I, System Creator

Saeko said that, but I certainly couldn't do it myself. Chatting and catching up with my sister can happen anytime; it's better to develop the virus antidote first...

Mm! What I need to do now is explain my situation to my sister first...

Still, seeing my sister like this really gives me a stomachache...

Chapter 23: Persecuting Illya Must Never Stop!

[Haibara Ai's full-day check-in has ended. Please select one from all check-in rewards: Skill Enhancement Card x1, Holy Grail Wish Opportunity x1 (Defective Version)]

[Congratulations on obtaining Holy Grail Wish Opportunity x1. The wish defects of this Holy Grail have been removed.]

Chu Chen was stunned. Ai's haul today was the smallest he'd ever seen from her, but he quickly figured it out. She'd barely gone out all day. First, she went to Saeko's world to help complete the World Salvation Mission, then came back halfway through to expose Conan's identity, finishing the Holy Grail Wish Mission. After that, most of the day was gone—where was the time or chance to trigger other check-in tasks?

Thinking this, Chu Chen could roughly understand why Ai's gains were so slim today.

It was like writing. If you have time and energy, you write more; if not, you might just take the day off.

A Holy Grail suddenly appeared in Chu Chen's hand, but looking at it, he felt a headache coming on.

What wish should he make with this Holy Grail? By normal standards, a Holy Grail was a nearly infinite Mana Source. After all, this wasn't the legendary one stained with divine blood, but such vast magical power was more than enough for wishes. Conventional wishes were all within its scope, but...

For Chu Chen, those conventional wishes weren't worth making. If there was nothing worth wishing for, what should he wish for?

His gaze fell on the Rider Class Card on his desk, and he fell into thought.

Should he acquire the means to create Class Cards? For Chu Chen, being able to manufacture Class Cards would diversify his options. Connecting to the Throne of Heroes and manifesting Heroic Spirits' power onto himself, combined with his already immense magical reserves, would leave him unflinching even against Heracles.

"The Holy Grail is... not enough for the top, but more than enough for the bottom..."

Though Chu Chen could use the Holy Grail's power to obtain the Five Great Magics of this world, the risk was considerable. Using the Holy Grail to get the Five Great Magics meant taking a trip to the Root. The uncertainty was too high. Wouldn't it be better to wait until someone else used the system to get a magic and then take it from them? Why bother with the Holy Grail?

Wouldn't it be better to just mass-produce Class Cards, layer one Heroic Spirit after another onto himself, and get a Noble Phantasm per card?

No choice—who told Chu Chen to have a system that was even more useful than the Holy Grail?

Of course, he could have chosen the Skill Enhancement Card from the start, but his skills were already the product of continuous enhancement. He had to consider future battles... Dealing with Heracles wasn't about how powerful a skill was, but how many methods he had. Chu Chen didn't have a Light Cannon like that to take down multiple of Berserker's lives in one go.

"Since that's the case, let it be so. Holy Grail, let me grasp the principles of Class Card creation."

In an instant, the Holy Grail turned into golden light that poured into Chu Chen's mind. The principles of Class Card creation contained the profound power of Displacement Magic. The moment he acquired them, the Displacement Magic itself was also grasped by Chu Chen... Einsworth's nearly sorcery-level Displacement Magic was fully mastered in just moments.

Chu Chen couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. If the people of Einsworth found out, they'd probably cry.

Now, he refocused his energy on the Class Card before him. Suddenly, many things that were unclear became crystal clear. He was even confident that, given a day, he could create a brand-new Rider Class Card. Then he could try out the power of that new card.

However, using Class Cards came with risks. The spirit of the Heroic Spirit on the card couldn't be erased. For example, in the original story, when Miyu used Gilgamesh's card, his overwhelmingly strong ego directly took control of her. In other words, without a certain level of mental fortitude, one probably couldn't dominate the Class Card's power.

But if you could synchronize with the Heroic Spirit's spirit on the card, you could even push Saber's power to its limit like Illya did in the original, even pulling off an on-the-spot Spiritual Foundation Advancement!

[Emiya Miyu's full-day check-in has ended. Please select one from all check-in rewards: Magical Girl Fate Transformation Card, Skill Card "Photon Ray · Shining Stars", Strength +1, Stamina +1...]

Miyu had earned quite a few auto-triggered check-in tasks at school all day...

Glancing over the later rewards, Chu Chen silently ignored them. He was about to choose the Skill Card when his eyes landed on the last reward... This reward...

Chu Chen frowned slightly and silently scanned through Miyu's completed check-in tasks for the day.

[Emiya Miyu triggered Item Check-in: Rider Class Card]

[Check-in time limit: 5 minutes]

[Check-in reward obtained: Rider's random skill]

[Emiya Miyu completed Item Check-in, obtaining Petrifying Magic Eye.]

Scanning Miyu's reward record, Chu Chen's expression turned extremely interesting.

Tsk tsk tsk... Illya, look at what a true European Emperor is! This is the real deal!

Almost the same task, almost the same reward—how could the gap between you two be so huge?

Illya got the Blood of the Unlucky from Rider, while Miyu got the Petrifying Magic Eye from her...

Is the world I'm in called Magical Girl Illya or Magical Girl Miyu...

Thinking back to the main plot Miyu occupied in the entire series, renaming it Magical Girl Miyu wouldn't be wrong either.

Even the Magical Girl Illya movie was all about how Miyu's brother soloed the Holy Grail War.

And after that, a meme persecuting Illya formed: "I can actually see a moving Illya in Illya's movie!"

Poor Illya. If this keeps up, your protagonist spot might get stolen by Miyu.

Though he was complaining, Chu Chen forgot that he himself was the one who enjoyed persecuting Illya the most.

Sometimes, he even dragged Young Master Emiya into the persecution.

Right now, poor Young Master Emiya was still at home undergoing Sella's Ideological Education.

Chapter 24: Even Magicians Have to Go to School!

"Yo... two new classmates, we meet again..."

Chu Chen looked at the two standing before him with a playful expression, holding their information in his hands.

Tohsaka Rin and Luvia... these two transfer students to Hohomihara Academy... that's right, students!

Even magicians need to go to school... After all, they still need conventional identities in the surface world. The magician profession couldn't be exposed. For magecraft, maintaining mystery was standard procedure.

In ancient times, existence like magecraft was easily seen as divine miracles, so Divine Era magic possessed immense power—indeed, in the Divine Era, magecraft was magic itself, and all sorts of casual manipulations far surpassed modern magi by countless levels.

Unfortunately, with the development of technology, the original mystery was no longer what it used to be.

People's reverence for nature grew less and less, after all, the purpose of science is to unveil mystery.

Thus, the magecraft wielded by magi gradually transformed from the original magic into modern magecraft.

The most typical example is the Divine Era's Primordial Rune, which reached the authority of the gods and stood as the origin script capable of contending for the highest peak of magecraft.

By the modern era, the Primordial Rune had long been lost, causing the foundation to be incomplete. Aozaki Touko did indeed reconstruct the foundation of the declining Rune magecraft, but reconstruction does not mean fully restoring the Divine Era's foundation.

You cannot compare Aozaki Touko's Runes with Scathach's Runes—they are not on the same level.

Divine Era Runes are far beyond what modern Runes can match.

Returning to the main topic, after seeing Chu Chen, Tohsaka Rin and Luvia also felt somewhat conflicted.

Fortunately, the two of them already knew in advance that Chu Chen was a teacher at this school, so they were mentally prepared.

They just hadn't expected Chu Chen to be the teacher for their own class... that was really...

That's right, Chu Chen was the teacher in charge of Emiya's class. If it had been Illya's class, when Miyu first enrolled, Chu Chen could have just handled the procedures and taken Miyu to the class himself—there would have been no need to have Fujimura Taiga take her.

"Um... Teacher Chu Chen, right? Although I didn't expect to meet again so soon..."

To be honest, Tohsaka Rin was also a bit awkward. Yesterday she was thinking about being cautious and wary of him, and now the next day he became her teacher—this feeling... unexpectedly complicated one's emotions...

Luvia just pursed her lips. She had already guessed this situation yesterday.

No matter what, Chu Chen was a teacher at this school. Since he was a teacher here, whether in the elementary or middle school division, he was always on campus. And with Chu Chen being so close to Illya, even picking up and dropping off Miyu, whenever they met with Illya and Miyu, there would always be chances to run into him. This wasn't anything strange.

Thinking of this, Luvia silently sneered at that brainless country monkey in her heart...

Of course, in front of Chu Chen now, Luvia wouldn't voice her contempt openly. Otherwise, she'd end up arguing with Tohsaka Rin, and if they started quarreling here, it would be troublesome. No matter what, this was the office—two students arguing in front of a teacher wouldn't look good no matter how you saw it.

"Alright, I'll take you to your class now..."

Chu Chen swept a glance at the other teachers in the office and silently led the two out.

Regardless, with so many people in the office, it wasn't convenient for him to say much to Tohsaka Rin and Luvia.

Chu Chen planned to ask about tonight's Class Card recovery. Anime was anime, reality was reality. He, this butterfly, had been here for quite a while. If some butterfly effect occurred—like going to fight Berserker tonight—he needed to be prepared... He had studied the Class Cards for so long last night but still hadn't tried whether they could be put to use.

"Huh? You're asking about tonight's Class Card collection?" Tohsaka Rin was taken aback.

"That's right. Where is tonight's Class Card collection location? You should have already investigated it, right?"

Tohsaka Rin and Luvia exchanged a glance, said nothing, and simply answered.

"The location is near Fuyuki Bridge... What's wrong? Why suddenly ask about this..."

Tohsaka Rin didn't think Chu Chen planned to go to Fuyuki Bridge ahead of time to take the Class Card. First of all, directly asking her this question showed he didn't intend to do that—otherwise, it would be too conspicuous...

If he wanted to secretly take the Class Card, he would have investigated covertly.

Besides, entering the Mirror World was only possible at midnight; Chu Chen couldn't sneak in anyway.

"Nothing, just asking in advance..." Chu Chen shrugged. So it was still Caster...

Chu Chen's gaze briefly swept over a certain Class Card in his pocket, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but lift slightly.

Last night's Class Card replication operation had indeed succeeded, and the Servant of this card wasn't Rider-nee, but another Rider... That was what excited Chu Chen. From now on, his options had increased quite a bit...

Each Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm and inherent skills could complement each other, and like Illya, he could even pull off a fusion summon.

Tohsaka Rin and Luvia exchanged another glance, each seeing the confusion on the other's face.

They still hadn't figured out what Chu Chen was playing at.

"Um, Teacher Chu Chen, have you always lived in Fuyuki City?" Tohsaka Rin spoke up.

"That's right. I've always been a teacher at Hohomihara Academy, and I've been here for several years..."

Chu Chen calmly stated his identity. He wasn't afraid of them verifying it—his identity was arranged by the identity card, so he had no worries about them investigating.

"Several years..." Tohsaka Rin gave a wry smile. She herself had gone to the Clock Tower several years ago.

Due to the different development of the Fourth Holy Grail War in this world, Tohsaka Rin had left for the Clock Tower early on.

If she had stayed in Fuyuki City all along, she would definitely have known about a magus like Chu Chen living here.

According to Chu Chen, he had been in this city for so long, teaching at this academy and living an ordinary life. Logically, he shouldn't covet the power of the Class Cards.

Of course, this was just Tohsaka Rin and Luvia's guess. What the truth was...

They might have to keep probing through their interactions from now on...

Chapter 25: Illya: I want to get stronger just by lying down too...

[Busujima Saeko completed a phased event check-in. Protected leader population has reached 500. Acquired E-Rank Leadership!]

Haibara Ai: "Congratulations! Universal celebration!" Illya: "Congratulations! Universal celebration!" Yukino Yukinoshita: "Congratulations! Universal celebration!" Busujima Saeko: "This was also with Ai's help. If Ai hadn't made the Temporary Antidote, I wouldn't have been able to gather so many people..."

Administrator: "Temporary Antidote! (⊙ω⊙`)!"

Chu Chen was dumbfounded. Since when did a zombie virus antidote come in a temporary version? Ai had made plenty of temporary antidotes when she was working on the APTX drug, but how could a zombie virus antidote be temporary? Did it just slow down the zombification process for people who'd been bitten?

But what was the point? You didn't have a real cure. Even if you slowed it down, it didn't mean they wouldn't turn into a zombie!

Busujima Saeko: "That's right. Quite a few people bitten by zombies have a 20% chance of being saved if they take the Temporary Antidote... Of course, even with such a slim success rate, plenty of people still gather here to seek me out."

Twenty percent? How did you calculate such a precise number? And with odds that slim, what's the point of saving anyone?

Haibara Ai: "My antidote is only a small part of it. The other factor is your strength, Saeko. That Takashiro Saya's father—if it weren't for you being by my side, he'd probably have me under his control by now..."

Having once been in the Black Organization, Ai saw right through the look of hunger for talent in Takashiro Soichiro's eyes. His domineering personality made her realize that if not for Saeko's formidable strength, she'd likely have been seized and controlled by him already... Of course, even without Busujima Saeko, Ai could have walked all over that world on her own.

The Magic Crest on her body, her physique strengthened to the point where she could go toe-to-toe with a sturdy adult, plus Item Creation allowing her to mass-produce a bunch of mooks—though they couldn't compare to Medea's Dragon Tooth Soldiers, that was only due to material limitations.

But since this world had already turned into an apocalypse, Ai had long since gathered whatever materials she needed along the way.

Even if it couldn't match a world with mystery, under the boost of Item Creation, the Magic Crest and mooks Ai produced were not something ordinary people from a normal world could handle...

Administrator: "Sounds like things aren't great on your end either... Are you okay? If you need help, I can step in!"

Haibara Ai: "Actually, I've wanted to say this since last time—we still don't know what kind of world you, Administrator, are in... I always thought you might be something like an artificial intelligence, but from the timing and content of your messages, you're probably human too... That means you're also a human chosen by the system, right..."

Yukino Yukinoshita: "But whenever we trigger a check-in mission, there's always a notification in the System Network. The only exception is you, Administrator. Could it be that you're just set up as the administrator of this System Network?"

Now Ai and the others were starting to get curious about Chu Chen's identity, since none of them had ever met him.

Aside from inferring from his way of speaking that Chu Chen was probably male, there was no other information.

It would be impossible for Ai and the others not to be curious about Chu Chen.

Especially Ai—with her high intelligence, she was constantly pondering the meaning and identity of this Administrator within the System Network.