One-way traffic

"It doesn't matter how you handle this kind of thing."

Huh? The two were taken aback; they still didn't understand what Accelerator was trying to say.

"Still don't understand?"

The first person, with a mocking expression, pointed his hand at the top of the blackboard.

He gave his answer.

"What kind of blackboard could have survived so perfectly after the entire room was burned to the ground?"

--What?!

They were completely shocked to discover that, apart from the blackboard, the entire room had been razed to the ground by the previous fire.

Only this blackboard seemed to be isolated, with not a single trace of it to be found.

Is this really possible for a blackboard that is commonly used by teachers?

Accelerator slammed the butt of his pistol into the center of the blackboard, creating an echo.

It is hollow.

There must be something else hidden behind this blackboard.

"Hatsune, use your knife to smash this blackboard open."

"Huh? Me, shall I do it?"

Hatsune Miku seemed a little nervous, but she still gripped her katana tightly and slammed it hard against the blackboard.

It must be said that although this young lady usually behaves too amiably, she is quite skilled when she actually fights, and it is clear that she has indeed learned some swordsmanship.

Bang! The powerful blow from the katana shattered the blackboard into pieces.

A rather large opening appeared before them.

"It really is! It's really empty inside!"

"Wow, that's impressive! A top student really is the epitome of strength!"

"Tsk, this has nothing to do with knowledge or anything like that, it's just simple common sense."

The first one clicked his tongue in annoyance and muttered something under his breath.

"...and I've been in the dark world for so long that I've long since figured out this shitty practice."

When they opened the blackboard further, they found that it was indeed a spacious, and very large, room.

The room itself was empty, but a staircase leading straight down was revealed in front of them.

This is the key point, which shows that this building itself is no ordinary place.

"It's a good thing you guys were lucky to find a place like this; it saved you a lot of trouble."

Accelerator walked in first, leaning on his cane, and went straight down the stairs, kicking open the door in front of him.

A much larger room was revealed.

No, this place is less a room and more describable by a specific pronoun.

research room.

The computers placed on the left and right sides, along with various instruments not far away, all looked like the kind of laboratory that only scientists would use.

This place is definitely not a normal place.

The three of them walked into the room with slight surprise, and finally focused their attention on the deepest part of the room.

That was a computer, a very large computer.

Accelerator glanced at a table on the side, where there were quite a few USB drives. He randomly picked one up and plugged it into the computer.

The computer has successfully booted up.

"It's open! But...aren't all the files inside corrupted?"

Even Takibayashi could tell that the file on the desktop was just a string of gibberish, no matter how he looked at it.

But that's not actually the case.

"This is just a simple form of encryption."

The first person immediately turned off the electrodes on his neck and threw his cane aside.

"If I use my abilities, I can reverse-engineer the internal data using electrical current, so that even without proper decoding, I can still extract the internal information."

"But is this really the source code for the zombie virus we're looking for? And ultimately, why would source code be placed in a place like this?"

"I wouldn't care about something like that."

The first person ignored the guy next to him and put his hand directly on the computer's power cord.

A sharp crackling sound—a burst of deep blue electricity flashed in an instant.

The strongest ability in Academy City is the power to control all energy directions, whether it is electricity, light, or power; as long as it is energy, it can be controlled by him.

Under certain conditions, at his peak, Accelerator could even manipulate bioelectricity to analyze the human brain, allowing him to arbitrarily delete or modify human memories.

Under Takibayashi's gaze, the file on the computer screen changed instantly.

Like a hacker intrusion, a black and white screen spanned the computer, and countless strings of data flashed by instantly, enough to make him dizzy just by looking at them, while Accelerator's face remained completely calm.

Sure enough, top students are top students; the generation gap between them and ordinary people is unimaginable.

Having realized this, Takibayashi completely gave up the idea of ​​making fun of it.

——————————————————————————————————————

While the first person was decoding the information, Hatsune Miku began to observe the surroundings of the room.

She walked around the entire room and finally discovered that there was not only data on the computer, but also some handwritten reports on the tables around the room.

"Biological DNA binding and blood virus extraction report... So this really is the origin of the zombie virus?"

If that's the case, maybe the first wave of people infected and turned into zombies were students in this school building.

Thinking about this, Hatsune Miku's face became somewhat uncomfortable.

"Guo, it's probably best not to look at these things."

The idol-type girl put the file back on the table with a lingering sense of fear, shook her head, and felt that these things were really hard to imagine.

Or... I should go back to Mr. Ichika and Mr. Takibayashi.

With that thought in mind, the girl turned around and prepared to leave.

then.

A hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Excuse me... who is this?"

Hatsune Miku instinctively and politely wanted to ask the person behind her, but she quickly realized that something was wrong.

—In this city, besides them, where else are there humans?

Or.

This is not human.

At that moment, the girl with pigtails had an unimaginable look of panic on her face.

Chapter Seventeen: All Under Your Command, the Strongest Villain

If you want to analyze the data in front of you by reverse engineering, it's not a difficult task for the first person.

As a series of data flashed before his eyes, he was able to handle everything steadily from beginning to end. For Accelerator, simple machine information was much simpler than the complexity of the human brain.

The human brain is a truly unknown thing. It is related to psychology and theology. The books about the so-called soul have also been read by Accelerator. In his opinion, the soul may be somewhat unrealistic, but it should be something that is invisible and truly exists.

He can manipulate everything with his abilities, and his precision is such that he can even manipulate human bioelectricity to completely control the brain. But this does not mean that Accelerator can access that deeper level.

If he could understand it more clearly.

It's not simply about increasing the strength of one's abilities, but rather about broadening the scope of one's understanding.

Perhaps, the number one in Academy City will grow to a level that even he himself cannot imagine.

—If only he could understand and control everything he didn't know.

"Aaaaaaahh ...

what?

The first person's thoughts were interrupted, and he and Takibayashi behind him both heard such a sound.

At the same moment, a heavy voice came over.

Thump—! It was the sound of a door being smashed open, and as the sound came, dust billowed up in the area behind them.

Several shadowy figures emerged.

"What are you doing?"

"what happened?!"

The first person turned around with Takibayashi. Accelerator had already reverse-engineered all the data and stored it on a USB drive, meaning he had turned off the electrodes on his neck.

If he could, he wouldn't want to use his abilities anymore, because that was already a race against time.

He and Takibayashi silently drew the guns from their waists and aimed them directly in front of them.

Many shadows appeared before their eyes.

—And the twin-tailed idol girl caught by one of the shadows.

"Hatsune Miku-chan!"

The shadow belonged to Hatsune Miku, who was being dragged backward by some strange force.

It was an invisible force that defied the laws of physics.

Under their watchful eyes, the girl disappeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"You bastard...!"

The first one mercilessly used his pistol to blow the heads off all the zombies in front of him.

Hatsune Miku has been captured by an unseen force, and there is no way to rescue her without a more powerful force.

With that thought in mind, he decided to turn on his electrodes, which were running low on power.

Just the next moment.

"I advise you not to do that."

What? Accelerator stood there, slightly taken aback.

There was a voice, but it wasn't Takibayashi's, nor was it Hatsune Miku's voice; it was the voice of a completely unfamiliar man.

The other party, without anyone knowing where they were, spread their voice throughout the surrounding area.

“Your power should only work through the electrodes on your neck. The whole city is without power right now, and I don’t think wasting your energy on something useless will help you at all.”

"Hey! Who are you?!"

Takibayashi looked around warily, but despite searching everywhere, he still couldn't find a single person.

But Accelerator understood one thing.

"I see... So that's how it is?"

A sinister grin spread across his face as he looked at the figure whose whereabouts were unknown.

"You're the guy who set me up before, right?"

The guy cut off the power to the entire city, controlled the zombies to blow up their villas along with all the resources inside, and even manipulated the zombies to attack them.

That must be the owner of that voice.

"So you finally couldn't hold back and came out, huh? You lowlife. I thought you would just keep living like this until you die of old age."

"The most important thing about humans is intelligence. As a qualified human being, I don't think it would be a wise decision to run out and face a monster like you head-on."

Accelerator tried to analyze the source of the sound, but the sound was like a loudspeaker in a square, making it impossible to discern the actual source.

"I just want to make a deal with you."