Melissa's Gift

"There's no one in the hallway, we can continue." Kyoka Jiro plugged her Earphone Jack into the wall, nodded behind her to make sure there was no sound coming from ahead, and quickly ran upstairs. Midoriya and the others followed behind Jiro.

This method of detection, undertaken by Jiro with her keen hearing, was her own idea. Perhaps she felt guilty for not noticing the enemy who almost discovered them, and volunteered to go ahead and scout.

They were currently on the 48th floor. Only two floors remained of the storage room on the 50th floor, where the inventions of the research institute students were kept. They had run all the way up; only Melissa, who lacked Quirk, struggled a bit, and even Minoru Mineta wasn't out of breath. (999 Novel Mobile Version: https://m.999xs/)

However, even though he wasn't having trouble breathing, Minoru Mineta was still complaining. "Why doesn't Kaminari have to Kaminari stairs, but we have to go up 200 floors?! I also want to hold a gun and outwit the enemy!"

At this moment, Denki Kaminari, already armed with a steel gun, had disguised himself as an enemy soldier and was on guard duty. Kaminari often exchanged tactics with his overseas teammates in the game, and with his agility, he easily gained their trust. Together, they stood with their backs to each other, guarding the venue entrance. Jilan had specifically instructed him that if he noticed anything amiss with the person on guard duty with him, he should immediately use his gun to physically persuade them or use their Quirk to attack them.

At this moment, there is no room for hesitation; hesitation will lead to defeat.

Midoriya smiled wryly, thinking about the Kaminari was wearing, "Mineta -kun, no matter how tall you are, you couldn't possibly wear that kind of weighted gear..."

After saying that, Midoriya turned to Melissa and asked with some concern, "Melissa, are you alright? Do you want to rest?"

"No need." Melissa gritted her teeth, took off her high heels, and threw them into the stairwell. As she ran, she looked up at Midoriya with a smile, saying, "Although I'm also researching theories about Quirk Factor, I didn't realize the difference between having and not having Quirk would be so huge..."

Jilan, who was following behind Melissa to cover the rear, was struck by Melissa's words and asked, "Miss Melissa, are you currently conducting research on Quirk Factor?"

Having reached the 50th floor, Jiro was now probing the area outside the stairwell. Taking the opportunity, he slowed down, caught his breath, and answered Jilan's question seriously, "No, actually, it's my dad who's doing it. I just talked about it with him while we were having dinner, and he left me with a related research topic."

The difference between people with and without Quirk is enormous. People with Quirk can improve their physical fitness subtly under the influence of their Quirk Factor, even without exercise. People without Quirk, no matter how much they exercise, can never catch up. This is an innate difference that cannot be compensated for.

Melissa thought of one of the arguments in the "Quirk Factor" theory, shook her head with a wry smile, and continued, "The person who proposed the 'Quirk Factor' theory is believed to be my father's former colleague, Dr. Vogelbaum. After proposing this brilliant theory about the 'Quirk Factor,' he left I-Island and returned to the United States, and never continued to develop the theory of the Quirk Factor."

Because his subsequent research went unnoticed and the scientific community generally did not accept the theory, my father felt it was a great pity. In recent years, he picked up his research again and began to continue exploring this area. It is precisely because of my father's involvement that the Quirk theory has begun to re-enter the public eye on a small scale.

These things were common knowledge on I-Island, and Melissa didn't mind telling Jilan. She did have some feelings for the boy who stepped forward to take command at a crucial moment, though it was just ordinary gratitude.

"There's no one on this floor." Kyoka Jiro unplugged her Earphone Jack and nodded to Jilan.

"Jiro, Erlang." Jilan didn't hold back her praise.

Jiro smiled, nodded, and opened the door, stepping out first. After carefully destroying all the surveillance equipment on the floor, she opened the door again and waved to the others, "You can come out now."

This was a suggestion made by Jilan: in order to prevent the enemy from discovering the exact number of people on their side, one person should destroy the monitoring equipment first, and then the others should come out to confuse the enemy's perception.

Following Jiro's footsteps, several people filed out and, led by Melissa, arrived at a gate.

"This is it. Generally, anyone with our students' fingerprints can freely enter and exit here, but I'm afraid all the rooms have been locked by the enemy. If we touch anything, the enemy will find out," Melissa said solemnly.

"So that means we've come all this way but can't go in?!" Iida exclaimed in surprise, "Why didn't Miss Melissa tell you this sooner?"

"I just realized that too," Melissa said with a wry smile. "So, if we want to get to the top floor without alerting the enemy, we'll have to climb the stairs. But don't worry, I won't hold you back..."

"Will we be discovered once we infiltrate...?" Jilan hesitated for a moment, then turned and patted Midoriya on the shoulder. "Midoriya, I'm leaving it to you."

"Hey, me!?"

"Since we're bound to encounter them sooner or later, triggering the alarm proactively might actually prevent them from accurately assessing our numbers, causing them to send only a small number of enemies. In that case..."

Yaoyorozu's eyes lit up. "That way, we can have the advantage in numbers and intelligence, and wipe them out before they can react! As long as they split their forces, we can divide and conquer them, and also figure out their combat strength!"

Hearing that Yaoyorozu had stolen her lines, Jilan smiled helplessly. After all, Yaoyorozu was a top student who was well-versed in military strategy, and his reaction was still very quick.

"Yes, that's it. So, Midoriya, use your fists—the kind that have the power to destroy giant robots—to break down that door," Jilan added. "Don't worry, I'll treat you if you hurt your arm."

Jilan knew that Midoriya's arm would be unable to withstand the changes in blood pressure when using "Serious Punch," which could injure him. Jilan said this to put Midoriya's mind at ease.

"No need." Midoriya shook his head and smiled at Jilan, "Now I have Melissa's gadgets, my arm won't get hurt."

Just as Jilan was about to ask what this meant, Midoriya took a deep breath, and the wristband that had been on his wrist suddenly extended as Midoriya pressed the button above, forming a half-covering full-coverage sleeve that completely wrapped around Midoriya's right hand.

"Please make way, everyone."

After Midoriya gave a warning, Minoru Mineta, who was standing at the door, quickly stepped aside. Then, Midoriya assumed a horse stance, and green lightning enveloped his body as he shouted.

"Full Cowl 8! And then..." Midoriya pulled his right fist behind his back to gather power, stomped his foot on the ground, and used the recoil to propel himself forward—"Smash!"

"Boom!"

Midoriya stood in the center of the storage room, his back to the door. He caught his breath, looked at his unharmed hand, turned around, and smiled confidently, "Everyone, come in!"

"Midoriya, that's amazing!" Minoru Mineta rubbed his eyes in disbelief, rushing in to see Midoriya's right glove, jumping excitedly. "Midoriya, does that mean I can throw a punch with that kind of power if I wear this glove?!"

"Mineta- kun, I'm sorry, these gauntlets are for suppressing my Quirk, they don't help increase my strength..." Midoriya said with a wry smile.

Top floor, control room.

The man sitting in front of the monitor had his fingers flying across the keyboard. After a moment, he turned to a red-haired man wearing a metal mask and said, "Boss, the door on the fiftieth floor seems to have been deliberately damaged. I checked the security footage; a girl, she had very keen senses, and the security camera was destroyed."

"Fifty floors? What's there?" The red-haired man seemed somewhat surprised and asked.

"A lab, a small library, and a storage room for various student inventions—that's the storage room that was destroyed." The man in front of the monitor shrugged dismissively. "Maybe a student who was supposed to attend a banquet arrived late, saw that the venue was occupied by us, and, having nowhere else to go, thought of going there to retrieve some of his inventions for self-defense."

"An escaped one... We can't be careless. Send two people over."

The red-haired man said this, then turned to Dr. David and his assistant behind him, "Doctor, you know what to do now, right? We don't have much time."