Chapter 94 – The start of the Grind Levels by Rescuing People operation
After that night, we gathered at a classroom for the second years.
“Just to confirm it… You all sure about this?” I asked them.
“Yes, please do it.” Kousuke replied.
“I’m looking forward to it!” Rintarou exclaimed.
“I’ll gladly hear any requests you have for me, Senpai.” Ritsuko told me.
“It’s all good.” Asuka said.
“… No problem.” Mr. Norio said.
Everyone gave their confirmations.
Therefore, I started using Enslave at them in order, starting with Kousuke.
“Mmm… My body feels… Light?” Kousuke said.
Then, suddenly, he jumped up and did a backflip, “… Yo!” He said.
And then another, and another…
“W-whoa! W-what’s this!?” Rintarou exclaimed as he saw Kousuke execute a series of consecutive backflips.
“M-my body is definitely light!” Kousuke exclaimed.
Oh wow… To think the usually chill Kousuke reacted to the Slave Reinforcement like that…
Oh well… Let’s keep going. Next is Rintarou.
“Whooooooooa! What’s thiiiiiis!?” Rintarou was extremely hyped once he finished getting enslaved.
While he screamed, he… Jumped out of the window!?
“Hey, Rintarou!” I exclaimed.
We’re on the second floor…
But well, when I looked outside the window, I saw Rintarou happily running around the playground with a big smile on his face.
“… I guess it’s fine for as long as he is safe.” Ritsuko commented.
Then, I used Enslave on the rest of the people here.
“… It doesn’t feel bad.” Said Ritsuko.
“Ooh! I certainly feel a surge of strength in me!” Said Asuka.
“It’s disgusting to think that this kind of power can be brought about by a supernatural entity…” Said Mr. Norio.
“Then, everyone, I’d like you to put your all in helping other people from now on.” I told them.
“Sure. And as we do that, your… Level, will increase?” Asuka asked.
“Yep.” I replied.
“Tsk. I guess that’s why that Momoka girl was so eager to help us out in here…” Mr. Norio said.
“… Oh, that makes sense…” I muttered.
“Well, I can’t complain much, since her help greatly sped up the process of making the barricades.” Mr. Norio sighed.
On a side note, the much-talked-about Momoka was going to be away from Miyabigaoka for a while.
She flew towards Tokyo with her dragons this morning. Apparently, she is going to be searching for players to join us, while me and Iroha work on our leveling.
Suddenly, I felt like I wanted to hear my elders’ opinion on Momoka, so, “By the way, what do you think of Momoka, Mr. Norio?” I asked him.
“She said she was a reincarnator…” He sighed, “I don’t like it.”
As always, he is one who gives his opinions frankly.
“You probably noticed it, but she most likely is hiding something.” Mr. Norio told me.
“Oh?” I said.
“If we take her words at face value, then this is the second time she experiences this ‘world-end’ situation… That’s strange enough as is. If she knew it was going to happen, then couldn’t she stop it before things got this far?” Mr. Norio said.
“Yeah, that’s a bit suspicious…” I nodded.
“If she’s really living through a second life, then she should have been able to twist her fate in a way that suited her at the very minimum…” Mr. Norio concluded.
Seems like he also agrees that it’s better to be cautious around Momoka then.
“Well, in any case, at least for now. There’s nothing better for us to do, than to help other people, so… Shall we do some good deeds?” I told everyone.
Mr. Norio nodded. Seemingly having no objections to this plan.
And so, we headed to the main gate.
***
The search started on the apartment building I used to live in.
“There might still be people here, and I saw people’s silhouette come out of a balcony once. I hope I haven’t mistaken zombies for people though.” I told everybody.
Kousuke then moved forward while looking visibly tense, preparing himself for anything that might come his way.
He was currently equipped with the Steel Gauntlets that I gave him some time back.
“Zombies might sometimes be hiding, ready to lunge at you, so be careful.” Kousuke told everyone.
Oh, right, there was that… On the way to Tokorozawa, I only got rid of the zombies who attacked me, so I didn’t really pay attention to that.
And then… A zombie that was sneakily watching us, jumped in our direction from the blind spot around the corner.
Kousuke quickly reacted to that though, and pushed his gauntlets forward, slamming the zombie against a wall.
The zombie’s head was crushed with the impact, so it stopped moving.
“Oh… Wow!” Kousuke exclaimed, “This can’t be real… It was so easy…” He muttered next.
Seems like he was astonished by the power provided by Fighting Technique (Advanced).
“It’s like it isn’t even my body moving…” Kousuke muttered.
“Well, you’ll get used to it, little by little.” I replied.
I certainly still remember the time I learned Sword Technique (Beginner), and how surprised I was by how easy it was to handle the sword. It’s no wonder that Kousuke was dumbfounded by suddenly having access to Advanced level of Fighting Technique.
“Hey! Over here!” Rintarou exclaimed.
Differently from Kousuke, Rintarou seemed to have easily adapted to his new powers and did not seem to mind zombies being gathered by his shouting.
But well, in the room that Rintarou pointed to, there were two boys that seemed to be elementary schoolers. They both seemed to be very weak.
We gave them some food, guided them to the safety of Miyabigaoka, then continued moving on ahead.
It’s really frustrating to find people that are starving to death… And it’s hard to find them too.
By the end of the day, we were only able to rescue four people.
Maybe it was a bad idea to focus our searches on the neighborhood…
But well, the results were decent. Both me and Iroha gained one level, and we helped people out as we did that.
This will be a slow, but steady process it seems. We have no choice but to keep doing our best.
***
On another note, Momoka told me that Healing Magic is quite convenient, because healing people can also give you experience points, so she recommended it to me.
With her advice, I decided to take Healing Magic I-V, and Special Sword Skill I with the six skill points I had available.
For now, I will continue acquiring levels on those two skills until I max them out.
Hopefully the Special Sword Skills might help me out on the next time I need to fight a monster.