The Legend of Level 0 in Academy City

After hanging up the phone, Inoue Hideka used the time she spent traveling to start thinking about and familiarizing herself with the abilities she had just acquired from Shokuhou Misaki.

Misaki Shokuhou's abilities are almost polar opposites depending on the group she is facing.

Against opponents who cannot resist mental attacks, he is basically invincible;

However, if the opponent has defensive means, her ability suddenly becomes useless.

For example, Accelerator, or electric ability users like Misaka Mikoto, or most magicians with mental barriers, etc., her abilities would be very limited in their effectiveness against these people.

However, even so, there's a reason why Misaki Shokuhou is still ranked No. 5 among espers.

Inoue Hideka believes that her abilities are more suited for support than for fighting enemies.

In medicine, it can replace anesthesia; during wartime, it can be used to read intelligence on key enemy personnel, extract memory information from critical items at a certain time, or control and interfere with weaker enemy personnel. In short, its auxiliary role is far greater than its role in direct combat.

Furthermore, Inoue Hideka's ability to use mental control through an external brain differs somewhat from that of Shokuhou Misaki.

To make her overwhelming 'mental control' power easier to use, Misaki Shokuhou established 'self-rules' to refine the power.

Her 'self-rule' is that she must point the remote control at the target, which is why Misaki Shokuhou always holds the remote control and points it at the target she wants to control when using her ability.

However, these were just self-imposed rules she set; Inoue Hideka, who had the ability to use an external brain to assist her, was not subject to these restrictions.

Just like when Kihara Gensei obtained the external brain authorization, he did not make any unnecessary movements when using his ability.

Thinking this way saves a lot of trouble.

After all, it might look cool for a beautiful girl like Misaki Shokuhou to use her abilities on people with a remote control, but seeing a rough guy like Inoue Hidekazu holding a remote control and pressing buttons on people... well, that scene...

Inoue Hideka couldn't help but get goosebumps at the thought; such a scene was just too childish!

Ding!

The elevator doors opened.

Lost in thought, Inoue Hideka had already entered the 25th floor where the 'Group' was located.

Yuki Toshikawa was waiting at the elevator door. Upon seeing Inoue Hidekazu, he respectfully stepped forward and greeted him:

"minister!"

"kindness."

After glancing at Yuki Toshikawa, Inoue Hideka casually nodded and walked directly across the river toward the monitoring room.

"Yuki, has anything been moved from the monitoring room?"

"Aside from moving Akiyama's body out, nothing else has been touched so far."

"Okay. I need to investigate Akiyama's cause of death now, we'll talk about other things later."

"Oh well!"

Yuki Rikawa had no idea how Inoue Hideka was going to investigate, so he responded with a puzzled look and jogged a few steps to catch up with Inoue Hideka.

------

Misaki Shokuhou stood at the door of the talent workshop, locked the door, and quietly stayed in place, watching the back of Inoue Hideka, who was walking away while making a phone call.

Only after Inoue Eika's figure gradually disappeared into the night did Shokuhou Misaki walk to the roadside and hail a taxi.

As the car exhaust fumes dissipated, the taxi sped past a series of streetlights and finally stopped in front of a hospital in the seventh school district.

Misaki Shokuhou got out of the car, stopped at the hospital entrance, and looked up at the huge, gleaming lettering hanging above—"Affiliated Hospital of a Certain University."

She was familiar with this hospital.

A year ago, the boy she had been longing for was diagnosed with 'cognitive circuit damage' at this very hospital.

'Cognitive circuit damage' is the condition that prevents the boy from remembering her even when someone talks to him about her.

At the same time, this hospital was also the place where she had seen the boy undergoing brain experiments when she was examining the memories of another boy.

call……

Misaki Shokuhou slowly exhaled a cool breath; it was already quite chilly at this time of year in early autumn.

She stopped standing at the hospital entrance, lifted her feet, and walked towards the office of Dr. Guatai that she remembered.

After knocking on the door several times and confirming that no one was inside, Misaki Shokuhou followed the boy's memory and headed towards the hospital's backyard.

------

'Group', monitoring room.

Inoue Hideka stood at the doorway, looking around the room with a somber expression.

The room was a bit messy.

There was a dried bloodstain on the computer desk, and scattered fragments of a cell phone were carelessly tossed about underneath, seemingly telling of the owner's sorrow and loneliness.

Inoue Hideka stepped forward, placed her hand on the shards of the phone, and secretly activated her 'mental control' ability.

Mind reading, the ability to extract memories from objects touched by the hand, is one of Misaki Shokuhou's many mental abilities, and one of the few abilities that can be used on unconscious objects.

The first image that came to Inoue Hideka's mind was of Akiyama Yan answering his phone call that afternoon.

Later, she called Misaka Mikoto on her phone, and then...

The phone flew out of Qiushan Yan's hand and was then crushed by someone's foot.

That was the end of it.

Inoue Hideka got up and placed her hand on the computer desk again, beginning to retrieve the memories of the computer desk after the phone was damaged.

Inoue Hideka saw Akiyama Yan being pinned to the table, yet she still secretly persisted in operating the computer, before being violently slammed against the computer desk.

After a brief blank screen, Akiyama Yan's hand pressed the Enter key, and then her body slumped limply onto the computer desk.

"call!"

Inoue Hideka sighed inwardly, straightened up, bowed deeply towards the computer desk where Akiyama Yan had been sitting, and solemnly said:

"Thank you, Akiyama! Don't worry, I... will definitely avenge you! And I will cherish the rest of my life that you gave your life for!"

Although there is a gap in the middle, even these gaps are enough for Inoue Hideka to understand how much pain Akiyama Yan had endured for her sake!

Especially in the photos, her once full head of black hair has vanished...

Inoue Hideka didn't want to recall what Akiyama Yan looked like before he died. He knew that Akiyama Yan would never want him to see his ugly appearance.

Stopping her thoughts, Inoue Hideka turned and walked towards the door, asking Yuki Toshikawa, who was standing at the door, "..."

"Any news about the weapons expert?"

"Yes, he is said to be one of the top ten weapons experts in Academy City. He can also do the job of gilding swords and other weapons, as the minister mentioned."

Chapter 341 Loving and Being Loved: Both Lead to Hurt

Inside a room in the backyard of a university-affiliated hospital.

Misaki Shokuhou's eyes flashed with sadness as she looked at the experimental table in front of her.

Is this where that idiot endured the same pain that the original person endured, and conducted the experiment?

Misaki Shokuhou had no idea what that feeling was like.

But she knew that even the spiky-haired boy was forced to experience that kind of pain while in a state of blurred consciousness.

But this fool, while fully conscious, chose to willingly endure that kind of pain.

Misaki Shokuhou was at a loss for words.

Why are there people in this world who are even more idiotic than idiots?

The most unbelievable thing is that the idiot actually does this kind of experiment every day!

Every day, I have to willingly accept that kind of pain...

Just thinking about Misaki Shokuhou is terrifying.

This bastard, even if he's not a super, ultimate, invincible masochist, he's definitely an extremely brain-dead idiot!

Shokuhou Misaki cursed inwardly and turned to look at Meito Tsurugi, who was waiting to the side.

"Now that I'm here, the doctor probably already knows what's going on, right? I already know what happened, so could you please stop helping that idiot do something foolish?"

"If I could, I certainly wouldn't want to do this. But... looking at that boy, who could say no?"

The Soul Chaser of the Underworld had been waiting for the girl to speak ever since she entered.

Seeing that the girl finally spoke, and immediately touched his sore spot, he shook his head and said helplessly.

"Alas! Do you know... what he said when he convinced me to conduct the experiment?"

With a sigh, Mizuki turned her head, put her hands behind her back, and faced away from Misaki Shokuhou.

Not hearing a response from Misaki Shokuhou, Meito Tsurugi ignored her and continued:

"He said—Doctor, do you know how much that girl liked that boy in the tragedy a year ago? A whole year has passed, do you know how many times the girl repeated her name in front of the boy, and how many times the boy forgot the girl who kept repeating her name over and over again?"

"He said—she knew perfectly well that no matter how many times she said it, the boy would forget it the moment she turned away."

He said—she knew perfectly well that her feelings could not be reciprocated, yet she still watched over him from afar.

"He said—she knew that repeatedly introducing herself would only cause her more heartache, yet she still couldn't help but want to say a few words to the boy, like a moth drawn to a flame. Even if, in the next second, these would become memories that belonged only to her."

Misaki Shokuhou's gaze gradually shifted from initial surprise at how clearly an old man could remember her, to sorrow.

Of course she knew all of this.

Having read Inoue Hideka's memories, she naturally knew everything he had experienced.

Misaki Shokuhou knew everything about him: his understanding of her, his feelings for her, and the things he had done for her.

However, what flashes by like a television screen is absolutely different from reality.

As the ancient voice of the Netherworld Soul Chaser recounted the words these young men had once spoken, Misaki Shokuhou's shoulders gradually began to tremble.

He also said that he just wanted to save this silly girl.

The Soul Chaser of the Underworld paused here, sighed softly, and then continued:

"I don't have the superpower of photographic memory, but every word the boy said back then is still completely etched in my brain. And when I asked the boy, 'You love that girl so much, who should save you?' Guess what he said?"

Misaki Shokuhou didn't need to guess; having just seen Inoue Eika's memories today, that phrase immediately popped into her head:

I don't need to be saved.