NoveLight ™
"…So this place was this luxurious."
At 4:46 PM, my first impression upon returning after a long journey was just that. From the entrance of the hotel to the interior revealed upon entering through the revolving door, everything felt completely new.
For a moment, I almost forgot what to do first, but fortunately, I had already informed the schedule manager that I had returned. I dug through my somewhat hazy memories, took the elevator, and arrived at the lobby floor where the lounge was located.
The next steps were simple. I just needed to go through a quick identity check at the lobby and then head to my room. The keycard would likely be held by either Dice or Harmony, and since I hadn’t heard anything about anyone going anywhere, it was highly probable it was still waiting in my room.
I was relieved that I hadn’t forgotten the way to my room.
"…Is it locked?"
As soon as I arrived at the door, I gently tried to turn the handle, but it seemed the default setting was to be locked. I could feel a jarring clunk and resistance from the handle.
It wasn’t so much that it was difficult to turn as it was just locked, but saying it was hard to turn seemed more accurate. Of course, if I applied force, I could manage to turn it, but I imagined that would just end up breaking the doorknob.
I quietly pressed the doorbell. The pleasant electronic chime rang out clearly. Then I felt a thundering vibration from my feet. It seemed someone was rushing out from inside.
And then—clunk.
"Yujin is here!"
"The pride of the University of Pennsylvania has arrived!"
"What? What did you say?"
What kind of absurd sound was this?
As I walked in, bewildered, I was met with a cacophony of noise. It turned out they had called Ink, Michael, and Gambit from the next room to play a board game. In a world dominated by VR content, playing analog felt a bit strange, but right now, I needed to focus on what was happening in front of me.
Naturally, the reason behind all this was predictable—my lunch in Philadelphia had become a hot topic on the internet. It wasn’t a disparaging article, and since our side hadn’t issued any official statement, it seemed like it wouldn’t be deleted as quickly as it was uploaded.
Moreover, the attention on Senior Owens was even greater than ours, which was another reason the article hadn’t been removed.
And, as expected, everyone seemed quite curious about who our squad leader was.
"By the way, who is this person?"
"Our squad leader, who can take someone out in three seconds if she wants."
"Yikes…."
It was a joke that wasn’t really a joke.
Anyway, when I checked online, it appeared that it hadn’t spread widely overseas yet. In fact, while public opinion in the U.S. was also massive, it wasn’t that it hadn’t gained any traction. Well, personal identifiers were all pixelated, so it didn’t matter much.
The problem was that there was a gigantic tail wriggling under the dining chair in the student cafeteria, which was absolutely impossible to pixelate. Logan’s ears above his head were ambiguously pixelated, while Laurentina didn’t show off her animal features that well…
Well, having a long tail was the issue.
In any case, it was about time to check in on everyone.
"How have you all been?"
"Well, we took a walk around, did some shopping, and practiced a bit… Oh, Harmony and I did some streaming. It turned out to be more fun than I expected. My first broadcast had 6,391 viewers, and as I continued, it grew to 8,000!"
"…Is streaming trending these days?"
Could it be that they all had some kind of itch to show their faces on the internet?
In any case, we were now well into December. The finals championship duos and squad matches were set to begin next week. I could only regret that I had to express my disappointment upon returning, as I should have been preparing for it.
Thinking about it, there were about ten days left to practice. From what I could see, no one seemed to have had trouble adjusting to the time difference, and there were still about two days left until the end of the first week, which was a time for rest and adjustment.
'Maybe I should take them to a good restaurant for some bonding….'
Unfortunately, my brain, which hadn’t had many experiences, could only think of that much. Moreover, Dice and Harmony had been singing about wanting to go to a steakhouse, so it might be good to take the chance and go before it got too busy.
As I organized these thoughts, I started to lose track of whether I had come to rest or prepare for the next schedule. Maybe this was just my nature. I always seemed to be busy right after arriving.
I should take a moment to relax.
"I'm going to take a bath. Since there’s no official announcement today, if you want to have fun, you can stay here, or you can go back to your own rooms."
"I’ll be heading back."
"Everyone, run away!"
Their hurried escape was quite the sight.
Finally, I found some peace. Clothes, soaked in the fatigue of the past three days, dropped to the floor one by one. They were all laundry. After sorting out the clothes so that I could receive the laundry tomorrow through the cleaning service, I added a few more.
It seemed I would be here for quite a while.
"Is anyone in a hurry to shower or use the bathroom?"
"Feel free to take your time. Just don’t fall asleep in the bath!"
That was a typical warning from these people.
Once inside the bathroom, I was welcomed by the unique scent of bathroom products and the high humidity. Winter is not only cold but also incredibly dry, so it was a relief to be able to solve that as soon as I returned.
I operated the hologram floating on the wall a few times to set the water temperature and height for the bathtub to the appropriate level, then entered the shower and enjoyed the warm water pouring down on me. Soon, steam billowed up, wrapping me in a pleasant moisture.
Now, I can focus on the things I couldn't do earlier.
"Hmm…."
I had my eyes closed but could see what was in front of me. The lens I always wore—of course, it was from the Icarus Gear—was projecting the outside environment through augmented reality.
It was simple to bring up the hologram. I could either wave my fingers or just think about it. At that moment, various steakhouse websites popped up without any time lag, and available tables were automatically displayed by date.
Five seats. As far from busy areas as possible. I wondered if tomorrow evening would be okay, and as soon as I sent a message, everyone excitedly gave me the okay sign.
Even—
"Wow! Are we going to eat steak tomorrow!?"
"Since we’ve been singing about wanting to go for a while, we should go before it gets busy!"
Of course, Dice was hit on the forehead with a flick for letting in the cold air while showering.
The location was, of course, the same place we had visited with the squad members last time. Fortunately, there were plenty of seats available. Considering the time we’d be going for dinner, I had already reserved a vehicle for our trip there, so we shouldn’t have any problems with security.
When I shared this fact in the Engram group chat, everyone was excited. Discussions of splitting the bill among four people were floating around, but, well, the amount each of us would eat was likely to be similar, so that seemed a bit harsh.
'What comes next…'
I began to consider a few topics I would need to discuss during tomorrow's dinner regarding preparations for the finals championship. I thought they might not like having that conversation during dinner, but I couldn't just avoid it either.
First, before coming to America, I had prepared a custom curriculum and distributed it, and since they hadn’t been inactive while I was away on this not-so-official trip, there was probably no need to worry too much.
As I reached that point in my thoughts, showering was nearly complete.
With an alert that the bathtub was full, I rinsed off the remaining residue of various bathroom products from my body under the ceiling's water flow and then stepped outside.
"Oh."
The steaming bathtub awaited me.
Carefully, I sank into the water. There was something resembling my personal chair in it, so having a tail wasn’t a problem at all. The pleasantly warm water rose up to my neck, and I couldn’t help but let out a warm sigh.
I opened the blinds next to me and was greeted by the view of New York's nightscape. Thanks to the variable transparency glass, no one could see inside from the outside, but the opposite was possible, so there was no need to worry about someone watching me.
Now, all that remained were tasks related to the think tank. I figured it was time to check in on that.
"…Huh."
My inbox was filled with various emails stacked high.
I grouped the necessary news by keywords and sorted them by time. The review results of contracts from several law firms indicated there were no legal issues and that the conditions were 100% favorable for me.
In fact, since this part had been reviewed by many people several times, I didn’t need to worry too much. The important part was what came next. Now, I had to enter the practical operation phase, and I needed a stimulus that would act as a key to get the think tank's massive machine running.
As I typed at a speed that matched my thoughts, I sent an email through a direct line, and not even three minutes later, a reply came.
Below it was the name, title, and email address.
After quickly sending a reply wishing them a good night, I accessed the operational plan I had prepared through the Icarus Gear and sent several technical files to that email address. The file size was huge, but since I divided it into thousands of pieces, it didn’t take long to send.
I figured there would be issues with initial capital contributions and that operational and development costs would be necessary, so I stuffed various technologies into the email I just sent. It might be a bit troublesome if that wasn’t enough, but I would have to wait and see.
Once I resolved the last issue, I looked outside.
"…It’s snowing."
What can I say? Watching the falling snow while taking a bath had its own charm. Perhaps I was gradually coming to love the snow.
How long had I been there? With a simple alert announcing 6:30 PM, I snapped back to reality. I had entered the bathroom around 5 PM, showered for 30 minutes, and then dozed in the bathtub for about an hour.
My body felt not taut, but rather like it had been slathered in oil, smooth and round. I shook off the remaining drowsiness and neatly wrapped up the aftermath. After drying off the water from my body with a towel, I changed into the casual clothes I had prepared and opened the bathroom door quietly.
To my surprise, a delicious food aroma wafted in.
And—
"Yikes, if you had come out a bit later…!"
"Yes! I said I would be out before 7!"
The scene in front of me.
Harmony and Dice were waiting at a posh table, having set out what appeared to be room service food. From their expressions, it seemed they had made a bet on me.
For a moment, I couldn’t help but chuckle, but perhaps this sight was a guarantee that I had returned to where I belonged.
"It’s snowing outside, and I didn’t want to go out, so we ordered room service. Hurry and eat."
"I’ve specially prepared a chair with a hole in the butt area for you, Teacher Yujin."
"Hi there."
But there was no refusal.
Even though it was an unexpected dinner start, this also had its own pleasures.
Of course,
"…Wow."
"How can room service cost over $700?"
"Don’t worry, I’ll cover my share!"
The expense for a single meal was truly significant.
It was a sad reality.
"…I was just a management executive who stayed only in Central Park during the Omega Virus incident, so I’m not sure exactly how useful this technology is. I’ll have to consult with the engineers for their insights."
"I still need to analyze it more, but I think the moment this file’s potential is fully realized, the think tank could reach a rank near the world’s top 1,000 companies."
"Goodness."
At 6:23 PM, as everyone in New York pondered seriously about what to have for dinner, the temporary executive meeting of the think tank was truly chaotic.
Just an hour earlier, a literal giant bombshell had dropped. Through a secret email, I had placed the pulse technology usable with the Icarus Gear and thousands of related technologies squarely in their hands.
It was a joke that we had essentially bought the fate of a pandemic-stricken America with astronomical costs poured into development over 20 years…but was this not going too far?
The remnants of technology that had been decades ahead of the current state of America were this colossal.
"…For now, let’s have an exhaustive discussion and try to form partnerships with various companies. Technology teams should briefly present how this technology can address issues in various fields. I’ll give you two weeks. During that time, we will investigate the market."
"Leave it to me. I’ll make a briefing file that even those who just entered elementary school can understand."
And that was the end of the discussion.
However, most of those present were already closely related to the U.S. defense industry, so actions were swift, and the executives gathered here cautiously began to communicate with several trusted contacts.
It had been only a couple of months since the entire defense industry of the U.S. had fallen into chaos.