Seeing Asuna's reluctance, Eishi drew some inferences.
It is all a matter of trust and reassurance.
Asuna did not know about him. The basis of their cooperation is all Shino's words. They haven't seen who he was, nor did they see how strong he was. As a leader of a fifty-man group, Asuna is inclined to make her decisions carefully.
'I can all leave it to fate.'
If the SAO group declined his offer, it wouldn't be too difficult for Eishi to create a group after taking care of this shelter's higher-ups. He also surmised that the government side would accept his 'lesser' condition. Eishi could use their influence to create a group of his own too.
In short, the SAO group's status in his heart is not a must-have.
'It's a pity for one… no, two SSS rated talents…'
He shrugged these thoughts off.
SSS rated talents, in the end, fall to the resource restriction. They can be killed off by others with lower talents as long as their physical attributes are stacked enough. At least, that was what Eishi believed in.
Just as the negotiation stage reached its final stage, Shino tapped on his arm.
"There are enemies… a lot of them."
"How many?"
"Ten, twenty…"
It took a while for her to finish counting.
"Around three hundred. Half of them are espers while the others seem to be mercenaries."
Eishi was left silent for a while. The three sitting opposite of them overheard it too, their expressions turning grave.
"Looks like we'll have to suspend this for a while. They made us wait for so long."
He stood up and asked:
"Do they have any missiles and the likes?"
"Hiraoka-san!"
Hearing her urgent tone, he swiftly activated his superpower. Time stopped at this instance. The world was stained in a pale gray color.
When he went outside, he saw several 'missiles' cruising from a distance. There are also a few apache helicopters above.
Fully meeting his expectations, the New Tokyo Shelter sent out an annihilation team to deal with him.
"This is a bit troublesome…"
Eishi canceled his time stop. He took a smart RPG from his spatial backpack and stopped time for the second time. The missiles sent along with a round of chaff flares moved closer to the villa's location.
"Maybe the fourth-order, yeah…"
He knew most of the rules about [Time Dominator] at this point. He could affect other items and people in its duration, but there are things he could not use: his spatial backpack.
Every other talent worked while under the time stop. Only the spatial backpack could not be used, lest he would have used flying knives and road rollers to satisfy his humor.
Bypassing it was ridiculously easy, which was to undo the time stop and re-cast it again. Eishi did not think much of it by then.
The smart RPG did 90% of the work. All he had to do was press a few buttons to achieve the intended effect.
Boom-!
The smart RPG's ammunition exploded amidst the round of flares. It merely resulted in a slight loss. The protective umbrella around the missiles they sent worked wonders.
Eishi did not react much to it. He undid the time stop, took out a new smart RPG, and stopped it again. The consumption on his side wasn't very severe as he only spent brief periods within the time stop.
He easily dealt with the incoming missiles, making them explode mid-air. Eishi also whittled down the chaffe flares that stood in the way.
As for his real target?
Boom-!
One of the helicopters went up in flames as a strong explosion rang from above.
'Three left...'
*****
The fusion of ACG worlds elevated Japan's economic status to the very top. From the famous virtual reality patent down to the combinations of Zaibatsus and influential people, it is vastly different from the other world's Japan.
The Zaibatsus (lit. Conglomerates) possessed far more power. Their extensive connections with government officials, for once, allowed them to have a massive headstart in the apocalypse.
Things that could not circulate on the lower circle were always intercepted by them. That was how the top conglomerates discovered about the existence of evolution fruits a week prior to the apocalypse. They stockpiled hard, whether it be on their farms or on other places, and used them on their loyal security groups.
Tokyo fell merely because they preserved their combat power. They allowed the government to commit to rescue missions to exhaust their manpower. Once it dropped below a certain scale, they would not hesitate to strike down and claim the shelter's authority completely.
Part of the reason they tacitly approved the government's choice to incorporate civilian espers into its ranks is to make things more chaotic… and it was as they had expected.
It won't be long before the government collapses through internal and external threats.
Until Eishi appeared.
He demolished an entire building's worth of espers numbering more than a hundred. Worse, it wasn't even he who took action, but a woman beside him. The two of them demolished two hundred espers all by themselves, making them a genuine threat.
The plan that was on the verge of succeeding came to a grinding halt. They planned for an entire day, recalled most of their forces, and sent out Apache helicopters stashed for their private armies just to deal with these two.
They believed that the bombardment of both land and air war machines would settle them for good…
"What the hell."
…or not.
Miyuki Shirogane, the current President of Shuiichin Academy, swept the curtains and saw a bright explosion appear on Tokyo's skies.
Boom-!
Boom-!
Boom-!
…
Several more explosions took place in no more than two minutes. Shockwaves permeated through the ground, causing considerable shaking. Four of them came from the helicopters being destroyed; the remaining two as aftermaths.
"What did they just do..?"
A sense of helplessness arose in Miyuki's heart.
Originally a school for the nation's top elites, it became a gathering camp for civilian espers. Miyuki was surprised when the school's board allowed it, but when he heard that the elite students were sent back to their families, skepticism took over his mind.
The following changes confirmed his thoughts.
For once, the civilian Shuiichin students are allowed to bring in their family to live in the vicinity of the academy. It was built close to the privileged area, hence security is more ensured.
Secondly, any civilian students who have the potential or have become an esper are required to sign up to the academy's special classes—one that teaches superpower utilization and combat. These esper students threw away academics in exchange for learning how to fight.
Lastly, the civilian students are required to work for the New Tokyo Shelter's ranks—either that, or work for the aristocratic families.
Perhaps they found his rule effective prior to the apocalypse, or that they found it troublesome to change him, Miyuki kept his role inside the student council.
It was the start of his downfall to this diabolical hole.
He saw circumstances of privileged students forcing female civilian students to their control. Miyuki tried to do something but was blown off by the esper-transformed students. The school's Principal once tried to mediate between the conflict, only to wound up getting killed by one of the students. The academy's board did not pursue the matter altogether.
Ultimately, Miyuki was afraid of his family's safety being affected by this matter, hence he started turning a blind eye to it.
He served as the academy's President alongside a bunch of new students, ensuring the academy's order and the indoctrination of these civilian espers are going as usual.
Miyuki was getting sick of stomaching this kind of work—to see blatant abuse of authority right in front of his eyes—yet he could not do anything.
Had he not hidden his sister in advance, he had a strong feeling some scummy bastards would have taken advantage of her.
Everything he had experienced worn him down over the past twenty-two days.
"The rumors from yesterday…"
Miyuki inevitably thought of the rumors that flew around the campus.
A good part of the privileged students returned to Shuiichin after undergoing their 'transformations' as espers. They continued their education as usual, not minding that the majority of their teachers had been replaced when they turned into zombies.
The largest rumor as of now was the existence of a very strong esper. The entire General Inspections Building, a new department built to recruit espers into the shelter, was decimated by those espers.
When they sent a hundred-man encirclement, they killed most of them.
It wasn't hard for Miyuki to attribute the large actions today to these espers.
"They did not succeed."
A sense of schadenfreude appeared in his heart. He had long loathed the way the current Shuiichin was turned. Miyuki was merely powerless. Powerless to change the school's status. Powerless to prevent her departure in the student council. Powerless to change even a single damned thing.
Seeing the very same authorities suffering from a strong esper, Miyuki only wished that their strength would suffice in facing them.
It turned out to be true.
In the vicinity of Eishi's villa, four pillars of large smoke rose from the ground. Two of the ruined helicopters crashed into normal residences, while the other two triggered a chain explosion that caused considerable damage to an entire ward.
The armed forces waiting below stared at these places with dumbfounded eyes.
"How the fuck did he…"
"...Captain. I want out."
"Yes, captain. We can just scurry off to somewhere else!"
One of the armed mercenary forces had thoughts of turning back.
Their original mission was to track down the government's movements. To no surprises, they found out that they were negotiating with the same esper who killed two hundred people.
When they kept sight of the villa, they found that the SAO survivor group, which had been stirring trouble recently, also came to him.
Hence their missions changed. They had to wait until the missiles struck the villa before clearing out the SAO survivor group and the government team sent to negotiate with him.
Seeing the first part of the plan fall through, chills were sent down to their spines.
Everyone could not fathom how someone managed to intercept missiles, strike through modern chaffe flares, and destroy the helicopters that sent out the strikes.
It is beyond human comprehension.
'Espers… are beyond human comprehension.'
A sense of terror appeared in the captain's heart.
He, too, has become an esper. His powerful physical body made him think less of his previous constitution. He could easily handle dozens of people in combat with six times the average human's power.
Still, he did not have the confidence to pull off what Eishi did.
'Retreating is the best choice.'
Just as he was about to order their retreat, he turned back to a horrifying sight. All of his men's bodies fell to the ground with a thud. Their heads exploded like balloons, with some being split into two parts due to a cannon-like power.
The entire place instantly turned into one of pure gore.
"Ah..?"
At the center of it was a well-built man wearing a black windbreaker. The M9A3 he held in his right hand sent out an intimidating glimmer of light. The temperament surrounding Eishi scared the already shocked captain witless.
"Y-you..!"
"I need someone. I guess you would."
The next second, the captain found himself inside a villa. The outside conditions made it harder to sweat. With the presence of the villa's heaters and his thick coat, he began to sweat profusely.
His weak legs plopped to the ground as he crawled away from Eishi.
This scene was witnessed by the four people inside the living room.
"All done. They didn't feel like three hundred people at all."
A deafening silence.
Nobody could react to Eishi's words. It has been two short minutes since they saw him disappear. They could have never expected for him to have settled three hundred men and four Apache helicopters all by himself.
He leisurely popped another [Stamina Restoration Pill] to his mouth. The exhaustion from repeatedly using time stops was greatly alleviated. Unlike before, his third-order life level took all of the pills' effects.
"Asada-san."
"A-ah, right…"
Shino checked the vicinity once more with her [God's Perspective. Aside from the mangled corpses and several ruined vehicles, not a trace of life remained on their invaders.
"...They are all dealt with."