Whenever Saitama decided to do something, he moved quickly.
The moment he decided to head to City A and deliver justice, he put down his bowl and vanished.
Saitama might have left, but dinner still needed to be finished.
“He really ate all the meat.”
Lu Yao looked into the pot and sighed.
Only vegetables remained.
Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem.
He had already prepared a backup plan.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
This was the outer residential district of City Z, infamous for urban legends describing it as a dragon’s den and tiger’s lair.
Aside from Lu Yao, the only person living in the building was Saitama, who had moved in before him.
So practically nobody ever visited this place.
Much less someone specifically coming to Lu Yao’s apartment.
In other words—
Lu Yao had just been feeling proud of his foresight when the exact person he had been thinking about arrived.
He lowered the flame beneath the pot and went to open the door.
“You’re—too—slow!”
The moment it opened, the visitor complained without the slightest politeness.
She was a red-haired girl whose apparent age was roughly the same as Lu Yao’s current physical age.
The first impression she gave was crimson—
Like a red spider lily.
Her hair was red.
Her eyes were red.
Even her clothes were dominated by red.
Her long crimson hair was braided into a thick braid down her back.
Underneath, she wore a white shirt with a red jumper dress.
A black cape hung behind her, paired with a red shawl.
In her hands was a stack of wooden bento boxes wrapped in cloth.
“I thought I opened the door pretty quickly.”
“From the instant I knocked to the instant you opened it, you took exactly 5.98 seconds! If you truly valued the arrival of an honored guest like me, you should’ve opened it within 0.02 seconds, idiot!”
After scolding him with completely unreasonable standards, the girl entered without ceremony.
“What? You’ve already started?”
She looked around the living room and placed the stacked containers beside the dining table.
Despite the girl acting selfishly and treating herself like anything but a guest, Lu Yao showed no irritation.
Instead, he retrieved another bowl and pair of chopsticks from the kitchen.
“Dr. Okazaki, you brought it?”
“Of course. How could I forget something that trivial?”
She untied the cloth.
“You only told me to bring beef, so I didn’t know what cuts you wanted. Are these okay?”
“They’re all nicely marbled. This is perfect.”
Sukiyaki was essentially Japanese-style beef hot pot.
Naturally, tender cuts were most suitable.
Although almost any cut other than brisket could technically be sliced as fatty beef, what Dr. Okazaki brought was high quality.
Mostly rib eye, chuck eye, striploin, and belly.
“Good.”
“By the way, Dr. Okazaki, how much do I owe you?”
“I don’t need money.”
Dr. Okazaki answered casually.
“If you really want to compensate me, just provide some of your blood on a regular basis.”
So the ultimate objective is still Dark Matter.
After all, the blood cells inside Lu Yao’s blood were essentially Dark Matter.
If Dark Matter was extracted directly, prolonged exposure outside the body caused it to gradually convert into ordinary matter.
Extracting it together with plasma, however, helped preserve it.
Lu Yao didn’t consider that much of a loss.
He simply nodded.
Watching him cook the beef, Dr. Okazaki tapped the table.
“And stop calling me Dr. Okazaki all the time. Just call me Yumemi.”
Yumemi Okazaki.
That was the full name of the red-haired girl before him.
A genius who had obtained a professorial position at only eighteen.
She possessed absolute confidence that her scientific expertise was inferior to no researcher alive.
Including the genius Dr. Genus.
It was only with her help that Lu Yao had managed to understand the basic mechanism behind his supernatural ability.
“Huh? Is it okay to call you that familiarly?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Fine.”
It wasn’t a big deal anyway.
Lu Yao had called her Dr. Okazaki mainly out of respect.
Since she herself was asking him to use her given name, he might as well.
Acting overly timid about it would only seem unpleasant.
More importantly—
The meat was ready.
Yumemi bit lightly on her chopsticks and switched on the television.
The static-filled screen suddenly recovered.
Apparently the current footage was being taken from a helicopter some distance away from the center of the disaster.
After watching briefly, Yumemi commented, “Another monster this powerful? This world really is disaster-prone.”
“Judging by that destructive power, it’s probably Disaster Level Dragon.”
That ranking system had been established by a private organization known as the Hero Association.
Disaster threats were categorized from lowest to highest as Wolf, Tiger, Demon, Dragon, and God.
A Dragon-level disaster represented a crisis capable of destroying multiple cities.
This particular monster could apparently fire energy projectiles.
Each shot carried tremendous force, enough to destroy several city blocks.
If nobody stopped it, City A would probably be flattened before long.
But since the invincible Saitama was heading there, it would likely be resolved quickly.
“Heh—Dragon-level?”
Yumemi’s eyes lit up.
“That’s kind of interesting.”
“Try not to do anything reckless.”
Lu Yao glanced at her.
“I know you’re strong, Yumemi, but it’s still a monster. Ordinary citizens like us shouldn’t casually get involved.”
“Don’t you blush when you say something like that?”
Yumemi raised an eyebrow.
“Within a radius of more than ten kilometers around your apartment, over forty percent of the monsters have been killed by you. That even includes several Demon-level ones.”
“That was self-defense.”
Lu Yao answered righteously.
“Those people in the Hero Association take public donations and barely do their jobs. Almost no heroes are permanently stationed in this area. It’s dangerous.”
“Putting that aside—Yao, have you ever considered registering as a professional hero?”
They had mentioned the Hero Association several times.
It was a private organization founded three years ago by the wealthy Agoni, after someone saved his grandson.
The organization was later supported through public donations.
Its purpose was to recruit talented people from society to confront the many disasters appearing throughout the supercontinent.
Those people were known as professional heroes.
This world still had a government, police, military, and other public institutions.
But whether in crisis management, reaction speed, or actual response capability, they weren’t particularly impressive.
Many talented civilians also chose not to work for official institutions.
As a result, ever since the Hero Association and professional heroes appeared, public support and trust in them had far surpassed that of the government.
Of course, the Hero Association remained a private organization.
Yet after gaining such influence, it was already showing signs of wanting to surpass the government itself.
Lu Yao recalled everything he knew about the Hero Association and eventually shook his head.
“Not for now.”
“Oh.”
“Why’d you ask?”
“You always look like you have nothing to do. I’m just suggesting you find some entertainment.”
Yumemi answered.
“Normal jobs are boring. You’re not short on money anyway, so whether you work or not makes almost no difference. Being a hero looks pretty exciting. Might be a decent way to kill time.”
Thinking about it carefully, Yumemi actually had a point.
She continued, “Honestly, I think you and I are somewhat alike. You said you supposedly have personal connections in this world, but fundamentally speaking, you’re an outsider, aren’t you?”
Lu Yao paused.
He looked up.
“Are you saying you are too?”
“Yeah.”
Yumemi nodded.
“I’m not from this world.”
“A transmigrator?”
“Transmigrator? What an interesting term. Is that what you call someone who travels from one world into another?”
“Pretty much. There are apparently subcategories like soul transmigration, reincarnation, and things like that. My situation is probably somewhat unusual too. I seem to have transmigrated into the version of myself from a parallel world.”
“I see.”
Yumemi nodded.
“But how are you sure that you transmigrated? What if the original you simply received memories belonging to another version of yourself and mistakenly concluded that you were the outsider?”
“Probably because of my ability.”
Lu Yao raised a hand.
Mist-like Dark Matter emerged from it.
“I can confirm that the version of me native to this world didn’t possess this.”
“Is that so?”
Yumemi drained the soup from her bowl in one go, set it down with surprising force, and exhaled.
“If you really are one of these ‘transmigrators,’ then sooner or later you should be able to master some method of world travel with that ability of yours. If you can’t, I can lend you some research material.”
She looked at him.
“But if that’s the case, you should learn how to entertain yourself. If you don’t have any specific objective, then try experiencing the unique things each world has to offer.”
Yumemi’s words sent Lu Yao into thought.
“I’m full.”
Yumemi patted her stomach and stood.
“Then I’ll head back. If you miss me—or want to give me more Dark Matter for research—come find me.”
“Sure. Take care.”
Yumemi waved casually as she left.
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