"Is that so?" Bang said with a small nod, dropping the matter. "By the way, what's your hero name?"
"I don't have one yet," Shinji replied. "The higher-ups haven't finalized it. For now, they're probably going with [Kamui]." He then added casually, "You can just call me Shinji."
There was no way he'd mention that absurd suggestion, [Red-Eyed Man]. Just thinking about it made him cringe.
"Oh, I see. Then I'll call you Shinji for now," Bang said with a short laugh. "I'm Bang, no need for the 'Silver Fang' title."
"Understood, Master Bang." Shinji nodded respectfully.
The two of them sat and chatted over tea for a while longer, trading light conversation. But before long, it was time for Shinji to move on.
"Master Bang, I need to continue testing my abilities, so I'll be heading out now."
"Fine here. Take care," Bang replied with a nod.
The next moment, Shinji activated Double Kamui right in front of him.
One second he was seated, and the next, he vanished. There was no buildup, no flash, no sound, just disappearance. Only a faint ripple in the air remained where he'd been, and that too dissipated almost instantly.
Bang, with his sharp S-Class perception, barely caught the spatial disturbance. Any other person wouldn't have noticed a thing.
"That ability... it's truly impressive," Bang murmured to himself. "If he can increase his physical strength as well, it won't be long before he joins the S-Class ranks."
He sighed with genuine admiration.
Elsewhere, Shinji had already made up his mind to strengthen himself further. Raw power, speed, and durability, these were still areas he could push forward. Without hesitation, he opened the system menu and used his points.
[Alert! Host redeemed "Physical Constitution ×20." 20 points deducted. Remaining points: 0]
[Physical Constitution +20]
[Physical Constitution: 75]
Refreshed and empowered, he returned to unlocking new cities, continuing his mission to expand the map.
[Alert! Host has arrived in City E for the first time. Reward: 2 points!]
[Alert! Host has arrived in City X for the first time. Reward: 2 points!]
He spent the rest of the afternoon actively teleporting, adding more cities to his visited list. But the pool of unexplored locations was getting smaller. With every successful unlock, the odds of landing somewhere new with a random jump decreased significantly.
"There are fewer than ten cities left to unlock. No point gambling anymore... I'll just wait and let the opportunities come naturally."
He made a mental note and shifted strategies.
From that point on, Shinji kept a close eye on the Hero Association's alert system via his phone. Every time a monster was reported in a city he'd already visited, he could act instantly.
[Monster sighted in the outskirts of City Y. Preliminary threat level: Tiger. Nearby heroes, please respond and neutralize the threat immediately!]
Shinji had been patrolling the streets of City Z when the notification appeared. The alerts didn't come often, since nearby heroes quickly took down most monsters or never reached the level where a public alert was needed. But this time, the call went out, and City Y was already within his accessible teleport range.
Without wasting a second, Shinji opened a Kamui portal and shifted space.
Just as he warped into City Y, the Hero Association updated the monster's coordinates.
Shinji immediately zeroed in on the location. With practiced control, he began opening spatial rifts directly in his line of sight, chaining them together across rooftops and streets. His movement became a sequence of instantaneous flashes, leaping across long distances without leaving a trail.
In mere seconds, he reached the battle zone.
At the same time, a few nearby heroes had also reached the scene. Judging by their energy and gear, they appeared to be C-Class and B-Class, hardly a lineup suited for a Tiger-level threat. Generally, it took five B-Class heroes or one A-Class hero to deal with a monster of this tier, and the three present were clearly struggling.
• B-Class: Pointhead Man
• C-Class: Edgy Student
• C-Class: Snip'n'Clip
Pointhead Man had a sharply conical skull and a short, bulky frame packed with raw muscle. He wielded an enormous Warhammer with surprising speed.
Edgy Student looked like an angry teenager, with a school uniform, a mushroom haircut, thick glasses, and acne covering his face. His weapon? A compass, though clearly not the kind used for math class.
Snip'n'Clip had greasy, wild hair that looked like it hadn't seen shampoo in weeks. His weapons of choice were a flashlight and a pair of scissors, both seemingly useless until he actually started fighting.
The enemy they faced was something that looked like a rosebud but was far more grotesque. It had the muscular body of a large dog, but its head was replaced by a monstrous black rose. This was no delicate blossom; its petals were lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth, like a carnivorous flower straight from a nightmare. It was an animal, not a plant, but every part of it screamed unnatural.
"Let's go together!" Pointhead Man shouted, charging forward and swinging his massive warhammer straight at the monster.
With a deafening crash, the hammer slammed into the side of Rose Hound's face, cracking off one of its many teeth. But that was all, the beast was still full of sharp fangs and barely even flinched.
Edgy Student and Snip'n'Clip took this as their cue to move in, thinking the hit had at least dazed the monster. They rushed in from opposite sides.
Rose Hound's mouth opened wide, then snapped shut with terrifying force.
In one clean bite, it swallowed both of them at once.
However, having taken in two people at the same time, it choked. Edgy Student and Snip'n'Clip became lodged halfway down its throat, legs kicking outside its mouth as they flailed to free themselves. The monster couldn't spit them out, but it also couldn't finish swallowing them.
"Hang on, I'll save you!"
Pointhead Man saw an opportunity and raised his hammer again. He brought it crashing down on Rose Hound's head, trying to stun it into submission.
Unfortunately, both heroes were still in its mouth. The blow rocked the monster's skull, but it merely rattled the two trapped heroes unconscious instead of knocking it out. Their kicking weakened, bodies going limp, and now that their resistance had stopped, Rose Hound had a real chance of finishing the swallow.
"What the hell!" Pointhead Man scratched his head, dumbfounded. Somehow, he had just made things worse.
Just as Rose Hound tilted its head back for one final gulp, Shinji arrived, with perfect timing.
This was a good opportunity to test the Flying Thunder God Technique in live combat. Without hesitation, he rushed forward, grabbed one leg from each of the two heroes stuck in the monster's mouth, and activated the jutsu. No hand seals were needed. With an instant burst of spatial energy, he teleported all three of them to a nearby location he had marked earlier.
At the same moment, his hand lightly brushed the top of Rose Hound's head, and he left behind a new mark.
Unlike the traditional Flying Thunder God seal used by Tobirama or Minato, Shinji's version was based on his Mangekyō Sharingan, a unique black spiral pattern burned into space itself.
Then, right on top of Rose Hound's skull, the air shimmered with distortion as a black Mangekyō Kamui symbol emerged in a flash, pulsing with ominous energy.
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