[Brain Storage Area]
[The plot will differ slightly from the original story. Please understand. Enough chatter. Let's begin.]
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The air was thick with the smell of blood.
King forced his eyes open.
His vision blurred as fragments of unfamiliar memories collided with the ruined landscape before him.
Before he could even begin to process the philosophical question of Who am I? Where am I?, a chewing sound reached his ears.
Crunch… slurp…
Five meters ahead.
A green mantis monster, nearly three meters tall, stood hunched over. Its forelimbs were enormous, curved like sickles.
Its jaws opened and closed as it gnawed on a severed limb. Beneath it lay the mutilated remains of a human body, half-devoured.
The monster sensed his gaze and slowly turned its head. Its blood-soaked compound eyes locked onto King.
"Oh… you're awake. Don't worry. I'll come save you now."
The creature's voice was hoarse as it tossed aside the arm and began walking toward him.
Terror paralyzed King's limbs. He could not move at all.
Thump. Thump. THUMP.
His heart pounded violently, the sound growing louder and louder.
King's pupils trembled. Cold sweat soaked his back, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
His mind went completely blank.
Just as death closed in, a dormant switch buried deep within his body was violently triggered by the fear of dying.
It was the legendary genetic power possessed by a Super Saiyan.
Fear was the fuel. Rage was the flame.
"Hiss!"
The monster gave King no time to think. It kicked off the ground, cracking the pavement beneath its feet, and lunged forward with its jaws wide open.
The massive sickle arm whistled through the air, aimed straight for King's throat. The serrated edge reflected his pale face.
At the exact moment the deadly blade was about to reach his neck, King's body reacted faster than his thoughts.
His right hand swung out instinctively.
BOOM!
The mantis monster's blade struck the back of King's hand.
In that instant, the Tiger-level monster, the mantis creature, and its deadly sickle experienced a rapid transition from solid to liquid to gas.
Then… it vanished.
King's hand did not stop.
The air pressure generated by that single slap erupted outward with blazing green energy, forming a fan-shaped storm of destruction.
The street, the lamp posts, and even two reinforced concrete buildings behind the monster were flattened.
The shockwave continued for five hundred meters before finally dissipating.
Silence fell over the world.
The once-crowded ruined street had been cleared into a wide and perfectly straight "vacuum avenue."
Dust slowly settled.
King remained frozen in his awkward stance.
His body was stiff. His facial muscles twitched uncontrollably from sheer shock. His eyebrows were raised, his eyes hollow, filled with raw fear.
But to anyone watching, it looked like the face of a ferocious predator.
The kind of expression only a top apex hunter in this hellish world could possess.
A look that showed indifference toward life.
A look of boredom with slaughter.
"Ha… ha…"
King gasped for air, his heart still racing.
"Is it gone? Did the monster leave?"
"That was terrifying… that wind almost blew me away…"
"Where did that monster go? I thought I was dead for sure."
At that moment, footsteps echoed from the far end of the ruins.
King turned his head.
At the end of the vacuum avenue stood a man wearing a worn blue-and-white tracksuit.
In his hand was a supermarket plastic bag filled with eggs and cabbage.
The bag had already fallen to the ground. Eggs were smashed everywhere.
The man looked… almost bald.
His hairline had receded, heavy bags hung under his eyes, and he looked so frail it seemed like he might collapse at any moment.
He stared at the egg yolks mixed with the dirt.
The veins on his forehead twitched.
Slowly, he raised his head. His usually lifeless, fish-like eyes suddenly showed a glimmer of light.
"Hey…"
He pointed at the eggs on the ground, then at the massive destruction carved through the street.
"I don't know who you are, but with destructive power like this… you must be the strongest monster in this area."
He clenched his fist.
"Or maybe… a hero?"
The way he stared made King feel like a tiny rabbit caught in the gaze of a Tyrannosaurus.
Fear surged up again.
Driven by pure survival instinct, King glared back fiercely, veins bulging at the corners of his eyes.
Their gazes met.
The atmosphere grew tense.
Even Saitama felt an unfamiliar pressure.
That scar-faced man standing there. Just standing there, his heartbeat was so loud it seemed to shake the rubble around them.
It sounded like the engine of an unstoppable warrior.
"Perfect. I've been feeling stuck lately. Whoever you are…"
Saitama picked up the plastic bag from the ground and casually tossed it aside. He took a rough fighting stance, flames of excitement burning in his eyes.
"Let's fight!"
"Consider it compensation for my eggs."
Inside, King screamed in despair.
Fight? I don't want to fight! I just want to go home! What do your stupid eggs have to do with me?!
Rumble… rumble… rumble…
Suddenly the ground began to shake violently, as if something enormous were turning deep underground.
The asphalt between them started melting. Crimson lava burst upward, and waves of heat ignited nearby plants.
A Demon-level monster made of lava and obsidian clawed its way out of the earth.
The Lava Behemoth.
Its massive body blocked out the sunlight. Molten rock dripped from its mouth as scorching air surged outward.
"Who… has disturbed… my sleep…"