The intense pain made Lin Mo let out a low growl, his hands braced on the ground, veins bulging from his arms and neck.
He could clearly "hear" his bones creaking under the strain, as if they were being crushed and then reshaped; he could also feel his muscle fibers tearing one by one, only to be replaced by tougher, stronger new tissue.
His skin turned crimson, and as soon as sweat seeped from his pores, it was instantly evaporated by the high temperature of his body, turning into white mist that enveloped him completely.
This process lasted for an unknown duration. When the wave of heat finally receded, replaced by an even more immense vitality, Lin Mo collapsed onto the floor as if exhausted, gasping for air.
A faint smell of scorching permeated the room.
He slowly propped himself up, his clothes drenched in sweat, yet he felt no fatigue whatsoever.
On the contrary, an unprecedented, powerful feeling, strong enough to make him want to howl at the sky, filled his entire being.
Lin Mo slowly clenched his fists.
As his fingers closed, the surrounding air seemed to emit a dull hum.
He could feel an indescribable, terrifying power contained within that fist.
He stood up, and with a slight movement, his figure left a faint afterimage in place.
His neural reaction speed and dynamic vision had both improved geometrically.
Is this… the feeling of 500 attribute points?
Lin Mo looked down at his hands, the powerful sensation so real.
Having consumed 123,000 energy points, he still had over twenty thousand points left in his account.
"I'll save the rest for now," Lin Mo mused.
"If I encounter a monster I can't defeat later, I can still fully charge a Dragon-level Energy Blast as a last resort."
He rotated his arms, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds.
At this moment, his heart was filled with an urge to test the limits of his own strength.
He really wanted to throw a normal punch at the wall in front of him, in his current state, to see what kind of destruction it could cause.
But he had a strong intuition that the apartment building in front of him would absolutely not withstand a serious punch from him!
It might not even withstand a non-serious punch.
Ultimately, Lin Mo gave up on this dangerous idea.
He glanced at the room, which, though not large, was filled with a sense of familiarity, and sighed helplessly.
Having lived there for so long, he had grown accustomed to it—the game console, the manga, the comfortable bed… If he were to demolish his home by testing his strength, forcing him to move, he would be very reluctant.
Helplessly, he picked up his phone, which was lying nearby, and lit up the screen.
In an instant, a flood of information surged in; the internet had already completely erupted due to the incident in City A.
The headlines of major news websites and social media, without exception, were dominated by shocking phrases such as "[God-level Disaster] Alien Spaceship Invasion," "City A Reduced to Ruins," and "Largest Ever Gathering of S-Class Heroes."
Countless on-site photos and blurry videos were circulating wildly online. Amidst their panic, the public was also frantically discussing which hero had resolved this unprecedented disaster.
Soon, amidst widespread anticipation, the official announcement from the Hero Association was published across all official channels, pinned with the highest authority.
In the announcement, the Association first expressed deep condolences in a somber tone to all victims of the City A disaster, and pledged to mobilize all resources to promptly commence subsequent rescue and urban reconstruction efforts.
Following this, the announcement described the battle in relatively vague terms, highly praising all participating S-Class Heroes, calling them "the sturdy shield of human civilization."
And on the most crucial question of "who was the ultimate victor," the announcement read:
"…At the most critical moment of the battle, A-Class Hero 'Bald Cape' Saitama, witnessed by S-Class Hero KING and S-Class Hero Silver Fang, displayed decisive power, successfully defeated the leader of the alien invaders, and destroyed their mothership, earning the primary credit for the victory of this incident."
"Given his outstanding contributions in this disaster incident, the senior leadership of the Hero Association, after an emergency meeting, unanimously decided to exceptionally promote A-Class Hero 'Bald Cape' Saitama to S-Class Hero, with his ranking provisionally set at 18th."
"His hero name… remains unchanged."
Upon seeing this, Lin Mo nodded, a look of approval on his face.
The Association's handling was very clever; they did not attribute all the credit directly to Saitama, but rather emphasized the witness of "KING" and "Bang."
This way, it affirmed Saitama's strength and also leveraged the immense prestige of KING and Bang in the hero world and among the public, providing the most authoritative endorsement for Saitama's "meteoric rise," minimizing all possible doubts.
Indeed, in the comment section below the announcement, although many people expressed shock and disbelief that an A-Class Hero could achieve such a feat, as soon as someone raised a question, more people would immediately retort:
"Is the commenter above new? Didn't you see what the announcement said? This was personally witnessed by two bigshots, KING and Silver Fang; how could it be fake?!"
"Exactly! Who is KING? strongest man on earth (title/epithet)! If he says who did it, then that's who did it! Does he need to lie for an A-Class Hero?!"
"I always felt this Bald Cape was extraordinary! I was at the scene of the Z-City meteor incident last time, and it was definitely him! Now the truth is finally revealed!"
"My goodness, a man recognized by both KING and Silver Fang, just who exactly is this Bald Cape?!"
Watching these comments, Lin Mo's last trace of worry dissipated.
"But seriously… is keeping the hero name unchanged for real?"
Lin Mo saw the last sentence of the announcement and couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Which S-Class Hero is called 'Bald Cape'… Hahaha… The plot holes are just too dense."
He could almost imagine the stunned expression Saitama himself would have upon seeing this announcement.
"Now… the monsters are in for a rough time," Lin Mo said with a chuckle, though a hint of pity flashed in his eyes.
Saitama becoming an S-Class Hero meant that his channels for receiving missions were no longer so restricted. Subsequently, more powerful Demon-level and even Dragon-level monsters would encounter Saitama.
With his style of "solving any enemy with one punch," it would undoubtedly be a bloodbath for the entire monster world.
A legend named "Bald Cape" would become their most terrifying nightmare.