There is no guarantee for the lottery? So what?

#599 - No.5 Miao Kui

The scale of this Sky City was much larger and more luxurious than Qi Jing had imagined.

Just the resources used to build it, Qi Jing felt, could buy everything in a province, including everything on the internet.

Of course, this was just a rough estimate by someone who didn't understand finance at all, and he didn't know if it was actually that much.

Anyway, he couldn't afford it.

Regaining his thoughts, his next task was to fly around this huge base and use his Observation Haki to find his teammates.

Fortunately, this Sky City didn't extensively use building materials that could block perception, allowing Qi Jing's Observation Haki to penetrate the maze and see the situation inside the upper levels from the very bottom; otherwise, he would have to slowly walk through the maze to find people.

Could that treasure be inside here?

Let's fly~

♤ ♧ ♡ ♢

The hour of Zi had arrived.

Miao Kui, within the illusion, glanced at the time and decisively used his ability to randomly transform into a beautiful girl.

Every day at the hour of Zi, he would hold a sliver of anticipation, hoping to transform into a beautiful girl with extremely strong abilities.

Even if this ability disappeared the next day, he wouldn't care.

Simply because, blending into the campus like someone without any abilities every day was just too unbearable.

But nine out of ten times, this expectation would be disappointed.

More than half a year had passed, and the number of times he had transformed into a beautiful girl with abilities was very few; he had only experienced abilities from less than ten individuals.

However, he hadn't lost this sense of anticipation.

Tomorrow will be better.

This was what he often said to himself.

Maybe tomorrow he would transform into an extremely powerful ability user and have a great time; maybe tomorrow his ability would evolve and he would have the ability to choose a beautiful girl; maybe tomorrow he would see a new season of an old anime...

While waiting, he would also actively pursue tomorrow.

Because of the instability of his ability, he had to learn a lot about mechanical control, enriching himself in the days when he didn't have any abilities.

He wasn't doing it to avoid being left behind by Qi Jing and the others, nor was he pursuing any goal, simply because he felt that tomorrow's self should be better than today's, and incidentally make himself useful to the team.

Since he couldn't rely on his ability for the time being, he would learn non-ability knowledge.

In days of daily progress, it was quite nice to have his ability as an unknown blind box that opened at the hour of Zi.

As long as he didn't treat his ability as his own, and didn't think there was a chance of success, then the regret of not transforming into an ability user wouldn't be so great.

It was also very comfortable to have an unexpected surprise waiting for him every day.

What will I transform into today?

Miao Kui deactivated the Gaia Foundation's disguise effect and looked at his transformed appearance today.

Golden long hair, golden pupils, white silk gloves and stockings, plus Misaka Mikoto's school uniform and lightning that Misaka Mikoto didn't have.

Wakaka!

I got it! I hit the jackpot!

Shokuhou Misaki—the pinnacle of mental ability users!

Possessing the ability [Mental Out]:

Memory reading, thought elimination, will amplification, thought reproduction, emotion transplantation, distorted cognition, etc., a collection of nearly three thousand kinds of mental abilities, large and small!

However, because the ability was too powerful and difficult to control, this beautiful girl specifically set a rule for herself: her ability would only be released on the target pointed to by the remote control in her hand, using the remote control as a switch to use her ability.

Although she could do it without the remote control, it was too easy to accidentally injure innocents, so it was better to use it.

Of course, there were also disadvantages.

It was ineffective against mental ability users and enemies with extremely fast hit speeds, etc.

But these were not problems for Miao Kui.

His current need was only to break this illusion, leave this boundless cloud, and find Qi Jing and the others.

He didn't have any way to get out just now, but now, for him, who possessed the strongest mental ability, breaking this illusion only required a little thought.

He could even analyze this illusion in reverse.

Beep.

As Miao Kui skillfully pressed the weapon that came with Shokuhou Misaki, the "remote control," he began to sense the source of this illusion.

Soon, a series of information appeared in his mind.

This was a trap-type illusion; as long as you entered a certain area, you would be pulled into it and feel loneliness in the boundless clouds.

And this illusion killed people in two ways: one was outside the illusion, and the other was inside the illusion.

The one outside the illusion was easy to understand; you just had to wait for time to pass, and your body would gradually starve to death or be killed by external attacks.

The one inside the illusion was different; the clouds here contained a kind of mental suggestion, gradually making people despair and die of heart failure in a silent and deserted environment.

But, for their team, despair was absolutely impossible.

After all, they all believed that their omnipotent captain would come to save them, so how could they lose hope?

After understanding the function of this illusion, Miao Kui had a rough guess about how he got here.

They were lying on the white dog cloud and suddenly entered the territory of an unknown creature, or some holy land, forbidden area, or place of trial from a novel, and were directly pulled in.

After understanding everything, Miao Kui pressed the remote control in his hand again.

Beep.

The illusion in front of him suddenly shattered like a mirror, and his vision returned to the familiar inside of his helmet, changing from a standing position to lying down.

Miao Kui looked around vigilantly.

Under night vision, he discovered that the surrounding area was a cuboid密室 (mishi, secret room), filled with two-meter-long spikes, with many even below his body.

But none of them were able to pierce his combat suit.

Sure enough, there was a reason why it was expensive; the life-saving effect was top-notch.

He opened the combat suit's jet device and flew out towards the only exit directly above, landing on the floor of this level of the maze.

Where are the people?

He didn't find any trace of his teammates, and immediately understood that the illusion just now wasn't just a simple trap, but a superposition of spatial and mental elements.

While the illusion took effect, it transferred people here, attempting to kill them with spikes.

Insidious.

So insidious.

Which bastard built this forbidden area; they really want to kill us, don't they.

The complaining can wait; the most urgent thing was to find Qi Jing and reunite with him.

Miao Kui took out the piece of Qi Jing's life paper and walked in the direction it indicated.

Ouch!

Another big pit!

Miao Kui quickly grabbed the ground next to him and activated the jet device he had just turned off to avoid falling down again.

Damn it, who was the jerk who put two identical traps so close together!

After stabilizing himself and confirming that he was now safe, he opened the radar sonar device in his helmet, attempting to sense the surrounding environment.

But nothing was displayed on it, only a string of yellow prompts:

The wall bricks here can effectively isolate electromagnetic waves.

Alright.

Miao Kui took out the Poké Ball that Qi Jing had drawn months ago and released the Nyapas who was sleeping inside.

"Nyapas, use Shadow Clone to scout the way!"