Thump, thump, thump.
Lilith's heartbeat slowly calmed down, but the joy she felt was inexpressible.
She had prayed just before Fubuki was about to die, and a Hero had actually answered her.
"Thank you... Thank you for your rescue... Hero~"
Lilith was too weak to stand, but the sense of security Saitama's presence brought was inexpressible.
After speaking, she could no longer support herself and lost consciousness; even the wound on her neck completely burst open because the barrier was gone.
Her artery shattered, and a large amount of fresh blood instantly spread.
"Ah!"
Saitama was still savoring the cry for help he had just heard, and the complex feelings in his heart. He wasn't good at thinking about such things, so he stood still.
But seeing the woman collapse to the ground with a massive gush of blood from her neck made Saitama let out a stunned "Ah."
In fact, he had no healing or aid abilities, nor did he possess any knowledge of how to stop bleeding.
Just as Saitama paced, hesitating whether to pick up the woman and rush towards the nearest city, Genos finally arrived, propelled by his thrusters.
"Genos, quickly, look at her..."
Saitama, with his familiar dead-fish eyes, pointed to the woman lying on the ground, bleeding profusely.
On the other side, Hong Chen had just recovered from the shuddering sensation of impending death.
The self-satisfaction brought by the powerful internal energy of Inverse Universe's Third Turn was completely annihilated by Saitama's punch.
What thousand-meter saber aura, what rock giants, what lightning envoys—none of it mattered before that power.
Hong Chen couldn't understand the essence of the power contained in that punch, but he could fully feel that the essence of power at the level of 'energy' simply couldn't touch its core.
If only 'energy' existed, the amount needed to accumulate enough to shake that punch would likely be an unimaginable number for a Reincarnator.
The red hair on his back was no longer wild; it was draped down, and he walked over barefoot.
Watching Genos prepare to cauterize the woman's neck with a laser to stop the bleeding, Hong Chen's eyelids twitched.
In a sense, Genos and Saitama, this master-disciple duo, were indeed quite unreliable.
Hong Chen coughed twice, and with two fingers like a sword, his icy internal energy immediately froze the wound, stopping the blood. He then stopped the bleeding for Fubuki and Lily Threesection Staff, which slightly boosted his reputation with the Hero faction.
Hong Chen suddenly frowned; he sensed two movements.
"Mr. Saitama, did you... not kill those two?"
He turned his head to see the two Reincarnators, not weak in strength, standing up a hundred meters away.
The muscular man still had remnants of his saber aura and cold energy on his shoulder, while the other person appeared to be unharmed.
Clearly, Saitama's terrifying punch had not only avoided him but also hadn't targeted these two.
He had struck directly between the three of them, using the aftershocks of his attack to neutralize their attacks.
"No."
Saitama was puzzled; he was still curious about Hong Chen's miraculous ability to raise his hand and release internal energy to freeze wounds. Looking at Hong Chen's gestures, he seemed to want to imitate him.
Hong Chen frowned; he sensed something bad.
Saitama, as the foreseeable ceiling-level expert of this world, possesses utterly overwhelming power, far superior to monsters like Tatsumaki and [???].
However, Saitama himself also has some inherent "weaknesses."
If Reincarnators want to scheme something big in this world, they will generally start by exploiting these "weaknesses."
As far as Hong Chen knew, the Sage probably cooperated with His Eminence, using Saitama's "low desire" weakness to make special arrangements.
Only then did they confidently enter this world to pursue a more terrifying plan.
Supreme Experts entering a Sub-World inherently incurs a considerable cost, and a Sub-World containing plot characters of unknown levels like Saitama, who can cause a Supreme Expert to fall, is usually an inefficient world that Supreme Experts would completely avoid.
High risk, but not proportionally high reward.
However, His Eminence and the Sage, by exploiting Saitama's personality weaknesses and making arrangements, were confident they could contain Saitama, and thus entered this world to seize something.
Hong Chen guessed it was most likely the Limiter.
There aren't many things that a Supreme Expert cares about, and for a Supreme Expert to risk being killed to enter, Hong Chen could only think of the Limiter and God's Power.
And after entering this world, the Chaos Sage's team did indeed initially track the whereabouts of the Limiter, wanting to find the House of Evolution and the place where Saitama once trained.
But they found nothing.
The House of Evolution mysteriously disappeared, and Saitama's former training ground also vanished due to the massive terrain changes from world fusion.
Hong Chen suddenly snapped back, realizing his thoughts had wandered too far.
He slapped his cheek, using the icy force to regain his rationality from the fear of Saitama.
"Mr. Saitama, perhaps you don't know, these guys will absolutely not repent just because you spared their lives. If you are unwilling to act, then allow me..."
Hong Chen revealed his killing intent. He was well aware of the Sage's and His Eminence's methods. Besides his "low desire" weakness, Saitama also had the self-imposed restriction of "not killing humans."
Even with someone like Garou, who had almost completely turned into a monster, Saitama didn't deliver a killing blow; he merely defeated him.
Saitama, who usually obliterates monsters with a single punch, harbored almost no killing intent towards humans.
This restriction usually doesn't cause problems, because Saitama's strength is too immense; even if those he spares deliberately use this restriction to ambush him, it would yield no results.
But Reincarnators are a group of people who pursue "completing missions" by any means necessary.
They are people who will do anything for profit.
Especially the Sage and His Eminence, who are very skilled at manipulating human nature and attacking the weaknesses in people's hearts.
He had a bad premonition.
Saitama frowned, not understanding why this red-haired guy was so insistent on killing other humans.
"Your actions have displeased the plot character Saitama. Your reputation with Saitama has decreased. Current: Friendly 3/100."
Hong Chen was startled; this time, the reputation drop was quite significant, almost falling to the brink of 'stranger.'
The two figures in the distance waited for a moment, their bodies chilled, and finding that neither Saitama nor Hong Chen attacked them, the two who had narrowly escaped death exchanged glances and quickly left.
Hong Chen hesitated, afraid of angering Saitama, and did not pursue. The group then prepared to send the injured for treatment, while Saitama looked at the shattered J City in the distance, a thoughtful expression on his face.
---
Uchiha Madara stood with his arms crossed, his scarlet Sharingan watching the two individuals, who had narrowly escaped death, quickly depart from the bald man whom their host had judged as an "utterly unbeatable person."
"Hmph, an utterly unbeatable person... is that so..."
In the past, Uchiha Madara would likely have scoffed at such an assessment, but after losing his Reincarnation Eye and his own body, and witnessing the terrifying scene of Tatsumaki battling [???].
Uchiha Madara's figure flickered, pursuing the two departing Reincarnators.
The host's unscrupulousness also earned Uchiha Madara's approval. As his Sharingan spun, a malevolent aura began to spread.