Chapter 412: Return
"Before discussing Saitama, Dr. Bofoi, could you tell me what your purpose is for hiding in the dark and even surveilling top heroes like Blast and Tornado?"
"Or rather, what is the threat you have been guarding against?"
Metal Knight, ranked 6th in S-Class, was a rather mysterious hero in the original work. He rarely took action. The only known things were his extremely strong technical capabilities, constantly developing various new types of robots, and having absorbed the legacy of the Dark Matter Thieves.
Moreover, he showed strong wariness towards the vast majority of heroes, claiming to be guarding against threats in the dark.
The slender humanoid robot paused its movements. It had finished uploading the body data of the [Nameless Hero · Mercenary Tao].
"Are you guarding against... us, Doctor?"
Kaito Shirogane asked jokingly, but Dr. Bofoi gave an affirmative answer.
"Of course. You ability users appearing mysteriously are naturally part of my wariness now, but before that..."
"Mr. Mercenary Tao, what do you think is the threat to humanity?"
Dr. Bofoi answered with a question. He acknowledged the wisdom displayed by Kaito and seemed to want to start a discussion at this moment.
"Is it robots that might go berserk and cause massive casualties, or artificial intelligence technology that might develop self-awareness?"
"Is it the ethereal gods in legends, or the constantly emerging monsters and yokai?"
"Or is it... those Heroes who can easily destroy a city with a gesture?!"
The mechanical voice of the robot had no intonation, but Kaito could clearly feel the intense uneasiness and wariness of the opponent.
Thinking slightly, Kaito understood the opponent's thinking logic. That was probably a thought of [Absolute Anthropocentrism], or rather, Dr. Bofoi placed the group [Humanity] above any individual.
He guarded against anything that might cause disaster to the group [Humanity].
"For weak humans, those are all threats."
Kaito spoke calmly.
[Your behavior gained appreciation from Metal Knight. Your reputation with him increased significantly. Current: Friendly (60/100)]
Metal Knight greatly appreciated the wisdom and thinking possessed by this suddenly appearing "hero."
"Correct, they are all threats. So I guard against everyone. For justice and humanity, I must be ready at all times to deal with those threatening powers!"
Kaito withdrew his gaze. In every superhero story, characters like Dr. Bofoi seemed to always appear.
Only an individual with powerful strength could do what others couldn't in times of crisis, turn the tide, and become a hero.
But at the same time, when an individual possessed that hero-level power, he would be feared by the group.
This could probably be called the [Hero Paradox] to some extent.
Batman's uneasiness towards Superman in the DC world was like this; the wariness of the high-level officials towards the Avengers in the Marvel Universe was the same.
Kaito lowered his eyelids. His black long hair moved without wind. Turning around, his fingers gently rubbed the metal desktop and instrument surfaces. The piercing scraping sound was enough to make ordinary people feel intense discomfort.
Because the weak had no sense of security, they had to guard against or even suppress the power of the strong. This behavioral logic made Kaito feel absurd and ridiculous.
He thought of Mob who voluntarily died at his hands again. Even at this time, it still made him feel unhappy.
"Saitama's power far exceeds Tornado and Blast. That is an enemy you absolutely cannot defeat on the power level."
"No, it should be said, if you treat him as an enemy, you can absolutely never win, Dr. Bofoi."
Kaito skipped the previous topic, bringing Metal Knight's attention back to Saitama.
"In other words, even in the eyes of you mysterious outsiders, that Saitama's power belongs to the type difficult to resist..."
Dr. Bofoi extracted the information he wanted from Kaito's words on his own.
Seeing the opponent didn't understand his intention, Kaito didn't delve deeper. Regarding the current Saitama, Kaito didn't have a very good solution.
Even using the hands of plot characters could at most intervene in Saitama's actions at the level of plot characters. Once Reincarnators appeared on a large scale and started activities again, Saitama would likely start attacking again.
"Doctor, since you have surveillance everywhere, I think it's not difficult for you to help me find some of my lovely kin now, right..."
"Just treat it as helping Mr. Saitama clean up these pests of the world faster, heh..."
Metal Knight was silent for a moment, seeming to analyze Mercenary Tao's behavioral pattern and character background. Kaito's meaning was straightforward: he wanted to use Metal Knight's intelligence channels to hunt other ability users from the same place as him.
[Red Dust], trembling all over, remained motionless until Saitama walked past him. Only then did he gasp heavily like collapsing from exhaustion.
"Damn it, did His Majesty's plan fail? How did Saitama become so terrifying..."
He felt blessed by the Goddess of Luck. previously, because he heard that woman's cry for help, he instinctively attacked those two Reincarnators and left an impression in front of Saitama.
At this moment, Saitama actually didn't kill him.
[Return]!
Red Dust dared not stay. After Saitama left, he immediately abandoned the current mission and chose to return. The elite squad [Chaos Sage] had almost completely perished in this world. Now, there was a high probability that His Majesty also met with misfortune.
He couldn't wait to return to the Space to obtain detailed intelligence. He could sense a huge wave had been generated.
The tragic result of this large-scale deployment probably couldn't be accepted by most gatherings and teams. The Eastern District Reincarnator forces would usher in a violent shock.
The only thing he wasn't clear about was whether that madman codenamed [Mercenary Tao] survived.
Red Dust's figure then turned into a white information stream and disappeared from the world.
Almost at the same time, most Reincarnators in this world with certain information gathering and intelligence processing capabilities more or less knew that Saitama was hunting Reincarnators.
Alert people immediately chose to abandon all missions, give up gains according to Space Safety Regulations, and leave the world. A small number of greedy people harbored luck, thinking Saitama might not find them if they hid in the city.
But as more and more Reincarnators were killed, Reincarnators in this world were in a state of panic.
Somewhere in K-City, [Treant] frowned, hesitating. He possessed a special ability named [Treant] from the Amber Sword world, able to add alien bloodlines with divine power into other people's bodies, thereby transforming the other party into a special life form named [Divine Messenger].
Because of the power of bloodline items and the strength of the modified body itself, the modified [Divine Messenger] would have combat power from [Strong] to [Fierce].
In a sense, he was actually a modification-type, summoning-type Reincarnator.
Moreover, the bloodlines with divine power he needed were not as rare as bloodline items used by ordinary Reincarnators. He possessed the possibility of mass-producing Divine Messengers.
In this world, there existed a body he coveted very much. He just got some clues now, but unfortunately, Saitama's hunting made him feel extremely uneasy, daring not stay.
Creak, creak, creak.
Heavy machinery stepped on the ground. The unique footsteps of hydraulic instruments made Treant turn his head. He saw a pitch-black robot appearing at the corner.
Three pitch-black cannon muzzles were already aiming at him.
But what Treant cared about wasn't this robot, but a man with long black hair holding two Scarlet Drop Cards in his hand.
At this time, he finally knew that his Divine Messengers who suddenly lost contact weren't killed by Saitama, but were hunted by Mercenary Tao.
"Mercenary Tao?"
"You're not dead?!"
Kaito put away the Drop Cards. He wasn't in good condition. Treant was quite strong. Without Metal Knight's full support, it would be difficult for him to kill the opponent without attracting attention.
"Heh, naturally I'm not dead. But your Majesty, his end was somewhat miserable."
Treant's emerald green blood in his vessels emitted a faint light. He was judging the truth of Mercenary Tao's words. His Majesty indeed lost contact, and that abnormal change in Saitama was very likely caused by His Majesty.
Kaito didn't waste words, directly letting Metal Knight project a video.
In the video, the scene of Saitama dragging a huge arm leaving the desert made Treant's pupils shrink suddenly. That was... the true body of the Mantra God Race after liberating their posture!
Then the video changed. The sky full of Sea of Bitterness appeared above the city. Seven or eight Reincarnators used various means trying to escape from the Sea of Bitterness, but were then beaten into blood water filling the sky by a domineering punch.
The scene of [Tang Sanzang]'s Golden Body shattering and being slapped to death completely silenced Treant.
He didn't expect that not only His Majesty [Fate Eternal], but even a strong hand like Tang Sanzang had been blasted to death by Saitama.
But what he couldn't understand even more was how Mercenary Tao survived when such top-tier Reincarnators were killed. Did Saitama show mercy to him?
With a flash of light in Kaito's hand, a huge head appeared. It was a head composed of constantly flashing and swaying pitch-black phantoms. Just being taken out, it began to extend towards the surroundings constantly, as if trying to invade the real world.
[Material · Head of Spirit World Evil Lord]
"I hope after you return to the Space, you do this..."
Seeing that huge phantom head, Treant recognized at a glance that it was the posture revealed by the Spirit World Evil Lord transformed from Mob.
Such an existence actually became a material in Mercenary Tao's hand?!
Treant immediately overturned all previous strength estimates for Mercenary Tao in his heart. This couldn't be a rookie at all.
The opponent was absolutely a veteran Reincarnator using a new [Avatar]!
Only in this way could everything now be explained.
Listening to the opponent's words, Treant was shaken in his heart. But looking at Mercenary Tao and associating with the changes that would appear in the Space after His Majesty's death, he finally nodded.
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