"Hahahaha…"
"Crush them all flat!"
"Me and my brother are the strongest!"
A city that had been calm a moment ago was instantly thrown into chaos as an overwhelming figure appeared.
A naked giant was rampaging through the streets, and perched on the giant's shoulder was a wild-eyed scientist, laughing like a maniac.
"Run!"
"It's a monster…!"
"Damn it, why is this monster so huge?! Where are we even supposed to run in a situation like this?!"
Countless residents screamed, staring in horror at the terrifying giant towering over the city.
"Mom…"
"My child!!"
"Keep moving! There's no time to wait!"
"We can't stop!"
Elsewhere, in the middle of the street—amid wailing and stampeding footsteps—a white figure suddenly appeared out of thin air among the fleeing crowd…
"Host has arrived in the One Punch Man world…"
"Initializing world mission…"
"World mission: Defeat ten Dragon-level monsters…"
"…Forget it. Master, you handle it yourself."
"As long as you collect enough energy and gain a certain level of status in this world—enough for the system to form a strong connection with the world—the system can obtain partial authority over this world's rules."
The artificial-idiot system-bug Jovian had coded started explaining its abilities. And it seemed the system-bug had already learned that no matter what mission it assigned, its creator would never do it—so it immediately gave up and went full hands-off: do whatever you want.
"Huh?!"
Jovian widened his eyes inside his own head.
"This system actually behaved for once. You're being so obedient it's making me uncomfortable."
He rubbed his chin. He had to admit—this artificial idiot seemed to have evolved a tiny bit.
The artificial-idiot system-bug: "…"
"So this is the One Punch Man world?"
Jovian looked at the screaming crowd around him, thinking about where he'd landed. He needed to know what city this was before he could decide his plan of action…
"Run!"
"Help me!"
"Ah!!!"
"Damn, it's too loud…"
Because his senses had been massively enhanced, the nonstop shrieking from everyone nearby made his ears ring until he couldn't focus long enough to figure out his location.
"Hey—"
In the end, Jovian stopped one "lucky" bystander.
"Excuse me, do you know what city this is?"
Jovian asked the balding middle-aged man he'd grabbed.
"Ah! Ah!!!"
The man just screamed at Jovian.
"Huh?!"
Jovian blinked at the yelling, confused—
Boom!
The next second, with a heavy impact, Jovian—and everything around him—was stomped under a gigantic foot.
"I'm invincible now…!"
The towering giant bellowed triumphantly.
"That's right! With your muscles and my brains, we're unbeatable…!"
The crazed scientist shouted back.
Boom!
Right as the giant and the scientist were gloating, a violent force erupted from beneath the giant's foot—launching him straight into the sky!
"Huh?!"
The giant flew upward, eyes wide.
"Did you see that?! I awakened the superpower of flight!"
He said dazedly, intoxicated by his own strength.
"Idiot! Humans can't just fly! The drug I invented for you didn't include any flight power!"
The crazed scientist clung tightly to the giant's shoulder and yelled.
"Then… how are we flying?"
The giant was baffled. He genuinely couldn't understand how he was doing this.
"We must've been thrown into the air by something!"
The crazed scientist deduced with his alleged 250 IQ.
"We got thrown into the air by something? No way! I'm the strongest creature in the world—how could anyone throw me into the sky?!"
The giant couldn't wrap his head around it. He was the strongest being alive. No one should be able to toss him around like that.
"You little punk—how dare you put yourself in my generation?! Do you even know who I am? Do you really have what it takes to mess with me?"
While the giant was still airborne, a white figure instantly appeared beneath him.
"You are…"
The giant stared at the white figure, eyes bulging.
"I don't care if you want to become the strongest in the world, or conquer the world. None of that has anything to do with me…"
"But you dared to step on me. Now it has everything to do with me."
"And since you don't know where you're allowed to put your feet, and where you're not… I'll teach you."
The white figure's face was livid, and scorching beams flared from his eyes.
In a flash, he sliced off the giant's legs.
An endless spray of bright red poured from the severed stumps, turning into massive blood droplets that hammered into the ground of D-City, blasting countless crater-like pits.
And it still wasn't over…
The giant's legs crashed down.
In an instant, it was like an earthquake of magnitude eight—terrifying shockwaves ripping outward and wiping multiple city blocks clean.
"Ah…"
The giant cried out in agony. He was in excruciating pain, but since he was suspended in the air, he couldn't retaliate at all.
"You giant idiot—go hang out in space with Kars!"
The white figure clearly had no intention of killing him right away. He put both hands on the giant's torso and shoved him upward with brutal force—toward the endless sky.
The giant's body pierced the clouds, rising higher and higher, until it finally broke through the atmosphere.
He flew into outer space.
"Motherfucker!"
Watching the giant turn into a living satellite, the white figure raised his right hand to the sky and flipped the bird.
In the vacuum of space, a massive giant—now missing both legs—began orbiting Earth.
He gazed at the blazing, beautiful sun, then looked at the breathtaking blue planet in front of him… Earth.
"What a beautiful planet…"
"This way… we can stay together forever, with this view."
The giant looked to his side at the scientist—now freeze-dried using the most advanced freeze-drying technology—and smiled with quiet satisfaction. In his heart, he thought: being the strongest meant nothing compared to being happy together.
In the end, the happy giant stopped thinking.
"Hah…"
High above D-City, Jovian's eye twitched.
Anyone who got dropped into a new world and got stomped hard within five minutes would probably be angry.
Jovian lowered his gaze at D-City, now battered into a ruined, cratered mess, and the fury in his chest gradually cooled.
"I did a really good job."
He looked at the city—now basically reduced to half of what it was after the giant's legs fell—and smiled like sunshine. Without a doubt, under the threat of an evil giant, Jovian had done everything he could to protect the people of this city.
He was a great hero.
"I need status in this world—enough for my idiot system to form a strong connection with it. Meaning: the higher the status, the better."
"Basically… I still need to become everyone's progenitor."
Jovian's logic was flawless. Put simply: there was no mission that couldn't be solved by Jovian becoming the progenitor—if there was, then he simply wouldn't do it.
And if there really was a mission that couldn't be solved by Jovian becoming the progenitor, then that definitely wasn't Jovian's problem. It was the mission's problem.
So the mission would have to change.
"This world has the Monster Association and the Hero Association. That means as long as I choose one of them and become a high-ranking leader, the system can connect deeply enough to obtain partial authority over this world's rules…"
"Then I just wait for Boros, that useless clown, to show up…"
"So do I join the Monster Association? Or the Hero Association?"
Jovian pondered.
"My choice is only one—"
A few seconds later, he made a decision. This had never been a question worth thinking about.
"Only kids make choices."
"A Freeborn takes everything."
"Monster Association and Hero Association—dual chairman of both, and everyone's progenitor. That sounds perfect…"
"So first—Hero Association. I'll grab an S-Class hero certification."
After deciding, Jovian flew straight toward the Hero Association.
"Testing applicants, this way…"
"We have 'professional' judges to score everyone."
Inside the massive stadium used for the hero testing grounds, staff members guided the people who wanted to become heroes into their evaluation stations.
Just as countless people who believed they had what it took to be heroes began their assessments—
Boom!
With a thunderous roar, the enormous stadium was blown open from above—its roof smashed apart.
A man in a white bodysuit floated calmly in midair. Behind him, a red cape drifted gently in the airflow.
"This is the Hero Association testing site, right?"
He hovered above, asking the stunned examinees below.
With one huge boom in the sky—
Freeborn made a dazzling entrance.