When Lu Yao walked outside, he discovered that none of the Blizzard Group members had actually left.
They had apparently been pressed against the door listening.
The instant Lu Yao emerged, they hurriedly stood straight.
When their eyes met his, they all gave awkward smiles.
Well.
Not all of them were scheming parasites, at least.
Lu Yao only felt mildly amused.
Whether they were loyal or not wasn’t something he intended to interfere with.
Ignoring the lack of necessity, anyone plotting to harm Fubuki would first need to consider whether they could survive Tatsumaki.
Lu Yao had never actually met Tatsumaki in this world.
But according to his memories, her protectiveness bordered on pathological.
Good thing I don’t possess psychic power.
Otherwise Tatsumaki would probably detect me and drag me home instantly.
Tatsumaki could supposedly sense Fubuki’s location and condition through psychic energy.
The range might even cover the entire supercontinent.
Lu Yao had nothing more to say.
He nodded to the group and left.
Only after his figure disappeared did the black-suited Blizzard Group members relax.
Eyelashes sighed.
“He’s younger than all of us, but that pressure… I couldn’t even think about resisting.”
Everyone nodded.
In truth, Lu Yao was normally harmless.
He rarely became angry and treated others politely.
Most of the “pressure” they felt was psychological.
Personality.
Ability.
Status.
Whenever someone occupied a stronger position, they naturally exerted psychological pressure on those below.
Lu Yao was Fubuki’s younger brother.
In the minds of Blizzard Group members, his status was automatically above theirs.
So they spoke to him carefully.
When he and Fubuki argued, everyone had remained silent, afraid to interrupt.
Later, Lu Yao had even firmly suppressed Fubuki.
That deepened the impression that he wasn’t someone to provoke.
So even after he returned to a calm demeanor, they remained slightly afraid.
Lily had a different opinion.
But she decided not to voice it.
“In any case,” Eyelashes concluded, “if someone like that joined the Blizzard Group, it would be fantastic. Considering he easily defeated a monster that overwhelmed all of us, he’s probably at least approaching S-Class strength.”
“Um… maybe let’s not talk about that yet.”
Lily raised a hand weakly.
“Shouldn’t we go check on Lady Fubuki first?”
“Right!”
Eyelashes led the charge back into the room.
…
On his way home, Lu Yao stopped at a supermarket.
Although news reports often described heroes rushing from one city to another as though the distances were trivial, the truth was quite different.
Cities were extremely far apart.
This world had experienced the melting of the polar ice caps.
Sea levels were at least seventy meters higher than on Lu Yao’s original Earth.
Most coastal regions had disappeared underwater.
Strictly speaking, this world didn’t possess only one continent.
Land existed elsewhere.
It simply wasn’t suitable for human habitation.
Given how many monsters existed in this world, some monsters probably lived in those hostile environments anyway.
In terms of area, the supercontinent was roughly comparable to Australia.
Perhaps somewhat larger.
But probably smaller than Asia.
So traveling between cities could be compared to traveling between provinces.
Going from coastal City Z to centrally located City A wasn’t much shorter than traveling from Guangdong to Beijing.
The advantage was that this world possessed fairly advanced technology.
Transportation networks were extensive.
There were no annoying highway toll booths.
So traveling was still convenient.
Lu Yao used his ability to create a vehicle.
His own blood cells couldn’t provide enough total mass to construct an entire car.
But Dark Matter could merge with and manipulate existing material.
There was matter everywhere on Earth.
With driving skill comparable to an Akina downhill legend, Lu Yao finally returned to the outskirts of City Z.
As soon as he got out, he slapped the vehicle.
The material returned to its original state while Lu Yao recovered the Dark Matter.
Boom!
The sound of reinforced concrete being violently smashed echoed from upstairs.
Lu Yao blinked.
He was about to go up and see what happened when he noticed two monsters near the entrance.
“Someone’s here?”
“Looks like an ordinary human.”
“Hehehe.”
A frog-like monster approached Lu Yao.
“I followed Beast King, Armored Gorilla, and the others from the House of Evolution. I thought I’d be stuck on boring guard duty again.”
He grinned.
“Sorry, kid. Blame yourself for coming here.”
“Hey, don’t kill him immediately.”
A slug-like monster called out.
“I want to play too.”
“Of course… I won’t.”
The Frog Monster drew a blade and slashed at Lu Yao.
“First I’ll cut off your limbs!”
Bang!
Thud!
The two arrogant monsters were suddenly planted headfirst into the ground like radishes.
Neither moved.
Whether they were dead or merely unconscious was unclear.
A faint black humanoid shadow slowly withdrew back into Lu Yao’s body.
“Lu Yao!”
Saitama angrily jumped down from above.
“Mr. Saitama.”
Lu Yao looked at him.
“What happened? Why are you so angry?”
“My ceiling got smashed.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Saitama looked furious.
“Damn monsters. Completely unforgivable.”
Despite the complaint, Saitama wasn’t truly obsessed with revenge.
Seeing Lu Yao casually bury two monsters he assumed were accomplices immediately calmed him down.
“That really is unlucky.”
This was the outskirts of City Z.
Any normal repair worker would refuse to come.
So repairing a broken ceiling would likely require doing it personally.
“I’ll help you take a look later.”
With Dark Matter’s fusion properties, manipulating ordinary physical matter and restoring damaged structures was extremely easy.
“Oh!”
Saitama pumped a fist.
“Thanks!”
“Master, leave this to me—”
Genos came down.
Then he noticed Saitama and Lu Yao chatting casually in front of two monsters buried like vegetables.
The words died in his mouth.
“Huh?”
Lu Yao looked at him.
“Mr. Saitama, you really accepted Genos as your disciple?”
“Well…”
Saitama looked at the sky.
Then the ground.
“There are… complicated reasons.”
“Haha. You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to.”
Lu Yao smiled.
“Let’s go upstairs first.”
“Okay.”
As the two started walking together, a hand suddenly emerged from the ground beside Saitama’s foot.
Both Lu Yao and Saitama saw it.
Avoiding it would’ve been trivial.
Both ignored it.
Saitama was immediately dragged underground, leaving only his shiny bald head sticking out.
“M-Master?!”
Genos rushed over.
“That was careless, Mr. Saitama.”
Lu Yao stood nearby providing completely useless commentary.
“Yeah…”
Saitama complained.
“I feel like a sprouting vegetable.”
He paused.
“Though honestly, the dirt is pretty cool.”
Before anything could settle, another disturbance occurred.
While Genos was running forward, a nearby wall exploded.
A massive gorilla wearing metal armor walked through.
“High-energy response.”
The armored gorilla focused on Genos.
“You’re a cyborg too?”