Chapter 200: George's Threat
"Boss… actually lost."
Seeing the fourth-ranked in Academy City's rankings, their boss, defeated by the mission target, the Level 4 clone 9981, Frenda and the others—who were helping each other with bandages—also revealed expressions of disbelief.
They really couldn't understand how a mere Level 4, and a clone at that, could be so powerful.
"So strong!"
Not just Frenda and her group—Misaka Mikoto, who had recovered a bit of her stamina, was also deeply shaken in her heart.
Because even she believed that, even at her peak, she might not necessarily be able to defeat the fourth-ranked Meltdowner in a frontal battle.
"To the leaders of the lab—I know you're watching. Accelerator has already been defeated, and the Level 5 esper you dispatched has also lost to me.
So I hope you can terminate the experiment and allow us clones to live like ordinary people."
George looked to the sky and shouted loudly:
"I don't think you'd want to see two Level 5 espers wreak havoc across Academy City.
And my mind contains a lot of data from your experiments.
If I were to release this data, letting all of Academy City and the whole world see how you slaughter clones in your experiments…
Guess how many parents would still want their children to attend such a dark Academy City?
How do you think the world would view Academy City then?"
During the fight between Misaka Mikoto and Accelerator, he had already discovered those advanced miniature surveillance devices—he simply didn't destroy them this time.
He wanted the lab higher-ups—or rather, the upper echelons of Academy City—to see Accelerator's defeat, to witness his strength, so they would tread carefully.
The definition of a Level 5 esper is a terrifying existence capable of withstanding an army alone.
There are a total of seven in Academy City—at least on the surface. Whether there are more in the shadows, he didn't know.
Ranked first is Accelerator, second is Kakine Teitoku, third is Misaka Mikoto, and fourth is Mugino Shizuri.
Now that he had defeated the fourth-ranked Mugino Shizuri in a one-on-one, at least in practical combat power, he could already be counted among the top three.
And together with Misaka Mikoto, he defeated Accelerator—the higher-ups should clearly understand the destructive power the two of them possess when working together.
The key point is, the Level 5 espers in Academy City are essentially students, like Misaka Mikoto. They all have their own will and aren't easily controlled by the higher-ups.
So, if the upper echelons want to avoid Academy City being thrown into chaos, under normal circumstances, they should agree to his conditions.
Of course, if they refused, thinking they still had trump cards to capture him, then he would go all the way and reveal his final trump card—magic.
At that point, they'd better not blame him for going on a fiery rampage and destroying the entire Academy City.
"Interesting. Let's keep him for now—he may still be useful later."
Inside the life support device in the Seventh District building, Aleister, after a moment of thought, issued his command to the subordinates below.
The clone's strength exceeded his expectations—if they forced a capture, the cost would be too high and would completely disrupt his subsequent plans.
Even though some unexpected things happened now, the situation still hadn't veered far from his original intentions.
So he decided to temporarily abandon the capture of this special clone and focus on executing the remaining plans.
Having one more Level 5 combat-capable esper in Academy City might not be a bad thing. If handled properly, the clone could even help facilitate other plans.
"It's just a pity we couldn't use it to train the Imagine Breaker… never mind, I'll arrange other training for him."
In the original plan, he was going to have the Misaka clone encounter Kamijou Touma, who has the Imagine Breaker, and then have Touma fight Accelerator to gain experience.
But now that Accelerator had been defeated by the combined efforts of Misaka Mikoto and the clone, Kamijou Touma didn't need to make an appearance.
Riiiiing!
Shortly after George shouted his threat to the sky, the feeling of being watched disappeared, and Takitsubo Rikou's phone rang.
Moments later, she said to George and Misaka Mikoto:
"The employer has already transferred the payment to our account and asked me to inform you: the Level 6 Shift project is officially terminated as of today.
All clones will gain their freedom and be granted true human identities."
"That's great!"
Misaka Mikoto let out a breath of relief upon hearing that.
George also smiled—this at least meant that the upper levels of Academy City had temporarily compromised.
And soon, he would have a legal, official identity in Academy City.
Everything had come to an end. Academy City's ambulances arrived in time, and the injured Accelerator and others were loaded onto the vehicles.
At that moment, Misaka Clone 9982 suddenly trembled, turned to Misaka Mikoto and George, and said:
"Sister, the lab has transferred the remaining 10,018 of us to the hospital in the Seventh District and has lifted the control over us, declaring that our freedom will no longer be restricted."
"Looks like they've truly abandoned the experiment."
Upon hearing this, George reconnected to the Misaka Network and saw the footage being uploaded one after another by the Misaka sisters.
At this stage, there was no longer any need for him to block the Misaka Network.
The Misaka Network could share memories and assist with calculations—which was still helpful to him.
Of course, he wouldn't share his own memories, nor would he fully connect—he had to remain ready to disconnect and isolate at any time, in case the network malfunctioned, so he could escape unscathed.
"Let's go check on the hospital."
Misaka Mikoto pulled George and Clone 9982 onto another ambulance, heading toward the Seventh District hospital.
The Misaka sisters had all been successfully rescued, but their future arrangements were still a troubling issue.
In the ambulance, seeing Misaka Mikoto frowning in concern, George smiled and comforted her:
"Don't worry about the follow-up arrangements. The higher-ups in Academy City aren't that foolish. More than ten thousand Level 2 espers who can form an intercommunicating network—there's no way they'd just ignore that."
Although Academy City has 80% espers, 60% of that 80% are Level 0—meaning their abilities are so faint that they're basically useless.
Of the remaining 20%, the majority are Level 1s, and the numbers of Level 2 through Level 4 drop even more sharply. Level 5s are only seven.
So, Level 2 espers with rich combat experience who can link and share memories like the Misaka sisters—even if they aren't used for experiments—would make an extremely powerful security force.
The upper echelons of Academy City had spent so much money creating them. Even if they gave up on the Level 6 Shift project, they wouldn't completely discard them.
So these matters weren't something a student like Misaka Mikoto needed to worry about.
Their main goal was to stop the killing of the Misaka sisters. As long as they could live like normal people and use their abilities to do some work to make a living—that would be acceptable.
(End of Chapter)