Chapter 25: Triple Staff Lily

The first match began. Vaccine Man had no idea how to play the game, 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 same 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 time on such pointless games 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 something so seemingly meaningless still felt like a disgrace, and it gnawed at his pride. Driven by that growing frustration, Vaccine Man started genuinely trying to understand the game.

With each passing match, his control of the character improved, and his understanding of the mechanics deepened. Slowly, Saitama began to feel something 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 come down to the wire, with Saitama barely surviving with a sliver of health. Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. Something 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 me that, bald as fuck!"

From that point forward, the matches became 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, seemed to escalate.

Meanwhile, 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 games with Saitama.

Initially, he had assumed the monster would serve as little more than a punching bag for Saitama, just something 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 improvement. 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 statements 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 came with its share of discrimination, his contributions weren't entirely overlooked. Many found it hard to accept that someone 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 merit 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 elements, 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 seemed 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 merit from such an event far outweighed accomplishments 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 fame 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 fame, 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 same 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.

Meanwhile, 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 transformed into a frustrated boiled egg.

He had just suffered another relentless losing streak, this time 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 gamer who had only recently stepped into the world, a "Piccolo-type" at best. Defeating someone like that meant nothing in the grand scheme.

"I'm done for today. I'll go practice for a few days and come 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 become bald through sheer willpower and relentless training.

But gaming was an entirely different battlefield. Combat strength and gaming skill didn't operate on the same rules. Saitama might be an unstoppable force in a fight, constantly surpassing his own limits, but when it came to gaming, he was painfully average.

No amount of effort could help him overcome 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 same day, a new Tiger-level threat appeared in Z-City. The moment 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 meant stepping over them, and that was no easy task.

It all came 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 came to how the system distributed merit and opportunity, the bias was clear.

As Shinji glanced at his updated rank and prepared to leave, something 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 moment, it seemed she hadn't gathered anything worthwhile. The person she had questioned had simply shaken their head. Undeterred, she turned to look for someone else. And, by sheer coincidence, she walked straight up to Shinji.

"Excuse me..." 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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