With the control core destroyed, every remaining mechanical bee in the factory went dark. The red glow in their eyes extinguished instantly, their metal wings stopped beating, and they began dropping out of the air in a clattering rain, covering the floor. The world went quiet in an instant.
Saitama looked at the control console he'd smashed, then at the now-silent factory, and nodded.
"That should do it."
He turned and waved at Hope, who was still standing there in a daze. "Oh, it's you. It's fine now. These things aren't noisy anymore. I'm heading out."
After that, just like when he arrived, he casually strolled through the sea of mechanical wreckage, walked out the factory gate, and disappeared into the sunlit weeds outside.
Hope stood there for a long while before she finally snapped back to reality. She walked over to the ruined remains of the control console, then looked across the factory floor littered with mechanical bee corpses, and0 gave a bitter little smile as she opened her comms.
"Hank… mission complete. The console is destroyed, the swarm has stopped moving. It was Saitama… He used a… very physical method."
There was a brief silence, then Hank's voice came through with helpless resignation.
"…Understood. Collect samples—we need to investigate where these things came from. Also… I'll thank Saitama, I guess… even if his method is… a bit too direct."
Hope glanced in the direction Saitama had left and thought to herself: Thank him? He probably didn't even treat this as a big deal. For that man, this was likely nothing more than a quick "cleanup" because something was too loud.
United States, New York City. Grand Central subway station.
Even in daytime, the underground transit hub was brightly lit, packed with crowds. Train announcements, footsteps, and conversation blended into the familiar background noise of the city.
But today, a different sound crept out from deep within the tunnel—a low, muffled thudding. It started faint, then rapidly grew like war drums, until the ground itself began to tremble.
"What's going on? An earthquake?"
"Look! Inside the tunnel!"
Passengers started to panic, staring into the dark train tunnel.
Suddenly—BOOM!
With a deafening explosion, the ceiling of the tunnel near the end of the platform violently burst open! Concrete and rubble poured down like a storm. Through the choking dust, an enormous head—ridged in rings and slick with slime—pushed out.
It was a gigantic worm, far beyond anything imaginable.
Its body was over ten meters thick, and just the portion exposed from the tunnel stretched dozens of meters long. Its entire form was a nauseating fleshy pink, coated in wet mucus. It had no eyes—only a circular maw that opened and closed, packed with layers upon layers of razor-sharp teeth.
It released a low-frequency hiss that made people's hearts clench. Its massive body writhed, further ripping apart the tunnel structure as it surged toward the platform, dragging huge amounts of soil and broken stone with it.
"AAAAAAAA!"
"A monster! Run!"
Panic detonated instantly. Passengers screamed and scattered in every direction, the platform plunging into chaos.
And in that split-second
A golden, circular magic array lit up at the edge of the platform, rapidly expanding into a solid energy barrier that temporarily blocked the worm's charge!
Sparks flew as the worm's head slammed into the shield with a heavy, booming impact.
(End of Chapter)
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