Just as Gustave and Saitama were maintaining their daily early morning exercise routine, the Hero Association was in absolute chaos.
Gustave's battle with Vaccine Man hadn't been resolved with a single punch like Saitama's typical fights, so the Hero Association was desperately searching for this mysterious individual who always seemed to appear at disaster sites with extraordinary abilities.
In that battle, although Gustave had led Vaccine Man into the sky, during the brief period they'd fought on the ground, the earth within a radius of over ten kilometers had been severely cratered.
The aerial battle had been even more terrifying. Especially when Gustave summoned those storm clouds and began accumulating power for his first major attack, the entire City A had seemed like the apocalypse itself.
Later, the scenes of Gustave using gravitational forces to tear open the sky itself and piercing Vaccine Man with his lightning spear were all clearly recorded in the Hero Association's database.
Although Gustave had been seriously injured by Vaccine Man's dying counterattack and was taken away by Saitama in the end, the Hero Association had successfully recorded Gustave's physical data during this entire period. However, since Gustave had fallen face-down, the satellites were unable to capture his facial features.
Therefore, during this time, the Hero Association had been frantically searching for Gustave. They hoped he would join their organization and had already reserved an S-Class hero position for him.
However, Gustave knew nothing about any of this. After finishing his daily training, he was shopping at the supermarket with Saitama.
"Just another normal day!"
While paying at the checkout, Gustave couldn't help but remark casually.
But sometimes, there are certain things that shouldn't be said aloud. Gustave had barely finished speaking when he felt earth-shaking tremors. The supermarket lights flickered twice, then went completely dark.
"Is this an earthquake?" Saitama asked, carrying the groceries they'd purchased today, his face maintaining that characteristic simple expression.
"I don't think so," Gustave replied, sensing something different.
While the two were talking, the other customers in the supermarket had already scattered, fleeing toward the underground shelter.
Because monsters appeared frequently, wherever humans lived, numerous sturdy shelters were built underground. The reason ordinary people in the One Punch Man world had managed to survive wasn't solely due to the Hero Association's existence—it was primarily because of these underground shelters' protection.
Suddenly, the vibrations reached maximum intensity, and the supermarket's roof where Gustave and Saitama stood simply vanished. Sunlight poured in from above.
As soon as Gustave and Saitama stepped outside, they saw a massive giant walking through the city. Every step he took caused earthquake-like tremors, cratering the ground. All buildings blocking his path were naturally razed to the ground.
"Holy hell, that's enormous..."
Gustave was genuinely shocked by the giant's height. A rough estimate suggested he was at least five or six kilometers tall—the clouds only reached his waist.
Suddenly, Gustave remembered who this giant was—the younger brother from that episode. After drinking a potion created by his mad scientist older brother, he'd suddenly grown larger than a mountain.
After walking several steps, the giant brother roared and swung his palm through the air. The wind pressure from his palm alone demolished countless buildings. Those who hadn't yet reached the underground shelters essentially had no chance of survival under this attack.
"Gustave, should you handle this?" Saitama asked, turning to look at him.
"You should take this one," Gustave replied, shaking his head.
In his perception, the giant brother's strength exceeded even Vaccine Man's. Even Gustave at full capacity would have difficulty defeating him, let alone now when the newly regenerated flesh on his right chest hadn't been properly conditioned yet, making his elemental transformation somewhat sluggish.
If Gustave engaged the giant brother, the battle's scale would only exceed the previous one, and City D where they currently stood would definitely not survive intact. Although Gustave wasn't from this world, he preferred to minimize casualties when possible.
"Alright then, I'll handle it."
Saitama nodded, handed his shopping bags to Gustave, kicked off hard with his legs, and vanished from the spot.
"This giant brother's strength is probably at peak Dragon-level," Gustave murmured, sensing the aura emanating from the massive creature.
Meanwhile, because of the giant brother's tremendous destructive power, the mad scientist brother standing on his shoulder was laughing maniacally and imagining their future—brothers joining forces to conquer the world.
At that moment, Saitama had unknowingly jumped to the opposite shoulder of the giant brother.
"When did you get up here?!" the mad scientist brother yelled, pointing at Saitama in shock.
"Put on some underwear," Saitama said, not answering the mad scientist's question but instead turning to look at the giant brother.
The giant brother didn't possess impossibly resilient pants like the Hulk, so after growing enormous, he was completely naked. As he destroyed the city, certain anatomical features swung back and forth quite indecently, seriously impacting children's physical and mental health. Therefore, Saitama requested that the giant brother wear underwear.
"What?! You don't even take me seriously at all!"
The mad scientist brother was furious that Saitama dared ignore him, so he issued an order to the giant brother:
"Brother! Kill the man standing on your shoulder!"
Hearing the command, the giant brother slapped his own shoulder without hesitation. The mad scientist brother was struck down to the ground.
After drinking the special potion, the giant brother had gained extraordinary physical strength. Impressive, right? Unfortunately, it came at the cost of his intelligence.
Whether the mad scientist brother had failed to consider his younger brother's reduced IQ when giving orders, or whether he himself had intelligence problems and forgot that besides Saitama, he himself was also on that shoulder—either way, since he hadn't clearly specified the target, he was naturally killed by a slap from his own giant brother. He truly brought this upon himself.
"Brother!"
After accidentally killing his mad scientist brother, the giant brother looked at his palm and completely broke down.
"Why did this happen?! I just wanted power! I just wanted to become the strongest!"
The giant brother howled in anguish, his entire body shaking from tremendous emotional turmoil.
"Even though I don't know you, it's because of you that my brother was killed!"
The giant brother grabbed Saitama from his shoulder and hurled him downward with tremendous force. A building was instantly leveled, raising an enormous cloud of dust and debris.
After the smoke cleared, seeing that Saitama was still alive, the giant brother aimed at the ground and began punching wildly. Generally speaking, massive bodies correspond to slower speeds, but the giant brother defied this common logic. Every punch he threw exceeded the speed of sound by an incomprehensible margin.
Therefore, when the giant brother bombarded the ground, the entire earth shook continuously, as if experiencing a magnitude nine earthquake.
Looking at the massive crater in the ground and his mad scientist brother whom he'd accidentally swatted like a mosquito, the giant brother suddenly felt hollow inside:
"Even if I possess the most powerful strength, what does it matter? Without my brother, the days ahead will be empty and meaningless."
"I understand completely!"
Saitama genuinely empathized with that sentiment, so he leaped from the crater and threw several consecutive punches at the giant brother, knocking him to the ground.
From this, we can see just how powerful the giant brother truly was—he actually survived several punches from Saitama before dying. That was quite an achievement.
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