Ch 40 – Academy City

Inside a world called Earth, a certain city currently resides in the continental size country named America, a combination between both north and south America and all the countries within it to form this superpower monolith.

And the city that resides in that country is one that is special, even supernatural in nature named Academy City, a city where, as its name implies, is a city that is also an academy.

But that singular aspect wouldn't just make it special, no no no! The special thing about is not that it's a city where the world's geniuses reside, or where the world's most brilliants mind originates from, no! It's because this is a city of espers!

As a flash of white light erupts under a stone bridge, a humanoid teenage boy appears wearing a white shirt and black pants appears out of nowhere.

'Oh? Memories?' Braun mutters in his mind as memories surface in his mind out of nowhere that show the whole life of Freidrich Braun in this world.

From his life when he was a child, to his parents dying and enrolling into Academy City from a young age, to being a pathetic Level 0, a whole life unfolds in his mind that didn't even disgruntle him one bit.

'Oh wow, system, am I, not an esper already? Even though it's level 0, it's still an esper right?' Braun asks in his mind as a grin shows on his face.

[No]

'Well, at least I tried, can't you give me an effort point?'

[1 Effort Point given]

'Well thank you system. Now, I must be direct with you, the life you gave me in this world sucks. Like really? A typical bullied guy due to them being powerless but is secretly a genius? Why didn't you just made me the son of a rich family so I could finish your stupid objective in a few days?' Braun said while laughing his ass off.

[Manipulating reality on this scale is already counterproductive to the value you would produce upon the completion of your mission.]

'Oh shucks, you're so magnanimous dear Multiversal God Space. Sigh, fucking hell, I might have to pull some Deus Ex Machinas out of my ass in this world with this rough start. At least I still have my quirks.' Braun thought while stretching his body around.

'So this city is one made out of espers where talented students enroll at either elementary, middle school, high school, or college. And you can gain esper powers through the special curriculum the city has made after studying a 'thing' that allowed them to give humans special abilities through altering their minds. And according to history, the first two espers who appeared around the world are two individuals that disappeared 50 years ago named Andrew Detmer and Matt Garetty. Quite an interesting world, there are also other superpowered nations out there so it seems like those nations also contain those crystalline entities the system mentioned.' Braun thought, walking out of the underside of the bridge to see that he was inside an open park of green grass, and as he glances around him, he sees multiple people flying around, or manipulating objects without touching them, some were teleporting, manipulating fire, and all kinds of psychic abilities that looks a lot like Quirkverse.

'Hey system, are you sure this isn't a B-rank world?' Braun asks.

[Yes, this is only a small part of the human population. You need to spread the power of the crystals worldwide and bring a new age to humanity.]

'Okay.' Braun said while rolling his eyes and preparing to go back to his home.

Walking out of the park, he finds himself in the open street where espers roam about as if it was completely normal causing him to chuckle.

'It's Saturday right now so I have 2 days to explore around and create a plan to make contact with that crystal, that should be pretty easy with my current quirks and hacking abilities.' Braun thought, a confident grin appearing on his face while his weirdly slim body walks through the street, his muscles seemingly vanishing but their strength still residing within him, it was a combination between some of his new quirks absorbed from Seth and other factors like manipulating his mind which in turn alters his body.

Observing the world around him analyzing eyes, he made sure to not allow the system to see his true capabilities which was child's play for him with how smart he was, if he were to even quantify it, he would assume it's around 1000+ and it's only growing further every second he is alive.

'Ha! It uses the same principles of my fundamental forces manipulation!' Braun cackles in his mind upon seeing the people around him manipulating reality and almost losing his mind at how hilarious it was.

'This would be easy then if they derive this ability from researching the crystal. I would just need to make a catapult-like device that will allow me to make contact with the crystal and bing bang bong, I would gain psychic abilities.' Braun thought, letting out a sigh of relief from his mouth while deciding to focus more on this new power once he received it and seal his quirk after getting psychic powers.

Walking through the city, he finally arrives in front of his dormitory and enters the ground floor.

As the door automatically opens for him, he glances around the ground floor and walks up to the elevator to reach floor 9, just a floor below floor 10 which was the highest floor of this 10-story building.

Entering the elevator, his vision changes as if he can look through the walls and see the inner workings of the elevator, appreciating the current advancement this city has done as if the whole world around him was an open book he could admire and see its true beauty.

As he felt the elevator stopping its movement, he watches the door open with smooth movements and walks through it with rhythmic steps that makes any listener magically calm down as if it was an entrancing mantra or the sound of a waterfall smashing the water down to the ground in a certain pattern that the human mind could recognize and calm themselves down.

Standing in front of his room, he puts his hand on the identification pad and prepares to scan his hand on it, but he suddenly halts his movements upon hearing the door of the dorm room beside him open out of nowhere.

"Good morning, Amber," Braun said with a serene voice, turning his body around to make eye contact with the girl that walks through the door right beside him. With shoulder-length blond hair, fiery-red eyes, and rosy white skin that complements the long sleeve white shirt and short black skirt she was wearing.

As she glances at Braun, she turns her body around and walks straight into the elevator, completely dismissing his existence causing him to let out an amused smile at the fickle emotions humans hold, the irrationality of dismissing him causes him to shake his head in disappointment.

'Amber Phoenix, a Level 4 Esper who is nearing the borders of Level 5 and a pyromancer. You know, just being nice to other people could get you far in life as long as it is calculated kindness. Oh well, my power is so fucking pathetic it doesn't even actually exist, it's just a manipulation done by the system to trick them into thinking I am a Level 0 Esper. I'm not even an Esper!' Braun shrugs his shoulders, putting his palm on the hand scanner, the door opens on its own to show his neat residence.

Entering through the door, he glances at his white tiled floor and white walls, the color white being a reoccurring theme throughout the dorm residence.

Walking to his couch, he plops his body down and stretches his back, the black couch swallowing his body including his head as he opens his system to see the new side objectives indicated by the previous dings that suddenly played while he was talking to Amber.

[Side Objective: Level 5 Esper (Incomplete)]

- Become a Level 5 Esper in Academy City

[Rewards: 5000 points, Random Equipment]

'Oi oi oi! System! Becoming a Level 5 Esper gives me 5000 points but becoming an Esper only gives 1000 points?! Isn't that unfair?!' Braun shouts in his mind but the system remained unresponsive.

'Fuck you.' Braun said while rolling his eyes. Leaning forward, he grabs his phone that was a bit out of date due to his frugal lifestyle and opens it, connecting it to the TV in front of him, he turns it open to see the current news playing on the TV.

And as he turns it on, what was instantly shown was the current news about the 10 Kings of Academy City, 10 Level 5 Espers who have reached the peak, all born with unrivaled talent and genius that a normal man would consider born from a god.

Shaking his head at the useless fame, he suddenly heard a ding to suddenly see a new screen pop up in his peripheral vision.

[Side Objective: King (Incomplete)]

- Become one of the 10 Kings in Academy City

[Rewards: 5000 Points, New Title]

[Side Objective: Immortal King (Incomplete)]

- Become the number 1 King

[Rewards: 7500 Points, New Title]

'Now that's what I call rewards! And here I thought you were being stingy dear Multiversal God Space system. Well, I guess I should start this side objective quest line before it gets too out of hand and be stuck under hundreds of side quests. First step, it's to become an esper.' Braun thought, dismissing the holographic screen in front of him and turning his attention to his phone to start gathering some secret government files with only a few having access to it, a very easy task for someone of his intellect, though he would have to excoriatingly lengthen the process to not appear too suspicious to the system, having 25 Mind helps at this moment considering 20 is the peak for the human mind.

'Hmm… As long as there is blood inside my body, my mind would be as twice as strong.' Braun states in his mind and magically, he watches his status suddenly change from his mind changing from 25 to 50 while the energy requirement is quite manageable without him doing some wacky shenanigans to increase his energy reservoir and energy regeneration.

As he uses his old phone by this city's standards, he went to start connecting to the internet and his journey of accessing top secret files and forbidden info starts.

Rapidly tapping on his screen, multiple files, secret connection pathways, and more was revealed to him in a matter of hours and he was easily able to store a multitude of important data within his phone.

After making sure that he didn't leave any trace that he was already sure off and was only doing this to keep the charade he was playing, he goes to the downloaded files to start reading them and see where the crystalline entity that the city has control over is located and kickstart his grand but absurd plan of becoming an esper.

Though he wouldn't be the same type of espers within the city considering they became an esper through the special curriculum, no, he was going to become an esper through the crystal itself, the same source of power that both Andrew Detmer and Matt Garetty received their powers from.

'Bla bla bla, quantum physics, personal reality, quantum fields, all that crap. There we go, Crystalline Entity, strange force emitting from it, radiation, interference with the electromagnetic field and technology, mmm-hmm… Oh, there it is, located under District 1, in the center most region of the city, whew, that was easier than I thought! Now I only need to connect with the crystal to a small wormhole and bingo bango, esper powers.' Braun thought while letting out a yawn from his mouth, standing up, he cracks open his phone and start to make the wormhole device that he already designed and experimented on with his brilliant mind that could simulate reality with ease.

AN: This is 2050 words, you're welcome.

Author from the future here, so I'm just going to say what the fuck?! This volume was supposed to be like a short volume where he would speedrun shit but then it somehow transformed into big brain plays one after the another then it lead to the next big thing and fuck me, my brain power levels is rising with how much big braininess this volume has, especially the potential volume end plot twist.

So buckle up for a fun volume especially for those who love a sociopathic main character, because this volume is influenced by Soul of Negary, a crap ton of anime references, and anime cliches that is actually just Braun being a marionette of reality and more, for this is the story of a Genius Villain in the World of Espers.

Writing a chapter takes me more than an hour, so send me some powerstones.

(June 6, 2022 – 194th day of writing)