The human heart is always so hard to fathom, that thirst to explore the unknown feels like a mark etched deep into the very bones.
Natsume Sonoko was precisely that kind of curious girl, especially when she had no phone and was bored out of her skull.
Sprawled listlessly on the sofa, she'd sunk so deeply into the cushions it was like watching some poor soul being swallowed by quicksand.
Not that Natsume-san minded—in fact, she loved this feeling, the unparalleled sense of security it gave her.
But as she tried focusing her attention on her newly gained perception, immersing herself in that special Phase similar to the real universe yet devoid of all light, she stumbled upon something incredible without even realizing how.
The lightless Phase felt intensely familiar to Natsume-san, similar to the Phase bearing the Aim Diffusion Field, yet it also carried an inexplicable sense of revulsion.
This revulsion came from the depths of her soul, probably connected to that long-deceased shrine maiden.
Natsume-san didn't have many thoughts about the death of that unnamed shrine maiden. After all, everyone dies; she too would pass on someday.
Still, she couldn't help but be bothered by the idea of two people sharing one soul.
She had this indescribable feeling, as if she were carrying on something—inheriting karma and troubles completely unbeknownst to her, none of which Natsume-san had ever asked for.
All Natsume-san wanted was to focus on her studies and maybe, one day, hire Tsuchimikado-san to be her maid. Even her identity as a dimension-hopper was something she'd gladly toss aside.
It wasn't that Natsume-san had pinpointed the source of her revulsion, but rather, she'd discovered some secrets of the real universe—or more precisely, Academy City—within this lightless Phase.
Since the lightless Phase operated under similar rules and was composed of similar matter as the real universe, Natsume-san could use its laws to perceive partial truths of reality.
In practice, unless she could locate a singular point encompassing all rules, her new perception was limited to her observational position, constrained by the Phase or universe she was perceiving from.
If there was something beyond the comprehension of that Phase or universe, Natsume-san wouldn't be able to perceive it either.
After observing her immediate surroundings for a short while, she noticed the air seemed to be filled with tiny technological objects of unknown purpose.
These creations were minuscule, far beyond the perception of the naked human eye.
Even with her ability's precision having reached a fairly high level, Natsume Sonoko had never detected any heat emanating from these things; they were as unnoticeable as the air itself.
They were likely nanoscale in size, shaped like plump little spheres, with what seemed to be six thin metallic filaments sprouting from their sides.
If not for her ability to adopt a microscopic perspective via the lightless Phase, Natsume-san would never have detected their presence.
This sudden discovery left the certain bun-head girl momentarily stunned. Her first thought was whether she'd accidentally inhaled any of these things.
The answer was pretty obvious.
Though Natsume-san was reluctant to accept it, the facts were the facts.
Every breath drew in vast quantities of air, along with attached bacteria and dust—an unavoidable reality of being human.
Even if these tiny objects had some autonomous capability, allowing them to avoid being inhaled, their size was simply too small to resist the powerful suction of a breath.
However, their minute size also made them fragile, easily damaged by relatively strong air currents. This realization made the girl, who'd generated a miniature tornado in her hand for testing, sigh in relief. They probably broke down completely the moment they were inhaled.
While their flaws were evident, their sheer numbers made up for it. Natsume-san found at least several hundred similar spherical devices around her.
"What in the world are these things?"
Shifting into a more comfortable position on the sofa, Natsume-san's mind began to whirl.
Extending the effective observational range of her perception within the lightless Phase, a heavy computational pressure started bearing down on her brain.
From a few meters around her, to two hundred meters, then out to a full kilometer—the endless fog of the unknown seemed to peel slowly away.
Natsume-san's eyes grew slightly red; she was clearly tapping into Reiko-chan's computational power.
She felt bad about disturbing Reiko-chan's sleep, but this was a special circumstance. Natsume-san couldn't just ignore these technological products lurking around her.
Come to think of it, Natsume-san's own computational power had risen to the average level for an esper, and it was still steadily increasing, but it still couldn't compare to the processing power Reiko provided.
Natsume-san didn't know her own computational limits, but in the half-year since starting middle school, she'd successively crossed the thresholds for a Level 3 and then a Level 4 esper, her growth rate matching any typical esper's.
Moreover, with her soul and body further synchronizing, her microscopic perspective expanding, and under the dual influence of her Personal Reality and essential nature, her ability's progress seemed to be accelerating slightly.
But it had all happened too quickly; Natsume-san hadn't even noticed the change yet.
The information within the microscopic world was as vast as an ocean. Even selectively filtering out the vast majority of it, the pressure on her brain became hard to bear once the actual observational range grew large.
Before long, Natsume-san stopped her observation, preventing her brain from being flooded with all sorts of incomprehensible data.
"They're not just around me. The dorm and the nearby areas all have similar tech."
"So, it's probably safe to assume this stuff is spread throughout Academy City."
Natsume-san's eyes returned to normal, leaving her with a slightly spooked, paranoid feeling. To think she'd uncovered another one of Academy City's secrets.
As for their purpose, Natsume-san doubted they were weapons—they were too easily destroyed, and she couldn't see any danger in them.
But just thinking about their terrifying numbers and near-ubiquitous presence, a half-formed idea immediately popped into her head.
"They couldn't be surveillance devices, could they? But I don't see any camera components or the like."
Natsume-san mused, baffled.
Once again, it was beyond her knowledge. She just didn't get it.
Such tiny things couldn't possibly carry cameras or recording devices. And even if they could, surveillance equipment this small simply couldn't function.
An ant can't see what a human looks like, let alone something countless times smaller than an ant.
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T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.