He withdrew the hand signs for his spell, straightened his collar, and gave Saitama a small nod. His tone carried a complicated hint of emotion.
"Your method was… mm, very unusual. But it did save a lot of trouble. Thank you."
Saitama waved it off. "No big deal. I was passing by anyway. Oh yeah, Doctor—do you know which supermarket around here has discounted vegetables at night?"
Strange: "...That, I'm not really sure."
Central Park had turned into a bizarre jungle battlefield.
A day earlier, a meteor glowing with eerie green light had crashed into the park's lawn. When it split open, countless peanut-sized biological spores burst out and scattered everywhere. They were intensely parasitic. The moment they touched an animal, they would burrow into its body, drain the host's life force, and in a very short time drive it into a frenzied, gigantic growth—while stripping away its reason.
Parasitized pigeons became larger than eagles, pecking at pedestrians like mad. Parasitized squirrels swelled to the size of small trucks, gnawing through trees like they were chewing celery. Even ducks and carp in the lake mutated into terrifying monsters, rampaging through the park.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Hawkeye Barton, who had rushed to the scene, were trying to contain the disaster. But there were too many seeds. After parasitism, the animals' speed and strength skyrocketed, making them nearly impossible to capture. Worse—if you couldn't destroy the parasitic seed inside them, then even if you knocked the animal out, the seed would quickly look for a new host.
"Clint, aim for the seeds! They're near the back of the neck or along the spine of the parasitized creatures!" Natasha Romanoff's voice came through the comms. She was on the other side evacuating civilians.
Hawkeye Barton stood on a large tree branch, arrow after arrow hitting true. Specialized explosive arrows and net arrows shot out, precisely striking the berserk animals trying to pounce on the crowd—or directly blowing parasitic seeds out of the air. But the seeds were too small, too fast, and the animals far too agile. Alone, he couldn't cover everything.
"There are too many! Natasha, I need ba—damn it!" Barton blew apart a rabid pigeon that was diving at a child, but another creature had already smashed through a temporary barricade and charged toward a dense crowd. Its eyes burned red, and its front teeth had grown like excavator buckets, easily ripping up the ground.
At that critical moment, a yellow figure appeared directly in the giant squirrel's path.
"Sensei, there's a high-energy reaction at the back of its neck. That should be the parasite core!" Genos's voice came from behind—he was using his Incineration Cannon to clear the airborne spore swarm.
Saitama looked at the charging squirrel and nodded. The instant it lowered its head and tried to ram him with its massive teeth, he stepped aside—and reached out to grab its thick, fluffy tail.
"Up you go."
With a single pull of his arm, the giant squirrel was swung up like a shot put on a chain. He spun it through the air a few circles, then let go and hurled it straight upward.
The squirrel let out terrified squeaks mid-flight, tracing a high arc through the sky.
Saitama bent his knees slightly—then jumped.
He moved after it, but struck first—leaping even higher than the squirrel in midair. His eyes locked onto the bulging lump on the back of its neck, glowing with ominous green light—the seed.
"Pff!"
(End of Chapter)
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