Codename [Kamui]

"Is this... am I really seeing this right? Tank-Top Tiger and Tank-Top Black Hole lost just like that?"

"That was a total beatdown! The Tank-Top Brothers couldn't even put up a fight!"

"Oh no, we all underestimated him. He won't hold it against us, will he...?"

"..."

Once everyone recovered from their shock, they burst into exclamations of amazement.

"That was incredible! Even the B-Class [Tank-Top Black Hole] was no match for you!"

Mumen Rider was deeply impressed, too.

"That's why I told you not to worry about me."

Bai Ye replied.

"You're right. I was worrying over nothing."

Mumen Rider scratched his head awkwardly.

"There's nothing else to do here, so I'll head home."

With that, Bai Ye turned and left.

As for Tank-Top Tiger and Tank-Top Black Hole, who were still lying on the ground, whoever wanted to deal with them could go ahead.

There was still enough food in the fridge, so Bai Ye didn't go grocery shopping.

The moment Saitama heard Bai Ye come home, he came over without needing an invitation.

"What's for lunch today? Is there any beef left?"

Saitama asked.

Eating meat was a luxury for Saitama these days, especially beef.

He still couldn't stop thinking about the beef curry from last night.

"Yeah, there's still half of the beef I bought yesterday. I'll stir-fry it in a bit."

Bai Ye replied.

"Great. Sorry for the trouble."

Saitama said.

This time, he had brought over all the ingredients and seasonings he had left at home, planning to cook with Bai Ye.

Half an hour later, Bai Ye and Saitama were already eating at the dining table.

They chatted about everyday things as they ate.

"Haven't there always been rumors about powerful monsters showing up around here all the time? Aren't you scared?"

Saitama asked Bai Ye.

He had already decided the rumors were false. After living here for so long, he hadn't encountered any powerful monsters. They were all small fry he could casually finish off with a single punch.

But everyone outside still firmly believed the rumors, and only now had he finally gotten a neighbor.

And a wonderful neighbor who let him mooch meals, at that.

"Not really. I'm a hero, after all. I'd be pretty bad at my job if I was afraid of monsters."

Bai Ye said naturally.

"Oh? You're a hero, too? What a coincidence! I'm a hero for fun myself. We're not just neighbors, we're in the same line of work! Hahaha!"

Saitama immediately perked up, since being a "hero" was his greatest passion.

"Then you must be pretty strong. It looks like you'd already been living here for a long time before I moved in, and those powerful monsters couldn't do anything to you."

Bai Ye followed his lead.

"I'm all right, I guess."

Saitama replied modestly, keeping a low profile. "Actually, those rumors are all false. There aren't any powerful monsters, just small fry you can take care of without any effort. So you don't need to worry about how safe this place is."

"...Right, right."

Bai Ye nearly blurted out a retort. It's not that those monsters are weak. You're just too strong, Saitama.

But he couldn't act as though he already knew Saitama or knew how strong he was, lest Saitama grow suspicious.

That afternoon, Bai Ye went out again to perform blind teleports from the Kamui Dimension.

His teleportation ability worked by taking him from "point A to the Kamui Dimension to point B." If point B was somewhere he had never visited, he couldn't teleport there precisely.

Simply knowing a place's latitude and longitude wasn't enough to teleport straight there.

To reach somewhere he had never visited, he could only teleport blindly, and there was no telling where he would end up.

Still, blind teleportation had its uses. For example, if Bai Ye randomly teleported to A City, he could then teleport straight to A City with precision the next time he wanted to visit. It was like activating teleport points on different maps in a game.

So right now, Bai Ye was randomly activating "teleport points" in different cities.

[Ding! Host has arrived in Y City for the first time. Reward obtained: 2 points!]

On his first blind teleport, Bai Ye initially had no idea where he had ended up, but the system immediately let him know.

In the world of "One-Punch Man," there were twenty-six known cities, corresponding to the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet, from A to Z.

Cities with adjacent letters were also likely to be geographically adjacent. Y City, for example, was right next to Z City.

Come to think of it, I can earn points this way, too...

Seeing this, Bai Ye became even more enthusiastic.

He returned to the Kamui Dimension to continue teleporting blindly.

Next stop...

[Ding! Host has arrived in G City for the first time. Reward obtained: 2 points!]

[Ding! Host has arrived in H City for the first time. Reward obtained: 2 points!]

During the process, Bai Ye nearly got himself killed when he accidentally teleported into a volcanic crater.

Lava lay directly below him. Fortunately, he reacted in time and teleported back into the Kamui Dimension.

After teleporting back and forth several times, Bai Ye had nearly exhausted his mental energy.

And that was with his constitution already at 43 points. Back when he had first started, just two teleports would have left him drained.

[Points: 22]

Bai Ye glanced at the system panel. With his points now at 22, he began spending them on upgrades again.

[Ding! Host has redeemed "Constitution ×12." 12 points deducted. Points remaining: 10!]

[Ding! Host has redeemed "Hashirama Cells ×1." 10 points deducted. Points remaining: 0!]

[Constitution +12]

[Hashirama cells +1]

[Constitution: 55]

[Hashirama cells: 2]

For now, Bai Ye focused his upgrades on constitution, with Hashirama cells as a secondary priority. Besides those two options, though, there was nothing else he could redeem yet.

With that done, Bai Ye went home to rest.

He would continue blindly teleporting to other cities tomorrow.

Early the next morning.

Before using blind teleports to explore the map and farm points, Bai Ye first needed to complete his interview with the Hero Association.

It was once again at the Z City branch, where several review committee members would interview him in what was also called a "review conference."

A staff member led Bai Ye into a very spacious room.

There were no decorations anywhere. It was simply a large, white room.

A chair stood beside Bai Ye. Directly across from him, four review committee members in formal suits sat behind a long table. One of them was the dark-skinned woman he had met yesterday.

"First of all, congratulations on becoming the top-ranked C-Class hero."

The man seated in the middle spoke first. "As for your Hero Alias, the higher-ups have already come up with one for you."

"Red Eye Man. What do you think of that Hero Alias?"

Hearing that Hero Alias, Bai Ye was utterly dumbstruck and nearly went slack-jawed on the spot.

Could they please not give me such a stupid name?

The thing he had feared most had happened after all. The Hero Association's executives really did use their feet to come up with codenames.

"Please, no..."

Bai Ye was starting to break into a cold sweat. "Can I request a different Hero Alias?"

"You're not satisfied with it? The higher-ups haven't officially finalized your Hero Alias yet, so in principle, you can request a change. Once it's finalized, though, you can't."

The man in the suit replied.

"Then I'd like to request [Kamui] as my Hero Alias."

Bai Ye immediately submitted his request.