"What was that noise just now...?"
"The timelines of the two worlds are different. I can only communicate normally after adjusting the surrounding environment."
Nagato Yuki's reply left Jiu Ming wondering: their timelines were different? That immediately made the phone seem a lot less useful. Something like this could actually happen? If he called someone in another world in the future, he'd definitely run into the same problem. He didn't need to worry about that in the Mysterious Shop, though. No one knew how long that place had existed, so a mere mismatch in timelines wouldn't stop a call from going through...
Or perhaps the Mysterious Shop and the other worlds had always been "aligned" in time.
"Got it. I'm looking for help right now. Um, I took on a commission, then ran into a really troublesome opponent. Could you help me deal with them? I'll owe you one."
The girl in another dimension fell silent for a moment. "Okay."
Jiu Ming let out a sigh of relief. "Great! Do you have any special way to break through defenses? I ran into a super-turtle-shell, and it nearly bounced me to death!"
Was that putting it a little too dramatically?
Well, whatever. As long as he could get through that White Hair's turtle shell, that was all that mattered. What else was there to worry about once it was gone?
"Just a moment. Manipulating information through the phone's cross-temporal link is a little difficult..."
The garbled noise started up again. Manipulating information? What was that supposed to mean?
"Find... a %$#@... suitable..."
The static continued for a full ten minutes before Nagato Yuki's fragmented words finally came through. A suitable medium?
Jiu Ming looked around, then grabbed a hollow steel pipe from the side of a hospital bed. One end was very sharp.
"Will this work?"
"...Yes."
He had no idea how she could tell what he was holding from across dimensions, but if it worked, that was good enough. The steel pipe in Jiu Ming's hand twisted slightly, then returned to normal. "I can't change its shape, but this will do."
"Thanks. If you ever need my help, I won't hesitate." After thanking her, Jiu Ming examined the object in his hand.
Name: Steel Pipe
Type: Consumable
Attribute: Armor-Piercing
Uses: 3
Quality: Common
Remark: How could an attribute like this appear on an ordinary scrap of steel pipe!? This is unscientific!
Convertible Origin Power: 450
Hmm, it didn't ignore defense. Jiu Ming shook his head. Although armor-piercing was similar to ignoring defense, there was a significant difference. In game terms, ignoring defense meant that no matter how low your attack was or how high the opponent's defense was, it wouldn't matter. Armor-piercing, on the other hand... only applied when your attack exceeded the opponent's defense. Otherwise, you dealt a forced 1 damage or none at all.
But this wasn't a game. Armor-piercing was closer to the meaning of breaking through armor, just a little more potent.
"Please note that because this involves manipulating information across time and space, the object is very unstable. It has a limited number of uses."
As Jiu Ming examined the steel pipe, now sealed away as a card, Yuki's voice came through again with a warning. A limited number of uses? No wonder it hadn't been classified as a weapon.
But three uses would be plenty. Even one would be enough.
Then the call cut off. Jiu Ming lowered the phone and stared at its black screen in disbelief, then pressed the power button. It had run out of battery? How could that be? He was sure he'd kept the phone fully charged the whole time. Fifteen minutes of calls shouldn't have been a problem—not even a hundred and fifty minutes!
Yet somehow, the battery had been completely drained!
Phew, whatever. At least he'd gotten what he wanted. At the same time, Jiu Ming had gained another appreciation of just how capable Nagato Yuki was. Cross-dimensional communication was one thing; the phone could manage that. But turning an ordinary object in his hand into an "enchanted" item with special properties was beyond what just anyone could do.
Sigh, he owed her more and more.
"I won't hold it against you for using a hospital bed without permission to rest, but deliberately damaging public property was wrong." The next morning, Netherworld Soul Chaser gave Jiu Ming a helpless look as he held the short piece of rebar that had been forcibly torn from the hospital bed, especially considering the way someone had deliberately shaped it.
The end of the rebar had been sharpened into a frighteningly pointed spike. That thing could kill someone!
"Well, it was an emergency... All right, I had a nightmare and accidentally snapped it off." Jiu Ming shrugged, realizing there was no way to explain it. He could tell the Frog-faced Doctor was only making a mild complaint.
"...Forget it. Don't do it again." Anyone could see how flimsy Jiu Ming's excuse was. He'd accidentally snapped it off and managed to make it look like that? Was he joking, or trying to insult everyone's intelligence?
"There won't be a next time." The piece of rebar spun rapidly in Jiu Ming's hand, making the air whistle faintly. "Okay! This is enough..."
"What's enough?" Netherworld Soul Chaser looked at the weapon in Jiu Ming's hand. Anyone holding that thing had to be planning something dangerous, didn't they? "I mean, with your abilities, you shouldn't need something this 'useless.' Why not throw it away?"
Someone who could wrench a steel pipe off a hospital bed with their bare hands surely had no use for a mere ordinary object like this.
"No, no, this thing's not ordinary at all. If anyone knew what it was worth, they'd probably cry, beg, and roll around pleading with me to sell them this 'worthless' steel pipe."
The next thing to see was how Nagato Yuki, the Magic God from another world, would fare against that White Hair from another world, who came with a built-in damage-reflection cheat. Which one of them was more badass?
Probably the former. After meeting Nagato Yuki, Jiu Ming had gotten the impression that she could do anything. And she could even use a phone to find the Mysterious Shop—that was practically the same as traveling between worlds. The White Hair probably couldn't pull off anything so difficult and technically impressive... That was where the difference showed!
Just an ordinary White Hair!
"..." Looking at the piece of rebar in Jiu Ming's hand, Netherworld Soul Chaser shook his head. The sharp tip made him feel uneasy just looking at it.
"By the way, Doctor, could you tell me about her original body?"
Jiu Ming glanced at Misaka 1, who was sitting quietly. When his gaze shifted to her, Misaka 1 seemed to sense it and slowly turned her head to look back at him, her expression blank.
Jiu Ming gave a strained smile and looked away. No matter how he looked at her, he couldn't stop worrying...
"I'm starting to wonder if you're some kind of incompetent intruder. How can you not know anything about Academy City?" Netherworld Soul Chaser shook his head helplessly. "Come on. Let's go somewhere else to talk."
An incompetent intruder? In some ways, he wasn't wrong. Though Jiu Ming would have described himself as a high-end intruder who'd crossed over from another world. Academy City?
No wonder nearly ninety percent of the people he'd seen on the streets were students. At a glance, he'd spotted almost ten different kinds of school uniforms!
"Let me explain. Finding that girl's original body will be easy. After all, she's the third-ranked of Academy City's only seven Level 5s—the strongest Electromaster, the Railgun."
"Um... Seven? Like the Seven Warriors?" The Railgun, ranked third among the Seven Warriors? Hmm, who would've thought a delicate-looking girl like her would have a title like that? Judging by Misaka 1's appearance, she was a clone, so her original body had to look exactly the same.
"...What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing. One question, though... What rank was that White Hair I ran into earlier?"
"White Hair? It's not nice to badmouth people behind their backs."
"Fine, then. The girly guy with white hair and red eyes."
"Hey! That's even more outrageous!"
"Tch! I'm not so magnanimous that I'd suffer a loss at his hands and then praise him behind his back." Jiu Ming curled his lip. As far as he was concerned, that White Hair needed electroshock therapy!
@Yang Yongxin!
"What's that 'Railgun's' name again... Misaka something? She can use electricity? A human-shaped Pikachu?" A certain middle school girl shuddered at the thought.
"...For the sake of what you've done for that girl, I won't say more. I'll put together some information for you. You can wait here."
The Frog-faced Doctor shook his head. Jiu Ming spoke to him casually, but his determination was obvious. Ordinary advice wouldn't do any good. The best thing to do was let him carry out the commission he'd taken on for Misaka 1.
"By the way, what's the 'commission' between you two? It's not some trade secret, is it?"
"No. I just have to find her original body so she can meet her."
"Then you'd better be careful. The school she's at won't be easy to get into." The Frog-faced Doctor kindly warned Jiu Ming.
"Ha! Sneaking into schools isn't new to me." Jiu Ming smiled. He had experience with sneaking into schools to find people!
"I think we should notify Judgment in advance... No, the Anti-Skill officers would be more appropriate." The Frog-faced Doctor looked conflicted. Saving Misaka 1 was his duty, but keeping Jiu Ming here was... If he hadn't seen what Jiu Ming had done, he would've called the police ages ago...
"Ordinary people would be dealt with in an instant. Numbers aren't the issue. If they're ability users... then that trick I used against the monsters should work."
"Hey, hey! Ability users are people too, and they're all students. Be careful. I don't want this place suddenly filling up with patients."
"Come on, Doctor. If you think they'd be a bother, I can make sure they don't need to come here... Ha, I'm just kidding. I'm a pacifist." Seeing the Frog-faced Doctor's mouth twitch, Jiu Ming smiled. "Don't worry. I won't do that."
Before you continue