The Hulk suddenly looked like a terrified child crying after being scolded by a strict adult. He frantically waved his massive green hands in front of him to signal Saitama not to come any closer.
The behemoth curled in on himself, and at the exact same time, his hulking body began to rapidly shrink.
The Hulk was completely consumed by fear. He had felt the icy breath of death radiating from just beneath that bald man's fist.
Compared to Saitama, he felt like an extremely weak ant that could be crushed to death at any time without leaving a single trace behind.
He didn't even know how to resist anymore. The beast instinctively knew that fighting back was completely useless, leaving him quietly waiting for his final demise.
The Hulk was utterly terrified. His world-breaking anger had completely disappeared, replaced entirely by pure, unadulterated fright.
The persona retreated straight back into the depths of Banner's mind, cementing a new rule that as long as Saitama was around, the Hulk would never come out to play again.
Hulk's tough green body surface began to fade away into a pale, human complexion. Within just a few seconds, he completely reverted back into Dr. Bruce Banner, who was miraculously left wearing only a single, tattered pair of underwear.
Banner returned to his original state and felt incredibly embarrassed as he shivered on the ground. The situation just now had been truly terrible.
'Was I seriously thinking that I was about to die just now?' he thought to himself.
In fact, he really wanted to just end it all right then and there. It was entirely because of him that the Abomination had been born in the first place, and the catastrophic battle between the two monsters had brought all of Manhattan to a devastating standstill.
The resulting deaths and injuries were completely impossible to estimate at this point. He didn't even know how many sins he would have to pay for to ever clear his guilty conscience.
"Huh?! A human? Can monsters actually turn back into humans?" Saitama's eyes widened in sheer shock.
He blurted out the exclamation as he witnessed the physical transformation with his own two eyes.
'Is this guy a monster or a human?' he thought, feeling a little at a loss. This was the very first time he had ever seen a situation like this.
The loud whirring of rotors echoed out as a military helicopter flew in from the distance. Betty Ross descended directly from the aircraft along a drop rope, desperately shouting as her boots hit the rubble.
"Banner! Bruce is not a bad guy!"
She ran quickly over to Banner, stretching her arms out like a protective mother hen shielding her chick. She looked up at the breezy, unbothered Saitama with extreme anxiety.
"Bruce is not the Hulk, he was forced to fight!"
Betty confided in him with a bitter tone, desperately trying to separate the identities of Banner and the Hulk. She fiercely transferred all the blame onto the Abomination and the military forces that had pushed the Hulk into a corner.
However, Saitama didn't have any interest in her sob story at all. Hearing this frantic woman yell was just giving him a massive headache, so he simply patted the dust off his yellow suit and turned to leave.
Now that the giant green monster had become a weak, ordinary human being again, the threat was over. Saitama couldn't be bothered to care about these complicated messes anymore.
Silently watching the departing back of Saitama, Iron Man, whose armor had been beaten completely beyond recognition, finally left the scene alone. As for whatever nonsense Peter had babbled earlier about anime and manga characters running out into the real world, Tony just brushed it off.
But once he returned to his Malibu beach house and finally rebooted JARVIS, he would soon realize just how serious this unbelievable situation truly was.
Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman left the immediate area to go fish the Human Torch and the Thing out of the debris. The battered Fantastic Four heavily supported each other as they began their long trek back home to the Baxter Building.
They weren't foolishly obsessed with being the strongest, and now they were all completely exhausted. They could only sigh and accept that there were incredibly powerful outsiders in this universe, proving there was always a higher heaven beyond their own world.
A terrifying boss monster that had completely wiped out their entire group in just a few hits had been knocked out in such a simple and rude manner. Things in New York were clearly becoming wildly volatile.
Peter looked a bit depressed at Iron Man's dismissive departure, but he couldn't blame them if they didn't believe the truth yet. Thinking of this, Spider-Man shot out a white strand of webbing and swung away, heading directly toward Xu Mo's villa.
Outside the Manhattan cordon.
The military and police forces had rapidly deployed a massive amount of manpower and resources to pull up a heavy blockade, preventing any curious civilians from entering the quarantine zone. The noisy, clamoring crowds stuck behind the barricades without a television were undoubtedly lagging far behind the breaking news.
These people could only try to find out about the current situation through their mobile phones and social media circles.
Some incredibly bored clout-chasers stood right at the mouth of the ruins, uploading tweets and selfies together to prove that they were at the scene of the attack. However, far more of the gathered crowd were earnestly praying to God that their loved ones and friends were still alright.
A frantic young couple begged the stationed soldiers to go in and save their missing daughter, but they were simply treated with rude indifference. Completely disheartened, they could only stare blankly at the smoking ruins.
Their utter inability to do anything was a tragic portrayal of the weak.
"Someone is walking this way! It looks like a bald guy!"
"I see it too! He's carrying a little girl!"
Some of the sharp-eyed onlookers immediately looked sideways toward the dust cloud. Were the lucky survivors finally making their way out?
When the grieving couple heard this, a sudden gleam of desperate hope flashed in their eyes. They quickly helped each other up off the ground.
The soldiers stared strictly at Saitama as he casually walked out of the devastation. The commanding officer at the head of the barricade seemed to be listening to a radio earpiece.
Looking at the bald man's recognizable face, a flash of realization crossed the officer's eyes, and he quickly ordered his soldiers not to stop him.
Saitama smoothly walked through the military cordon just as the frantic couple struggled to squeeze past the crowd. When they finally saw the little girl holding the bald man's hand, their emotions instantly turned from pure despair to overwhelming joy.
The weeping wife rushed forward, grabbing the little girl and holding her tightly in her arms.
The relieved husband choked back tears as he looked at the savior. "Thank you so much! What is your superhero name?"
The people standing next to the reunited family also broke out into warm applause. They were genuinely happy to see that an innocent life had been successfully saved from the wreckage.
"This big brother is Saitama, Dad!" the little girl in her mother's arms happily interrupted. "He is the most powerful hero who killed the giant bad guy with just one punch!"
She spoke with immense excitement, proudly puffing out her chest as if she were the hero herself.
"He is Saitama?! Teacher Saitama!!!" a random man in the crowd suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs. He immediately hurried over to Saitama, shamelessly begging him for a quick photo.
The husband and wife were a little puzzled by the sudden outburst, and the surrounding civilians were equally confused. This frantic action was exactly like a crazed fan seeing a Hollywood celebrity and completely losing control of their emotions.
But the rest of the crowd didn't remember seeing this bald man on television or in the news at all.
The little girl temporarily broke free from her mother's embrace and shouted back at Saitama. "Big brother, my name is Rachel! I will always remember you!"
At this exact moment, the military officer brought a squad of armed soldiers forward with a strained, polite smile on his face. "Excuse me, hero. Our President and the Secretary of Defense hope to speak with you in detail and listen to an official report of your heroic deeds."
When Saitama heard those bureaucratic words, his eyes immediately went dead and drooped halfway down. "I'm not going. I just want to go back home and play video games."
'What annoying heroic deeds?' he complained silently in his mind. 'Dealing with this political trouble is way too much of a pain. It's much better to just go home and play a refreshing game.'
As soon as this lazy remark came out, the surrounding onlookers were utterly shocked. What kind of video game could possibly be more important than meeting the President of the United States?
Even if politicians were all weird and corrupt, it certainly wasn't an everyday occurrence for a civilian to be invited to meet the President.
The officer clearly hadn't expected such a blatant refusal. He suppressed a sudden spike of irritation and coughed politely.
"Ahem. Our General would also like to ask exactly how you managed to defeat that monstrous criminal."
"It's simple," Saitama answered bluntly. "There is nothing in this world that can't be solved with one punch. If there is, then I just use two punches."
"..."
The entire scene fell into a stunned, pin-drop silence. Everyone was completely dumbfounded as they stared at him in disbelief.
What the hell did this bald guy just say?
Out of the entire crowd, there was only one fanboy who was still extremely excited. He practically glued his body to Saitama as he yelled out at the crowd.
"Yes, isn't it perfectly simple?! You just have to train so hard that you become completely bald!"
When Saitama heard the dreaded word, his face instantly turned a dark, gloomy shade. "You're the bald one! Just shut up already!" he snapped, highly displeased.
Unfazed by the scolding, the crazed fan just happily snapped a selfie with the irritated hero.
The officer glared at the two clowns inconsistently, the blue veins on his forehead practically threatening to burst out from high blood pressure. "Your name is Saitama, correct?" he said sternly.
"As a superhero in this country, you need to be extremely cautious in your words and deeds, and you must agree to be supervised by the government. I hope you can answer my questions seriously."
Following their commander's stern exhortation, the surrounding soldiers immediately leveled intimidating stares at Saitama. As disciplined soldiers, they absolutely hated loose cannons and acts of personal heroism, especially from this kind of completely indifferent individual.
Saitama slowly glanced around at the armed troops before shouting back at the commanding chief.
"Listen to me clearly. I don't need your official recognition to be a hero, I do it because I want to!"
He glared defiantly at the military brass. "Who cares about your ministers, your President, or your supervision? Being a hero is my own business!"
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Word count: 1892
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