A Scientific Urban Detective

Since Aiho Yomikawa suddenly had to work overtime tonight, she specifically called Lin Wuming to say that she wouldn't be home for dinner.

Thus, the house naturally became a gathering place for Lin Wuming and the other young people.

Shokuhou Misaki and the others, who had been out and about gathering information, also returned home.

"Latest news," Shokuhou Misaki said, "The Anti-Skill forces have obtained solid evidence—regarding the connection between the juvenile detention center and the illegal research institution."

"I heard about that from Yomikawa-sensei," Lin Wuming nodded. "Apparently, someone made an anonymous report and provided her with the information."

"I went to see the document directly just now," Shokuhou Misaki continued. "The person who submitted the information was very cautious and made thorough disguises. Even with 'Memory Retrieval,' we couldn't obtain any more valuable clues."

"The Anti-Skill forces suspect that it was an internal member of the juvenile detention center who made the report," Lin Wuming recalled what Aiho Yomikawa had mentioned on the phone. "Only internal personnel could obtain those materials."

"So next~" Shokuhou Misaki looked over. "What does Wuming-senpai plan to do? Are you going to search the premises?"

"There's no rush for that," Lin Wuming shook his head and asked, "Do you have any other gains on your side, regarding Director Sherbine?"

"Hasn't Wuming-senpai seen the news yet?" Shokuhou Misaki said. "Director Sherbine finally showed his face today. It seems he was under pressure from all sides and had to respond to the strike and demonstration."

"Is that so? That's rare," Lin Wuming said with some sarcasm. "He only responds when it gets to this point..."

As he spoke, Lin Wuming took out his phone to check the relevant news.

Sure enough, around noon today, Director Sherbine held talks with representatives of the protest march and indeed achieved results—at least, that's what the news reports said.

"This..." Misaka Mikoto leaned over to look at the news report together. "The conditions seem pretty good."

It turned out that Director Sherbine had proposed a compensation plan for the workers—providing them with similar jobs in large companies outside Academy City, and guaranteeing that their salaries and benefits would be at the same level as they are now.

Honestly, as a concession, this plan was actually not bad, at least it wouldn't leave the workers directly unemployed.

But Lin Wuming didn't believe in such empty promises from unscrupulous capitalists from the bottom of his heart. It wasn't that he already had any evidence to prove that Director Sherbine was lying, it was just pure distrust.

After all, Lin Wuming's position from the beginning was on the side of the protesters.

"Wuming-senpai guessed right," Shokuhou Misaki suddenly said. "What that guy said is completely untrustworthy."

In the process of collecting information, Shokuhou Misaki specifically inquired with members of her faction, because many students' families at Tokiwadai Middle School have business dealings with Academy City, so they have more or less dealt with the directors. The one they most frequently contact is undoubtedly Director Sherbine.

According to the feedback from the faction members, it can be judged that Director Sherbine is a complete pragmatist and egoist, and his personality is very arrogant and conceited.

The only people he respects are those who are his "equals" or higher-ups; he will never give half a bit of pity to those "inferiors."

And the blue-collar workers who launched the strike and demonstration are undoubtedly "inferiors" in Director Sherbine's eyes.

According to his consistent personality and temper, he would not care about the opinions of these "inferiors" at all.

In fact, this can be seen from his blatant participation in the "Unmanned Subway Project" launch ceremony on the day of the protest.

Now, perhaps under pressure from the Board of Directors or Chairman Aleister, he had no choice but to compromise and meet with the workers' representatives.

But it's easy to imagine that the promises he made to the workers' representatives are unlikely to be fulfilled in the end.

"Speaking of which," Shokuhou Misaki added, "The outside world is also not prepared to receive 100,000 high-tech talents—in fact, due to news censorship, the outside of Academy City has no idea about the protests that have been happening these days."

"Tsk, that's not surprising at all," Lin Wuming shook his head and said, "Besides this, is there any other information?"

Lin Wuming decided to end this topic, because this was not the information they needed.

Besides proving that Director Sherbine is indeed an unscrupulous capitalist, it is of little help to Lin Wuming's next actions.

Shokuhou Misaki also knew this. The main reason she mentioned this information first was to conduct ideological construction for Misaka Mikoto, Hofukaze Junko and other "naive and kind" girls.

—As long as it is determined that Director Sherbine is an indisputable bad guy, then there will be no psychological burden no matter how you deal with him next.

"The information I got from an 'insider,'" Shokuhou Misaki lowered her voice and said very seriously, "Director Sherbine is indeed the director who mainly promotes the FIVE_Over project."

Lin Wuming's guess came true!

"To be precise, Director Sherbine's main field is 'superpower mechanization and general-purpose technology,'" Shokuhou Misaki continued. "As for FIVE_Over, it's just the highest-level project he was invited to participate in based on this."

"In other words, Director Sherbine isn't the only leader of the FIVE_Over project?" Misaka Mikoto asked.

"Yes," Shokuhou Misaki nodded. "You don't even need to think about that kind of exaggerated research project to know that members of the Kihara family are definitely involved. However, due to the solid accumulation of early technology and the ability to provide sufficient research resources, Director Sherbine has become the de facto leader of the FIVE_Over project."

It's like starting a company, the more you invest, the more shares you own.

"Leader," Lin Wuming nodded. "That's simple, the FIVE_Over project has been going against us several times, so it seems that Director Sherbine can't escape responsibility no matter what, right?"

"That's right," Shokuhou Misaki said. "In fact, it can be determined that Director Sherbine attaches great importance to the FIVE_Over project, and it's not surprising that he would attack us in order to improve its technical capabilities."

"In order to develop machines that can use superpowers, he even doesn't hesitate to attack real espers," Lin Wuming clicked his tongue. "Should I say he deserves to be a director? He really has the ambition to match this position."

"Oh, ambition?" Shokuhou Misaki sneered disdainfully. "He has some, I guess? But in my opinion, that guy is just a coward until he dies!"

"A cowardly director? What does that mean?" Misaka Mikoto asked.