A Scientific Urban Detective

It wasn't just Ringo Kakei and Chika Ryugo who were named; all the experimental subjects present felt a wave of terror and trembling.

Ordinary routine ability development experiments were one thing; although painfully unbearable, they could be endured.

But special "off-the-books" experiments like this were another matter entirely.

For "Incompetents," this kind of experiment was almost the same as a "death sentence!"

Those who are useless will be destroyed by the adults – this was a widely circulated rumor among the children.

Rin Mumei's number was zero-zero-seven. Before him, six "Incompetents" had been called for "special experiments," and then never returned.

In fact, Rin Mumei, this "zero-zero-seven", was in the same situation. After being taken away from this headquarters, he never came back.

Although there were vague rumors that he had survived and successfully escaped this experimental program, the children in the lab didn't really believe it.

– The overly cruel and harsh living environment had graduated them from believing in fairy tales at an early age.

Chika Ryugo was the next one, "zero-zero-eight."

The blonde girl seemed to resign herself to fate, giving up struggling and allowing the security guard to carry her towards the deeper passage.

Ringo Kakei, on the other hand, struggled fiercely, but her commotion couldn't buy her friend even a sliver of a chance at life.

The "legends" among the children were correct.

For the "Dark May" project team, the lives of "Incompetents" were the last value they could contribute – considering the limited budget, every bit of resource had to be fully utilized.

Chika Ryugo's fate was already sealed – she would become the sacrifice for Ringo Kakei to break through her limits.

Ringo Kakei's problem was instability. Although she was only a Level 1 weak ability user, according to the monitoring data during the experiment, her AIM diffusion field fluctuated greatly. At its highest, the data even reached the level of Level 3!

In other words, after solving the instability factor, Ringo Kakei had the potential to become Level 3 in one step.

This was the reason she was chosen.

Psychokinesis was a fairly common type of superpower, and there was more than one psychokinetic among the children in the lab.

However, only Ringo Kakei had the potential to immediately catch up with Rin Mumei's progress.

With preparations complete, the male researcher walked up to his colleagues who had come to observe and introduced, "According to my observation and research, Ringo Kakei's ability fluctuation is related to her mental state – her AIM diffusion field fluctuation is positively correlated with her emotional fluctuation."

"In other words, as long as she is given enough stimulation, her ability can be stimulated," the male researcher said with a smile. "If we're lucky, it's not impossible to reach Level 4 in one go, not just Level 3!"

"But according to you, if her emotions stabilize, wouldn't her ability level fall back to Level 1?" someone questioned.

"It's very simple," the male researcher said, "just fix the state, so that her mind cannot return to a calm state. The other experimental subject is here for that purpose."

His plan was very simple – all he had to do was give Ringo Kakei enough stimulation, and the best way to do that was to torture her best friend in front of her, to stimulate her mind.

Finally, he would kill that experimental subject in front of her, creating an irreversible fact.

Ringo Kakei, who had lost hope and redemption, would also "break down". Her mind might collapse; however, that was precisely the purpose of this experiment!

The broken mind would become Ringo Kakei's new "stable state", and at that time, her ability level would also be stabilized at the peak state reached due to intense emotional fluctuations.

"If the plan goes well, we will have a second Level 3 psychokinetic in less than half an hour," the male researcher said with a smile.

At this moment, everyone, including the researchers, was in the training ground, and this conversation was not hidden from the two girls.

Despair and fear enveloped their hearts. The two pale-faced girls hugged each other tightly.

"Don't… don't hurt Chika, I will try my best to become Level 3!" Ringo Kakei shouted loudly.

The male researcher ignored her and simply had the security guard separate the two girls.

Then, he took out a stun gun from the pocket of his white coat and walked towards Chika Ryugo.

"You heard it just now," he said, "don't worry, your pain won't last more than half an hour."

Because of fear and despair, Chika Ryugo couldn't say a word. Only to prevent Ringo Kakei from worrying even more, she barely managed to keep herself from collapsing.

"Wait," a female researcher observing from behind suddenly said, "won't stimulating the experimental subject like this cause her ability to go berserk?"

The male researcher turned his head to look, shrugging his shoulders: "Why do you think I'm conducting the experiment in this training ground? And why did I call so many security guards here?"

In addition to the thirty or so researchers, there were also a larger number of fully armed security personnel.

Equipped with special equipment, they existed to suppress the rampaging espers during the experiments.

As professional riot control personnel, the on-site force was sufficient to suppress any esper riot below Level 4.

Ringo Kakei rushed over and hugged the researcher's leg, begging him to let Chika Ryugo go.

But she was kicked away, then held down, and electrodes were installed on her body to collect data.

Ringo Kakei resisted desperately. To allow her friend to escape her doom, she tried her best to activate her psychokinesis, but her weak Level 1 psychokinesis couldn't even lift a cup of water, let alone resist the strength of an adult male.

On the contrary, Chika Ryugo, with tears in her eyes, still bravely propped up a smiling face to comfort her friend: "Ringo-chan, don't worry, I…"

The male researcher did not use electric shocks, but instead used the impact hammer at the end of the stun gun to strike the girl's head.

The blonde girl couldn't finish her words, crying out as she was knocked to the ground, blood flowing from her head, staining her originally beautiful blonde hair red.

"Okay, start the experiment." The male researcher turned on the stun gun, lowering the power to ensure that he wouldn't knock the person unconscious with a single blow.

Faced with the girls' wails and screams, none of the researchers observing on-site were moved, posing in a professional research posture to observe the scene before them.

In this project, scenes like the one before them were really commonplace.

"Look, the curve is rising!" A researcher who was observing the screen exclaimed in surprise, "This trend… it's already at Level 2!"

After confirming that they had achieved visible results, everyone present applauded in celebration.

Soon, Chika Ryugo was on the verge of death, no longer holding any hope, she could only leave her last wish to her friend –

"Don't… forget me…"