Chương 49: Chapter 13 Knowledge Worth More Than Gold(Part 2)

After arriving at the Metropolitan Police Department, I was led—not to a conference room—but to a dojo. The moment I stepped inside, people were literally flying through the air. Apparently I had entered the wrong room. I immediately turned around.

"Chloe, where are you going?"

"I'm a delicate young girl. Fistfights are beyond me. I'm a magic-type Class user, remember?" I raised a slender white arm. Smooth. Soft. Not a single muscle bulge in sight. Honestly, there wasn't much inside either.

"Osu! Long time no see!" A heavily built man bowed respectfully toward me. I didn't recognize the face. The voice, however, clicked immediately.

"Good to see you again. Though it hasn't actually been that long. So the Red Scarf made it here too."

"Indeed. I came on a different flight than yours. Superintendent Tachibana and the others are still handling matters locally, but they'll arrive eventually. Allow me to introduce myself properly. Akamine." We shook hands. Thick calluses. Hard muscle. No striking calluses on the knuckles. Practical karate, then.

"Meeting the person everyone's talking about is quite an honor."

"We fought side by side. That's more important than fame. Though I'm curious. Why exactly was I called here?" I glanced toward Chiyoda. The officers who had been thrown through the air earlier were already back on their feet. The way they looked at Akamine and me carried unmistakable admiration.

"There are two reasons," Chiyoda explained.

"First, we want to examine the strengths and weaknesses of different Classes. Second, we want to compare physical Classes and magic Classes. These officers entered the Gate this morning alongside Sergeant Akamine. Every one of them obtained a physical Class. We don't have enough data yet, but magic Classes seem to appear at roughly a one-to-three ratio." He paused.

"In short, we'd like you to engage in a mock battle."

"... I've been completely set up." I raised both hands in surrender. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. There was no need to fight. The answer was already obvious. Could a magic user defeat a melee fighter? That depended entirely on the individual. Classes were fundamentally matters of aptitude. I had forced my way into my Class through all kinds of loopholes and manipulation.

Someone who naturally possessed the required aptitude could develop in entirely different directions.

"So, Chloe?" Akamine looked disappointed.

"You're not interested?"

"Not particularly. If we're going to spend time testing things, I'd rather investigate the Gate and improve myself." A wave of disappointment spread through the dojo. Akamine looked disappointed. Chiyoda looked disappointed. Even the surrounding officers looked slightly crestfallen. I wasn't a battle maniac. Still...

"Let's try a different experiment." I stepped backward.

"Akamine, please deal with this." A fireball roughly forty centimeters in diameter appeared and shot forward. Nothing extreme. Moderate speed. Moderate power. Enough to cause burns if it connected.

"Wha—!?" Akamine dodged with a quick sidestep. I curved the fireball around. Then again. And again. Keeping it just barely outside his reach as it circled him.

"Let's add another." A second fireball appeared. Then a third. Then a fourth. Akamine continued dodging using his enhanced physical abilities.

"Need more?"

"How many are you planning to make!?"

"Until you deal with them?"

"Why is that a question!? Just dispel them!"

"Why not punch them?"

"... What?" He hesitated. Naturally. Whenever he tried, I dismissed the fireball before contact. No reason to burn him unnecessarily. Recovery potions might exist outside the Gate now, but there was still no reason to injure someone.

"Akamine." I tilted my head.

"Why aren't you punching them?"

"Because that's impossible. I've extinguished candles with air pressure before, but those things are way too large."

"The Class explanation was pretty vague, wasn't it?"

"Very vague." He sounded annoyed.

"The Martial Artist description was basically: enhanced physical ability, punch, kick, throw. That's it." He looked enviously at me. Magic was certainly fascinating. Everything had been trial and error. I'd even learned to fly. But that didn't automatically make magic superior. Classes were merely tools. Exactly as Sots had described.

"You believe fire can't be punched." I smiled.

"Therefore, you can't punch it."

"Of course. Fire has no form. Even masters would struggle to extinguish flames that way."

"Then why can I fly?" I floated thirty centimeters into the air. The room fell silent. The first successful attempt was everything. Once an image solidified, repeating it became easy. Class growth depended on reaching that first success. Akamine stared silently. The officers nearby watched with open astonishment.

"The problem is your image." I descended.

"You keep trying to punch fire. That's the wrong approach."

"... Then what should I do?"

"You're a Martial Artist." I pointed at him.

"You punch. Kick. Throw."

"That's right."

"Then do that." Silence.

"It all comes down to image." I spread my hands.

"Expand your imagination." I grinned.

"Superheroes catch bullets. They punch missiles out of the sky." Akamine stared at me. Then slowly nodded.

"... One more time." I summoned four fireballs again. Same speed. Same quantity. Only the trajectories changed. Random movements. Up. Down. Left. Right. A voice suddenly cried out.

"Watch out!" Mochida.

"Be quiet!" Akamine barked back.

"Leave them exactly as they are!" His movements changed. Gone was the constant stepping and dodging. Now he watched every fireball carefully. Waiting. Reading. Anticipating. Random movement wasn't truly random. Human thought always left patterns. Just like passwords. Just like supposedly random numbers. Eventually the mind betrayed itself.

"There!" A punch. A fireball vanished.

"Here!" A kick. Another disappeared.

"And this!" A grab. The third was crushed in his hand. I blinked. That one surprised even me. I had imagined punching. Kicking. Not crushing. I couldn't imagine doing that myself. The image of being burned would interfere.

"Didn't expect you to crush them." Akamine grinned.

"If they're flames that can be destroyed by a punch, crushing them should be easy." Then he performed a double jump. Followed by a spinning kick. Like something straight out of a video game. The surrounding officers gasped. Chiyoda adjusted his crooked glasses.

"Chloe. What exactly is happening?" I sighed.

"Explaining it verbally is difficult." I looked around the room.

"This is the point where image and reality negotiate with each other." Physical Classes were grounded in reality. A swordsman believed a sword could cut flesh. Then expanded that belief. Flesh could be cut. What about stone? What about steel? What about something stronger? Each expansion reinforced the Class. That was how people climbed from lower Classes to higher ones. Magic Classes worked differently. Far more ambiguously. Possible. Impossible. Exists. Doesn't exist. One. Zero. Magic lacked a fixed standard.

Because of that, it could theoretically do anything. But vague images produced vague results.

"The explanation magic users receive at the beginning?" I smiled.

"That is practically the secret of magic itself." There was no superiority between physical and magical Classes. Only aptitude. Nothing more. Nothing less.