Chapter 756: Tens of Thousands of Misaka Sisters, the Misaka Network, Different Misaka Sisters!
"The General Superintendent was killed? Mugino, am I hearing things? Or did my auditory cortex finally glitch out?"
Kinuhata Saiai looked terrified, her hands clutching the sides of her head. Her usual "super" composure was shattered. She felt like she might have heard something forbidden, knowledge that would get them erased from existence just by knowing it.
Mugino Shizuri frowned deeply, the lines on her forehead etching deeper as she looked at Ren with a mixture of fear and skepticism. "Are you joking? Do you have any idea what you're saying? Aleister Crowley isn't someone who just... dies."
"Joking?"
Ren couldn't help but smile faintly, a smile that didn't reach his eyes but carried absolute authority. "I'm sorry, but I don't joke about acquisitions. From now on, Academy City is mine."
He snapped his fingers.
Snap!
Ding dong!
Buzz!
The phones of the people around them all chimed with a notification simultaneously. It wasn't just a message; it was a Priority One alert broadcasted to every device registered in the city's network.
They opened their phones with trembling fingers.
"This!"
One by one, they gasped in shock. The light from the screens illuminated their pale faces.
The information announced that Academy City's ownership had been completely transferred from the General Superintendent, and that all members of the Board of Directors had formally resigned (or been removed) from their positions. The digital document bore the highest cryptographic seals of the city, undeniable proof of authority.
There was even an official stamp on the published document that represented absolute administrative control.
But how was this possible?
Ren had just snapped his fingers; only a god—or a Magic God—could do something like this, right? To rewrite the administrative reality of the most advanced city on Earth in a split second...
Misaka Mikoto came back to her senses, shaking off the shock. Her mind raced to the implications.
She said excitedly, her voice trembling with hope: "In that case... that plan... the Level 6 Shift Experiment... it can be stopped, right?"
"You can rest assured about that. It's stopped. The executors have all disappeared, and the labs are shutting down as we speak," Ren said with a faint, reassuring smile.
"That's great!"
Misaka Mikoto almost jumped for joy. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. The nightmare that had haunted her for weeks—the death, the blood, the hopelessness—was finally over.
But Ren immediately poured a bucket of freezing cold water on her relief.
"You're very happy? That's good. But don't be happy yet."
His tone shifted, becoming somber.
"Just a friendly reminder, your remaining Misaka Sisters won't live much longer regardless of the experiment."
"Huh?"
Misaka Mikoto froze. The smile vanished from her face instantly. "What... what do you mean?"
A Misaka Sister standing nearby—Misaka 10032—calmly adjusted her night-vision goggles and stated in her monotone voice: "Yes. Misaka Sisters have defects in their bodies and genetic makeup due to accelerated growth treatments. Our telomeres are shortened, and our cellular degeneration rate is high. Therefore, our life cycle is not long, Misaka says, stating a biological fact."
"However, a Misaka Sister is just an item produced for a unit cost of 180,000 yen. It is worth it to complete the mission, even if the lifespan is short," Misaka added, devoid of any self-preservation instinct.
"..."
Hearing this, Misaka Mikoto's face turned ashen. The blood drained from her lips.
She clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood, yet she felt powerless. Even if she saved them from Accelerator, she couldn't save them from their own biology?
"Clones are indeed flawed. They aren't meant to last."
Misaki Shokuhou lowered her gaze, her fan covering her mouth. She knew the suffering Dolly had endured all along—the pain of a body breaking down simply because it existed.
Her expression dimmed as she asked, "Ren-kun, do you know how many Misaka Sisters are still being produced or are in storage right now?"
"Over ten thousand. To be precise, there are about 9,969 left alive."
Ren snapped his fingers again.
Hummmm—
The surrounding space stretched eerily. The reality of the container port seemed to fold in on itself, expanding like a rubber band being pulled by invisible giants.
"Waaah!"
Frenda fearfully grabbed Kinuhata Saiai's arm, nearly tripping over her own feet. "The world is bending! The world is bending!"
She thought she was going to fall into a void.
"What kind of ability is this? Spatial manipulation on a city-wide scale?"
Mugino Shizuri couldn't understand Ren at all. Her Meltdowner instincts were screaming that this was impossible.
The power he had displayed from just now until now was very mysterious. It prevented them from using their abilities, hypnotized a Level 5 like Kakine Teitoku, used strange runes to control their bodies, made him instantly disappear and reappear, and now stretched and distorted the visual space before their eyes like it was nothing more than a painting.
"Hiss!"
Suddenly, Kinuhata Saiai gasped, sucking in a breath of cold air.
Her finger trembled as she pointed forward into the distorted space: "S-So many duplicates of the Third-ranked!"
"Hmm?"
Everyone looked over in confusion.
They saw one figure after another, strikingly similar to Misaka Mikoto, appearing from the stretched space behind Ren. They marched out in perfect unison, row after row, a sea of chestnut hair and Tokiwadai uniforms.
"!!!"
Not to mention the others.
Even Misaka Mikoto and Misaki Shokuhou were stunned into silence.
Because they were all Misaka Sisters. Densely packed, shoulder to shoulder, filling the entire port. Ten thousand pairs of empty eyes staring forward. All transferred here by Ren in an instant.
Misaka 9982, who had been standing nearby, tilted her head.
"A task error has occurred. Why are other Misaka Sisters here? The network did not predict a mass gathering," Misaka asked, puzzled, pointing at the army of herself.
This sentence seemed to flip a switch.
"I don't know," Misaka replied from the crowd.
"I don't understand either," another Misaka said.
"Hmm, task error," a third Misaka stated.
"It's Onee-sama. Why is Onee-sama here?" Misaka asked, spotting the original.
"It's the Misakas who suddenly appeared here. Coordination required," Misaka corrected.
...
One after another.
Tens of thousands of Misaka Sisters began to chatter. Their voices overlapped, creating a chaotic buzz that filled the air.
"Wow!!! So noisy! It's like a swarm of bees!"
Frenda covered her ears, annoyed by the noise. But for one person, it was more than just noise.
The one whose head hurt the most was Misaka Mikoto.
"Ugh..."
She grabbed her head, her knees buckling.
Because after the Misaka Sisters appeared, they generated identical brainwaves.
Through these identical brainwaves, they connected to the brains of other Misaka Sisters, forming a massive electromagnetic network. And as the original, Mikoto was the server they were all pinging.
Since the Sisters had common brainwave patterns, all the Sisters' brainwaves were converted into electronic signals and connected to each other, thereby forming the Misaka Network.
The Sisters shared a single memory bank. The vast network operated as a single, massive brain.
It was like a super-high-energy parallel computing machine capable of processing data far beyond any supercomputer.
The Misaka Network could achieve information sharing with each other, enhancing overall computational ability. Normally, this was a passive background noise.
But now, with ten thousand of them in physical proximity, every word the Misaka Sisters spoke buzzed directly in her brain like a feedback loop...
She felt as if her head was about to explode. Her Personal Reality was being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of "herself."
"Everyone, shut up!!!"
She couldn't help but shout, electricity sparking violently around her from the stress.
"Onee-sama is angry, so let's not speak," Misaka suggested.
Someone made a suggestion within the Misaka Network.
"Agreed," the network resonated.
"..."
Then, all the Misaka Sisters stopped talking instantly. The silence that followed was as sudden and unnatural as the noise.
"Phew, q-quiet now. That was super scary. It felt like my brain was being microwaved."
Kinuhata Saiai wiped away cold sweat, feeling a sense of relief after surviving the brainwashing by demonic sounds.
Meanwhile, Takitsubo Rikou's eyes were full of confusion as she stared at the army. "Why are there so many of the Third-ranked Level 5?"
"Clones. Mass-produced military clones."
Mugino Shizuri said her guess in a deep voice, her face grim. She realized the scale of darkness she was looking at. "So this is what the darkness of Academy City looks like."
"Duplicates!"
The three members of ITEM widened their eyes.
Everyone knew about such things in theory—urban legends about secret projects—but seeing them in person was extraordinarily unsettling.
The esteemed Third-ranked, the pristine Railgun, actually had so many duplicates.
Academy City... how terrifying!
Even they, as members of the dark side organization ITEM, got goosebumps. This was industrial-scale human farming.
"..."
Misaka Mikoto herself was dumbfounded. She stared at the sea of faces that mirrored her own.
Even though she knew she had many clones, she still found it hard to accept the reality of it after witnessing it with her own eyes. The sheer scale of the sin she felt responsible for was crushing.
When she spoke again, her voice had become hoarse, barely a whisper: "Will they... all die? Is there really no way?"
Ren nodded solemnly: "Normally, they won't live long; this is due to intentional genetic defects to prevent them from evolving or living independent lives."
"..."
Even if they said they were cheap items worth 180,000 yen.
Misaka Mikoto was still very unwilling. Her heart ached with a pain sharper than any physical wound.
In her eyes, they were all living beings. They were her sisters.
Misaka Mikoto still couldn't help but attribute their birth, their suffering, and their impending death to herself. If she hadn't given that DNA map...
Suddenly, a small, warm hand took hers.
"Onee-sama, although Misaka Misaka doesn't understand what's happening right now or why everyone is so gloomy, please don't feel guilty; none of this is your fault!"
"You are..."
Misaka Mikoto looked down, startled.
She saw a Misaka Sister who was clearly different from the others.
She was much smaller, looking like a child version of Mikoto rather than a teenage clone. She was wrapped in a blanket, looking more adorable than the other Sisters, but from her features, she was undeniably a Misaka.
And she even had a prominent ahoge (cowlick) standing upright on her head like an antenna.
The small-sized Misaka Sister's expression was also far more lively and emotional than the other stiff, emotionless Sisters. She beamed up at Mikoto with a bright, innocent smile.
"Onee-sama, Misaka Misaka is Misaka Misaka, you know~ And Misaka Misaka is here to tell you that everything will be okay!"
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