The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City

Chapter 165: Violet Will Store Magic! (2)

Morning chaos left Violet and her clones deep in thought. It wasn’t just because the dining hall had been wrecked and the plate of fries overturned.

“I got new tables and chairs! There’s a hole in the ceiling, but I think we can patch it.”

A sudden beam shooting out of someone’s hand caused some minor problems, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t fix ourselves.

Thanks to Daphne’s quick response, our friends weren’t injured, just startled.

The real issue was that we couldn’t figure out why it happened, no matter how much we thought about it.

“This is strange. Why did magic activate without any preparation?”

“It was out of control!”

We gathered together and brainstormed. Discussions erupted inside and outside the Violet network.

“Could it be that we overtrained? Maybe we practiced so much magic at once that it messed up our minds!”

Unit No. 50 expressed concern, raising an unexpected possibility that stirred the other Violets.

“Yeah, our heads have exploded pretty often lately. That must have had a bad effect on us!”

“Oh no! What if beams randomly shoot out of our hands every day?”

As negative ideas spread, I couldn’t help but feel a bit scared. Uncontrollable magic beams made us living bombs.

“Maybe our bodies are mutating!”

“What do we do? Should we start wearing gloves? Maybe we can block it with some enchanted ones!”

“We’re turning into mutants! This is the end!”

Some panicked Violets screamed within the network, and it got so bad that Unit No. 1 had to step in urgently to calm everyone down.

“Everyone, calm down! There’s no evidence that we’ve mutated or that something’s wrong with our bodies.”

Gradually, we regained composure.

Thinking about it, panicking without solid evidence wasn’t a good approach. The Violets felt a little embarrassed.

“Then what’s the reason for magic suddenly shooting out of our hands?”

“For now, let’s sit and think about it. Everyone, recall what you were doing, when, and where during breakfast.”

We retraced what had happened around the time of our morning meal.

Some were frying potatoes, others were cleaning weapons or washing up.

And some Violets…

“The explosives team was cleaning the workshop, the security team was patrolling around the house, and the training team was asleep.”

“Not all of them! Some were awake, eating, then went back to sleep… Wait, this is a magic issue. Did the training team do something? Trainees, all hands up.”

Within the network, all Violets raised their hands. Moments later, Unit No. 15 frowned.

“Huh? Why didn’t we notice this sooner? Hey, Unit No. 377! What did you do?”

“Hehe… Why are you calling me? Wait, huh?!”

I realized what I had done. That oddly loud, crumbling stone I smashed wasn’t just any old object.

“Ugh! I didn’t know it would trigger magic! I thought it was some kind of prank installed in the network.”

Unit No. 377’s defense raised new questions among us. Unit No. 972 asked, “...Seriously? Did that stone even exist before?”

“I checked all our memories, and no one installed anything like that.”

“Then it must’ve appeared naturally.”

We turned our heads. In the network’s sky, potato fries were still flying through the air.

Sometimes, fun situations or meals we enjoyed randomly manifested in the network, and this scene seemed to belong to that phenomenon.

“It’s too artificial to have formed unconsciously.”

That’s right. If it were a product of subconscious influence, it would have resembled real-world objects more closely.

One Violet voiced an idea.

“Let’s

“Oh, I see. You’re asking if it’s possible to pre-deploy a formula, then store it in your mind to use later, like putting money in and out of a wallet. The short answer is no. You might as well try putting cigarette smoke back into the cigarette. It’s no different from trying to preserve fire in its original shape.”

“But what about magical equipment or barriers? Their formulas are fixed, and you can use them by just channeling mana.”

“Magical equipment’s circuits and arrays have physical substance and are fixed. Human thoughts, on the other hand, lack physical substance and are constantly changing. There’s no container or method to fix and store thoughts. How would you preserve a formula?”

The professor’s explanation made sense.

“Then how do skilled wizards cast multiple spells at once? I thought they prepped magic in their minds beforehand.”

“That’s just a skill unique to wizards proficient in computation. Think of it this way: a computer seems to do many things simultaneously, but it’s actually handling one task at a time at incredible speed. It just looks like multitasking to us. Wizards are the same.”

“I see.”

I continued asking the professor questions, but I didn’t gain any significant clues.

“Creating and storing a framework of thoughts? I don’t really get it. Maybe the professor is right, and we’re chasing the wrong idea.”

“Maybe it really was just a coincidence.”