13th Project: Substitute Coder

Chapter 1: Just a Substitute

"Damn, that fight took a while," I was scratching my head when suddenly, I heard a twig broke nearby. As I looked around me, I found nothing. Probably just a wild animal. Although I wonder, how did it survived the explosion?

No time to think about it. I entered the command that would send me into an alleyway nearby my school where people rarely use.

Entering the school and passing by the rooms of my upperclassmen, I found Moderator 1412-5563-4689, also known as Inazuma Jun, sitting near the window. Well, it's not actually Jun, since he's on a mission on Sera Server and was replaced by an NPC. All individuals who got transported to another server was immediately replaced by NPCs to cover up their sudden disappearance.

I overheard some students talking about an explosion coming from the mountains. Some claimed that it was caused by an accident from an illegal logging company. If only they knew what actually happened.

Without looking at where I am going, I accidentally bumped against a student.

"Ow, sorry," I bowed at him.

"It's okay. I should be the one apologizing to you," he said and continued walking while holding his phone on his ears.

I'm not mistaken. Judging from his voice, it came from Reika Eru, an agent from GUILD, and also an NPC. I'm amazed from how sentient NPCs are. Too sentient that would make a normal human struggle on finding the difference between the genuine person and an NPC.

Calling while running at the hallway, it seems like he got a call from his organization. Wonder what it's all about.

Mithra gave me a feature that could access and manipulate an NPC. As I entered my room and took my seat, I opened my bag and tapped a small violet screen concealed inside. That way, no one would find me suspicious.

[access_npc_reika eru]

A small blue screen appeared inside my bag. Good thing that I managed to minimize the size of my hologram screens. With this, I can enter any command whenever and wherever I am without anyone noticing.

[Accessing Reika Eru's NPC]

[Access Granted]

I felt a vibration in my ear and after a while, I can hear what the NPC of Eru is hearing right now.

"Do you know any student from your school who has blue hair with a red ahoge? Give me some infos about that person. But be aware of him. He's dangerous," A female voice was heard from the line.

Shit. He might recognize me and tell her my identity.

[override_recent_npc]

[NPC Control Override]

I took control of the NPC and made him reply that could go according to my plan. All while pretending to be searching for something inside my bag.

"I don't know but I'll do my best to track that person," the NPC of Eru responded.

"Good. Never confront him if you found him. Meet me at the usual spot, understood?"

"Got it."

The call ended as I took a deep sigh. I checked the System Records to find the "usual spot" and it says that it's under a bridge nearby the school. Finally, I entered a command to rack things up.

[delete_npc_recently added task]

[Recently Added task deleted]

I disconnected from the NPC as soon as the teacher arrived.

I see. Someone actually saw what I'm doing earlier. Thank goodness I didn't need to use a Server Scan.

"Did you found what you're looking for?" my classmate sitting beside me tilted her head.