The two people standing among hundreds of Robot Armies glared at each other, seemingly engaged in a staring contest. To an outsider, that was all it appeared to be.
However, that was far from the truth.
In a realm invisible to the human eye, an intense battle for dominance was raging just beneath the surface.
The blinking lens of the Robot standing between them was the only evidence that their struggle continued. Some Androids had even slumped to the ground like puppets with severed strings.
“Damn, damn, damn—!”
Eight smirked as he watched the Meister in front of him shouting wildly. It looked like he had been exerting himself for a while, but he still couldn’t seize control from Eight.
To be precise, the moment he tried to take control, Eight snatched it back in real-time. The difference was that the other side’s powers were activated voluntarily, while Eight was leisurely watching the spectacle, leaving everything to the AI.
“Such disappointment.”
He had already grasped how that guy operated the Androids and controlled the machines, right down to the structure and method of his abilities.
First off, that guy emitted a very weak electromagnetic field from his body. A signal just faint enough for machines to sense it. For some reason, once machines received that signal, they would get hijacked.
An unreasonable and nonsensical feature unique to superpowers. He still couldn’t interpret how that electromagnetic field could control machines. But he could ascertain that it had such a function and, at the same time, replicate that unique electromagnetic field.
“They say copying has been a human specialty since ancient times.”
The intricate principles or concepts weren’t that important. Humans had handled countless things whose operational reasons were unknown throughout history. The task of defining operating principles and formulas belonged to the drudgery of tedious researchers sitting at their desks with pens.
What mattered to people who used things in the field wasn’t principles or concepts. It was how effective it was.
“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one who created the artificial intelligence.”
“Hmm? Did I ever drop hints about that?”
“Ha! Of course! There can’t be two people in this world with such absurd technology!”
The Meister figured out Eight’s identity through a leap of logic based on intuition. The enigma behind the Evilus Agent, the Demon of Wisdom that had swiftly swallowed the world and transformed the era.
He had walked all the way to this city to find that scientist. To indulge in the principles of the AI that could even counter his superpowers.
“I’m glad you came! I didn’t think there’d be someone like me!”
The Meister was ecstatic. A grin spread across his face. But, surprisingly, Eight frowned slightly at those words.
That last remark bothered him. Someone like him… It sounded as if suggesting he and the other were on the same level. No way that could be true.
“Someone like me?”
“Ha! Don’t deny it! You’re a superpower user who handles machines just like me, right? The reason why my abilities don’t work on the AI and how I’m losing control of my Androids—! It’s all because you’ve got the same abilities as I do!”
“Hmm, that’s a very intriguing guess…”
“Was it fun deceiving people with your superpower? That won’t work anymore! Because I, with the same abilities as you, have come!”
The Meister shouted confidently, obviously certain that his assumption was entirely correct. Hearing that confident tone, Eight felt an impulse to stick cotton in his ears.
Whether intended or not, the tone was grating to the other person’s nerves. If Eight had truly been an ability user as the Meister suspected, he might have been led astray by his tricks right this moment.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Haha! Right, we don’t need to exchange words between us, right!”
“Then I’ll say just one thing.”
Eight, with a friendly smile, increased the output of the electromagnetic field. More Androids fell under Eight’s control. Realizing this, the Meister’s surprise was evident.
“If you’ve got any hidden tricks, bring them out now.”
“What…?”
“If you’re going to evolve like a cartoon protagonist, do it now! If you need time to transform, take your time. I’ll wait.”
The villain blinked repeatedly, looking utterly confused as to what was being said.
“Bring everything you have and clash with me. Otherwise…”
Bang—!
Finally, one of the Androids fired at the Meister. The unilateral hijacking of control. In that instant, he couldn’t respond.
Grabbing his bleeding earlobe, the Meister widened his eyes in shock. Eight delivered his final verdict.
“You’re going to die.”
“…Fuck—!”
The next moment, the clash of their territories intensified even further.
The Meister fought back remarkably. Despite being grazed by a bullet (it wasn’t a big wound, but still!), he continued the mental battle, enduring the pain.
Every time Eight raised his power output, the Meister impulsively matched it. Having never met someone with a similar ability throughout his life, his superpowers, which had been stagnant since childhood, began to develop rapidly.
He even achieved a cartoonish evolution of his abilities that he had joked about.
“Grr, ugh…!”
But sadly, the outcome of this fight had been predetermined from the start. When a living creature and a machine fought, the creature could never win against the machine. Over time, the creature could not maintain its abilities. The machine, however, was different.
Moreover, Eight had hidden countless devices all over the city before the Meister even arrived at City E. Just in case he couldn’t defeat him with the tools he brought, he would press the Meister simultaneously using all the devices he had set up throughout the city…
Fortunately, he didn’t have to do that.
Eight slowly approached the fallen Meister.
“Your head hurts, right? So why did you look into that?”
“Th-that just now….”
“The foundation of the technique that copied your ability.”
Having gazed into a four-dimensional cube made of infinite 0s and 1s, along with other hidden numbers in between, there was no way his brain could be intact. Indeed, blood was flowing from the Meister’s nose.
His blood vessels must have burst due to the overwhelming influx of information. Clicking his tongue, Eight pulled out an amplifier from his pocket and shoved it into the Meister’s nose.
“Grrk—!”
“Just hold on a little. If you leave it like that, you’ll die. That thing.”
The gas spewing from the amplifier inserted into his nose began to sift through the Meister’s brain, fixing the ruptured areas. A moment later, the Meister, once again spewing out dark blood, couldn’t suppress his dizziness and began banging his head on the floor, looking up at Eight in shock.
“You, you…!”
“Did you figure it out?”
“Y-you—! How did you do that to my ability?”
After realizing that his abilities weren’t working since the amplifier was stuck in his nose, the Meister glared at Eight with blood vessels bursting in his eyes. Eight, feigning surprise, exaggeratedly reacted and knelt to meet his gaze.
In this world, it was said that people without abilities were treated almost like invalids. The shock the villain before him experienced was likely akin to the fear of suddenly losing limbs and having ears and eyes blocked.
“Don’t worry. They’re not gone.”
“W-what then…?”
“Instead, I’ve sealed them. You can’t use your abilities without permission.”
The Meister had felt relieved by the first statement but quickly fell back into despair with the second. He must have realized that there was no way someone like him, a villain, would be allowed to wield an extremely dangerous ability in modern society.
As he looked down at the Meister’s eyes, stained with despair, Eight lifted him up as if to say, “Don’t worry.”
Staring back at the Meister, who looked at him as if to ask what his purpose was, Eight regarded him with the same gaze the professor had given him long ago.
“I have no intention of sending you to a detention center, so you don’t need to worry.”
“…You won’t send me to a detention center? Then where—.”
“You’re going to my research facility.”
He flinched—!
For some inexplicable reason, the Meister felt a chill run down his spine. However, Eight, ignoring his reaction, squeezed his grip on his shoulder. A terrifying strength emanated from his thin arms that felt devoid of muscles.
A grip full of obsession, as if he would never let go.
“I’ll implant the foundations in you there.”
Everything, from one to ten.
Yes.
So that you can become like me.
That had been his resolution since the day he was called a fraud.
