Woohoohooooooooot.
Ahead—S-Rank Tower ☆ discovered.
…It feels like I should say something dramatic like that, but since I’m a perfectly normal person, I only think it in my head.
Instead, the moment a new S-Rank Tower appeared, I rushed straight to where it manifested in Shibuya, with help from Elaine.
I didn’t smash through the window—or at least I didn’t jump through it.
Elaine slashed the window open with her sword aura and acted like she was going to move through it, but we just ran down the hotel stairs and made our way to the center of Shibuya without drawing attention.
“Wow, I can’t believe I actually made it here.”
Shibuya.
That iconic crosswalk—so common in Japanese media that just seeing it makes people shout, “Shibuya!”
And right above the crosswalk stretching across to the other side, we could see the entrance to the S-Rank Tower.
‘This one reaches all the way to the ground.’
Tower entrances vary.
Some appear above bridges, like the Golden Gate, and others look like they’re touching the sky, like the Devil’s Tower.
But most of the time, the entrance forms around 20 to 30 meters above the ground, on the bottom level of the tower.
If we assumed that someone actually built these tall structures manually, maybe it’s a feature that the base doesn’t touch the ground—otherwise, they couldn’t be constructed?
“This might be bad. People could just walk right in if we’re not careful.”
“Yes. Already…”
Elaine scans the surroundings.
Fortunately, the crowd crossing the street had frozen in place, unintentionally forming a barrier that stopped more people from approaching.
The ones up front—
“H-Hey! Stop pushing!”
“It’s not me! It’s coming from the back…!”
“Tsk.”
Those who were close to the Tower in the heart of Shibuya were either panicking or trying to get away, while people farther back were moving in to get a closer look.
“A Tower this close to Akihabara… how did we not notice?”
“Is it A-rank? No way, not with that height… That’s gotta be S-rank… right?”
They wanted to see it with their own eyes.
They probably thought that even if monsters from the S-Rank Tower burst out, they’d be able to dodge them Hollywood-style and escape.
Because none of them seriously believed they might die.
At this rate—
people could get pushed right up to the Tower entrance.
No more messing around—
“FREEEEEEEEEEEZE!!”
I shout.
I pour all the mana in my body into my voice and project it across the entirety of Shibuya.
BOOM!
Elaine slams her sword down.
A massive shockwave of mana radiates from the center of Shibuya Square, freezing everyone in place where they stood.
“From this moment on—if anyone moves even a single step, I will declare you Ironblood.”
“!!”
Move, and you’re Ironblood.
My not-so-subtle threat silences not only those nearby but even the ones creeping closer from afar.
“Are you seriously shoving people from behind just to get a better look at this Tower? Trying to get those in front sucked inside? Is that the level of your civic awareness?”
There’s a word for that kind of thing— civic consciousness—but I don’t even want to invoke it.
Right now, I don’t need to fix people’s lack of civic responsibility in the face of danger.
I need to control the elements that might interfere with my raid on this S-Rank Tower.
“Elaine.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Cut here.”
Slice!
Elaine cleaves the ground.
Her blade leaves a deep gash right in the middle of Shibuya, wide enough that at least one person could fall through.
I point to the line she carved.
“If even a single person crosses this line, I will throw every human being in Shibuya into the Tower.”
“!!”
Blatant intimidation.
If I only threatened the ones up front, the malicious ones way in the back could keep pushing people forward unnoticed.
“Master!!”
Pushing through the crowd, a woman with flowing red hair landed right in front of the line.
“I’m here to assist you!”
“Red Ruler, huh.”
“Yes!!”
An S-rank Hunter from Japan.
Not one of those who tried to snatch up the S-Rank Tower at Dokdo—this one was among the moderates in Japan.
She had also handled the press during that conference, so she was someone I could trust.
“Alright. Help me out.”
“Yes! Whatever you need—”
“Keep people from getting in.”
“…Sorry, huh?”
That spark in her eyes, ready to take initiative, was great—
but she wasn’t going to raid the Tower with me.
“If not a single person enters this place, I might consider raiding an S-Rank Tower with you someday.”
“Ah, ahh…!”
Red Ruler’s eyes welled up with emotion as she clenched her fists, striking a power pose.
“Yes! I won’t let so much as an ant sneak in!”
“Good. Let’s see how you do. Let’s go, Elaine.”
“Yes, Master.”
Vrrrrrrr.
With Elaine, I stretched my body toward the entrance of the Tower.
The moment I crossed over, Elaine leapt ahead of me.
“The entrance… Master, what is this place?”
“Man, if the crowd had swarmed in, it could’ve gone really badly.”
S-Rank Tower.
Each one has its own personality, but I didn’t expect this kind.
A blood-red sky.
Crumbling concrete buildings, their windows shattered.
And in the center, a crosswalk so iconic that anyone who entered the Tower would instantly know where they were.
“It’s Shibuya, down to the last detail.”
Shibuya.
The lowest floor of the freshly formed Tower was a dungeon modeled exactly after Shibuya.
Whether this place had a boss or not, I’d have to wait for the mission objective to trigger—maybe I’d get a marker for the next area, or maybe I’d need to search for the boss manually—
“Master. Do you see that?”
“Yeah. The theme’s real obvious.”
Elaine raised her sword, mana flaring, ready to cut down the group of people ahead.
“I always figured if a zombie outbreak happened, it’d start in the U.S. or China. Who would’ve thought humanity’s first zombie dungeon would appear in Shibuya?”
Ahead—
Zombies sighted.
“They’re coming, Master!”
Screeeeeeeech!!
Zombies came rushing at us, mouths agape, arms raised.
“Well, I guess running is standard for modern zombies.”
They weren’t just lurching forward—they charged in a tight group, like some kind of running crew with weird postures, faster than expected.
“First things first…”
Now that we were inside the Tower, time to follow the usual routine.
The surrounding field—Shibuya, exactly.
It looked like Shibuya, but it wasn’t real.
That meant—
“This swarm is going to get annoying. Might as well wipe them all out at once.”
Click.
“Let’s go, Illinois.”
BOOOOOOOM!!
From the ground of Shibuya, Illinois burst forth.
* * *
[Outside.]
“Please stay back! We need your cooperation!”
“Clear out! Disperse, disperse!!”
Police officers who had rushed to the scene waved their red signal batons frantically at the gathering crowd.
“Everyone, please step back! We need the road cleared! Vehicles, prioritize this lane—!”
“Ugh, forget clearing the way. At this point, it’d be faster to lift the cars and move them!”
“I’ll do as you say!”
“Uh, wait, not my car—AAARGH!!”
Not just the police, but even Hunters were stepping in to restore order in the streets of Shibuya.
On a normal day, they might have been able to control the crowd somewhat.
But even with Hunters actively trying to manage the situation, it wasn’t going well.
Was it because the center of Shibuya happened to be a no-passing zone?
No.
The crosswalks might have been blocked, but the roads leading across to the other side were still clearly open.
“It’s because of the foreigners! They’re all crowding up the place!”
“What the hell are you talking about?! It’s not like there are that many foreigners here…!”
Still, the reason tens of thousands of people couldn’t properly evacuate wasn’t because they couldn’t understand Japanese—it was simply because too many people had shown up.
“Ugh, why is it so crowded…?”
“Red Ruler! I figured it out! Shibuya’s packed because everyone came to see Tokyo now that the Akihabara Tower is gone!”
“Wait, what…?”
The view of Tokyo, now free from the S-Rank Tower.
Although the Babel still hovered ominously in the sky, as long as you angled your head down just a little and shaded your eyes with a hand, you could take in a panoramic view of Tokyo.
Tokyo without a Tower.
That’s what people came to see.
“Red Ruler!!”
Cutting through the sea of people, the Prime Minister approached—riding on the back of a Hunter.
“Prime Minister…?”
“Let me in!”
“Are you crazy?!”
Already annoyed, Red Ruler couldn’t help blurting that out, but she quickly caught herself when she saw the Prime Minister’s shocked expression. She cleared her throat.
“What… what are you saying?”
“I mean it exactly as it sounds! You go in and help! You’re the only one who can enter!”
“Master said not to go in. Didn’t you hear?”
“Once you’re inside, we can—”
“Then you go in, Mr. Prime Minister.”
“W-What?!”
The Prime Minister froze at Red Ruler’s cold suggestion.
“You want me to go in there…?”
“Yes. You can tell me to go in, but you won’t go yourself? Seriously, right now?”
“W-We’re not the same, you and I!”
“You’re right. We’re not. That’s why I’m not going in. Besides… what good would it even do if I went?”
“No! You don’t understand—if this keeps up, we won’t even get to watch the raid on the S-Rank Tower!”
Master had gone in far too quickly.
“At this rate, the Shibuya S-Rank Tower is going to show up and then just poof—disappear before anyone even sees what happens inside…!”
“…So what?”
Red Ruler let out a dry laugh.
“So what if it does?”
* * *
Inside Shibuya, where no one else had entered—
“Man, full-volley bombardment really is the best.”
—Or what used to be Shibuya.
“This is proper flattening. At this rate, Illinois might start driving on the ground.”
BOOOOOOOOM!!
Shibuya was currently being obliterated by Illinois.
“When else would I get the chance to tear this place apart like this?”
Please.
Let no one come in from outside.
