"Ah... I said I wasn't coming, so why did you have to drag me along? I'm not short on money, and I never wanted to be a hero anyway!" Rimuru wore a mask, but beneath it, his small face was full of reluctance. His right wrist was being pulled by Saitama as they walked toward the Hero Association.
He was wearing that pupil of the fog city set. Actually, it wasn't that Zi Le's Mall didn't have other clothes; it was mainly because Rimuru was too lazy to look for them, so he just threw this on.
Speaking of which, that schemer Saitama said they were going out to play before leaving, but halfway through, he dragged him over here.
"Get out and get some exercise, some exercise. What's the point of staying home all the time?" Saitama said as he pulled hard on Rimuru's wrist. When he said the second 'exercise,' he was almost pulled over by Rimuru. He gave Rimuru's small hand a hard tug, and after confirming he had moved Rimuru, he continued talking.
Genos simply followed beside Saitama, helping neither of them.
Why did Saitama want to come to the Hero Association? It was because yesterday morning, while eating, he saw the Paradisers on the news.
Then he went out to find the Paradisers, but in the end, people said they didn't recognize him, which made him sad.
Because Rimuru overslept in the morning, he had no idea Saitama had gone out. Naturally, he didn't see the famous scene between Saitama and Sonic. When he heard Saitama grumbling to him that night, he felt terrible.
Damn it!! I missed a famous scene!!
The reason Saitama's fame was so low was that he hadn't joined the Hero Association before. He even saw a sentence on their page saying, 'Anyone who calls themselves a hero without joining the Hero Association is a pervert.'
Normally, since Rimuru hadn't filled out the forms, the Association wouldn't accept him. However, Saitama, being the schemer he is, filled them out for Rimuru himself. He claimed it was for Rimuru's own good—to join and get more exercise, asking what the point of staying home all the time was, as it was bad for a child's physical and mental health.
As for the photo on the form, he had asked Mosquito Girl to take it, of course. Speaking of which, Mosquito Girl's photography skills were quite good, perfectly capturing Rimuru's beauty.
Saitama also anticipated that Rimuru might wear a mask, so he had Genos sneakily scan Rimuru, set the scanned image as the front-facing photo, and even had it printed out. Both photos were submitted together, and Saitama added a special note.
"Rimuru is quite shy, so she might wear a mask. Please take her to the female hero testing area." (Special Note: Rimuru seems to have suffered some psychological trauma as a child and identifies as a boy. Please do not call her a girl in front of her; she won't be able to stand it, and there's a high probability she will hit people.)
It has to be said, Saitama suddenly became incredibly clever at that moment. It's hard to say if it's because he'd been tricked by Rimuru so much in daily life that it was etched into his soul and his desire to retaliate was strong, or if Saitama was just that smart to begin with.
"Damn Old Baldy!! You just wait!! I, Rimuru Tempest, will remember this grudge!"
After hearing Genos explain how Saitama had helped him sign up, Rimuru cursed Saitama fiercely while being forcibly dragged into the Hero Association, still shouting threats.
Of course, Genos definitely didn't tell Rimuru the specific details of Saitama's operation.
Saitama, on the other hand, was very happy. Usually, it was that little girl Rimuru who tricked him; now he had finally tricked her back. He even completely ignored Rimuru calling him his most hated nickname, Old Baldy.
"Stop pulling me! I'll participate, okay? This is so annoying, you damn schemer!" Rimuru slapped the back of Saitama's hand hard, making him let go.
Only after Saitama confirmed several times that Rimuru really didn't intend to leave did he finally let go.
With the mindset of'since I'm already here,' Rimuru figured he might as well try. Anyway, he wouldn't take it seriously in a bit; he'd just take the exam half-heartedly and then wait at home for the rejection notice from the Hero Association.
However, what Rimuru completely didn't expect was that even though he wasn't serious at all—to the point where his performance could be described as intentionally poor—in the eyes of the Hero Association, he was still very strong. He was directly ranked as an A-Class hero, albeit at the bottom of the rankings.
It was completely different from his expectation of being rejected by the Hero Association.
"Excuse me, are you Rimuru?" Just as Rimuru was about to follow Saitama and Genos to the male selection area, a female staff member in a black suit suddenly reached out and stopped the masked Rimuru.
"Huh? Oh, I am. What's wrong? Are you going to reject me?! That's great! I can go home!" Rimuru was startled at first upon seeing the staff member, then spoke to her very happily.
"Uh, no. I'm here to invite you to a different hero testing area." Mitsui, the female staff member who stopped Rimuru, felt an extremely strange sensation in her heart after hearing Rimuru's words, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what was strange.
"Hmm? Aren't all the tests in the same place?" Rimuru muttered in confusion, but he still followed Mitsui to the female hero testing area.
"Um, could you please take off the mask on your face? We need to take a photo for the records here," Mitsui said tentatively to Rimuru as she led him to a photography area.
"Oh, okay." Although Rimuru didn't really want to participate, he still had to follow the procedures. So, he obediently listened to Mitsui, took off the mask, handed it to her, and then sat obediently on the chair, waiting for the photo.
Little did he know, the moment Rimuru took off the mask, all the women present were shocked by his cute little face. It was just too cute!!!
However, they were very professional. The higher-ups had instructed that they must absolutely not refer to Rimuru as a girl, so they just felt envious in their hearts.
The photography staff member suddenly had a flash of inspiration and took an extra photo of Rimuru. Once Rimuru finished and put the mask back on to head to the actual testing area, everyone crowded around to look at the photo.
The photographer also promised the colleagues to develop more copies to share with them, but they had to ensure the photos wouldn't be leaked.
Hearing this, several people immediately looked at the photographer with excitement, swearing they would never let the photos leak—because they couldn't get enough of looking at them themselves, so how could they show them to others?
Actually, the events on the female side were mostly the same as on the male side: side-to-side jumps, running, shot put, whack-a-mole, punching machine, and so on. However, considering the physical strength and bodies of girls, the selection standards were appropriately lowered.
Even so, Rimuru was still the focus of the crowd. Because of the S-Class Rank 2, Tatsumaki, no one mocked Rimuru despite his petite stature.
"Ah... it's finally over. But why do I have to wait another hour to go home? This is so annoying." Rimuru found Saitama and Genos with extreme impatience. When Rimuru arrived, the two had just finished getting dressed.
On the other side, in the female hero testing area, a group of female staff members looked at the machines devastated by Rimuru, completely at a loss for words.
Not only were the round heads of the moles in the whack-a-mole machine smashed flat, but even the hammer was flattened. The punching machine clearly bore Rimuru's tiny fist print. The shot put not only had Rimuru's handprint squeezed into it but was even embedded into the wall.
And this was the result of Rimuru being extremely half-hearted and not wanting to join the Hero Association. Otherwise, Rimuru's side would have been even more intense than Saitama's.
Due to the special nature of Rimuru's situation, the final results were sent to the higher-ups for a decision. Because of this, Rimuru's results arrived half an hour later than Saitama's and Genos's.
"I'm telling you, Genos, you're a robot, and the Hero Association still gave you physical and written tests. Have those guys at the top gone crazy?"
Rimuru's entire being radiated displeasure. Clearly, the results for the Old Baldy and Genos had arrived, so why hadn't his? Damn it!! I want to go home and play games!!
Genos obviously couldn't answer Rimuru's question because he didn't understand the meaning behind the Association's actions either.
But since they asked him to go, he went. It wasn't any effort anyway.
In the end, Genos's results were exactly as Rimuru predicted: perfect scores on both tests, and his hero rank was S.
Old Baldy Saitama's was the same, a C.
"What do you want now? If it's not important, I'll crush you all to death right now!" A voice that sounded like it came from someone with a poor figure and was extremely tsundere reached the ears of the high-level staff.
Looking toward the owner of the voice, she was indeed as the voice suggested—her figure wasn't great, one could even say she was on par with Director Hu.
She wasn't tall either, appearing to be only about ten centimeters taller than Rimuru.
Mitsui respectfully presented Rimuru's test results to her. "Lord Tatsumaki, please take a look at this test data. It's very important."
"Ha?! A mere rookie's data is worth calling me back for?! Are you making fun of me?!"
Tatsumaki was very displeased. Damn it, just a rookie! Tatsumaki didn't hide her dissatisfaction at all, but in the end, she still took the data. After looking through it carefully, the displeasure on her face vanished, replaced by intense interest.
She didn't even use Psychokinesis to make herself fly; instead, she sat on a chair, though she still subconsciously crossed her legs.
"I've finished reading it. What do you think?" After reading, Tatsumaki put all the data back into the paper bag and tossed it onto the table.
"Yes, Lord Tatsumaki. Our thought was to place her in the top ranks of B-Class, but given that person... our final consensus is to let her enter A-Class."
"Hmm, fine. Let's do that," Tatsumaki said and immediately flew up from the chair. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on this Little fellow."
Having received Tatsumaki's answer, Mitsui breathed a long sigh of relief, picked up the stamp on the side, and stamped the A-Class Hero mark on Rimuru's test results.