The Puppeteer of Academy City

Ling Xingye woke up from his sleep with a splitting headache.

"Is it because you've been too tired recently?" He followed the faint light outside the window and looked at the wall clock, it was only three o'clock in the morning.

Although still tired, Ling Xingye had no sleepiness at this time. He simply got up and went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water.

He didn't turn on the light, but Ling Xingye already knew his room well, and he couldn't go wrong with his eyes closed. What's more, there is still a little starlight shining in from the window.

After being fully strengthened by the blood of silver, Ling Xingye's eyes have the function of low-light night vision devices.

So he didn't want the lights to spoil the peaceful and comfortable atmosphere right now.

To be honest, from another person's point of view, Ling Xingye's apartment might not be described as "quiet and peaceful" at all.

It seems more appropriate to say that it is a haunted house—beside his bed there is a workbench larger than the bed, on which lies a mutilated "human body".

This is a monster under repair, but at first glance it can definitely scare the masses who don't know the truth.

In addition, every corner of the room is filled with all kinds of dolls, as well as a large number of girlish plush toys.

However, a few plush bears are in a miserable state of "opening their stomachs", with brackets and gears protruding from them, like their skeletons.

On the TV cabinet, there were two beautiful girls in kimonos, their delicate faces were perfectly made up, but they were lifeless. Two pairs of pitch-black eyes stared straight ahead, and his head drooped weakly to the side.

Beautiful, but even weirder.

Only Ling Xingye could turn a blind eye to all of this, stepping over all kinds of tools and sundries on the ground nimbly and skillfully all the way to the kitchen.

Because those are the puppets he made.

That is, performance props.

Recently, Ling Xingye has been performing crazily, and has also made a lot of new puppets for this reason.

The result is the current situation of turning one's own apartment into a dark fairytale style.

"If Hitomi sees it, he will be nagging for a long time, right?"

Holding a water glass, Ling Xingye stood at the door of the kitchen, looking at his "kingdom".

"Next, what kind of puppet should I make?"

His eyes stayed on the monster for a while, and then quickly passed by.

In the past, Ling Xingye would feel very uneasy if he didn't bring the sprite with him when he went out, so the first thing after every battle was to do his best to repair the sprite...at least let it restore the minimum fighting ability.

But this time, after more than ten days passed, Ling Xingye did not move for a long time, and just let the sprite lie on the workbench.

"I want to be a puppet master..." Ling Xingye said to himself, "but I don't want to be a puppet master who fights with puppets."

"Exactly... since when did it become like this?"

— Ling Xingye doesn't want to fight anymore.

He had thought he was fighting to protect other people... at least indirectly human beings.

Ling Xingye has never claimed to be a "partner of justice" or a "guardian".

But protecting human beings is indeed his consistent purpose.

So when asked "Have you ever killed someone", Ling Xingye always firmly confirmed - no.

But now, this certainty has been shaken.

The automatic puppet invasion event and the Sanzejuku event have been subsided. The "experiment" of the Misaka sisters has also been suspended.

The world was restored to peace.

But the nightmare followed... In that recurring dream, he killed the woman again and again. Her wound flowed out the same bright red blood as Ling Xingye himself.

She is human!

What's worse, Ling Xingye is very clear that this "dream" is not a fictional fantasy, but a replay of his real memory.

—The memory ignored and sealed by Ling Xingye.

hum~bum~

The phone next to the pillow rang suddenly, Ling Xingye walked over and turned on the screen.

is a mail.

The sender is called "Spider"—Sister Yao said that this is a member of "Silver" and can be trusted.

In fact, this is not the first time the spider has contacted him.

Since Bai Yinyao returned to the headquarters, the spider has been in contact with Ling Xingye.

"Tomorrow morning, the coffee shop in front of the Institute."

The content of the email was such an endless sentence, Ling Xingye frowned, but did not show any doubts.

Just a little hesitant.

After checking the time, he exited the mailbox interface and opened the photo album.

In chronological order, the top of the album is the photos taken at the fireworks display the day before yesterday.

Of course Ling Xingye didn't have time to take pictures, and these photos were all shared by Hitomi Shiranui.

The subject of the photo is naturally those girls.

Ling Xingye clicked on one of them - a group photo of the Misaka sisters.

In the photo, Misaka 10001's expression is obviously more vivid. Although compared with the sister next to her, she still looks a little cold, but no one thinks that she is just a "doll" without emotion.

Ling Xingye stared at the photo, replaying every detail in his mind since he met Misaka 10001.

In the end, Ling Xingye came to the conclusion that although the way of "birth" was different, Misaka 10001 was indeed a real human being.

And she's still growing.

Furthermore, it can be concluded that all Misaka sisters who are "same model" as Misaka 10001 can also become real human beings.

The "inhuman" side of them before was actually caused by the lack of education and experience. As long as the environment is changed, as long as someone can educate and train them well, they can become normal human beings.

"Are replicants human?" Ling Xingye asked to himself.

"Nonsense, of course it is!"

Ling Xingye squeezed the phone tightly.

Sitting on the bed for a while, Ling Xingye suddenly cursed in a low voice, then jumped up and turned on the light in the room.

Ten silk threads flew out along the fingertips, rolling up tools in every corner of the room.

Ling Xingye calmed down and began to repair the sprites.

After more than ten days, the maintenance plan of the demon has already been prepared; customized replacement parts have also been bought back.

All Ling Xingye had to do was the final assembly and debugging. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com

For the rest of the maintenance work, Ling Xingye is very familiar with the road, and he will restore the sprites before dawn.

Then, Ling Xingye walked out of the apartment with her travel bag for a long time, and went to the coffee shop that she had agreed with the spider.

But in the coffee shop, Ling Xingye didn't wait for a person named "Spider" to appear until after breakfast.

"That mysterious guy, isn't he playing tricks on me?" Ling Xingye finally lost his patience and got up to pay the bill and leave.

At this moment, a city express truck stopped in front of the cafe.

A moment later, when Ling Xingye passed the counter, he was suddenly stopped by the proprietress.

"Ling Xingye?" The proprietress checked the information on the electronic bill, "Excuse me, are you Ling Xingye? I just sent a package for you."

Ling Xingye took the package and saw the sender's column on the courier slip, which was a pattern of a spider.