A Scientific Urban Detective

The higher-ups in Academy City were urgently gathering information about the newly ascended Level 5, Misaki Shokuhou, even attempting to glean snippets from Accelerator.

These usually aloof and powerful figures were so concerned about Misaki Shokuhou, going to great lengths to obtain her information, not only because she was a Level 5, but also to assess the potential, application value, and threat level of the "Mental Out" ability.

This assessment would determine their response to this newly emerged esper—co-opt or guard against? And how many resources were worth investing to deal with her?

However, they did not anticipate that Tokiwadai Middle School had already taken the initiative, recruiting this valuable Level 5 into their ranks.

Furthermore, what these big shots didn't expect was that the report submitted by the dark side organization "School" had attracted the attention of a true "big shot."

Kihara Gensei, from the very beginning, this respected elder of the Kihara clan had focused his attention on Lin Wu Ming.

He was the one who hinted to Shunpau Donto to hire a dark side organization to guard against Lin Wu Ming's assault, and he was also the one who recommended the dark side organization "School."

Moreover, it was Kihara Gensei who revealed the information that "Misaki Shokuhou is suspected to be a Level 5" to Accelerator before "School" accepted the commission.

It could be said that this direct confrontation between the dark side organization "School" and Lin Wu Ming's group was actually secretly orchestrated by Kihara Gensei behind the scenes.

Of course, his methods were very clever, only saying a few words at key points, revealing some information or rumors... Strictly speaking, this didn't even qualify as "behind-the-scenes manipulation."

However, the development of the situation basically met his expectations. He successfully provoked a battle between two telekinetics and saw detailed firsthand information from the report.

Moreover, this report was from the first-person perspective of Homare Wanze, the most outstanding telekinetic at present, and the conclusion was drawn from personal experience—no one was more authoritative than him in terms of the practical application of telekinesis.

Therefore, unlike others, Kihara Gensei was very satisfied with this report.

After all, this was almost content tailored to his requirements.

As for Misaki Shokuhou... Kihara Gensei didn't care, because he was probably the person in Academy City who understood "Mental Out" the most; in some ways, he even understood it better than Misaki Shokuhou herself.

"Extremely calm, quick reaction, precise manipulation..." Kihara Gensei scrutinized the report in front of him, combined with the various information collected previously, he pondered, "Overall, his neural reaction speed is significantly different from ordinary people... No, to be precise, it's more like there's a problem with his subjective time flow rate!"

Kihara Gensei's eyes lit up, as if he had seen something he was interested in: "Ah, so it really exists—a time-based superpower!"

But he immediately frowned: "But if we deduce it this way, he possesses two superpowers at the same time, which is impossible—at least impossible at this stage. Or rather, his ability is not a traditional telekinetic, but some kind of composite superpower."

Like a child who saw an interesting toy, Kihara Gensei enthusiastically deduced for a while, but quickly regained his composure.

As a top researcher, maintaining curiosity was certainly a good quality, but being completely dominated by curiosity and generating fantasies would be too foolish.

"Well, retain the possibility of speculation and continue to observe." Kihara Gensei's expression returned to calmness, and he casually locked the report in the drawer. "In the end, Wu Ming-kun is only a Level 3 Strong Ability User now. Even if he really possesses time-related characteristics, it's not worth researching for me until he reaches Level 5."

...

Lin Wu Ming didn't know that his trump card, "bullet time," had almost been completely guessed by Kihara Gensei.

At this time, he was running laps around a standard track and field.

This was one of the "entry assessment" items for Judgment—the 5,000-meter long-distance run.

Judgment, after all, was a profession with very demanding physical strength and endurance requirements.

After all, in certain situations, they would also cooperate with the Anti-Skill to carry out "arresting criminals" missions. Therefore, there could be no flaws in their physical fitness.

Lin Wu Ming had just removed his cast and escaped the wheelchair for only a day, and his physical fitness had not recovered to the point where he could run long distances.

Being able to complete the 5,000-meter run could be considered a miracle.

Fortunately, the final test for Judgment did not prohibit the use of superpowers—after all, it was used to test the students' comprehensive strength, so of course, everything was allowed, and all means should be used.

In this way, the difficulty of the test for Lin Wu Ming was greatly reduced. If he didn't want to overdo it, Lin Wu Ming could even use telekinesis to directly "fly close to the ground" for 5,000 meters.

Overall, Lin Wu Ming relied on his original physical strength to get through the first half of the test, but he was really powerless in the second half, so he had to turn on his telekinesis to give himself a boost.

The Judgment member in charge of the test, of course, noticed this immediately, but just nodded and recorded a sentence on the form in his hand.

As in the rules—the test did not exclude the use of superpowers.

The biggest feature of Judgment was that it concentrated a large number of high-level espers.

Flexibly using various superpowers to deal with various incidents was Judgment's greatest advantage—it was precisely by relying on this that they could keep pace with Anti-Skill and become one of the two major law enforcement agencies in Academy City.

What's more, making an untrained fourteen-year-old boy run the entire 5,000 meters was a bit demanding in the first place.

In their opinion, Lin Wu Ming's performance was good enough. After all, physical fitness could be cultivated through acquired training.

But the tenacious will and the flexible application of superpowers could not be achieved by hard work and determination alone.

After running the entire course, Lin Wu Ming walked towards the location of the "judge."

From a distance, Komori Kimihiko had already greeted him and threw a water bottle towards Lin Wu Ming.

Subconsciously using telekinesis to catch the water bottle, Lin Wu Ming then came back to his senses, remembering Heaven Canceller's instructions, and quickly reached out to catch the water bottle.

"Lin Wu Ming-kun," just as Lin Wu Ming was drinking water, the Judgment member in charge of recording walked over, "Your assessment is complete. Well, welcome to be one of us!"

"So fast?" Lin Wu Ming was stunned.

Judgment's various assessments were numerous and demanding. Lin Wu Ming had prepared to spend a day or two on this.

How could he have expected that he would pass the test today just by running a 5,000-meter race?