The surviving crew from the ship incident boarded a submarine and set off to return to the outside world.
Afterward, much of the public discourse would conclude it as a mere accident.
Watching the submarine depart, Haruto turned around.
Misaki was staring blankly at Haruto. Only when their eyes met did she hastily avert her gaze.
"You're someone from outside Academy City. What exactly is this mist?"
Clearly, Misaki was very curious about the mist surrounding Academy City.
But Haruto only shook his head.
"This mist will probably dissipate in about a week. It's already showing signs of thinning."
At that moment, the density of the white fog over the Pacific Ocean had already decreased compared to before the Foundation's intervention.
Thinking back, this should be the white mist brought by Anantashesha.
Like a mist of oblivion that devours everything—it actually paired quite well with the concept of an end-bringing eel.
And now, the "Sinking Anantashesha" plan was proceeding in an orderly manner.
The fog was visibly diminishing.
According to the scheduled timeline, Anantashesha would be completely sunk to depths over ten thousand meters within a week.
By then, the fog enveloping the ocean would naturally vanish as well.
But before the mist cleared—
They obviously had to deal with Academy City.
(T/N: I.WANT.TO.SEE.WARRR!)
Haruto waved his hand.
"Let's go. It's time for dinner anyway."
Misaki gave him a suspicious look but eventually followed Haruto back into Academy City.
Night gradually fell.
The trio found a restaurant to dine in.
Misaki showed no restraint and ordered a ton of food. As she ate, every bite seemed filled with a vengeful kind of aggression—
Like she had a personal grudge against the food.
Haruto could only smile bitterly from the side.
It was clear Misaki still cared about Haruto's earlier comment and was trying to prove her "growth potential."
In fact, Misaki usually didn't eat that much.
Most of the time, she would stop once she felt 70% full. Even after her memory loss, it remained like muscle memory.
But now, she was completely ignoring her usual habits, throwing all restraint out the window.
"No one's stealing it from you, slow down,"
Haruto said helplessly.
His eyes wandered casually, eventually settling on an alley outside the restaurant.
Academy City was filled with tall buildings, which naturally created many dark alleys between them.
Ordinary students wouldn't venture into those alleys—
Because there was nothing in them except dust.
But those alleys, as expected, also bred some troublesome elements. Like delinquents, armed groups, criminal organizations, or shady institutions.
And in the alley within Haruto's line of sight, he vaguely saw a figure moving.
Normal people wouldn't stare into such darkness, and even if they glanced at it, they wouldn't see anything clearly.
But Haruto was different.
"You two keep eating. I'm going to check that out."
Haruto stood up as he spoke.
Misaki looked confused.
"Those alleys don't have anything but dust and junk. What are you going there for?"
Haruto didn't respond, simply walking toward the alley across the street.
As he entered the dark alley—
Haruto felt a distinct energy fluctuation up ahead.
At the same time, he sensed multiple people within the alley. After turning the first corner, a "No Entry" sign and a figure in a special uniform came into view.
"Hello, student. There's construction ahead, passage is temporarily closed. Please take a detour."
The uniformed guy immediately spoke up when he noticed Haruto.
But while saying that, a flash of wariness crossed his eyes.
"Are you a Public Safety Officer?" Haruto asked.
The man nodded.
In Academy City, criminal prevention and order maintenance mainly relied on three groups:
One, the city's security robots.
Two, the Judgement units made up of outstanding students selected from various schools.
Three, the Public Safety Officers.
Typically, Public Safety Officers acted like police in Academy City.
They were required to wear uniforms during duty and a trident-shaped badge on their arms.
All this information was publicized on Academy City's intranet.
However, the guy in front of Haruto, while wearing the uniform, had no badge on his arm.
And he was wearing leather shoes instead of the standard boots.
Haruto stepped closer.
To his surprise, the guy suddenly drew a handgun from his waist.
"Student, stop right there. Passage is prohibited ahead. Please detour!"
Such an overreaction...
It was clear this guy wasn't a real Public Safety Officer.
While they were in a standoff, the guy suddenly felt his vision blur—the boy vanished.
He quickly aimed the gun in all directions.
Then everything went black, and he collapsed to the ground.
Haruto dusted off his hands and continued walking deeper into the alley. As he moved further in, the energy fluctuations became even stronger.
And he could hear a series of muffled noises—
It was the sound of gunfire from suppressed weapons.
After several more turns—
Two figures came into Haruto's view.
One was a short-haired girl in a school uniform, wearing night-vision goggles and holding a semi-automatic rifle.
She was clearly injured, with blood soaking her entire sleeve.
Her leg movement was visibly hindered as well.
Opposing her was a white-haired boy… with a punchable-looking face.
The atmosphere had been very tense. The girl was aiming her gun at the boy and constantly moving.
But Haruto's intrusion froze the situation.
Both of them stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
"Oi, oi, what's this supposed to be? You let another outsider in? What now?"
The boy looked annoyed and frustrated, clearly displeased by Haruto's intrusion.
The girl, on the other hand, expressionlessly said,
"Please leave immediately."
The boy shrugged.
"We can't let this guy leave now. He's seen too much."
Seeing this, Haruto instantly understood what was happening. This was a secret experiment taking place in the alley. And as an intruder, he had seen something he wasn't supposed to.
At that moment, hurried footsteps echoed from behind—
Misaki and Megumi had followed him.
Clearly, expecting them to obediently enjoy dinner while Haruto was away was unrealistic.
Once they arrived and saw the scene, both of them looked confused.
"What's going on here?"
Misaki glanced at the two facing off, then at Haruto, her expression full of shock and doubt.
She noticed the injuries on the girl.
Those were wounds serious enough to be fatal if left untreated. Logically, she should've been taken to a hospital immediately.
"Tch! What's wrong with you people? One intruder after another? Don't tell me you're just using this 'experiment' as an excuse to make me clean up your mess!"
The boy frowned and complained.
Upon hearing this, Misaki furrowed her brows. But after staring at the white-haired boy for a moment—
Her eyes widened, and her voice grew distorted.
"That guy... he's the number one Level 5—Accelerator!?"
Accelerator wasn't surprised at being recognized, just visibly annoyed.
"Yeah, yeah, so damn annoying!"
Haruto, however, ignored him completely—
Instead, he turned to Misaki.
"As you can see, this is a despicable and disgusting Ability User experiment."
Hearing this, Misaki froze, while Accelerator clearly got irritated.
But before he could say anything, Haruto continued:
"This project is called the 'Absolute Power Evolution Plan.' Its core objective is to create a Level 6—an Absolute Ability User."
"The experimental method is to send the Number One Level 5, Accelerator, into combat."
"His opponent? The Railgun, the Number Three Level 5. According to calculations, by fighting and killing 128 Railguns—"
"He could evolve into a Level 6. But since there's only one Railgun, they came up with a subproject."
"Namely, the Mass-Produced Ability User Project. Using cloning technology to create multiple Railguns."
"But since clones couldn't reach Level 5, only about Level 2 at best, the plan didn't meet the requirements."
"After recalculation, the number of battles was raised to 20,000—meaning killing 20,000 cloned Railguns to complete the plan."