CHAPTER 381: CHAPTER 379 EXPERIMENT FAILURE_1

Adachi District, Ayase.

Aozawa returned to his villa. His translucent form gradually became visible as he deactivated his Transformation Ability, reverting to his original appearance, and immediately picked up the cellphone on the table.

There were messages from Ayatsuki Ayaka and Hojo Tetsuji.

Aozawa unlocked the phone, patiently responded to Ayatsuki Ayaka’s messages, and tactfully expressed that he had something to do at the moment and would talk to her later.

"Okay, Saeko and I are outside the Tokyo Dojo. Look how many people are here," she said.

The message was quickly marked as read. Ayatsuki Ayaka took a photo and sent it over. Her photography skills had improved, turning the crowded flow of people into a backdrop; the high angle of the raised cellphone captured the mountains, making them appear as if among the clouds. This semi-visible state made one yearn to pierce through the fog to clear skies.

"Have fun," Aozawa texted.

Through the Defense Barrier, Aozawa already knew her location at the event and wasn’t too worried. With the Defense Barrier, no one could harm Ayatsuki Ayaka. If anything did happen, he would be there in an instant. If Iroha wanted to mingle in the crowd, she could do just that. If the sky were to fall, he would be there to hold it up.

Ayatsuki Ayaka sent back a laughing emoji sticker and ended the chat.

Aozawa put down his phone, ignoring the comic inspiration inquiry Hojo Tetsuji had sent.

Seen but not replied to.

He raised his hand and deployed his Will-o’-the-wisp Ability to hypnotize the world, creating a vision of a Holy Lord. With a dragon’s head and human body, his bulging muscles testified to his tremendous strength.

After Will-o’-the-wisp was significantly nerfed, Aozawa couldn’t add special abilities to its creations, and their existence time was greatly reduced. The Holy Lord’s appearance was striking, but in reality, he only possessed physical strength. In a fight, he probably wouldn’t beat Hojo Tetsuji, Aozawa thought.

Still, he wanted to try using Enlightening to strengthen the Holy Lord and, while the Holy Lord was still alive, strip away his voice. When the Holy Lord dies, will the voice disappear or remain?

He touched the surface of the Holy Lord with his index finger, initiating Enlightening. In an instant, the Holy Lord’s body swelled further, nearly reaching the ceiling. His fearsome muscles burst outward, as thick as armor, and his strength peaked. The dragon tail swayed slightly; a simple movement produced a wind like a blow dryer, sweeping dust from the floor.

Aozawa deployed the Sound of Everything. A variety of noises rushed into his ears. BUZZING. Among these sounds, the Holy Lord’s was especially potent.

Aozawa used his right hand to strip away the Holy Lord’s voice. The powerful voice faded, and the Holy Lord’s large body quickly weakened. Aozawa deactivated Will-o’-the-wisp, allowing the Holy Lord to vanish into the air.

The intensity of the captured sound did not dissipate. He was delighted. Then, he tried to capture the sound of the sofa with his right hand. A milky-white vapor merged into his palm but provided no feedback of its own existence; it was directly engulfed by the overpowering sound of the Holy Lord.

Aozawa proceeded to the next test, using his Schrodinger’s Cat Ability to make his body semi-transparent. A thought flashed through his mind, and he vanished from Adachi District, appearing in Shibuya.

「...」

"Do you yearn to be the strongest on the surface?"

Shibuya’s plaza still scrolled adverts incessantly. They were so excessively captivating that they had been overplayed by bloggers on the internet, with various memes proliferating wildly. For instance, "Do you desire the biggest Nanako on the earth’s surface?"

In reality, though, pedestrians were tired of hearing that endlessly shouting advertisement. Some people even questioned online how much funding was poured into this pointless event, thinking the cabinet was wasting taxpayer money.

Fukumoto was indifferent. He had dyed his hair yellow, wore three earrings in his left ear, and a large nose ring. He was currently banging on a door, shouting, "Sadako, it’s me!"

"We’ve already broken up! Please leave me alone!" came the reply from inside.

"What breakup? Didn’t we have a great time on the rooftop before? I’m sorry for hitting you while drunk last night. It was my fault. I apologize. It won’t happen next time."

"No, it won’t! You always say that, but you do the same thing every time! We are done!"

"You really need to stop sweating the small stuff." Fukumoto was getting agitated. It was just a red, swollen eye and a bleeding forehead, wasn’t it? He hadn’t crippled her, he thought. "You bitch! Have you been cheating on me? Let me tell you, if I find out you’re unfaithful, you’re dead! I’ll upload our old photos and videos to the net and show everyone what kind of bitch you are!"

He shouted loudly. Silence followed from inside, then soft sobbing.

A neighboring door opened. Fukumoto glanced over and yelled, "Four-eyed boy, what are you looking at?"

The man who had intended to leave quickly shut his door.

Fukumoto, looking self-assured, continued banging on the door. "If you open up now, I can still forgive you!"

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder.

Fukumoto yelped, startled, and whirled around. He was about to curse but swallowed his words upon seeing the newcomer. The man’s hefty build and arms thicker than Fukumoto’s own thighs signified immense strength. Most importantly, his complexion and hair color indicated he was an American—not someone a Japanese person should provoke.

"What do you want?" Fukumoto asked, his bravado visibly deflating.

Aozawa attempted to imbue him with the stored sound of the Holy Lord. A milky-white vapor emerged from Aozawa’s palm, permeating through the man’s pores.

"AAAH!" The man screamed madly as his body rapidly started to swell. This bizarre scene hadn’t occurred when Aozawa had previously bestowed voices.

Aozawa swiftly used Element Replacement, transforming into a gust of wind.

The man’s body expanded quickly, soon filling the corridor and reaching the ceiling. His features became submerged in flesh, and a muffled, unclear voice resounded from within. Then, he exploded.

BANG! A large chunk of the side railing was blasted away. A shower of blood and flesh, mixed with rubble, rained down to the ground.

"AAAH!" A witness screamed.

Aozawa grew thoughtful. Was it because the Enlightened Holy Lord’s sound was too powerful, exceeding the man’s tolerance? Or is this what happens when voices from monsters created in a Different World are bestowed upon humans? He wanted to know the answer, which meant he needed to find someone stronger to withstand an Enlightened monster’s powerful sound. For now, the Tokyo Dojo is the most convenient place to select experimental subjects. He needed to understand the reason before he could use it on himself. If the sound is too strong, perhaps only a martial artist could bear it. In that case, he would first strip the strongest martial artist of their voice for himself. Then, he’d use Will-o’-the-wisp to create a powerful monster, use Enlightening on it, and merge its powerful sound into himself. At that time, the body he would possess would no longer be merely the strongest among humans, but justifiably the strongest body on the face of the earth. However, if this is related to side effects from Will-o’-the-wisp or the Enlightening ability, then he would have to resign himself to just taking a martial artist’s body.

「...」

At ten in the morning, the Tokyo Dojo began registration. The ticket price reached a staggering 500,000,000 yen each.

When the general public heard about such exorbitant fees, a huge commotion ensued.

"My God! Why don’t they just rob people?"

Ayatsuki Ayaka’s face was full of shock. She couldn’t imagine ticket fees being so expensive. She had even planned to buy one to enjoy the excitement, thinking that by biting the bullet and scraping together 10,000 yen, it would be enough. Now she realized this excitement wasn’t for the poor to enjoy. Even if she sold all her organs, she couldn’t come up with 500,000,000 yen.

Takahashi Saeko was rich, but she was unwilling to spend 500,000,000 yen on such a competition. Truthfully, it wasn’t worth it at all. She might not even earn 500,000,000 yen in a year.

Miyahara Kaoru frowned slightly. Her family was wealthy, but her parents were still around, so she couldn’t spend her family’s money at will. Her personal bank account only held about 300,000,000 yen for spending. If I had known earlier, I would have saved money, maybe even enough to buy Iroha a ticket to see the spectacle, she thought.

"Let me see who can actually afford these tickets!" Ayatsuki Ayaka stood on tiptoes. Her mentality had shifted from wanting to line up and buy tickets to simply seeing if anyone at all would buy a ticket to enter. Five hundred million yen... that’s no small amount, she thought. It was this very realization that made her face a sad truth: I’m the poor one here.

Ayatsuki Ayaka watched as, one after another, people bought tickets and entered—locals, as well as people from Europe and America.

Takahashi Saeko swept her gaze over the line of martial artists and spotted an acquaintance. She patted Ayatsuki Ayaka’s shoulder and said, "Maybe we have a way to get in."

"What way?" Ayatsuki Ayaka turned around, her expression full of curiosity.

"Look, isn’t that Peter? He has money."

"Huh? But that doesn’t seem right. For all of us, that would be two billion yen! Let’s just forget about the event and go shopping in Shibuya instead," Ayatsuki Ayaka immediately shook her head. If it were 20,000 or 30,000 yen, she might have asked Peter to help out in a pinch. But 500,000,000 yen was beyond her imagination; asking Peter for that much would simply be taking advantage of him.

A hint of pity flickered in Takahashi Saeko’s eyes as she patted Iroha’s head. "Iroha, you still don’t understand. To the rich, five hundred million yen, or even two billion yen, isn’t even half a month’s pocket money."

"Really?" Ayatsuki Ayaka’s face was full of shock.

Takahashi Saeko smiled. "If you don’t believe me, just watch. It’ll take less than a minute for me to get his card to buy the tickets."

"If you lose, you’re treating me to milk tea!" Ayatsuki Ayaka said skeptically.

"Alright. And if I win, you’ll treat me," Takahashi Saeko replied with a smile, approaching Peter, who was waiting in line to register.

"Peter," she said, "we want to go in and witness your glorious performance, but we don’t have enough for the tickets."

Peter glanced away from the front of the line toward her and smiled. "No problem. Just make sure to cheer for me." As he spoke, he pulled out his Black Card and handed it to Takahashi Saeko. "The PIN is six zeroes."

"Thanks! Go for it! We believe you can win!" Takahashi Saeko said, giving a thumbs up. She took the Black Card and turned to leave.

Sophia asked curiously, "Why did you give her your Black Card?"

"Spending a little money to gain the friendship of a Street Cleaner? Isn’t that a good deal?" Peter said with a smile. In his view, two billion yen was pocket change, and Takahashi Saeko’s friendship was worth that price.

Then there was Ayatsuki Ayaka. That girl had a good relationship with Aozawa, and Aozawa had good ties with Hojo Tetsuji. Connections, he mused, are accrued through such means.

"You just wanted to show off in front of your classmates, didn’t you?" Sophia teased. Peter was good in many aspects, but his one flaw was that he loved to show off.

"Haha." Peter just laughed. That was also part of the reason. For him, spending money was primarily about enjoyment.