Academy City's facade is a gleaming city of schools, the leader of the scientific faction, a technological metropolis shrouded in a halo of glory. Beneath that radiant veneer, the darkness is concealed.
However, no matter how well it's hidden, the darkness never disappears. Research projects that treat human lives as expendable, researchers who see people as tools, the Dark Side that carries out killing missions – the darkness within Academy City is no less than that of the outside world, and likely more.
Although Muyang felt a strong distaste for the "darkness," he didn't intend to handle it personally. Instead, he planned to find suitable personnel to deal with it.
In this kind of environment, there were many rebels. However, Muyang only knew a few of the more prominent characters; more remained unknown.
Therefore, Muyang decided to spend more time selecting personnel, and incidentally, take a stroll through Academy City.
Well, window shopping was definitely secondary, not the main objective.
He walked along the sidewalk, the trees lining the street lush and green. Beside him, vibrant High School Girls were laughing and joking, the atmosphere brimming with youthful energy. Their clear, bell-like laughter echoed in his ears, while cleaning robots zipped through the crowds.
The shops on both sides of the street looked ordinary at first glance, but a closer look revealed differences from regular shops. Academy City's technology was two or three decades ahead of the outside world. While most of it couldn't be used in daily life, the small amount that could still made a difference. For example, the electronic products sold in appliance stores were a bit more advanced than those outside.
If you asked Muyang how he knew this, it was naturally by "looking" with his eyes.
Clairvoyance. He could look wherever he wanted, it was that simple.
While playing "spot the difference" and walking down the street, he passed a certain park. Seeing many people gathering in the corner of the park, curiosity piqued, and he turned his gaze towards the crowd. What he saw was a pink food truck.
After sizing it up for a few seconds, Muyang knew that the food truck was selling a snack called Crepe.
Crepes, this snack, had appeared in many anime and novels. The descriptions all expressed the same meaning: crepes were delicious. Muyang could say he'd heard of it for a long time, but he had never eaten one.
The city where Muyang lived before his transmigration didn't have any shops selling crepes. When he went to other cities to play, he didn't think of crepes. After his transmigration, he had completely forgotten about them... If he hadn't happened to encounter this, Muyang probably wouldn't have remembered that there was such a food.
Staring at the food truck and thinking for a while, he wavered several times between effortlessly buying a crepe at the mall and queuing up to buy one at the food truck. Finally, he lifted his leg and walked towards the food truck.
The reason Mu Yang was interested in crepes was because of the plots in the anime, so he wanted to eat the crepes that had once made him yearn for them.
After only taking two or three steps, a voice, deliberately drawn out, suddenly sounded in his ear.
"U~~~~iharu—"
When there were loud noises, many people would instinctively look towards the source of the sound, and Mu Yang was no exception.
Upon hearing that energetic, crisp female voice, Mu Yang immediately turned his head to look at the source, and what entered his field of vision was a scene that could be considered a classic.
A black-haired, straight-haired girl in a simple black and white school uniform was smiling brightly, lifting the skirt of another girl in the same uniform in front of her.
From Mu Yang's position, he could just see the scenery under the skirt.
"Strawberry..." Mu Yang muttered softly, but he didn't have a nosebleed like a fountain and fall backward like the innocent boys in the anime. After all, he had a bunch of old drivers in the Q and V groups he had joined, who often drove too fast, resulting in the groups being banned and spending several days in the small black room. Under the influence of those old drivers, Mu Yang quickly grew into a novice driver.
Not to mention, after gaining Clairvoyance, one can't help but see some heart-pounding, blush-inducing scenes.
"Saten-san!!! Not again! What if someone sees..." The black-haired, short-haired girl, wearing a floral headdress woven from various flowers, puffed out her cheeks slightly, looking like she was saying, "Hmph, I'm angry," with her hands on her hips and her upper body leaning forward slightly, appearing quite imposing at first glance.
But when paired with her voice, that little bit of momentum was instantly shattered by her sweet and cloying tone. When you looked at her cute appearance, the shattered momentum crashed to the ground. Rather than being angry, wasn't it more like she was acting cute?
"Relax, relax! I specifically observed the surroundings before acting, no one noticed...here?!!!" The black-haired, straight-haired girl, wearing a five-petaled white plum blossom-shaped headdress, waved her raised right hand a few times, comforting the short-haired girl. Subconsciously, she looked around, whether it was a subconscious action to match the content of her speech or for other reasons. However, with her movement, her gaze met Muyang's, and the last two words she spoke suddenly rose in volume.
She looked at Muyang in astonishment, her vivid expression conveying her surprise. The other girl, puzzled by her friend's sudden silence, immediately raised her head to look at her friend, then turned her gaze to Muyang.
"!!!"
The short-haired girl's expression changed from confusion to shock, and then her entire face quickly turned red, like a cooked crab. Afterwards, she started steaming and wobbled a few times before falling backwards.
"Uiharu!!!" Saten, the girl named, quickly caught her and exclaimed.
My fault?
Mu Yang raised his right hand, pointing his index finger at himself, his expression somewhat puzzled.
About a quarter of an hour later, a park bench in the corner.
Ruiko Saten sat at one end of the bench, and Kazari Uiharu was lying on it, her head resting on Ruiko Saten's thigh. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she was speaking in a muddled manner. Ruiko Saten fanned her with her hand.
"Here~"
Mu Yang handed two Crepes to Ruiko Saten, then looked at the still-unconscious Kazari Uiharu. He couldn't help but recall the previous scene. He had thought that the head-steaming effect was just a way to enhance the visual effect in anime, but he didn't expect it could happen in reality.
Considering that Kazari Uiharu's superpower was "Temperature Preservation," which was related to temperature, it wasn't impossible for her to temporarily break through her current ability limit due to embarrassment, and briefly become stronger, adding the head-steaming effect.
While Mu Yang was lost in thought, Ruiko Saten took the Crepe, thanked him, looked at the Crepe, and then looked down at Kazari Uiharu.
Em... It's not very convenient to eat!
Holding two Crepes, Ruiko Saten was in distress.
Noticing her actions and changes in expression, Mu Yang quickly understood her predicament. With a wave of his left hand, two chairs appeared in front of the bench, and a pillow was placed on one of the chairs.
Seeing this scene, a trace of envy flashed in Ruiko Saten's eyes. As a Level 0, she desperately wanted to gain an ability, even the weakest Level 1 would be fine.
The others in the park also showed a hint of emotion in their eyes, be it envy, longing, or jealousy... various emotions, which wasn't surprising. In Academy City, there were millions of people, but ability users were still a minority; most were ordinary people.
"Sit here and eat." He said to Ruiko Saten first, then helped her place the pillow under Kazari Uiharu's head.
The two sat on the chairs, silently eating Crepes, and didn't speak for the time being.
"It's alright," Mu Yang said after a few bites, breaking the silence.
As expected, Ruiko Saten chimed in, "Eh? I think it's delicious!"
"Perhaps I had too high expectations, or maybe I've eaten too much good food, making my tastebuds too picky..." Mu Yang lowered his head, looking at the Crepe in his hand, and explained the possible reasons. Ruiko Saten didn't interrupt him, listening quietly.
He paused mid-sentence, turning to Ruiko Saten and asking, "Aren't you worried I'm a bad person?"
Would a normal girl eat food given by a man she just met?
Generally speaking, no.
Don't take things from strangers – it's a warning they've heard since childhood, although not everyone remembers it.
"My intuition is pretty good. You don't look like a bad person," Ruiko Saten said casually.
"Isn't it foolish to rely on intuition when doing things?"
The thought flashed through his mind, but of course, Muyang didn't say it out loud. He continued to chat with her, confirming what stage they were at.
On the rooftops of several buildings near the park, there was a five-person team. They were all dressed in black suits. Two of them were holding binoculars and observing Muyang, one was contacting the other teams, and the remaining two were on standby.
"Target confirmed, lip reading in progress..."
On the rooftop of a building directly facing Muyang, one of the black suits holding binoculars had just finished speaking. Before he could start lip reading, he collapsed to the ground like a puddle of mud. The binoculars in his hand fell to the ground, and even though they bounced a couple of times, they didn't break because they were sturdy enough.
"Hey! Hey!!" Seeing his companion suddenly fall, a black suit quickly went to the person's side, pushed him a few times, and shouted twice. Then, he checked for a breath to confirm that he was not dead. He then tried to use methods like needle pricks, but still couldn't wake him up.
"Alive, but can't be woken up." The black suit said to his other companions.
"Try again." One of the remaining four black suits, who seemed to be the leader, said.
Upon receiving the order, another black suit, who was holding binoculars and had also studied lip reading, immediately raised the binoculars to his eyes. He had just begun to think about interpreting the lip movements, but before he could act, he suddenly lost consciousness.
Seeing this, the black suit nodded slightly and instructed, "Inform the other teams."
The black suit in charge of communication nodded slightly and began to speak into the walkie-talkie.
At the same time, inside a building without windows.
"This method also doesn't work?" The emotionless voice echoed in the empty room.
The Misaka Network couldn't get within ten meters of that person, so naturally, it couldn't gather information. Therefore, he had tried other methods to gather information, but judging by the current situation, it was still a failure.
"I advise you not to provoke that person. They are an anomaly that doesn't belong to this world." A vague light and shadow emerged from the corner of the room, and the garbled words echoed within.
"…Not of this world? How exhilarating." Bubbles suddenly emerged from the life support device. Although Aleister's tone remained devoid of all emotion, his words revealed his thoughts.
"The 'world' I speak of includes the world of physical laws and other phases," Aiwass added. "It exists beyond the true world."
Many bubbles rose from the life support device. Aleister seemed to be thinking, and after a moment, he asked, "Can you defeat him?"
"No," Aiwass replied decisively.
Silence filled the room for a moment before Aleister said, "It seems I need to revise the plan."
A voice, mixed with static, immediately followed, "I won't save you, Aleister."
In a certain park, in front of a crepe food truck, many people still gathered, which demonstrated the appeal of crepes.
Ruiko Saten and the awakened Kazari Uiharu sat on a bench. Muyang sat across from them, and the conversation turned to the recent esper crime incidents.
According to Ruiko Saten, many esper crime incidents had occurred recently, and the ability levels displayed by those espers were far higher than those recorded in the Database.
During the conversation with Ruiko Saten, Muyang learned what time it was. However, he couldn't help but ask about Ruiko Saten casually mentioning some important information, "Is it okay to say these things?"
Before Ruiko Saten could answer, Kazari Uiharu spoke up, "It's fine. Much of it is semi-public information."
Muyang nodded slightly and stopped focusing on the matter, instead bringing up another thing Ruiko Saten had mentioned, "I know about the Level Upper. It's an audio file with strong side effects."
"Eh!" Ruiko Saten showed a clear look of disappointment, and Kazari Uiharu followed up, "Audio file? Do you have it?"
"No." Muyang spread his hands, "I don't need that thing. But I know how to get it... Some Level 0s make money by selling Level Upper."
Speaking of which, Muyang added, "If you want to increase your ability level, don't use Level Upper. Use other methods without side effects."
"What can I do to raise my ability level?" Ruiko Saten asked excitedly.
Muyang gave an example, "Devices that assist with calculations can improve your computational power."
"Can they give a Level 0 an ability?" Ruiko Saten asked nervously.
"I don't know." Muyang shrugged. "I haven't tried it, but I can get you a device to test it out."
Ruiko Saten was surprised. "Really!"
Muyang nodded slightly. "I have no reason to lie to you."
By the riverbank, Touma Kamijou and Mikoto Misaka stood facing each other.
"You... you... how... can you... run so well?" Misaka Mikoto panted.
Kamijou Touma didn't answer Misaka Mikoto's question, instead, he frowned and muttered to himself, "I seem to have forgotten something..."
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