The first match began. Vaccine Man had no idea how to play the ga, let alone how to use the controller, so he simply mashed buttons without any pattern or sense. Unsurprisingly, Saitama completely crushed him in the first round.
The next few matches went the exact sa way, with Saitama dominating again and again. Having suffered ten straight losses to Shinji during their last gaming session, Saitama was finally enjoying a well-earned winning streak. That alone lifted his spirits, and he played with a kind of enthusiasm that hadn't been there before.
"Haha! I won again!" he cheered. By his sixth consecutive win, he was practically shouting with joy.
At first, Vaccine Man found the whole activity insufferably dull. To him, humans wasting their ti on such pointless gas was just another example of their foolishness. But as he continued to lose over and over, an unfamiliar sensation started to bubble up inside him: irritation.
Being repeatedly beaten by a human in sothing so seemingly aningless still felt like a disgrace, and it gnawed at his pride. Driven by that growing frustration, Vaccine Man started genuinely trying to understand the ga.
With each passing match, his control of the character improved, and his understanding of the chanics deepened. Slowly, Saitama began to feel sothing was off. He glanced sideways at Vaccine Man, brow furrowed.
"This guy… he's actually getting stronger?"
Though Saitama kept winning for a few more rounds, each victory started requiring more effort than the last. The most recent match had co down to the wire, with Saitama barely surviving with a sliver of health. Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. Sothing was definitely changing.
Vaccine Man's lips curled into a smug smirk, and in the next match, he finally secured his first win.
"Hmph. So much for your vaunted human superiority," he said, his voice laced with pride.
"That's just one match. Don't get cocky, you freaking Temu Piccolo!" Saitama shot back, unwilling to let the win slide.
"Don't call that, bald as fuck!"
From that point forward, the matches beca a true contest. They traded wins and losses, neither one managing to completely dominate the other. The competition grew more intense with each round, and both fighters' focus sharpened as the stakes, though entirely virtual, seed to escalate.
anwhile, Shinji lounged on the couch, casually sipping his tea and watching it all unfold. This was the real value of a tool, letting Vaccine Man play gas with Saitama.
Initially, he had assud the monster would serve as little more than a punching bag for Saitama, just sothing to feed the hero's ego with a few easy wins. And for a while, it had worked. But the balance quickly shifted. Now the matches were even, and that joy of easy domination vanished.
Apparently, Vaccine Man was only resistant on the surface. Deep down, his body craved adaptation and improvent. There was no other explanation for how quickly his skill had developed.
…
Later on, the Hero Association officially classified the incident as a Dragon-level disaster. Drawing from eyewitness reports, citizen testimonies, and statents from other heroes who had been on the scene, the Association credited both Shinji and Saitama for resolving the crisis.
Despite Shinji's lower status as a B-Class hero, which often ca with its share of discrimination, his contributions weren't entirely overlooked. Many found it hard to accept that soone from B-Class could help defeat a Dragon-level threat, but the strong impression he left on everyone present, combined with consistent eyewitness accounts, ensured he wasn't completely robbed of recognition. Otherwise, Saitama likely would have received all the credit.
Shinji, however, didn't mind sharing the recognition. He had no interest in stirring up conflict with the Hero Association over status. He was well aware that there would be plenty of opportunities to prove himself in the future, and one extra rit or one less wouldn't make much of a difference.
Besides, arguing about it wouldn't magically boost his ranking. Strength alone wasn't the determining factor in the Hero Association's rankings. Other elents, contributions, reputation, identity, and connections, played a big part too.
In the end, both Shinji and Saitama were promoted.
Shinji jumped from B-Class Rank 56 to Rank 5. On the surface, that seed like a huge leap, but considering the scale of a Dragon-level disaster, it wasn't all that surprising. These kinds of threats were rare and devastating, the kind capable of wiping out entire cities. Earning rit from such an event far outweighed accomplishnts from Wolf, Tiger, or even Demon-level encounters.
As for Saitama, his rank increased from 17 to 15 in the S-Class. Though it was only a two-rank climb, moving up in S-Class was notoriously difficult. Even King, who had accumulated much of his fa by absorbing credit that actually belonged to Saitama and was widely regarded as the "strongest man alive," remained only at Rank 7.
That was because ranking wasn't determined purely by combat strength. The Association had emphasized this point repeatedly. Things like one's identity, contributions, reputation, and connections all weighed heavily.
King, for all his fa, was just a regular person with no actual combat ability and little influence within the Association. His greatest assets were his notoriety and the overwhelming public recognition that followed him everywhere.
"Rank 15, huh? Not bad. That went up pretty fast," Saitama muttered, looking at the updated leaderboard on the Hero Association's official website.
"Yeah, I just got promoted to B-Class Rank 5," Shinji said, glancing at his phone.
"You'll probably hit A-Class soon. But before that, let's have a rematch. I'm not the sa guy I was a few days ago."
Saitama was brimming with confidence again.
"Sure," Shinji replied as he sat down and booted up King of Fighters.
anwhile, Vaccine Man, with Shinji's permission, went out for a short walk, though only in the abandoned areas of Z-City. Shinji couldn't risk letting him wander into populated zones. That would only bring trouble to his doorstep.
…
Ten minutes later, Saitama had once again transford into a frustrated boiled egg.
He had just suffered another relentless losing streak, this ti failing to win even a single round. At least against Vaccine Man, he could still hold his own. But against Shinji? He didn't stand a chance.
After all, Vaccine Man was just a rookie, the type of gar who had only recently stepped into the world, a "Piccolo-type" at best. Defeating soone like that ant nothing in the grand sche.
"I'm done for today. I'll go practice for a few days and co back to challenge you again," Saitama muttered, defeated but not broken. He knew he wasn't winning today, but he still believed that with enough effort, he could eventually bridge the gap.
After all, he had beco bald through sheer willpower and relentless training.
But gaming was an entirely different battlefield. Combat strength and gaming skill didn't operate on the sa rules. Saitama might be an unstoppable force in a fight, constantly surpassing his own limits, but when it ca to gaming, he was painfully average.
No amount of effort could help him overco King, whose skills had long since reached their peak, or Shinji, whose Mangekyō Sharingan gave him near-unfair advantages, as if he were playing with cheat codes built into his eyes.
...
[Alert! Host has defeated a Tiger-level monster. Reward: 10 points!]
That sa day, a new Tiger-level threat appeared in Z-City. The mont Shinji received the alert, he teleported straight to the location and took care of it instantly. Afterward, he followed protocol and submitted the report to the Hero Association. His rank increased again, moving him up to B-Class Rank 4.
But any further progress was going to be much more difficult. The top slots in B-Class were effectively locked down by the Blizzard Group, Fubuki's tightly-knit team. Breaking into the top three and advancing into A-Class ant stepping over them, and that was no easy task.
It all ca down to influence. On one side stood Shinji, a lone hero with no faction or connections. On the other stood the largest organized group under the Hero Association's umbrella. When it ca to how the system distributed rit and opportunity, the bias was clear.
As Shinji glanced at his updated rank and prepared to leave, sothing odd caught his attention.
A young girl nearby appeared to be digging for information about him. She looked vaguely familiar, black hair styled into a side ponytail, though strands of her bangs and ponytail were dyed teal. Dressed in a black suit and wearing a white lily-shaped hairpin, she had a youthful face but a noticeably mature figure.
That was Lily from the Blizzard Group. Triple Staff Lily, Fubuki's trusted assistant.
At the mont, it seed she hadn't gathered anything worthwhile. The person she had questioned had simply shaken their head. Undeterred, she turned to look for soone else. And, by sheer coincidence, she walked straight up to Shinji.
"Excuse ..." she began, but then froze mid-sentence.
The young man standing in front of her had striking crimson eyes and a familiar face. As soon as she registered his appearance, recognition hit her like a jolt. Lily's entire expression locked up in place. She clearly knew who he was.
===
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