I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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The academy’s courtyard, which I hadn’t walked through in a while, felt unfamiliar.

It had only been about a week and five days since I left the academy, yet why did the surroundings feel so strange?

Perhaps it was because my status had changed from before I left to after I returned.

Lord Fix.

I had officially joined the ranks of the nobility.

“Ed! I heard the news! Congratulations!”

“I knew you’d make a splash one day! Wow!”

“Ed! Do you remember me? We chatted briefly during class last week.”

“Hey, Lord Fix! Have you decided on a territory? If you’re having a hard time, feel free to ask anytime!”

Just by walking through the courtyard, I naturally drew attention and interest.

Indeed, since becoming a count, the attention had increased a little too much.

Before, it was just the acquaintances I knew saying hello, but now even students I had no connection with were approaching me as if they knew me.

“Would you care to have tea with me?”

Not only that.

Now even female students, who previously would not even glance at me because I was commoner, were striking up conversations.

“Thanks to Lord Fix’s ‘Graham’s North Wind,’ I’ve been happily spending the hot summer. I’d like to offer a small token of gratitude. Do you have a moment?”

Three female students said they wanted to reward me for using the air conditioner.

“To be direct, I’m interested in you. Let’s meet three times—just three times.”

One female student directly stated her interest and asked for a date.

“Uh, um… Ed!”

“Huh?”

“Here, take this! And this too!”

“Is this… a letter?”

“Have a good day!”

Whoosh!

Two female students suddenly handed me letters and chocolates and ran off.

“Why don’t you join our club?”

“……?”

“Now that you’re a noble, it would be good to have a hobby, don’t you think? How about joining our masquerade club… hehehe…”

One female student unexpectedly tried to lure me into joining the club by dramatically holding up half a mask in front of my face, using various approaches.

Of course, I turned them all down.

I didn’t have time to waste on such things.

“I need to get back to my research!”

The most important thing for me right now was to continue my postponed research.

I had a pile of tasks to deal with.

Researching the Crucible, developing computers, working on automatic suit attachment, creating new weapons, upgrading suits, and so on and so forth.

I honestly felt like throwing in the towel for all academy classes and just burying myself in the laboratory.

“Finally, it’s over!!!!!”

Luckily, Wednesday arrived quickly.

I was granted four days of free time from Thursday to Sunday.

“Yo! Ed!”

“Uh, Ed… did you perhaps write back?”

“Hehehe… Welcome to our masquerade ball…”

But even though I was given free time, it didn’t matter.

Now they were camping out right in front of my lab, waiting for me.

“Wait… what?”

Seeing them made me feel utterly bewildered.

I could tolerate a brief chat while waiting in the school cafeteria or walking through the courtyard, but it was too much for them to come all the way to my lab for that.

“Haha. Well, today I’m busy, so maybe another time…”

As I tried to handle them nicely despite my irritation, a chilling voice suddenly came from behind me.

“You guys have crossed the line by coming all the way here.”

It was Isabella.

She had popped up next to me, intimidating the students who had gathered in front of the lab.

“I absolutely can’t let this slide. This is a place I hardly ever come to. Commoners tend to dislike it.”

Isabella said that while emitting dark wisps of energy.

As her pupils turned completely black, the frightened students began to back away.

Soon, when everyone had cleared out, Isabella sighed and said, “Parasites. Commoners. You have to learn to brush people off once in a while. Once your name carries weight, flies will swarm.”

She looked back at me after saying that.

Her eyes, which had been pitch-black, returned to normal, and the dark wisps disappeared without a trace.

Instead, she smiled at me, reminding me of the Isabella from the previous episodes.

The one who loved me.

“I’ll just bother you a bit. I have something for you.”

She said that and handed me a piece of paper.

And the moment I received it, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

A ticket to the Crayble Alliance Merchant Auction.

She was giving me an invitation to an underground marketplace event.

“What is this…?”

I had no choice but to pretend to be clueless about it.

Knowing this would be absurd from Isabella’s perspective.

It was necessary to act ignorant.

“…It’s a long story, but to cut to the chase, it’s an invitation to the black market.”

“……”

“Yeah, it’s dangerous. Crayble is the largest organization in the underworld, and they advocate anti-empire and anti-kingdom ideologies.”

Crayble.

They were a terrorist group intent on bringing down the empire and the kingdom.

Believing that humans are dignified beings with a right to happiness, they claim that only emperors and nobles should have dignity and advocate taking all resources from them to distribute them equally.

In essence, they’re the equivalent of a communist revolutionaries in this world.

“…Why are you giving me such a dangerous invitation?”

But why had Isabella obtained this invitation, and why was she giving it to me?

Finally, Isabella spoke.

“Because you might need it.”

“…..”

“Of course, it might not be necessary. But I think you and I are alike. For the sake of achieving our goals… I believe you can do anything.”

…That’s right.

I would do anything to prevent the destruction of this world.

Even if it meant doing something morally wrong, if it could save everyone from oblivion, I would leap into that path without hesitation.

“That’s why I’m giving it to you. The black market is filled with goods you can’t obtain through normal means.”

“I doubt I’ll be willing to take such risks.”

“What? Hahaha!”

However, Isabella burst into laughter at my next words.

She laughed out loud, close to me, and said, “You’re so awkwardly cautious that it’s adorable. You don’t need to play tough in front of me. I see your desperation.”

…It’s truly Isabella.

She possesses an exceptional ability to read the desires of others.

The reason she is fundamentally cynical might be that she can easily read the desires of the flies that cling to her.

“So when the moment arises when you need that invitation, just let me know. It’s dangerous to go alone.”

She said that, holding my hand.

Just holding hands, yet her words echoed in my mind saying, ‘When the time comes, I’ll go with you.’

“Well then… I mean, you’re a count now…”

Before leaving, Isabella corrected my title.

As she called me count and brushed my hand gently, she smiled enchantingly.

“Then, Lord Fix, see you on Monday.”

Clack… clack… the sound of her footsteps faded away.

And in my hand, the ticket to the black market remained.

Just as she said, the moment I need this ticket will surely come.

“But not just yet.”

But right now is not the time.

Now is the time to upgrade my computer more and come up with a plan for developing the Crucible.

I immediately went into my lab and pulled out Fix from my inventory.

Fix, who returned to the lab after a long time, shouted “Wheee!!!” and dashed around the entire lab in excitement.

“Fix! Shall we work together after a long time?”

“Wheeeee!!!”

And so we began the long-overdue research.

We examined the emerald mana stone obtained from the Dwarf Alliance Kingdom, upgraded the computer semiconductors, and brainstormed ideas for realizing the Crucible.

“Hmm… this isn’t easy.”

However, implementing the Crucible was not straightforward.

It was too vague and abstract, making it difficult to concretize.

“To begin with, the idea of embodying emotions experienced in a game is a ridiculous concept…”

The method for creating the Crucible.

Its hazy blueprint revolved around utilizing ’emotions’ as a power source similar to how the obsidian crystal used Reina’s memories and emotions.

I planned to use my own memories and emotions from my first to eighty-seventh life as a power source.

“……”

The problem is that the depth of those memories and emotions pales in comparison to Reina’s.

Reina has experienced real-life grievances and hatred, while I’ve merely vicariously experienced them through a game spanning from the first to the eighty-seventh playthrough.

“Then why…?”

But why do I not feel that my despair and anger are lacking compared to Reina’s?

They’re just memories from playing a game, yet why do those memories and emotions feel so vivid as if I remember my past life?

“Well, that could be the case.”

I decided to think of it as no big deal.

The very fact that I was reincarnated here is absurd, so I opted to overlook any phenomenon that couldn’t be explained scientifically.

Since I had accepted the notion of being reincarnated as an extra in a game, it wouldn’t be strange to feel like my previous playthroughs were part of a past life.

The bottom line is that I could potentially create the Crucible utilizing these memories and emotions.

“So to achieve that…”

I need to extract memories and emotions from my first to eighty-seventh lives.

Moreover, I must extract the feelings of despair and hatred I experienced at those times purely and consolidate them all into one formula.

That would result in a crazy sword that would be the equivalent of the combined power of eighty-seven obsidian crystals—a Crucible that could tear demonic beings apart.

It would be an excellent tool capable of one-shotting most demons.

“I have a lot to prepare.”

Of course, to make that possible, I needed to prepare various things.

Firstly, I needed to reach a state of hallucination or hypnosis to vividly experience all previous lives, and safety mechanisms were essential to keep me from being engulfed by those memories.

Also, I required a special mana stone capable of containing intense thoughts, and above all, I needed an extraordinarily complex formula to gather all emotions from my first to eighty-seventh lives.

“This won’t be easy.”

I haven’t even begun to calculate the engineering design difficulty for technically implementing all this yet.

Naturally, since I possess the godly ability called ‘engineering thought,’ I don’t worry too much about technical implementation… though who knows?

Gathering the lives of eighty-seven individuals might be more challenging than creating a computer.

“Let’s take it step by step.”

The mountain of tasks I need to tackle ahead is overwhelming, but by unraveling them one by one, I believe I can eventually find a solution.

After all, the phase in which I need the Crucible will be after the real onslaught of demons begins.

So, I guess I should first resolve the issue of experiencing my past lives.

Nothing could be more effective than truly experiencing that life to extract pure emotions from it.

“Elves.”

Therefore, I thought of elves.

They are a mysterious race that gathers the souls of their ancestors and communicates with them through the World Tree.

“Clarice.”

Naturally, I recalled Clarice, the half-elf I had just met.

She is a hidden royal of the Eldar Kingdom, the kingdom of the elves, so if I were to use her, I could step into the world of elves who live secluded from humans.

“After all, I need to prevent the downfall of the Elf Kingdom…”

A year later, the Eldar Kingdom would fall due to an ancient calamity.

And the ancient calamity that consumed the World Tree would evolve into an uncontrollable worst imaginable monster by merging with demons.

I must prevent that disaster in this playthrough.

“The path is set.”

Ancient calamity and experiencing past lives.

I will catch these two rabbits at once.

The remaining time is less than a year.

In that time, I need to grow strong enough to take down the ancient calamity.

***

Time passed, and it was the following Wednesday.

All students of the academy, including me, stood before the high-risk dungeon.

We were attending the first period’s class on ‘Crisis Response through Real Combat.’

Crisis Response through Real Combat.

This class is a mandatory subject that every academy student must take.

Since the academy was established for the purpose of ‘subjugating calamities,’ students must develop effective combat instincts for slaying monsters.

“Perfect.”

And this was exactly what I had hoped for.

I would finally have the opportunity to test the performance of the suit I upgraded over the weekend.

“All right, S-12 squad! Proceed to enter the dungeon with your supervising instructor.”

Thus, the command for entry finally fell upon my S-12 squad.

I took out the suit from my inventory to gear up for the upgrades made over the weekend.

Crackle! A crack appeared in the air.