On the streets of Z-City.
"Dragon-level disaster?!"
"A meteor? Falling from the sky? What kind of movie plot is this!"
"Run! It's the end of the world!"
"Mom! Mom, where are you! Waaah..."
"Don't push! My leg... my leg is trapped! Help! Someone help me!"
"..."
When the Hero Association's cold and merciless alarm broadcast echoed through the sky, the entire Z-City seemed to have pressed the play button for a doomsday movie.
After just one second of dead silence, the city was instantly submerged in hysterical panic and chaos.
The rush hour traffic instantly froze, the steel torrent turning into a chaotic jumble of iron coffins.
Countless drivers honked their horns like mad, their sharp, piercing blares merging into an ocean of noise.
Some tried to force a U-turn, others recklessly surged onto the densely packed sidewalks.
The sound of crashing vehicles, shattering glass, and metal groaning as it twisted under immense force was incessant, and black smoke billowed from wrecked engine hoods.
On the streets, the once-hurried crowds had completely turned into headless chickens.
People screamed and pushed, running aimlessly like an ant colony whose nest had been disturbed.
A young office worker stumbled, his hand reaching out in terror; before he could even cry for help, he was instantly engulfed by the panicked crowd behind him.
Only a short, shrill scream remained, quickly fading into the cacophony of sound.
"Boom!"
Not far away, a support pillar of a pedestrian overpass snapped with a crash after being struck by a chain-reaction rear-end collision involving an oil tanker, and the entire bridge, carrying immense force, plummeted towards the congested road and fleeing crowds below!
Under the looming shadow, countless people looked up, their faces filled with the dazed despair that precedes death.
Just at this critical moment, a golden streak of light tore through the chaotic air, arriving in an instant!
"Teacher, evasion is too late, crowd density is too high! Plan Three, activate!"
Genos's extremely calm voice rang out; he spread his arms, and the Incineration Cannon in his palms glowed with dazzling light.
"Incineration!"
Two thick, orange-red beams of thermal energy shot into the sky, precisely striking the middle section of the falling overpass.
Under the instantaneous action of super-high thermal energy, thousands of tons of reinforced concrete were directly melted and vaporized, and the two severed sections of the overpass wreckage grazed the edge of the crowd, crashing heavily onto an empty space, kicking up a sky full of dust.
"We're saved..."
"Just now... what was that just now?"
Those who had narrowly escaped death were still shaken, staring blankly at the handsome cyborg floating in mid-air, his arms still emitting high heat.
"Ah, that was close, almost didn't make it."
A lazy voice sounded behind them, and everyone turned to see a bald man in a yellowish-brown jumpsuit casually pushing a car that had overturned and was about to crush a crowd back upright with one hand.
"Genos, let's go. Didn't you say you received the assembly message? Hurry up, we might still make it for S-City's supermarket sale," Saitama urged, dusting his hands.
"Yes, Teacher!" Genos descended from the air, his electronic eyes rapidly scanning the surroundings, planning the next optimal route. "There's a large-scale traffic jam ahead, we'll bypass it from the left street!"
"Can't we just jump over the rooftops..."
"I see, I understand, Teacher!"
"No, what do you understand now...?"
The two figures once again transformed into two afterimages, one yellow and one gold, disappearing at the end of the street, leaving behind a group of citizens who had survived the disaster, looking at each other in bewilderment.
The chaos continued to spread.
Shop glass doors were smashed by desperate people using fire hydrants, as people tried to hide in any building that looked sturdy, even if it was just for a bit of psychological comfort.
Children's cries, women's screams, men's roars, piercing alarms, and continuous crashing sounds... together formed a symphony named Doomsday.
In Z-City's central business district, the situation was even worse.
A bus driver, carrying a full load of passengers, suffered a sudden heart attack and, in his panic, floored the accelerator.
The out-of-control bus, like a raging steel beast, broke through the central barrier and, at nearly 100 mph, overturned and charged towards a warmly decorated mother-and-baby store on the roadside.
The young mothers and shop assistants inside let out screams of extreme terror; they instinctively clutched their children tightly, watching helplessly as the ever-enlarging bus crashed through the display window and bore down on them!
The shadow of death was imminent!
Just at this desperate moment, an old yet incredibly agile figure, like a ghost, flashed in front of the bus in a blink of an eye.
It was an old man in a black tight-fitting training suit, his white hair and beard flying wildly in the chaotic airflow.
Facing the roaring steel beast, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and that wrinkled old face actually revealed a martial arts master's aura that was impossible to look directly at!
The old man advanced instead of retreating, his feet firmly planted in a horse stance, his hands drawing a perfectly rounded Tai Chi arc in front of him.
"Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist!"
With a deep shout, the old man's seemingly withered hands lightly pressed onto the massive front of the bus.
There was no earth-shattering crash as expected, nor was there the tragic sight of flesh and blood flying.
In an instant, a flexible yet immensely powerful light blue energy, like water ripples, spread from his palms and along the body of the bus.
The bus, weighing over ten tons, seemed to have hit an invisible yet resilient ball of cotton; its terrifying kinetic energy, capable of destroying everything, was surprisingly guided and dissipated by an incredibly clever technique, easily neutralized!
Finally, this steel beast, after emitting a grating sound of twisting metal, trembled to a halt in front of the mother-and-baby store's shattered display window, the front of the bus just one meter away from the nearest mother.
The passengers on the bus and the people in the store were all stunned; they stared blankly at the old man who had effortlessly averted a tragedy, their minds blank.
S-Class Hero Rank 3, Silver Fang, Bang.
He slowly withdrew his hands, ignoring the shouts of shock and gratitude from behind him, merely frowning as he looked up at the sky gradually covered by shadows.
The oppressive feeling emanating from the depths of the universe, seemingly capable of destroying the world, made even him, a master standing at the pinnacle of martial arts, feel a tremor and palpitation from his soul.
"Has the Association completely given up on this place...?"
Bang murmured to himself, a hint of unconcealed sorrow flashing in his cloudy old eyes.
He had just come out of the Z-City Hero Association branch, which was already deserted, with only cold machines dutifully broadcasting evacuation alerts.
Although from a strategic perspective, concentrating all branch personnel to deal with such a world-ending catastrophe was the right thing to do, the decision to abandon millions of citizens still chilled the old-fashioned hero's heart.
Just then, two afterimages, carrying a wind that tore through the air, flashed past him, heading straight towards the already empty Hero Association branch.
"Hmm?"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"