City Z, Gray Residential District.
Nothing but old buildings and outdated facilities—everything screamed of a corner the city had forgotten.
"Waaaaah… spare my life…" A scrawny bean sprout wore a mask of terror. "Please don't kill me…"
[Skinny Bean Sprout]
[Disaster level: "Wolf"]
This was the Hero Association's initial rating—barely a threat, something any professional hero could easily handle.
"Angry Man, you should be able to take this one alone," Smiling Man said over his shoulder. "But his level is 'Wolf'—don't get careless~"
As an A-Class hero, he obviously didn't take a mere "Wolf" seriously.
Angry Man nodded hard, eyes burning with fighting spirit. "Thanks, bro. Let me handle this one. If I want to catch up to you two sooner, I have to seize every chance to train myself!"
He drew a deep breath and took a giant battle top from his back—his weapon and signature attack.
"Go! Top Charge!!!" Angry Man took his stance and cracked the top into a spin.
"Ahhh—" Skinny Bean Sprout looked even more terrified. "Don't come any closer!"
Seeing this, the corners of Angry Man's mouth were already curling—victory was in sight.
Just a "Wolf"; what could possibly go wrong?
Yet the instant the high-speed top was about to touch its body, an abrupt mutation—an air-snatching cold blasted out from the sprout's center.
The moment the chill touched the spinning top, its forward momentum halted in midair, frozen into a lump of ice, hanging motionless.
"Wha—" Battle intent drained from Angry Man's face, replaced by sheer shock. He had no time to react before the knifing cold hit him. In a blink, he became an ice statue.
"Ah… I'm really sorry; I have a syndrome of cold extremities." The bean sprout hid behind Angry Man's frozen form—its face still frightened, but its eyes full of mockery.
"Please forgive me—for taking your lives…" As it spoke, intense frost gathered in its hands.
"What?!" Smiling Man and Crying Man snapped into combat stances. "What just happened?!"
Fear and vigilance flooded their eyes.
In the next second, the sprout's attack struck. Crying Man couldn't dodge in time and suffered the same fate—now a "human popsicle" standing by the street.
"This is no laughing matter…" Smiling Man, A-Class veteran that he was, dodged several shots in a row, but his hammer got frozen by accident.
"Around-the-World Rampage!" Without hesitation, Smiling Man popped his ultimate—wild-cape hammerwork unleashed as he swung the giant maul, smashing all the ice to powder.
"Huff… huff…" After the furious offensive, he stopped, gasping hard.
The high-intensity burst drained him; his body was in brief post-move stiffness.
Just as he exhaled in relief, an even stronger frost hit. Caught in recovery lag, he was frozen on the spot.
Impossible!!! Smiling Man was thoroughly stunned.
I've seen S-Class heroes fight Demon-level monsters—this one… is… no… stronger than Demon—no, beyond Demon—
[Skinny Bean Sprout]
[Estimated Disaster Level: "Dragon"]
In a humble corner of a marketplace freezer, no one knew how long a single bean sprout had existed.
It was too skinny—so much so that customers coming and going never noticed. Who would deliberately buy a sprout not enough to wedge a tooth?
Originally, it should've lain there quietly until it rotted into mush.
But one day—perhaps it absorbed some unknown energy leaking into the freezer, or perhaps by sheer chance—it awakened.
It left that icy prison that had bound it for so long and saw the outside world for the first time.
At first, it wasn't strong; you could even call it weak.
A slender body, frail limbs—throw it into a pile of monsters and it was the least conspicuous tier. Any low-level monster could seemingly crush it with ease.
But it didn't feel discouraged—on the contrary, it felt fortunate.
Especially after it learned, through various channels, that this world had a colossal entity called the "Hero Association."
It was all the more grateful that though it had been given a fragile shell, it had also been gifted a freezing power with limitless potential—so starkly at odds with its appearance.
"Playing dumb to eat the tiger."
This was the survival law it grasped after countless brushes with death—the one that suited it best.
Thus, Skinny Bean Sprout hid in the dark and, without a sound, raised its power from "Wolf" to the terror-inducing "Dragon."
And today, as if like any other day, the pig-in-wolf's-clothing act once again made it the final winner.
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
A drumbeat of sound suddenly rolled through the narrow street.
The sprout's comfortable smile froze; it snapped its head around—
At the end of the street stood a single man.
He wore ordinary casual clothes; his golden hair was conspicuous even in dim light, and the three signature scars on his face added a touch of ferocity.
A terrifying aura poured off him; thunderous sound rumbled from his chest as he looked at it like a dead thing.
Half an hour earlier—
On his way to Anime City, Lin Mo, whose hearing had also been enhanced, picked up fierce fighting noises from a nearby street.
After a fierce inner struggle, he decided to go take a look.
Come on—what, you think Dragon-level cabbages are common? Ghosts and ghouls fall to a single punch; Lin Mo will take ten at once!
But when he arrived, he immediately regretted it—
Skinny Bean Sprout!
He did happen to recognize this one—and it did happen to be Dragon-level!
In an "One Punch Man" extra, this thing was an old schemer—master of fake-weak, playing only with a tailwind.
Excitement spiked his heart rate; King's "Emperor Engine" thundered through the street.
Hearing the ruckus, the sprout naturally looked over—locking eyes with "King."
In that instant, both had a single thought—
"I'm finished! I'm doomed!"
-------
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