This Hyperdimensional Channel was really starting to feel more and more like that kind of thing.
The personal storage space was basically like the old days of getting cloud storage when you signed up online. A free one-gig account, that sort of deal.
Now, though, a new feature had come out. That personal one-cubic-meter storage space could be upgraded.
Naturally, it was not free.
And the upgrade had tiers. However much additional space you wanted, that was how many energy gold coins you had to pay. On top of that, it was not all permanent. There seemed to be daily plans, monthly plans, yearly plans, and permanent plans.
So this time, when Kain came to Tessa's world, he had not brought only the toy company's STC.
After all, once he had handed over one tank-design STC to the Salamanders, did he not still have a thousand more?
He had brought another one with him.
For the moment, however, he had not taken it out yet. He was waiting until their submarine had completed a deep internal search before revealing it.
After all, something that large was far too conspicuous. It would be easy for people to notice it and start paying attention.
Maybe it would not be easy to destroy, but if someone suddenly tossed it into the ocean while they were at sea, recovering it would be a nightmare.
This item was roughly the same size as a Land Raider tank, which meant it needed a storage space about ten meters long, ten meters wide, and ten meters high.
In simple terms, it was like upgrading cloud storage from 1 GB to 1000 GB. The space had expanded from one cubic meter into a cube with a thousand times the volume.
After all, a Land Raider tank was roughly ten meters in both height and length.
And this tank-shaped STC was just a little smaller than ten meters, which was honestly a relief.
Also, because it was not actually ten meters wide, but only about six meters across, that still left roughly a third of the storage space unused, enough to fit quite a lot of other things.
And for Kain, upgrading his storage to that size was a permanent upgrade.
The base price started at one hundred hours, costing ten coins.
In addition, it granted a matching amount of free transfer bandwidth.
For example, A2's original one-cubic-meter storage space cost one coin every time she used it to send something.
But now, his current free transfer space was one thousand cubic meters, and it supported two-way free transfers with that full one-thousand-cubic-meter bandwidth.
And that one-thousand-cubic-meter bandwidth was shared under the same permission scope.
For example, if he sent an object with a volume of 2.5 cubic meters to someone else, then he would have 997.5 cubic meters of transfer bandwidth left.
If the other side then sent back something else measuring 2.5 cubic meters, that would also consume the bandwidth.
Of course, whatever was sent still had to fit within the receiver's storage size. If it was too large, it could not be transferred.
If he tried to send an object with a volume of 0.9 cubic meters, but one of its dimensions exceeded one meter, then if the receiving side only had a one-meter cubic storage space, they probably would not be able to receive it.
Also, it was not as though this transfer bandwidth could be shared freely with everyone on Hyperdimensional Channel.
Only worlds he had personally visited could share this free transfer bandwidth.
In other words, right now he could freely share that one-thousand-cubic-meter transfer bandwidth with A2, Busujima Saeko, and Tessa.
And at present, he had also extended the usage duration of that storage space to match the number of days he planned to stay, meaning he had bought it three times.
That gave him a total of three thousand cubic meters of transfer bandwidth.
"Tessa, I'm telling you, there is definitely something wrong with what this guy gave me. These past two days, random math symbols and formulas have started popping into my head out of nowhere. It messed me up so badly on yesterday's quiz that I could barely answer anything. I'm definitely failing it."
Kaname Chidori, seated beside him, said this as if he were not even there, bluntly questioning whether there was something wrong with his medicine.
But from the sound of it, her hidden black technology knowledge was beginning to awaken.
"Um, that could..."
Tessa immediately stopped herself.
This was not the right setting to ask Kaname in detail about the strange formulas appearing in her mind.
Because they were not in the classroom now, nor in the nurse's office.
They were on a plane that had just taken off.
The graduation trip had already begun.
However, Gauron's whereabouts had not been locked down precisely. He should not have boarded the plane.
The reason was that Mithril's investigation had still ended up alerting him by accident, which left Tessa feeling rather frustrated.
Maybe they should not have investigated at all. Maybe they should have pretended not to know and let him board, instead of tipping him off.
But that did not mean the hijacking incident was no longer a threat, or that this graduation trip would now be peaceful. Since the enemy was Amalgam, they were not the sort to give up so easily.
That meant the plot had now become unpredictable.
In other words, they had messed it up.
In the blink of an eye, the aircraft had already been flying steadily for two hours.
"Tessa, can we switch seats? I want to look at the sky outside."
"Of course."
Tessa swapped seats with Kaname, and Kaname moved into the window seat.
"Kaname, the ocean looks beautiful from up here."
The speaker was one of Kaname's other friends, also seated by the window, her face pressed close as she looked out.
"It really is beautiful. The clouds too."
Kaname answered while lifting her camera to take a picture.
Suddenly, Mr. Kain slipped something into Tessa's hand.
They were three tiny pistols.
At the same time, he stood up and started walking toward the front.
That abrupt movement made Tessa's expression change.
So there really were enemies aboard the plane after all?
Looking more closely, besides the tiny pistols, there was also something like a badge - a compass.
This little thing had probably been attached to the drink cart the flight attendant had pushed past earlier, and Mr. Kain must have removed it.
If he had handed it to her, then it clearly had some purpose.
Once she laid it flat and checked the direction it pointed, Tessa immediately understood the problem.
The flight path had changed.
If they were still flying toward the original destination, the compass should not have been pointing this way. Their current direction was almost the reverse.
It was practically a full turnabout, yet no one had noticed.
There was really only one explanation.
The turn had been made gradually, with a very shallow angle, tracing a wide arc.
Under those circumstances, you might think it would still be possible to notice by observing the sunlight.
But in reality, with the sun positioned almost directly overhead at the moment, it was impossible to judge direction from the sunlight alone.
Which meant the enemy had even factored the flight time into their plan.
In the end, Mithril's intelligence had still failed, because enemies had made it onto the plane after all.
And one of them was probably either the captain or the co-pilot.
Three minutes later, Mr. Kain returned.
Had he handled it?
No.
Judging from his expression, the situation clearly was not resolved.
"There are fighter jets below the plane. They've established direct contact with the cockpit and are threatening the captain using his family's lives."
Those words made Tessa's face change immediately.
Correction, he did not actually speak.
The words appeared as text on his phone screen, clearly typed out in advance.
"There is another problem. One of the enemy's stupid warning shots accidentally grazed the landing gear bay door and jammed it shut."
This new line of text made Tessa's expression darken instantly.
If the landing gear could not extend, then they would have to make a belly landing.
That could very easily end in a total crash with everyone killed.
Then -
"We're sorry..."
The in-flight announcement suddenly came on.
A flight attendant was informing everyone that turbulence lay ahead and instructing all passengers to fasten their seatbelts immediately.
The oxygen masks even dropped down as well.
The plane seemed to be slowing, and also descending.
Then, once everything was more or less ready -
"Sousuke Sagara, I'll leave it to you to close the hatch afterward."
After saying that, in full view of everyone aboard, Mr. Kain walked straight to the hatch, opened it, and jumped out without the slightest hesitation.
That sight left Tessa staring blankly.
The next moment, panicked screams erupted all around.
Some were terrified by the fierce suction caused by the pressure difference.
Others were simply horrified by what looked like a sudden suicide.
The entire cabin descended into chaos.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]