United States, a Midwestern state. An enormous mechanical factory that had been abandoned for years.
The rust-eaten buildings lay sprawled across the ground like the skeleton of a giant beast. Outside the shattered windows, wild grass had long since taken over. But inside this place that should've been dead silent, there was a metallic buzzing that made your scalp crawl—dense, harsh, like tens of thousands of metal blades grinding against each other at high speed.
Deep in the factory, a small, agile figure was weaving and flickering between massive rusted machines and conveyor belts at extreme speed—Wasp, Hope van Dyne, the hero who could freely change her size.
She had already shrunk down to insect-size, using the environment to hide as much as possible.
But what was chasing her wasn't an ordinary enemy.
It was a "metal cloud"—a massive swarm made up of countless fist-sized mechanical bees.
Each mechanical bee had metal wings and a metal body, compound eyes flashing with an ominous red glow. And what extended from their tails wasn't a stinger, but a miniature injector—capable of injecting high-intensity corrosive fluid, strong enough to dissolve most metals.
At the center of the swarm was a central control console constantly transmitting specific command signals, hidden deep inside an old mainframe. Hope's mission was to break through the swarm's blockade and destroy that console.
These mechanical bees had been activated by someone unknown. Not only were they aggressive, they could also self-replicate and grow stronger by absorbing the factory's metal scrap. They had to be stopped as soon as possible.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
Countless streams of corrosive liquid fired toward Hope's tiny position like a storm of rain.
She barely dodged in time. The metal pipe she'd been on a moment ago was instantly eaten through with countless little holes, hissing out choking white smoke. She tried to use her small size to slip through gaps and approach the core, but the swarm's sensory system was unbelievably sharp—no matter where she hid, she'd be discovered immediately. The pursuing corrosive shots and physical ramming attacks kept her constantly on the back foot.
"This can't go on…" Hope took a brief moment to catch her breath in the shadow of a screw hole, frowning as she stared at the metal swarm outside that practically blotted out the sky.
Her attacks could knock down a few bees, but against a swarm this huge, it was a drop in the ocean—and every strike risked exposing her position.
Just then, the factory's gigantic iron gate—so heavily rusted it should've been sealed shut—let out a teeth-grinding "creeeak"…
…and was pushed open from the outside.
A beam of light spilled through the opening, outlining the newcomer—
A yellow jumpsuit. A white cape. That unmistakable bald head.
Saitama stood in the doorway, leaning in to look around. The overwhelming noise made him rub his ear. "So loud… Is this some kind of factory music concert or something?"
He'd just been passing by, drawn in by the abnormal sound.
His appearance immediately grabbed the mechanical bees' attention. To the swarm, this sudden intruder was classified as the highest-priority threat—maybe due to one simple internal logic:
Anyone bold enough to push the door open and walk in must be eliminated.
In an instant, like a storm cloud dropping from the ceiling, the black mass of mechanical bees pivoted and surged toward the entrance. The buzzing became even more piercing as the swarm rushed at Saitama like a tidal wave.
"Watch out! Get out of there!" The tiny Hope saw it happen and shouted a warning through her amplifier. She'd seen how terrifying these mechanical bees were—an ordinary person would be melted in seconds by the corrosive liquid, or pierced straight through by their razor-sharp bodies.
(End of Chapter)
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