The dagger Alice had driven into someone's back was glowing.
As the light intensified, the surrounding space suddenly fractured, opening a rift.
Through the rift, they could see the interior of a library.
A silver-haired girl stepped out of the glowing fissure. It was the real Administrator.
"T-Two of Her Holiness? What... what is happening?"
"What do you mean, what's happening? Dear Alice was on our side all along."
As she spoke, Administrator helped the man lying on top of her substitute to his feet.
He was male, though admittedly quite handsome. It would have been better if he were a woman, but Administrator had almost no other options at present.
She turned toward her substitute.
The puppet's body was already changing. The figure and beauty identical to Administrator's were fading as it reverted to its original form.
"Qui... Quinel..."
The lips struggled to utter that name in a voice filled with bitter resentment, but that was as far as they got.
They stopped moving, and the last trace of light vanished from the puppet's eyes.
Cardinal had not died inside that body.
She had been sealed within it.
Two hundred years ago, Cardinal had escaped. To ensure that she could capture her again, Administrator had constructed an inescapable prison—a cage in which a cat could toy with a trapped mouse.
That body was the cage.
Once Administrator had successfully seized control of the real-worlder, she would turn around, destroy the cage, and kill Cardinal once and for all.
"I truly must thank you, Cardinal."
Cardinal had already constructed the connection interface for her—the very interface that would allow Administrator to take over the real-worlder.
Administrator would seize control of his physical body and log out into the real world.
That was far safer than trying to enter one of those five-centimeter Lightcubes.
Administrator had never previously considered taking over a real-world human's body. By every conceivable measure, such a thing should have been impossible.
Cardinal's success, however, proved otherwise.
Cardinal was essentially another version of herself. If Cardinal could enter and control that body, then Administrator could do the same.
With the interface Cardinal had already built, Administrator would not even need to expend much effort.
All she needed to do was transfer her Fluctlight data into the body.
Naturally, Administrator remained exceedingly cautious. As a precaution, she would not transfer the data through a direct cut-and-paste operation.
She would copy it.
If anything went wrong, she could still return to her original body.
Once she confirmed that there were no problems, she would destroy her old body, whose Life was already almost completely exhausted.
But wouldn't copying herself risk repeating the conflict from more than two hundred years ago, when two versions of her had existed simultaneously?
Administrator had already solved that problem.
She could divide her consciousness and control two bodies at once.
The body she had used to lure Cardinal into the trap had been controlled in precisely that manner.
Once she confirmed that she could inhabit and control the real-worlder's body, Administrator would destroy her old body before logging out of this world.
Hmm?
Administrator suddenly grew tense.
She had discovered the real human's consciousness.
This was the crucial moment. Everything depended on whether she could expel—or outright erase—that consciousness.
She immediately began operating on it just as she had erased the nun's memories and Fluctlight data.
The result was—
It worked!
Administrator was overjoyed. Without the slightest hesitation, she began deleting the human's consciousness.
Her target immediately panicked.
Strangely, however, there was something off about the way the other person reacted. Their mannerisms seemed almost feminine.
If time had not been so short, Administrator would have liked to examine the human's memories. Unfortunately, reading memories was both complicated and time-consuming.
Deleting data, by contrast, was remarkably easy!
Eventually, the other figure dissolved entirely within that mental space.
Wonderful.
The storage capacity of this place vastly exceeded that of a Lightcube. There appeared to be more than enough space to hold ten complete copies of all her data.
Administrator suddenly frowned as she diverted some of her attention to the battle still raging around her.
The two Integrity Knights who had betrayed her and defected to Cardinal were still resisting.
Number One was the greatest nuisance. He was simply too powerful.
Worse, he kept trying to persuade Number Thirty to turn against Administrator.
"Alice, are you really going to believe Administrator's lies? That woman cares about no one but herself! The moment she reaches the outside, she'll destroy the Underworld. She'll never tolerate the continued existence of anyone resembling her.
"She'll also destroy the Underworld to silence every witness. Once she's the only one who escapes alive, she can tell the people outside whatever she wants. She could claim that this real-world human lost his memories. She could even pretend to be Cardinal and say that the real Administrator was already killed!"
Number One truly was irritatingly talkative.
His words were even beginning to shake Alice's resolve, which gave Administrator quite the headache.
Most troublesome of all, everything Number One had said was exactly what Administrator intended to do.
But wasn't Administrator worried that the people in the real world could see everything happening here?
Of course not.
The real-world observers could only access footage from before she revealed her true nature and seized administrative authority, along with images from the Dark Territory.
Administrator controlled the Human Empire's primary system authority. Naturally, she had disabled all outside communications. No one beyond the Underworld had any idea what was happening here.
"Chudelkin, kill Alice!"
Administrator abruptly issued the command. She had already seen the murderous intent in Alice's eyes.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Alice and Chudelkin immediately began fighting with everything they had.
Excellent.
Once Administrator completed the transfer, none of them would be allowed to walk away unharmed.
That included everyone—even Chudelkin, that hideous clown.
His eyes constantly roamed over her body, overflowing with a barely concealed desire to violate her.
Administrator's transfer soon reached eighty percent completion.
At the same time, she prepared to destroy several dormant backup bodies she had hidden away.
She had copied portions of her data into each of those vessels after successfully separating her memories from her knowledge of the system.
In other words, even if one of those backup bodies awakened, it would still be another Administrator—but one without any knowledge of the system.
Killing such a version of herself would be effortless.
Of course, if something unexpected happened and the current Administrator truly died, one of the awakened backup bodies could locate the separated knowledge, relearn everything, and become a second Administrator.
Administrator summoned a system console.
A pillar of white marble rose from the floor beside her, revealing a computer on top.
She activated the crystal-built computer and established contact with the outside world to request reinforcements. At this rate, Chudelkin might not be able to withstand Number Thirty's attacks.
"I need reinforcements. Send someone into the Underworld with a super account."
The voice that emerged was not a woman's.
It was a man's voice.
The handsome man standing beside Administrator with an arm around her was the one speaking. She had already gained partial control of his body.
Administrator would lure real-world humans into the Underworld, have them log in with super accounts, and send them to slaughter the forces of the Dark Territory and the Knights of the Blood.
After all, her request now appeared to come from a real-world human. The people outside would be far more inclined to trust someone they believed to be one of their own.
"Understood. We'll send someone immediately!"
Administrator's smile blossomed brilliantly at the response.
It seemed the ultimate victor would be none other than her.
(End of Chapter)
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