A week passed quickly. During this week, Rhode explored the entire Academy City, with his most frequent stop being the Fourth School District.
The Fourth School District is the school district with the most food-related facilities, the most comprehensive collection of restaurants in Academy City. Cuisines from over 190 countries worldwide can be found here. Even if he ate at a different restaurant every day, Rhode wouldn't get tired of it so quickly. He simply abandoned the apartment arranged by Aleister,
and rented a presidential suite in a hotel in the Fourth School District to live in, for convenient dining. As for the location of the apartment Aleister arranged, it was right next door to the protagonist, Kamijo Touma.
Anyone could guess what that guy was planning, but Rhode wasn't falling for it.
After showering, Rhode walked out of the bathroom with a bath towel wrapped around his lower body, his upper body revealing strong, well-defined muscles that weren't overly bulky, a standard 'muscles under clothes' type.
He casually took a can of Coca-Cola from the fridge and started chugging it down.
Drinking cola after a shower, if his mother saw him, she would surely nag him again, saying things like carbonated drinks are bad and easily lead to weight gain.
Thinking of that once annoying nagging, he now felt a sense of nostalgia.
Lying back on the soft sofa, Rhode casually tossed the empty cola can, a hint of loneliness appearing on his face. Although he was enjoying the life he had longed for but couldn't achieve in his previous life, the lack of family companionship inevitably left him feeling a bit isolated.
His ultimate goal was naturally to return to his own world, Earth.
He wasn't an orphan; his family was waiting for him to go back.
No matter what, going home was Rhode's belief.
No matter how powerful he needed to be to reach his homeland, Rhode would not give up.
Just as Rhode's thoughts were drifting further and further, a phone ring broke his scattered musings.
"Lord Rhode, we have already investigated the information on the First Rank. He participated in the Absolute Item Evolution Project. The specific content of the project..." Mugino Shizuri's gentle voice came from the other end of the phone.
That tender voice, like a Yamato Nadeshiko, made the other three girls gape in astonishment. Even Takitsubo Rikou, who was usually indifferent and rarely showed emotion, looked as surprised as Frenda and Kinuhata Saiai.
"No need for specific details. Just tell me Accelerator's current location." Rhode replied casually. He didn't want to hear about a plan he already knew.
"Yes, his current area is in the industrial zone of the Seventeenth School District. His experiment is about to begin at ten o'clock." Even though Rhode interrupted her suddenly, Mugino Shizuri remained unbothered and continued to report Accelerator's exact whereabouts.
"Thanks for your hard work. I'll transfer the payment to your account." Rhode then hung up the phone and transferred ten million.
Putting on his clothes, Rhode looked into the distance with an unreadable smile, then leaped from the balcony.
Rhode's figure attracted the attention of some passersby, followed by a series of screams. Just when everyone thought Rhode was about to hit the ground and surely die, a shadow suddenly appeared, and in a flash, a giant monstrous bird flew out of the shadow and soared into the sky.
"Th-that's the monstrous bird they talked about online!"
"It really exists!"
"Could this be a creation from some laboratory?"
Item's dark side rendezvous point,
Frenda stared at the incoming numbers on the screen, counted them carefully, and exclaimed in surprise,
"Wow! That old man... no, no, Lord Rhode really transferred ten million?!"
"Really!? That old man is so generous!" Kinuhata Saiai also cheered. Who would have thought that such a simple intelligence gathering mission would earn ten million? Compared to previous employers, Rhode was definitely the most generous.
"Mugino?" Takitsubo Rikou asked worriedly, looking at Mugino Shizuri, who was staring blankly at her phone screen.
"Head to the Seventeenth School District." Mugino Shizuri ignored the two girls who were celebrating with each other and said to Takitsubo Rikou.
"Mm."
"Eh!?" Takitsubo Rikou's reply and the two girls' astonished shouts rang out at the same time.
A certain laboratory,
After completely destroying the laboratory's data and equipment, leaving behind a pile of scrapped defense robots, Misaka Mikoto, dressed in black casual clothes and wearing a baseball cap, quietly disappeared into the night.
"Fortunately, I didn't run into that hothead again, or it would have been another hassle."
Landing on a treetop, Misaka Mikoto let out a sigh of relief, lamenting.
Misaka Mikoto, who had learned the news from Rhode a week ago, began her investigation. She discovered that the DNA map she had provided in her childhood to a medical institution, claiming to treat muscular dystrophy, had at some point been converted for military use. Her good deed, intended to help others, was cruelly trampled upon by the experimenters.
'Unforgivable!' Uncontrollable anger burned within her. Misaka Mikoto was determined to destroy the experiment. This was already the tenth laboratory she had cleared. While clearing the eighth, she encountered the four-member dark side group, Item.
After a fierce battle, she successfully escaped. After less than half a day of rest, she resumed her operations.
Misaka Mikoto was now utterly exhausted. Coupled with the injuries from her previous battle with the Fourth Rank and her inner torment, Misaka Mikoto felt suffocated.
Stopping for a moment to rest, Misaka Mikoto opened her guatai phone and looked at the message Shirai Kuroko had sent.
'Onee-sama, don't worry, I've managed to hide it from the Dorm Supervisor. Although I don't know what you're doing, please be careful no matter what. If you need to talk, Kuroko will definitely be a qualified listener.'
"Shirai Kuroko." Looking at the caring words from her junior, a warm current flowed through Misaka Mikoto's somewhat numb heart. But it was precisely to protect Shirai Kuroko that she couldn't tell her about the darkness of Academy City.
Telling her would only cause more trouble and might even drag Shirai Kuroko into danger.
Even though she found Shirai Kuroko, her junior, troublesome and clingy, Misaka Mikoto fully acknowledged her in her heart as one of her few good friends.
A pop-up interface suddenly appeared at the top of her phone screen,
'Shock! Monstrous bird reappears in the Fourth School District.'
This headline immediately caught Misaka Mikoto's attention. She clicked on the title, and once the page finished refreshing, the image of the giant, mountain-like monstrous bird appeared before her eyes.
"Isn't that that weird old man's mount!?"
As a Level 5 Electromaster, Misaka Mikoto possessed superb hacking abilities. There were no unreadable program previews, and no firewalls she couldn't Breakthrough. With such a god-like ability in the network, Misaka Mikoto quickly pinpointed Rhode's destination—the Seventeenth School District.
"The Seventeenth School District, huh? Time to move."
Stretching her body, she revealed a girl's curves. Although her chest was slightly disappointing, it did not diminish the girl's charm in the slightest.
"I absolutely have to find out why that old man knows all these things."
Misaka Mikoto, intending to clarify some matters, also headed towards the Seventeenth School District.
9:50 AM,
"Yo, you're here early, scrap metal."
Under the moonlight, a white-haired figure stood on a cargo container, looking down at the emotionless girl below, who looked exactly like Misaka Mikoto.