Popularity is everything; I play a super genius

"So, do you believe me?"

"Of course I believe it!"

Unlike her, Saki is a genuine genius.

He can do anything and never lets anyone down.

"Well then, since you don't believe in yourself—"

Then trust me, trust your own judgment.

In an instant, accept it.

You can do it, you definitely can, you absolutely can do it.

Because that's what I said.

It was as if Saki's voice was ringing in my ears once again.

With a sudden burst of strength, he shakily climbed up from the ring.

She turned around and looked down at the arena.

Saki, who was sitting in a wheelchair, seemed to be saying something to her.

At that moment, her head was buzzing, but she could still vaguely hear it.

At this moment, what Saki said to her was—

"Run, run, Setsuna!"

In an instant, I remembered.

That day, after losing to Zero and being completely rejected by that woman, this happened.

……

That day.

In an instant, he ran out of that house.

She ran desperately, like a madwoman.

Breathing burned my lungs, and my vision began to blur.

She ran faster and faster.

Gradually, it became so fast it started to seem unbelievable.

Then, something inside the body broke off, and then something new was born.

At that moment, an echo of awakening resonated.

A fleeting echo is born in the running.

And that first all-out sprint was for—

Escape that home.

……

Looking at the woman opposite me, who was swaying as she stood up.

Zero is incomprehensible.

"Aya, why are you forcing yourself?"

"Don't call me that name! My name is Setsuna!"

From the day she ran away from home, she had already made up her mind.

From that moment on, she decided to become herself!

and so--

Run, run, in an instant!

The difference this time is that the run is not an escape.

Instead, they rushed towards!

The moment the thought arose, I took a step.

Her echo core hummed like never before as she ran!

At first, there were fine tremors, like the first crack appearing on an eggshell. Then, with each step she took, the crack spread and deepened, extending from the core surface into the depths!

Something is breaking apart, and something else is taking shape.

She ran faster and faster, and the speed at which she shattered also increased.

What shattered was the life her mother had always defined for her—

Failures, useless things, people who are not chosen.

What took shape was the self she truly longed to become.

At this moment, a fleeting realization finally caught up with her echo!

The energy of the heart exploded while running, not out of control, but rather a long-accumulated torrent finally breaking through the dam!

Those three epic fragments—

The treasure that Saki gave her, which she considered "unworthy of" to possess, shone brightly at the same moment, spinning rapidly around her core as it was undergoing fission.

With each rotation, a ray of light detaches from the fragments and merges into the core crack.

The cracks were filled with light, like the veins of a leaf, like the cracks in the earth, like the marks left by lightning in the night sky!

The speed increased faster and faster in an instant.

Afterimages began to emerge from behind her, one, three, countless!

It is no longer the scattered trail of an escape, but an extension with direction and will.

Each afterimage ran in a different direction, each one so real that it was enough to confuse the echoes released by Wuma Zero.

The core form changes as it runs.

The blinding light gradually subsided as it moved at high speed.

Finally, the new Echo Core is fully formed!

It is completely translucent, with a stream of blazing white light flowing inside, like a sun compressed to its extreme.

A new lineage name flashed through Setsuna's mind—

【Chasing the Light】.

From [Flash Shadow] to [Chasing Light]

From fleeing at full speed to rushing towards it at full speed.

She ran towards becoming the person she wanted to be!

She raised her head in an instant, her gaze falling on Wuma Ling.

She ran without stopping.

Because running is her evolution!

This time, there was no trace, no warning.

She simply appeared where she wanted to be.

"?"

Seeing that her sister still wanted to fight, Wuma Ling had no choice but to accompany her.

Her circuitry unfolded once again.

This time, she activated seven echoes simultaneously—

Trajectory prediction locks in location, ground spikes block the ground, wind binds and slows down, lightning nets are deployed deep, and ice walls block escape routes.

In addition, there are two layers of superimposed spiritual energy vibration fields.

Seven layers of barriers weave the arena into an impenetrable net.

There are no blind spots, no gaps, and no paths that can be traversed.

However, it was unaffected.

Wu Ma Ling's pupils contracted slightly.

Her trajectory prediction clearly captured the exact landing point in an instant...

However, that wasn't the landing point; it was an afterimage.

The true moment appeared three feet to her left, and vanished again the instant she invoked the echo.

When Wuma Zero retrieves echoes from the catalog, it can skip the construction of the loop, achieving theoretical instantaneous activation.

However, her echo still needs to be locked onto a target before it can be released.

However, she couldn't lock onto Setsuna...

Wu Ma Ling retrieved seventeen different echoes in succession.

Of the seventeen kinds, none could catch up to a fleeting moment.

A clear look of bewilderment appeared on the girl's usually expressionless face.

It's like a finely tuned machine encountering an instruction it can't handle.

She tilted her head, watching the figure moving freely in the ring, not understanding what was happening.

Why did her sister suddenly change?

It changed so fast, so fast.

Of course, the most effective way to deal with speed-type Echoers is to use a wide-area AOE Echo to cover them.

Wu Ma Ling is well aware of this basic common sense.

But she couldn't do it.

Because, while the Living Catalog is powerful, it also has its inherent flaws.

The operating logic of the [Living Catalog] is essentially the "analysis", "replication" and "storage" of echoes.

Wuma Zero needs to witness the complete release process of an echo firsthand, understand its circuit structure, the flow of the heart element, and the frequency of spiritual resonance before he can include it in the catalog and call it later.

However, there is a crucial limitation to this—

The release of an echo of a particular spectrum requires the corresponding mental element.

Wuma Zero does not possess multiple attribute-based mental elements.

The reason she can still use echoes from other lineages is because she spent a lot of time collecting different types of heart essence in the sea of ​​consciousness as "ink" for later use.

To use [Wind Bind], you need to prepare enough Wind-type Heart Essence in advance.

To use [Earth Spike], you need to prepare enough Earth-type Core Elements in advance.

Therefore, behind every response lies a great deal of energy and time that she has invested in advance.

Those AOE echoes with huge coverage require an extremely large amount of mana.

A single, complete release might consume all the "ink" she has stored up for a long time.

Therefore, from a practical point of view, she usually collects small to medium-sized echoes where the energy consumption is below a certain threshold.

Only those responses could support her continuous use of them in actual combat.

Therefore, at this moment, Wuma Zero was at a loss as to how quickly the speed suddenly "upgraded".

……

In an instant, his figure left countless afterimages on the arena, each one in a different direction, each one so real that it could deceive the echoes released by Wuma Ling.

Wu Ma Ling's echo chased after her from behind, but it was always a step behind.

He ran across the arena in an instant.

Keep running.

Those insurmountable gaps in talent that once filled her with despair are now being crossed inch by inch by her.