NOVPUBKagura Hikaru's ability had undergone four changes.
The first time, mind-reading added images.
The second time, it gained the ability to discern truth from lies.
The third time, it was a vastly random Foresight of the future.
The fourth time—
But in fact, regardless of those various abilities, seeing through the human heart was an extremely dangerous Skill. Just imagine, what it would be like if a person woke up to find that others could no longer lie to them.
Perhaps parents would hear their well-behaved children cursing, students might be forced to listen to teachers talking trash, and nuns hearing confessions would discover the filth in human hearts.
Then that person would become a lonely island, unwilling and afraid to trust others anymore.
Humans are creatures of inconsistency between their thoughts and words; they have a dark side.
As the ancients said, a gentleman discusses actions, not intentions. Without discussing intentions, there are no saints in the world.
Even morally sanctified individuals cannot ensure that they won't have dark thoughts, let alone ordinary people.
Yet, ironically, humans are also the most mentally sensitive creatures on Earth. A single disagreeable word can easily provoke dissatisfaction and hostility, while praise does not necessarily bring happiness—it is truly contradictory.
The reason for bringing this up is undoubtedly related to Kagura Hikaru's newly acquired ability.
The birth of a new ability may not be a good thing.
When he acquired the Skill of Predicting the Future, Kagura Hikaru had foreseen this.
But even he didn't know that the new ability would be so extreme and dangerous, completely different in magnitude from Foresight.
Ten minutes ago, Kagura Hikaru, stepping out of the hospital doors, was suddenly brought into the Foresight Dimension.
Whether by luck or misfortune, what he saw was himself, dressed in casual clothes, located in a mountainous area far from the urban district, apparently extremely agitated, wandering around with one hand covering his head.
Just by looking at that figure, it was clear that he was enduring some kind of pain, one as clingy as a chronic ulcer that couldn't be shaken off.
A few seconds later, the prophecy ended, and the Kagura Hikaru who had returned to reality opened his eyes to find himself sitting in his own car. He clearly entered the Foresight Dimension in front of his family, but they didn't send him back for a hospital checkup—it must have been Komori Ai's doing.
[Through glimpsing the future, you have acquired: Origami +5]
[Origami lv5 (Maximum Level, cannot be improved)]
Kagura Hikaru's pupils constricted slightly.
Origami was a Skill he had leveled up to a high proficiency from Komori Ai, and it was just five points away from Maximum Level. He hadn't expected to hit this so coincidentally.
This was the seventh Maximum Level Skill.
The new ability was coming—
[Congratulations on obtaining your seventh Maximum Level Skill, Mind Reading Technique has evolved]
Unlike acquiring new abilities in the past, which came without introduction and required self-exploration, this time a message was imprinted into Kagura Hikaru's brain.
Its name was 'Hearing the Voice of All Things'—yes, for some reason this new ability had a name, which was unprecedented.
After a brief moment of enlightenment came a deep unease.
Unusual things often bring change.
That ominous premonition was quickly proven correct... in a very direct and unimaginable way.
As mentioned earlier, everyone has all sorts of thoughts in their minds.
Good, dirty, normal, bizarre, positive, negative—all of this, now forcibly displayed before Kagura Hikaru.
Given Tokyo's population density, ranking among the highest in the world, this process was tremendously swift.
"Damn that old hag, I'll kill her sooner or later!"
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Baseball Skill +1"
"Prices are going up again, and I don't have money for rent. What am I going to do? Do I have to sell myself again...."
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Bedroom Technique +1"
"Yuki, I really like you, but why haven't you responded to my confession? Did you not see the message?"
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Sewing Skill +1"
"Shoot, I think I forgot to lock the door!"
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Judo +1"
"Ah, I'm going to be late for yoga class. Why did it have to be today?"
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Hospital Care +1"
"Hikaru will be alright, won't he? After he gets home, I'll make sure he gets a good sleep and tonight I'll ask Yuki to make some chicken soup."
"You have gained from peering into the mind: Car Driving +1"
Countless, endless thoughts and ideas flooded Kagura Hikaru's mind.
He was unable to resist, unable to stop them, he couldn't even slow them down.
Like an exhaust fan that was always on, sucking in all the air, both good and bad, yet before it could expel it, it was filled anew.
Countless intrusive thoughts crassly stuffed themselves into his mind, causing his thinking space to be squeezed to an extreme minimum.
Kagura Hikaru's head was splitting with pain; he almost wanted to scream out loud, and his complexion turned ghastly.
His mind-reading ability had completely gone out of control, turning him into a mere mind-reading machine, passively transmitting everyone's thoughts around him—although Kagura Hikaru didn't want them at all.
But there was more. Along with the thoughts came images; Kagura's second ability allowed him to see the memory images that people thought of when he read their minds, and this ability kept working even after the mind-reading went berserk. In an instant, his mind was bombarded with hundreds, thousands... an uncountable number of images.
"How broad is the scope of this so-called 'Hearing the Voice of All Things'? How many people around me does it cover?!"
His brain felt swollen, dizzy, and in agony. Why was this happening, was there any way out—
Kagura Hikaru had no time to ponder these questions.
Komori Ai was beside him, worsening his chaos.
After the ability went haywire, Komori Ai became the most considerable spiritual contamination for him. She had too many cruel memories, bizarre thoughts, and the memory images he read were horrendous; Kagura Hikaru was forced to witness those grotesque and bloodied sights, all the while battling against the dizziness caused by the myriad of thoughts.
A few seconds later, Kagura Hikaru finally adapted, no, accepted reality, and by sheer willpower, temporarily endured it.
It was like motion sickness, pressing his head against the car window, eyes shut tight, hands clenched into fists, slightly trembling, with his stomach spasmodically contracting, the sensations of dizziness and the urge to vomit emerging.
"Big brother, what's wrong with you?"
He heard Komori Ai asking with a rare note of anxiety in her voice.
Kagura Hikaru couldn't say a word, he just grabbed her hand and held it tight.
He now understood why his future self was in pain and why, in the end, he chose suicide as the conclusion to his life.
Indeed, this was an insurmountable dead end, like a slow and agonizing execution with no end in sight.
Even if he could endure it temporarily, there was inevitably a limit.
How long could he hold on? Kagura Hikaru had no answer, or rather, he was almost incapable of thought.
True madness might come next year, next month, maybe... the very next second.
An overwhelming sense of cold desolation and despair surrounded him, his human rationality being trampled upon, bit by bit shattered.
