Silver Fang, Bang.
Recognizing the old man’s identity, Kenji’s mind settled.
He was the future Rank 3 S-Class hero, a demon-level martial artist who was invincible in his youth, and one of the top combat forces for both the Hero Association and humanity as a whole.
Kenji nodded slightly, acknowledging Bang’s goodwill.
He put his belongings in his assigned locker, secured it, and walked toward the testing area with the other candidates.
Bang walked on the other side of the group, occasionally turning his head to observe Kenji’s physique and posture, a strong gleam of interest in his eyes.
That passionate gaze gave Kenji a headache.
Thinking about the martial arts master’s penchant for taking on disciples, his headache worsened.
The massive facility was divided into several testing zones.
First came the standard checks: height, weight, eyesight, lung capacity, and so on.
After finishing the data recording for each item, Kenji saw the charming Lani waiting for him at the entrance of the strength testing room.
“Officer Kenji, please follow me.” Kenji nodded and followed.
After taking only a few steps, the old man’s voice called out from behind: “Excuse me, young lady, mind if I tag along?” “Ah…” Lani paused.
Turning around, she saw an unbelievably muscular old man standing there.
He was looking at her with a lecherous…
no, wait, a smiling gaze, silently asking for her permission.
“This elderly gentleman…” Lani was about to explain the rules when Kenji, who had stopped beside her, interjected, “This is the martial artist, Master Bang.” A martial artist?
“Eh?
You recognize me, young man?” For a moment, both Lani and Bang were slightly confused.
Kenji nodded and offered a compliment, “Yes, I’ve had the honor of witnessing the Master’s Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.” As he spoke, he casually mimicked a few movements.
Bang sweatdropped.
While the movements looked somewhat decent, he could tell at a glance that the young man in front of him truly had no martial arts foundation.
“Forget about being a ‘Master’.
I’m just an ordinary old man running a dojo.” Kenji leaned in and whispered, “Come now, I know a thing or two about the Master’s legendary exploits in his youth.” “Hm?” Bang straightened his back slightly, a trace of killing intent flashing in his eyes.
“Brat, do you know too much?” Thinking back to his days of dominating the martial arts world, Bang’s old face flushed red.
“Ahem…
let’s not bring up the past.
What’s your name, young man?” “I’m Kenji, a police officer.” “Ah, Kenji.
Drop by my dojo when you have time.
It’s not far from City Z, and the environment is quite nice.” “Alright, I’ll visit when I’m free.” …
Trailing behind them, Lani watched in disbelief as the two men chatted and walked into the testing room, completely forgetting about her.
After briefly weighing the pros and cons, she quickly hurried after them, her high heels clicking on the floor.
“Please follow me, gentlemen.
We have a private testing room over here.” Bang’s eyes lit up.
“No need to line up?
That’s wonderful.” Kenji glanced at him sideways.
Lani led the two of them to a massive machine that looked like a train engine, explaining to the bewildered staff member why she suddenly had two testers instead of one.
Kenji and Bang turned to look at each other.
“Young Kenji, who’s going first?” “After you, Master.
I’ll watch your performance.” Bang nodded, dropping the formalities, and raised his arms to stretch.
“Then I’ll go first.” Before meeting Kenji, Bang was merely curious about the Hero Association.
He signed up for the hero recruitment partly to use his strength to help ordinary people, and partly to observe whether this organization operated as they claimed.
As for hero rankings and the like, the old man couldn’t care less.
He just planned to casually pass the time.
But now, it was different.
He decided to show the young man in front of him what true martial arts looked like.
Standing bare-chested in front of the testing machine, Bang slightly bent his knees and lowered his stance.
His gray hair and beard fluttered without wind.
He raised one hand and placed the other behind his back, tracing two perfect, flawless light-blue circular arcs in the air like Tai Chi.
Suddenly, he threw a punch.
“Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist!” As he shouted clearly, Kenji’s Spider Sense activated.
In his suddenly slowed perspective, Kenji could clearly observe every detail of Bang’s punch and force generation.
What seemed like a casual strike concentrated the most exquisite martial arts combat techniques in this world.
Using only the minimum amount of force, it unleashed an overwhelmingly powerful impact, executing it with the effortless grace of a master at work.
Smack!
The fist striking the leather pad produced an explosive sound of compressed air.
Before the staff present could react, the display screen above the testing machine flashed three large “9”s, accompanied by a continuous “ding ding ding” electronic sound.
“Whoa!
A punch force of 999 kilograms!
No, wait, it’s exceeded the machine’s measurement limit!” “This…
Mr.
Bang, strength test: perfect score!!” While waiting, Lani used her phone to ask a colleague in the information department to look up Bang’s profile, and the results left her clicking her tongue in amazement.
This person was actually a powerhouse?
By the time Bang’s test results came out, she had already turned into a fan girl.
“That’s amazing!
Master Bang, what incredible technique!” Bang nodded contentedly, very pleased with the young girl’s reaction.
Turning to look at Kenji, the old man’s face fell.
‘What is this brat spacing out for?!
I put in all that effort, and he didn’t even spare a glance!’ Kenji indeed wasn’t paying attention to the glaring old man.
His focus was entirely on a purple card in his hand.
[Fantasy Card: Water Stream Breathing Technique] [Card Type: Ability Card] [Rarity: SR] [Introduction: The foundational breathing technique of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.] [Effect 1: Water Breathing] [Regulates and amplifies physical strength and the ‘Water Stream’ aura through a special breathing method.
Greatly enhances attack power and speed, and can deflect or weaken enemy attacks.] Kenji: ?
After Saitama, a second target to exploit had appeared.
And also…
Wasn’t the Fantasy Card Stand supposed to be in an egg, undergoing an upgrade?
How did it still have the energy to pull this off?!
Summoning a manifested deck in his hand, Kenji immediately understood.
His Stand had already completed its evolution and seemingly awakened a new ability.
Then there was no problem!
[Fantasy Cards] [Stats] [Destructive Power: D; Speed: D; Precision: C; Developmental Potential: A; Persistence: A; Range: B] [First Ability: Card Mastery] [Assigns the concept of a “card” to objects, transforming them into Fantasy Cards and allowing the user to control the power within them.] [Second Ability: Destiny Draw] [The user can randomly draw one Fantasy Card every day.
The number of draws can be accumulated.] [Third Ability: Element Pickup] [Randomly collects fragments of supernatural elements within a ten-meter radius to create Fantasy Cards.] (C-Rank: Equivalent to an ordinary human.) Receiving feedback from his Stand, Kenji learned the results of this version update.
The biggest change was undoubtedly the Stand’s newly awakened third ability.
On top of the original active card creation, it now had a passive pickup function.
The condition was that the dropped supernatural element had to appear within ten meters of Kenji, and the drop rate, like the Destiny Draw, was entirely random.
An image of powerful heroes and monsters flashed across Kenji’s mind, eventually morphing into a flock of…
Fat, fluffy sheep waiting to be sheared.
Slurp!
Saitama was finally no longer alone in the sheepfold.
Tears of joy trickled from the corners of Kenji’s mouth.
Aside from the new ability, the Stand’s stats had also improved significantly since its inception.
Destructive Power and Speed, which were practically zero at E-rank, had been upgraded to D-rank.
The range had also increased by a tier, reaching B-rank.
Even though it was still quite useless.
The increase in range was understandable, as the maximum radius for the third ability’s element pickup was ten meters; it could be considered a passive, hands-off skill.
But what was the point of enhanced power and speed?
It wasn’t like he was going to manifest his Stand and throw it at people to bash them, right?
Unable to figure it out, Kenji shook his head and unsummoned his Stand.
As he looked up, he was met with Bang’s displeased face.
“Hey, Young Kenji, are you dissatisfied with my performance?” Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, Kenji immediately denied it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Then you…” Bang was about to continue his questioning when he saw Kenji slap his own chest.
The old man was instantly dumbfounded, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.
What did he just see?!
In the span of two or three breaths, the young man before him inexplicably exuded an aura that Bang couldn’t be more familiar with.
The aura of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist!
How is this possible?!
The old man’s pupils trembled violently; then, his eyes were filled with nothing but burning passion.
Unpolished gem?
This kid is a priceless nugget of solid gold!
“I tried imitating your breathing technique from earlier, Master.
Do you see any problems with it?” Kenji asked with an apologetic smile.
Although this would expose his “talent” completely, the old man wasn’t a bad person.
Making another friend wouldn’t hurt.
The key point was that the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist was just too good to pass up!
Of course, formally becoming a disciple was out of the question—not in this lifetime!
Otherwise, if they all started hanging out together, wouldn’t that make him Genos’s peer?
Huff, puff…
Being a grandmaster of martial arts, Bang quickly calmed himself down.
Past experience told him that he absolutely could not rush the process of taking a disciple.
Coughing twice, he resumed his demeanor as a master and smiled amiably.
“You imitated it very well.
There are no problems.
You must come to my dojo when you have time, so we can discuss it more deeply.”