Mission Day 1: Sunny
Today is the first official day of my assessment mission.
As the saying goes, "Before the troops move, the supplies must be ready." To complete a mission well, early preparation is essential.
Thanks to the brilliant Chairman Aomori, I successfully received my mission funds.
Although the amount of funding was a bit beyond my expectations, considering how the Hero Association is flourishing under the brilliant leadership of Chairman Aomori, it's not that surprising.
As a professional who has seen the world, I can naturally face this large sum of money with composure.
To live up to Chairman Aomori's expectations, I have decided to record the use of every cent of the funds and never spend a single penny recklessly.
Following the address provided by Chairman Aomori, I successfully found the target's residence and rented a room nearby. I am using a telescope to observe the target's every move through the window.
According to today's observations, the target is unemployed, lives in poor conditions, and enjoys manga. However, the possibility of this being a complete disguise cannot be ruled out. Further observation is required.
...
Mission Day 2: Sunny
Today is the second day of my assessment mission.
Based on yesterday's observations, the target is clearly not an early riser.
However, years of habit meant I was up early, and as expected, the target was still asleep.
The target finally appeared around 9:00 AM.
This time he had a new routine: exercising at home, specifically 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats.
After finishing, he went out for a run, looking exhausted.
I followed him, and not long after, an accident occurred.
A mud monster appeared and attacked a pedestrian. As soon as I saw it, I did not hesitate to stand in front of the pedestrian.
Faced with a mud monster whose disaster level was at least Tiger, I was clearly no match. But thanks to my efforts to stall it, the pedestrian managed to escape.
However, in my carelessness, I fell for the mud monster's underhanded trick and was swallowed into its body.
In that moment, I thought I was going to die. But as soon as I thought of Chairman Aomori's kind smile, my heart was filled with strength, and I silently endured, waiting for an opportunity to escape.
But before I could find a chance, the mud monster was defeated. And the person who defeated it was my target!
He said: "I'm Saitama. I'm a hero for fun!"
In an instant, I understood the deep meaning behind Chairman Aomori giving me this assessment mission.
The observation is a ruse; the learning is real!
Saitama-san possesses great strength but deliberately endures loneliness and tempers himself through a life of poverty. He is a true hero who has transcended low-level interests and possesses noble sentiments!
The far-sighted Chairman Aomori wants me to take him as a role model and learn from his excellent style. The high funds were the first test.
In order to learn the essence of Saitama-san's noble spirit, I have decided that from today on, I will seal away all the mission funds and only use my own meager savings to get through the remaining 12 days.
From this moment on, I will take Saitama-san as my role model and imitate his every action at all times, hoping to learn valuable experience from it.
…
At night.
After finishing the second day's observation diary, Glasses paced back and forth in his room with excitement.
In the morning, he had mostly just nearly suffocated; he had no external injuries, so he was quickly able to move around.
Looking at the completed diary, a wide smile spread across Glasses' face.
Although, as a former office worker, he had habitually beautified himself a little bit, that wasn't the point.
The point was that he had finally found the core of the assessment task. He felt that this wasn't an assessment, but more like a rare opportunity.
Tomorrow, he planned to train with Saitama.
"Senpai, I've mastered the secret to passing the mission. Are you also about to succeed?"
...
"No, it's too hard!"
In front of the massive boulder, Mumen Rider lay on the grass. His bandage-wrapped hands were once again seeping blood, leaving a stack of red marks on the rock.
However, there wasn't a single crack on it.
"How on earth can I break this boulder?" Mumen Rider folded one arm over his forehead, unable to help but think of the scenes from a few days ago when he had asked several instructors for advice.
...
Instructor Bang was highly respected and seemed the most reliable, so Mumen Rider sought him out first.
He was also the easiest instructor to find. According to many insiders, Instructor Bang had recently become addicted to fishing by the lake; even though he never caught anything, he still enjoyed it immensely.
Therefore, Mumen Rider easily found Bang fishing by the lake.
"Instructor Bang, please teach me how to break the boulder!" Upon seeing Bang, Mumen Rider first gave a deep bow and then made his request directly.
"Sure. If you learn my signature martial art, Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, you can easily break a boulder." Bang put down his fishing rod and struck the pose for Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist. A powerful aura spread out, scaring away countless small fish and shrimp.
"Really?!" Mumen Rider was overjoyed. He asked, "How long will it take to learn?"
"Hmm, with your aptitude, it shouldn't take too long. About five or six years."
"Five or six years?!" Mumen Rider said somewhat awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Instructor Bang, but I want to pass the assessment mission, so I only have about 10 days."
"I see." Bang put his hands behind his back, thought for a moment, and said, "With your current physical fitness, it's not easy to shatter a rock. You'd need to output at least 120% of your power."
"120% of my power?"
"That's right. If you were a martial artist with good body coordination, you could easily reach that value. But you're just a novice, so you usually only have an output of 60% or 70%. A lot of power is unintentionally lost because your movements aren't standard."
"Then what should I do?" Mumen Rider seemed to understand, yet didn't quite understand.
"How about this: I'll teach you a punch movement first. After you're familiar with it, you should have an output of 80% or 90%. As for the rest, it'll depend on your luck."
"Alright! Thank you very much!"
So, after learning that punch movement from Bang, Mumen Rider went to find the second instructor, the muscular Darkshine, hoping to learn how to increase his strength from him.
Darkshine spent more than 10 hours a day in the gym and was also easily found by Mumen Rider.
"Instructor Darkshine, please teach me how to break the boulder!" Mumen Rider repeated his request.
"Sure! Come and train your muscles with me first." Seeing someone who wanted to increase their strength, Darkshine was very happy. He immediately tried to drag Mumen Rider into a workout.
"Wait a moment, Instructor Darkshine. I want to pass the assessment mission, so I only have about 10 days," Mumen Rider explained again.
"Only 10 days? That's going to be a bit difficult." Darkshine pinched his muscles and said, "My muscles took several years of constant training to become like this. It can't be done in just 10 days."
"I see. Thank you very much!"
After failing to get results from Darkshine, he went to find the remaining instructor, Flash.
Flash came and went like a phantom and was unsociable, so his whereabouts were the hardest to track. This was why Mumen Rider had placed him last.
After working incredibly hard and crossing mountains and rivers, he still couldn't find Flash.
In the end, it was Flash himself who appeared before Mumen Rider and asked coldly, "What are you looking for me for?"
"Instructor Flash, please teach me how to break the boulder!" Mumen Rider made his request for the third time.
"Break a boulder? Oh, it's your assessment mission." Flash's intelligence gathering was quite good; he knew there were two Class C heroes that Chairman Aomori favored and had set unique assessment tasks for.
"I advise you to give up. This isn't something an ordinary person like you can do. Back then, I don't know how many times I went through hellish training that almost killed me, and it took years before I had the strength to shatter a rock at the age of 10. And you? Your talent is mediocre, and your physical fitness is poor. After just 10 days, why would you have such an ability?"
Flash's words were like cold blades cutting through Mumen Rider's heart.
"No matter what Bang and Darkshine told you, impossible is impossible. Don't waste your energy."
After saying this, Flash turned to leave.
Mumen Rider lowered his head and suddenly shouted, "I know!"
"Hmm?"
"I've always known! I'm just an ordinary person; I can't compare to you guys. But no matter what, I just can't bring myself to say the words 'give up'! If I don't try and work hard until the very last moment, how can I be satisfied?!"
Faced with Mumen Rider's hysterical roar, Flash's expression didn't change at all. He turned around and said, "Then burn your life. Without reservation, focus all your strength and throw a punch at the target. If one punch doesn't do it, then two. If two don't, then ten. If ten don't, then a hundred! See who is harder, you or the rock. That is the only way."
Leaving those words, Flash disappeared.
"Burn my life?" Mumen Rider muttered it several times before it clicked. He bowed respectfully toward where Flash had vanished. "Instructor Flash, thank you very much!"
...
Returning from his memory, Mumen Rider gave a bitter smile. "Burning my life... that's not exactly easy to do."
Even if he had made up his mind at the beginning, once he started swinging his fists and they hit the hard rock, the intense pain brought with it intrusive thoughts that invaded his mind.
"It's just an ordinary assessment mission. Is it necessary to go this far? What if my hands are ruined? What if I'm disabled? Then I might not be able to be a hero anymore."
"Glasses said it too, right? Maybe it's not really necessary to break the rock. Maybe showing the process of working hard is enough."
"Give up, give up. You're just an ordinary person; just do what an ordinary person should do."
Mumen Rider's eyes were full of confusion. "Would it be better to just give up?"
Let's make a promise. We both have to pass this assessment!
Yeah!
So, do you want to give up?
In the future, if you encounter a monster you can't beat, will you also say it's impossible and run away from the people who need you?
Two frozen images jumped out of his mind, vividly appearing before him.
Mumen Rider smiled. He stood up, walked to the boulder, and followed Bang's instructions to meticulously set his punching posture. His bright eyes were fixed on the red marks on the rock.
"How could I possibly give up?! If an ordinary person chooses to give up when faced with something impossible, then I won't be an ordinary person from now on."
"Right now, I am a hero!!!!!"
Mumen Rider used all his strength to throw punch after punch at the boulder. Even if his hands became a bloody mess, even if it hurt terribly, he gritted his teeth and swung his fists with all his might.
"I'm the hero Mumen Rider ! Hraaah!"
Thud, thud, thud...
The sound of fists colliding with rock echoed across the lakeshore like a stirring drumbeat, scaring away hundreds of birds.
A hundred meters away, on the thick branch of a large tree, Aomori stood there, smiling as he watched Mumen Rider continuously throw heavy punches that burned his life.
"Is this really okay?"
From the other side of the tree, Flash, with his long flowing hair and slender figure, asked the question.
"Don't worry. The human body isn't that fragile; it's not something an ordinary rock can break."
"What is your purpose for setting this kind of task? Don't tell me it's on a whim. As an S-Class hero with administrative power in the Hero Association, I won't accept that reason."
"You're the first S-Class hero to be so clear about your own power. I find that very encouraging; it shows you have quite a sense of belonging to the Hero Association." Seeing Flash's displeased expression, Aomori immediately became serious. "Have you heard of the Limiter theory?"
"Limiter theory?"
"Everyone has a Limiter inside them. You can think of it as a limit; no matter how hard you work, you can't break through its shackles. The more talented a person is, the higher their Limiter is, and in theory, the stronger they can become."
Aomori looked in Mumen Rider's direction and said, "In other words, the less talent someone has, the lower their Limiter is, and the lower the limit they can reach. However, once the Limiter is broken, one can grow without limits and become an invincible person."
"So, you want to use this method to help him break his Limiter?"
"If Limiters were that easy to break, invincible people would be everywhere. I just want to break the Limiter in his mind first, to make him realize what a precious treasure the human body is. Even an ordinary person can grow into a non-human with superhuman strength."
"Hmph. What a load of nonsense, this Limiter theory." Flash drew his thin sword and said, as if making a declaration, "Even if there really is a Limiter, I will cut through it with my sword!"
"With that kind of attitude, you truly are an S-Class hero the Association values," Aomori said, lightly clapping his hands. "By the way, you care so much about Mumen Rider. Are you interested in his potential and thinking about taking him as a disciple? But for now, you can't secretly help him cheat."
"Who said I care about him? And I certainly won't help him!" Flash was a bit embarrassed. "I was just bored and asking casually. Besides, he doesn't look like a ninja; he looks more like a knight."
After saying that, he didn't even say goodbye to Aomori and simply walked away.
Aomori smiled and also jumped down from the tree branch, arriving at Mumen Rider's side.
Just as they were speaking, Mumen Rider reached his limit and lost consciousness due to his body's protective mechanisms.
Pulling out the Amadam Spirit Stone, Aomori thought for a moment and then put it back into his system inventory.
Although with Mumen Rider's spirit, he would likely be able to avoid the side effects of the Amadam Spirit Stone, Aomori was still unwilling to let him take such a risk.
Using a Healing Spell to treat him, Aomori then quietly left.
On the grass, Mumen Rider had a ruddy complexion and was sleeping peacefully.
Beside him, on the boulder, amidst the layers of red punch marks, a spider-web crack the size of a face was clearly visible.