In Mojin Commercial Street in China's S City, a disaster was happening.
A humongous calamity fiend covered in black flames had suddenly torn out of a spatial rift and landed on the crowded streets with a boom.
The calamity fiend was about three-stories tall, its massive black-purplish head looking extremely ugly. It had three eyes lined up in a row. A black horn protruded out of its forehead, as vertical fangs stretched out of its lower lip. Sticky black spittle constantly dripped down, burning blackened craters in the ground with sizzling sounds.
The moment the spatial rift appeared, the pedestrians on the street knew that a calamity fiend was about to descend upon their world. They fled in panic, but the bustling street had just too many people. Amid their hustle, a number of people failed to flee to a safe zone.
At the instant the calamity fiend landed, it slaughtered all biological creatures in front of it. This three-story calamity fiend was a rare elite-type; its destructive forces far higher than the typical calamity fiend.
With a simple wave of its fist, a ten-story department store collapsed and its black flames reduced the surrounding stores to ashes. What was a bustling commercial street moments ago had turned into a living hell in just a blink of an eye.
As for the unlucky ones who had failed to escape in time, they easily lost their lives.
"Quickly get away!"
"Ah, my child! Someone, save my child!"
This heart-wrenching scene of people fleeing in despair and crying tragically, as well as letting out helpless cries for help, could be seen across the world as a daily occurrence.
The scene of a pitiful mother wailing at the sight of her child disappearing in a fiery sea was all too common.
This made the people who were lucky to survive already numb to all of this. No ordinary citizen would step forward to help her. All they could do was run and wait because any rescuing was the job of experts known as "Heroes."
"Where are the Heroes!? Why haven't the Heroes arrived?"
Just like calling the police, shouting for Heroes was also a daily occurrence in this world.
Before the calamity fiend could spread its destruction, Heroes who hunted calamity fiends as their jobs would also arrive in time.
"They're here! The Hero is here!"
"Oh! It's C Class Hero, Mike. We're saved!"
"Onward, Mike! Kill that monster!"
With dual pistols in hand, the Hero, Mike, who was dressed in a cowboy's hat, a black jacket, and fashionable leather boots appeared.
When the Hero Association received a distress call, they would immediately locate the nearest professional Hero to the disaster scene through GPS. They would then rapidly send out the estimated disaster level and the rescue application.
Mike happened to be nearby and towards such disasters, he no longer had the anger and sympathy he originally had. To him, it simply meant a business opportunity.
Although the culprit for the disaster was an elite calamity fiend, it was alone. Therefore, the Hero Association had only classified its disaster level as C Class.
Towards a similarly ranked C Class Hero like Mike, this was a somewhat tedious, but not difficult rescue mission. Most importantly, this was a job that he could earn the most monetarily within the limits of his capabilities.
"It's already fine! Want to ask why? Because I'm here!"
Mike walked towards the calamity fiend and, although his opening statement had mimicked a particular S Class Hero, the line was indeed something that could calm the masses.
When the panicking and fleeing citizens saw this, they slowly stopped in their tracks. They were more terrified than anyone else when the calamity fiend came, but when a Hero arrived, they were the ones filled with the most excitement and anticipation. This was probably the characteristic of a popcorn-eating crowd.
Mike's eyes narrowed as he raised both his silver Demon Hunting Pistols. Psionic Power spewed out from his fingertips and rapidly condensed inside the barrels, gradually forming a piercing round.
The Psionic Bullets were augmented by the Holy Light Runes carved within the Demon Hunting Pistols as they were given the attribute of Light which was the nemesis of calamity fiends.
"Die, blockhead."
Mike pulled the trigger and with a bang, the Psionic Bullets shot towards the calamity fiend.
A large body implied supernatural destructive strength, but it also indicated slow reflexes. Mike loved facing such large targets with his dual pistols.
Roar!
The calamity fiend suddenly opened its mouth and roared, spewing out flames from its throat just like a dragon.
The sudden flames melted the bullets and engulfed Mike who was caught completely unawares. Without even having the time to cry out tragically, he was burnt to ashes by the black flames.
This was definitely not the strength a C Class should have!
Mike paid the price for the Hero Association's mistake with his life.
The onlooking crowd was dumbfounded as they quickly began screaming and running!
"Trash! C Class is a C Class after all. Useless fool!"
"Darn Hero Association, can't you send a stronger Hero!?"
While the citizens fled, they did not forget to curse Mike who had been burnt to ashes as they blamed the Hero Association for not sending a Hero of a higher class.
The calamity fiend destroyed the prosperous commercial street without any fear. Soon, stores and huge department stores were inundated in black flames as they collapsed into ruins.
Mojin Commercial Street's boss, Mojin, was fuming as he beat his breast. He cursed the Hero Association, for every commercial store destroyed meant the loss of money. Every life sacrificed… Pui! Who gives a shit if those unlucky bastards die?
"Quickly get the Hero Association's Vice-Chairman Jackson on the line. Get him to send an S Class Hero over. He still owes me one!"
Mojin commanded his secretary.
The secretary wore a nasty look. There were only ten S Class Heroes in all of China. Each of them shouldered the heavy responsibility of saving cities or even the country. They also dealt with the most dangerous disasters and would only appear to deal with meteor showers that could destroy cities or King Class calamity fiends which the military had trouble dealing with. How could they rush to save a tiny disaster caused by an elite calamity fiend because of a single phone call from Mojin?
At that moment, a sword beam appeared like a sudden bolt of lightning, sweeping across the calamity fiend's waist!
The sword beam was fine like a silver thread, but extremely sharp. At a speed which left no time for one to cover one's ears, it sliced anything that was in its path into two. Buildings, stone columns, billboards, and even the elite calamity fiend was sliced into two by that sudden sword beam.
Boom!
The calamity fiend's massive body was sliced apart at its waist as it began to fall to the ground. Another sword beam swept over and loped off its ugly head from its neck, sending purplish-black blood spewing out like a fountain.
In just the time it took to take a breath, the elite calamity fiend which had instantly killed Mike was sliced to death by two sword beams!
"Who is it!?"
The citizens who saw this scene were dumbfounded.
A man with a red cape and yellow tight suit slowly walked out of the flames. His trademark bald head and harmless looks made everyone exclaim involuntarily.
"Ah! It's Superman One-Pun!"
"Is this a joke!? How can an S Class Hero appear here!?"
As though they had seen an idol, the citizens cheered.
One-Pun, who came from the Gaia organization, was nicknamed "Superman One-Pun" because his cape and tight-fitting clothes resembled Superman. He was unfathomably strong, and his sword arts entitled him to the glorious title of world-class Sword Master. However, rumor had it that One-Pun's punch was even more freakish than his sword arts, but it was unverifiable.
Regardless, being able to see an S Class Hero with their own eyes naturally left the citizens overjoyed. After all, China only had ten S Class Heroes. And One-Pun was probably the only one who was willing to appear for such a tiny disaster.
"Hmph! You were too slow! Do you know how much money I lost? Your Hero Association must answer to me today!"
Mojin wore an ugly expression. More than half of the commercial street had been destroyed by the calamity fiend, causing him to lose massive amounts of property and assets. From his point of view, it was all the Hero Association's fault. If an S Class Hero had appeared the moment the calamity fiend appeared, how much losses would he have saved?
These losses had to be blamed on the Hero who came late!
One-Pun ignored Mojin's grumbling and turned to look at the black spatial rift before frowning slightly.
"The rifts are expanding in size."
One-Pun sighed lightly. This spatial rift was far bigger than those in the past. This meant that the spatial barrier between the human world and the calamity fiends was no longer as resilient and indestructible. The moment the calamity fiend army could crack open the spatial barrier was approaching.
One-Pun fell silent for a moment and ignored the complaints of Mojin. Nor did he respond to the cheers of the citizens. After using his Psionic Power to mend the rift, he turned and headed for the next disaster spot.
Today's disasters seemed to be more frequent than before. This made One-Pun feel an ominous sense of foreboding.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The communication device sounded suddenly, shocking One-Pun a little. His communication device had not sounded in a very long time, and during the few times it sounded, they mostly involved the Hero Association sending out S Class disaster level notices.
One-Pun hurriedly put through the communication.
"Hello? Teacher One-Pun?"
It was Riko's extremely fresh voice.
One-Pun was slightly taken aback. Apart from the Hero Association and Gaia, the only person who knew his communication device's number was his disciple, Riko Minamiya. However, this was apparently the first time Riko was calling him on the device. From the looks of it, something important must have happened.
"What happened?" asked One-Pun.
Riko's somewhat embarrassed laughter sounded. "Ah, it's this. There's something I need to trouble you with."
One-Pun asked, "What's it?"
"The Hero Association suddenly informed the organization and academic factions that the competition has been brought forward. They request that all rookies that have passed the preliminaries are to gather at the Association's headquarters tomorrow morning."
Riko paused when she came to that point.
One-Pun asked, "Is there a problem?"
Riko coughed slightly and said, "It's not a problem that the competition was brought forward. Most importantly… We have no idea where Shi Xiaobai has run off to! We can't find him anywhere! Teacher One-Pun, didn't you choose Shi Xiaobai to be a God's Guardian target? So you should be able to sense where he is, right? All we need to do is find him before tomorrow morning!"
One-Pun's Superpower, God's Guardian, could bind three targets. When his targets were in danger, he would sense it in a timely fashion, allowing him to teleport to his target's side. It was truly a godlike absolute defense.
Yama Minamiya, Riko, and Shi Xiaobai were the three targets he had bound.
"Okay, I'll help you figure out where Shi Xiaobai is."
One-Pun did not reject Riko's request for this was indeed something trivial for him.
One-Pun closed his eyes and used his perception to sense the location of his targets of protection. Quickly, Yama Minamiya and Riko appeared in his perception, but Shi Xiaobai's existence could not be found even after a long time.
Three minutes later, One-Pun opened his eyes in a daze.
"Shi Xiaobai… has disappeared?"
Comments