Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 575: Kara’s True Identity?

'What is this?'

At first, Leo thought that he was really being attacked by the invasive influence of Shadow Mastery in an attempt to purge all thoughts of possible puppetry.

Fortunately, this was merely a product of Leo's very rich imagination.

'This is my own memory?'

The 'new' input was most definitely Leo's personal memory. However, the angle through which he perceived it seemed to have completely changed.

On that fateful day, he wasn't looking around in amazement as he observed the streets of the new world that he had just descended upon.

Instead, he was immersed in someone else's painful memory, a tale of burning effort that led to nothing but failure. Something eerily similar to a story that he had just heard.

'No, it's not just my memory… These are hers.'

As long as he wasn't under the effect of some kind of hallucinogenic ability, these visions could only be parts of Kara's memories.

If Leo had to describe the closest feeling to what he had just experienced, then deja vu would be his answer. However, even that was merely similar in the bigger picture, both situations were actually very far apart.

Leo hadn't truly experienced the things in his memories before remembering that he had experienced the same thing not too long ago.

On the contrary, he merely heard Kara recount her experience of that day before he unlocked his own version of it.

One that came with a blurry video file of the suffering that Kara had to experience!

'How is this possible?'

Such a bizarre experience was undeniably a first for Leo. While his memory might be photographic only when it came to reading, his normal memory wasn't much worse.

At the very least, it definitely wasn't deteriorated to the point of forgetting an entire segment of memories, especially such an eventful pile.

'...Or was that the reason I forgot all of that?'

Leo was doubtful that his mentality would be fragile enough to block that heavy data pile in fear of shock. After all, even at the very start of this adventure, his mind stat still as high as 2.4.

'Perhaps…'

Was it another feature of the all-powerful concept abilities?

Was Kara's Special Ability meant to seal the teacher's memories of their fateful encounter, all the way until they had a proper teacher-student reunion?

'Was reminiscing about that encounter, the condition to unlock the omitted memory?'

Did he really have to hear the story from Kara's perspective? Or was it all just a very big coincidence?

'All of this depends on whether this is actually real or not?'

Reviewing the memory fragments in his head, Leo took the time to contemplate the possibility of being ensnared by a resourceful Kara… Before quickly dismissing that thought.

Aside from the fact that the memories he viewed contained details that the girl never mentioned, some of the parts Kara told him before were even slightly inaccurate, showing a natural deterioration of memory.

If this was an illusion that Kara built based on the story she voluntarily told, matching the details perfectly was vital to implement any kind of mental suggestion. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Most importantly…

'This is not how abilities work.'

While it was true that mental abilities were overpowered in this world, they still followed a few basic rules.

Mental Ability Users could never jump classes to affect an Ability User of a higher level!

Granted, Kara did manage to peek into his memories, but that was before Leo ascended to an unattainable level.

At that time, Leo wasn't even aware of her, regardless of the memory that he had just unlocked, so she was most likely at the same level back then.

In addition, inserting a certain vision into the very depths of someone's head was on a completely different level compared to copying data.

'The story changes from this point on.'

Although Kara was definitely stronger than a normal Peak Ability User now, the current Leo was absolutely sure that she couldn't match the hierarchy of his Law-level Shadow Mastery.

In fact, considering that he took the original villain's opportunity to ascend, even the single person who could match his current ability level, Aurora Dawnbringer, could only do so in her final form.

And even the Protagonist of this world wasn't able to maintain that form for a long period of time.

In short, given all the circumstances surrounding this situation, Leo concluded that he wasn't experiencing any kind of mental illusion. Rather, these were truly Kara's memories!

Instead of being confused by this turn of events, the current situation actually made more sense to Leo.

While he still couldn't confirm that this 'reunion' was the condition to awaken these memories, this process almost completely followed the rule of equivalent exchange, making the forced nature of the process more understandable.

The only thing that could bend the rule that prevented mental manipulation without having a superior ability was an even stronger rule, like equivalent exchange.

Having mostly accepted what he was experiencing as plausible, Leo focused more on the content of these memories, only to discover yet another shocking possibility.

"You… What we experienced… wasn't the first, no?"

Within Kara's memories, even more scenes like his had occurred, albeit being very brief and impossible to notice. If their instance was like an electrical surge that shocked both Leo and Kara, the rest were no more than sparks that instantly faded away.

If it wasn't for the pattern that he instinctively recognized after speeding through half of Kara's memories, even Leo wouldn't have noticed a thing.

"As expected, Master's mental resonance really did evoke!"

The stars in Kara's eyes tripled in number as though she wanted to dance out of happiness, but she prioritized answering Leo's question.

"Indeed, after my fateful encounter with Master, everything that I experienced before became as clear as the nature of my ability."

Despite viewing a lot of Kara's memories, they were limited to the time before her ability truly awakened. As such, Leo couldn't recall the explanation that Kara received after.

Thankfully, just as she did before, Kara was ready to explain everything she understood. That being said…

'The Vigilante?!'

Once again, Leo wasn't so sure what he had gotten himself into.