Listening to the conversations of the passengers around him on the tram, Edward Harris squinted slightly and glanced at the notice released by the New Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Theft?

Currently wanted?

The TV narrator said that a private jewelry and jade club in Setagaya, also known as the “rich district” of New Tokyo’s 13th ward, had been robbed. The male owner of the club stated when reporting the case that he seemed to be under a spell at the time, completely unaware as he led the cat burglar woman into the jewelry store on the fourth floor of his own villa.

It was only after he came to his senses that he realized he had lost at least 80 million yen worth of jewelry and jade.

The police wanted notice also specifically reminded: the cat burglar is very likely to be an esper with mental-type abilities, and citizens assisting in the arrest should be extremely careful.

An esper?

Upon hearing this, Edward Harris wasn’t particularly surprised.

In this world, New Tokyo is also called “Academy City” in Wa no Kuni, home to four nationally renowned esper academies and research institutes on ability fruits. The proportion of espers in the city is among the highest in the country.

To be honest, the high school student Edward Harris, who transmigrated into this world, is one of these “espers”—unfortunately, a low-level, stage 2, rank 1 esper, whose ability is a speed-type called [Shadow Flash]. At full power, he can only produce a single afterimage out of thin air. It’s said that if the ability is pushed to the limit, he could create four supersonic real shadows in battle.

That would be the Instant Prison Shadow Kill Formation!

Hmm, although that sounds both chuunibyou and cool.

In reality, within this world’s ability rankings, [Shadow Flash] is only ranked 98 as a gray ordinary ability, still quite a distance from the green excellent abilities ranked 72–36.

Even if you work hard to raise your rank, you might be able to make up some of the gap in a real fight, but the difference with those blue high-risk abilities ranked 36–20 is much harder to bridge.

And compared to the world’s top-tier purple epic abilities, held by those who dominate the continent or rule the four great seas—abilities ranked in the top 20–10—or the great pirates, the gap is a chasm, utterly impossible to overcome by mere hard work. As for the orange world-ending abilities in the top ten, they haven’t even appeared in over a thousand years of recorded history.

Edward Harris is currently stage 2, rank 1. There are nine stages and five ranks for espers; reaching stage 4 qualifies one as a super-ability user.

However, the ability’s ranking determines its initial value and growth ceiling—that is, the highest rank it can reach. For gray-ranked espers like Edward Harris, climbing the ranks is like scaling a sheer cliff, with obstacles at every step. Countless low-ranked espers spend their whole lives stuck in the lower three stages.

It’s rumored that for low-ranked espers to make a comeback, their ability must be growth-type, allowing them to achieve the extremely rare second awakening by pushing their ability to the limit, breaking the shackles of the ranking—upgrading from a lower-tier to a higher-tier ability of the same type.

Unfortunately... such cases of ability rank advancement are extremely rare in the thousand years under the Celestial Government’s rule, and for most ordinary espers, it’s basically a “miracle” that will never happen.

When Edward Harris arrived in this world half a year ago, he was stage 2, rank 1. After more than half a year, he’s still stage 2, rank 1. If he can’t pass next year’s academic test, he won’t be able to repeat a grade for the third time and will almost certainly be asked to leave the school.

Just thinking about it gives him a headache.

This totally doesn’t fit the laws of transmigrators...

Sigh, for now, I’d better figure out how to pay half a month’s rent first...

......

After getting off at Jinbocho Station, as expected, the middle-aged man escorted his seemingly innocent female subordinate home. Downstairs, one invited warmly, the other half-heartedly refused, and then the two tacitly went upstairs together.

By the vending machine downstairs, Edward Harris leaned against it, looking up at the scene, sipping canned hot coffee in small sips, pondering when would be the right time to go up and collect evidence based on the middle-aged man’s progress...

But before long—

A shadow flickered under the dim yellow light of the stairwell.

Hmm? Out so soon?

Edward Harris’s expression turned odd, and in the next second, his mouth involuntarily fell open.

The late autumn wind howled back and forth.

A middle-aged man, face bruised and swollen, wearing nothing but pink boxers, looking utterly devastated, gradually emerged from the dim stairwell, clutching a limp, empty wallet in his hand.

From the stairs behind, you could faintly hear a young man shouting things like, “How dare you harass my girlfriend!” and “I’ll let you off this time since you paid up, but watch yourself!”

Uh, what?

What the heck... what’s going on?

Was that a honey trap?

......

I’m such an idiot!

Really!

When Travis Clark walked down the stairs and finally set foot on the ground, his mind went blank for a moment, and he nearly stumbled, staggering toward the bus stop by the street.

He thought he’d found the heartbeat of youth again, but never expected he’d nearly give himself a heart attack.