One-way traffic

For an ordinary person, it would be impossible to reach such a deep realm on their own.

The second person, however, didn't care about this at all.

His entire body was then enveloped in an intense white light, and in an instant, his body vanished from the spot.

boom--! !

The light exploded, illuminating the entire underground open space in one go.

right here.

Located approximately 300 meters underground, there exists a facility here that has never been officially recorded by Academy City.

Kakine Teitoku successfully traversed space using the power of the Unreal Matter and arrived at this location.

He looked around; there was no one there.

It was dark and damp, and you could even hear dripping water coming from somewhere.

However, although the space was very open, the only direction to move forward was forward. Although there was an elevator behind, it was clearly a device used to return to the ground.

He walked forward like this, slowly making his way to the deepest part of the room.

Snapped--

I heard the sound of clapping.

"Much faster than I expected... No wonder he's the second-ranked, no! He should be the only Level 5 Holistic Ability User in the entire world, right?"

With a whoosh, the lights instantly illuminated the entire surrounding area.

Kakine Teitoku then looked ahead, where a man was standing.

An elderly man who looked very old, with a face full of wrinkles.

"You? The guy who played with those holographic projections in front of me before."

"It's not difficult to see through this, you second in Academy City. I've brought you here because I want to show you something."

The two didn't exchange many words and went straight to the point.

but.

"I wonder if you've thought about this at all."

The elderly man revealed a somewhat eerie smile.

"That is, haven't you ever thought about how Academy City handles the loss of life response for certain extremely valuable ability users?"

"…ah?"

He didn't understand the meaning of those words at first.

But under Kakine Teitoku's gaze, something was subsequently dropped.

It was a huge culture tank.

With the help of the light, he could clearly see a small human figure inside the culture tank.

That's a little girl.

The other person was not naked; she seemed to be wearing some kind of clothing, and her body was enveloped in countless luminous green liquids, causing her to float back and forth in the culture tank.

"Is it possible..."

In an instant, Kakine Teitoku thought of something when he saw that figure.

That's a possibility.

Even though it was a very subtle possibility, he couldn't help but bring it up.

"Could it be... you bastard?!"

"That's right, as expected of you."

The elderly man smiled and pressed a button on the side.

A light then emanated from the inside of the culture tank.

Now, in the light, Kakine Teitoku could clearly see who the girl immersed in the liquid was.

Black hair, dark clothes, and that face that he could never forget.

Second in Academy City, for the first time in history.

His expression became uncontrollable.

"...One of the subjects of the Dark May Project, Ringo."

The words fell.

In just a brief moment, a single strand of hair on the old man's forehead vanished.

boom! ! !

A tremendous noise filled the entire research facility.

Upon closer inspection, an unparalleled attack had already slammed into the wall beside him. The aftershocks of its power barely grazed the elderly man's hair, while the wall, powerful enough to easily withstand even a nuclear explosion, was mercilessly pierced through.

Kakine Teitoku raised his right hand, but the elderly man could not see his expression.

"Oh... I knew it! Even someone like you, who's second in line, would go berserk if this test subject were mentioned!"

"Are you... really that eager to die?"

Kakine Teitoku didn't care who the other person was or why they were doing this.

Ringo, one of the test subjects of the Dark May Project in Academy City, had Accelerator's thought patterns injected into her brain by someone else.

From a practical standpoint, she is already dead.

There was no other possibility; he should have died in Kakine Teitoku's arms.

This was a fact he witnessed firsthand.

but.

"Is this a good idea? If you kill me, this child's body will be completely shattered into countless pieces."

The elderly man chuckled and then pointed to his heart.

"I've already undergone body modification. This body has long since become a cyborg, that's right! I stole that guy named Liancha's mutilated body... and completely transformed it into this body of mine!"

"...The Love Cha developed by the Council should have been completely destroyed by now."

"That's right, as I said, it's ultimately just a defective product, but even so, it can still unleash the abilities of a Level 5 esper from Academy City!"

But that's not the point.

The elderly man's expression suddenly became even more frantic.

"I've connected my body to Ringo's body with a wire. If my heart stops beating, both our bodies will shatter into molecular fragments in an instant!"

"You're probably thinking, 'That little girl is dead, so what's there to worry about?' No, no, no—actually, at that time..."

Unbeknownst to Kakine Teitoku, Ringo's body was later recovered.

After being recovered, and then handled personally by the doctor in front of me who is dedicated to the study of cadavers and various neurological disciplines, everything is different.

"Human memories and consciousness have been re-implanted into this body in the form of electronic data."

The man in front of me said these words with a smile.

"In other words, as long as her heart can be made to beat again and her brain can resume brainwave activity, then she can become a genuine being with the original Ringo's memories."

"Although she differs greatly from the original in terms of morality and ethics, even so, I've always known that this is what you wanted to do!"

He had been studying Kakine Teitoku for a very long time; otherwise, he would never have known that the second person in front of him was already a Holistic Ability User.

So... what should you choose?

The elderly man gave a cold laugh.

"Are you going to use him for my purposes? Or... do you simply not care whether this little guy can be resurrected or not?"

--ha.

"Haha... Ahahahahahaha—!!!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the young man in front of him let out this strange and unpredictable laugh.

"To be used by you? Excuse me, are you out of your mind?"

Kakine Teitoku smiled, looking at the other person with the most emotionless smile he had ever shown before.

"I've been doing this from the very beginning—"

Click, click, click! !

Pure white wings burst forth from behind him in an instant.

"I never intended for a piece of shit like you to live."

Chapter 862 When Hope Rekindles

“Wu——?!”

Before him, the elderly man naturally revealed a look of panic.

Gazing at the enormous six wings, he realized he had miscalculated.

The second-ranking member of Academy City wouldn't be overly concerned about the girl's safety, as he might have expected.

"Aren't you afraid I'll commit suicide?! If I die, this little girl will too—"

"Ha, you're talking to me about this with someone who's already dead? Are you out of your mind?"

Just as he said, Kakine Teitoku didn't care about the girl named Ringo.

On the surface, it seems that way.

"But I... can bring her back to life..."

"What is resurrection? You think adding brain data circuits from a previous life to a dead body is enough to call it resurrection?"

"At least from a physiological perspective, that's the case! With Academy City's technology, it's easy to do, right? Revive her body, then implant the corresponding brainwave data into her brain, and she'll be no different from the real person!"

Although it sounds ideal, Kakine Teitoku is well aware of one thing.

Even if such a method were used to resurrect someone, the person ultimately resurrected would not be their true consciousness.

Ultimately, it only carries all the original person's memory data. Even if all of this could be copied, what would be obtained would be nothing more than a product like AI that only knows how to follow data formats.

They have no emotions and only act according to what they remember. They don't know what to do without instructions and don't even have the ability to think for themselves.

In this situation, let alone resurrection, one cannot even be considered a normal human being.

"hateful…"

The man realized there was no way to stop the second one.

"In that case, try this!"

Under Kakine Teitoku's gaze, the other party's entire body shone with a kind of intense radiance.

Electric current.

Focusing the dark blue lightning in his hand, the man took out a hard object, about the size of a coin, from his pocket.

Railgun.

The title of third place in Academy City was about to be launched out by the man in front of him in a bizarre manner.

"Ha...haha! I've had my brain modified! Not only can I copy the abilities of the third person, but I can also copy the abilities of the first person and you!!"

He laughed maniacally; possessing the body of a lover, he could indeed simulate the power effects of various levels of Level 5 espers in Academy City.

However, the second person didn't pay much attention.

He stood still, stopping his movements, and let the man in front of him complete his move.

This point was also noticed by the other party.

"What?! You actually... How dare you look down on me?!"

Kakine Teitoku's nonchalant attitude, with his hands in his pockets, was practically saying, "Whatever, no matter how hard you try, you can't hurt me anyway."

And most importantly.