Refusing moral blackmail

"How could a giant that huge be so hard to find?" Baicang wondered, baffled.

Ruins lay everywhere nearby, but he could find no traces left by the giant. Everything looked as though it had been swept away by fierce winds and massive shock waves.

"An earthquake?"

Baicang suddenly felt the ground shaking continuously, as though an earthquake had struck.

But he doubted it was an earthquake. More likely, Saitama had already found the giant, and their fight was causing the tremors.

Sure enough, the shaking stopped within a few minutes. Knowing the giant was probably done for, Baicang hurried in the direction the tremors had come from.

Now was the perfect chance to reach the scene and find any potion remaining on the giant's hands.

Unfortunately, things never always went according to plan.

For someone like Baicang, who needed his phone's navigation even to find a criminal gang's hideout, getting lost in a devastated city with its network down and no signal was hardly a surprise.

Especially with ruins all around him, Baicang could only use the sun overhead to tell which way was up and which way was down...

After wandering around for over ten minutes, Baicang finally discovered a footprint left by the giant.

He was about to inspect it to work out which direction the giant had gone, but as soon as he approached, a strong, sour stench hit him.

"The anime never said the giant had athlete's foot!" Baicang pinched his nose and hurried away.

After wrestling with the idea for quite some time, Baicang decided to abandon that dangerous plan.

With no other choice, he climbed a taller pile of rubble nearby, roughly worked out the giant's direction, and headed toward where it might be.

Along the way, Baicang encountered quite a few residents who had failed to reach the shelters in time. Some had been hiding nearby and ran out when they saw him, following behind him. Baicang did not turn them away.

Others were injured, and there was little Baicang could do except ask the uninjured people following him to care for them. As for those buried beneath the rubble, he saved whoever he could. Those he couldn't...

"Hurry over and carry her out!"

Baicang shouted as he lifted a collapsed wall. Several young men behind him quickly stepped forward and carried away the woman trapped underneath.

Afraid it might collapse again, Baicang gently lowered the wall.

He let out a breath, brushed the dust off his hands, and looked at the crowd behind him.

What had started as three or four people had now grown to over twenty, all of them looking battered and bedraggled. Several young women were tending to the woman he had just rescued, bandaging her wounds.

Baicang, meanwhile, looked troubled.

Sigh, this won't do. At this rate, forget the corpse starting to stink-it might have rotted away before I even get there.

"Thank you. Are you a hero?" After receiving some basic treatment, the rescued woman forced herself upright to thank Baicang.

"I'm the C-Class hero Baicang. I'm only doing my duty." Baicang struck a brave, fearless pose.

Troubled or not, he still had to keep up appearances.

"Could you help me find my daughter?" The woman looked at Baicang hopefully.

"My daughter and I got separated by the crowd on our way to the shelter. I came out to look for her, but I couldn't find her. She should be somewhere around here, though..."

Baicang scratched his head awkwardly. "I... I'll do what I can..."

Why did things have to keep piling up right at the crucial moment?!

Annoyed at himself for becoming too kindhearted, Baicang seethed inwardly. Damn it... Mizuki's been a bad influence on me. I'll have to teach her a proper lesson next time!

Still, he could not change his plan so easily.

Standing on high ground, Baicang called to the crowd, "Everyone, I've received word of an urgent assignment. I need to head to the scene. Stay here and wait for rescue."

"What?"

Quite a few people cried out in surprise, not expecting Baicang, who had been protecting them all along, to leave so suddenly. Still, none of them said anything more. Even the woman who had just asked him to find her child merely lowered her head.

"Sorry," Baicang murmured to the woman, turning to leave.

"Aren't you a hero?! You can't leave! What if a monster attacks us after you're gone?!"

At that moment, a middle-aged man wearing glasses shouted at Baicang. Judging by his smart suit and polished shoes, he was probably a manager or something similar.

The bespectacled man addressed the people looking at him. "He's a hero! We've paid money to the Hero Association! He has a responsibility to protect us!"

Baicang remembered hearing cries for help beside an overturned car and pulling this man out of it. Back then, the man had been tearfully grateful. Now, though...

Seeing everyone remain silent, Baicang understood what they meant.

If he left now, this man-or someone else in the group-might post what had happened online and report him to the Hero Association. His career as a hero would probably become rather unpleasant afterward.

"You have a problem?" Baicang couldn't care less about any of that. Smiling, he walked toward the man.

"You! What... what are you going to do?!" Seeing Baicang's dangerous smile, the man could not stop backing away.

"Don't go. I just want to chat."

Baicang appeared beside him in an instant and hooked an arm around his shoulders as though they were best buddies.

Terrified, the man tried to escape, but he could not break free of Baicang's arm. He could only force himself to stay calm. "What do you want? Was anything I said wrong?! There are plenty of witnesses here. Don't try anything!"

Baicang looked puzzled. "Why would I try anything? What are you thinking?"

Then he slipped into full actor mode, looking at the crowd with a sorrowful expression as he spoke slowly. "Sigh... Actually, as you all know, I'm only a C-Class hero. With a disaster on this scale, I originally had neither the qualifications nor the ability to come in here."

"But my late master taught me that with great power comes great responsibility. I was too worried about the injured people in D City, so I had no choice but to use my school's secret technique to forcibly raise my strength to A-Class. Only then could I help you. But now, the technique is about to wear off."

"Once time runs out, I'll be in unbearable pain and instinctively attack anyone near me. Something terrible will happen to anyone who touches me. That's why I had no choice but to lie to you and leave."

As though playing along with Baicang, the bespectacled man clutched his backside and collapsed under everyone's astonished gazes.

"Argh!" The man's face turned deathly pale, cold sweat pouring from his forehead. Frightened by the sight, everyone hurried away from Baicang.

"Sigh..." Seeing their reactions, Baicang let out a long sigh. Looking downcast and utterly disheartened, he turned and walked away, shaking his head.

"Please..." The woman Baicang had just rescued tried to say something more, but he heard her and raised a hand to stop her.

"I'm a hero. Helping you is my duty. As for the consequences, I'll bear them alone. There's no need to say anything else."

Under the crowd's guilt-stricken gazes, Baicang walked farther and farther away...

Only after Baicang's retreating figure had vanished from sight did everyone turn back to the man lying on the ground nearby.

By then, the back of his beige suit trousers had begun turning shit yellow.

Noticing everyone staring, he desperately wanted to flee, but his backside kept straining nonstop. He could not stand up at all.

Overwhelming shame and panic drowned out his reason. The man, already in his forties, lay on the ground crying like a child.

A kindhearted person tried to help him up and nearly caught a fart in the face.

"Trying to morally blackmail me?! I'll blackmail you first!"

Cursing as he walked, Baicang pulled an employee badge from his pocket. He had just borrowed it from that man.

He was not about to let someone like that off so easily.

"Chiba Bank... Manager Da Cheng Jungui. Why is it Chiba Bank again?"