Chapter 226: Cosmic Overlord Arc
By the time the Hero Association's forces finally arrived at the Ghost Town of City Z, the battle was already over.
What greeted them was destruction on a scale none of them had expected.
Nearly half of the Ghost Town had collapsed into a vast sinkhole. The crater stretched farther than the eye could comfortably follow, its depths swallowed by darkness.
No one could even tell how far down it went.
The heroes standing around the perimeter could only stare.
Eventually, S Class Rank 2 Terrible Tornado descended alone to investigate.
She disappeared beneath the ruined surface and flew through the shattered remains of the Monster Association headquarters.
What she found below was a graveyard.
Monster corpses were scattered everywhere.
Some had been cut apart.
Some had been crushed.
Others had been reduced to fragments so thoroughly that identifying them was nearly impossible.
There had clearly been an enormous battle here.
And judging from the remains, the Monster Association had lost.
When Tornado returned to the surface, her expression was unpleasant.
"They are dead."
Her tone made it sound as though the matter had been obvious from the beginning.
"Pretty much every Monster down there has already been killed."
At the outer barricade surrounding the Ghost Town, the Hero Association official overseeing the operation froze when he received the report.
He was a middle aged man with a mechanical prosthetic eye.
"All of them?"
He looked toward the enormous crater.
"Someone killed the entire Monster Association before we arrived?"
The Hero Association had been aware of the disturbances the previous night.
They had simply refused to move before their deployment was complete.
Yet while they had been preparing their forces, someone else had apparently entered the Monster Association headquarters and destroyed it first.
Who could possibly have done that?
One name immediately entered his mind.
S Class Hero Black Flash.
Speed o' Sound Sonic.
While the official was still thinking, three figures approached from the other side of the barricade.
One adult.
One child.
And one very suspicious looking black creature.
The official recognised two of them immediately.
The first was B Class Hero Caped Baldy, Saitama.
The second was the child the entire rescue operation had originally been organised around, the son of one of the Hero Association's major investors.
The third...
Was that a Monster?
The official did not have time to dwell on it.
He immediately ordered several nearby heroes to take custody of the child.
Then he approached Saitama carefully.
"You are B Class Hero Caped Baldy, correct?"
Saitama nodded.
"Yeah."
The official glanced toward the crater.
"Were you responsible for eliminating the Monsters beneath the Ghost Town?"
Then his mechanical eye shifted toward Black Sperm.
"And what exactly is that creature beside you?"
Saitama answered both questions without hesitation.
"The Monsters?"
He scratched his head.
"I only killed a few."
"Sonic killed most of them."
Then he pointed toward Black Sperm.
"As for this guy, he is a monkey I am keeping."
Black Sperm immediately understood.
"Ji ji."
The Hero Association official stared at him.
Black Sperm chirped again.
"Ji ji."
The official's eyebrow twitched.
Did they seriously think he was stupid?
Still, this was hardly the most urgent problem at the moment.
After obtaining the necessary information, he issued new orders through his communicator.
He then personally accompanied the rescued boy back toward Hero Association headquarters.
That left Saitama and Black Sperm standing alone near the barricade.
Saitama checked the time.
"Today is Saturday."
He thought for a moment.
"If we leave now, we can probably still make it to the supermarket sale."
He looked down at Black Sperm.
"How about hotpot tonight?"
Black Sperm immediately nodded.
Elsewhere, an emergency meeting had already begun inside Hero Association headquarters.
The organization's senior executives gathered around a long conference table.
One of the female executives opened the discussion.
"The Monster Association incident caused enormous damage and posed a direct threat to the Hero Association's credibility."
She glanced through the reports before her.
"Fortunately, Black Flash Sonic acted before the situation deteriorated any further."
"Without his intervention, the consequences could have been catastrophic."
A middle aged executive beside her immediately spoke.
"I recommend raising Sonic to S Class Rank 2."
"Agreed."
"I support the proposal."
"Seconded."
The decision passed quickly.
The discussion then moved to another name.
"Next is Caped Baldy, Saitama."
One executive leaned back in his chair.
"He entered the Monster Association headquarters as well."
"However, no reliable witness saw him defeat any major Monster."
"Additionally, he has already been accused of fraudulent achievements multiple times."
Another executive frowned.
"There is also the matter of the Monster currently following him."
"The so called monkey."
After a brief discussion, one of them gave the simplest solution.
"Promote Saitama to A Class."
"As for the creature, its visible threat level appears extremely low. It may not even qualify as Wolf level."
"As long as it does not cause trouble in public, there is no reason to make an issue of it."
The others agreed.
"Then it is settled."
"We will announce the results at the press conference."
The Hero Association acted quickly.
Later that day, the official report was released.
Sonic's ranking rose dramatically.
Saitama was promoted into A Class.
And, unsurprisingly, Saitama once again became the target of public outrage.
Complaints flooded the internet.
Letters were mailed directly to his home.
When Saitama opened them, the messages inside were hardly subtle.
[Go die, you fraud!]
[You are nothing but a cheater. How can someone like you call himself a hero?]
[What right do you have to be promoted? Quit the Hero Association!]
[Stop stealing credit from real heroes!]
Saitama read through several of them.
Then he tossed the letters aside with a laugh.
He did not seem particularly bothered.
Sonic, who happened to be in the apartment at the time, reacted very differently.
His expression darkened with every letter.
Why?
What right did these pathetic weaklings have to insult Saitama?
Sonic clenched his fist.
That idiot belonged to him.
If anyone was going to mock Saitama, it should be Sonic.
Not these worthless strangers.
He immediately pulled out his phone and began attacking the critics online.
Hero image?
Public opinion?
Reputation?
Sonic did not care about any of it.
Anyone who insulted Saitama received a response.
And none of those responses were polite.
Time passed.
One month went by.
The cities gradually returned to normal.
People resumed their ordinary lives.
The terror caused by the Monster Association faded into memory.
Then the Hero Association called another emergency meeting.
City A.
Hero Association Headquarters.
This time, nearly every available S Class Hero had been summoned.
Even Saitama was invited as a special exception.
The meeting took place inside a sealed conference room on the highest floor of the headquarters.
The S Class Heroes sat along both sides of a long table.
Saitama, for some reason, had ended up sitting at the head.
After a short wait, the doors opened.
Three senior Hero Association officials entered.
The oldest man among them stepped forward.
"Apologies for keeping everyone waiting."
He adjusted the papers in his hands.
"We still have no idea where Metal Knight or Blast are, and we have been unable to contact either of them."
"We cannot delay this meeting any longer."
He faced the room.
"My name is Sitch. I am the Hero Association official responsible for today's briefing."
His expression became grave.
"I will go directly to the point."
"Everyone in this room stands at the highest level of the hero world."
"We did not summon you for routine Monster suppression."
He paused.
"We are asking you to protect the Earth."
The room fell quiet.
Sitch continued.
"The threat involved is serious enough that even S Class Heroes may die."
"If anyone wishes to withdraw, you may do so now. Your rank and position within the Hero Association will not be affected."
No one moved.
The warning did little to shake the people sitting around the table.
Instead, Tornado's eyes drifted toward Saitama.
Her expression immediately soured.
"Wait."
She pointed at him.
"This is supposed to be an S Class meeting, right?"
Her gaze swept over Saitama with open disdain.
"Why is an A Class weakling sitting here?"
Genos stood at once.
His expression turned hostile.
"Watch your attitude, Terrible Tornado."
Sonic, seated nearby, gave her an equally unfriendly look.
"Saitama's strength is beyond the understanding of a frog trapped at the bottom of a well."
Tornado's forehead twitched.
"What did you say?"
Psychic pressure began gathering around her.
"You two want to defend him?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"Do you want to fight me?"
The meeting had barely begun, and the atmosphere was already on the verge of exploding.
Sitch raised his voice.
"That is enough!"
Everyone looked toward him.
"What I am about to tell you is far more important."
The room gradually settled.
Sitch took a breath.
"The Great Seer, Madame Shibabawa, is dead."
Zombieman immediately looked toward him.
"Was she murdered?"
"No."
Sitch shook his head.
"She was attempting to predict what would happen within the next six months."
"Whatever she saw apparently shocked her so badly that she began coughing."
His expression became awkward.
"She choked on a throat lozenge and died."
Silence.
Sitch cleared his throat.
"But that is not the important part."
"The important part is the final prophecy she left behind."
His expression became serious again.
"As all of you know, Madame Shibabawa's predictions have never been wrong."
"Every prophecy she made came true."
"And before her death, she left one final message."
Sitch reached into his coat.
He removed a crumpled piece of paper and placed it on the table.
The note was scanned.
A virtual display appeared above the centre of the conference table, enlarging the message so that everyone could read it.
Only a few words were written upon it.
....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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