Saitama answered without hesitation.
“What’s that? Don’t remember it at all.”
I knew it.
Maybe this was the composure of the truly strong—or simply Saitama’s general lack of interest in most things.
After nearly a month together, Lu Yao had developed a basic understanding of the man.
In Lu Yao’s eyes, Saitama possessed overwhelming power beyond any life-form on Earth.
No matter how powerful or weak an enemy was, Saitama could treat them equally—
By defeating them with one punch.
Even a natural-disaster-level monster capable of destroying an entire city in an extremely short period of time amounted to nothing more than a single strike.
More importantly, Lu Yao could tell that Saitama had never actually thrown a punch with everything he had.
So even now, Lu Yao had no idea where Saitama’s upper limit lay.
Perhaps because of that overwhelming power, Saitama’s mentality had become somewhat distorted.
Simply put, he wasn’t interested in most things.
Yet at the same time, he was astonishingly ordinary in his lifestyle.
Perhaps because he was constantly short on money, the thing Saitama cared most about was supermarket sales.
He had never once used his tremendous strength to obtain special privileges, wealth, or status.
Despite receiving neither public recognition nor material reward, he continued performing hero activities anyway.
He was indifferent toward things most people would consider important, yet could become strangely emotional over things others considered trivial.
He was quite a contradictory person.
So Lu Yao had fully expected Saitama to forget his ability.
With a faint sigh, countless pure-white particles emerged from Lu Yao’s palm.
To the naked eye, they resembled a thin layer of white mist drifting from his skin.
Lu Yao then shaped his hand as though gripping a firearm.
Following the movement, his favorite weapon appeared in his hand—a modified black .45 caliber M1911A1.
While demonstrating, Lu Yao explained, “Simply put, it’s an ability that lets me create all kinds of objects.”
He had obtained this ability after arriving in this world.
Since it originated directly from his body, it could technically be categorized as a supernatural power.
In other words, Lu Yao could probably be considered an esper as well—though in the conventional sense, “esper” usually referred to people with psychokinesis.
Originally, his ability didn’t even have a proper name.
“Dark Matter” was something Lu Yao had come up with himself.
Apparently, its origin lay in a mutation in his skeletal system.
No. More accurately, the mutation had occurred in the bone marrow responsible for producing blood cells.
His marrow could now continuously create the substance he called Dark Matter.
Initially, only his marrow had mutated.
But as Dark Matter continued to be produced, it spread throughout his body through blood circulation and metabolism, gradually infiltrating every part of him and fusing with his cells.
In truth, Lu Yao’s body was changing every moment.
His bones, being closest to the marrow, were the first to mutate.
After integrating with Dark Matter, their hardness, toughness, and internal structure underwent tremendous changes, allowing them to protect his vital organs far more effectively.
Lu Yao hadn’t tested their absolute limit yet.
But on one occasion, a vehicle had struck him and sent him flying a considerable distance.
He had been completely unharmed.
His skin was another example.
Once fused with Dark Matter, Lu Yao could harden it to the strength of steel almost instantly.
It barely aged.
Heat and cold had reduced effects on it.
Dark Matter inside his skin cells could even imitate chloroplasts—energy-conversion structures normally found only in plants.
By absorbing sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water, his body could synthesize oxygen and nutrients necessary for life.
This gave Lu Yao astonishing endurance.
Under normal circumstances, however, the Dark Matter inside his body mainly performed the functions of blood cells.
As a result, Lu Yao was effectively immune to bacteria, viruses, and toxins.
Anything entering his body and attempting to cause harm would be hunted down by Dark Matter at maximum speed.
Because Dark Matter could freely define its own physical and chemical properties, it could also function like pluripotent cells and substitute for practically any part of Lu Yao’s body.
With a thought, the Dark Matter inside him could even operate like nanomachines, imitating special breathing techniques to greatly enhance his physical abilities.
This same characteristic was also what allowed Lu Yao to display his most obvious “superpower”—
The ability to create items.
Everything above consisted of techniques Lu Yao had discovered through experimentation.
In fact, it was only after receiving a comprehensive medical examination and analysis from a certain genius scientist that he finally understood his current physical condition.
He hadn’t merely become younger.
But his deeper understanding of his ability remained limited.
That was because Lu Yao’s cheat was unbelievably unreliable.
It threw several unexplained abilities and skills at him—no names, no descriptions, no instructions—and immediately disappeared.
A whole month had passed.
Not even a fart.
Naturally, Lu Yao didn’t explain all the details to Saitama.
Dr. Okazaki’s preliminary examination alone had produced several thick reports.
Lu Yao could explain all of it if he really wanted to.
But Saitama would almost certainly stop listening halfway through.
After all…
He didn’t exercise his brain very much.
After hearing Lu Yao’s simplified explanation, Saitama froze with a piece of beef hanging from his mouth.
Then he shouted, “Isn’t that an insanely awesome ability?! You can make anything?!”
“In theory.”
Lu Yao loosely clenched his hand.
The pistol immediately decomposed and returned to him.
“It’s somewhat mystical. Once I understand the basic principles and design of something to a certain degree, I can manufacture it. But if it’s something I don’t understand very well, creating it becomes much harder.”
At present, he could produce most common items with ease.
If he wanted to create a wider variety of more complicated objects, however, he would probably need to spend more time studying.
“What an enviable ability…”
Saitama muttered that, but Lu Yao knew his attention was still mainly focused on the food in the pot.
“So? Where’d all this meat come from? Did you create it with your power?”
“That’d be wasteful. I make precious metals or rare elements with Dark Matter and sell them. Money comes in quickly that way. Then I just use the money to buy whatever materials I need.”
Hearing that, Saitama shed tears of envy.
Damn it.
He wanted an ability like that too!
Saitama transformed his envy and resentment into appetite.
Determined to eat Lu Yao into bankruptcy, he accelerated.
“Feels like something’s missing.”
Saitama’s cheeks were stuffed full as he looked around.
Lu Yao thought about it for a moment, then turned on the television.
“Probably some background noise.”
“Yeah. That’s better.”
Saitama settled back down in satisfaction.
“Never seen this channel before.”
“This is one of those shows featuring the national idol Amai Mask, isn’t it? It’s a paid channel, so it’s normal that you haven’t seen it, Mr. Saitama.”
Are you mocking me for being poor?
Damn rich people!
Saitama’s pride took a hit.
He decided to retaliate.
He would eat every last piece of Lu Yao’s expensive beef.
Not a scrap would remain.
Lu Yao had no idea what was going through Saitama’s mind.
Even if he did, he probably would’ve laughed it off.
He was currently switching channels.
“Nothing worth watching. Let’s see the news.”
The moment he changed to a news channel, an emergency report appeared.
A reporter wearing a protective helmet shouted over the deafening roar and violent tremors.
“Explosions are still continuing! City A has suddenly come under attack by an unknown source! The affected area continues to expand—the entire city appears to be—”
Before the report could finish, something apparently happened at the scene.
The signal abruptly cut out.
Saitama chewed.
Then swallowed.
“I’m full. Thanks for the meal.”
He set down his bowl and clasped his hands together.
“You’re going to City A?”
“Yeah.”
Saitama stood and loosened his shoulders.
“I’m a hero for fun, after all. If I see a disaster happening, I can’t exactly ignore it.”
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