Chapter 646: Manpower, Human Power

A high academic background—that is a real-life stat.

A high academic background—that means being smart.

A high academic background—that means excelling at tests.

Ah, high academics, high academics. When shown such a blatantly obvious gap in power, it even makes me feel like I should try harder at studying.

"Professor, the question about the magical composition of gemstones means it's an ore-type question, right?"

"No, the wording is a bit deceptive, but the core focus is clearly on the magical composition, so it would be over there."

"Ah, so the gemstone itself is just the resulting byproduct in this context? As expected of ShanFro, that's quite a nasty trick question for a game."

"Bansai-kun, earlier you were looking at the materials regarding the diversion of mana theory into plants, correct? Regarding the mana formula used when interfering with natural trees..."

"Page 125, yes. If I recall, the subterranean formula is the trick answer there. Come to think of it, what happened to Seto-san? Mirei-san is the one directing the Orchestra verification, isn't she?"

"She had some personal matters to attend to. She mentioned she wouldn't be able to log in until tomorrow."

"Ah, well, I suppose it's that time of year. I've tutored her a bit in her studies, and as long as she doesn't make any massive blunders, she should be fine."

"If you've given her your seal of approval, then I am relieved as well."

Real-life academic background wasn't supposed to be a requirement to join Library, but the speed at which things progressed once The Professor and Bishojo Bansai got to work in earnest could only be described as a masterpiece.

They had probably completed a strategy chart before even arriving here from the First Layer. As the subsequent waves of players arrived, the scattered members of Library among them joyfully joined the hunt for documents, to the point where there was practically nothing left for the rest of us to do but run errands.

"A-Amazing...!"

"Yeah, there's no way we could replicate this..."

"I have to agree..."

They cross-referenced the test papersWindows handed to each individual by Ivory, figured out that everyone had a unique set of fifty questions, deduced that those questions were randomly allocated from a total pool of about three hundred, and then casually decided, "Well, if it's only about three hundred questions, should we just solve all of them?" which resulted in this spectacle.

Perhaps I had underestimated the clan known as Library. No, not looking down on them, but I finally understood right now that they seriously intended to unravel this world from head to toe.

"No, this is it! This is exactly what I was looking for! In fantasy civilizations, anatomical diagrams and stuff are always so useless for reference—"

"There really are intentional holes regarding the mana theory here. It was the same on Leviathan's side, but it feels like the necessary numerical values to reach the final answer are deliberately missing."

"Just looking at the author's names is enough to fill me up... This is a mountain of treasure for flavor-text enthusiasts like us. Still, isn't it kind of monstrous how frequently the name Amatsuki Setsuna pops up across all these different fields?"

This is bad, Saina. You can't beat them in intelligence. I can still somewhat manage, but if you take intelligence away from you, what's even left?

"Bansai-shi, let me see the cheat sheet."

"Oh, I like that, let's adopt it. I prefer the sound of 'cheat sheet' over 'secret manual'."

The way he said it made it sound like he had literally never had to rely on a cheat sheet in his entire life, putting another crack in my mental HP bar, but I won't let it get me down.

What is this feeling? Mirei—who I met during the Orchestra scenario—seemed pretty smart too, but dealing with Bansai-shi face-to-face is way rougher. Why? Is it because every single one of his movements seems to be constructed entirely out of academic background? Wait, what the hell is an academic background human?

"With three hundred questions, searching for the specific ones is gonna be a pain in its own way..."

"Ah, we sorted them in alphabetical order based on the first letter of the question, so just search using that."

So courteous...! Entirely too courteous...! A level of convenience that makes playing solo seem completely stupid...!!

As a wave of players continued to clear the Second Layer with terrifying ease, we also submitted perfect score sheets and cleared the layer.

Leaving behind a few Library members who declared they were going to "live here now!" the first wave of the Behemoth raiding party proceeded to the Third Layer.

◆

『The Third Layer. This place is, in a way, my "hobby"... To my embarrassment, while I was fully aware that managing planetary environments was "Whale'sIsana's" domain, I couldn't help but want to run some ecosystem simulations myself.』

"I think that embarrassment is a good look on you."

"You're not seriously going to suggest equipping that baby bib, right? Hey, look me in the eyes and deny it."

『As a result, it created a lineage of ecosystems that absolutely cannot be released into the outside world.』

Our objective in the Third Layer was...

『The number of participants does not matter. Please hunt down and subjugate one of the artificial environmental creatures active within this layer.』

It was an extremely simple monster hunting quest.

However, not a single person raised their voice in joy at the prospect. The reason being...

"Um, can I ask a question?"

『You may ask, Reiji.』

"By environmental creatures, do you mean... those?"

It seems heReiji-shi had also managed to make it up here smoothly. While I was happy for him in a detached way, the tip of his slightly stiff finger was pointing at... well, how should I describe it? Something that looked like the "strongest dragon" drawn by an elementary schooler, something resembling a Cerberus covered head-to-toe in a carapace, and several other things that would be much more accurately described as biological weapons, all just chilling in a grassy plains area reminiscent of Leviathan's Second Shell Layer.

『Once again, to my deep embarrassment... As a result of running a simulation to see what would happen if the food chain was continuously repeated using only the simplest laws of providence, they turned out like that.』

What should we condemn here? Her sense of ethics? Or her lack of restraint?

Without anyone prompting it, we all huddled together and started a strategy meeting.

"Wait, isn't this impossible?"

"There are quite a few guys down there who look like they could be final bosses in other games."

"Yeah, but we're still in the early stages, right? Maybe their HP is surprisingly low or something... No, there's no way muscles like that are fragile...!!"

But then, someone muttered quietly.

"I wonder if those things drop materials."

""""............""""

It was the word of a devil, bringing a temptation to the players like sweet nectar spilled on dry earth. If a monster is strong, it naturally means the materials it drops are also strong... And as Ivory confirmed this fact, the players' hesitation began to melt away.

"If we all go together, we can probably take one down."

"Yeah, but if we do that, the material distribution is gonna be garbage. Even if we farm it multiple times, the efficiency is terrible."

"They've got numbers, and we've got numbers, so how about we split into teams?"

"If we can't beat them, we'll end up getting left behind. We should probably split up based on who wants materials and who wants to proceed to the next layer first. If priority is the next layer, we're better off ganging up on one of them."

"No, it's the other way around. If you want materials, just stay behind. Moving to the next layer is optional, right?"

"By the way, what about you guys, Psyger-0-san...?"

".........My priority is the next layer."

"Same here. I'm dashing straight for the Eighth Layer."

"I'd like to see what's up ahead too!"

In the end, it was decided that everyone would gang up on a single target together. This is the unity of humanity!!!

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Author's Afterword

Q. What happens if you let them out into the world?

A. They would obliterate Firstia and Secondil, then assault Thirdrema, causing the Grand Duke of Thirdrema's stomach to die and Pencilgon's smile to freeze over.