"Bald-headed criminals in new combat suits... Looks like you guys are the ones."
A figure with a long blade on his back, dressed like a ninja, appeared in front of the Paradise Gang, blocking their path.
"I’ve been waiting for you, Hammerhead."
Hammerhead, dressed in a black combat suit, sneered at the sight of him. "Hmph, I knew you’d show up."
Sonic stared at them calmly. "Let me make this clear. No one who’s fought me has lived to tell the tale. It won’t be any different this time. Surrender now, and I might spare your lives."
He pulled down his mask, revealing a cruel grin. "So... what’s your choice?"
Just as Ron arrived in the mountainous forest region of F City, he witnessed a scene of utter carnage.
Sonic, the assassin, was tearing through the Paradise Group like a living storm.
With a flurry of blade strikes and sharp gusts of wind, his figure vanished and reappeared with deadly precision. Cold steel flashed—and before blood could even splatter, bald heads were already flying off shoulders.
It was like watching a lawnmower cut through weeds.
Once the small fries were dealt with, Sonic charged toward Hammerhead.
Hammerhead, in his high-tech combat suit, hefted a massive boulder and hurled it at him with fury.
"You dare raise your blade against me?! Go rot in hell!"
Sonic zigzagged around like lightning, easily dodging the falling rocks and crashing trees.
"Too slow. Way too slow."
Standing atop a treetop nearby, Ron watched with mild interest as the two clashed below.
"That guy... Hammerhead, right? Aside from the combat suit giving him some muscle, he’s garbage. At best, he’s Tiger-level."
"And the ninja guy... Sonic, I think? He’s still holding back. Overall strength probably around Demon-level... roughly on par with Genos right now."
While he mulled over their capabilities, the fight below reached its climax.
Sonic struck with a kunai, sending Hammerhead crashing to the ground—but it turned out to be a ruse. Hammerhead used the moment to make a desperate escape from the battlefield.
Ron tilted his head slightly.
Sonic, standing some distance away, suddenly turned and shot him a cold, piercing glare.
"Well, well... didn’t expect a survivor to still be lurking."
In the blink of an eye, Sonic was right in front of Ron, his blade slicing down mercilessly.
He stared in disbelief as the afterimage he just cleaved vanished into the wind.
Ron’s voice came from behind, where he now stood in the open clearing, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his jacket.
"You’ve got the wrong guy."
"That’s not the point anymore,"
Sonic landed gracefully, pivoting to face the tall, lean figure.
"You saw through and dodged my strike... You’re strong. Which means..."
A childlike, gleeful smile crept across Sonic’s face.
His body vanished again, morphing into a jet-black blur zipping around Ron at a speed faster than sound.
"No matter who you are, I won’t let you get away! Come play with me!"
"Can you handle the pressure? Can you keep up with this speed? Can you even see my movements?!"
Sonic’s taunting voice echoed from every direction like a stereo of madness.
Ron raised his right hand and adjusted the baseball cap that the wind had nearly blown off.
Sonic lunged from a blind spot with blinding speed, grinning viciously as his cold blade swung down.
A fist met his face before he could react.
Sonic’s nose caved in with a sickening crunch as he was launched like a meteor, smashing through boulders and thick tree trunks, forming a long, destructive path across the forest.
"Buzzing around like a fly... Might as well rename yourself ’Annoying Sonic Whale.’"
Ron retracted his fist as if nothing had happened, and strolled off leisurely.
Right at that moment, a bald man in a cape happened to walk by and casually caught the incoming Sonic with one hand. The sheer force of the impact created a windstorm that flapped his cape wildly.
"Huh? What the heck?"
Saitama blinked in confusion, staring at the unconscious body in his arms.
"This guy got wrecked bad."
He poked Sonic’s limp, caved-in face with a finger.
"Hello? You still alive in there?"
Sonic looked more like a sack of mashed potatoes—completely out cold.
Later, Saitama called Genos for help. Genos contacted the Hero Association.
"This... This is the S-Class bounty target, Speed-o’-Sound Sonic!"
The arriving agents instantly recognized him.
"Was it you who took him down?" the supervisor asked Genos.
Genos shook his head and pointed toward Saitama. "No. It was my teacher."
"What?! You beat him?" The supervisor turned to Saitama, visibly shocked.
"No, no! It wasn’t me!" Saitama hurriedly waved his hands. "I was just passing by. He flew at me from the sky, and I just caught him."
"So someone else did it?"
The agent didn’t ask any more questions after that.
Once they secured Sonic and took him back to Hero Association HQ in custody, Saitama and Genos walked home together.
Along the way, Genos explained the whole Hero Association system and the need to pass an exam to become an official hero.
"Then let’s take the exam," Saitama said.
"If you’re taking it, then I’ll take it too," Genos replied.
"Alright, let’s do it together."
As Ron was returning to Z City from F City, something unexpected happened.
An explosion shook the area.
A tall skyscraper suddenly collapsed. Its upper half tilted ominously—and came crashing down toward a busy street full of people and cars. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel✦fire.net