Allen felt that Saitama's bald head had a peculiar texture, incredibly smooth, like a polished metal ball.
As Allen moved his hand on Saitama's bald head, Saitama's face showed some awkwardness.
"Uh... Allen-kun, you seem to have been touching it for a bit too long..."
"Just a little more, please, Saitama-kun." Allen nervously stared at the countdown on the system panel.
[6... 5... 4...]
Saitama's brows furrowed slightly. He didn't mind being patted on the head, but Allen's method of touching was simply too strange, a bit like he was 'playing' with him.
"Almost done!"
[3... 2... 1...]
[Evolution conditions met. Do you wish to evolve the ability, Combat Intuition?]
"Done!" Allen quickly withdrew his hand and sat back in his original position as if nothing had happened.
"Saitama-kun's head is indeed very smooth, thank you."
To be safe, Allen didn't choose to merge immediately but honestly took his hand off Saitama's bald head.
Saitama gave him a strange look but was quickly drawn back to the sizzling barbecue.
While Allen was touching his head, the sensation made him unable to eat the barbecue in peace. Now that Allen had taken his hand away, he could finally enjoy the delicious barbecue.
"Allen-kun is a bit strange today, but this barbecue is really delicious."
Allen suppressed his inner excitement and nodded, the barbecue in his mouth seemingly losing its flavor.
A moment later, the barbecue on the table was cleared by the two, and Saitama bid farewell to Allen, preparing to go home.
"Allen-kun, see you next time." Saitama stood at the door, waving to Allen. Although their homes were only a few steps apart, and they saw each other constantly.
But this kind of farewell was one of Saitama's little tricks to maintain his love for life.
"See you tomorrow." Allen smiled and waved to Saitama. As soon as Saitama returned home, he eagerly closed his door.
Allen returned to his bedroom, sat on the bed, opened the system panel, and clicked the confirm button.
The evolution process was not painful. Allen only felt a slight itchiness all over his body, with occasional twitches.
[Combat Intuition is evolving, current progress 10% (Cannot proceed with next evolution until the host has completely finished the current evolution)]
What Allen didn't expect was that evolution wasn't like the intense, short-lived pain in novels followed by completion, but rather required a certain amount of time for self-transformation.
He guessed that certain corresponding training might accelerate the merging process until he could reach Saitama's level.
After adapting to his own changes, Allen focused his attention on the travel points on the system panel.
He mentally clicked on the travel points, and a small pop-up window appeared before his eyes.
[Do you wish to spend 100 travel points to travel to a One-Star World?]
Allen clicked no, then clicked on a Two-Star World, and another small window popped up.
[Do you wish to spend 1000 travel points to travel to a Two-Star World?]
"Is the difference between a One-Star World and a Two-Star World really ten times?"
Allen looked at the panel. Worlds were divided into one to six stars. Each star level required ten times more travel points than the previous, with a Six-Star World even needing 10 million travel points to travel.
After some research, Allen found that travel points currently only had the function of traveling to other worlds. However, with his current strength, he estimated it would be difficult to influence the course of events.
Especially since Allen knew that the people in this One-Punch Man world were ridiculously strong, he decided that before gaining certain strength, he would never actively participate in events.
One must know that this was a world where city-destroying Monster could appear at any time, where one could easily be killed by collateral damage just walking on the street... In the following period, Allen's days were quite uneventful. Although the people of Z-City had all fled some time ago.
But he still decided to stay here, after all, there was no place in this world safer than Saitama's home.
"Allen-kun, your reactions are getting faster and faster." Saitama stood in an open space, looking at Allen opposite him with some surprise.
This was a training they had been doing frequently lately: a dodgeball game.
Initially, Allen couldn't even catch a ball Saitama casually threw, but now he could easily dodge the balls Saitama threw, even though Saitama wasn't even using his full strength.
Allen wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling the continuously evolving ability within him.
During this time, he trained with Saitama every day, from simple running to sparring practice.
Although he was badly beaten every time, the evolution progress was steadily increasing.
"One more time!" Allen got into position, concentrating intently on the ball in Saitama's hand.
Saitama nodded, gently tossed the small red ball in his hand. The ball flew at high speed through the air, turning into a red line shooting towards Allen.
In Allen's perception, he could clearly sense the ball's trajectory, an indescribable feeling.
It was as if time had slowed down. Allen's body automatically reacted, dodging sideways just as the ball was about to hit him.
"Pow! Swish--!"
The small red ball brushed past Allen's clothes, crashed onto the grass, spinning rapidly and creating a little white smoke from friction.
"Oh!" Saitama's eyes widened in surprise.
"Allen-kun, you've really become much stronger. Much more impressive than when I first started training."
Allen panted, revealing a tired but satisfied smile.
He could feel that his neural reaction speed far exceeded that of ordinary people, and his body was gradually adapting to this high-speed reaction.
"Thanks to Saitama-kun's sparring, I've improved so quickly."
After a month of training, the evolution progress on the panel had reached 98%. At this rate, Combat Intuition might be fully evolved today.
Allen took a deep breath, feeling the strange energy surging within him.
He could clearly sense that his neural reaction speed had reached a critical point, as if he could break through some barrier at any moment.
"Saitama-kun, one last time!" Allen leaned forward slightly, lowering his center of gravity, his eyes gleaming with determination.
Saitama scratched his bald head and said with some concern, "Allen-kun, you've been training for a long time today. Don't you want to rest?"
"No, I feel like I'm about to break through. Please, Saitama-kun." Allen's eyes were exceptionally bright.
Saitama tilted his head. Although he didn't quite understand what Allen meant by 'breakthrough', he still nodded.
"Alright, then this time I'll be a little more serious. Allen-kun, be careful."