The Middle East, somewhere in a vast, boundless desert.
The scorching sun baked the rolling dunes. The air warped from the heat, and as far as the eye could see, there was only a suffocating sea of gold. A S.H.I.E.L.D. squad led by Captain America, was carrying out a search mission for missing research personnel. According to intel, the disappearance point was somewhere in this area.
"Everyone stay alert. Something about this place feels wrong." Steve held his vibranium shield and walked at the front of the team. His blue combat suit was soaked through with sweat. With senses beyond ordinary humans, he could feel it—beneath this ocean of sand, something indescribably dangerous was lurking. It was too quiet. There wasn't even the slightest breeze, as if the entire desert was holding its breath and watching them.
Suddenly, the sand beneath an agent on the flank collapsed, forming a quicksand vortex! The agent yelped and was dragged down to his waist in an instant!
"Grab on!" Steve reacted immediately. He lunged forward and thrust the edge of his shield out. The agent seized it with both hands, but the suction of the quicksand was terrifying—so strong that even Steve felt his feet being pulled forward.
Worse still, the quicksand's range rapidly expanded, and it moved as if it were alive, curling toward Steve! Sand grains gathered into tentacle-like shapes, trying to drag him down into the abyss.
"It's a sand monster! Everyone fall back!" Steve roared. His arm muscles bulged as he hauled the agent out of the vortex and flung him toward the safe zone.
But at the same time, Steve's vibranium shield had its rim coated with a mass of living quicksand. It became abnormally heavy, and those sand grains clung to the shield's surface as if they were corrosive, refusing to let go.
Steve slammed the shield hard against the sand beside him, barely shaking most of the grains off. Even so, faint scuff marks had already appeared on the shield's surface. His heart tightened—this sand monster didn't just control quicksand. The grains themselves contained some eerie kind of power.
At the center of the vortex, sand began to swirl upward, gathering into a massive, blurry human-like face made entirely of sand. It spoke in a low, rumbling voice, like a sandstorm howling.
"Intruders… become part of the desert…"
The sand monster could fully merge into the desert, transforming into quicksand and devouring everything. In territory it ruled, ordinary attacks were almost useless.
Just as Steve and the squad faced off tensely, searching for a way out, an unexpected figure appeared at the top of a dune.
Saitama.
He wore a short-sleeved athletic outfit (apparently thinking the desert was too hot), and on his bald head sat a slightly ridiculous straw sunhat (probably bought from some roadside stand). He was holding something like a compass (because he was actually lost), turning around and looking in every direction.
"...Huh? The map says there should be a town around here… so why is it all sand?" Saitama scratched his head, feeling a little dizzy from the sun. He'd come to the Middle East because someone asked him to find someone (maybe King's game invite got the address wrong again), but clearly, he'd gotten lost.
The moment he appeared, the sand monster noticed him. A stream split off from the quicksand vortex, surging up the dune like a gigantic yellow python, sweeping straight toward Saitama!
"Watch out!" Steve shouted urgently.
Saitama also noticed the movement under his feet. He looked down at the rushing sand, then at the huge sand-formed face in the distance, and understood immediately.
"Oh, so you're the one messing around. You almost made me get lost."
(End of Chapter)
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