At the edge of the massive crater, Nick stood gazing at the churned, blackened earth and the twisted metal wreckage that high temperatures had melted into all sorts of grotesque shapes. The hem of his trench coat snapped in the wind with a sharp rustling sound.
He was silent for a long moment before finally speaking. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly into the ears of the two people beside him.
"I need your final assessment report on Saitama Gonzales's abilities."
"Fury, I saw it with my own eyes." Steve's tone held an unquestionable seriousness. "He… his power isn't even on the same scale as anything we understand. He killed that monster with his bare hands—when it had almost evolved to its limit, with defenses that were practically invincible. None of us could truly intervene in the core of their fight. All we could do was create extremely limited interference around the edges."
Natasha added, her voice heavier than ever before, "His speed, strength, physical durability… every single metric completely breaks the upper limits of our existing records. It totally overturns our understanding of physical law. For him, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current threat assessment system… might as well not exist. He's an uncontrollable top-tier entity, Fury. But at the very least… in this incident, he chose to stand on the side of the people."
"Then what about his motives?" Fury was still staring down into the crater, as if he could read an answer out of the scorched earth.
"…Very… simple." Steve thought of Saitama's excuse about the supermarket discounts right before he left, and his expression turned a little strange. "He seems to just want to live an ordinary life. Being a 'professional hero' looks more like a job to him, a way to kill free time. Or maybe… it's just his instinct to casually deal with any threat he happens to run into?"
"The people need him." Fury finally turned around, his one eye blazing as it fixed on his two most trusted subordinates. "The threats this world is facing are getting bigger and less and less human. We need power like his."
He didn't explain exactly what "need" meant, but the implication was obvious. Fury set off at a brisk pace, not lingering any longer, striding toward the street Saitama had just left. Steve and Natasha followed right behind him. Fury's goal was very clear—he was going to invite that bald man personally.
Saitama was sitting on the step of a relatively intact newsstand at the street corner, holding a convenience-store sandwich in his hands. While eating, he was seriously flipping through another supermarket flyer.
His cheap hero costume was covered in dust and grime, and there were still beads of sweat clinging to his bald head—but his expression was focused, as if he had just finished an ordinary bit of physical exercise rather than a battle on the scale of a city-destroying disaster.
"Mr. Gonzales." Fury's voice broke into Saitama's quiet moment alone with the discount items.
Saitama looked up, still chewing his sandwich, staring blankly at the three imposing "men in black" who had suddenly appeared in front of him.
"I'm Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D." Fury got straight to the point, his single eye locked onto Saitama. "What you did in Brooklyn has proven your value—far beyond any of our previous assessments. The power you possess is critical to maintaining this world's security."
Fury's tone was stern, with a faint undercurrent of sincerity that was hard to detect— or perhaps more accurately, the unshakable certainty of someone recruiting a powerhouse.
"On behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., I am formally inviting you to join us. You'll be granted the highest level of operational authority, enjoy the strongest support the government can provide, and… confront the colossal threats that endanger the continued survival of humanity. Your duties will be more direct, more crucial. You'll be standing on the very front line of defending the world."
He deliberately emphasized the word "world," elevating Saitama's power all the way up to a strategic level.
(End of Chapter)
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