BETA and the others felt a chill crawl up their spines.
They had never felt so isolated—so helpless. Maybe… their lives would end here today.
Andrew even began to regret his choice. He was just an ordinary man who wanted to live. Why had he gotten hot-headed and tried to play hero?
As he wallowed in that thought, the people around him suddenly cried out, "Captain, look!"
"Look at what? We're about to—?!"
Andrew's voice cut off.
Because an unbelievable figure appeared behind the roadblock.
"You really celebrating before you've even knocked your opponent down?"
Saitama's trash-talk had grown sharper with experience; invisible verbal slaps stung worse than any punch. The Decepticon "Barricade," who'd just been cackling, suddenly found the air thick with embarrassment.
Worse was yet to come.
Saitama floored him with a single punch.
Screech—grind—
The massive machine body toppled and tried to move, but found no strength at all.
"Big lug, is that all you've got?" Saitama shot back, mirroring Barricade's earlier "bald" jab with a nickname of his own. "You're not as strong as everyone said—just hiding behind that metal hide and calling it power. Back on my planet, you wouldn't even rank above Crablante."
Barricade blinked, confused. In the Transformers' cosmos he'd never heard of any "Crablante." He had scanned Earth's data and learned a great deal about human culture—but he didn't need to think hard to know that whoever that was, Saitama meant "weakling."
"Raaaah! I'll kill you!"
Barricade had ravaged countless worlds with the Decepticons, but never suffered humiliation like this. His frame split with a grinding of servos—
the split-apart technique from the movies: limbs and plates breaking into smaller drones.
Clank—clank—
Five mini-Barricades dropped and encircled Saitama.
"Saitama, look out! Run!"
Andrew and his team had just been elated to see Saitama suppress Barricade, only to watch, hearts clenched, as five mini-units surrounded him.
Then—an upbeat BGM chimed inside the System.
Saitama's trademark deadpan echoed in the air. With two crisp blows—bon, bon—he erased two drones in a blink.
"There's nothing a punch can't solve. If there is—then two."
"My god, that's insane!"
"Wot—ze—ma—ze—fak!"
Andrew's squad felt their very definition of "strong" rewritten. A human… this strong… wasn't human.
Bon, bon, bon, bon!
Saitama fired off four Serious Consecutive Punches—two smashed Barricade's remaining arm-units, one caved the torso module, the last obliterated the body trying to forcibly recombine.
BOOM!
An orange fireball blossomed in the sky.
The Decepticon villain everyone loved to hate—Barricade—was blown to pieces by Saitama.
At that instant, the Decepticon intranet erupted in shock.
Starscream: "Wait—did I just see Barricade get eliminated?"
Ravage: "I—I saw it too!"
Thundercracker: "What destroyed him? Who was it?!"
…Ripple after ripple of exclamation crashed across the Decepticon net. They quickly pulled combat footage from the site and replayed how Saitama blew Barricade apart—frame by frame.
Shockwave: "Incredible. A human of such power exists on this world?"
Wildrider: "That… doesn't add up."
Rampage: "Could he be an Autobot infiltrator disguised as a human?"
Megatron: "If you're unsure, then go ascertain his capabilities. Now. Useless fools!"
Starscream: "Don't be angry, Lord Megatron. We'll probe him at once!"
Whoosh—
The Decepticons, who had been confident they'd soon swallow this planet, suddenly felt a twinge of apprehension about the bald man who'd appeared out of nowhere.
But jubilation drowned that worry out almost immediately as more good news poured in.
Megatron: "Excellent. We now control ninety-nine percent of human cities. It is time to summon our maker—Quintessa."
He stared at the tactical map. Six red markers glowed.
All they needed was the staff left by Unicron upon Earth and a trip to Stonehenge—then they could call home, Cybertron, across the void. With Earth's core-fire, they would restore Cybertron's glory.
On the other side, Saitama noticed a new model pop up in his System as soon as Barricade died—
a die-cast car model: Barricade, Decepticon unit.
According to the System, if Saitama collected three more car models, he'd get a Skill Upgrade Card—able to enhance his Serious Series.
On top of that, defeating Barricade yielded a hefty chunk of EXP.
He could level up again.
"So, beating Decepticon car-forms gives me EXP and levels, huh…"
Saitama realized that while the System only displayed three side quests, as he explored the Transformers world he could trigger all sorts of hidden scenarios. By the time he was done here, he'd be even stronger.
Andrew's team saw Saitama standing still after the explosion and didn't dare disturb him. They thought that last punch—blowing up a missile with his bare fist—might have caused internal injuries.
They began whispering: should they take him to a nearby hospital to scrounge for leftover meds and bandages?
Saitama overheard and answered with three words: "No need."
"People in City-3 need help. We can't waste time."
"Andrew, thanks for coming—but if you keep following me to City-3, you could die."
"Say no more! We've already decided—we're with you to the end!"
And just like that, without even noticing, Saitama gained his first batch of fans in the Transformers world.
(End of Chapter)
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