Although Character Cards had a limit on the number equipped, that wasn’t the point!
The point was that his normal attacks finally had special effects…
scratch that!
He could finally control lightning!
Casually waving away “A Punch of Twenty Years’ Cultivation” and storing the life-saving Senzu Bean into his deck, Kenji polished off the food in his hot pot in a few bites.
After a quick cleanup, he reappeared at his front door, already changed into a tracksuit.
His smooth series of actions highlighted his sheer impatience.
Leaving the apartment building, Kenji jogged all the way out of the city center.
He passed through the outer residential areas, which had not yet completely deteriorated into a no-man’s land, and arrived at a mountainous area on the outskirts.
Due to the limited population in this world, human presence was practically nonexistent outside the cities.
Climbing a barren slope, the wind blowing against his face was noticeably stronger than in the city.
Looking down at the city fading into the edge of the forest, Kenji raised his hand and drew a purple card from the void.
“The Heart of the Tempest”, equipped!
…
“Hm?” At a mountain dojo, a silver-haired old man sipping tea twitched his ears.
The moment he set down his teacup, his seemingly hunched figure vanished from the spot.
When he reappeared, he was already at the top of the mountain, shading his eyes with his hand and gazing into the distance.
At the edge of the horizon, the once clear blue sky had unknowingly been swallowed by leaden storm clouds.
The wind howled, lightning flashed, and thunder roared.
Violent pillars of lightning tore through the sky, striking a small mountain.
The world was plunged into darkness, resembling an apocalyptic scene.
The energetic old man stroked his chin, lost in thought.
“What an intense thunderstorm…
something feels strange about it…” …
City Z.
A panting, black-haired youth jogging slowly stopped to wipe his sweat.
He was immediately drawn to the anomaly on the horizon and looked up.
“Weird.
Is it going to rain with this crazy weather?
I guess I’ll run the remaining five kilometers back…” He panted heavily.
Saying that, he turned around and struggled to run back toward the city, gasping for air with every step.
…
Beneath the thunderclouds.
The moment he equipped the Character Card, Kenji felt every electric charge in his body go into a frenzy.
As his eyes were dyed silver-white by the violent lightning energy, an endless burst of electrical currents completely submerged his tall figure.
Boundless lightning erupted.
…
Two days later.
A new week began.
Looking as if nothing had happened, Kenji showed his face at the police station early in the morning.
He submitted his report on the monster attack from the previous week, chatted a bit with some colleagues from his academy batch, and then hopped onto his scooter to start his daily work.
No one noticed that occasionally, a tiny arc of electricity would spark from the tips of his hair, dancing into the air before vanishing.
Due to the frequent monster disasters recently, City Z’s police resources were increasingly strained.
As an outstanding rookie who joined this year, Kenji had been granted authorization to patrol alone.
Leaving the station, he munched on a pineapple bun he bought on the way.
A cup of hot milk, enveloped in telekinesis, floated near his scooter’s handlebars.
His working atmosphere was quite relaxed.
Due to overlapping duties and a lack of top-tier combat power, the role of the police was gradually being replaced by the Hero Association, eventually reducing them to cleanup crews.
Kenji had no grand ideals of changing this status quo; instead, he toyed with the idea of finding a part-time job.
Since he had to deal with monsters anyway, wouldn’t it be sweeter to get two paychecks?
The police department’s disaster reporting system was still quite useful.
Being within the system meant Kenji could get first-hand information on monster movements in his jurisdiction.
As long as he dispatched fast enough, he almost certainly wouldn’t have to worry about someone stealing his “kills”…
Pfft!
Just as he was thinking this, Kenji spat out the milk at a sight by the road.
Not far ahead, a black-haired youth in a blue and white tracksuit was stumbling forward.
Sweat poured down his face like it was free.
His heaving chest sounded like a broken bellows, and he let out violently wheezing gasps.
Kenji’s mind automatically photoshopped away the youth’s thick black hair.
In the next second, the figure perfectly overlapped with a bald man sporting dead-fish eyes.
It was Saitama, no doubt about it.
Speak of the devil, the kill-stealer had arrived.
Kenji sighed, a sudden sense of crisis rising in his heart.
Going by this trend, his police job might not be so stable after all.
Huff, huff, huff…
Having struggled through another long-distance run, Saitama leaned on his thighs, looking like he was about to cough up his lungs, gasping for air.
Parking his scooter by the path outside the park, Kenji tossed his empty breakfast bag into a trash can.
At this moment, Saitama, who had barely dragged himself to the park, was wearing a mask of agony as he did squats under the intense scrutiny of a group of playing children.
No, that wasn’t training; it was torture.
As expected, after 100 squats, there would be 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups.
For Saitama, whose eyes were already bloodshot, this volume of exercise was practically an impossible mission.
Kenji watched silently for a moment before his police radio crackled with a dispatch: a purse snatcher was fleeing three blocks away.
Checking the map, he activated his telekinesis.
Brilliant blue spiritual flames enveloped his body.
He suddenly felt weightless, slipping the bonds of gravity, and rapidly ascended into the sky.
Taking advantage of his aerial view, Kenji looked down at the surrounding blocks.
With his vision enhanced by Spider Sense, he quickly locked onto the purse snatcher, who thought he had gotten away and was hiding in an alley checking his loot.
With the target found, the rest was simple.
In a steep dive, Kenji accelerated toward the ground.
He condensed his telekinesis into a near-tangible gravity field and casually smashed it downward.
Superhero landing!
“Ah…” Sensing something wrong with the wind, the thief barely looked up before being slammed in the face by the descending force field.
Without even a scream, he fell into a baby-like slumber.
Kenji landed, handcuffed the unlucky thief’s hands behind his back, and dragged both the culprit and the stolen goods to the nearest police box.
In less than two minutes, the dispatch was complete.
Meanwhile, at the roadside park.
“97…” “…98!” …
Looking as if he were about to vomit blood, Saitama was doing push-ups one by one.
His speed was truly touching.
He would go down, and only push back up half a minute later.
“…100!” “Huff, huff, huff…” Despite this, he completely finished the entire training regimen without cutting corners.
Silently, Kenji lit a proverbial candle for the monsters that hadn’t even debuted yet.
R.I.P.
“Mr.
Police Officer, is there something you need?” Finishing his training and near collapse, Saitama suddenly saw a tall, young police officer walking toward him and couldn’t help but ask.
“Here, have a soda.” “Huh?” Saitama instinctively reached out.
Before he realized it, a cold bottle of orange soda was in his hand.
Gulp.
His body, in desperate need of hydration, sent out a signal of thirst.
Although Saitama didn’t quite understand why, his naturally thick nerves helped him accept the stranger’s goodwill.
“Thanks, this helps a lot!” “You’re welcome.” Seeing Saitama already chugging the drink, Kenji opened a bottle for himself.
“I was just passing by and saw you training so hard.
That’s some impressive willpower.” Saitama realized what had happened.
He looked at the half-empty orange soda in his hand; it was his favorite flavor.
He sincerely thanked him again, “Thank you, Mr.
Police Officer!” “Don’t mention it,” Kenji patted Saitama’s shoulder, raising his bottle in encouragement.
“Keep up the good work.” “I will.” Watching Kenji turn and leave, Saitama finished the rest of his drink.
“That officer…
is a good guy.” …, In the police car.
Turning the ignition, Kenji looked a bit bewildered.
Raising his hand, a white-tier normal card materialized from the void.
The image on the card was a carefree, laughing bald head with dead-fish eyes.
Getting a Fantasy Card just from a single close-contact encounter—this was the first time Kenji had experienced something like this.
‘Did I activate my Stand ability just now?’ If this were any other monster, he would have had to fight a boss battle first, and then manually collect the dropped loot.
Chalking it all up to Saitama’s special status as the child of destiny in this world, Kenji finally had the time to examine the card in his hand.
[Fantasy Card: Limiter Fragment] [Card Type: Special Card] [Rarity: N] [Introduction: An unknown fragment from an unknown source.] [Effect 1: ???] [???] Kenji: ?
Seeing the question marks on the card, Kenji’s head was also full of question marks.
He knew about Limiters.
In the original story, the concept was introduced through the sci-fi villain Dr.
Genus, and it was one of the fundamental rules of this world.
Due to differences in species and individual strength, all living beings had limits that could not be overcome no matter how much effort they put in.
This was to ensure that organisms grew within a scope where they wouldn’t lose their species’ survival instincts and rationality.
This growth limit was called a Limiter.
In plain terms, some S-Class heroes were born with talents far surpassing ordinary people—meaning they had a much higher Limiter.
Examples included Child Emperor’s genius brain, Tatsumaki’s psychic powers, and Bang’s martial arts talent.
When humans turned into monsters, their species changed, which was equivalent to resetting them with a new Limiter.
The only organism that maintained a human body while successfully breaking its Limiter was Saitama.
As for the “Limiter Fragment”…
This automatically generated N-tier card had absolutely no description of its function or effects in the Stand’s feedback.
Since it came from Saitama, Kenji refused to believe it was a useless card.
He’d just throw it into his deck to gather dust for now.