Cheating, You!

"One on one? Hahahahaha! Who do you think you are!" As if hearing a joke he'd never heard before, Accelerator burst into uncontrollable laughter. The way he looked at Jiu Ming was tinged with a hint of... no, it was entirely condescending.

However, that twisted smile and the wild aura radiating from him were not something an ordinary person could muster.

"Hey, hey, do you know what this child has been through? To be so twisted like this?"

"Because the experiment was obstructed, Misaka refuses to answer. Actually, Misaka doesn't know either."

Hoo hoo, what a 'frank' girl.

Hoo...

Jiu Ming waved his hand, and a concentrated gust of wind pressed towards Accelerator. It was a special technique that required a lot of physical strength, but due to his soul body and his extraordinary explosive power, he could achieve this with relative ease.

Looking at his thin and weak frame, this strong gust of wind could surely blow him away...

Bang!

The wind, returning at an even faster speed, was dispersed by Jiu Ming's outstretched hand. "What was that just now? Reflection?"

"Is that all you've got?"

With a dismissive tone, Accelerator took two steps forward. Cracks spread dozens of meters from where he stepped, causing Jiu Ming's eyes to twitch fiercely. This experimental site was definitely not built with shoddy materials. Damn it, are all Otherworld beings these days producing monstrous freaks?

He then looked back at the girl with dull, lifeless eyes, her expression blank, as if lost in a daze. Jiu Ming couldn't compare the two of them at all. Can they even be compared? What kind of experiment is this, a massacre experiment?

A wind ability user? No, as he walked forward carelessly, Accelerator was also observing Jiu Ming. He could clearly see Jiu Ming's physical state. It was very bright here, and both the human and the clone had shadows, but Jiu Ming, this anomaly, did not.

This guy had no shadow.

An ability user I've never seen before. Fine, it doesn't matter, he can't hurt me anyway. The most important thing is, I've stayed here long enough...

"Annoying. No matter who you are, since you've come here, I'll just take care of you. I don't think they'll mind cleaning up the mess afterward... No one will care about you!"

It was hard to imagine how Accelerator's thin and weak body could unleash such a high-level burst of speed. Grinning, Jiu Ming reached out and pulled Misaka 1, who was trying to leave in a different direction.

Separating was a good choice, and also the worst possible choice. Jiu Ming was worried that Accelerator wouldn't chase him but would turn and chase Misaka 1 instead.

Feeling the ground shake, Jiu Ming looked at the large pit that had formed where Accelerator had been standing. Modifying his previous words slightly, if Misaka 1 were to run away on her own, she wouldn't have the speed to escape the range of the impact in time...

What was this casual attack that felt like a small cannonball?

The attack wasn't over yet. The flying debris that hadn't landed suddenly changed direction, forming a barrage of sharp projectiles with incredible speed.

"Hoo—" Taking a light breath, Jiu Ming threw a punch forward. The shockwave in front of him instantly shattered the flying debris into particles. As for the stones... in short, these things were definitely not made of metal.

"Go to the corner and stay there. I'll take you out of here later."

Facing the enemy before him, Jiu Ming could only describe him with the highest praise. This was the first time he had encountered such a troublesome opponent. Even the strongest opponents he had faced before paled in comparison to Accelerator.

His opponent's ability!

"Just struggle like this!!" He lightly stomped on the ground, and Accelerator once again unleashed that incredibly unscientific acceleration. Damn it! How could this effeminate guy, who didn't even show a hint of muscle, generate such explosive power!?

Well, he wasn't without hope currently. Accelerator seemed clumsy in close combat?

Or perhaps unfamiliar. He was no match for Jiu Ming's close-combat skills honed through countless battles. If that was the case, what gave him the confidence to charge forward? He needed to be more careful.

Slightly shifting his body, Jiu Ming easily dodged the hand Accelerator thrust towards him. His eye twitched. What was that move? Was he planning to grope him?

Standing beside Accelerator, Jiu Ming hesitated for an extremely minuscule moment before bringing down a palm strike towards his neck. If he used too much force, he was genuinely afraid of killing this thin and weak fellow...

Then Jiu Ming was sent flying backward, so much so that he himself couldn't believe it. The pain in his palm made him even more confused. This... was it really a projectile?

Moreover, he was sent flying backward, while Accelerator remained completely unharmed. This meant his attack had no effect on the opponent at all; he had taken it all himself. The reflected power was much greater than the power he had used!

This... how could he even fight this?! His opponent was basically cheating, fighting with an invincible status and a tenfold damage reflection buff!

"Your ability... is really cheap!" Jiu Ming said helplessly, shaking his arm slightly.

"...What exactly are you?" Jiu Ming was helpless, but Accelerator showed more surprise. The moment Jiu Ming touched him, especially through physical contact, in Accelerator's eyes, Jiu Ming was already a dead man.

His ability was 'Vector Control'. When Jiu Ming touched him, all he wanted to do was slightly reverse the flow of Jiu Ming's blood. After that, Jiu Ming would only receive the most basic reflection.

He didn't sense the existence of blood, nor bioelectricity... including the physical body!

Then what was the entity he had been fighting until now?

Was it some special monster newly developed by this research institute?

"Hahahaha!! This is interesting! I was already bored of slaughtering these experimental animals. You, I'm very interested in you! Come, struggle slowly!"

"If it's boring, why did you participate in this experiment?"

"What does a monster like you know?"

He retorted. In Accelerator's eyes, Jiu Ming had clearly become some kind of monster developed by a research institute. However, for such a 'monster', how could it normally possess 'reason'?

Accelerator, Academy City's number one esper, held the title of the strongest, but what he pursued wasn't strength, but invincibility!

"Tch, I know more than you. Come, come, let me teach you how to be a man!"

Jiu Ming's figure disappeared in Accelerator's eyes. The speed left him only able to catch a blurry afterimage. This movement...

It was simply unreasonable!

Through his ability, Accelerator discovered that Jiu Ming's movement didn't stir up much airflow. His ability could ignore factors like air resistance, but others couldn't. Now, Jiu Ming's high-speed movement seemed to be able to do the same.

"Huh? What I want to do is none of your business... Bastard! Stop right there!!!!"

With the feeling of having a most satisfactory prey escape after being caught, one could let out a roar of extreme rage. Accelerator saw Jiu Ming irresponsibly choose to flee. Who was Accelerator!?

The strongest in Academy City, who had achieved countless "god-tier kills" since his debut without ever being counter-killed!

Who dared to toy with him? Who dared to trick him? Now, Jiu Ming had successfully piqued his interest, yet he acted as if it was none of his business and chose to flee, even having the leisure time to take that clone with him... Fine, when one dislikes someone, they'll imagine all sorts of reasons to dislike them.

In his eyes, Jiu Ming's actions were a form of mockery...

"You're finished!! You're dead! No matter where you run!!!"

"I'm so scared... Go home slowly and eat your midnight snack."

The sturdy walls shattered with a roar. Jiu Ming kicked the rubble on the ground to impede Accelerator's speed. Then, he charged upwards with Misaka 1. Not conserving any energy, he reached the top floor of the Research Institute in the shortest possible time.

So it was just a building...

Feeling the tremors beneath his feet, Accelerator pursued with his own violent charge. Jiu Ming took a deep breath. Misaka 1 saw that Jiu Ming's semi-transparent body seemed to be burning, not with scorching red flames, but with transparent, distorted, wave-like flames.

Misaka 1 had already uploaded what she saw to the Misaka Network. A group of Misakas discussed it for a long time but couldn't understand what kind of change Jiu Ming was undergoing.

Ah, saying "a long time" is an exaggeration; it was only a very short while.

"Hah!!" The charge was complete. Jiu Ming punched downwards at his feet.

BOOM--!!

The deafening sound rapidly expanded. Misaka 1, standing beside Jiu Ming, was also blown away by the sudden gust of air, her skirt fluttering upwards... It turned out to be blue and white stripes.

"Go!"

Jiu Ming, his body significantly dimmer, grabbed the Misaka 1 who was blown away and jumped down, ignoring the height of the building. If he didn't jump now, it would be too late.

The building was collapsing.

Large cracks rapidly spread downwards from the top of the building. In just a few seconds, the entire building was already precarious. The pursuing Accelerator also noticed this and stopped his pursuit. The surroundings had already begun to crack; staying any longer would result in being buried alive.

He wasn't afraid, but he didn't want to be so disheveled.

He had underestimated that bastard's ability, to possess the power to destroy an entire building so easily. A self-aware monster, escaped from some Research Institute, huh! Finally, he had someone interesting. Let this great me help you with the recovery work...

He stepped out of the ruins. The researchers buried in the rubble? No need to care!

He cared more about the deep cracks spreading around the ruins. That punch had severely damaged the surrounding ground as well. Looking at all this, Accelerator's sickly smile deepened. Killing a lab animal without emotions, how could it compare to personally killing a bastard he found both interesting and detestable?

"This is much more interesting than those boring experiments. Run slowly, you scumbag, this great me will definitely find you!"

Was it easy for Jiu Ming to destroy this building, which was clearly well-made and had extremely high seismic resistance?

Not at all...

"This is a huge loss!" Looking at his much dimmer arms, Jiu Ming muttered with some heartache.