Luo Yifang faced a huge dilemma. He had no idea where to begin with this idiotic Absolute Ability User Project. Was he supposed to wander the streets every day? He did not think he was lucky enough to stumble across an experiment site like Railgun had. Besides, the test subjects had changed now; for all he knew, they might still be undergoing experiments in a laboratory. As for contacting the person who had given him information on the Absolute Ability User Project? Sorry, Luo Yifang had already looked into that number and address. That laboratory had long since been abandoned.
"So now you're just sitting at home playing games?" Paqi's voice jumped a full octave. She had never seen such a decadent transmigrator. While he was playing games and drinking coffee, his transmigrator predecessors had already conquered several girls, all right? And he was over here playing with figurines?
"Uh, this is called relaxing my mind and looking for a way to solve the problem." Luo Yifang pointed at his head. "I overworked my brain a little when I wrote that intelligent life form last time."
Paqi merely sighed. "Fine, fine, I get it. You can't stay in that state for too long." Over the past few days, she had learned at least one thing: Luo Yifang was not always this much of a rascal. There was a reason he was acting so shamelessly now. As for what that reason was, it was rather complicated.
"But I've found a few leads these past few days," Luo Yifang said with a smile. "I just need to make a trip to Tokiwadai and do a little preparation."
Luo Yifang's plan was simple. He intended to hack into Academy City's network and search for information. However, given Academy City's advanced black technology, its firewall probably would not be easy to crack. And even if he did break through, whether he could find information on something as classified as the Absolute Ability User Project was another question. At worst, he might only find files on the personnel involved, but that would be enough. Following the trail would still be better than being completely clueless as he was now. But he also had to prepare a backup plan. It was now May, nearly June. In the original timeline, Misaka Mikoto had only begun sabotaging the project in August. Waiting until then would not do, so if he truly ran out of options, Luo Yifang intended to give things a push from behind the scenes.
What, you were asking about Misaka Mikoto's safety? Please, Luo Yifang was a cold-blooded... ahem, of course not. Misaka Mikoto would have to face Academy City's darkness sooner or later. As for the guilt of dragging someone into that darkness, sorry, but Luo Yifang definitely did not have that. So what if she faced darkness? What she would really be facing was reality. What was wrong with knowing reality? At least Luo Yifang was here now. If Misaka Mikoto entered that darkness because of him, he certainly would not let her come to harm.
"If a so-called protagonist dies, would changing the worldline earn a reward?" Luo Yifang narrowed his eyes and asked Paqi a question.
"I don't know. All evaluation criteria are decided by the [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds]," Paqi said irritably. "But I don't think so. There are so many worldlines and so many transmigrators. A protagonist or two must have died plenty of times already. The [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds] probably doesn't lack standards for observing something like that."
"Oh." After asking, Luo Yifang took an uninterested sip of his drink and turned his attention back to the screen before him.
Paqi truly had no idea what to do with the current Luo Yifang, so she stopped talking as well. Several hours passed like that. Only when the sky began to darken did Luo Yifang toss aside the controller, stretch, and rise from the sofa, intending to go out and find something to eat.
Pedestrians streamed endlessly along the street. Luo Yifang searched expressionlessly for somewhere to eat. Just as he passed a dark alleyway, he froze and stopped. He eyed the pitch-black alley suspiciously, but after a couple of glances, he lost interest and walked away.
"What did you see just now?" Paqi asked curiously.
"Nothing. Just a corpse." Luo Yifang wrinkled his nose in displeasure. "It smelled awful. What bad luck. I came out to eat and ended up seeing a dead body."
Luo Yifang's extraordinary physical enhancements had strengthened every aspect of him. Both his sense of smell and hearing had improved enormously. Night posed no obstacle to him, not to mention that he could perceive feedback from all kinds of physical quantities. As for that corpse, honestly, no matter how peaceful and stable Academy City appeared on the surface, it had no shortage of dirty methods behind the scenes. There were at least two Level 5 dark-side organizations alone: one was "School," and the other was "Item." Seeing a corpse was hardly a big deal.
The only thing that made Luo Yifang feel something was off was that the physical feedback he had received seemed to be missing a portion, as though something had blocked the transmission of information. Still, he did not pay it much attention. Academy City had all sorts of bizarre esper abilities; encountering one that was particularly strange was not surprising. Besides, the feedback had told him it was the corpse of an adult man, which only made him even less inclined to go looking for trouble.
After casually finding a shop and eating something, Luo Yifang prepared to head back. But when he reached that alley, he stopped again. This time, instead of leaving, Luo Yifang walked straight inside.
"What's wrong?"
"The corpse is gone," Luo Yifang said grimly. The biological signals within that man's body had almost completely ceased earlier, indicating not only that he was dead, but that he had been dead for quite some time. If it had been a deliberate murder and the body needed disposing of, it should have been dealt with long ago. Why leave it in an alley where it could be discovered at any moment, only to come handle it now?
After taking only a few steps, Luo Yifang stopped before a wall stained with a large patch of blood. The alley ended there. Looking at the dark red blood on the ground, he confirmed once more that the man had likely been dead for quite a while. The flies buzzing all around were excellent evidence as well.
"No one else has been here." After analyzing the scene several times, Luo Yifang reached a conclusion that shocked even him. "Did that corpse leave on its own?"
Paqi was equally baffled. "What? It left on its own? Are you sure? This isn't the set of Resident Evil. The infinite-flow genre is next door."
"I'm absolutely sure." Luo Yifang nodded. "If another living person had come here, they could not possibly erase every trace in such a short time. The physical quantities returned to me are far more precise than any analytical instrument available today. I only ever detected the presence of one thing: that corpse!"
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