was ascending.

The elevator was on its way up. And the fire doors were also rising.

“It’s moving…?”

I gazed at the bald man, and he wore a face that was trying hard not to smirk.

“Hey! What’s that? Why is it working…? Is there someone in there…?”

Feeling uneasy, we all stared at the door.

Ding— a light ringing sound was heard. The elevator had arrived.

“…Violet, take care of the head researcher.”

“What did you say?”

The lobby doors opened.

Thud, thud, the ground shook.

Walking out of the elevator was a giant clad in black, wearing a helmet that obscured his face.

“Uh…?”

“Run!”

Kalia shoved the head researcher forward and out of the entrance.

The sledgehammer flew in a massive arc toward us.

—Boom!

With the explosive sound, Kalia was flung toward me and collapsed on the ground.

“Kalia!”

I rushed over to her, who was spitting blood and trembling, but the thundering of the floor made me hesitate.

I trembled and stared at the creature. It was an Ogre.

“Everyone, handle it.”

Behind the Ogre, heavily armed guards poured out of the elevator.

—Tatatatatat!

“Greeeaaahhh!”

“AAAHHH!”

“Save me!! AAAAAAHHH!”

The guard soldiers opened fire with their automatic rifles.

Those unable to escape among the test subjects fell to the ground.

Bullets rained down once more, striking the head of an experiment subject who was sprawled across the floor.

Gunfire pierced the backs of fleeing individuals.

At the same time, an Awakened guard wielding a sword or maces charged inside, and screams and noises echoed from the room they entered.

“Hahahaha! The security team leader has arrived! Help me out, would you? Hahaha… Ack!”

The bald man laughed maniacally. I struck his head again.

As the head researcher screamed, attention turned this way.

I wept as I aimed my handgun at the head researcher’s head. I didn’t forget to pull Kalia toward me with Clones 2 and 3.

“Don’t move! If you do, this guy dies!”

“What a foolish act.”

The Ogre dismissed my threat. Some of the guards at the laboratory who were organizing the situation aimed their rifles at us.

I struggled and pulled the trigger on the researcher’s shoulder.

-Bang! Bang!

“AHHH!”

“I told you not to move, right? If not, the researcher dies! Do you want to see that guy die? Step back!”

“Ugh… You’re right! If I die, I die! Just calm down! Aahhh! No more!”

Using the researcher’s pain as a shield, I slowly took steps back. With each retreat, the Ogre and the guards closed in on me.

The noose was slowly tightening.

I needed to think. What room was closest to the elevator?

Stay calm. The lives of two people were at stake.

It was a room densely filled with electrical wires. Right, the ventilation duct.

I remembered.

I quickly pulled the researcher into a room near the elevator entrance, shutting the door behind me.

“Don’t come in! If you do, your head researcher dies! Got it? If you want to see your supervisor die, behave yourselves!”

“Right! Security team leader! Aahhh! Be wise! Ack! Think wisely!”