Chapter 27: Are You Kidding Me?!
Saitama pointed to the massive hole in the ground.
"Oh, well. That monster had accomplices. I'm going to chase them now. Bye!"
Without hesitation, Saitama began to dig. In a blur of motion, he carved out a tunnel and vanished into the earth.
The Onlooking Crowd: "..."
Bro, that exit strategy is definitely unique.
Meanwhile, Underground.
Deep within the thick layers of soil, a mole-like creature was frantically clawing at the earth, digging a tunnel to escape.
Ground Dragon's eyes were bloodshot, filled with endless terror and anxiety. He was scared out of his wits.
Are you kidding me?! That was Beast King! The strongest creation we have besides "that monster"! And he was killed in one punch!
The Doctor actually wants us to capture a monster like that alive? Are you insane, you bastard?!
Thank goodness I have the ability to burrow underground. Armored Gorilla can only run on the surface, so he can draw the aggro while I make my escape.
Just as Ground Dragon was congratulating himself, the soil in front of him suddenly collapsed.
Immediately after, a smooth, shiny head popped into his tunnel.
"Found you! I knew you were in this direction."
Ground Dragon: "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
CRASH!
The surface of the street exploded upwards. Ground Dragon, who had fainted from sheer terror, flew out of the broken pavement. Saitama crawled out right after him.
He grabbed the unconscious Ground Dragon by the scruff of his neck. Saitama chose not to kill him outright. Instead, he broke into a sprint, charging in the direction Armored Gorilla had fled.
To Saitama, these guys were just little animals. If the lion hadn't provoked him first and mocked his baldness, he wouldn't have blown him up.
Armored Gorilla kept looking back every three steps. Seeing no movement behind him, he finally relaxed a little.
Looks like that human didn't chase me. That's a stroke of luck in a disaster. He must have gone after Ground Dragon.
No, I have to transmit this intel back to the House of Evolution immediately! The Doctor needs to know how terrifying the target is so he can prepare defenses!
"I'm never taking another live capture mission again. I need to get back to base."
The top of Armored Gorilla's skull slowly opened, and a data antenna extended from his brain, transmitting everything he had seen and heard back to the House of Evolution.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something shiny.
A glowing bald head.
Almost instinctively, bypassing any conscious thought process, Armored Gorilla dropped to his knees. His face filled with terror as he began kowtowing frantically.
"Don't kill me! I'm just a normal gorilla! I've only been modified a tiny bit! Please don't kill me!"
To express his sincerity, Armored Gorilla even jettisoned his battle armor, leaving him looking like a regular gorilla that could speak human language.
Saitama looked at the zoo animal kowtowing to him with total submission. It was getting weirder by the second.
"Alright, alright, stop banging your head. Where is this 'House of Evolution' you mentioned? I want to go take a look."
Saitama was genuinely curious. He had been a hero for fun for three years, and no one had ever come looking for him.
Yet, shortly after registering as an S-Class hero, some unknown organization was already calling him out by name. Naturally, he had to go see what was up.
"Oh..."
Armored Gorilla swallowed hard. He looked at Ground Dragon, who was dangling from Saitama's hand like a dead chicken, and his heart leapt into his throat.
Is he really not going to kill me?
To save his own life, Armored Gorilla spilled everything, revealing the exact location of the House of Evolution without holding anything back.
Of course, before giving the address, he made sure to cut the transmission link. He couldn't let the Doctor hear this betrayal.
After getting the specific address, Saitama was about to leave when his phone suddenly rang.
"Eh? It's King."
He picked up. King's voice came through from the other end.
"How's it going, Saitama? Did you sort out the codename issue?"
Mentioning this, Saitama's face instantly turned sour.
"Anyway, the codename isn't fixed yet. But it seems some organization wants me to come over and play. It's like a zoo—they have gorillas and lions. Do you guys want to come along?"
On the other end of the line, King paused. He had a pretty good guess which organization it was.
"Are you talking about the House of Evolution?"
Saitama's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "How did you know? This gorilla just agreed to lead the way. When can you get here?"
"Send me your location. I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Okay."
Two minutes later, a red streak of light tore through the sky and landed directly in front of Saitama.
King patted non-existent dust off his clothes. "The Titan situation is handled. So, those freaks from the House of Evolution came looking for you?"
Saitama pointed at the shivering Armored Gorilla and held up the limp Ground Dragon.
"Yeah, these two. And there was a pretty cool-looking lion, but I think I blew him up with one punch."
Looks like it really is the House of Evolution...
But what puzzled King was when Dr. Genus had set his sights on the Caped Baldy.
Up until now, Saitama had barely made a move in the main storyline, aside from taking the hero exam. How had he attracted attention?
After thinking for two seconds, King gave up.
What's the use of overthinking? The House of Evolution is just a small team of trash mobs. We can just steamroll them.
King sighed internally. I almost used my brain there.
My super-intelligence tells me that right now, I should use super-strength to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, 100 meters underground.
In a dimly lit laboratory.
A young man with glasses, pale skin, and neatly styled bangs was drenched in cold sweat. He stared at the playback on his screen in disbelief.
"How could this be! Beast King was defeated so easily! He was my strongest creation aside from that monster!"
And even Armored Gorilla (Rank 3) and Ground Dragon, who excels at survival, were defeated instantly!
Are you kidding me?!