On how PhDs become human evil

"How could that be? A decade or two ago, I might have been happy to get involved, but now I'm basically an observer. As long as you don't involve me or interfere with my affairs, I generally won't do anything. After all, I'm just a passerby in this world."

"Of course, it's fine if you don't tell me. I can find out myself anyway. I can just use my telescope to solve the problem."

Having experienced so many worlds, Bai Jie is no longer the naive young man he used to be, always eager to get involved in interesting things—though he still does now—but compared to before, he's not as enthusiastic now. As he said, he's basically an observer, only intervening when someone really can't stand it or when it gets on his nerves.

Aleister fell silent again upon hearing Bai Jie's explanation.

"...There are two main plans involving Misaka Mikoto," Aleister revealed. "The mass production of espers is a plan, and the absolute esper plan is a plan. The former aims to mass-produce espers for military purposes, while the latter aims to achieve level 6, which is the absolute esper."

"Oh, I see. That's all for now. I'll look up the details myself later. Is everything alright? If not, I'll hang up."

After saying that, Bai Jie hung up the phone before Aleister could say anything.

I looked at the computer, closed Steam, and brought up the Academy City library.

"Oh, Aleister is such a good person. I was just bored, and he gave me something to do... the mass production of ability users and the absolute ability user project, right?"

Completely disregarding Academy City's firewall, Byakuya used the corrosive properties of the Evil of This World to break into Academy City's library and began searching for the two plans Aleister had mentioned.

Soon, Bai Jie discovered the mass production plan for espers. Just as Aleister had said, the plan was to use Misaka Mikoto's DNA sample to create clones of her in order to mass-produce espers. Unfortunately, the cloned Misaka Mikoto only had level 2 abilities, and the entire plan was scrapped.

Then came the Absolute Ability User Project.

After reviewing the entire plan, Bai Jie's lips curled into an even wider smile.

"It seems...it's necessary to get some psychological counseling from this Accelerator."

Section 525, Chapter 25: Accelerator feels he's got it.

Absolute Ability User, Level 6

The ultimate goal of Academy City's research on ability users.

"With a mortal body, listening to the will of the heavens"—this is the definition of an Absolute Ability User. To achieve this goal, the Absolute Ability User Project was born.

Through the meticulous calculations of the tree diagram designer, only Accelerator, ranked first among the seven Level 5 espers in Academy City, has the opportunity to evolve into an absolute Level 5 esper, but it will take him more than 250 years of general course training to evolve into an absolute Level 5 esper.

Everyone knows that an ordinary person cannot live for 250 years, which is two and a half centuries, unless Accelerator becomes an immortal being like Whitebeard.

Since there is no way to enable a person to live for 250 years, the designers of the tree diagram found another method: to promote the growth of abilities through actual combat. This involves preparing specific battlefields and letting the battles proceed according to plan in order to control the direction of ability growth in actual combat.

To put it simply, it's about increasing Accelerator's experience points.

If we consider leveling up a user's ability level as a game, then Accelerator is currently trying to level up from level five to level six. This level up requires a huge amount of experience points, and it would take 250 years if he just stayed at home and leveled up automatically. So, to speed things up, Accelerator was sent out to kill monsters and level up.

According to the calculations of the tree diagram designer, if Accelerator is prepared to kill the Railgun (Misaka Mikoto) 128 times in 128 different battlefields, he can evolve into an absolute power user.

However, since it was impossible to prepare 128 railguns, the experiment targeted the clones of Misaka Mikoto—the "Sisters"—in the mass production of espers that was being carried out at the same time. Since the mass-produced "Sisters" had abilities that were less than 1% of the original railgun's—that is, level 2—according to the calculations of the tree diagram designer, the same goal could be achieved by preparing 20000 battlefields and 20,000 "Sisters".

To be honest, when Bai Jie saw this result on the computer, he immediately spat out the half-finished cola he was drinking, because the conclusion was simply too unreasonable.

Killing 20,000 opponents who are mere weaklings to Accelerator would allow him to level up? Evolve into an absolute power user capable of understanding the will of God? If it were that easy to transcend humanity on a spiritual level, then Bai Jie's nearly 100 years of life would have been wasted.

Unfortunately, the tree diagram was designed by the most advanced computer in the entire Academy City, and its conclusions were 100% accurate. This led the scientists in the entire Academy City to believe in the conclusions as if they had been brainwashed, which was incredibly stupid!

Bai Jie hasn't revealed his plans for the Absolute Ability User project to Misaka Mikoto yet. If that naive and innocent young lady knew about the dark side of Academy City, she might lose her mind and go berserk. Plus, she just became a Kamen Rider, so if she went berserk, she might cause a major power outage in the entire Academy City.

"Well, I'm just sitting at home doing nothing anyway, might as well go out for a walk."

With this in mind, Bai Jie used spatial teleportation to leave his home.

The location of the latest experiment was—

————————————————————————

In a small alley in the 7th school district, Misaka Mikoto, wearing military goggles, was fleeing in a disheveled state.

Minutes earlier, on a building, she attempted to snipe at the Accident vehicle from a distance with a sniper rifle, but failed. Since then, she has been in this escape situation, aiming to create distance between herself and the Accident vehicle.

According to intelligence, Accelerator's ability is only effective within the area his skin touches, so the primary task now is to create distance and wait until they reach a safe zone before continuing the attack.

This is the experience that Misaka Sisters learned from dying more than 10,000 times.

This is undoubtedly the right idea, but unfortunately, the being known as Accelerator is the biggest monster in Academy City, and his actions are beyond the comprehension of the Misaka Sisters.

"Ahh, it ran faster than usual this time, and the escape route was pretty good too. It seems that even dolls know how to evolve."

At the end of the route the Misaka Sisters took to escape, a white-haired boy in a black shirt stood there and laughed.

White hair and skin, red pupils, a slender figure, muscular hands and feet, a gaze that blends murderous intent and madness, and a twisted mouth that seems to have given up on the world... This boy is none other than Accelerator, the strongest esper who reigns over the 2.3 million people of Academy City.

Seeing the Misaka Sisters clutching their bleeding shoulder, Accelerator grinned maniacally: "What's wrong? Not running anymore? Your legs are too weak to even stand?"

"Once the target is spotted, proceed. Predict the next escape route. Do—Misaka 10032 retreats while considering the retreat plan."

Hearing Misaka say that made Accelerator even happier.

"Hehehe! Not bad! Keep running like that, don't let me catch you too soon!"

"That kind of mesmerizing laughter really reminds me of Li Dou's maniacal laughter. Don't your throats hurt?"

Just then, a vortex suddenly appeared behind Misaka Sisters, and then Bai Jie appeared in the alley and helped Misaka Sisters who were staggering and trying to run away.

Looking at the Misaka Sisters lying in his arms, Bai Jie nodded: "Hmm, good, not dead yet. Although even if they were dead, I could bring them back as long as they haven't been dead for more than a hundred years, but it's best if they're not dead. Wait a moment, I'll heal your wounds."

Although healing magic is not Bai Jie's forte, it is only relatively speaking; he can even reattach a severed hand.

After treating Misaka Mikoto's wounds and removing the metal pieces from her shoulder, Bai Jie pulled her behind him and looked at Accelerator: "Well then, it's your turn next, Accelerator."

"I didn't hear about any additional experiments tonight. Where did these unrelated people come from? Don't you guys clear the area before conducting experiments on these puppets?" Accelerator said with an unhappy frown. "But it doesn't matter. We can just take them all out. It's just a matter of touching them."

"Oh ho? You think you can defeat me, Accelerator?" Bai Jie laughed. "Do you know that countless people have tried to defeat me, but in the end, they couldn't even touch the hem of my clothes?"

"Huh? Who do you think I am? I'm the strongest esper in Academy City! I could kill a lowly nobody like you with a single finger!"

Very well, it seems that I do need to correct my thinking.

Bai Jie beckoned to Accelerator and said, "Then come and hit me. I'll just stand here and let you touch me. But if you can't kill me, then I'll have to hit you."

"Haha ...

Accelerator burst into wild laughter.

"What's wrong with you? You actually want to die, hahaha! This is hilarious! Fine! This old man will take pity on you and send you on your way!"

With a light step, Accelerator instantly rushed towards Bai Jie at supersonic speed, placing his hands on Bai Jie's chest, one in front and one behind.

(Huh?)

The expected scene of Bai Jie's body being shattered did not occur, leaving Accelerator stunned.

Then he saw Bai Jie's fist smash into his face.

Section 526, Chapter 26: You're awake. The surgery was a success.

"You're awake? The surgery was a success."

This was the first thing Accelerator heard after waking up. Bai Jie, who was standing right next to him, said this with a kind smile.

"You're already a lovely girl—though that's what I want to say, but if I really want to perform gender reassignment surgery on you, it would be better to send you to Thailand. I'm really not very good at that. Besides, as a human being, what's with your skinny butt and chest? You're practically skin and bones. Even a cute crossdresser's butt is probably more perky than yours."

"What nonsense are you spouting, you bastard! How could I possibly be that kind of sissy!"

Accelerator reflexively started cursing, and only after he finished did he realize his current situation.

She was lying on a bed.

Accelerator sat bolt upright in bed, looking around to find himself in an unfamiliar room. A computer sat on a nearby table, and the bed beneath him suggested it was someone's bedroom. As for who that "someone" was...

Looking at Bai Jie beside him, Accelerator began to recall what had happened before: "I remember you are...."

"Yeah, the guy who knocked you down with one punch last night." Bai Jie laughed. "To be honest, I was shocked the moment you fell down. I never expected you to be knocked down with just one punch. Your physical fitness is like a child's. You don't have any muscle at all. Even a shut-in might have better physical fitness than you. You must have been using your abilities so much that you neglected to exercise."

This is the downside of gaining superpowers: those with superpowers will subconsciously use them in their daily lives, since superpowers can bring many conveniences.

Those with physical enhancement abilities can easily acquire superhuman physical abilities, and those with natural manipulation abilities can use their abilities to perform things like three-dimensional maneuvering... In such cases, many ability users neglect physical training, especially those with higher-level abilities.

Misaka Mikoto is an exception. The reason why her physical fitness is better than that of high school students is simply because she runs around and causes trouble all day long.

"You... knocked me down with one punch? How is that possible? Your attack should have been deflected!"

"Reflection? Ah, you mean that barrier-like thing I encountered when I hit you? Something that fragile couldn't possibly block it. Besides, I have the power of erosion. High-level ones are fine, but your level of protection would be destroyed with a single touch."

Something so brittle?!

Accelerator's reflection can withstand even nuclear bombs, and he can defend himself against an entire army without getting hurt! How come it's so useless in the hands of this man?

After finishing the cake in his hand, Bai Jie wiped his mouth and said, "Well then, Accelerator, let me explain the current situation to you."

"First is the Absolute Ability User Project. Given that you have great power but your mind is not yet mature, the Absolute Ability User Project is suspended until you develop a sufficiently mature mind."

"Aha?"

"Then there's the issue of the Misaka Sisters. Apart from the one I saved, the rest of the sisters will be sent around the world for physical adjustments. Only four sisters will remain in Academy City."

"Aha?"

"Finally, it's you. In order to cultivate you into a good student with correct values, I will officially become your private tutor starting today, and take full responsibility for educating you into a person who has a positive impact on society and the world."

"Aha?"

"By the way, all three of the above decisions were made by the overseeing chairman, Aleister, and you have no right to object."

"What the hell are you talking about, you bastard!" Accelerator exploded. "Stop the Absolute Power users? Those puppets are being sent all over the world? And they have to learn from you? Why should I, the great one, be so obedient? And why does that chairman have the right to order me around like this?! I was just one step away... just a tiny bit away from becoming invincible from the strongest! I'm not stopping here!"

"Invincible? You think an absolute power user is invincible?"

Bai Jie revealed a strange smile.

"Huh? That thing...what—!"

Just as Accelerator was about to retort, she was stunned.

fear.

This feeling was a first for Accelerator.

The evil power of this world was released from Bai Jie's body. The aura of destruction made even Accelerator, who had killed countless people, tremble. Having always lived in darkness, she immediately understood what the man in front of her was.

He is evil.