Just then, a figure pushed past the cordon and walked into the ruins that had been taken over by a metallic jungle.
It was Saitama.
He seemed to have seen the news saying there were "weird plants" over here, so he came to take a look out of curiosity.
"Whoa, these vines look really sturdy. Are they a new species?" Saitama walked up to a metal vine coiled around a streetlamp and reached out to touch it. The vine's surface was icy and hard, like real metal.
As if sensing a living creature nearby, that vine suddenly moved like a snake, trying to wrap around Saitama's arm.
Saitama let it coil around him. The vine tightened with a metallic creak, but it did absolutely nothing to his arm. He used just a little force and yanked the vine off the streetlamp, like tearing off an ordinary hemp rope.
"Mm. Pretty tough, too." He gave his verdict, then casually tossed the still-twitching vine aside. It hit the ground and tried to struggle again—until Saitama stepped on it, and it instantly behaved.
Vision landed beside Saitama and warned, "Mr. Saitama, please be careful. These vines are aggressive, and they absorb metal to strengthen themselves. We must destroy the core to resolve this completely."
"Core? Where is it?" Saitama asked.
"Underground, but the exact position is being interfered with. It's difficult to pinpoint precisely," Vision replied.
Saitama looked at the writhing, spreading metal jungle around them, then lowered his gaze to the ground. He could feel it—every vine's life-energy source pointed to a deeper place beneath his feet.
"Probably down there." He pointed at a patch of ground where the vines were densest. There was a noticeable bulge formed by thick root-like tendrils tangled together.
As he spoke, he walked into the center of that area, squatted down, and thrust both hands straight into the ground—soil reinforced by the vine root system until it was as hard as a steel plate!
Then, under Vision's stunned gaze, Saitama effortlessly lifted up a huge slab of earth mixed with metal roots… like he was peeling back a piece of turf.
Beneath it was revealed a massive, dark metallic sphere wrapped in countless metal roots—pulsing like a heart.
That was the vines' core!
The core seemed to sense danger. The surrounding metal roots lashed wildly like venomous snakes, stabbing straight at Saitama! At the same time, the core itself began vibrating at high frequency, trying to drill deeper underground to escape.
"Found you." Saitama ignored the stabbing roots—each one that struck him snapped apart—and grabbed the metal core that was trying to flee. From the broken roots, silvery liquid like mercury sprayed out along with sparks.
He gripped the core with both hands and yanked hard!
Crack—! Rumble!!
The explosive sound was like tearing apart the earth's main tendons. In that instant, every metal vine in the area convulsed violently, then visibly lost its metallic sheen, stopped writhing, and became true, lifeless dead matter.
Saitama pulled the now-still core out completely, along with a gigantic tangled root mass, like yanking out a radish from the soil.
He weighed the huge, heavy metal lump in his hands, looking like he found it annoying to carry. Spotting an empty patch of ground nearby, he casually crushed the core—something that had destroyed half an industrial park—like it was a wad of waste paper. He kneaded it hard a few times, rolling it into a massive, irregular metal ball.
(End of Chapter)
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