"Ah—okay…"
Faced with Jack's invitation, King—as if possessed—agreed. Immediately, he felt a belly full of complaints he just had to spit out, and sweat poured from his forehead.
—The Monster isn't dead yet! Is now the time to be thinking about what to eat for lunch?
—Also… going to S City to buy discounted beef—are you serious?
—From A City to S City, with parts of Y City in between, the straight-line distance is at least several hundred kilometers. If we really go to buy it, will we even make it back in time for lunch?!
At this moment, Vaccine Man—who was suppressed in Jack's hand—couldn't take it anymore.
"I am Vaccine Man—born from humanity's constant pollution of the environment! I was born from the will of the Earth! Humans!! You pathogens parasitic on Earth dare to treat me like this… Ugh, ah—!!!"
As he spoke, Vaccine Man's body continuously expanded, and sharp, ferocious spikes capable of piercing steel plates grew from his joints. But in the next second, Jack punched him in the head, almost biting his tongue off in two. Not only was the villain's dramatic entrance forcibly interrupted, but his increasingly expanding body was also forcefully beaten back by a punch that made his soul tremble.
"Shut up—do you have a right to speak?"
King: …
Saitama watched this scene with a chuckle, as if it were perfectly normal for a Monster that had devastated the city to be held in someone's hand like a small chicken. But King was a bit flustered. After a long time, Jack's style remained the same. However, from his perspective as an ordinary person, he simply couldn't understand it.
"Since everything's fine, I'll head to S City first!"
Though the Monster wasn't dead yet, Saitama was very confident in Jack's strength. After all, he was the first person who could keep up with his normal running speed.
Jack, holding Vaccine Man like a tiny chick, casually asked, "No problem. Where should we meet later?"
"Come to my place—though it's in the outskirts of Z City, the environment is quite peaceful."
The two agreed to meet later. The moment their words fell, King felt a blur before his eyes. A powerful gust of air suddenly exploded beside him, making him unsteady on his feet and almost causing him to fall on his backside.
*BOOM—!!! *
A dull explosion arrived belatedly, as if the sound was chasing the receding figure. King instinctively raised his hand to block the incoming dust. When he opened his eyes again, the bald cape-wearing man had vanished without a trace. Only a straight trail of smoke extending to the horizon was left on the shattered street, as if it had been brutally plowed by an invisible giant plow.
"…"
King's mouth unconsciously formed an "O" shape, and the three hideous scars on his face seemed to relax greatly due to his shock.
What… what speed was that?
A strange sense of familiarity welled up in his heart. King always felt that he had seen this bald man somewhere before—and not just once. But he couldn't recall exactly where at the moment—only a strong sense of déjà vu remained.
"Ugh… argh… Damned humans! You are all viruses—I will eradicate all of you!!"
Just then, a weak yet indignant groan of pain pulled King's thoughts back to reality. Vaccine Man—held aloft by Jack's single hand—was still twisting unwillingly. His purple skin flickered with destructive white light, seemingly accumulating power, preparing to make a desperate last stand.
"So noisy."
Jack looked down at him, frowning with a hint of impatience. The hand holding Vaccine Man casually tightened, and there was a crisp snap sound. Vaccine Man's purplish head, still brewing power, suddenly tilted, then slumped down as if losing all support. Inside Vaccine Man's body, which King couldn't observe, the Dragon-level Monster's powerful flesh was torn, and its bones were completely shattered—maintaining its original form only by the force field permeating it.
—Though it's completely shattered, at least it's a full corpse. This way, when it's revived, its strength shouldn't be much less than before, right?
Jack muttered to himself. Though Vaccine Man's lower limit was quickly reached, his strength was considerable. Based on his ability information, he was an infinitely growing Monster—like Veigar or Nasus in League of Legends. If he were allowed to grow continuously, he might even reach a higher level of power.
Therefore, this guy had long been pre-ordained by Jack as one of his subordinate Monsters—albeit a zombie version after being revived by the 'Light of the New King's Awakening.' This was also why Jack acted before Saitama—once the bald guy threw a punch, a full corpse would be out of the question; he'd be lucky to pick up a few relatively intact tissues.
[Ding! Killed Dragon-level Monster 'Vaccine Man' | Gained Origin Points × 92,150!]
The Origin Points arrival notification meant that what was a terrifying urban disaster one second ago was now a small chick casually crushed to death on the roadside the next.
King watched from the side, his eyelids twitching, his heart uncooperatively accelerating its beat. The King Engine involuntarily began to roar again.
Jack, however, was indifferent. How could a mere Dragon-level Monster be a match for his "frail human body"? He casually tossed Vaccine Man's corpse into the unseen Imagination Domain for storage, intending to revive it when he had time.
After doing all this, he turned his head and gave a harmless smile to the bewildered King.
"Let's go, King—let's also buy some ingredients and drinks. After all, you can't visit someone's house empty-handed."
Jack stared intently at King, as if seeing materialized "Good Luck." After this period of accumulation, the hard-working ox-horse army—no, the clone army—had already completed the transcendence of numerous abilities. This meant that a new round of ability fusion could begin at any time. Even if he hadn't met him in A City, Jack had planned to find time to personally visit him in M City. After all, it was time again for "raising King for a thousand days, using King for a moment."
"Ah… oh—okay."
King felt his scalp tingle from Jack's gaze and nodded subconsciously, then recalled something.
—Wait a minute, Jack—when you moved into my house back then, you didn't seem so polite…?
Inside A City's Largest Chain Supermarket
After the disaster alert was lifted, this was one of the few places that quickly resumed business. Jack pushed a shopping cart, with King walking beside him. Their strange combination attracted many gazes.
One had a model-like height of 1.95 meters, a handsome face comparable to a top star, and a calm demeanor with a hint of playfulness. The other—though slightly shorter—was still over 1.8 meters tall, with a sturdy physique, a golden pompadour, and three scars on his face, exuding a powerful aura that warned others to keep their distance.