Chapter 841: Gathering of Heroes
"Warning: Unidentified flying object rapidly breaking through the Earth-Moon orbit, descending quickly toward the atmosphere!"
"Satellite imaging data received, parsing in progress..."
"Ground air defense systems primed, ready to fire on command."
"Incoming transmission from NASA requesting that we... cancel all anti-air measures..."
Inside the capital's underground military command bunker, Kenji sat with his back straight. One screen was linked to the council of generals at the air defense headquarters, while the other was patched into an internal conference of national ability users.
In the past, an unidentified flying object appearing out of nowhere would likely have been dismissed as an uncataloged meteor or comet that had slipped past satellite and radar arrays.
Now, however, Kenji's immediate instinct was: this unquestionably involved those ability users.
He was an elder statesman quite receptive to new realities, and driven by the duty of his office, he consistently adjusted his estimates of the apex ability users a tier higher than the official assessments provided by his department.
That was his way of ensuring he never miscalculated.
"What did they say over there? Kenzo, have you made contact with Tenkyo?"
Kenji had heard from Kenzo and Takatsugu that the Free Federation had likely fallen under the dominion of powerful ability users, all of whom answered to an assembly known as Avalon or the Round Table.
An organization composed of living natural disasters.
The world had changed beyond recognition. Even the Free Federation, once an undisputed global hegemon, had quietly changed masters without a whimper.
Before absolute might, the technological achievements of ordinary mortals were reduced to a joke.
Soon, Tenkyo materialized on the monitor. Anxiety was clearly written across his face, but seeing Kenji, Kenzo, and the others assembled, he knew he had to deliver a definitive answer.
"His Lordship has not responded. However, in my assessment... it is best not to engage that object. Treat it as though... we never saw it!"
Tenkyo was deeply on edge. Both he and Black Butler knew what the Golden Order was orchestrating; inviting the Greater Will was an extraordinarily hazardous gambit.
Yet His Lordship clearly lent this endeavor his full support.
Therefore, this falling star, almost certainly bearing the Authority of the Greater Will, could not be provoked. Even if conventional human missiles stood no realistic chance of scratching it, no one dared risk provoking His Lordship over a microscopic contingency.
The fact that civil order still endured across the Eastern Hemisphere was likely already a major concession on His Lordship's part.
Compared to the Western Hemisphere, the East remained far more tranquil, mostly limited to Reincarnators butchering each other.
Those directly seizing political power were a minority here.
In the West, however, the shadows of high-tier and apex Reincarnators loomed behind the vast majority of sovereign regimes.
Once unshackled, the speed at which Reincarnators consolidated absolute authority outstripped anything conventional society had anticipated.
Tenkyo remained in the dark regarding Kaito Shirogane's ultimate grand design, leaving him able only to offer guidance. After a brief deliberation, Kenji decided to fall in line.
Drawing from verified intelligence, he had concluded that Kaito Shirogane—venerated as His Lordship—had evolved into an authentic monster. The battle that had wiped Neon off the map a month or two ago was no longer a viable baseline to measure his destructive output.
Furthermore, the global landscape had shifted violently over this period. Numerous Reincarnators had begun deploying exotic memetic curses and reality-warping artifacts into the physical world, initiating mass-scale terraforming.
Though no formal declaration confirmed the world was being remodeled, bizarre supernatural phenomena had begun proliferating worldwide.
The entire nation of the White Bear was haunted by paranormal occurrences. A terrifying spiritual curse seemed to have drifted from the ruined lands of Neon into the northern tundra, spawning countless negative-energy entities that Black Butler had provisionally identified as Cursed Spirits.
According to the analytical brokers of the Paradise, this was likely orchestrated by Dead of Night, the former Mind Demon, who was deliberately cultivating Cursed Spirits in the northern territories to force the advent of the Jujutsu ecosystem.
Once a proper Jujutsu realm manifested, a macro-memetic field would take root, enforcing a self-sustaining equilibrium between sorcerers and cursed spirits.
"That is a sound proposal. To think you weren't tempted in the slightest?"
Shigure looked at Tan Zhishan with subtle surprise.
He knew Tan Zhishan's build incorporated Jujutsu disciplines. Yet when recounting the suggestion pitched to him by the woman codenamed Amatsu, Tan Zhishan remained entirely nonchalant.
He showed not the slightest trace of vexation over forfeiting an opportunity to secure memetic-tier empowerment.
Puffing on a cigar, Tan Zhishan leaned back against his chair in the cafe at the foot of the Black Tower, his peripheral vision assessing Shigure, who had once held the title of Eternal Destiny.
Why Shigure had chosen to align with the Paradise remained opaque, but Tan Zhishan could deduce that an underlying conspiracy was at play.
Shigure had ascended far faster than Tan Zhishan, swiftly taking his seat among the strongest operatives in the Space. Even during their shared cycle as Sovereign Monarchs, Eternal Destiny had far outstripped the Final Sun.
Tan Zhishan offered no defense for abandoning the Jujutsu memetic framework. Tasks like that could easily be outsourced to others; in the end, those who harvested the ultimate benefits of such systemic shifts were the surviving minority.
Rather than squandering time and energy orchestrating and cultivating leylines, reaping the final harvest from the sidelines was far superior.
He steered the conversation elsewhere.
"I never expected someone of your caliber to stumble in the B711 world. Many back then believed you had perished."
Shigure rubbed the bridge of his nose. His defeat in the B711 world felt like ancient history, yet having it dredged up still provoked a twinge of awkwardness.
He had plotted for so long, even fixing his sights upon a Black King, only to be crushed under the Serious Punch of that bald demon king.
A single punch had shattered the crown of Eternal Destiny, renowned as the most profound and inscrutable mantle in the mental domain.
"Haha, Tan Zhishan, my friend, you ought to view that affair from another angle."
"In the B711 world, I stood before that rule-breaking Saitama while concurrently crossing paths with Lord Mercenary Tao, who now reigns as an absolute monster. Walking away alive and returning to the Space was an extraordinary feat that most Reincarnators could scarcely dream of, was it not?"
Seeing Shigure laugh with such carefree detachment, as though no bitter grudge remained, Tan Zhishan's wariness deepened.
Shigure was an anomalous Reincarnator: his rise was meteoric, yet far less ostentatious than those of Yoko or Mercenary Tao.
Before anyone could fully process his ascent, he was already firmly entrenched among the apex vanguard.
Yet afterward, he had retreated behind the curtain, letting lieutenants like the Sage and Hakumen command public discourse.
He was shrouded in countless enigmas: why had a combatant pursuing brute physical supremacy qualified for the mental-domain crown in the first place?
And having reclaimed a Sovereign seat in the domain of raw power, why had he willingly submitted under Mercenary Tao's banner?
According to reports trickling out from the B711 world, Eternal Destiny and Tang Sanzang's cohort had all been caught in Mercenary Tao's wake.
That operative codenamed Tree Shepherd had loudly proclaimed that Mercenary Tao enraged Saitama, inciting an indiscriminate purge that claimed legions of Reincarnators, wiping out apex combatants like Tang Sanzang and Lord Eternal Destiny.
Tang Sanzang had once served as Tan Zhishan's second-in-command, possessing raw potential eclipsing even Mahakala's. Arrogant as he was, his martial talent was undeniable.
His sudden demise in the B711 world had inflicted a severe blow upon Tan Zhishan's subsequent grand designs.
Tan Zhishan had even wondered: had Tang Sanzang survived that world, would an ambush featuring Mahakala, Su Qingqiu, Thread of Thought, and Tang Sanzang have succeeded in strangling Mercenary Tao in the cradle back in Burma...?
Massaging his temples, Tan Zhishan banished the pointless hypothetical.
"When do we set out?"
Tan Zhishan asked. His presence here was the result of Shigure seeking him out directly.
Much like Mahakala, Su Qingqiu, and Thread of Thought quietly plotting a new coordinated assassination, the decentralized framework of the Paradise granted these apex Reincarnators complete autonomy to pursue private agendas.
That Monster King ruling atop the Black Tower exercised zero desire to micro-manage the predatory beasts gathered beneath his throne.
He permitted their plots to unfold unhindered, meditating in silence atop the heights, only occasionally unleashing concussive bursts of terrifying Ki to remind the denizens of the Paradise of the dread of his reign.
The higher an operative scaled, the more voracious their appetite for resources became.
Such was the nature of Reincarnators: while their growth velocity outstripped every transcendent species in existence, their resource consumption was horrifying.
A general's triumph is built upon ten thousand withered bones—in the Space, that adage was literal reality.
The ascent of an apex Reincarnator demanded a staircase paved with the corpses of equals and superiors.
Artifacts, materials, Singularity Points—the bloody transfer of Information was the indispensable currency of evolution.
Figures of Shigure and Tan Zhishan's tier were no exception; if anything, their hunger ran deeper!
Now that the Round Table of the West was expanding aggressively across the Western Hemisphere, lower- and mid-tier operatives saw only disaster.
To apex predators like Shigure and Tan Zhishan, however, it represented prime hunting season.
An opportunity to hunt down Sovereign-tier targets directly within the physical world.
Slaying an operative of that caliber in reality carried a near-guaranteed yield of Crimson Drop Cards.
Shigure had set his sights on Doctor Hill, the mental-domain Sovereign who had recently vacated the Paradise. Hill's psychic prowess was formidable.
Yet Shigure held absolute confidence in overpowering him. Paired with Tan Zhishan—an apex curse-weaver whose crown had ironically been usurped by Hill—their odds of victory were overwhelming.
Tan Zhishan had accepted the partnership without hesitation.
As top-tier Reincarnators, stumbling across peers in primary worlds rarely allowed for unbridled slaughter.
Representing the spatial vanguard, the Space routinely capped kill-drops among fellow operatives in those theaters.
Barring bearers of the Crimson Great Sin, few Reincarnators were willing to wage mortal combat without material profit.
Here in the physical realm, that restriction vanished, and Tan Zhishan was determined to seize the opening.
Though the Paradise appeared decentralized, governed as it was by that monster Mercenary Tao, Tan Zhishan had no doubt it would soon mutate into a far more blood-soaked crucible.
Any operative who fell behind would be devoured without mercy by those trailing in their wake!
Operatives like Thread of Thought, Eclipse, or even Hongchen guarding the front gates—every last one of them was eyeing his foundation like starving wolves.
Shortly thereafter, the Black Pearl departed from the Paradise, officially raising the curtain on the bloody turf wars of the physical world.
[Heroes Assemble]
[Quality: Rare, Special]
[Description: An emergency mobilization decree issued by the Hero Association of a certain universe. Anyone bearing the title of Hero is authorized to report for reinforcements.]
[Prerequisites: Bear the title of Hero within the corresponding universe.]
[Effect 1: Spend a C-Rank Singularity Point and Dimensional Points 8000 within the physical world or the Infinite Dimensional Space to forcibly anchor your next deployment world to that specific universe.]
[Effect 2: Possessing this item within the designated script-world activates the special quest: Heroes Assemble.]
Jin Yue'an completed the trade, handing the specialized token to Kaito Shirogane before stepping respectfully to the side. Tenkyo, having just concluded his diplomatic liaison with the Eastland, commenced his operational debriefing.
Though aware that nothing escaped His Lordship's perception, keeping backchannel lines open with the Eastland command bunker still left Tenkyo slightly unsettled.
"The Eastland, the White Bear, and neighboring nations have officially disengaged their targeting locks from the extraterrestrial meteor. Current estimates suggest the Greater Will shall descend upon the tundra claimed by the Golden Order shortly."
"Su Qingqiu, Thread of Thought, and Mahakala have formed an alliance to hunt down a certain Sovereign from the North District, and have already slipped into the shadows under false identities."
"Shigure and Tan Zhishan have coordinated a campaign to execute Doctor Hill, departing openly aboard the Black Pearl."
"Her Ladyship Qiqi plans to sanitize the Fourth Step squad Flow Form operating within sovereign waters, with estimated arrival in twelve hours."
"Sightings in the southwest report the appearance of a Reincarnator resembling Crimson Moon, objective unconfirmed."
Kaito Shirogane kept his eyes locked on the invitation before him, offering zero acknowledgment to Tenkyo's intelligence report.
He was bound hand and foot by the structural fragility of the physical world.
Furthermore, they were too weak. The current generation of Reincarnators was simply too frail.
He began to understand why there was never any recorded history of the Supreme Three Kings entering the fray.
From their vantage point, the Supreme Three Kings likely found neither reason nor worthy adversaries to warrant intervention.
Even apex Reincarnators stood miles beneath their tier.
Now, he and Yoko had stepped into that exact realm.
Most top-tier Reincarnators couldn't withstand a single exchange, yet attempting an all-out duel against each other risked shattering the planet beneath their feet before a victor could emerge.
Only a sufficiently robust mission universe could accommodate his unconstrained battle lust.
And at this exact moment, Jin Yue'an had delivered this token into his hands—a coincidence laced with the unmistakable hand of destiny.
Heroes Assemble. Among worlds tied to the concept of heroes, the only ones he had traversed were the Boys universe and the B711 world.
And the only universe where he had carved his name as a hero was the B711 world, where he had achieved infamy by proclaiming himself a Hero for Fun.
Kaito was uncertain whether activating this token would anchor him directly to the B711 world, or to another derivative timeline of the One-Punch Man cosmos.
If it were the former, he would step into a world featuring a Saitama who thoroughly reviled Reincarnators, and a landscape reduced to apocalyptic ruin.
If it were the latter...
Within Kaito's mind, that furious, all-consuming punch from Saitama resurfaced—the absolute sensation of physical reality collapsing inward under a single fist.
His resolve was already forged.