Red Night Blade

Bai Ye carried the dishes out of the kitchen one after another, and Saitama came over to help.

Once all the food was on the table, the two sat down and performed their pre-meal ritual.

"Thanks for the food."

"Thanks for the food."

Bai Ye and Saitama pressed their palms together and spoke at the same time.

Halfway through the meal, Saitama sighed. "It's been ages since I've had a spread like this."

The beef curry, stir-fried pork with green peppers, scrambled eggs with yellow chives, and other dishes on the table were really just everyday home cooking, but to Saitama, who had been poor for so long, they were indeed a lavish feast.

"Really? As long as you're happy with it."

Bai Ye said.

"To be honest, I thought you'd moved here for the dirt-cheap rent and utilities, just like me. But from the looks of things, you don't seem that strapped for cash?"

Saitama asked.

Although this was an abandoned area, the water and power had never been cut off.

The rent and utility bills were supposedly still collected, at rates far cheaper than elsewhere, but nobody ever dared come here to collect them, so they were effectively free.

Still, almost nobody besides Saitama dared live here. Bai Ye, as someone who had transmigrated into this world, was an exception.

"I might not look it, but I don't have much money left either. I can still earn more, though."

Bai Ye shook his head slightly.

Come to think of it, becoming a professional hero with the Hero Association came with a salary, but the pay for bottom-ranked heroes was so meager that even supporting themselves was difficult.

"I see. I take part-time jobs sometimes when I'm really short on money, too. It's enough to scrape by."

Saitama assumed Bai Ye meant earning money by working part-time at a convenience store or somewhere similar.

Although... being a professional hero with the Hero Association was technically working for someone, too...

Dinner ended.

Both Bai Ye and Saitama had eaten their fill.

Saitama thanked Bai Ye again for letting him join him for dinner.

"No problem. You're always welcome to come over."

Bai Ye offered generously.

"Really? That's great."

Saitama accepted without any fuss. After all, Bai Ye had invited him.

"But I'll try to bring more ingredients and seasonings next time. I'd feel bad otherwise."

With that, Saitama went home.

He took his bag of bean sprouts back with him, untouched.

After Saitama left, Bai Ye sat on the couch and sank into thought.

At this point in the timeline, Saitama probably hadn't joined the Hero Association yet. He certainly hadn't seen Saitama or [Bald Cape-Man] on the Hero Roster.

What he could be sure of, however, was that Saitama was already literally One-Punch Man, because he had gone bald.

Saitama was undoubtedly the pinnacle of power in this world, and Bai Ye had ended up as his neighbor right from the start.

But he knew Saitama's personality. He wouldn't casually kill even monsters, let alone humans. No matter how outrageous or vile a human was, he wouldn't strike to kill.

So while Saitama was the strongest, he was also the person least likely to become an enemy.

The ones Bai Ye needed to worry about weren't Saitama, but the likes of Boros, the overlord of the universe, and Tatsumaki, who never held back.

"I still need to get stronger as soon as possible..."

Bai Ye murmured.

For now, his dual Kamui only allowed him to protect himself, either through Intangibility or by hiding directly inside the Kamui Dimension.

But he had transmigrated into another world. How could he possibly settle for merely keeping himself safe?

Never mind surpassing Saitama, who wasn't a potential threat anyway; he at least needed to be able to take Boros head-on.

Even reaching that level would be far from easy, though. For now, Bai Ye only wanted to keep his feet on the ground and work steadily toward it.

The next day.

Bai Ye began patrolling Z City's residential area early in the morning.

This approach might have been a little foolish, but it was also the most practical.

He couldn't stay home watching television every day like Saitama, waiting for news of a monster before going out to defeat it.

The news only covered relatively serious disasters. A monster generally had to be at least Demon-Level to make the news. To put it bluntly, the Wolf-Level and Tiger-Level Monsters that appeared regularly weren't important enough to get on television.

Saitama still sat in front of the television every day precisely because he hadn't realized this yet.

While patrolling the streets, Bai Ye also bought a phone, mainly to receive messages from the Hero Association.

Come to think of it, the phones in this world didn't even have edge-to-edge screens. Most were flip phones.

Still, he was treating it purely as a work phone. As long as it worked, that was enough.

After fiddling with it for a while, he finished connecting to the Hero Association's official service. From then on, Bai Ye could receive its messages immediately.

[A monster has appeared in downtown Z City. Preliminary classification: Tiger-Level Disaster. Heroes in the vicinity, please proceed there immediately to eliminate it!]

Bai Ye had only just finished setting up his phone when he saw the message from the Hero Association.

It happened to be the downtown area he had visited before, so he could travel there directly through the Kamui Dimension.

Bai Ye's Mangekyo immediately manifested, and he used his right eye's ability to draw himself into the Kamui Dimension...

A moment later, he appeared on a downtown street.

Although the Hero Association hadn't provided an exact location yet, he immediately determined the direction from the screams in the distance.

As the civilians fled, Bai Ye alone headed in the opposite direction, toward the monster.

Soon, a beetle man appeared before Bai Ye.

That was right-a human whose entire upper body had transformed into a beetle, with only his two legs retaining their original human appearance.

Or perhaps [Longhorn Beetle Man] was more accurate, since he had a pair of enormous mandibles that looked capable of easily biting through hard objects.

Longhorn Beetle Man stood over two meters tall, and his strength was probably considerable as well.

"Aaaah!"

Just then, a rather bold blond young man charged forward, swinging an iron rod hard at [Longhorn Beetle Man].

However...

Crack!

Longhorn Beetle Man clamped his mandibles around the iron rod and snapped it clean in two.

"Wh... what?!"

The blond young man froze in shock, then fell onto his backside in terror.

With that kind of destructive power, a human would have been severed at the waist.

This already met the criteria for a Tiger-Level Monster, which could cause the deaths of several or even large numbers of humans.

But in Bai Ye's eyes, this fellow was simply a walking bundle of points.

Defeating a Tiger-Level Monster would presumably earn him more points than a Wolf-Level Monster.

[Ding! The host has redeemed the "Red Night Blade." 10 points deducted. Current points remaining: 0!]

Bai Ye promptly redeemed the Red Night Blade from the points shop. He felt he needed a weapon that suited him.

A katana immediately appeared out of thin air in his hand.

He took half a step forward, and before his toes touched the ground, he teleported in front of [Longhorn Beetle Man].

"Huh?"

Seeing a human suddenly appear before him out of nowhere, Longhorn Beetle Man let out a bewildered sound.

Before he could react, the blade was already slashing toward him.

A flash of crimson streaked before his eyes...