Chapter 95: Quiet Days

Once all the students had finally left the school grounds, Gray went back to his sleeping quarters with Eri right behind him. She was still bouncing around the hallway, excited about the intense day they had just had, copying some of the heroic poses she had seen on the monitors. Gray gently ruffled her hair with a smile as they stepped inside their room.

Gray sat comfortably on the edge of the bed and thought about the world’s plot. As far as he remembered, tomorrow morning the League of Villains would destroy the school’s main security gate, using the media frenzy as a distraction to infiltrate the administration building and steal the freshman students’ rescue training schedule.

At exactly 8:00 PM, Gray opened his system shop interface and bought the next upgrade tier.

[New Upgrade]

(1M Gold) 50000 Gold/Hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

167,387 (98,463) Gold per hour

Gold: 12,743

Now that he was pulling in substantial passive income and could comfortably afford some of the more expensive things, he planned to expand his Training Dimension teachers and helpers repertoire soon.

The next morning, Gray quickly put on inconspicuous clothes to pass as a normal civilian on the street and avoid being spotted by the press waiting at the front gates. Taking off into the sky, he flew high and fast, breaking past the clouds before landing smoothly on a secluded rooftop across the street from the school perimeter.

From his vantage point, he noticed a few early students trying to enter the school but constantly being stopped and harassed by crowds of reporters waving microphones. A few students actually stopped to talk awkwardly, but most ignored the cameras and hurried through the doors. Gray kept watch, his gaze scanning the surrounding sidewalks as he tried to find the scrawny, shaggy-looking villain. He planned on having a private chat with him before the chaos kicked off.

Once the last of the students were safely inside, Gray’s patience finally paid off. He spotted the man walking slowly along the edge of the crowd: Shigaraki Tomura, or former Tenko Shimura, the grandson of Nana Shimura, the seventh wielder of One For All.

Gray floated down from the rooftop and landed smoothly beside the man on the sidewalk. Shigaraki wore normal civilian clothes, missing all the creepy-looking severed hands he usually wore around his body during attacks. Gray walked beside him at a casual pace, leaned over slightly, and whistled.

"Damn, man," Gray said, breaking the silence with a smirk. "You seriously need some chapstick for those cracked lips. And you definitely need to drink some more water."

Shigaraki froze when he heard the voice. ’I didn’t hear him approach me at all...’ he thought, cold sweat instantly breaking out on his neck. As he turned his head slightly and got a better look at the person talking to him, his red eyes widened in shock.

He had watched this guy’s combat videos on repeat for a long time. Seeing the high-ranking pro heroes get effortlessly beaten up by this stranger was a sight for sore eyes, and it filled Shigaraki with deep satisfaction. But when he heard the recent news that the rogue powerhouse had joined those heroes as a faculty member at UA, it sent him into a spiral of rage. He had originally wanted to approach Gray and offer him a prominent spot next to him in the League; he had even already gotten approval from his Sensei.

"Well, if it isn’t the most famous person of the last week," Shigaraki muttered, trying his best to play it cool. He kept his hands stuffed in his pockets, confident that, so far, the local hero network and police databases had no idea who he actually was.

"Yeah, well... not as famous as your Sensei, though," Gray smiled, his tone casual as they walked along the perimeter tree line. "Tell me, are you here to scout the future heroes?"

Shigaraki’s internal guard went to the highest setting in an instant. His chest tightened, but he forced a fake, relaxed smile, trying to look like a completely harmless passerby. "I don’t know what you mean by that. I’m just a normal citizen here to catch a glimpse of All Might. I’m a big fan, you see."

"Right," Gray chuckled, adjusting his loose jacket. He shifted his weight and smoothly started floating a few inches off the sidewalk, preparing to head back toward the campus. "Say hi to All For One for me, will you?"

Shigaraki stood frozen on the pavement as Gray took off into the air. He fell back for now, his mind racing as unease washed over him. This guy didn’t just know his face; he knew about his Sensei and the League’s innermost secrets. That changed things completely. The weirdest part of the whole interaction was that Gray hadn’t even treated him as a real threat, casually dropping names before walking away, and that blatant disregard pissed him off even more.

"Kurogiri," Shigaraki growled, giving the command the second he ducked into a dark, secluded alleyway, out of sight of the street.

A dense swirl of dark purple mist materialized beside him, forming the shifting silhouette of the warp villain. "Are we ready to execute the breach, Tomura Shigaraki?" Kurogiri asked, narrowing his glowing yellow eyes.

"No, we can wait a bit longer," Shigaraki spat, turning his head back around to glare up at the sky. "That guy... he knew me. And he actually knew Sensei."

"That guy?" Kurogiri paused, his mist rippling as he processed the information. "It seems that person knows significantly more than he lets on to the public... I will report this to Master immediately." Before he could dissolve back into a warp gate, Kurogiri stopped. "What about the plan for today’s infiltration?"

Shigaraki smirked, his fingers instinctively scratching at his neck as his malice flared back up. "It’s still on, of course. Him knowing about Sensei doesn’t change a thing about our game."

"Noted," Kurogiri replied smoothly, his dark fog expanding before swallowing him whole as he went to give All For One the alarming news.

A few hours later, the loud, rhythmic alarms started ringing inside the main school building. Panic instantly flooded all the freshman students in the cafeteria, as they had never heard those high-security alarms before.

The media, seeing the reinforced main gate literally crumble into dust, flooded the open driveway and aggressively tried to force their way into the building. A few of the nearby pro hero teachers immediately rushed down to block them.

"You will all be trespassed if you continue trying to get inside! Not only that, but I’ll personally make sure every single one of you gets arrested as well!" Aizawa was yelling at the flashing cameras, his bloodshot eyes full of absolute, murderous annoyance. He had been happily napping in his sleeping bag since lunchtime, and the vultures had to ruin it.

Gray heard the commotion and shouting all the way from his staff room, but he paid it no mind as he leaned back. ’It seems he didn’t chicken out after all...’ He had honestly thought that since he had made first contact on the sidewalk, the League might hesitate to continue with their infiltration plans. But apparently, he was wrong. ’Either they have serious guts, or they are just dumb as hell.’

That chaotic media rush ended up being the only major thing that happened that day. The students continued with their normal afternoon classes, so Gray had nothing to do but relax.

A few days passed by in the blink of an eye. Exactly 18 hours after he bought his last upgrade- meaning at 2:00 PM on the very day the League stole the rescue training itinerary- his system had accumulated enough to buy the next upgrade.

[New Upgrade]

(3M Gold) 100000 Gold Hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

337,387 (198,463) Gold per hour

Gold: 25,709

By 5:00 the next morning, his balance had ticked up rapidly, giving him enough to buy the next consecutive upgrade yet again.

[New Upgrade]

(5M Gold) 200000 Gold/Hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

677,387 (398,463) Gold per hour

Gold: 86,514

Gray continued taking it easy for the next few days; he kept buying the next tiers one after another. At 8:00 PM that same Thursday night, he dropped enough gold to buy the next Upgrade.

[New Upgrade]

(10M Gold) 400000 Gold/Hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

1,357,387 (798,463) Gold per hour

Gold: 247,319

Gray smiled under his hood; his system was finally back to making millions of gold every single hour. He had used much of his downtime to play games with Eri while also checking on the other classes. During the week, All Might also asked him to evaluate Class 1-B during their battle trials. Gray instantly noticed that their quirks and strength were noticeably weaker than Class 1-A’s, but there were still a few highly talented standouts in the crowd. He couldn’t wait to eventually bring them all into his Training Dimension to break them.

Also, while he was working at the facility, he had asked Nezu if he could see the freshman classes’ future lesson plans. Nezu happily obliged, handing over the upcoming week’s schedule for Class 1-A. Scanning the papers, Gray saw that the official USJ Rescue Class was scheduled for next week on Wednesday. This meant he could take the kids into at least one highly intense training session before they were forced to fight real villains out in the open.

By 6:00 PM on Friday, Gray had saved up enough gold to buy the next upgrade. He noticed that he had to wait longer and longer for each tier to clear, so he decided it was the perfect time to start buying a few high-value multipliers right after.

[New Upgrade]

(30M Gold) 800000 Gold/hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

2,717,387 (1,598,463) Gold per hour

Gold: 109,833

Gray decided to watch a few animated movies on his laptop with Eri while he waited for enough gold to accumulate to buy the next two multipliers. The moment the credits rolled on the second movie, Gray opened the system interface once more and bought both multipliers in succession.

[New Upgrades]

(1.5M Gold) +0.05x ✔

(5M Gold) +0.05x ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

2,877,233 (1,598,463)

Gold: 1,761,994

Exactly 17 hours after buying those multipliers, his system had once again broken past the threshold to buy the next massive upgrade.

[New Upgrade]

(50M Gold) 1’600,000 Gold/Hour ✔

[New Hourly Rate]

5,757,233 (3,198,463)

Gold: 674,955

It was now Saturday at 2:00 PM in the afternoon, and the UA students only had a half-day of standard classes today. Knowing his system still had exactly 5 hours of passive gold income to raise enough funds to buy whatever teacher or high-tier enemy he needed inside the dimension, Gray walked down to the entrance. He waited patiently at the front gates of the school, ready to tell all the exiting students to come back to campus tonight. At exactly 7:00 PM, he would officially open the training dimension portal, and anyone who arrived late would miss out.

Now that he had spent a few more days with Eri, Gray already started seeing her as his own daughter. He spoiled her too much, but deep down, a heavy weight sat in his chest. He didn’t know whether, once he bought the next Rebirth option, he would actually have the choice to take her with him to the next universe. Even worse, what if he landed on an extremely dangerous world next and he failed to protect her there?

Gray shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He had already planned for this. When he was in The Walking Dead universe and prepared for his first Rebirth, he chose his Home Garden for its ability to travel between his plots of land. He hadn’t actually tried to test the mechanics of that specific spatial crossover yet, but with five hours left to kill, he had plenty of time anyway. It was better to check out the mechanics right now than to wait until a crisis forced his hand.

Gray closed his eyes and focused heavily on his Home Garden mechanics. He could feel every single plot of land he had scattered around. He had a few dozen currently active inside UA and a few more over in the mountains where he had first landed. After a few more minutes of getting a feel for the spatial layout, he finally located them: hundreds upon hundreds of dimensional plots he had left back in The Walking Dead world.

He had left the survivors there with enough farming plots to last them a lifetime. Having turned on the automatic farming function before his departure, the people in charge of the food simply had to harvest the yields, and the plots would automatically start the growth cycle over again. Feeling a bit nervous, he wondered if they were doing fine; it had been a few weeks since he left.

Locking onto a specific plot of land located inside his hidden underground space in the Atlanta Base, Gray made his choice. He left Eri under Aizawa’s personal supervision while he checked if the cross-world travel actually worked. Once he secured her safety, Gray vanished from the world in an instant.