The Telepath's Ultimate Technique
Ability battle fiction.
A genre where superhumans wielding all manner of extraordinary powers clash in combat.
Why am I suddenly talking about ability battle fiction?
Because I had transmigrated into the body of Percival Smith — an extra from the ability battle novel War City that I'd been reading.
I'd been thinking it since the moment I arrived, but I was not thrilled about the fact that I'd possessed some guy named Percival.
War City is a blood-soaked action-thriller battle novel.
But this body I'd ended up in — Percival Smith's — didn't have a combat ability. He had telepathy.
And more than anything, what kind of name is Percival, for fuck's sake—
"Ah. One's walking by."
I cut off the thought and watched a man pass on the street.
After long research since taking over Percival's body, I had finally mastered the proper use of telepathy.
Homeless, penniless, and utterly incapable of a real fight — Percival still possessed one remarkable talent no one else could match.
The ability to send telepathy to a passerby from a distance.
I quickly transmitted the message I'd prepared toward the man.
A deep, heavy voice — low and resonant, the kind that settled in the chest and stayed there.
The man who heard it stopped dead and started looking around.
"Wh-what the hell… Who is that?"
"Who the hell are you?! What are you doing?!"
Ignoring every one of the man's questions, I pressed on with my pitch in silence.
It was an irresistible offer — the kind no man could turn down. He was surely feeling like he'd just become the protagonist of his own story.
After listening a while longer, the man finally gave up trying to identify me and asked a question of his own.
"If I need power… then what?"
"Form a contract?"
"To form a contract… what do I do?"
At that point, he was essentially hooked. All that remained was to name the price I wanted.
Like most people, what I wanted was money.
Of course, I couldn't just say hand over the cash outright. He might get suspicious. I had to deliver it as elegantly — and as eerily — as possible.
I unveiled the secret technique of roundabout speech I'd forged through a full week of training.
"An altar?"
"Gold, a cow, and a sheep's head…"
The man answered with a voice full of confidence.
"…Of course. I'll take the contract."
That evening.
I collected the gold and jewels from the altar the man had built and walked out into the night.
This — this was the ultimate technique permitted to a telepath.
"Now this is the life."