Inside the patrol car.
Josen started the engine, looking slightly bewildered.
As he raised his hand, a white-quality Common Card materialized out of thin air. Its face depicted a bald man with dead-fish eyes and a carefree grin.
This was the first time Josen had received a fantasy card from nothing more than a brief, close-range encounter.
Did I activate my Stand Ability just now?
Hell if I know!
With any other monster, he would at least have needed a boss fight first, and he would have had to collect the drop himself.
Putting it all down to Saitama's special status as the world's chosen one, Josen finally had a moment to examine the card in his hand.
[Fantasy card: Limiter Fragments] [Card type: Special Card] [Rarity: N] [Description: Unknown fragments of unknown origin.] [Effect 1: ???] [???]
Josen: ?
The question marks on the card left Josen with a head full of question marks himself.
He knew what a limiter was. In the original story, the scientist villain Dr. Genus had explained that it was one of this world's fundamental rules.
Differences in strength between species and individuals meant that living beings had limits no amount of effort could overcome. These kept each creature's growth within a range that preserved its species' survival instincts and sanity. This restriction on growth was called a limiter.
In plain English, some S-Class Heroes were born with talents far beyond those of ordinary people-in other words, more generous limiters. Examples included Child Emperor's genius intellect, Tatsumaki's psychic powers, and Bang's talent for martial arts.
When a human became a monster, the change in species effectively reset their limiter.
The only living being who had successfully removed his limiter while remaining human was Saitama.
As for "Limiter Fragments"...
His Stand's feedback offered not a single word about the function of this automatically generated N-rarity card.
Something that came from Saitama? Josen refused to believe it was a useless card.
He would toss it into his deck to gather dust for now.
The fantasy card deck had no limit on its capacity anyway. Even when Josen threw random odds and ends into it for no reason, it showed no sign of strain.
His chance encounter with Saitama had been only a minor interruption in his workday, yet an inexplicable sense of urgency rose within him.
The monster disasters that terrified everyone else had become precious, potentially nonrenewable resources in his eyes.
Even if the bald guy showed up, he would still...
Have to pay extra!
A month passed.
That month, Z City suffered no major disasters of Demon-level or above, but Wolf-level and Tiger-level monsters sprang up like mushrooms after rain.
Onion Monster, Sausage Monster, Mailbox Monster, Toilet Monster...
Who knew what had set off these monsters of all sizes, mutated from everyday objects? No sooner had one batch been cut down than another appeared.
As Josen harvested them, he seriously began to suspect these monsters were meant to help Saitama grind levels.
It seemed...
He was the one stealing the kills.
Thanks to his diligent police work-or card draws-over the past few weeks, Josen's own strength had risen a small notch.
Unfortunately, card draws depended on fate, not good looks. Even handsome readers like all you Daniel Wus out there couldn't control them.
Held back by the drop rate, he was still working on strengthening his basic stats. In a sense, he was doing exactly the same thing as a certain future bald man.
Meanwhile, Josen noticed that lately, he seemed to feel faint traces of someone watching him whenever he was on patrol.
Yet when he deliberately activated his Spider-Sense to search, he couldn't find where the watcher was hiding.
Finding nothing meant there was no dangerous presence nearby, but Josen quietly raised his guard anyway.
Other people might not know it, but he was well aware that the Monster Association's headquarters lay beneath Z City. With how active he had been lately, attracting attention was inevitable.
Still, there was no shame in building up his strength.
The Hero Association had been gaining momentum recently. When it came to keeping a high profile, they were the regulars on the trending lists.
With them there to handle the fallout, Josen had nothing to fear.
At the Police Station.
"Josen, Chief Xiong wants to see you."
"He wants to see me?" Josen paused in the middle of catching up on his reports and looked up at the young policewoman, whose cheeks had turned pink. "Do you know what it's about, Kyoko?"
"I don't know," Kyoko said, momentarily taken aback. She pressed a pale index finger to her lips, blinking her big eyes as she tried to remember. "Some visitors arrived at his office first thing this morning. Maybe it has something to do with them?"
"Visitors... All right, got it."
The young policewoman left with her ponytail swishing behind her. Josen set aside his work too, then stood and headed toward the chief's office at the end of the corridor.
"PCZ9527 reporting."
"Come in."
Three men in sharp suits sat on the sofa opposite the chief. The instant Josen entered, all three turned to look at him, scanning him from head to toe until he wanted to frown.
What is this, a 3D scan?
"You wanted to see me, Chief?"
"Yes." Seeing the three visitors' gazes grow increasingly fervent, Chief Xiong gave a couple of pointed coughs to bring them back to their senses. "This is Josen, one of our station's outstanding officers. As for the matter you mentioned, you can ask him directly what he thinks."
Huh?
Hearing the displeasure in his chief's voice, Josen was a little dumbfounded. Ask me what I think about what? Chief, are you really throwing one of your own officers to them without even explaining what's going on?
"Yes, thank you for the introduction!" The three men in black suits rose in practiced unison. Their leader thanked Chief Xiong, then stepped up to Josen. "Mr. Josen, it's an honor to meet you! I'm an executive at the Hero Association's Z City branch. Please, call me Bachi." "Hello..."
"Sorry for dropping in unannounced, but we're here to invite you to join the Hero Association as one of our professional heroes. Of course, becoming a hero won't interfere with your regular job. All you need to do is cooperate with our publicity efforts in your spare time. We've already discussed that with Chief Xiong! We're confident we can turn you into the most popular ace hero in Z City... No, in the entire association!"
Suddenly brought into the conversation, Chief Xiong rolled his eyes. "Hold on. I never agreed to that. Of course, if you can convince Josen, I won't interfere."
So they're from the Hero Association, Josen realized.
In a modern city with surveillance cameras everywhere and a phone in everyone's hand, keeping himself completely hidden really wasn't that easy.
No wonder Chief Xiong was so irritated. He had never looked kindly on this private organization muscling in on his turf.
But with government forces stepping in to endorse it, the Hero Association's rise was already a foregone conclusion. There was nothing he could do about it.
Josen nodded, suddenly understanding where that strange feeling of being watched over the past few days had come from.
So their lackeys had been keeping tabs on me!
Well, no wonder my Spider-Sense didn't react.
After thinking it over, Josen replied, "In that case, I'd like to learn more about the duties and obligations of a hero. Would that be possible?"
The association executive named Bachi nodded eagerly. "Of course! We've brought all the relevant materials. We can find somewhere to discuss the details."
Before you continue