Soaring Power

Luo Yifang walked over to the armored police car, which weighed over a ton. Instead of lifting it like he had lifted the motorcycle earlier, he reached for the door. His five fingers easily pierced the hard alloy door, and with a swing of his right arm, he tore it off amid another piercing screech of twisting steel. Luo Yifang raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Still barely felt anything?"

"Why don't you try lifting the whole car?" Paqi was not afraid of seeing Luo Yifang embarrass himself. In her view, no matter how strong he was, lifting a vehicle weighing several tons was still unlikely. He had only gained this ability a few hours ago. Even if it was Level 5, a strengthening ability could not possibly take effect that quickly.

"I'll give it a try." Luo Yifang smiled and nodded. He did not care much. After those two tests, he had roughly figured things out. The increase in strength was not the important part—Vector Manipulation could do better than that. What he wanted to test was something else.

Still using one hand, Luo Yifang grabbed the car and lifted. It did not move.

"That's all you've got already?" Paqi seized the chance to mock him again. "That was a little too fast."

"No, that part can't bear the car's weight. If I use force recklessly, it'll break, so I can't lift it." Luo Yifang glanced at the car, then kicked the police vehicle. Like a toy, it rolled over and crashed onto the ground with a dull boom. Only then did Luo Yifang grab a bar beneath the chassis. Still with one hand, he lifted the car without much effort.

"What kind of freak ability is that? It's only been a few hours, and your physical abilities are already this insane?" Paqi was stunned as well. Luo Yifang's power simply did not play by the rules.

"Honestly, would you believe me if I told you I could dismantle a tank with my bare hands now?" Luo Yifang sounded unconcerned. After all, this boost in strength was merely icing on the cake.

"You say that like you couldn't do it before."

Luo Yifang was instantly speechless. Fine, he had even been able to dismantle a Gundam barehanded before. And why was he showing off to this person who was clearly always against him? She would probably just find every possible opportunity to mock him in a different way. Still, having someone to bicker with made things feel less lonely. Back when he had been disabled and treated like a freak, he had gone years without speaking face-to-face with anyone.

To thoroughly test his other ability, Luo Yifang examined his current strength, speed, resistance to damage, recovery, neural reflexes, and other overall physical qualities. Even he was shocked by the results—judging from his current performance, he might be able to suppress those Servants in Fate who were not especially overpowered. Of course, without actual combat, he did not know exactly how things would turn out. Still, he felt that he could probably trade a few blows with Hulk now.

Even more astonishingly, his body was growing stronger every moment. It seemed that the energy he had taken in from eating earlier had merely been a catalyst, the trigger that activated this ability. Even without calculating anything, Luo Yifang's body was still becoming stronger at a terrifying rate. He even felt that if this continued without end, he would be able to destroy the Earth with one punch in less than a few weeks. Fortunately, he could already sense a limit. Of course, that limit was still terrifying, and he was nowhere near it yet. At this rate, Luo Yifang estimated it would take several days to a week to reach it.

But now Luo Yifang began to wonder whether this ability of his was really an esper ability. If it was, why could he grow stronger without calculating? Even though his Vector Manipulation was now infinitely close to Level 6, and the formulas required for calculation had been simplified to an astonishing degree, using esper abilities through calculation was still essential.

"Could it be... this isn't a Level 5 ability?" Luo Yifang recalled the document he had read before. It had mentioned the distinctions between espers, as well as methods of improving an esper's strength. It could allow a weak Level 1 esper to ignore innate limitations and reach Level 5 in only a few years. Naturally, because an esper's strength was closely tied to talent, such a Level 5 would be weaker than someone who had naturally been Level 5 or reached it through normal advancement. Even so, they would still be far stronger than a Level 4 esper.

Such a miraculous document had not mentioned Level 6 at all. It had only vaguely implied that esper abilities would undergo some sort of change upon reaching Level 6. Luo Yifang did not know what kind of change that would be, but he guessed it was related to the use of esper abilities.

As everyone knew, the use of esper abilities was closely connected to the development of the user's brain. Any esper needed to calculate while using an ability, mentally deriving changes in physical quantities through formulas. Naturally, the stronger the ability being used, the more complicated the calculation process became. If Luo Yifang used his abilities at full power to manipulate vectors, even he could barely handle that amount of computation. This limitation nearly guaranteed that espers found it difficult to sustain high-intensity combat for long periods.

Worse still, some espers found it difficult to use their abilities when affected by intense emotional shifts such as panic or fear. This was also a significant hidden danger of esper abilities. But Luo Yifang discovered that as his strength had increased since arriving in this world, the calculations he needed had begun to simplify. Calculations that once took five seconds to complete could now be finished in less than a second before he activated his ability. That was why he had said he could now fight ten of his former selves.

And in this world, the simpler a statement was, the less likely it was to contain a trap. The simpler something was, the closer it often came to the truth. Luo Yifang felt that this simplification of calculation was not merely an improvement in his mental capacity. More likely, he was gradually approaching a truth. Vector Manipulation was an incredibly terrifying ability. As its master, Luo Yifang could clearly feel its immense power. It seemed to do more than merely manipulate vectors and energy, but he could not yet figure it out. This was also his bottleneck—the bottleneck he needed to overcome to reach Level 6.

In any case, although he still did not understand exactly how his other ability functioned, Luo Yifang knew it was not a bad thing. At the very least, he could physically feel his body growing stronger without any side effects. The weakness of espers becoming overly reliant on their abilities was gradually moving away from him, because the benefits brought by his other ability were genuine, tangible enhancements.

Luo Yifang had Paqi shift them back to the original dimension. Then he clapped his hands, looked at the streets around him—which were no different from before he had come down—and turned to return to his apartment.

If you enjoy this book, please add it to your bookshelf so you can find it next time.