Z City, vegetable wholesale market.
Piles of cabbages and radishes were scattered everywhere.
"You damned humans! To use our kind as food! Unforgivable!"
Accompanied by a deafening roar, a monster nearly three meters tall was rampaging in the middle of the street.
Its entire body was a strange bluish-white, with a massive radish head atop a muscular, gnarled torso, and two crimson eyes gleaming menacingly beneath hair like radish greens.
This was the Demon-Level monster—Muscle Radish.
"Boom!"
Muscle Radish punched through a concrete wall, sending debris flying.
Several shop workers, hiding behind shelves, trembled in fear, and one young female clerk, overwhelmed by terror, couldn't help but sob aloud.
"Shush! Don't make a sound!" The middle-aged man beside her quickly covered her mouth, but it was too late.
"Ha! Look what I found?" Muscle Radish turned with a sinister grin towards the shelves, "A few skinny monkeys hiding!"
It took heavy steps, thudding closer, "Today, I'll make you taste what it's like to be eaten too! Gah gah gah!"
Muscle Radish extended its thick arm, easily overturning a metal shelf weighing several hundred kilograms.
It leaned down and precisely grabbed the crying female clerk, lifting her entirely off the ground.
The female clerk struggled and shrieked in despair, her feet kicking futilely in the air.
"Let's start with you, little snack."
It opened its large mouth, filled with serrated leaf veins, and a foul stench wafted out.
Just at this critical moment—
"Whoosh—Boom!!!"
A blazing golden meteor tore through the smoke, carrying a scorching gale as it descended from the sky!
A shallow crater was formed in the ground, sending shattered rock flying.
From the dust, a mechanical figure stood proudly.
It was Genos, who had arrived after receiving the distress signal.
His golden electronic eyes locked onto the target; there was no hesitation, no wasted words.
Machine Gun Blow · Rapid Fire Mode!
"Bang bang bang bang bang—!!!"
Genos's arms instantly transformed into two blurry afterimages, a dense barrage of metallic heavy blows, striking Muscle Radish's massive body with incredible precision.
Each punch produced a dull sound of vegetable fibers tearing.
Muscle Radish didn't even have time to scream, only a grating "crunch" sound was heard.
Its proud, tough body, like rotten wood struck by a heavy hammer, instantly became covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and greenish-blue sap spurted out from the fissures!
In just three seconds, the storm-like assault ceased.
"No, impossible… I'm a Demon-Level… monster… How could I be defeated so casually?!!!"
Muscle Radish maintained a look of astonishment, its massive body swayed, then it crashed backward with a "rumble," completely losing all signs of life.
Genos retracted his fists, his gaze sweeping over the relatively "intact" corpse on the ground, and he nodded in satisfaction.
"...Radish. Besides cabbage, Saitama likes stewed radish the most. If I bring it back, he should be happy."
Thinking of the smile Saitama might show, the temperature of Genos's core processor seemed to rise by a few tenths of a degree.
"We're… we're saved!"
"It's an S-Class Hero! The Demon Cyborg!"
"Thank goodness! Thank you! Lord Genos!"
The surviving clerks cried tears of joy, rushing out from their hiding places, excitedly gathering around, expressing their gratitude in a flurry of voices.
Genos, however, furrowed his brow slightly.
He disliked such pointless socializing and time-wasting gratitude.
He raised his hand, signaling for silence, his voice as cold and hard as ever: "Leave immediately! Monster disasters have erupted in multiple locations in Z City; it is extremely dangerous! This is not a safe zone!"
The clerks, as if waking from a dream, quickly helped each other up and stumbled away into the distance.
Just as the crowd dispersed and Genos was about to handle the spoils of battle, his sensors suddenly detected an unusual movement.
"Who?!"
Genos whirled around, the armor on his right palm sliding open to reveal a dark cannon muzzle, aimed at a dark corner outside the shop.
"Come out! Otherwise, you will be considered a hostile target and eliminated!"
"No! Don't shoot! I surrender! I surrender!" A tearful voice cried out.
From the shadows emerged a scrawny "little monster," less than one and a half meters tall, trembling.
Its arms were raised high, its entire body as slender as a bean sprout.
"I… I'm just a lost, poor bean sprout… I accidentally ran here… Please let me go, Hero!"
The skinny bean sprout pleaded pitifully, its tiny eyes brimming with "fearful" tears.
Genos's cold electronic eyes scrutinized it.
A Wolf-Level small fry, completely harmless.
But eradicating evil was a belief he upheld; even such a small fry, if left unchecked, could cause civilian casualties.
The cannon muzzle on his right arm lowered slightly, the energy of the palm cannon not entirely extinguished, preparing for a clean and decisive "purification."
"Sorry, monsters must…"
However, just as Genos opened his mouth to deliver the judgment, an unexpected change occurred!
The skinny bean sprout, which had been trembling and pitiful just a second ago, instantly lost all fear on its face, replaced by an expression of extreme twisted triumph and cruelty!
Its raised hands suddenly swung forward!
"Extreme Cold Storm · Absolute Zero!!!"
A terrifying cold current, far beyond imagination, erupted without warning!
The air instantly condensed into white frost, the ground was covered with a thick layer of ice, and it spread rapidly at a visible speed!
Genos felt his core processor emit a piercing overload alarm, and the lubricant in all his joints froze within one ten-thousandth of a second!
He didn't even have time to react; from his fingertips to his shoulders, then to his core torso, he was covered by an impenetrable layer of profound ice.
"Hahahahahahaha—!!!"
The skinny bean sprout, abandoning its previous cowardice, burst into arrogant laughter.
Its hunched body straightened, and a powerful, cold, evil Dragon-level pressure was released without reservation.
"Foolish! So foolish! S-Class Heroes are nothing more than this! Hahahaha! Another idiot who took the bait!"
It strutted triumphantly around the immobilized Genos ice sculpture, its tone full of mockery and boasting:
"How many is it? You're the third S-Class Hero to fall for this trick of mine! Oh, no, the previous two were unlucky A-Class ones.
But it doesn't matter, soon you'll be like them, a glorious entry in my battle record! Playing the pig to eat the tiger? This trick never fails!
You heroes are always so naive, so… full of ridiculous sympathy! Hahaha!"
The biting cold didn't just affect the outer shell.
Inside the ice layer, Genos's mechanical body was experiencing an unprecedented crisis.
Can't… move! Not even a single component can be mobilized!
This ice… it even froze energy flow?!
...Damn it! I was too careless! ...Core temperature plummeted... Energy reactor on the verge of shutting down... Unable to activate any weapon systems... Self-diagnosis program... Failed... Saitama... I...
At this moment, Genos felt immense regret for his carelessness.
Saitama… I'm sorry… Your disciple is incompetent… I failed your expectations… I can no longer follow you… At least… at the end… I'll drag it down with me…
Just as Genos, filled with grief and indignation, was about to activate his self-destruct sequence to take this insidious and cunning Dragon-level monster down with him.
"Rumble—!!!"
A shiny, bald head burst through the shop's floor tiles and emerged.