As one student yelled angrily, guns were pointed at Shinichi from every direction.
When the muzzles flashed, he bent his body upwards to dodge the onslaught of light bullets.
The students’ eyes were too honest, and he could easily tell that none of them would try to shoot him below the waist.
“Kyaa!?”
“Uwaah!?”
“GUu!”
As light bullets passed by his eyes, screams of anguish resounded.
When he stood back up, several students had fallen, their breaths leaking out of them.
Some light burn marks had even been left on their simple exoskeletons.
“You surrounded your target and shot at him from every direction. You should at least consider what will happen in the case of stray bullets.”
He knew that they were under the influence of a mind skill, but given their grades, they probably just couldn’t help themselves, giving Shinichi another headache.
“How dare you mock us, peasant!!”
“…My family is richer than yours, though.”
Shinichi’s wealth was mostly because of his foster mother’s income, so he wryly smiled when he thought of his dad. The male student didn’t seem to care about that though, as he swung his giant golden hammer at him.
“Prattle more, peasant!!”
The male student said as he swung down the giant hammer.
With the weight and momentum behind that massive hammer, were he to receive that blow normally, he would surely be greatly injured.
But if he mustered a little bit of strength and resistance, the story changes.
“GU! What!?”
Shinichi casually lifted his hand, and that hammer that could easily crush a human body was completely stopped.
In fact, the impact affected the male student more than Shinichi.
“Sigh… You’re the one swinging your weapon, not the other way around! You need to train more, small fry!”
Shinichi kicked the tottering student and sent him flying to the other students.
As the student’s body flew through the air with his giant hammer, he crashed into the crowd of students and tumbled onto the ground.
“…Haa… I wonder why it is that when they’re this bad, I’m the one getting pissed off instead.”
Shinichi heaved a deep sigh and dropped his shoulders.
He had provoked his opponents, but when they finally started fighting, the one to get angry was him.
They were indeed better than 1 – D in various aspects, but it was a scant difference.
In fact, it was so scant that because 1 – D was at least aware of their shortcomings, they were actually better off than these guys.
“Do I have to dispel the mind skill on these guys one by one? Ugh, just thinking about it makes me depressed… I really don’t want to.”
Just thinking about the number of people and the amount of effort he would have to exert was enough to make him tired.
Well, he could just leave them all to Frire once they’ve been knocked unconscious.
“…I…”
“Hmm?”
It was then that the mutterings of someone who woke up reached his ears. It was the student he first knocked down.
Next, the students that crashed mid-air and shot each other stood up.
Suddenly, the rings around their heads began to shine along with their eyes.
“Huh?”
“I’ll do it! If it’s me, it’s possible! That’s what you told me, right!”
“You said you’d acknowledge me if I fight! You said so!!”
“I’ll destroy everything! I’ll destroy everything! And then you’ll praise me!”
“Shoot, cut, shoot, cut… I can do it, so look at me properly!!”
The people he knocked down once were acting strange. And then as if responding to their calls, the students that he haven’t knocked down yet, suddenly had the rings on their heads begin glowing brighter.
Before long everyone was talking about fighting and wreaking havoc, while muttering their desires.
“…Disgusting… Were these guys given some strange suggestion?”
He’d figured the culprits could give people simple orders with that mind skill.
If so, then they must have made it to work with their inherent desires to make it more natural for them to be convinced.
They must’ve thought that these students wouldn’t be able to serve as a decent distraction otherwise.
“Hah, okay, now I’m starting to get in the mood.”
While laughing scornfully at the yet unseen mastermind, a look that could terrorize anyone appeared on his face.
It was hard to judge whether it was a good thing or not that no one could recognize that face.
After all, because of that no one could understand the danger before them.
“It’s going to hurt a bit, but do try to endure it.”
Muttering that to no one in particular, he kicked off against the ground and sent himself flying like a bullet.
Then he grabbed a random student’s head and smashed him into the trees.
“DA!?”
“GUAH!?”
As the student was knocked unconscious by the impact, Shinichi used pure photons to dispel the mind skill cast on him, then he pointed a red gun at the group of students that reacted, and a mass of compressed air blew the students away, giving rise to another series of screams.
“This thing is pretty good for blowing people away.”
It had just the right strength and area-of-effect radius, it also wasn’t exhausting to use. Shinichi was all praises for it.
Next, he took out the Snake Belly Sword and swung it.
As though that was a signal of some sort, the giant steel snake unleashed itself onto the fields and slithered in the sky.
As though the blade had a will of its own, it drew an arc in the air, then circled around the students and coiled itself around them..
“It’s too much of a pain to deal with you guys one by one!”
While intentionally letting his true feelings out, he pulled the blade and pulled the students up in the air as though he were fishing.
He then started cleaning up the rest of the students while using the group of students he’d caught like an iron ball.
The students that approached were blown away and were sent knocking down the trees around them.
And then as though Shinichi was done with his ‘iron-ball’, he
In the next moment, the students, who should’ve long become unable to scream, suddenly screamed once more.
“ABEBEBE!?!?”
“GYAAAAA!?!?”
“GAHHHHH!?!?”
“This is pretty convenient.”
Shinichi nodded as he watched the students be electrified by the weapon’s safety measure.
The developers behind the safety measure surely didn’t design for it to be used in this way, but interestingly enough, it actually perfectly matched the traits of this weapon.
Happy to have gotten such a good weapon, Shinichi turned away from the electrified students and turned to the remaining students, who despite witnessing such an electrifying sight, wielded their weapons all the same.
For some reason, Shinichi’s sa*distic smile toward these berserked students was bright.
“About half are left, huh. Well, don’t worry, I’ll make sure not to leave any scars.”
Were these students sane they would have surely remarked that his words were no consolation.
As a vicious smile that would strike fear into any who saw it appeared on his face, he leaped.
What resounded next were the sounds of impact and the involuntary cries of pain.
In less than 2 minutes, all the students had lost consciousness.
But despite all of the pain that the students here have been given, perhaps they here were actually fortunate.
After all, they would not remember of any of the events that transpired here; otherwise, it might very well become a trauma to them. That was how terrible this one-sided beating was.
“…Hmm, did I overdo it?”
After looking at all the bodies around him, Shinichi tilted his head and pondered that to himself.
The sight of 60 fainted students lying face down like that was just too strange of a sight.
Moreover, all the trees around have been knocked down, and there were even cracks on the rocky terrain.
The state of the surrounding area spoke plenty of the violence that took place here, but despite how seemingly terrifying the events that took place here seemed to be, Shinichi himself was unharmed, while the students were not hurt that much.
An overwhelming victory in a battle between one and many was already plenty strange in and of itself, but for both sides to be unharmed was even more abnormal.
“Well, I didn’t leave any lasting wounds, external or internal, so whatever.”
It seems he still had a long way to go before he would be able to understand what it meant to hold back.
There was a makeshift tent situated nearly at the center of the fields.
It was being used as the headquarters of the inspectors.
Unlike examiners, the inspectors did not give grades and were mainly responsible for handling unexpected situations during the exam and investigating any unfairness.
“—The teachers mentioned are to rendezvous with the patrol group. Tighten the security and report any irregularities no matter how trivial to the headquarters immediately.”
“Understood.”
“Teacher Doneju, Braun-kun has arrived!”
After parting with Shinichi and returning to the headquarters in her exoskeleton, Frire immediately found herself buried with work.
An entire class going wild has never happened before, so the teachers were naturally at a loss what to do. That’s why, no matter how bad she was at it, Frire had to take charge of the situation and give precise orders.
The attitude she took was so different that later on the teachers here would say that it was as though their positions were reversed when they had to prepare the rescue team.
“In that case, go ahead and begin questioning him. Ah, and did you make sure that the students and teachers from that class could be accepted into the hospital without delay?”
“Yes, the hospital has reported that they’re already examining them.”
Although the mind skill had already been undone, a thorough checkup was still necessary.
Whether it was for appearance’s sake or because they were victims in this incident.
“Please let me know the results as soon as they’re available.”
“Yes!”
As Frire gave orders to various people from various departments as the overall supervisor, she took a peek at her foster.
Fortunately, no one among the inspectors has been affected with that head ring.
It was during this time that an older male teacher called out to her.
“Teacher Doneju, I see you’re hard at work. It’s sad though, an entire class of students and teachers from the proud Garesto Academy went berserk, and yet they’re spouting excuses, saying they don’t remember anything. Shouldn’t we give them a harsh punishment?”
Frankly, Frire wanted nothing more right now than to yell at this man and tell him to leave it for later, but unfortunately, he was one of the most senior teachers among the practical skill teachers, so she couldn’t look down on him.
Unfortunately, it was also because he has been with the school for a long time that he was emotionally attached with it and cared a lot about reputation. Frire didn’t like him.
“I think they’re telling the truth when they claim to have no recollection. You weren’t there at the scene, so it can’t be helped, but the way they were acting then couldn’t have been a mere act. I can testify to that, and so can Padyuel and Ruona.”
“I-I see. If such brilliant students and family successors are willing to vouch for them that much, then…”
On top of that, he was weak to titles and social standing, and is quick to withdraw his opinion.
If he thought that little of his own opinion, then he should’ve just shut up in the first place. But while Frire thought that to herself, she merely told him what they should be doing now.
“More importantly, we should be focusing our efforts on finding out if there are any other students who’ve gone berserk.”
“Y-You believe there will be more? Something this ridiculous is going to continue?”
When Frire saw his unbelieving face, she felt like sighing.
This teacher was a Garestonian but he has been here for far too long and was no longer as vigilant as he once was.
He truly believed that this matter truly ended with some students and teachers going mad.
It’s true that it was peaceful right now, but this place has always been estranged from something as fanciful as peace.
And yet because of the city’s insular nature, the people living in it has grown numb to the malice of those from outside.
“We’re investigating that right now. Padyuel and Ruona are helping us to prevent unnecessary panic from spreading. If it’s them, then I’m sure they’ll immediately get results— Excuse me, I have a call.”
He didn’t seem convinced yet, but Frire couldn’t care less.
Answering Aristel’s call would be many times more beneficial than talking to him.
It would be problematic to have him listen in on her, so she sent him away to do some random job before picking up.
“Teacher Frire, we’ve got some bad news.”
“…That’s the first thing you say, Padyuel?”
When she saw the bitter expression on the face of the girl projected in front of her, she too made a similar expression.
After all, that was clearly a sign that there have been other casualties.
“I’m sorry, but the situation calls for it. I believe it would be best to avoid wasting time.”
“…Are you sure you’re not actually a coworker of mine?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Nevermind… Tell me what this bad news of yours is.”
“Yes. The students and teachers Ruona-san and I met directly haven’t been afflicted with that ring, but the entire class of 2 – C and 2 – D are missing.”
“Ahh, those guys.”
When Frire recalled the signal of those people chasing after Shinichi, she smiled.
It was good that they went to the person that could take care of them the best. That saves her a lot of work.
“Don’t worry about them. That guy has probably taken care of them by now.”
“Oh, my. That puts me at ease then. But there are other students who’ve gone missing. And unfortunately, it’s a really problematic individual.”
“Ugh, I don’t really want to hear it, but… Fine. Who is it?”
Just dealing with the classes they could easily handle were enough of a headache.
When Frire thought of the clean up later, she couldn’t help but become weary.
It was even worse when she thought of how she would have to do everything while hiding the cause and covering for these guys.
But no matter how troubled Frire was, the words Aristel spoke next blew all of that away.
“A student from 2 – A and 2 – B respectively have gone missing. What’s more is that the
“Of all things! Someone actually went berserk with an exoskeleton!?”
Frire found herself yelling as soon as Aristel broke the news.
But even if it was a student in the upper ranks, and even if said student was equipped with an exoskeleton, the inspectors should still be able to apprehend them.
The problem was that some other problems might arise until then.
If that student were to attack a class without an exoskeleton, the result would be too disastrous.
Moreover, it was currently rest time for most of the classes, so they were pretty much defenseless.
When she thought of such classes being attacked, she couldn’t help but become uneasy.
“Ruona-san is searching for them now, but the fields are too big…”
“If the student flies around while in that berserked state, one person alone won’t be enough.”
There hasn’t been any response of anyone leaving the fields, so the missing students should still be inside, but with the area to cover roughly half as big as the Shikoku island of Japan, finding them alone won’t be easy even with the foster’s range set to max.
“As such, I would like to request for you to look for the foster’s signal from there. If I’m not mistaken, an identification signal for each individual should’ve been prepared in case of emergency.”
“Alright. As the overall supervisor, I’ve judged that this is indeed a situation that necessitates the use of the individual identification signal. What’s the student’s name?”
“…Unfortunately, it’s ‘that’ Shinguuji Ryou.”
“It just had to be him, didn’t it!”
That name belonged to the student ranked 3 in the academy.
Shinguuji Ryou was a Japanese, but he had high status and excellent grades.
What’s more was that his Strength stat was just a little lower than Frire.
His speech and conduct could use improving and his relationship with others was terrible in a different sense than Shinichi, but he had a strong desire to become strong that Frire herself acknowledged.
But if that power of his has gone berserk, then nothing could be more worrisome.
“I”ll look for him now! Shinguuji’s identification signal is… Found it— What!?”
The map of the fields projected in front of her showed the location of the student and his route.
When Frire saw where he was heading, she became speechless.
The words that boy spoke flashed through her mind, sending goosebumps to break out all over her.
—‘All the troubles are bound to gather
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