First encounter with a monster

"Is there anything else?"

Bai Ye's tone was cold.

"N-no... nothing..."

Tank-Top Tiger had lost all his earlier arrogance. For a moment, he was too frightened to think straight.

"Get lost."

Bai Ye had never considered Tank-Top Tiger worth his attention.

"...Yes."

Still dazed, Tank-Top Tiger answered instinctively.

Only after Bai Ye had left the Hero Association did Tank-Top Tiger finally realize how humiliating his behavior had been.

There were still so many people watching!

Tank-Top Tiger was overcome with shame, his face burning.

The stares from everyone around him felt piercing. Humiliated, he immediately lashed out in anger. "What are you looking at?! Keep staring and I'll beat you up!"

The others could only look away, pretend nothing had happened, and go back to their own business.

It wasn't as though everyone present was a C-Class hero or an outsider visiting. There were a few B-Class Heroes, too.

But apart from the [Blizzard Group], hardly any B-Class Heroes wanted to offend Tank-Top Tiger, either. The Tank-Top Army's reputation was simply too formidable.

Only after everyone around him dispersed did Tank-Top Tiger feel a little better.

But afterward, the more Tank-Top Tiger thought about it, the angrier he became. He had actually been humiliated by the lowest-ranked guy in C-Class. It was an utter disgrace.

No matter how he thought about it, something felt wrong. Surely he'd only been thrown off for a moment. How could he really have been unable to touch that guy?

And those eyes had only looked frightening, nothing more.

Once he calmed down, Tank-Top Tiger concluded that he had been bluffed.

Unable to swallow his anger, he also came to resent that guy named Bai Ye for making a fool of him in front of so many people.

By then, Bai Ye had long since put the incident with Tank-Top Tiger out of his mind.

He headed out onto the streets to see if there was anything he could do.

Under the Hero Association's definition of hero activities, apart from dealing with monsters, the bare minimum was something like subduing criminals.

Helping an old lady cross the street only counted as a good deed, not a hero activity.

Of course, that didn't mean doing good deeds was useless.

If someone did enough good deeds, like Mumen Rider, whose frequent patrols and excellent reputation among the public had earned him the top spot in C-Class despite his lack of strength, they could still rise through the ranks. He could even have advanced straight to B-Class, but he knew his own limits and didn't want to.

Right now, though, Bai Ye only wanted to avoid being removed from the Hero Association's roster, so he urgently needed to perform a hero activity.

If he really had no other choice, he would have to activate his "God's Eye View."

With how well he knew the world of "One-Punch Man," he could, for example, go straight to the House of Evolution's base.

Hero activities didn't necessarily require defeating a monster. Even providing useful information would probably count.

The worst-case scenario still happened. Bai Ye wandered the streets for a long time without encountering a single monster.

He was facing the same awful situation Saitama had in the original story: just when he was about to be removed from the roster, he couldn't find any monsters.

Z City was usually fairly safe. If monsters caused trouble in an area every day, all its residents would have moved away long ago, just like in the No Man’s Land where Saitama lived.

At least Saitama had Sonic coming to him of his own accord. Bai Ye didn't have Sonic showing up at his door to hand him credit...

Looks like I'll have to...

Just as Bai Ye was about to head straight for the House of Evolution, he suddenly heard a burst of screams.

"A monster! Run!!"

"Where are the heroes? Aren't there any professional heroes nearby?"

"Help-aaah!"

"..."

Bai Ye's Three-Tomoe Sharingan immediately appeared, and he looked toward the source of the voices.

He immediately spotted a giant potato. More precisely, it was a human whose torso had transformed entirely into a potato, leaving only his head, hands, and legs normal.

Even his head wasn't exactly normal, though, because it had also taken on the shape of a potato.

For now, he could be called the Potato Monster.

[Ding! Host has encountered a monster for the first time. Reward received: 5 points!]

"Justice Crash!"

At that moment, Mumen Rider, the first to arrive, launched an attack on the Potato Monster.

He happened to have been patrolling nearby. Even though he had no idea how strong the Potato Monster was, he showed no fear.

Mumen Rider rode his bicycle at the Potato Monster from behind in a surprise attack. Just before he hit him, he jumped off, sending only the bicycle hurtling toward the monster.

But the Potato Monster turned around in time and rammed his head straight into the rapidly approaching bicycle.

Thud!

With a loud impact, the Potato Monster's head sent the bicycle flying.

The Potato Monster, meanwhile, was completely unharmed, which showed just how hard his head was.

"I'm the Potato Monster, mutated from chopping too many potatoes in a restaurant kitchen! Who dares sneak up on me?"

The Potato Monster immediately began shouting.

"Everyone, run! I'll hold him off!"

Mumen Rider hurriedly shouted.

He spread his arms and stood in the Potato Monster's way. Even though a trace of cold sweat had appeared on his face and he was no match for the monster before him, he didn't retreat a single step.

"That's the C-Class hero Mumen Rider, right? Thank goodness, a hero's here to save us!"

"But can he beat that monster? His surprise attack just failed..."

"Who cares? Let's get out of here!"

"..."

Some people even began questioning Mumen Rider's strength.

"A weak, scrawny human like you thinks he can stop me, the Potato Monster?"

The Potato Monster snorted coldly and charged, looking ready to send Mumen Rider flying.

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in front of Mumen Rider, standing between him and the Potato Monster.

It was none other than Bai Ye.

"?!"

Mumen Rider was utterly startled.

The Potato Monster was startled as well, but he didn't slow down at all. Ramming two people was no different from ramming one.

Just as the Potato Monster was about to crash into Bai Ye, the three tomoe in Bai Ye's eyes transformed into the Mangekyo Dual Kamui. His right Kamui eye abruptly became bloodshot...

The Potato Monster suddenly felt a terrifying suction force. Not only that, his body was twisting, too.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the entire Potato Monster was sucked into Bai Ye's right eye. To everyone watching, he had simply vanished.

[Ding! Host has defeated the Wolf-Level Monster "Potato Monster." Reward received: 5 points!]

[Ding! Host has defeated a "Wolf-Level Monster" for the first time. Reward received: 5 points!]

The Potato Monster was still inside Bai Ye's own alternate dimension, the Kamui Dimension, but the system had judged that he had already defeated him.

It was probably because, once sucked into the Kamui Dimension, the Potato Monster was completely at his mercy.