Apparently, they had been judging us based on appearances.

The moment I became a crossdressing beautiful girl (male), I was ignored.

It’s not like they’re suspicious of us or anything, so this should make moving around easier.

Still, I feel a little lonely…

『I’m here for you＾＾』

Yay!

『I’m glad that makes you happy. Listen, in the end, I’m the one you can rely on. The one who understands you best is also me. So it’s wrong for you to feel lonely right now＾＾』

She’s entering the brainwashing phase.

『The concept of a mentally weakened Sorciera becoming dependent on me… I approve』

I do not approve.

Oh no, I’ve ended up alone with a dangerous monster.

Up till now, I’d been enjoying exciting four-panel everyday life with beautiful girls, but now I’m the only one thrown into the worst world of a city academy…

I wanted to sleep next to Rei-chan too…

『A combo of Loli-ciera and Loli-Rei!?』

Hey, don’t make me a loli too.

How shameless can you be?

『But think about it. Shouldn’t there be a loli next to another loli? With a smug, pompous Loli-Rei and an innocent, clapping Loli-ciera… this is it!』

What is it?

『This’ll sell like crazy! All right, the winter release is decided! A book on Loli-fied Sorciera. We’ll show humanity the new possibilities of Sorciera. I, who far surpass humanity, shall guide you all!』

A final boss forcing her fetishes?

Aren’t you just turning your partner into a little girl and getting off on it?

『What’s wrong with that? Are you saying that the combo of Loli-ciera and Loli-Rei is inappropriate content?』

I never said that＾＾

It’s peak content!

Honestly, I’d love to debate the feasibility of Loli-ciera until morning, but I don’t have that luxury right now.

I’ve got three beautiful girls waiting on my mysterious move.

『If I recall, the plan was to search for a gate that allows escape, right?』

That’s right.

But I’m not actually going to look!

Because I can teleport!

Only I can escape anytime I want!

『That’s not something a mysterious beautiful girl should say』

Shut up, geez.

Anyway, for this mysterious beautiful girl time, I need more prep than usual.

Unlike at Zilnius Academy, we don’t know who the enemy is this time, so we need to start by identifying them.

Then we’ll consider location, personality, and situation to decide the appropriate mysterious beautiful girl move.

This time, the gloomy trio—Touraku-kun, Clam-chan, and Rinka-chan—aren’t around.

That means I can go full strong-character Sorciera!

It’s Super Mysterious Beautiful Girl Time!

『Still, where should we go? They’re controlling this many people, so there must be a large-scale mechanism involved. It should be somewhat obvious.』

Right now, we’re walking down the main street, blending in with the tourists.

But nothing stands out.

So maybe the Chroma Academy campus… or maybe there’s a symbolic tower I just don’t know about… or maybe it’s underground.

I know that in the lore, the Chroma Music Academy is old and has a history of expansions, creating uncharted areas.

In the original story, Touraku-kun used those gaps to flee through Chroma’s autonomous district with the heroines.

I remember that arc leaning into rom-com territory, with characters taking turns showering under watch, gazing at the night view during their escape, that kind of thing.

Even then, Touraku-kun and the others passed through abandoned underground passages a few times.

So it wouldn’t be strange if there’s something underground.

Bad guys always build stuff underground!

『Should we go fetch Eina? She could scout underground.』

That’d come with an angry Rokuhara package, you know.

Stop it, don’t add more enemies!

『Still, I can’t fully explore things myself, you see. Oh dear, oh dear. Hahaha』

While the Starreader’s Staff laughed, I was thinking.

If detection’s difficult… then how about checking Chroma’s database?

For a crime of this scale, whether it’s magic or electricity, there’s got to be a massive energy flow at one point.

I want to find that and infiltrate.

If we believe what Ryuuko-chan said, someone inside Chroma might be helping out, so there’s definitely something in the database.

Which means…

『Which means-』

-There’s someone good with electronics, right?

Without hesitation, we deployed a teleportation magic circle and leapt in.

Destination: of course—

■

At the same time, in a room at Fectom Academy.

Demonsgear’s second successful model and top computational unit, Shieru, was trembling.

Her normally blank expression was replaced by wide-eyed shock.

“This… this sort of thing is impossible…”

Even her computational power labeled this an irregularity.

The queen of cyber warfare couldn’t keep up with what was in front of her.

“—She pulled the featured pick-up with just one free single ticket…!? And even after that, she pulled a top-tier character from the regular pool… Wh-why such godlike luck…!”

What overwhelmed Shieru was probability convergence in gacha.

Up until now, she’d always hit pity—believing that gacha only really begins after 100 pulls.

She was now spitting out errors at this result.

“A-at the very least, I must post a screenshot and brag… After all the times my friends teased me, I shall retaliate!”

With trembling little hands, Shieru began tapping her smartphone.

The monstrous spec smartphone she got by helping with clerical work, begging Miroku, and getting Miyume to build it, had now been reduced to a wafer-thin slab solely for mobile games and social media.

“Hehehe… their jealousy sounds beautiful to me.”

After smiling for a while, Shieru had a thought.

“Could I fully max them out now…? I am lucky right now.”

Poor Shieru, whose computational abilities should be top-tier, had walked right into the devs’ trap.

And so, Shieru, begins a full-speed descent into gacha addiction.

“Cowards who hesitate and buy small bundles are fools. A wise Demonsgear like me, thinking long-term, chooses the most expensive pack with the best bonuses.”

With strawberry milk in hand, Shieru started her microtransaction spree.

What she didn’t know:

That her decision to max out this character would lead her to hell.

That Miroku would find out about the spending and be furious.

And—

“Hmm… déjà vu.”

That she was about to be kidnapped by her selfish older sister and said sister’s contractor.

A teleportation circle appeared in front of the monitor playing some anime she wasn’t even interested in.

And from within emerged a familiar face.

“…Sorciera, I haven’t seen you in that form since Zilnius Academy.”

“True. But we see each other almost daily, so there’s not much to talk about, right?”

“No, I do have something to say. If you’ve appeared before me in Sorciera form, that must mean you’re about to drag me into something again, aren’t you!?”

Shieru was a clever Demonsgear.

“I’m currently busy farming the event! I need to run it as many times as possible! Open more boxes and gather materials—”

Then, a card dropped in front of her.

“…Huh?”

“Here. It’s a 100,000-yen gift card.”

“!!”

Seeing Shieru’s reaction change, Sorciera smirked.

“Just ten minutes is all I need. That should be enough for someone as capable as you. Won’t you spare those precious ten minutes for me?”

“Wh…?”

An irresistible offer.

A devil’s bargain: do ten minutes of work and get 100,000 yen to spend on gacha.

“…Are you really saying that’s all it takes? If you’re lying, I won’t forgive you.”

“I want you to infiltrate a certain academy’s database. Whether it takes ten minutes depends on how hard you try.”

“Infiltrate a database?”

“Yes. You can do that, right?”

Slowly, Shieru stood up.

And while slipping the gift card into her pocket, she said:

“I’ll need less than five minutes…!”

Shieru declared with conviction.

Demonsgear Second Model, Shieru.

Hurtling down the road to mobile game ruin at full speed.