Haruka Fujiyama, at the moment, was sleeping with her eyes open, a skill that she had mastered many years ago. The past few days have been busy days indeed, a combination of hardcore win-farming, territory-conquering, and unit exams. While it WAS true that the White King would be able to get a proper amount of sleep if she hadn’t been studying three hours a day, it was also true that the Japanese girl was one of the few students in Purple Crown Academy that actually cared about academics. Yes, she was still planning to secure an immensely influential future by gathering thousands of victories in the Deep Ground, but that didn’t give her an excuse to not build a strong academic foundation. It was the same with her physical body and her cultured mind. 

A good future didn’t mean a good person, after all, and Haruka strove to be a good person first.

Even though that ‘goodness’ of hers was more often than not cast aside in favor of ‘effectiveness’. One couldn’t get a record-breaking number of wins without farming their Guild members on a weekly basis, after all.

Her nap, however, was interrupted by some of the greatest news she had heard all year. Blue eyes snapping open the moment Claire had repeated that message, Haruka smiled and remarked,[b] “My my, that recluse finally wants to have a social life?”[/b]

Standing up and brushing the fringe of her black hair out of her eyes, the White King suppressed a yawn, before walking out of the library, trusting Claire to follow. [b]“Guess we’ll have to pay her a friendly visit then, shouldn't we? Courtesy and all?”[/b]

The moment the Japanese girl left the “no World Interface signal” area of the Purple Crown Library, she connected her mind to the Deep Ground, selecting a 50/50 interface that allowed her to set her Avatar to auto-run as she strode confidently to the lecture room reserved for those of the Ivory Masks afterschool.

It took five minutes to reach the Real World headquarters of the Ivory Masks, and, swinging the doors open, she was quick to take her seat in the very center of the lecture hall. There were a few other members of the Ivory Masks physically present, but online, she could see hundreds of avatars on the lower floors of the Guild Hall. It was then, that she switched to a 100% Virtual Interface, the entirety of the lecture hall fading away.

The Guild Hall of the Ivory Masks was, in a single word, impeccable. Though it wasn’t filled with quite as many decorative treasures as Haruka would have preferred, it looked miraculously, sparkling clean. Composed of veined marble that alternated from white to blue to red to orange, the Hall could be considered to be more of a ‘tower’, stretching all the way up to fifteen floors. Lift systems allowed for easy access to different floors, but the majority of Ivory Masks liked to scale the smooth pillars of the Hall, ascending and descending using their own strength.

It was on the very highest floor that White Terror arrived, attired in her casual wear. Playing with her light brown hair for a moment, the lightning-eyed King promptly brought out a megaphone and called out cheerily, [b]“Hello everybody!”

“So sorry to interrupt your discussions, but I’d just like everyone to note that there’s no need to send spies or whatever to check out what the Black King is doing with that super outrageous announcement! I’ll just be checking it out myself.”

“Claire and Meilin will be coming along with me as well, so if anyone knows where Meilin is, tell her to get over to the Black King’s place when she can, yeah? Other than that, happy hunting, fellows! Heard from a birdie that the northern districts have a Dissolution problem today!”[/b]

And with that, she donned her mask, switched her Avatar’s clothes into the long-coat and pants combination that felt so cool and comfortable moving in, and rolled out.