Z City's tallest building was "Sky Tower," a mixed-use commercial and observation spire, over six hundred meters tall—the city's definitive landmark.
And now it would be the final bastion where heroes faced down a natural disaster.
With a howl of wind, three figures streaked upward faster than the eye could track, landing steadily on the helipad at the summit.
Almost simultaneously, another figure—aged but preternaturally spry—appeared like a wraith: the white-haired, white-bearded "Silver Fang"—Bang.
"Oh? Kid KING, Genos-kun, and… this is?" Bang's gaze lingered briefly on Lin Mo and Genos, then fell on Saitama beside them. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
It was odd to see this bald man in a comically yellow bodysuit arrive at the roof in the same fashion as KING and company.
"My friend."
Lin Mo kept it simple, his eyes locked on the meteor above.
—
The city below had become a sea of chaos.
Amid this apocalyptic scene, a voice rang from the Association's emergency broadcast system through every corner of the city:
"Citizens, attention! Stay calm! We confirm that S-Class hero Mr. KING is currently in Z City!"
"Repeating: the strongest man on the surface, Mr. KING, is here, standing watch over us!"
Countless fleeing citizens stopped in unison.
Tear- and dust-streaked faces tilted up, casting their last slivers of hope toward the highest point of the city—
They searched for the legendary man.
So long as he stood there, hope had not gone out.
—
Genos's eyes were a blur of data, updating faster than ever as he ran a preliminary scan of the meteor.
[Target: Massive meteor.]
[Diameter: approx. 210 meters.]
[Descent velocity: still increasing; has surpassed Mach 15.]
[Time to impact: 6 minutes 28 seconds… 27 seconds… 26 seconds…]
[Estimated impact energy: equivalent to… calculation beyond conventional yield range.]
"Teacher, Mr. KING, Master Bang—please step back."
Genos had never looked more solemn. He moved forward a step, standing between the others and the sky.
"A disaster of this scale—allow me to handle it!"
Even as he spoke, the metal plating on his arms unfolded and retracted, revealing the cores within.
Blue-white light gathered in his palms; his reactors surged to maximum output in an instant.
Heat radiated from him, warping the very air.
"Incineration Cannon—maximum output! Charging energy!"
He aimed both palms at the meteor; the muzzle-like ports flared with terrifying power.
A massive blue energy sphere formed before him, swelling larger, humming. Nearby metal rails glowed red from the heat bleed.
It was the strongest attack Genos could muster—enough to flatten a hill in an instant.
"Here it comes!" he roared.
"—Incineration Cannon!"
A blue beam, more than ten meters thick, tore open the air, blazing with impossible heat, and smashed into the falling meteor.
Bang did not blink. Hands clasped behind his back, he was the very picture of a grandmaster—white hair and beard streaming in the wind, posture as immovable as bedrock.
His dojo was in Z City—his life's work and legacy. He would never flee alone.
Z City's citizens held their breath together, praying for a miracle.
The beam struck dead center.
And a heartbeat later, all their hopes froze.
That beam—strong enough to obliterate a hill—only sparked a splendid bloom of light upon impact.
The meteor's fall did not slow for even an instant.
The dark red mass shouldered through Genos's full-power blast and kept plunging toward the earth.
"How… can this be…"
Shock flooded Genos's eyes. His all-out attack hadn't even qualified as a "scrape."
As his output ended, smoke poured from his palm cannons. The reactor lights dimmed, entering a brief cooldown and recharge.
His legs gave out and he dropped to one knee. His metal body trembled from the overdrive and the shock.
He had failed—utterly.
Despair surged through Z City like a tsunami. The flame of hope that had just been kindled was drowned in an instant.
"Genos-kun…" Master Bang sighed, resignation on his lined face.
He clapped Genos's shoulder—You did your best—then rolled his shoulders. He was about to act.
He knew as well as anyone: if even a marvel of modern technology like Genos couldn't move the meteor, then his Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist likely couldn't either…
Just then, a shrill tearing of air came from another direction.
A robot with a striking, cold industrial aesthetic hovered into midair; a toneless mechanical voice issued from it:
"S-Class hero Metal Knight, here to handle the disaster. Tch—cleaning up your mess again. While I'm at it, I'll test the new equipment's firepower."
Armor plates opened across the robot's frame; dozens of launch ports revealed. A swarm of missiles, trailing long white plumes, spread a lattice of firepower, blanketing the meteor.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of explosions played across the meteor's surface—towering flames and thick smoke.
Each missile packed the punch of a heavy aerial bomb. Such a dense bombardment could erase a military base from the map.
Metal Knight's long-range barrage represented the apex of human weapons tech.
When the rushing meteor ripped the smoke aside, the sight that emerged plunged everyone back into ice.
The meteor was intact—without a single crack.
"Tch. Test failed. Data retrieved."
The robot gave a cold electronic grunt, banked, and withdrew without the slightest hesitation.
The fate of Z City mattered far less to him than his weapon telemetry.
"All right, all right—step aside."
A lazy voice cut absurdly through the silent despair.
Saitama had ambled to the edge of the roof at some point, flexing his wrist as he complained,
"Seriously—if I don't hurry, the supermarket sale's gonna end."
He bent his knees.
A split-second later, the special reinforced concrete platform under his feet spiderwebbed—then exploded—and he shot skyward like a cannon round.
He moved so fast he left a white ring of vapor at the launch point.
On the ground, and on Association monitors, all anyone could see was a tiny yellow speck tearing along a path that defied physics, straight toward the meteor.
"Is that… Mr. KING's companion?" someone asked uncertainly.
"Look! Mr. KING is still standing there! He's commanding his companion!"
All eyes gravitated to the tower's peak—onto Lin Mo, still standing tall, unmoving.
Bang's pupils pinched to points as he tracked Saitama's vanishing trail. His mouth parted—words failed him.
"What astounding power… pure physical strength…"
Up in the air, Saitama slipped beneath the meteor.
He simply raised his right fist in its red glove, clenched, and—at the world-shadowing mass—threw a punch.
"Don't fall on my city, hey!"
The result: that meteor—vast enough to annihilate Z City—shattered like glass struck by a hammer, spiderweb cracks racing from the point of impact before—
—disintegrating in a thunderless bloom.
The entire meteor burst into countless fragments at an altitude of several thousand meters—reduced in a single punch.
"We… we did it!" In the command center, Sitch slammed a fist on the desk, ecstatic.
"As expected of Mr. KING! Of course he had a way!"
Joy was short-lived. An analyst screamed:
"No! It's worse! The meteor's shattered, but the fragments are falling as an indiscriminate citywide barrage! It'll turn Z City into a sea of fire!"
On-screen, a doomsday rain of burning fragments fanned out toward every corner of Z City.
On the roof, Saitama scratched his shiny head, troubled by his own "fix."
Bang's face blanched. He shifted his feet, set his Water Stream Rock Smashing stance, and barked:
"Let this old man do his part! However many I can block is however many I will!"
He prepared to use peak technique to smash the incoming stones.
"Damn—the coverage is too wide! There's no way to handle it all in time!" Genos cried, nearly out of energy, feeling helpless before the fiery rain.
Just then, Lin Mo—silent till now—moved.
"Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!"
A peculiar, powerful sound pulsed—quiet, yet strangely penetrating.
The Emperor Engine's rumble rose over the howl of the falling fragments, clear to every ear, like a sea-calming bell. Panic ebbed in an instant.
"It's KING!"
"Mr. KING is about to act!"
He slowly raised his right hand, palm up. Every eye turned to him.
[Ding! The host is at the center of the world's attention; massive emotions harvested—fear, worship, awe… Converting to energy… Current energy: 20,080!]
"System! Dump every last point into 'Energy Bullet'—charge it fully! Target: all fragments in the sky!"
Lin Mo gave the order coolly in his heart.
[Energy −20,080. Energy Bullet (Demon-level) entering extreme charge… Charge complete! Mode set to composite scatter: 'Blast' + 'Pierce'!]
In an instant, he felt his strength drain away—but he forced himself to slowly raise his right hand.
A formless, surging aura spread out from him.
Under every gaze, a gentle yet dazzling golden sphere budded into being over his palm, swelling.
The light wasn't harsh—rather, it bore a sacred solemnity that made people relax.
"What… is that?" Genos snapped his head around. The instant he saw the sphere, his data torrent went wild—yet he couldn't analyze its composition at all.
Bang shuddered—his set stance slackened without him noticing.
Expression blank, Lin Mo lifted the golden sphere on his palm and gave it a light push.
The sphere drifted free. At first it rose slowly, then streaked into a comet of light, flashing up beneath the "death canopy" of meteor fragments.
And burst.
No sound. No thunder of explosions.
It didn't lance a single piece.
Instead it flowered into tens of thousands of filaments—slender golden rays—spinning a vast net of light across the sky above Z City, precise and all-encompassing.
Z City's residents witnessed the most spectacular sight of their lives.
Every burning, high-velocity fragment—no matter the size—touched the golden mesh and vanished like frost in sunlight, dissolving into the air.
In three seconds, the sky had cleared.
The meteoric deluge that could have erased Z City was gone—erased, as if it had never been.
Sunlight returned, gilding the solitary back of the man on the tower roof.
The world fell still.
On the streets and in the Association's command center, everyone stared slack-jawed—their minds blank.
Bang looked up, lips trembling. The lifelong seeker of martial peak was shaken to his core.
"To divide a single mass of energy so precisely into myriads, destroying all targets at once… such control—unheard of!"
On the roof, Lin Mo held the pushing pose, statue-still.
He wasn't posturing—he couldn't move.
The energy drain left him weak and dizzy, upright by will alone.
Saitama glanced at the unharmed city, then at the solitary figure on the roof, and scratched his head.
"Mm. Pretty good."
A long moment later, the cheer rose—like a mountain collapsing and a sea roaring—from every corner of the city.
"KING!!!"
-------
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