Battle Test

After Z-City was completely destroyed in the battle, a certain Caped Baldy was left homeless.

Fortunately, after this battle, Caped Baldy's hero ranking improved by leaps and bounds, finally breaking into the S-Class Hero category.

Even though they didn't see the real-time battle between the Caped Baldy king and the Space King, all the S-Class Hero still witnessed Saitama kicking the entire alien warship in half.

If someone with this level of strength can't become an S-Class Hero, then there probably aren't many S-Class Hero left in the entire Hero Association.

After becoming S-Class Hero, the Caped Baldy finally got his own house— the Hero Association allocates houses to S-Class Hero.

As for the house that the Caped Baldy used to live in... it was neither his house nor a house he rented. It was just a house that Saitama picked up because no one dared to live in the Ghost Town.

Because of the persistent rumors of Monsters living there, many former residents fled. In their escape, they even forgot to turn off the gas and electricity... It's unclear why the gas, electricity, and water companies continued to supply gas, water, and electricity to that area.

Anyway, Saitama was originally a homeless and unemployed vagrant. Although he lost his "home" this time, at least he finally has a real place to live.

"But... now that you have a new home, why did you come to our House of Evolution?"

In the break room of the Laboratory Home, Vegapunk, Saitama, Dr. Genus, Fubuki, King, Tatsumaki, Genos, and a group of others were gathered around a large hot pot, eating and chatting.

After swallowing the beef in his mouth, Saitama wore a satisfied smile.

"Because your hot pot is the best! I've never had such good hot pot before!"

Upon hearing this, everyone around the hot pot nodded in agreement. Even someone as proud and arrogant as Tatsumaki had to admit that the ingredients at Vegapunk were truly top-notch.

After all, these are ingredients made using high technology. They have been targeted and mutated using Monster Cells, so their taste can naturally surpass that of any normal food.

"Never mind, as long as you guys like it."

Vegapunk shrugged. Just then, Tatsumaki, who had put down her Tatsumaki, frowned slightly and said to Vegapunk:

"I didn't come here just for a meal. That dangerous thing under your Laboratory should be finished by now, judging by the timeline, right?"

"It's not out of concern for you. I just finished dealing with the Monster Association and the alien invaders, and I don't want to cause any more trouble because of you scientists!"

Saitama nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

"Yes, has that thing down there come out yet?! Didn't you say you'd let me see it later?"

"Thank you both for your concern. But actually, my experiment is already over, and the final result was very successful. There were no problems."

"It worked?"

Tatsumaki looked at Vegapunk with a suspicious expression:

"Won't there be any problems? If there really are, you'd better tell us in advance! Don't end up like those unlucky scientists in science fiction movies who rely on wishful thinking and end up killing themselves!"

"It's indeed a success. The entire Underground Level 3 Laboratory on the third basement level has been completely cleaned up."

Dr. Genus ate a takoyaki and spoke leisurely.

"Clean it up... you're not destroying evidence of a crime, are you?"

Genos, the robot, frowned and asked with some doubt.

"If you don't believe me, you can go and see the embryo that has already been born. This Super Monster has already been brought under control by us!"

Upon hearing the doubts, Dr. Genus became even more agitated than Vegapunk, surprising everyone.

"Alright, alright, at worst we'll just show them our results! Although the Super Monster we created this time might not be as good as Saitama, it should be much stronger than Tatsumaki!"

Vegapunk, holding a bowl, said with a smile, his words sounding like advice, but to the certain tsundere legal loli, it was actually adding fuel to the fire.

"What? Ha, you really dare to say that! And what do you mean by that? How could this bald guy possibly be a match for me?!"

As expected, after hearing Vegapunk's words, Tatsumaki was so angry that her hair stood on end, and she floated up, arms crossed, looking extremely displeased.

"Hey, who are you calling 'bald'?"

"Shut up, you bald bastard!"

"You even added the word 'death'! You little dwarf, are you trying to provoke me?"

After a series of loud rumbling sounds, Saitama, covered in dust and dirt, and Tatsumaki, whose forehead veins were bulging and who was almost bleeding from all seven Tatsumaki, finally quieted down.

Upon hearing the words "little dwarf," Tatsumaki immediately went berserk; however, her superpowers were far too weak to deal with the Caped Baldy.

It was precisely because of the backlash from her superpowers that Tatsumaki was feeling dizzy and had a sharp pain in her brain.

Of course, Saitama didn't fare any better. He could ignore Tatsumaki's telekinesis, but his clothes couldn't. In addition, the rampaging telekinesis stirred up a lot of dust, eventually leaving him covered in dirt.

Vegapunk flicked his finger lightly, and the Psychic Barrier that had been surrounding the hot pot slowly disappeared.

If he hadn't set up Barrier around the hotpot and everyone else when the two of them first started making a scene, both the hotpot and the group of people eating it would probably be in a pretty mess right now.

"Alright, Tatsumaki, stop messing around! Do you want to destroy my newly built Research Base again and then come back for compensation?"

Vegapunk rolled his eyes and said something. Tatsumaki immediately shrank back. This natural-born top-level psychic was fearless and had never suffered any major losses since mastering his psychic powers.

It wasn't until she met Vegapunk and received electroshock therapy that she finally encountered someone who could cure her.

The arrogant person turned their head away, pouted, and snorted, but genuinely dared not use their telekinetic powers again.

After this little incident, everyone had almost finished their hotpot meal, so they decided to leave and go visit the Super Monster at the House of Evolution.

Actually, Tatsumaki Fubuki, and the others were a little worried, fearing there might be problems with Vegapunk's research. Saitama, on the other hand, with his rather laid-back personality, had quite a lot of confidence in Vegapunk.

With nothing else to do, the group returned to the Laboratory on the Underground Level 3, but they were all somewhat surprised as soon as they Laboratory.

"It's gotten so much bigger... It's practically the size of the Monster Association! Did you really connect the Laboratory to the Monster Association?"

The group glanced around, their expressions showing surprise. Fubuki was the first to speak and ask.

Vegapunk shook his head:

"The Monster Association's buildings have completely collapsed. It would be better to rebuild them instead of connecting to them!"

"In fact, I did not actually excavate to expand the underground area; I simply used the principle of spatial expansion to extend the original basement space."

"You can actually do something like that?"

Fubuki's face showed an expression of utter surprise, and Tatsumaki's heart also stirred slightly. Was it Vegapunk's spatial ability again?

Although Vegapunk himself rarely engages in combat, Vegapunk did demonstrate incredible spatial abilities during the last major battle. He first teleported away Alien Spaceship, and then used his Teleportation ability to continuously support the battlefield, taking down several troublesome Monsters.

This strange ability and performance reminded Tatsumaki of another person, the S-class number one who saved her when she was a child: Blast.

As the number one hero in S-class, Blast possesses the ability to manipulate space. Therefore, even if Blast is not necessarily much stronger than Tatsumaki in terms of raw power, in a real fight, his performance is much better than that of Tatsumaki, an ordinary Psychic Ability.

It is precisely because of his spatial abilities that this top-ranked S-class hero remains so mysterious, almost undetectable, yet still able to maintain his position and influence as the number one S-class hero.

"The spatial ability is really useful... If this is the case, any apartment I buy that's a few dozen square meters can be expanded into a villa of several hundred or even a thousand square meters, right?!"

Saitama, with an expression of envy, jealousy, and resentment, spoke to Vegapunk, causing Vegapunk to roll his Byakugan involuntarily:

"Saitama, I've discovered you really have a lot of ideas. How about I develop some space in your house too?"

"Really?! Thank you so much!"

The two chatted casually for a few minutes, then passed through several layers of steel doors. Inside the Laboratory, they saw a figure exuding a terrifying aura.

"Is that... the embryo from back then? As expected, it looks incredibly powerful!"

Fubuki looked extremely nervous. King even activated his "Emperor Engine" again. The Monsters in front of them was so imposing that it made people feel terrified.

It still looks like a normal human, but its muscles are extremely bulging, its skin has a platinum metallic luster, and its whole body is covered by tough, close-fitting armor. Through the armor, you can even see the outline of its back muscles, which look almost like a demon's face.

"Is this the Super Monster? Seriously, does he even listen to anyone?!"

Fubuki asked nervously, but instead heard Tatsumaki let out a cold laugh:

"Little Fubuki, you're overreacting. Use your Psychic Ability to sense it carefully. This Monsters in front of you has a completely consistent mental frequency with Vegapunk's —it's less of Super Monster that was created and more of a clone that is completely controlled by Vegapunk!"

Fubuki paused slightly, and after carefully sensing the surroundings, the fear on her face gradually faded, replaced by a hint of surprise:

"Really... he can completely control even Monsters of this caliber?! As expected of Dr. Vegapunk!"

Generally speaking, Monsters are formed from obsessions, making them extremely difficult to control. Furthermore, after transformation, the Monsters's physical body also affects their spirit, causing the spirit to irrevocably develop in a negative direction.

To completely transform it into a clone, like Vegapunk did, is not only to obliterate its spirit, but also to suppress the genetic instincts derived from the physical body.

In reality, Vegapunk also utilized the reincarnation principle of the Otsutsuki Clan, absorbing the advantages of the Monsters's body through the Chakra system, rather than truly taking over the Monsters's body completely.

This situation is less about becoming Monsters and more about turning the Monsters's physical body into Otsutsuki form, thus bypassing the problem of instinctive mental interference caused by the Monsters's physical body.

As for the strange Monsters before them, it was naturally a clone of Vegapunk, with about half of his power separated. This transformation was the result of Vegapunk stimulating his genes with Chakra.

Although this appearance doesn't enhance the clone's strength, it at least gives people a powerful feeling—of course, the most important thing is not to tell these guys that he himself has taken over the embryonic body.

Although Vegapunk didn't think these people would have any other thoughts about it—at least the Caped Baldy never really discriminated against Monsters — Vegapunk still preferred to avoid trouble and wasn't prepared to reveal the secret.

"By the way, Vegapunk, you said this guy is stronger than me, right? If that's the case, let's bring him out and test him! I want to see just how strong your Super Monster really is!"

Tatsumaki's eyes lit up, and she eagerly spoke to Vegapunk. Vegapunk glanced at Tatsumaki, a pleased smile on his face.

"Great! I've been wanting to see his fighting ability, so I'll have to ask Long Jue to test him for me!"

It's great that someone is willingly offering themselves up to be beaten!

As soon as he finished speaking, Vegapunk's electromagnetic force manipulated the entire Laboratory. In an instant, a blue Space Gate opened directly in front of the "Super Monster," and another identical Space Gate appeared in front of Tatsumaki.

"Let's go to the Testing Ground. Everyone, let's observe our combat capabilities! The Testing Ground are a bit special, so everyone needs to be prepared first..."

"No need, it'll only take a few minutes anyway, I'll finish this test quickly!"

Tatsumaki crossed her arms, interrupting Vegapunk's words, then floated in mid-air and arrogantly passed through the Space Gate.

As she passed through the Space Gate, a terrifying gravitational force acted on her petite body, pressing her to the ground. She then clutched her neck, nearly suffocating to death.

"Hey... I told you, the Testing Ground is very special..."

Vegapunk then walked in, clutching his head with a helpless expression. After that, the group of people squeezed in through the Space Gate.

The vast, yellowish-brown earth was covered by a pale blue energy shield overhead. Endless gales howled wildly, crackling and popping against the Energy Shield.

What shocked everyone the most was that, through the Energy Shield and the gale, everyone could vaguely see the infinite cosmic sky above them—a sight that should never appear on Earth!