On how PhDs become human evil

(Are the magicians in this world dressed so strangely?)

This was Bai Jie's third reaction.

Bai Jie was well aware of the effects of clothing on magicians. Some ritual spells had specific requirements for attire, but all of them required the caster to wear formal clothing. However, the clothing of these two people in front of him could hardly be called formal attire. In fact, one could be described as delinquent and the other as seductive. Look at that woman's long legs and belly; Bai Jie had seen several men leering at her.

"Ring ring!"

Suddenly, Bai Jie's phone rang, and when he answered it, Aleister's voice came through.

"Lord Bai Jie, if possible, please refrain from contacting those two."

"Wow, judging from your tone, it sounds like it would be very bad for me to come into contact with them."

"It's not that problem, but some unnecessary things might happen that could affect my plans. Please understand."

"...Why do I get the feeling that you're afraid of me?"

"You're joking. I have the utmost respect for you."

Listening to Aleister's tone, Bai Jie felt as if his image had somehow wandered into the world of Cthulhu. However, since Aleister had said so, he wasn't an unapproachable person. Besides, he really didn't want to get involved with the two mages in front of him.

......

While Bai Jie and Aleister were on the phone, Stiyl and Kanzaki Kaori were experiencing a storm of emotions.

"What the hell? When did a monster like this appear in Academy City?"

Stiyl stared at Bai Jie with trembling fear. Despite the sweltering heat, he felt an icy chill in his body. Although Bai Jie was simply standing normally in front of him, Stiyl felt a soul-crushing pressure and palpitations.

Dangerous, very dangerous, extremely dangerous!

Stiyl's survival instincts were frantically warning him to get away from Whitebeard immediately, and the same reaction happened to Kanzaki Kaori.

Unlike Stiyl, Kanzaki Kaori is not an ordinary magician, but one of only twenty-odd saints in the world. To put it simply, she is a nuclear bomb among magicians, able to use a portion of the power of the divine child, allowing her to enter a non-human realm for a period of time.

But perhaps precisely because of this, Kanzaki Kaori felt far more terror from Bai Jie than Stiyl did.

will die.

They will definitely die!

Kanzaki Kaori had only one thought in her mind: if she were to fight Bai Jie, she was certain that she would be the one to die, and she would be powerless to fight back! The sense of threat Bai Jie posed to her was like that of a lion to a rabbit—a natural enemy-like suppression!

There are only twenty saints in the world? A nuclear bomb in the magical realm?

Kanzaki Kaori didn't believe her power could affect Bai Jie at all; in fact, she felt that even if all the saints in the world joined forces, they couldn't defeat this seemingly harmless man in front of her.

However, this is to be expected. Kanzaki Kaori is a saint and has some of the characteristics of a divine child. In other words, she can use the power of the gods and has a certain connection with the gods. On the other hand, Bai Jie is a god-killer who kills gods and regards them as prey. It is not an exaggeration to say that Bai Jie is Kanzaki Kaori's natural enemy.

"that..."

(It's coming!)

(what to do?)

Seeing Bai Jie raise his hand towards them, Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl both tensed up at the same time. Kanzaki Kaori even started giving Stiyl a wink, urging him to run away quickly.

but--

"Although I don't know what you saw, I don't want to fight you, so can you please not be so wary?"

Unexpectedly, Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl were not attacked by Bai Jie, but neither of them dared to relax their guard.

"Does Your Excellency mean you have no intention of fighting?" Kanzaki Kaori asked.

"Well, I'm just passing by and I don't know you guys, so there's no need for us to fight. But if you want to fight me, I'm not unwilling to play along, just to pass the time."

Bai Jie's words made Kanzaki Kaori's heart tighten again.

(Just killing time... Ha, there are always people more capable than you, and the world is always a better place.)

"By the way, as the saying goes, meeting is fate, so I'll give you two a piece of advice," Bai Jie suddenly said.

"A single sentence?"

"Hmm, you two seem to be thinking about something, and if I do some quick calculations, I think it's related to your friend, right?"

You are right!

Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl's expressions froze. Just as Bai Jie had said, what they were thinking about was related to their friend, and a very important one at that.

Bai Jie pretended to count on his fingers and laughed, "Hmm, I see. I roughly understand the situation. Oh my, this is really interesting."

"Seeing is believing, you gentlemen. That's all I'll say for you. Farewell."

"Hearing is believing, seeing is believing... Wait a minute! What does this mean...?"

Before Kanzaki Kaori could press for further questions, Bai Jie, who was standing before them, vanished into the street as if he had never been there at all.

"Was that... Taoist magic from the Central Plains?"

"I don't know, but about that person... Stiyl, what do you think?"

"....I have no idea."

"That's true. Well then, let's go find Index first; we can't lose her."

Self-promoted "The Debt King's Idealistic Salvation"

Xia: Kevin, human abilities have limits. I've learned one thing from my short life... The more you use your strength and explore your abilities, the more you'll discover that your abilities have limits... Unless you surpass yourself.

Kevin (confused): What are you talking about, Xia!

Xia (wearing the Blank Key and taking out a card): I... don't want to use my own power anymore! Hand over your card!

This is my new book. The protagonist is a debt king, similar to Orb and Decade. He can transform, wield cards, and has a single romantic partner, Fu Hua... roughly speaking. You know I'm good at retconning my own stories.

Section 511, Chapter 11: Fantasy Master

After wandering around the Seventh School District for a long time, Bai Jie finally found Misaka Mikoto. When Bai Jie found her, not only Misaka Mikoto, but also Saten Ruiko was there.

However, what puzzled Bai Jie was that Saten Ruiko, who was usually extremely cheerful, seemed rather sullen and even a little worried at this moment.

Upon seeing Bai Jie arrive, Misaka Mikoto hurriedly stood up: "You're so slow! Half an hour has already passed!"

"Is it my fault? You know how far away my house is from here." Bai Jie shrugged. "So, what's the reason you called me out? It can't be because Zuo Tian is feeling down and wants me to give him some psychological counseling, can it?"

"You..." Misaka Mikoto sighed helplessly and sat back down in her seat. "If only it were that simple. Actually, things are a bit complicated. To start from the beginning... Have you ever heard of the Phantasm Master?"

"Imagine Mage? What's that?"

"...Judging from what you're saying, it seems you have absolutely no idea."

With another sigh, Misaka Mikoto began to explain to Bai Jie.

Level Upper is an urban legend that has recently begun to appear in Academy City. It is said to be something that can increase the user's ability level. Its true form is an audio file, or MP3 file. For some reason, playing it can increase the user's ability level to a certain extent. Recently, there have been quite a few ability users in Academy City who have suddenly increased their level.

However, these ability users almost all did a lot of reckless things because of their rapidly enhanced abilities, such as robbing banks, bullying those with lower abilities, and seeking revenge. In fact, the mastermind behind the bank robbery that Bai Jie and others encountered was someone who used the Imagine Breaker. He was originally just a level 1 ignition ability user, but during the bank robbery, his ability strength was definitely level 3.

"Hey, something like this has appeared in Academy City."

Bai Jie was somewhat surprised by the existence of the Imagine Master, but upon closer reflection, it wasn't hard to understand. The core of Academy City was ability development, so it wasn't impossible for an item for enhancing abilities to appear now.

"So, how is that Imagine Might and Magician doing now? Could something have happened to him?"

“Indeed.” Misaka Mikoto nodded. “Everyone who used the Imagine Breaker is now in a coma, and then… Ruiko used it too.”

Hearing this, Bai Jie couldn't help but turn his gaze to Saten Ruiko. He hadn't expected that this girl would use Imagine Might and Magic. After all, although she was a level 0, she usually seemed to not care about her ability level at all. But now it seemed that she actually hoped to be a high-level ability user, which was why she used Imagine Might and Magic.

"So, she's currently in a situation where she doesn't know when she might fall into a deep sleep?"

That's basically it.

"Hmm, I see. I understand the situation now. So, why did you call me out?"

"Aren't you a teacher? So I was wondering if you knew how to handle this situation..."

Misaka Mikoto's words made Bai Jie roll his eyes on the spot: "I'm telling you, you know my status as a teacher is basically nominal. I don't know a single thing about the technology in Academy City. How am I supposed to solve this?"

Although Bai Jie is also a scientist, he cannot process a document without any prior knowledge of it.

"If you asked me to research a clan's Viewpoint, I could definitely give you a solution, but right now I've only just learned what Viewpoint is. Your request is too much to ask."

However, despite saying that, Bai Jie still opened his clairvoyance. Although its main ability is to observe parallel worlds, Bai Jie's clairvoyance can also perform some of the abilities of a regular magic eye, such as observing the flow of magic power and analyzing physical conditions, similar to the spiritual vision in the Godslayer world.

In Bai Jie's eyes, Saten Ruiko's body was like a power strip, connected to several unknown wires. Her physical condition was not seriously affected, but her brain was gradually overloaded.

(Judging from this, the effect of the Phantasm Hunter shouldn't be a simple ability boost, but rather something like cloud computing.)

As a former chief scientist, Bai Jie may not be very familiar with the technology of Academy City, but he can still make connections to similar technologies. In his view, the so-called Imagine Master is actually a way to link the brains of multiple ability users through a special medium to perform shared calculations, thereby greatly increasing the ability users' computing power and thus improving their ability level.

To put it simply, if one computer can't do it, then use three or four computers to do it.

(These lines should be connected; cutting them directly should solve the problem, but the issue is... with my power, cutting them directly might cause brain damage in all of these people.)

Back in the Azur Lane world, the former Commander-in-Chief of Sakura Empire was accidentally affected by White Knight's power. Under the corruption of this world's evil, his brain died, leaving him in a vegetative state. If White Knight were to handle the current situation, probably everyone who has used Imagine Breaker would become an idiot under the influence of this world's evil, or even develop mental illness. The headlines in Academy City would then read: "Shocking! Hundreds of mentally ill patients appear in Academy City overnight!"

After that, Bai Jie will probably be called into a small room for a talk by Aleister.

Putting away his clairvoyance, Bai Jie said, "Well, I'm powerless at this stage. My abilities aren't suited for situations requiring high precision."

Misaka Mikoto was not surprised by Bai Jie's answer, but her expression visibly worsened.

"Hey, Misaka-senpai."

Saten Ruiko, who had been silent all along, finally spoke.

Will I faint like everyone else?

"......Um."

"I see... I really admire Misaka-senpai for having such amazing abilities."

Misaka Mikoto is one of only seven Level 5s in Academy City. This level is something that Saten Ruiko could only dream of. She doesn't even dare to dream of becoming Level 5. She would be content with just Level 3.

But no matter how much time passes, no matter how many medications she takes, or how many times she undergoes ability development, she remains at level 0, and can only stir a tiny breeze in her palm.

She was envious and jealous of those at higher levels, which is why she started using the Fantasy Master, just so she wouldn't be a perpetually bottom-ranked level 0.

P.S.: I'm experiencing writer's block, it's really frustrating.