This time, Chairman Aleister no longer concealed anything and spoke frankly to Lin Wuming: "I have a plan called 'Artificial Heaven.' It's safe to say that my purpose in establishing Academy City was for it."
"Oh~ that's truly extraordinary," Lin Wuming replied perfunctorily.
"So you can understand it this way—apart from the 'Artificial Heaven' related parts, everything else in Academy City is merely a byproduct to me," Chairman Aleister said. "Lin Wuming, if you are willing, all of this can be yours—as compensation for being the 'City Guardian.'"
"Oh~ how generous," Lin Wuming still responded indifferently.
After all, he had long passed the stage of being fooled by others' empty promises. Aleister's verbal commitments were meaningless.
Moreover, given the current situation where this world was about to enter a runaway mode, even if he truly replaced Aleister and ruled Academy City, it might not be a good thing.
"Then, let's talk about learning magic again," Chairman Aleister brought up the previous topic once more.
"Don't be so quick to refuse," Chairman Aleister stopped Lin Wuming's words immediately and asked, "Think broadly—you know the taboo that Espers cannot use magic. Do you know what happens if they force it?"
"Death?"
"In severe cases, yes, that's true," Chairman Aleister said. "Of course, in most cases, it won't directly lead to death, but rather a state of severe injury and near-death."
"Near-death?" Lin Wuming noticed the keyword.
"Exactly, near-death. The root cause of this phenomenon lies in an Esper's 'Personal Reality,'" Chairman Aleister explained. "esper ability and magic are two completely different systems. These are two worlds with huge divergences starting from the most fundamental worldview; it's natural that they cannot understand each other."
"Therefore, the backlash an Esper experiences when forcing the use of magic is essentially the destruction caused by their Personal Reality to themselves," Chairman Aleister said meaningfully. "But as long as one can react in time and control their Personal Reality to interfere with the real world, then the backlash can also be avoided... though in that case, don't expect the magic to have any effect."
Near-death injury, controllable!
Although in the end, it still couldn't unleash magic effects, seemingly a futile effort, in Lin Wuming's eyes, this already had sufficient value.
—A perfect way to actively trigger "Bullet Time" for himself, replacing the derringer.
"Now, Student Wuming," Chairman Aleister looked at Lin Wuming, "Are you interested in learning some simple and useful magic?"
Ultimately, Lin Wuming agreed to "learn magic."
With all his objectives achieved, a satisfied Chairman Aleister finally called for the guide, Kihara Tamski.
"I'm not coming to this godforsaken place again next time," Lin Wuming said.
"Don't be angry, today is a special situation," Chairman Aleister said. "In the future, you can summon a guide yourself, so you don't have to worry about being trapped here again."
After leaving the No Window Building, Kihara Tamski asked, "Am I assigned under you?"
"No, not at all," Lin Wuming shook his head. "I'm sorry, but as a result, you just gained another leader."
Kihara Tamski's expression immediately fell.
"On the other hand," Lin Wuming quickly added, "you'll also get an extra overtime allowance, for situations like today."
"Heh, well, thank you very much," Kihara Tamski rolled her eyes.
...
After Lin Wuming left, Aleister's room returned to quiet.
After a while, the floor cracked open, and a desk-sized platform rose from where Lin Wuming had stood.
A beautifully bound book lay on the platform.
"To increase credibility, using this as a teaching material couldn't be more suitable, could it?" Aleister chuckled in the empty room.
The original grimoire written by him—"the book of the law."
The reason he was so insistent on Lin Wuming learning magic was due to a piece of information widely circulated on the magic side.
—Academy City's eighth Level 5, Lin Wuming, is suspected to be an experimental product resulting from the cooperation between Academy City and Necessarius, a "scientific magic dual cultivation" talent who simultaneously masters esper ability and magic.
The spread of this news was not initially Aleister's intention, but it didn't prevent him from using this rumor.
"Since some people believe Lin Wuming is 'scientific magic dual cultivation,' then let him learn a little magic as well."
Aleister's fundamental goal remained unchanged; as long as it could attract the attention of others, the more dazzling Lin Wuming became, the better!
Since the current Lin Wuming was already like an awl in a bag, with his brilliance fully exposed, then it was better to simply make him even more noticeable.
At the same time, this was also a way to give him something to do, preventing him from making rapid progress on his unique path, thereby completely breaking free from control.
As Chairman Aleister's thoughts drifted, countless screens gradually lit up in the room, each displaying Lin Wuming's figure.
The figure in the giant test tube had his eyes tightly closed, but he could simultaneously "watch" the images on all screens.
After a while, he shook his head slightly.
Immediately after, the screens in the room extinguished one by one, leaving less than a third of them lit.
As for the extinguished screens, they switched to images of Kamijou Touma and lit up again.
"Can't lose sight of the main point; I almost forgot the focus," Chairman Aleister clicked his tongue.
Ultimately, Lin Wuming's specialness lay only in himself; apart from that, there was nothing else worth noting.
And "Imagine Breaker"—that was the fundamental meaning of all of this.
The relative importance of the two was self-evident.
"Indeed, for an educator, overly excellent students can also be a headache," Chairman Aleister mused, then suddenly asked, "Don't you think so?"
No one responded in the empty room, but Chairman Aleister didn't care: "Fortunately, Lin Wuming's excellence still has its limitations, or rather, he is indeed just a 'mortal' after all. Just those few girls around him can tie up a large part of his energy."
"Tsk, Lin Wuming... that guy's no good," Aleister's tone suddenly changed, and he teased, "Can't even handle a few girls, truly disappointing."
It should be known that Chairman Aleister had long noticed Lin Wuming's popularity with women and was even prepared to exploit it—to slow down Lin Wuming's progress through this weakness.
Unexpectedly, Aleister hadn't even had time to arrange his move when "self-destruction" had already begun around Lin Wuming.
