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The next day, George woke up and continued to follow Misaka Mikoto invisibly. Since it was sumr vacation and there were no classes, Misaka Mikoto had no particular tasks and spent the entire day wandering around Academy City.
During her stroll, she encountered a group of elentary school students just beginning to develop their psychic powers. She played soccer with them for a while, then beca fascinated by a small girl's Gokata badge. She spent the rest of the day trying her luck at a capsule-toy machine in hopes of getting one.
"Sure enough, kids will always be kids."
After tracking Misaka Mikoto for the entire day, George didn't discover any useful intelligence. He was starting to consider abandoning the mission and exploring on his own.
However, in the evening, things took an unexpected turn.
Misaka Mikoto t Clone 9982, the clone ranked imdiately after her.
Misaka Mikoto seed to care deeply about her own cloning, and she hoped to find the laboratory where she was cloned by tracking down this clone. It also appeared that she regarded the clone as a younger sister.
This sparked an idea in George's mind.
Initially, he hadn't cared about the thousands of surviving clones and had no intention of rescuing them.
But now, since Misaka Mikoto—the original—seed to be very concerned about them, he wondered if he could leverage her influence to allow the clones to live openly in Academy City.
If successful, he could also live there openly under the guise of being Clone 9981—just a slightly mutated clone with greatly enhanced abilities.
"Misaka is heading to an experint and won't return to the laboratory. It's your choice if you want to follow her, but you won't et the one who created her," Clone 9982 said to Misaka Mikoto from atop a bridge.
Misaka Mikoto's plan was thwarted. After so childish bickering, she reluctantly said goodbye to Clone 9982.
"These clones don't seem to lack emotions after all. That's good; it won't make feel too out of place."
Flying invisibly in the sky and observing, George mused to himself.
He had initially thought the clones were like robots—devoid of emotions since they hadn't been programd with any.
But from today's observations, he realized that wasn't the case. The clones were like blank slates, forcibly filled with knowledge but never properly allowed to grow. That's why they seed robotic.
If they had been allowed to grow normally, they might have been no different from regular humans.
In the few hours Clone 9982 spent with Misaka Mikoto, it clearly saw her as an older sister, developing so emotional attachnt. It even took the Gokata Misaka Mikoto had spent all day trying to win as a gift for her.
"Do you want to know the truth?"
Landing below the bridge, George removed his invisibility as Misaka Mikoto descended from the bridge.
Seeing yet another clone that looked just like herself, Misaka Mikoto widened her eyes in shock.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Clone 9981. The one you just t was Clone 9982. The laboratory cloned a total of 20,000 Misaka clones," George replied calmly.
Upon hearing this, Misaka Mikoto grabbed George's arm.
"What is going on here?"
"Do you know about the 'Level 6 Shift' project?"
George paid no attention to Misaka Mikoto's firm grip on his arm, as her strength was negligible to him.
He slowly explained the details of the 'Level 6 Shift' project to her.
"Before , 9,980 Misaka clones have already died. Last night, I was supposed to be killed by Accelerator, but for so reason, in my near-death state, I awakened my survival instincts and self-awareness. That's how I managed to escape in the end."
"And what Clone 9982 just ntioned about going to the experint? In reality, she's going to her death."
"Enough is enough! To think they plan to kill 128 tis and replace with clones—this is beyond ridiculous!"
After hearing George's explanation, Misaka Mikoto's body trembled, her face full of anger and disbelief.
She understood that the seemingly idealistic Academy City hid so dark secrets, but she could hardly believe it could be so dark, so devoid of humanity.
"If you don't believe , we can follow Clone 9982. We'll quickly see whether what I've said is true."
George didn't continue explaining. He simply turned and walked toward the bridge.
"The experint always starts at 9 PM. There are still ten minutes left before then."
Misaka Mikoto, seeing George head toward the bridge, recalled the docunts she'd seen earlier about the "Mass Production Esper Program." She now believed most of what he had said.
She quickly turned and followed George. She couldn't let another clone like 9982 be killed.
Thanks to their shared brainwave connection, George and Misaka Mikoto soon caught up with Clone 9982. However, George didn't allow Misaka Mikoto to approach just yet.
"Her body might have surveillance devices. Let's follow at a distance."
"What's your plan?"
Misaka Mikoto asked, eyeing Clone 9982 as she entered a secluded alley, retrieved a prepared submachine gun, and waited quietly.
She couldn't shake the feeling that this clone—9981, as he was called—seed unusually mature, as though he already had a plan when he ca to find her.
George nodded.
"There are two ways to stop the Level 6 Shift project.
The first is to make Accelerator abandon the experint. Without the test subject, they won't need to send us clones to our deaths.
The problem is, if Accelerator doesn't back out, his strength might be too much for us to handle.
The second is to find the laboratory conducting the experint and destroy everything—ruining the research and stopping the experint for good.
However, there are over twenty research labs spread across Academy City. Unless we can simultaneously destroy them all without being noticed, they'll just relocate and continue the experints."
"Then we'll go with the first option. Accelerator will appear in just a few minutes, and I'll try my best to convince him to back out of this experint!"
Electricity crackled around Misaka Mikoto's body.
Destroying twenty labs was almost impossible. The only option was to make Accelerator give up on the plan. If he wouldn't give up, they'd have to force him to.
Although Accelerator ranked above her, Misaka Mikoto was confident in her own strength.
"Since that's settled, I'll brief you on the information I have about Accelerator."
George quickly relayed all the information he had on Accelerator.
The Misaka clones had fought Accelerator 9,980 tis, and the experiences from those battles had been transmitted to each subsequent clone's mind through the Misaka Network. George had access to that information as well.
(End of Chapter)
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