Two Years Later
May 11, early morning.
Inside an old, ordinary room, an alarm clock suddenly started ringing loudly.
A moment later—
BAM!
A fist smashed down on the clock.
With a dull boom, the alarm shattered into pieces, leaving a small crater in the floor.
The bald man who broke it stared blankly at the ceiling.
This man, of course, was Saitama.
After two years of acting as a hero, he had become almost unbeatable — a man whose strength no one in this world could match.
He had grown unbelievably powerful.
Now, even monsters classified as invincible by the Hero Association were nothing more than a light workout for him.
But during that time, most of his achievements had been credited to Louis.
As the so-called "King of Heroes," Louis had been living a rather peaceful life in this world. Whenever an incident occurred — usually caused by Saitama — Louis would instantly teleport to the scene, claim credit for the victory, and win the admiration of the public.
Even so, Louis had started to feel a bit bored.
With his status, he could easily lead an assault against the Monster Association's main base in City Z… but he didn't.
Why?
Because he didn't want to interfere with the world's timeline — and he was still quietly observing, trying to identify the other players trapped in this world.
In each world stage, all players had their powers, skills, and items sealed. Without the system's selection menu, everyone started almost equal.
That's why Louis was curious about what the others had chosen, and what strategies they were forming behind the scenes.
As for Saitama… the inability to lose had left him hollow inside.
Since becoming nearly invincible, he had slowly started to lose parts of his humanity.
He no longer felt fear, excitement, or even interest in most things.
But today — he had a dream.
In that dream, a terrifying army of monsters rose from beneath the earth and invaded the world.
Saitama, with his usual blank expression, charged forward to stop them.
The monsters underground were powerful — strong enough to finally make his blood boil again.
Just as he was about to fight them—
RING! RING! RING!
The alarm went off.
It felt like a cruel joke — like a man about to embrace a beautiful dream, only to be yanked back to dull reality.
At that exact moment, high above the city, someone was flying toward Saitama's apartment.
"Master!!"
A loud voice echoed from the sky.
Moments later, a cyborg crashed through the air and entered the apartment — Genos.
Still yawning, Saitama looked at him lazily.
"Genos, what are you doing here so early?"
Genos answered seriously, "As expected, Master must have been training hard all night. I came to remind you that the fifty-fifth Hero Association test we signed up for is today."
"Oh… that's today?" Saitama blinked. "Totally forgot."
*** *** ***
Somewhere else in the city…
"Alright, everything's ready. It's time to become one of the elite heroes."
The man speaking was a player — the last one who had entered this world before Louis.
He came from a powerful old family — one of the lineages specializing in conquering the Multiverse Tower.
Although players were forbidden from sharing secret world information, families like his had gathered generations of experience to teach newcomers how to survive.
As one of these new-generation players, he had access to far more knowledge than those relying solely on the system's hints.
Instead of taking the Hero Association's public test, he had been secretly building his reputation — fighting monsters and waiting for an invitation from the Association.
That way, his starting position would be much higher.
But when he checked the Association's records, something strange caught his eye.
The so-called "King of Heroes" wasn't listed as King anymore.
Instead, the seventh-ranked S-Class hero was now titled "The Emperor — The Strongest Man on Earth."
"Could another player have changed the timeline?" he muttered.
This player — known as "Gold Sun" — smirked.
"No matter. The first step to earning an S-rank reward from the system is becoming an S-Class hero in this world. But I won't stop there. I'll surpass them all… I'll be the first SS-rank from the system in the "One Punch" world."
A few minutes later, everyone headed toward the Hero Association's test center.
While Saitama, Genos, and Gold Sun made their way there to take the exam, Louis was on a different path — returning to the Hero Association Headquarters in City A after two long years of absence.
Walking through the main gate, he was greeted by a polite receptionist at the entrance.
When she saw him, she quickly stopped him with a nervous smile.
"Excuse me, sir, are you here to see someone?"
'See someone?' Louis repeated in his mind, then replied calmly, "Isn't this the Hero Association headquarters? I'm a hero. That should be enough reason to enter, right?"
The receptionist nodded carefully. "Of course, sir. May I ask what your hero rank is?"
Louis was surprised.
'Have I really been gone so long they don't even recognize me anymore?'
Seeing his hesitation, the woman assumed he was a new hero unfamiliar with the rules.
She explained kindly, "Only heroes ranked B and above can enter the main building, sir. If you're below that, you'll need to use the outer facility."
Louis already knew this rule.
He remembered this exact scene from the original story — when Saitama had tried to enter and been mocked by a certain loli for being 'unqualified.'
The woman pointed politely. "The B-Class passage is here, and the A-Class passage—"
Louis interrupted her calmly.
"Then, where is the passage for S-Class heroes?"
Her eyes widened. For a moment, she just stared at him, studying his face carefully.
Then, suddenly — realization hit her.
Her expression changed completely as she recognized his features from posters and television broadcasts.
She gasped and bowed quickly.
"M-my apologies, sir! I didn't recognize you right away. You're the Hero "Emperor", aren't you? Please, for confirmation, could you scan your fingerprint?"
Louis nodded slightly. "Sure, no problem."
Click!
The scanner beeped, and a synthetic voice echoed through the hall:
"Welcome back, Mr. Emperor, to the Hero Association Headquarters!"
In the next second—
WAAAAAANG!!!
A loud alarm echoed through the entire building. The sound reverberated across every corridor.
Louis blinked in confusion. "What the…?"
He didn't know that ever since the disappearance of the top S-Class hero Blast, followed by the mysterious vanishing of The Emperor two years ago, the Association had been on high alert.
So when the president had installed the security system, he personally ordered that a special alert would sound across the entire headquarters the moment either Blast or The Emperor returned.
And now — that alarm was blaring For the first time in a long time.