Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 576: Star Pupil

"Although what happened that night was quite mystical, my Ability itself turned out to be nothing crazy."

Leo wondered if Kara was being ignorantly humble once again, but either way, her presentation didn't really matter as long as he managed to grasp the essence of the topic.

"It was more of a link, a hook… No. A more appropriate description would be a cable, something that could connect me to something greater."

So far, the description did indeed match Leo's guess. Kara couldn't help mystifying her words, but any Ability User was practically greater than a half-awakened person like Kara's past self.

"That being said, just like any computer cable, it wasn't something that could connect to any device. They had to have a matching port for the connection to go through."

'Makes sense.'

If it were that easy, then Kara wouldn't have struggled for so many years. After all, she had already met tons of Ability Users during most of her parents' attempts to awaken her.

"Simply put, a special person within the already special Ability Users."

Seriously staring back into Leo's eyes, Kara recalled the many failed attempts that she unconsciously made, all leading to their fateful encounter.

"All that time, my inexplicable desire to wander the night streets was my Ability's attempt to find the right person. At the same time, it was also the one thing that kept me going a bit longer, increasing my chances of finding the right person."

Leo wasn't sure how that worked, but he found the entire process to be interesting. Without the solace she found in doing this meaningless task, Kara might not have lasted long enough to meet him.

'Is that why she never appeared in the book?'

In the original City of Villains, Cassian never showed any intentions of leaving his jail cell.

Leo wasn't sure if he was the only suitable 'Teacher' for Kara, but the possibility of the two of them sharing almost the exact same suffering was already very rare.

No matter how optimistic he tried to be, he didn't think there would be a third.

'Unless the requirement changed with time.'

If things got really serious, would Kara's ability lower its requirements and pick someone with less similarity? Or was it already set in stone?

Aside from the similarity factor, Leo also considered the pickiness of this strange 'student' ability. It was impossible to test it now, but there was a chance that it only accepted Peak-level teachers.

After all, wasn't it only natural that a teacher had to be stronger or better than their student in some sense? Otherwise, what would be there for the student to learn?

"As fortunate as it was for me to be in a place like Enigma City, where Ability Users basically grew on trees, abundance truly meant nothing in the face of fate."

Statistics always stated that a bigger pool of people always meant higher chances of obtaining favorable results. However, the truth was that if something wasn't meant to be, numbers wouldn't matter.

Even with a 99% chance of success, if it wasn't meant to be, a person could always pull the leftover 1% no matter how many times they tried.

"Looking back, I had actually resonated with every Ability User that I passed by, but such incompatible resonance always ended as soon as it started. Naturally, I didn't notice any of that until I had my true awakening."

'Hmmm…'

Kara's words evoked a certain train of thought in Leo's mind, but it felt somewhat blurry. Once again, what she said was somehow also familiar to him.

"Honestly, I don't know what would have happened if I didn't meet Master, nor do I want to know."

Unlike the curious Leo, Kara was more satisfied with the current result. A big part of her dreaded what could have been if that night had ended up any differently.

"Perhaps, once I have experienced enough resonances, I would have realized the truth behind them and sought to find Master on my own. In any case, I'm thankful for having met you as soon as I did."

'Wait…'

While Kara smiled to show her devotion as she declared that nothing would have changed to calm herself down, a wave of turbulence broke out inside Leo's heart.

'No way! Could this be really it?'

The intentions behind Kara's words no longer mattered as they presented a very bizarre possibility.

'Was this mysterious fan of mine… the Vigilante all along?'

Perhaps Kara wasn't actually a character that came out of nowhere, but one of the few that Leo was rather vigilant about.

'Searching for someone that would resonate with them.'

Such a sentence was only mentioned directly once in the original novel, but in addition to that, Aurora's observations of the Vigilante and the leads 'he' left behind didn't differ from it in nature.

In the City of Villains, the Vigilante's arc was only a salty mystery appetizer in preparation for the final arc and its prelude, a game of cat and mouse that never reached a proper conclusion.

When Leo read the book, all he could envision amid his immersion was a shadowy figure that invoked a sense of dread.

'Am I overreaching?'

Looking at the cheerful girl in front of him, Leo couldn't help but doubt his hypothesis. Could someone like her really be the source of the constant goosebumps that he felt back then?

On one hand, the personality didn't seem to match, but on the other, the novel did contain hints that the Vigilante could copy many special abilities to a certain degree, somewhat matching Kara's characteristics.

'Perhaps that the final evolution of a 'student' that never found his teacher is such a terrifying copycat that sought to understand what resonance truly meant.'

Once again, Leo took a look at the smiling Kara before shaking his head. Whether she was the Vigilante or not didn't really matter. Instead, the very basic name of the ability he came up with kept bothering him.

'...Found it.'

A name that perfectly fit the figure in front of him.

"Star Pupil."