Chapter 1759: Chapter 1757: Experiment Successful! (Still Eating Yesterday’s Leftovers)

After sending Elisa Minori back to the dormitory, Fang Zheng immediately drove to the research institute, grabbed Frenda, and started questioning her.

"That person named Arya came to Academy City! This is all your doing! Now look, how are you going to fix this?"

"Hey hey hey? How is that possible?"

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s words, Frenda also screamed loudly.

"I followed Mr. Fang Zheng’s instructions, making things to use in bombs. I even specifically chose a brand that is available outside!"

"Then what about the doll?"

"Doll?"

"The rabbit doll where you put the bomb."

"........."

"Hmm?"

Faced with Fang Zheng’s question, Frenda was stunned for a moment, then she reached out, tapped her head, stuck out her tongue, and made a funny face.

"...Hey, hey!"

"Hey, your head!!"

Fang Zheng fiercely punched Frenda on the head, causing her to cover her head in pain and fall to the ground.

"Forget it... Anyway, this clue shouldn’t have much of an issue, as long as you don’t leave any traces. Let Riko create some distraction outside during this time to divert Arya’s attention."

"Understood, Mr. Fang Zheng, I won’t use it this time... Ouch!"

However, before Frenda could finish her words, Fang Zheng knocked her over with another hit.

"Are you really stupid? If someone comes chasing the clues, then you don’t use them; isn’t that clearly telling they know where you are and what you’re doing? Continue as usual, as if you haven’t found anything. Then find a chance to mislead her out of Academy City... I’ll handle this part. Anyway, you and Riko should act like you don’t know she’s already investigating inside Academy City, understand?"

"Uh... understood..."

"Alright, go take care of your own business. Also, call Ruiko over; I have something to discuss with her."

"Yes..."

Rubbing her head ruefully, Frenda turned around and left. After a moment, there was a knock at the door, and Ruiko walked in.

"Ah, Mr. Fang Zheng, did you want to see me for something?"

"That’s right."

While speaking, Fang Zheng picked up a bracelet from beside him.

"What do you think of this?"

"Wow, what a beautiful bracelet!"

Seeing the bracelet, Saten Ruiko, who loves chasing trends, immediately brightened up and rushed over to examine it curiously.

"The style is very unique, and it’s a design I’ve never seen before... Could this be a gift for me, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

"Yes, it’s a gift for you."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing this, Saten Ruiko was shocked and quickly waved her hands.

"Th-this isn’t good, Mr. Fang Zheng, this bracelet looks very expensive..."

"It’s not just a simple bracelet, actually, it’s a device to give the Non-Ability User abilities... You should remember I mentioned before, although there is indeed a way to give you abilities, it’s very dangerous. This is a comparatively less dangerous method I’ve found so far. It hasn’t been experimented yet, so you should try it to see how it goes."

"Really?"

Confronting this answer, Ruiko didn’t hesitate anymore, carefully taking the bracelet. Indeed, as Fang Zheng said, this is a compromise method—directly injecting Divine Power into the body is far too dangerous for ordinary people. Therefore, Fang Zheng extracted a bit of his Divine Power and forged this bracelet.

Since Riko can use Goddess of Order’s remnants of Divine Power to wield abilities, Fang Zheng believes his bracelet forged with Divine Power should be more potent.

Thinking about it, this counts as a Divine Artifact.

Of course, it needs testing, and the test subject... Why do you think Ruiko signed up? To freeload every day?

"How does it feel?"

"It seems like there’s no special feeling..."

Ruiko wore the bracelet, waved her hand, and frowned.

"Does this really work, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

"It won’t work like that, anyway, close your eyes lightly, then sense the bracelet... Do you feel anything special? Then slowly release it..."

"Swoosh---!"

Yet, before Fang Zheng finished speaking, a rapidly spinning stream of air suddenly exploded from around Saten Ruiko, swirling throughout the laboratory. Fortunately, Fang Zheng reacted quickly, snapping his fingers, causing a series of Magic Radiance to flash which swiftly suppressed the airflow bursting out from Ruiko.

Only then did Ruiko open her eyes, surprised at the whirlwind surrounding her.

"Did I succeed?"

"Hmm... As far as I can tell, it seems successful; this level... is probably at LV2 Rank."

Fang Zheng tested it briefly; the wind Ruiko released at present was roughly at the level of a medium-speed fan. Although it’s not yet certain what her ability is specifically, it seems to be in the aerodynamics category... Though it could also be Psychokinesis, that’s hard to say.

To be honest, this ability right now, aside from blowing some wind during the hot summer, doesn’t seem to have much use.

But for Ruiko, she was so excited she almost passed out.

"Is this, is this really my ability? I have an ability?"

Ruiko kept waving her hands back and forth, feeling the wind brush past her fingertips. That feeling of controlling the wind was so fresh and exciting for her.

Even though it’s just LV2, but this is an ability!

Superpower!

She finally has a superpower!

Is this what having an ability feels like?

"Ahem, ahem, ahem."

Seeing Ruiko lost in thought for quite a while, Fang Zheng had no choice but to cough to bring her back to reality.

"Alright, don’t get so excited, it’s not considered completely successful yet."

"This isn’t considered successful, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

Hearing Fang Zheng’s response, Ruiko was shocked, and Fang Zheng nodded.

"Of course, take off the bracelet."

"Okay..."

Ruiko obediently took off the bracelet, and as soon as she did, the swirling wind suddenly vanished.

"See, just like this, you’re able to release the ability now because of the stimulus from this bracelet. Simply put, you do have a superpower, but your motivation is insufficient, and this bracelet acts as an external power source. Moreover, it can’t increase your ability level, after all, increasing the level is a real deal, you need to learn more knowledge... especially in the area of aerodynamics."

Even though Fang Zheng wasn’t too impressed by the ability development at Academy City, he agreed with their teaching approach on ability upgrades, which is to grasp and understand knowledge to enhance one’s ability level. In fact, Misaka Mikoto, Kuroko Shirai, and Frenda have all reached a master’s or doctorate level in the disciplines related to their abilities.

Given their age, these kids would definitely be considered prodigies outside.

Of course, pure intelligence is just the basic condition, they also need to work hard themselves. Like Fang Zheng often sees Frenda munching on papers, apart from some space-related papers, there are also ones on chemistry... and of course, the latter is purely her interest.

And a very dangerous interest at that.

So in Fang Zheng’s view, even if Ruiko has the ability, it’s hard for her to upgrade. She’s not dumb, but her IQ is just average for kids her age. If you talk to her about topology, she’d definitely be confused, and aerodynamics to Ruiko would probably be like a heavenly book.

Not to mention turbulence...

That’s a problem many world-class physicists can’t solve.

In Fang Zheng’s opinion, if Ruiko wants to reach LV5, given the nature of her ability, solving the turbulence problem might be her only hope.

Which means in this life, Ruiko won’t likely reach LV5.

"So if I don’t have this bracelet, I can’t use my ability?"

Ruiko looked at the bracelet with a somewhat complicated expression, and Fang Zheng nodded.

"That’s right, like I mentioned, it’s a temporary measure. You should know Riko’s ability is a bit special, not everyone can withstand that kind of stimulus, but if it were you..."

"What would happen?"

"Most likely, you’d explode like a balloon. Do you want to try it?"

"........."

Head shaking vigorously.

Ruiko thought her life was more important.

"So that’s the gist of it."

Fang Zheng stood up and gestured.

"By the way, you don’t have to keep your ability a secret, but don’t say how it’s achieved. I don’t want to wake up and find my research lab surrounded and torn down."

"Understood."

Hearing Fang Zheng’s directive, Ruiko swallowed and nodded. She understood his concern. It’s no joke. Academy City has about sixty percent non-ability users. If they find out there’s a lab researching how to give non-ability users powers, they might tear this place apart.

"Alright, do you have anything else? If not, you can leave."

"Ah, right, Mr. Fang Zheng."

At this moment, Ruiko suddenly remembered something and smiled smugly.

"We’re going to visit Academy Garden tomorrow. Would you like to join us, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

"Visit?"

"Yes, Classmate Shirai and Classmate Misaka will take us along."

"Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to go?"

"It’s more fun with everyone together."

"Alright then."

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng thought for a moment. Confirming he had no particular work tomorrow, he nodded.

"I understand. I’ll join you tomorrow."