Chapter 2

My opinion of the Observe skill had changed greatly over the course of my second life. Initially I saw it as indispensable skill allowing me to gauge the enemy's power and consequently the danger they posed to my life. That definition lasted me for a few years of easily crushing those dungeons inhabited by monsters weaker than me, and then I hit a wall and I learnt something very important. Stats were by no means the only descriptor of a beings difficulty and the most dangerous beings were often not the strongest, the fastest, the toughest, but those that possessed unique abilities that I was not yet aware of. Poison, fire, acid and lightning proved to be huge problems when I ran into them before I built up resistance and some of the more unique abilities still plagued me to this day.

The outcome of this awkward transitionary period was that I came out of it with a deep appreciation for skills; ingrained abilities that could overturn a discrepancy in Stats or turn an even match into a one-sided beatdown. That is where experience came into play and why I still grinded levels despite them doing little to improve my Stats. Each ten levels the understanding I gained from my battles crystallised into a perk that would improve my fighting style. I had gained a total of 59 perks so far and I had mainly specialised in hand to hand and psychic powers with a smattering of miscellaneous perks that were so powerful I couldn't afford not to take them.

These ninjas had likely extracted every ounce of potential from their bodies and aligned it with their own personal style; pouring sweat and blood into their martial arts to concentrate their hard earned latent power into a sword that would reap the lives of the enemy; but unfortunately they were doomed from the start as I strode forward throwing a single punch.

Unarmed Fighting: (LV 581) – Passive (Absolute Spin Style)

Spin-Style Air Punch = 32 458 X 15 X 0.72 = 350 546

The ground buckled, the air broke and the landscaped deformed as a wave of swirling force swept outward from the end of my fist towards the direction of the four ninjas. It was a majestic sight, an inevitable upgrade to my initial air punch and I watched in anticipation as the destructive energy ripped the world to shreds in hope that it would do the same to my enemies.

I was disappointed however as the comparatively lacking speed of the energy was enough to allow three of the ninjas to barely dodge the punch, leaving the fourth massive one to weather the heavy blow. He turned around covering his head with his hands and trying to make himself a smaller target. It would probably have worked; the damage of the punch could still be reduced by the toughness of an opponent's body or by simply redirecting it to less important areas. Unfortunately for the big guy I had started moving as soon as I had thrown the punch, the energy of the blast did little to me, who possessed the Spin and was able to redirect the force away from my body.

A single punch in the back of his neck, imbued with the aforementioned Spin and my enemy was executed painlessly. Unfortunately I was still a ways away from achieving the Golden Spin. The accuracy that it required was overwhelming and despite my high dexterity I was still unable to achieve the pinpoint precision required. Still my strength allowed me to generate a large amount of energy initially which combined with the magnification of Spin allowed me to send destructive vibrations through the air creating a severely discounted Saitama punch.

As the air pressure returned to its standard levels I stepped sideways to dodge a familiar arrow, but contrary to my expectations when it passed by my ear it exploded in a fireball that impacted against the orange shield an inch from my skin. Shun Shun Rika, contrary to Spin,was a skill that was easily mastered, but had a severe downside in that it was utter shit for attacking. In theory it could cut do huge amounts of damage, the problem lay in the fact that it required more than just strong convictions to use its true power. To truly wield the skill offensively required that you hate and wish to utterly obliterate the subject, plain wrath wouldn't cut it; you required Voldemort levels of psychopathy to even begin dealing damage on par with my normal punches.

Still it was damn good at defending and I allowed the blastwave from the exploding arrow to carry me a few feet to the side. While still in the air summoned an orange shield in front of me and kicked off of it to avoid a black spear directed at my spinal cord from behind. I landed behind the ninja dressed in black and immediately bent backwards to avoid his pitch spear as it transformed into a scythe and he reversed the swing in an attempt to decapitate me.

I frowned even as I ducked below the scythe blade and I raised my hand to catch a dozen arrows with my psychokinesis sending them back at the archer. Simultaneously I was forced to summon Shun Shun Rika and shape it into the form of a sword to block the kukris aimed towards my kneecap, to be more specific I blocked the kukri that wasn't an afterimage; my Supreme Awareness of the Natural World proving indispensable once again. The scythe reversed direction at that same time stabbing downwards towards me and I rotated my sword to catch the tip of the scythe on the blade.

That awkward position was enough to delay me for a moment as dozens arrows from the apparently still alive archer and I was forced to pull out one of the trump cards I created; named The World Turns. By bending my own life force to form a near perfect Spin and then creating a psychic whirlwind with the same Spin I allowed my internal and external energies to interact and produce a wave of interference with spectacular results.

King

The Gamer

Title - None

Species - Human

Health- 187 569/313 460 (HP Regen: 6 269 per minute)

Mana – 175 201/284 830 (MP Regen: 5 696 per minute)

Spin has levelled up.

Psychic Resistance has levelled up.

Energy Resistance has levelled up.

Heat Resistance has levelled up.

Burn Resistance has levelled up.

Pain Resistance has levelled up.

Psychic Powers has levelled up.

'Should have just taken the hit,' I thought to myself as I crawled to my feet. Unfortunately that move forced me to let down my barriers to allow my life force (chi) and psychic energy (mana) to react with each other forcing me to rely on the strength of my body to resist the unstoppable destruction. Still it seemed that I was by no means the only one affected as I stood up from my position in a massive crater of about a hundred metres wide and about two dozen deep. Of the two ninjas that were fighting me only one showed any sign of movement; the discounted flash guy was struggling to his feet. I was impressed despite myself and I observed him quickly to discover he had just over fifty thousand hp left, a number that indicated that he had somehow resisted most of the damage, a truly noteworthy feat.

Just then a ray of heat and energy blindsided me and I slid back a few metres before I summoned Shun Shun Rika to redirect the energy beam to the side causing it to carve out a massive trench in the ground. I instantly locked onto the archer who stood on the side of the crater and approached instantly, dashing towards the entrenched opponent. Arrows fell like rain decimating the landscape beneath me but since I had him in my sight I was easily able to dodge or redirect the predictable swarm. In less than a second and I saw him snap his bow apart, transforming it into two large curved knives that lashed out towards me with staggered swipes in an attempt to throw off my rhythm and cut into me. He was fast, but still far slower than me and thus I grabbed the swords letting them clash against my psychic barrier before I kicked him with a Spin infused kick that tore into his body, almost severing him in two.

His Stats showed that he was the weakest of the four and his prowess didn't disagree, judging from what he had showed me he would probably be weak S-Class at best. His offense was good but once you got past that then killing him was a trivial matter. To wit, I raised my left hand and used my psychokinesis to pull him towards my palm before snapping his neck with my other hand.

Barely had I dropped his body when a spear struck my back, actually managing to pierce my body and scratch my epidermis. I staggered at that unexpected attack, it had somehow managed to bypass my Supreme Awareness of the Natural World and I twisted my body stamping down, causing the ground for hundreds of metres to shatter and explode upwards. That distraction gave me a split second to turn and get a look to the fourth black-clad ninja that I thought I killed; and my eyebrows rose in amazement.

"So you've disposed of the trash," the haughty looking golden haired ninja said; except now he sported a pair of enormous butterfly wings and a glimmering carapace covered his neck, hands and certain other parts of his body. As he spoke a pair of antennae twitched angling towards me in an aggressive manner. The pair of kukri that were by his side had morphed into a pair of serrated insectile pincers

"Rookies that haven't even surpassed the human condition have no right to protect our master," the black clad ninja said; his body seemed insubstantial as if made of fog or gas and his voice was accompanied by a dripping sound. Two light blue eyes were the only human features left and they regarded me with condescension. "Now that the novices have been taken down I hope you won't mind if we get a little serious."

"If you will permit me the same," I said. Despite my apparent confidence I had fewer trump cards than I would like in this situation. I remembered from the manga and webcomic just how much of a boost being monsterized gave to a person. With some trepidation I observed the two enemies in front of me.

Shining Glimmer (Monsterized)

Ninja

Species - Monster

Health- 989 561/1 106 512

Mana – 0/0

STR – 206 578

VIT – 168 377

DEX – 201 567

INT – 32 531

WIS – 21 608

LUK – 12 852

Martial Arts Style: Unlimited Flash Style

Stygian Umbra (Monsterized)

Ninja

Species - Monster

Health- 1 246 371/1 541 000

Mana – 0/0

STR – 187 601

VIT – 213 541

DEX – 208 447

INT – 25 401

WIS – 18 401

LUK – 8 450

Martial Arts Style: Abyssal Shadow Style

That was definitely not a fight in my favour. In fact the momentum of the fight had overwhelmingly swung against me and they seemed to be aware of it seeing that they just stood there confidently waiting for my response. Technically I could just escape into my dungeons at any time, getting away from them easily but something stopped me. Flashy Flash had fought two monsterized former members of his village and dispatched them with moderate trouble and while these were likely stronger if I was also able to destroy them then I would be able to truly prove that I was at the top of S-Class.

"Alright come," I said as I took the standard stance of Spin-Style Martial Arts, reinforced my psychic barrier, refined my intent, started rotating the chi in my body, kept my psychic powers ready and formed Shun Shun Rika into two swords. Nearly one hundred percent of my powers were concentrated into this fight and I fully intended to give it my best.

The overconfidence of the overpowered is a truly consistent thing in this world it seems as the two monster ninjas gave me plenty of time to prepare. I raised my hand in the universal 'come at me gesture' and then I got promptly hit by a mountain. It was only at the last moment that I was able to bring up Shun Shun Rika to fend off the blow, but even so I found myself skidding back a few dozen metres in an instant. I caught myself and swung Shun Shun Rika hardening my will and reforming the cracks as I did so. This time the weapon came again and I was able to make out the blurry shape of a spear before it plunged into me with the force of speeding train; no stronger than something so mundane.

Even with Spin from my body outputting destructive vibrations that increased the force behind my swords I was barely able to catch the blow from the spear, redirecting it to my left but still feeling my health go down slightly. That world shaking blow was not the last one however and it was quickly followed up by one-two-a dozen more blows and I had my neurons firing at full capacity bringing me to a state of hyper awareness just to deal with that. Still there was some spare capacity in my beleaguered brain left and so after another fifty strikes I was able to summon up my psychokinesis; first forcing Black Ninja back a step and then flinging him into the sky about sixty metres. Except that was not what I intended at all. I could fling a normal monster into the stratosphere, but this monsterized Ninja weight incomparably heavy compared to them.

I had no reprieve as in the very next second the world lit up and I flew backwards as the ground around me disintegrated as the world was plunged into light that burnt away my surroundings. My MP dropped and I could feel my psychic shield buckle before I reinforced it with Shun Shun Rika. Even so I found my hand pierced by a kukri that immediately was yanked backwards tearing out of my palm. My eyes were still blinded by the light, but my senses informed me that a spear was converging on my position with the force of a missile and I was forced to jump off the sole remaining column of earth that had not been disintegrated by the beam of light.

Conventional wisdom stated that an opponent in the sky would have limited options to counterattack and the White Ninja took advantage of this advancing towards my sightless form at blinding speed. This sort of overconfidence was my favourite and I waited for the latest moment by kicking off the air and launching a powerful blow infused with the Spin at his abdomen. It was the first clean blow that I got since he had transformed and I was rewarded with the sound of cracking exoskeleton. Still that was far from what I desired when the fact that I didn't hold back on that punch was considered.

He retreated backwards slightly and I reached out to grasp him with psychokinesis, but was forced to redirect my psychic energy to ward off a descending spear thrust at me by the Black Ninja. It hit like a meteor, but my psychic power had grown to the point that I could catch a meteor if necessary. What I couldn't catch was the two follow up strikes as the black mist condensed into spears that stabbed towards me. I was able to rotate my body to avoid one, but the last one caught me on stomach and I felt my psychic barrier crack then shatter before it stabbed inches deep into my body and the residual momentum sent me flying down like a rocket deep into the earth.

King

The Gamer

Title - None

Species - Human

Health- 107 408/313 460 (HP Regen: 6 269 per minute)

Mana – 165 391/284 830 (MP Regen: 5696 per minute)

'This is not working,' I thought to myself as I checked my status deep beneath the surface of the earth. I never have time to check it in battle where a fraction of a second's pause could lead to disaster; especially in a battle as dangerous as this. The Black Ninja could condense multiple spears from the mist and the White Ninja could send out waves of blinding, destructive light from his kukris; that was not including the massive speed and strength increase that they both underwent. If there was one then I may have been able to lock him down with a combination of my psychic power and fighting style but I would never be able to fight the both of them at the same time; at least not without drawing my last trump card.

It was at this point I looked down at my body and realised that my clothes were gone, destroyed some time during the fight and I found myself blushing despite my aloneness. Shun Shun Rika acted fast and soon enough they were restored to their prime condition. Despite their high stats they were unable to do anything to give me even the slightest advantage against the ninja duo, but there was one suit of clothes that could.

I hesitated severely at this point. The truth was that I had obtained one more outsider skill when I levelled up past five hundred, but the downside was that I utterly hated it with an undying fury. In fact I had only used it in dungeons with non-sentient enemies and only for the purpose of evolving it to the point where it would have a less embarrassing look. I was tempted to fight it out still despite my rationality telling me it was impossible. Worse I was aware that this was the best time to launch a sneak attack as while the ninjas were alert their arrogance would cause them to underestimate me.

"Fuck this, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck you," I said addressing my complaints towards myself, the luck that chose to abandon me and the ninjas that forced me to use my third trump card. With deep reluctance in my heart I activated my last outsider ability and found my body being covered, though not enclosed to the extent where I would feel confident. In the same second I felt barbs dig into my skin imbibing my blood even through the toughness of my skin and I activated the ability For the Weak causing my health to rapidly swell until it touched its maximum. I stretched out my Supreme Awareness of the Natural World detecting two enormous auras above me and locking onto them before I activated Spin and started to drill upwards.

The truth of this world was that fights could be decided in a second. The scientific definition of power was energy divided by time and I wasn't a person to disagree. If anything I would probably bastardize the scientific definition of pressure and combine them to make the equation: Power=Energy/Time/Surface Area. In this equation the power would be the combination of my empowered fist imbued with Spin, the time would be the microsecond in which my hand impacted with the White Ninja and the surface area would be his armoured throat, which held for a moment before it cracked and he found himself one head shorter.

The sound of a critical hit touched my ears briefly and a truly absurd amount of damage flashed through the screen but I had no desire to tarry as I could feel my lifeforce start to drain away. I honed onto the Black Ninja who was just starting to jump away and I raised my hand summoning towards me with psychic power and at the same time allowing red threads to lash out and grapple his smoky body, digging in and latching onto a core. His eyes widened in terror but I was too pissed off right now to even notice and I stepped forward summoning my Shun Shun Rika and unleashing slash after slash after slash, the force causing the dense core to crack even without the power of rejection. At the same time I exerted the full force of my psychic might until I could feel the object start to tremble. Finally with a noise like a gunshot the thing broke and I collapsed to my feet as I watched the Black Ninja fade away with a look of horror in his eyes.

King

The Gamer

Title - None

Species - Human

Health- 24 387/313 910 (HP Regen: 6 278 per minute)

Mana – 87 501/285 380 (MP Regen: 5 707 per minute)

Those few seconds had almost killed me and once more I growled in anger at my last and least liked outsider ability.

Kamui (LV 13) – Active

A piece of clothing composed of the parasitic alien substance known as Life Fibers. While they bestow incredible physical abilities on their hosts they also suck blood from the bodies of those that don't accept them.

Unfortunately my god robe sucked like an American vampire, like a Michael Bay film, like a quantum singularity. Every second I donned the disgustingly bad outfit I lost enough blood to make a shitty slasher flick and the output worsened every time I moved. It was at this time that I heard and embarrassed cough and I turned to see the future number one hero looking at me with bewilderment in his eyes.

"Don't say a fucking word about the outfit," I said as I summoned more clothes from my inventory. "I'm working on fixing it." I don't even mind the possibility of losing sanity considering a berserk uncontrollable state is practically hallmark of a lot of protagonists.

"That's good," he said awkwardly before composing himself. "I suppose if it helps you finish those two then it's worth it."

"Did you get the boss?" I asked curiously. In the canon timeline the ninja leader was put into a coma but escaped and was eventually killed by Saitama.

"He won't be causing any more trouble," Blast said before raising his thumb and drawing it across his neck in a clear sign of just what happened to him.

"That's good to hear," I said before I observed the hero in front of me.

Blast

Future Number One Hero

Species - Human

Health- 25 861 902/28 543 291

Mana – 0/0

STR – ? ? ?

VIT – ? ? ?

DEX – ? ? ?

INT – 261 051

WIS – 463 802

LUK – 81 691

Martial Arts Style: ?

Those were some demoralising Stats. Even if I was able to use my Kamui without humiliating myself to death or having all my blood sucked out of me I would certainly come up short. Thankfully I had gained levels in the fight and I could subsequently gain the perk I had been looking forward to eagerly.

Power Sealing (Req 25 psychic perks and 25 combat perks)

Your mastery over mind and body have grown to such an extent that few can resist it save themselves. By focusing psychic restraint on your body you decrease your current Stats but make it far easier to gain increases in levels and Stats. By releasing the psychic restraints your Stats return to their normal levels. Releasing the seal will reduce control over Stats for between one and five minutes.

I immediately selected the perk and activated it and in that instant I felt as if every muscle in my body forcibly contracted as if bound by iron wire. At the same time I felt my head grow fuzzy as my psychic power tightened and wrapped around my own body. I gasped in surprise and immediately checked my Stats.

King

The Gamer

Title - None

Species - Human

Health- 28 530/313 910 (HP Regen: 6 278 per minute)

Mana – 91 267/285 380 (MP Regen: 5 707 per minute)

Level – 611 EXP 23 698/878 601

STR – 3 246

VIT – 28 321

DEX – 3 105

INT – 2 545

WIS – 2 462

LUK – 27 777

Points -2 465

Money 25 634 892¥

"You're okay there," Blast said stepping forward and looking at me in the eyes. "Did you get a concussion or something? Should I call an ambulance?"

"No, no," I said denying my injury. "I'm fine, just tired."

"I can understand that," Blast said somewhat companionably. "I heard their secret hideout is in this forest as well, but after all this fighting today all I want to do now is head home and rest for work tomorrow."

"I have school the day after tomorrow," I said reluctantly looking at my phone. While I could wait for an hour or two and be at tip-top shape, the truth was that I just wasn't feeling it anymore. Gamer's mind was surprisingly useless sometimes and did little to prevent back-to-school depression and it would be ill advised to fight while suffering through that. Besides I wanted to go home and try out my new perk.

"So want to ha…" I started only to look up and see that Blast had gone. "Oh you're gone," I said, explaining the obvious as I stared at the empty surroundings. "Huh," I said as I turned around and started jogging back. My house was more than a few hundred miles away and I decided to treat the few hours before I got back as a leisurely sightseeing tour while I recovered my HP and MP. Lastly I made a note to find some way to increase my vitality since Power Sealing apparently did nothing to increase it.

xxx

6 Years Later

'A lot could change in six years. I had really become strong.'

These reflections were not by any means new. At twenty years old and as a full-fledged adult with no need for sleep I was able to devote large portions of my time in order to improve myself. That would normally be the case if I wasn't held back by the handicap of adult life in general and familial relationships in particular. To this day I continued to prove my ineptitude as a Shounen hero as my parents stubbornly stayed alive. In fact my current family was larger by far than my past life and while I liked them for the most part it had been annoying as hell over the past two years. Everybody seemed to want to check up on me and find out how my new enterprise was doing and it really dug into my personal training time.

"Two specials, boss," a generic brown haired man said as he held up two fingers. My employee, a standard inhabitant of this world with an unimportant name and life story, I had hired him after my first year of doing business using the money I had saved up. Yes I was now the proud owner of a small restaurant and also its only chef. Almost without thinking I flicked up two knives catching them and lashing out with hundreds of strikes per second, dicing, cutting, shredding and slicing. My preparation skills had reached such rapidity that when combined with my inherent speed I could rival an hour of chef work in seconds.

Cooking (LVL 256) - Passive

Allows the user to prepare food by mixing, combining and heating ingredients. Higher levels in this skill improve taste and nutritional value of food.

Yup, as of lately my life had turned out like an episode from Shokugeki no soma; except you know, actually fun to watch. Still there were very worthy reasons that I started my restaurant business and they definitely weren't just to launder my money from the dungeons; that would be a gross violation of professional ethics and not the sort of thing an aspiring Chartered Accountant should ascribe to. Besides my absurdly high cooking skill was more than enough to earn some decent cash and I didn't really have a lot of expenses anyway.

A sudden knock on the door announced that my employee wanted to speak to me again and I slowed down my movements, turning down the stove briefly before I went to answer him. I had a very hands-off relationship with my staff in general, and kept interacting with them to a minimum. None of them were allowed in the kitchen because I didn't want to explain exactly how I was able to disappear from one spot and reappear in another.

"Yes," I asked as I left the kitchen, not even bothering to take off my apron. "What did you want? The lunch time rush isn't over yet." I stopped at that because at this point the reason was obvious. Normally at this point the diner would be full to bursting with customers who came to eat considering that I was a damn good cook. This time however the normal customers had disappeared and the restaurant was littered with shady looking men in blac suits.

"Boss they just showed up," my head waiter whispered to me and I immediately got the gist of the situation. This was the so-called extortion racket that I had heard affected many of my neighbours on this street recently and I had hoped that they would give me a miss, but it was to no avail apparently.

"Morning, how are you doing," the one in front, a slick haired one wearing sunglasses said as he lit up a cigarette. "We come representing the Genovese Insurance Company. Have you ever considered getting business insurance?"

Yup this was definitely an extortion racket. Normally under these situations I believe the Shounen thing would be to refuse and/or beat them up and then later have them and their masters come back for some form of revenge. In reality while I could beat them up with little effort that would likely be considered assault by the slow, stupid, lumbering behemoth that was every law system ever and the events that would then happen are the province of whoever has the best lawyers. In fact the existence of organised crime has always been an indication that the legal system has failed and the legal system not working has always been a good pretext for some fun vigilante justice.

"How much," I said not wasting the time. He named a number causing my eyebrows to rise. Apparently they were going all out to extort all the money from me that they could. Instead of making a fuss I simply reached into the cash register, discretely taking the money out of my inventory instead before I handed it over to him.

"It has been nice dealing with a smart man for once," the gangster said giving a welcoming smile as he took the money dusting off some of the ash from his cigarette on my fricking table. "I'll pop around next month again." Those words were the last that he said before he turned around and left the building, his thugs following as he left.

"Sorry about that boss," my employee said giving me an apologetic look and I smiled to reassure him.

"It's no worry," I said. "I've always believed in cycles. What goes around comes around."

"If you say so boss," he said looking doubtful.

"You can clean up the kitchen and close up the store for today," I said quietly before heading out the door.

"Boss, please don't go to the police," he said from behind me. "You don't know what they did to the last person."

"I can guess," I said to him as I turned back and smiled. "Don't worry. I'm just going home to catch that new show on the television; you know the one with that guy who loves that girl." I actually didn't watch a lot of television; it's basically the internet on a schedule.

I stepped out into the bustling metropolis that was Y-City noticing that there was a discreet crowd of my customers there. I immediately locked eyes with all of them counting them before I smiled.

"I'm sorry for that just now," I said. "The shop has just closed. Please go ask inside and ask at the counter for a coupon for a free meal to be reimbursed at your convenience."

There was a bit of grumbling after that but even more people simply wished me well and wanted to know if I was okay. That was the advantage of opening up a small restaurant on this street; you get such a good sense of community. While I had no long term intention of running the restaurant it was still six years until the Hero Association would even be formed and I had developed a sudden need for really good food in the past year courtesy of my last Outsider ability.

I watched the few customers who were forced to leave by the criminals head inside my restaurant. Then I took a right turn into the bustling streets of Y-City and headed home. Not much was known about this city in the Manga or Anime, or at least nothing that I could recall. The location was relatively prosperous; at least compared to Z-City and the area had a relatively low area of street crime. The roads were bustling at this time of but very few people blocked the path of a six foot tall man with three scars over his left eye. Yes; in the last six years I had received King's trademark scars and no; it wasn't due to some cheap easily avoidable battle in which I let down my guard and received a scratch in turn. I don't even think my Gamer's body lets me accumulate wounds normally. Instead it was an another annoying side effect of my new ability, but still nowhere near the most disturbing effect of that skill.

I lived on the sixteenth floor in a nearby block of apartments that were a relatively cheap rental. I didn't exactly spend a lot of time in them, preferring instead to fight in the instant dungeons or travel the continent. Speaking of travelling the continent the rate of mysterious beings had increased greatly in the last several years and I had often hunted them down when I ran across them but none of them were even at the level of a Demon ranked threat.

Still it wouldn't do to be complacent and as I noticed the slight lack of darkness between the door and the frame indicating a lack of locking I raised my level of awareness. There was no damage to the frame which meant that somebody had either picked the lock or shown up unannounced. Stepping forward gently I tapped the door with my feet causing it to swing open into the kitchen area and my last bit of wariness left me when I saw one of the kitchen cupboards swung open carelessly.

"Earl," I said in that raised sharp voice that every parent everywhere learns at some time. A scuffling momentarily assailed my ears and a young roundish face poke out from behind the corner.

"Uncle King," the freckled fourteen year old said as he ran towards me embracing me in a hug and I sighed and returned the gesture of affection. "I came over to play your games. You don't play them much anyway."

"I still play some story games," I admitted. It was an annoying fact that my reflexes were just too fast to derive any enjoyment out of many genres. I truly have no idea how Saitama ever lost to King considering his reflexes were far better than mine.

"So do you want to play a few rounds with me Uncle King," my younger second cousin said as he withdrew from the hug. "You've barely showed up at the family these past few years."

He was correct at that. As an introvert I already severely dislike long family gatherings and it didn't help that getting strong was my primary motivation in this world. Any second that I didn't spend doing some form of training felt like a waste of my time.

"I've spent most of my time in the restaurant, Earl," I said calmly as I strode past him leaving keys, phone and wallet on a table near the television. I took off my chef hat and entered my room to change.

"Granny says you don't really care about the restaurant," Earl said in that odd tone of voice children have when mimicking the opinions of their elders.

"Your grandmother has good eyes," I admitted as I changed from my working clothes into sweatpants, t-shirt and a hoodie. I slipped a cheap animal mask under my hoodie to put on later. The government got a bit iffy when other people started killing, nobody liked it when somebody else infringed on their monopoly, and I would rather not get into a pointless argument with any elected officials.

I stepped out into the living room again to see my young relative once again taking advantage of my lax attitude to come over to my house and play my games. I gave him a half wave as I stepped into the kitchen which he barely returned before I stepped out of my apartment and onto the sixteenth floor hallway. With a brief look around I typed the address of the Genovese Insurance Company into the GPS on my phone and got the message that it would take thirty-six minutes driving in this traffic and even longer walking; but neither of those things were what I intended to do. Instead I leapt from the sixteenth floor to the roof of the opposite building and started to sprint across the rooftops as well as my Stats would allow. A casual run allowed me to arrive at the location in under forty seconds and I caught my first glimpse at the people who had been so brazen as to extort me.

The building was squat and ugly with few windows reflecting a sort of plain utilitarianism that appeared functional but ugly to even a passer-by such as myself. If I had not been specifically looking for this edifice then my eyes would have probably slid past it and automatically censored the image. I put on the cheap fox mask that I had picked up before I left my home and jumped across from the roof to the third and penultimate floor of the building landing on a windowsill and then breaking through the associated window. I landed somewhat soundlessly on the floor; by that I mean that I touched down without a sound but the surrounding glass wasn't so graceful causing the sound of cracking and crunching to ring out through the empty hallway.

Still it wasn't loud enough for an immediate response but within thirty seconds of walking I started hearing the unmistakeable sound of boots heading towards me. Two men kitted out in full equipment and totting what loosely fit the loose definition of assault rifle rounded the corner and pointed the aforementioned weapon at me before pulling the trigger and unloading a stream of bullets at my after image.

I stepped past them casually wiping the blood off my hand without even bothering to inspect their stats. If a person chose to rely on a weapon like that then they would probably be a threat to C-Class heroes at best which is like earth to my heaven at this point in time. They probably were not even able to perceive the moment my hand divorced chest from head and I increased my walking pace as I heard two thumps behind me.

The act of murder is meant be a hard thing at first as humans have both natural and culture inhibitions towards taking life but it also supposedly gets vastly easier over time as humans do what they do best and adapt to the shock. None of this applied to me as Gamers mind tended to kick in at times of emotional stress. I can barely remember my first kill, some murderer in a snowy street, and I tended to follow simple utilitarianism principles when I took a life. If my actions would lead to a net positive in the world then I would strike them down without guilt.

More sounds of footsteps came running through down the hallway and I turned the corner to look at what resembled some form of bad guy SWAT team and I ducked back as a hail of bullets came through before I leapt to the opposing wall bouncing off the upper portions of the hallway and landing in the middle of the group and finishing it in an instant. I briefly glimpsed over at that point and was disappointed to realise that the guy I scanned had stats that barely topped a hundred and it would take a literal army of them for me to even break a sweat.

This fight was probably representative of what would happen if an ordinary person in this world went up against any of the S-Class heroes let alone somebody like Tatsumaki or Saitama. Thankfully I still had my dungeons and the possibility of a fight with Saitama to look forward to or I would probably give up on fighting at this point. I continued onwards looking for the stairs to the top office where I wagered the CEO would most likely be and I was able to walk in silence for another fourteen seconds before I found it.

I walked slowly up the stairs keeping an eye out on the floor besides me as I did and I was rewarded by a glint that caused me to leap from the side an instant before the wall behind me exploded in a wave of heat and light. Standing on the floor above me were two clunky attempts at a robot looking hunched over like a mix between a pangolin and a scorpion except nearly two metres tall with a solitary eye glowing a bright vermillion that matched the wavelength erupting from their tails.

"Huh, I didn't think I'd see that soon," I mused to myself. "You never really expect the Mafia to own actual robots. I think I've walked into the wrong genre all of a sudden."

"I have been assigned to defend the head of the Genovese family," the two robots spoke in unison in a creepy manner, their eye brightening as they focused on me. "It does not matter for what reason you came here today as I C3, the strongest robot of The Organisation will eliminate you here."

"Then bring it on," I said scanning the two robots.

C3 - 005

Robot of The Organisation

Species – Mechanical Life Form

Health- 603 052/603 052

Mana – 0/0

STR – 34 312

VIT – 46 015

DEX – 26 321

INT – 89 452

WIS – 57 631

LUK – 4 698

Martial Arts Style: N/A

That was quite some health but the rest of their actual stats probably sat in the middle lower portion of S-Class as wide as that particular classification was. In other words they would probably trash an early series Genos, just like everything else, but would be smashed without recourse in turn by Flash, Bang, Atomic Samurai, Darkshine and Tatsumaki.

The scales of the scorpions flashed at the same time as I scanned and the distraction was enough for the lasers to catch me on my chest and throw me right through the wall behind me and into a room that looked somewhat like a kitchen. They even had a cappuccino machine and it far nicer than any in every place I've worked at before so in a fit of spite I chucked it at the robot. Unfortunately it didn't get that far as a pair of lasers blasted it apart turning it into chunks of molten metal that served as a good distraction that I used to get close and punch one of the robots in the face.

I didn't use Spin or Shun Shun Rika but even still I was surprised that my fist left a dent in the robot instead of obliterating it outright and that moment of pause was almost enough for me to get hit by a laser from the robot that wasn't currently flying backwards. Instead I touched foot against a piece of shrapnel and used it as a foothold to pivot my body upwards and launch myself over the laser and towards the other one. This one was well aware of my approach and it turned its body pointing its dome shaped back against me.

This time I was surprised as my hand barely left an indentation on the hard robotic endoskeleton and I grinned almost unconsciously. These robots were almost ridiculously tough considering even most Demon-level monsters couldn't withstand my blows and they had good judgement and some half-decent firepower. The only real downside was they were a little slow.

Knowing this I grabbed the back vaulting over the tail that tried to decapitate me and landed in front of the robot before launching a trio of blows at its optical area. The first punch cracked the glass, the second broke it and with the third I inserted my hand into its cranium and pulled out its innards. That seemed to shut it up and I scanned it over to see its prodigious health be reduced to zero.

Only three seconds had passed by this point and the original robot had finished struggling to its feet, but I didn't bother making the first move at this point. Instead I watched as the creature looked at me, sized me up, saw how outmatched it was before it started to speak again.

"Scanning database of subjects," the robot said. "Target identified as King, the owner of the restaurant CooKing Grates. Why would a small time city chef decide to attack the Genovese family? Is this only related to the collection of money? Who is backing you? How did you get such strength? The robot's voice rose and rose until it was sounding hysterical until it stopped to be replaced by the sound of whirring. "Target has been identified. Backup has been requested. No restrictions on the usage of force."

'So they knew who I was,' I thought nervously. It was bound to happen sometime. There are cameras everywhere these days and despite my lack of standing out I knew that I would become famous at some point just like the original King. I had planned for this day and obtained enough protection that my family would be safe from any future enemies and so I gathered my resolve before I reached up to my mask and tore it off.

I took a step forward to reduce this robot to scrap when my Supreme Awareness over the Natural World warned me of an imminent collision and I took a step back as the floor beneath me exploded showering me with concrete. I blinked as some of the dust entered my vision and I was blinded for a brief instant, opening my eyes to see a whirling ball of metal flying towards me at speeds that belied its great size. Still I had enough time to move and I did so, avoiding the barrelling robot I leapt upwards towards the ceiling; which promptly collapsed as another one of those metal balls rolled downwards toward me at the speed of a bullet.

I turned my body lashing out with a kick with the intention to change my momentum; only to find it didn't go as planned as a tremendous force impacted with my foot and sent me flying through another one of the walls of the building. I hopped to my feet just in time to see another one of those giant balls of metal come rushing at my face and I immediately retaliated by throwing a punch at the centre mass of the spinning robot only to find my fist skirting off the shell of the creature doing minimal damage and the resulting momentum of the punch instead blowing a hole through several walls and right out of the building. The deflected force barely knocked it off course and it smacked into my face as I overextended causing no small amount of embarrassment.

Still I was tough enough at this point that it didn't do any actual harm and I easily straightened up adopting a steady pose once again. However no more attacks happened at this point and instead I found myself circled by five of the pangolin scorpion things that obviously formed the metallic spheres that crashed about a few seconds ago.

"You may be able to resist my blows," the lead pangolin said fixing me with a red glare. "But I can do the same to you. My bodies have the ability to rotate at over 120 000RPM and can easily deflect all attacks aimed at it. You stand no chance facing against the power of The Organisation."

"You guys have the worst luck," I said chuckling slightly as I cricked some of the muscles in my arm where I hadn't warmed up properly. "And the biggest issue isn't with the speed but the quality of the rotations. Let me educate you briefly." These words were accompanied by action as I slowly yet precisely started to spin the life force in my body achieving infinitely close to an incredibly deadly ratio of spin and then I discarded that rate of spin choosing to stoop to my opponent's level and match their motions.

"We'll capture him alive," one of the robots said as it came barrelling towards me in a fast but predictable manner and I stepped forward cocking my right fist before throwing a punch at centre mass with a precisely calculate opposite spin. My fist briefly met the hard metallic shell containing armour surpassing a tank before it broke through the guard of my opponent with double the force of normal. I tore out the power source from the robot idly contemplating it as I stepped forward towards the other four robots.

"What," the furthest pangolin said but I barely paused as I increased my speed and thrust out with my left arm at the next closest pangolin. I caught him at once negating his rotation before sinking my hands into the joint and smashing him into the robot behind him causing both of them to almost disintegrate. They were still alive despite their sorry state and so I took the time to stamp down harshly on them crushing their power core and central processor. Health had always been a weird stat and didn't seem to work properly for anybody but me as most humans and monsters died when their brain was destroyed regardless of health as they lacked Gamer's Body. I did notice that monsters seemed to have more health than humans on average, even with similar stats. It was something I considered but didn't really have an answer for.

"Human how dare…" one of the robots pangolins said but I didn't pause my movement at all. "Wait don't come closer. If you come closer I will…" That was about as far as he got as I formed Shun Shun Rika into a sword and sliced him in half before I approached the last one.

"Wait how did you do that?" the last one asked. "Wait, don't move forward. If you do everybody in this city will die." That got me to pause as I examined the robot that unfortunately had no tells. "Yes I will forgive you if you come with me. If you don't I will unleash a terrible monster upon this city. Recently an expedition from The Organisation came back from the Archipelago carrying a large egg with terrifying power contained inside. Apparently the mother easily killed the entire robot team considering of robots just like me. This being is kept underneath the basement of the building and it only requires a brief command in order to release it, if you don't…"

I released my psychic powers and crushed it into a block of steel mere centimetres across but I didn't feel assured at all. I would not give myself up to this organisation obviously and I would eliminate that potential city killer today which was not a condition they would ever accept. I turned away almost reluctantly from my goal knowing that while the boss was probably on the last floor he was far less important than the possible beast slumbering below. I would have to retrieve my cash later. Those were all the thoughts that ran through my head before I froze as my sense went haywire and I immediately broke my Power Sealing.

There was a brief instant as my body felt freer than ever and I felt my full psychic power return to me before the world went white and full of heat. I leapt off the burning air flinging myself upwards as a volcano formed beneath me throwing rocks and stones everywhere and I reached out with my psychokinesis to grab every flying rock and aim it directly at the smoky crater where the building used to be.

I hit the wall of a building opposite the road and instead crashed through the windows landing in an office of screaming people. Oh yeah I forgot my control over my muscles went to shit whenever I deactivated Power Sealing. I stood up brushing the glass off of my clothes and strode forward towards the crushed window looking down onto the street where car alarms were going off and traffic had stopped dead. I noticed that I had apparently in a law firm and debated the pros and cons before my conscience won out.

"You should probably run," I said in an elevated voice giving the office one last look before I crouched down and launched towards the crater with the force of a meteorite. The smoke cleared and my eyes widened before I saw myself staring at an eerily familiar face. Six scarlet eyes affixed me with a glare from their position in a massive pitch black head and the maw of the world's scariest dog opened up and spewed forth balls of blazing energy.

Spin was a tool of precision and therefore currently unusable and therefore I summoned Shun Shun Rika and infused it with my desire not to be splattered all over the road. My cuff links formed an orange shield and I watched as cracks started to appear immediately as I descended towards the oversized hound. One energy ball hit, then two, then three, then five, then eight all in less time than it took me to descend those few stories and it cracked a mere ten metres from the mysterious being. A massive paw swiped at me at that I couldn't avoid and so I met it head on using the lull in energy blasts to aim my full strength towards the appendage.

Fist met foot and every pane of glass within miles shattered from the shockwave. An unearthly boom was heard as I went flying uncontrolled into the road below. My muscles contracted at just the wrong moment and a vast amount of my strength was wasted before the impact. I hit the ground and the ground shattered throwing me down through the streets and into the sewers below for a brief moment before I plummeted straight through the sewers and even deeper into the ground. When I finally managed to stop myself a few seconds later I was hundreds of metres underground and had finally come to a stop in the middle of some seriously tough bedrock.

I had actually never been hit this hard and it took a while for me to regain my mind-set as I immediately checked my stats.

King

The Gamer

Title - None

Species - Human

Health- 8 954 012/9 544 830 (HP Regen: 190 897 per minute)

Mana – 4 229 280/4 232 380 (MP Regen: 84 647 per minute)

Level – 1 869 EXP 12 050 369/120 762 401

STR – 743 291

VIT – 945 123

DEX – 721 348

INT – 413 878

WIS – 399 447

LUK – 525 777

Points - 0

Money 7 777 777 777¥

With a single swipe of his paws I had lost over five percent of his health after taking into account my physical resistance and how much of the momentum I offset with my own punch. In a way I was quite lucky that the momentum got flung away and I didn't end up between his jaws otherwise I would have been a dog's breakfast right now. Unfortunately my stats were still very much out of control forcing me to abandon any notion of pinpoint precision in my attacks or just martial arts in general. For the moment I was going to have to rely on sheer brute strength in the manner of Super Alloy Darkshine rather than my precise skills such as Bang.

I sighed for a moment in defeat but inwardly I felt a surge of anticipation as I activated the Life Fibres concealed inside my body. I would never wear the horrendous outfit that they originally took the form but after hours of showing disdain towards the alien parasite I figured out how to use it. The one thing I had forgotten in the long time it had taken since watching the show was that the most effective way to use Life Fibres was not by wearing them. Countless microorganisms tore into the substrate of my flesh and burrowed into nerves and muscles sapping away at my life and devouring my bioelectricity and I started to cough blood at seeing my HP begin to drop even as my Stats rose. Physical resistance did nothing to impede the invasion of countless strands of pure energy and I felt my extremities start to cool down as my life force was gluttonously absorbed leaving me withered despite my Gamers Body.

'Lubdublubdublubdublubdublubdub,' as the vitality in my body withered the cells in my heart went insane exploding into motion. The valves of my heart burst open and waves of pure life force fulminated throughout my body restoring my withered state. I stretched my body hearing satisfying crackling noises as bones and muscles protested their eagerness to burn off excessive energy. I examined my arm noting that it, along with my whole body, was covered in blonde hair.

"Wolf King Mode," I said to myself despite the fact that nobody could hear me down here. I angled my foot towards the ground before I gently pushed up just as the first few drops of sewer water hit the ground. The whole earth shook and the sound barrier break as a momentary lapse in muscle control followed by a large burst in strength caused me to overshoot my target as I rocketed out of the hole and ended up a mile in the air.

There was a brief moment of peace as I floated in the air for a brief moment before my instincts (Supreme Awareness over the Natural World) kicked in and I moved to the right a microsecond before a ball of heat and light flew past my shoulder continuing on for several hundred metres before it exploded in a flash of light that overtook the sun.

"How in the everloving nine hells did that bunch of mechanical mooks ever manage to get an egg away from that thing's mother," I spoke to myself as I kicked a psychic barrier, shattering the construct as I did so, descending to the earth like an eagle aiming for the world's largest rabbit.

Beams after beam flew upwards towards me but I created platforms of psychic energy and bounced from platform to platform descending erratically through bursts of fiery flak until I landed about a hundred metres away from my opponent causing the road to crack, melt and deform under the pressure of my landing. Crowds of people had run by now but casualties seemed to be very low as most of the pressure was placed firmly on yours truly. I casually reached out with a punch that vaporised a flying block of rubble that was going to crush some poor kid in a cheap mask.

Unfortunately the force of my punch didn't stop there and I was forced to redirect the momentum upwards and even then I still took the roof of a skyscraper clean off. I really hope that nobody was enjoying a romantic lunch on top of that building when my attack hit. Hopefully they would have scarpered by now like the rest of the city. Thankfully my momentary reaction didn't hinder me and it was only when I regained my focus on the beast that I saw it open its mouth up again and release a single white orb in my direction and I obliged it by cocking my hand back and throwing out a single punch.

Two waves of unstoppable force met in the middle and for a moment there was total silence before the sound of a thousand instances of thunder rocked the city as the energy of a bomb detonated between us engulfing the both of us in heat and light. I hastily summoned Shun Shun Rika behind me to negate the worst of the blast before I charged directly at the hound. In this form I felt as if I was a hammer and the entire city was glass; but the creature in front of me was an anvil.

I charged through a field of whiteness towards the creature aiming towards the massive beast with none of my usual finesse. I regained my sight just in time to crash into his chest with my shoulder physically lifting him off the ground and toppling him over. A paw lashed out in my direction and I retaliated with a punch that caused shockwaves to emnate from the point of collision that both of us endured to a greater or lesser extent. A gust of air drew my attention and I kicked back just a second to slow to avoid a pair of jaws snapping down on my arm. I retaliated with some impromptu dentistry and teeth cracked and the beast stumbled back still carrying scraps of my arm in its mouth.

I telekinetically grabbed most of the flying meat before shoving it towards my mangled limb and allowed my healing to fuse the detritus to my appendage as the boosted healing of my Wolf King Mode restored my arm to new in about two seconds flat. My feet finally hit the ground at this point and I launched myself towards the wolf again throwing clumsy punch after clumsy punch that were retaliated bit by bit by the dog until something changed and I smiled stepping slightly to the side before turning my lifeforce and in one swift move spun my life force and promptly broke every bone in the beast's paw.

"Finally done," I remarked to myself exiting Wolf King Mode and feeling my heart begin to slow down and the vitality begin to drain as my Stats decreased simultaneously. A wave of exhaustion hit me but I shrugged it off with the help of Gamer's Mind and I stretched feeling one hundred percent control of my Stats once more. "This feels so much better," I said to myself as I idly snapped my fingers causing all the loose hair on my body to fly off and into the giant dog's face.

It stumbled for a moment stuck in a state between enragement and bafflement as hair flew into its nose and eyes and I stepped forward throwing a punch infused with Spin. The collision this time was entirely to my favour and I crushed down on the canine knocking him backwards and adding one more bruise. The creature stumbled back before it opened its mouth generating another ball of light and I waited for the perfect moment to slam its mouth shut using psychokinesis causing one more explosion to rock the city originating from between its jaws.

"The World Turns," I said stepping towards my unsteady opponent starting the process that I used to Spin life force and psychic energy together. It had been a long fight at this point with multiple wounds between us despite the lack of a definitive killing blow. Not only that but I found myself getting pretty severely mentally fatigued at this point from all the fighting and so I decided to end it with one final move. For one brief moment I saw my foe wounded and in pain before my fist impacted and the world shattered in that instant causing a zone of death in that area that drowned my opponent tearing him to pieces.

I retracted my fist feeling before waving it around trying to dissipate some of the sheer heat that was coming off of it. That move was still imperfect but the backlash was nowhere near as horrendous as its original version. I was more or less satisfied that it qualifies as a successful super move. Straightening my back and scanning the clouds of the dust and smoke for any sign of movement. Suddenly an unfamiliar cacophony hit my ears and I instantly turned away from my probe into the smoke to make sense of this din.

People were cheering for me. They stood on the streets and peered out from buildings displaying their joy that I had defeated the monster that had threatened their lives. I was being held up as a hero already to a far greater extent that Saitama ever was and it felt… quite disconcerting actually. As an introvert I already did not enjoy being the focus of large crowds like this and it wasn't helped by the fact that I was tired to the bone. So under the gaze of at least one hundred people I gave a thumb up and then headed towards my home.

xxx

1 Month Later

"This is actually quite an unusual experience for me," I said as I say as I sat at the edge of a pier. "I usually make a habit of avoiding any situation that has the potential to end up like this."

It had been a stressful month. I had returned back to the restaurant the following day, without my mafia-stolen money, to be confronted by an army of reporters who had somehow tracked me down. Even as I performed my usual services I was constantly annoyed by eager members of the press who hungered after a quote. 'At least they left positive reviews for my restaurant,' I thought, only to correct myself after a moment. 'Former restaurant.'

I had sold CooKing Grates the previous week after enduring the hassles from all sides. Even my family had turned out to be a massive problem with my parents scolding me for recklessness and yet simultaneously being proud of me in that awkward manner that I found hard to deal with.

"I hope you weren't under the impression that I'm the sort of man to easily forgive my enemies," I said to my companion. "In fact I really dislike people that throw forgiveness around so easily. I mean really… Isn't forgiveness supposed to be the province of the divine? Humans shouldn't invade the domain of gods so easily. Forgiving people willy-nilly can really hurt a guy in the long run."

I stored my shoes in my inventory before dipping my feet in the water and finding it a pleasant temperature. I gazed into the horizon but even my eyes couldn't even see a speck of land. Long ago humans lived on many islands and smaller continents that surrounded the supercontinent. Due to wars and certain other events these other landmasses were rendered uninhabitable. Some were the victim of severe weather fluctuations; others had fallen into the sea and some of them were overrun by Mysterious Beings. Apparently the Mysterious Being that I had fought came from one of the landmasses known as the Archipelago. I wanted more than anything to see it.

"I think the reason why I haven't killed you in the end is that I actually really like dogs," I said looking at the shin high black hound that was furiously wagging his tail at me. I had honestly not held back in that last punch and the fact that he survived it spoke more of his luck than my strength. Two weeks later I had ran into him again and immediately restrained him, placing me in the position of unwilling to let a dangerous beast run off unsupervised and just as unwilling to kill man's best friend. "But make no mistake. You slip off once and I will be having Chinese," I said as I glared at him

He made no response to my provocations and so I directed my eyes to the ocean once more. I rifled through my inventory one last time checking that all the essentials were packed, before I placed the unresisting pooch on my shoulder. I took one last look at the supercontinent where I had lived for twenty years before I leapt down into the ocean and hurtled over the waves and towards the old lands of past humanity.