The heart is willing, the flowers won't bloom; the mind is set aside, and the willows take root and sprout... Lin Luo could hardly believe that simply by vying for attention with Shirai Kuroko, he had inadvertently undone the final seal on Railgun. What in the world was going on?
He couldn't comprehend it at all!
His gaze drifted to Mikoto’s face. The instant their eyes met, Mikoto instantly lowered her head, flustered and at a loss. It seemed that the "Psycho-Acoustic Assault" had dealt quite a blow to her; the arrogant Railgun could no longer posture, only blush shyly.
“Hey, hey, Lin Luo-kun, what was that song you were just singing? I’ve never heard it before!” Saten Ruiko leaned over, asking with eager curiosity. Among the four girls, she was the only one with a bit of a fangirl tendency.
“Yeah, yeah, it sounded really nice, but we’ve truly never heard it,” Uiharu also grew interested.
Of course, these were songs from the real world; how could they have heard them? Hearing their questions, Lin Luo felt an amusing sensation. He temporarily set aside his own doubts and smiled, “Oh, nothing much. I just composed that myself, it was just an outpouring of emotion.”
Clearly, this person’s shamelessness had reached an advanced level; he could lie without batting an eyelid. But the two innocent young girls had clearly believed him, their eyes shining with adoration, as if watching a future superstar rise to prominence...
“Hmph, what’s so great about that? It’s nothing more than the howling of a wild monkey.” Although she spoke words of contempt, Kuroko felt a massive crisis looming internally: she never expected this wild monkey actually had this trick up his sleeve, using a song to move Onee-sama... I let my guard down. I shouldn't have come here. Damn it, it looks like I, Kuroko, must stake everything on one last fight!
Swiftly grabbing the microphone beside her, a vision of romantic yearning flashed across Kuroko’s eyes as she spoke with deep affection, “Onee-sama, please listen to the voice of my heart…”
Then, Kuroko began to sing. Her first line was: “Deeply in love, the rain falls misty and dense…”
Boom!
Lin Luo felt a tremor run through his entire body, a surge of innate Zhenqi rising from the soles of his feet, instantly clearing his Ren and Du meridians, bursting through the crown of his head… He was shocked, he was struck by lightning, he was cooked crispy on the outside and tender on the inside!
Damn it! This is A Certain Magical Index! This is A Certain Magical Index, you bastard! Since when did the influence of Qiong Yao transcend dimensions? Does random crossover really need a reason?!
Listening to Kuroko’s singing, a melody weaving tales of deep love and endless longing stretching to the horizon, Lin Luo completely broke down: This person is definitely not Kuroko! This person is definitely not Kuroko! This person is definitely not Kuroko...
Evidently, he wasn’t the only one shell-shocked by Kuroko. Mikoto, sitting next to her, held a hand over her forehead, her face contorted in pain. Uiharu and Saten’s mouths were twitching—they couldn't keep their composure!
Fine, if I can’t fight them, can’t I at least hide? I’m retreating into my consciousness!
To avoid being obliterated by this heavenly thunder, Lin Luo immediately plunged his entire focus deep into his consciousness, his attention first settling on the Book of Contracts.
Current status displayed by the Book of Contracts:
Contractor: Misaka Mikoto (Tier One) Race: Human Class: Esper Ability: Electromaster Status: Normal Strength: 120 Constitution: 110 Intelligence: 220 Mental Power: 6000 Vitality: 1000 Heart of the World: Seventh Heart of Kindness Heart of the World Form: Moving (Initial Seed) Heart of the World Compatibility: One Hundred Percent (Indestructible) Heart Battle Technique: Light of the Mind Overall Strength Level: A+
At this moment, Mikoto’s physical strength had reached about four times that of an ordinary person, and her Intelligence and Mental Power had been greatly boosted. Lin Luo could sense that Mikoto's current strength was almost comparable to his own state when fighting Accelerator, after adding in the computational power of the Entry No. 0 body.
Perhaps even surpassing it!
The only thing that slightly frustrated Lin Luo was that he couldn't examine the attributes of the Heart Battle Technique. What exactly was this Light of the Mind? He couldn't figure it out for the moment.
As for his own attributes, although only one word had changed, Lin Luo nearly stared blankly when he saw the attributes for the Compatibility Mode.
Compatibility Mode: In a compatible state, gain 25% of the current Contractor's strength. Consumes 25 points of the Contractor's Vitality per minute.
Mikoto's current computational ability was definitely second only to Accelerator. What kind of concept was one-quarter of her computational power? Conservatively estimated, it was peak Level 4.
Of course, there were pros and cons. The Compatibility Mode consumed too much Vitality; if he entered this state, he could maintain combat effectiveness for a maximum of fifteen minutes.
However, regardless of the cost, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. Once he incorporated the computational power of the Misaka Network, becoming Level 5 was certainly achievable... If he added the computational power of Entry No. 0, would he instantly jump to Level 6? Lin Luo couldn't help but start fantasizing, though this remained purely wishful thinking.
During the fight with Accelerator, Lin Luo had already sensed it: Level 5 was the limit of power a human could reach. As long as one remained a mere mortal, they could never advance further in this realm.
Level 6, however, was the realm of gods. A being who steps into the divine realm without a divine body would surely be rejected by Heaven... Just like the Absolute Ability User Experiment—even if Accelerator truly became Level 6 after killing twenty thousand Sisters, he wouldn't be able to withstand that power, because he was still a mortal body. Under the grand rules of this world, it was impossible to tolerate a mortal stepping into the divine realm!
The divine realm... the non-divine body... absolute ability... rules...
Wait!
Suddenly, something seemed to flash across Lin Luo’s mind, a glimmer of inspiration similar to what he felt three days ago when he first reached Level 5... He felt he had grasped something.
He sank his spirit entirely into the depths of his sea of consciousness and began to feel that glimmer of light...
The divine realm, what is the divine realm?
According to this world's understanding, it is absolute ability, something no one can defy, no one can resist... it is a rule!
But is such a rule truly only graspable by gods?
Lin Luo thought of a few individuals and came up with a negative answer in his heart.
Take Kamijou Touma, for example. His Imagine Breaker could nullify all superpowers and magic in this world, even divine sorcery was useless against it. In a sense, this was a kind of rule!
Then there was Aleister Crowley, the man with the right hand that also possessed this rule-like power, and also the man hanging upside down, Aleister, an old monster who had lived for a thousand years; his very existence had clearly broken the rules of life and death.
However, apart from the last one, the first two were merely mortal bodies, and even Aleister was far from having a divine physique.
This created a contradiction, but... what if there was a hurdle between Level 6 and Level 5?
...Grasping the rules with a mortal body!
Lin Luo was not native to this world, so he wasn't bound by its perspective. In his eyes, there was an incomparably huge gulf between Level 6 and Level 5!
This world alone had three beings who grasped rules using non-divine bodies. Moreover, as far as Lin Luo knew, looking further back, there were others who possessed similar rules. For example, Ryougi Shiki, who possessed the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, wielded the most dominant ability, rumored to be able to kill even gods—the Mystic Eyes. This, too, was a form of rule!
And then there was the Flame Haze, Shana. Although intrinsically she was no longer purely human, she was still far from possessing a divine body, yet she wielded the nearly unanswerable rules of causality and the power of existence. In a sense, she was only one step away from the divine realm.
Of course, this was only Lin Luo's subjective judgment; the reality might differ, but he vaguely felt he had touched upon something he couldn't grasp before...
Returning from the depths of his consciousness to reality, Lin Luo found the four young girls beside him looking as if they had endured some kind of torture, giving him a feeling of total physical and mental exhaustion... As for the reason, Lin Luo didn't want to dwell on it.
He turned his head and happened to see Saten Ruiko turning toward him. Lin Luo suddenly remembered something.
“Um, Saten-san…”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Um, could you let me examine your body?”
Bang!
A puff of red smoke erupted from the top of her long black hair; she was completely mortified!
The scene opposite was even more lively. The other three were enjoying the tea and snacks given by Kuroko, but at that moment...
“Pfft!”
“Pfft!”
“Cough... Ahhh!”
Hearing Lin Luo’s request, Mikoto sprayed a mouthful of tea all over Kuroko’s face. The tea in Kuroko’s mouth sprayed onto Uiharu’s face. Poor Uiharu had nothing to spray, as she was eating a cookie and nearly choked to death.
“Say, what kind of play are you three putting on?” Lin Luo looked at the three of them with confusion.