Temperature Control in Academy City

Sighing, Fanfeng Junzi felt a little sorry and thought to herself that she should thank the other party properly.

This was probably the second time that Natsume-san got hurt because of something happening between them and the Queen, and the first time she was the one who went to ask for help.

"I see."

Shokuhou-senpai nodded involuntarily, and her expression looked a little off, but she quickly recovered.

She didn't know when a disaster prevention whistle appeared in her hand. She checked it and found that it was not damaged, so she put it back into her bag.

As time passed, the chaotic faction building gradually returned to its original state, but the bumpy floor and damaged walls still needed to be repaired by the engineering team.

Standing in front of the captive girl Hojo Ayawada, Shokuhou Misaki's eyes showed some abnormality, and she finally confirmed that there were indeed several organizations behind this case.

In addition to this person named Hojo Ayane, the third-year student Yuya Iruka seems to be one of the organizers.

However, there are some differences between the two. The bow and arrow into the deer was influenced by Indian poker, while the technical exchange student chose to attack her for other purposes.

What Shokuhou Misaki didn't expect was that Archer Iruka actually had such feelings for Hokaze? She actually chose such an extreme method to let everyone see Hokaze's performance.

"It's such a headache. That kid is too popular. He was like that when he was in the talent house."

"But Fanfeng is mine, no one can take her away from me."

Thinking of this, Shokuhou Misaki bit her lip and muttered, taking a deep look at a presumptuous girl not far away who was trying to snatch someone from her.

It seems that in order to prevent these guys who came out of nowhere from snatching Fanfeng away, she must assert her sovereignty. She is the one who cannot leave Fanfeng.

However, Shokuhou Misaki is not just reading the other person's memory, she is also gradually clearing up the distorted parts of the other person's emotions and thoughts, so that the other person can return to a sober state.

As long as you break free from the cage of thinking and understand that you are doing something wrong, or simply let the other party face the reality, you can gradually eliminate the influence of Indian Poker on the brain.

In other words, it is to break the information cocoon created by Indian Poker and make things that are deeply believed become false.

Putting aside the little thoughts about shooting the deer with a bow and arrow, Shokuhou Misaki was obviously more concerned about the information she got from Hojo Ayane.

Because she saw a familiar person in the other person's memory.

Chapter 467: Origin Specimen

Memory is a silent fortress, preserving life solemnly and seriously.

Analyzing the other person's experience in detail is the instinct of the psychic named Shokuhou Misaki.

"Although I don't know why that person has such great malice towards me."

“But I’ve always been this way.”

Putting the remote control back into her bag, Shokuhou Misaki's eyes were inevitably a little complicated, but there was no anger or unwillingness in her expression, only calmness and acceptance.

Malice is like a pack of wolves hovering around you, secretly looking for the moment when its prey is weak, and then pounce on it and eat it up.

This is vividly demonstrated in people with super powers. Even if they have a large number of admirers, the prying and covetous eyes hidden in the dark corners are always following them, making it difficult to guard against them.

What these people can do is to hold the shotgun tightly in their hands and make themselves look strong forever.

"People with superpowers are natural allies. Due to their small number and lack of voice in Academy City, everyone's demands are, to some extent, the same."

"But so far, the only one who can communicate normally is Sonoko, while the others are entangled with each other because of their own interests and ideas."

Sighing, Shokuhou Misaki was thinking about something, as if she had forgotten how cold and decisive she was when she suppressed a certain railgun at school.

Only a girl like Sonoko who lacks aggression and is not keen on strength and power is her most ideal partner. Of course, the premise here is that she has peeped into the brain of a certain bun-headed girl and understands her personality and even character.

"By the way, why did I care so much about Sonoko in the first place? Besides the fact that I couldn't find the information on Sonoko's quality at the time, it was probably related to that piece of paper document."

"It is a document that has nothing to do with the internal evolution plan and the external brain replacement plan led by the Talent Workshop. However, because the ability development plan was all derived from the person in that document, it is retained in the Talent Workshop's database as a dispensable reference material."

Shokuhou Misaki's expression was a little abnormal, obviously she was recalling something from the past.

After secretly taking control of the inheritance of the Saigoku Workshop, Shokuhou Misaki also inherited most of the data files and confidential information in the Saigoku Workshop, including the part about quality assessment.

In fact, Shokuhou Misaki, who secretly read the memories of many researchers, was already well aware of the existence of quality judgment.

Although the assessment of literacy is considered the highest level of secret in Academy City, this secret is actually widely distributed in some research institutions of sufficient level, and is used as the basis for developing capabilities to carry out different levels of development activities for students with different literacy levels.

In other words, Academy City will allocate resources for ability development based on students' qualities.

This is also the reason why Shokuhou Misaki has the opportunity to receive the superpower-level resources provided by the Talented Workshop. Her quality assessment must be semi-public in the Talented Workshop. The reason for keeping it secret is just to avoid causing chaos at the social level.

As long as it is not disclosed to the public or attempted to be disclosed to the public, it will not attract too much attention from the Unified Council. Shokuhou Misaki is also aware of this and maintains an unspoken understanding with certain high-ranking guys.

However, neither the quality assessment data of the research laboratory nor the some research institutions that Shokuhou Misaki later controlled recorded the quality assessment of their bun-headed classmate.

This is a very strange thing. From now on, Natsume, who has at least level 5 literacy, has not been noticed by several major research institutions. He does not even have simple literacy assessment data, let alone Academy City investing resources in ability development.

You should know that almost every student has a quality assessment, and the accuracy is extremely high. Even Misaka, who is almost free-range, was determined to have a quality of level 5 early on, which led to a series of ridiculous things that happened later.

However, this did not arouse Shokuhou Misaki's suspicion at the time, nor did it even attract her attention, until she remembered a paper document stored in Saigo's room. She then went back and looked specifically for Sonoko's qualities, but found that she could not find them at all.

After reading and modifying Kihara Gensei's memories, Shokuhou Misaki gained a new understanding of the mystery of her junior.

The quality judgment of Natsume that she had been unable to find was not non-existent, but was buried in a special database somewhere in the Unified Council, mixed with many inconspicuous quality data. The quality recorded was also an unremarkable level 3, and it seemed to have been officially changed to level 5 recently.

As for the paper document that aroused Shokuhou Misaki's interest, it recorded what happened half a century ago, about the first modern ability user born in Academy City, a girl called the Origin Specimen.

The name of the origin specimen is unknown. It was created by the current chairman of Academy City, a person named Aleister, and there are rumors that even Aleister cannot control him.

The methods originally used to develop the girl's abilities, after repeated summaries and optimizations, were gradually used in modern times and evolved into the ability development plan used today.

In this document that records the girl who was the source of the specimen at that time, there are not only experimental records of the ability development process, but also the retelling and interpretation of her abilities in the news reports at that time, but most of them regard it as a funny farce.

What made Shokuhou Misaki interested in Natsume was that in a photo column of a news report, next to the source specimen stood a researcher who looked like a grown-up version of Natsume.

The person in the photo was about 1.6 meters tall, wearing a familiar white coat. He was worriedly pulling aside the girl who was facing the reporter and questioning her, who looked a little tired.

"It's a coincidence."

"Maybe he's one of Sonoko's elders or something, but what's with that intuition that makes it seem more like someone the more you think about it?"

Shaking her head, Shokuhou Misaki felt that she was a little neurotic, but it did arouse her curiosity.

Sometimes she even wondered if she had seen Sonoko somewhere else before, and that was when she was very young. Thinking of this, Shokuhou Misaki got a headache. She was thinking about something.

"But those things are not important. The main problem next is how to face that guy."

"She has been out of contact for a year. She is the ghost student of Tokiwadai, Mitsuari Ayu."

Recalling a list of students in Tokiwadai, Shokuhou Misaki had some impression of the girl who had attended Tokiwadai Junior High School with her. After all, there were only so many people in several grades in Tokiwadai.

Chapter 468: Twists and Turns

After many twists and turns, the clues about the mastermind behind the scenes came back to the students of Tokiwadai and pointed directly to the target, without any surprise.

The feeling of seeing the truth made Shokuhou Misaki feel awkward, as if the person named Mitsuari Ayumu was looking at her present self with a half-smile through Hojo Ayane's memories.

"What a dislikeable smile. Did you foresee from the beginning that I might read Hojo Ayane's memory?"

"No, it should be said that once her plan begins, there are two possibilities of failure or success. The possibility of me reading her memory is inevitable. But telling me everything so recklessly is a bit too arrogant."

Holding up her big head with one hand, Shokuhou Misaki couldn't help but twitch the fat on her cheeks, as if she had seen through the other party's little trick.

Come to think of it, in Shokuhou Misaki's impression, Mitsuari Ayumu seemed to be a remnant who left the human labor room.

In other words, after the artificial room was destroyed, most of the students above the level of strong ability users, including Shokuhou Misaki, were sent to Tokiwadai Junior High School.

This was a behind-the-scenes deal she had reached with the board member behind Tokiwadai.

However, Shokuhou Misaki herself is somewhat special in the Talented Workshop system. She belongs to the external brain replacement project part of the Talented Workshop, and her communication with the majority of students participating in the internal evolution project is very limited. However, her acquaintance with Hokaze Junko can be traced back to that period.

"From the information obtained from Hojo Ayane, it can be seen that the plan to kidnap me was only part of the action, and even the attack on Natsume-san was just a bold supplement to the unplanned and uncontrollable factors. The subsequent action was to let me read an Indian poker customized by Mitsuari Ayu. From this, it can be assumed that their purpose is... to brainwash me."

A strange expression appeared on her face, and Shokuhou Misaki felt that she had been seriously offended in every sense of the word, even more infuriating than being attacked herself.

If the opponent attacks her from the perspective of her physical weakness, Shokuhou Misaki can barely accept it because this is indeed her weakness.

However, the other party chose to use the part he was best at and tried to brainwash her mind. Then Shokuhou Misaki felt annoyed. She felt that she could still resist the weak brainwashing power of Indian Poker.

The so-called mastermind seemed to have a bad taste in wanting to see her make a fool of herself or succumb to her desires. Thinking of this, Shokuhou Misaki couldn't help but frown. She felt that the other party's malice was too petty.

However, Shokuhou Misaki immediately realized that the term brainwashing was just a wishful thinking in Hojo Ayaka's memory, an idea that came to her after she understood the operating principles of Indian Poker.

What the mastermind behind the scenes named Mitsuari Aiyu really wants to do may not be a simple brainwashing effect, but something deeper hidden in the cards or dreams.

More importantly, in Hojo Cailing's memory, the specially customized Indian playing cards were being mass-produced by Mitsuari Aiyu. If the purpose was to spread them, they should have already formed a large scale of dissemination.

This part of the memory seemed to be confirmed by Shokuhou Misaki. Recently, she did find some unusual Indian pokers, which were in sharp contrast to most Indian pokers.

As long as the Indian Poker, including the information inside it, is regarded as an extension of the human brain in the material world, and an environment is created to induce the internal information of the cards to overflow, Shokuhou Misaki will be able to obtain some of the intelligence inside without using the Indian Poker. This is a practical application of her ability.

This kind of reading does not require going through the dream in the card, which is convenient and safe. It only reads some information left by the gifted dreamer. After all, the formation of dreams must be reproduced with the cooperation of the brain, and Shokuhou Misaki skipped this process.

However, a special card she recently obtained was specially designed with the ability to resist mind reading, which was also a technology originated from the talent laboratory.

This behavior released a malice that was obvious enough, but with today's attack, the other party's malice was blatantly thrown in Shokuhou Misaki's face.

"But it comes back to the previous question. Mitsuari Ayu was able to tell Hojo Ayane this information openly, which in a way was equivalent to indirectly telling me."

"So, whether the kidnapping was successful or not, she was guiding me to actively read the contents of these customized cards. It's just that one method was led by her, and the other one was for me to try on my own. As for the anti-mind-reading method, from this perspective, it seems like a way to deliberately attract my attention."

"If you read the information in the card from the outside, you can only get the guided information, not the dream itself. And this Mitsuari-san knows my abilities very well and has even predicted my possible actions."

"Then it is important to find out what is written on the card."

Shokuhou Misaki thought about it and a serious expression appeared on her face.

She felt that there was nothing wrong with her speculation about this incident, but her curiosity about that kind of customized cards became even stronger.

Shokuhou Misaki also thought about trying to find a little white mouse to read the cards, or directly find someone who had read this kind of cards.

But in fact, once Mitsuari Aiyu has tampered with the dream itself, reading other people's dream memories is no different from directly using the card to read them.

When Shokuhou Misaki read the memories before, she also took the initiative to avoid the attacker's memories of the actual dreams in the cards.

"Wait, there seems to be something wrong."

Shokuhou Misaki's expression suddenly froze, as if she had discovered a contradiction.

"It can now be concluded that the Indian poker cards that Mitsuari Aiyu made privately are not the ones that are now widely distributed in Academy City."

"Mitoa Aiyu is more like a natural dreamer or a character who uses cards to do evil, rather than the person who actually started spreading the cards first."

Thinking of this, Shokuhou Misaki felt a strange emotion in her heart, as if something she had always wanted to do had been preempted by someone else.

She can endure the tremendous power brought by Indian Poker, but that doesn't mean others can. It seems that Mitsuari Aiyu is also a user of the psychological system. The specific information about her ability can be found out by just a little investigation of the school records.

However, once such a conclusion was reached, the incident caused by Indian Poker seemed to have some more twists and turns, making Shokuhou Misaki feel a little tricky.

Chapter 469: Attached

Shokuhou Misaki, who has obtained a lot of information from Hojo Ayari's memory, is thinking about how to deal with the situation that may become increasingly worse in the future. Perhaps she can get more clues from the route the other party took to kidnap her.

The most eye-catching one should be the end point of the kidnapping route, an unremarkable abandoned factory.

Of course, Hojo Ayane's brother is also one of the clues. He once suffered from partial sensory abnormalities due to an experimental accident. More importantly, he seemed to be a researcher in the artificial room.

However, the other party should be part of the internal evolution plan. As for the researchers of the external brain replacement plan, Shokuhou Misaki is familiar with each of them.

The reason why Hojo Ayane accepted the task of kidnapping herself was because Mitsuari Ayu made her believe that she had a way to help Hojo Ayane's brother return to normal.

"Brainwashing is only part of the function of Indian Poker, and it was not even a small part in the eyes of the researchers at the time."

"Its most primitive function is related to ability development, and is a means used in the internal evolution plan to create esper humans. So is Mitsuari planning to use this poker to create a new esper, or is he planning something else?"

"But as far as I know, including the two projects of external brain replacement and internal evolution, the real purpose of those adults is no longer to create super-powered people. Just like the brainwashing ability of Indian poker, super-powered people are just a by-product of the real purpose, like a candy to stabilize the students' emotions."

Shokuhou Misaki paced on the spot, her soft golden hair rising and falling uncontrollably with the air around her.

At this moment, she recalled her past in the factory, and strange emotions flashed in her eyes.

The deep darkness of Academy City is actually firmly rooted in its surface, and the difference between the two lies only in which set of rules applies.

The value of people with super powers in Academy City is important, but not as important as ordinary students imagine.

For the bigwigs in the Governing Council, the rare number of people with super powers is undoubtedly a positive asset, but once their number becomes excessive, they also have the potential to become a negative asset.

After having the experience and ability to train people with super powers stably, Academy City actually no longer has the actual need to train more people with super powers. Because as long as there is a screening of quality judgment and resource investment, there is a probability of producing people with super powers. Training people with super powers has long become an optional project.

Even for the sake of city safety and stability, the General Council is planning to reduce the training program for people with super powers.