Then, like he was tossing a shot put, he casually hurled the metal ball into an open patch of ground in the distance. It landed with a dull boom, smashing out a massive crater.
"Alright, that should do it, right?" Saitama brushed the dirt and metal scraps off his hands.
Vision hovered nearby, silently watching everything. The vine roots he couldn't even leave a mark on with energy attacks had been ripped out by Saitama in the most brutal, straightforward way imaginable. He stared at the core, kneaded into a ball and tossed onto the empty ground, then glanced at the hand that had just fired energy beams with little effect. His eyes filled with an extremely complicated emotion—an unsettling mix of amazement, confusion, and deep contemplation of what "power" truly was.
"…Yes, Mr. Saitama. The threat has been eliminated," Vision finally said. His voice was as calm as ever, but only he knew what was hidden beneath it.
Saitama nodded. "Good. This thing looks like it'd be worth some money, but I guess it's just scrap now, huh? I'm heading out."
As he watched Saitama's back disappear, Vision's gaze returned to that metal sphere. For someone who could create life and comprehend the mysteries of the universe, Saitama's power remained a "phenomenon" that couldn't be fully analyzed. But there was no denying that when it came to handling many crises, that "phenomenon" was often the most effective solution.
He slowly descended and began contacting Tony Stark, preparing to recover the vine remains for research. This crisis had been wrapped up with a speed and method far beyond any plan, drawing a swift period to it.
The Atlantic Ocean, international waters—an enormous deep-sea oil drilling platform.
This steel giant island, once the pride of human industrial civilization, was now like a lone leaf in a storm—shaking violently amid monstrous waves, letting out teeth-grinding metallic groans. And the cause of the crisis wasn't wind or sea.
It was a terrifying beast that had risen from a ten-thousand-meter-deep ocean trench
A gigantic deep-sea squid, its body the size of a small whale!
Its tentacles were like huge, suction-cupped cables, tightly wrapped around the platform's support pillars and deck structures. Even worse, the suckers didn't just generate tremendous suction—they also secreted highly corrosive mucus. The platform's hardened steel framework was visibly becoming brittle and warped under the corrosion. The workers had already evacuated by lifeboat, but the platform itself—and the crucial equipment on it—was on the brink of destruction.
Aquaman, stood on the raging waves with Poseidon's trident in hand. He summoned various massive sea creatures to attack the giant squid. However, this mutated squid's strength was absurdly high, and its agility far exceeded that of ordinary deep-sea creatures. Its tough tentacles easily slapped away or bound the onrushing sea beasts, and the corrosive mucus made them wary of getting close at all.
"This thing… is even more troublesome than Karathen!" Arthur swung his trident, driving a water tornado into the giant squid—yet it only left shallow marks on its smooth, resilient hide.
The squid's main focus seemed to be destroying the platform. Its "attacks" against Arthur were mostly defensive swats and driving him back.
The situation was urgent. If the platform's structure collapsed, it wouldn't just cause a massive ecological disaster—its stored crude oil would pollute a vast stretch of ocean. S.H.I.E.L.D. had dispatched Quinjet fighters, but conventional weapons had limited effect against the giant squid, and might even ignite the platform itself…
(End of Chapter)
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