Saitama patted the feathers that had landed on his head and shoulders, then dug at his ear again. "Yeah… that's way better."
Natasha leaned out from the clock tower, stared at the bald guy in the middle of the street brushing off feathers, then looked at the mess of bird corpses all over the ground and the sky that had cleared out in record time. She subconsciously put away her sniper rifle, the corner of her mouth twitching uncontrollably a few times.
Over the comms, her voice came out dry as she reported, "HQ… the soundwave bird threat… has been neutralized. The flock was… dispersed."
She honestly couldn't find a more suitable word for what she had just seen. "Dispersed"? That looked more like a one-sided… massacre-style wipe.
Saitama looked up, spotted Natasha on the tower, and waved. "Oh, Ms. Romanoff. You're here too. It's fine nowthey flew off."
Natasha slid down from the clock tower with practiced agility and landed in front of Saitama. She stared at him with a complicated expression. "…Saitama-sensei, you… are you okay?" She'd noticed Saitama didn't even have a tear in his clothes
"Me? I'm fine." Saitama looked at her like she was being weird. "It was just kinda loud. It's better now. Oh yeah—do they sell ice cream around here? I'm kinda thirsty."
Natasha looked at Saitama's completely matter-of-fact face, then at the citizens slowly emerging from their hiding places—still shaken, but full of gratitude. In the end, she let out a helpless little laugh.
"…I know a pretty good shop. Come with me."
For Saitama, the reason he'd solved this crisis might really have been as simple as: "It was too noisy." And that method once again overturned Natasha's understanding of how "power" could be applied.
Sometimes, the most complicated problems only needed the most "simple" solution.
America, Silicon Valley—on the ruins of a top-tier biotech laboratory.
This place had originally been a facility for cutting-edge materials research, but a severe leak accident had caused a lab-synthesized metallic vine to go out of control. These vines fed on metal. They could grow wildly, coil around and absorb the steel rebar structures inside buildings, and continuously strengthen themselves. In just a few days, more than half an industrial park had already been swallowed by this terrifying plant—its body flickering with a cold metallic luster, writhing nonstop.
The Avengers received a distress call.
Vision flew to the scene. He could adjust his body density at will, and could fire powerful energy beams from the gem on his forehead.
"High-activity metallic life-sign detected. Threat level: high," Vision analyzed calmly as he attempted to use an energy beam to cut through the metal vines wrapped around the main building—each thicker than a barrel.
Hiss!
The scorching energy beam struck with precision, instantly severing the vine. But the cut surface didn't wither. Instead, it rapidly secreted fresh metallic droplets, and regrew—healing at a speed visible to the naked eye! Worse still, the energy stimulation seemed to enrage the surrounding vines. They grew even more violently, splitting into more branches, like countless metal tentacles, whipping up toward Vision in the air!
Vision immediately gained altitude, frowning slightly. "Physical cutting and energy attacks are ineffective. They instead stimulate growth. We must locate the core root system."
But when he tried to scan underground, the signal was heavily disrupted by the dense network of metal vines. These vines had already formed a massive root system beneath the ground, constantly absorbing minerals from the soil and scrap metal waste—making it extremely difficult to pinpoint the core.
(End of Chapter)
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