"Ding! Host successfully intimidated a monster. 'Intimidation System' bound successfully!"
"Hiss—" Kaito sucked in a sharp breath, so thrilled that his Emperor Engine nearly activated on its own.
"Holy crap, it's real! Systems may be late when you transmigrate, but they never miss out!"
Trying to calm himself, Kaito took a few deep breaths, found a ramen shop nearby, and sat down to order tonkotsu ramen. Only then did he open the system interface.
Why didn't he check it right away?
Simple: standing in the middle of the street yelling at thin air would've made him look like a lunatic.
Swish! A translucent screen appeared before him, visible only to his eyes.
——Intimidation System——
Host: Kaito (King)
Level: 1 (Experience: 0 / 100)Attributes:Strength: 7Agility: 6Spirit: 5Skill:Emperor Engine – The heart emits a roar like a racing engine. Has no actual combat effect (Beginner: 0 / 50), but looks insanely cool.Intimidation Points: 50
[System Reminder]Average human attributes: 5Attribute cap: 100Every level-up grants 10 free pointsAttribute disparity cap: no stat can exceed 5× the lowest statSkills: Beginner → Proficient → Minor Accomplishment → Major Accomplishment → Perfected → Transcendent → DivineIntimidation Points: Earned by scaring monsters; can be converted into level or skill experience"Hmm…"
Kaito reread the information a few times, making sure he got the gist of it.
In essence: Scare monsters → Get points → Upgrade yourself.
Not flashy. No overpowered hax. No talking AI companion.
But it was stable. Clear. Reliable.
He could work with that.
"Sir, your ramen. Please enjoy."
"Thanks."
Kaito dug into his ramen, thinking as he slurped the noodles. Then, without hesitation, he dumped all 50 Intimidation Points into Emperor Engine's proficiency.
There was no point hoarding them. He couldn't level up with 50 points, and he was curious to see what improving a skill would do.
[Intimidation Points -50]'Emperor Engine' proficiency upgraded to Proficient (0 / 200)Effect: Now emits shockwave-like sound pulses. Red aura appears on activation (visually enhanced intimidation).
The moment the system chimed, Kaito felt a tremor in his chest.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. His heartbeat roared like a V12 engine. The ramen broth in front of him rippled from the pressure.
Kaito blinked. The soundwaves were real. Audible. External.
"Sir, are you okay?" a waitress asked, alarmed by the pulsating noise.
"N-Nothing! I'm fine!" Kaito quickly waved her off, trying to slow his thundering heartbeat.
But it was too late.
Other customers had heard it. Heads turned. Eyes widened.
"King! It's King!"
"No way! I just came for lunch!"
"That was his Emperor Engine, right? I could feel it in my bones!"
Even with his cap off, Kaito had hoped to stay low-key. But the Emperor Engine's sound drew attention like moths to flame.
In seconds, the quiet ramen shop transformed into a frenzy.
"Mr. King, can I get your autograph?"
"Lord King! A selfie, please!"
"Mr. King! I—I'll bear your children!"
Kaito was swarmed. Surrounded. Smothered in adoration and madness.
Sweat poured down his forehead as he tried to fend them off.
"Everyone, please! One at a time! Madam—no groping, thank you!"
Just as he was desperately calculating how to escape this fan barrage—
Suddenly.
BOOM!
A deafening crash split the air as the ramen shop's ceiling exploded, debris and shattered tiles raining down.
People screamed.
Dust and smoke clouded the room as a mangled object crashed into the center of the dining area with a dull, sickening thud.
Kaito pushed through the stunned crowd, heart pounding, as he stepped closer to the impact zone.
The dust slowly cleared.
Lying in the wreckage was a grotesque yet strangely familiar figure—bloodied, broken, and twitching faintly.
A female monster.
Her wings were tattered shreds, her limbs severed, her blood sac crushed and leaking. A jagged stump remained where her once-lethal proboscis had been. Her body was riddled with lacerations, barely holding together.
"T-That's… Mosquito Girl?!"
Kaito's pupils shrank. The roar in his chest surged to life—he couldn't stop it.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The Emperor Engine activated instinctively.
Red aura erupted around Kaito like flickering flame. Pulses of sound burst from his chest, sending powerful shockwaves through the air. Every glass surface in the shop shattered into crystal dust.
Screams turned into stunned silence.
The crowd backed away in awe.
"Mr. King is angry!"
"Is he about to take her down?"
"That aura... it's like standing in front of a god!"
Kaito ignored the voices around him. His eyes were locked on the fallen monster.
This wasn't right.
According to the original timeline, Mosquito Girl had been slapped into oblivion by Saitama during her showdown with Genos. So why was she here?
His brain kicked into overdrive.
That morning, the news was reporting a major mosquito swarm outbreak in Z-City—entire areas wiped out, zero survivors.
"Wait a second... that was the arc where Mosquito Girl led the swarm..."
A realization struck him like lightning.
"She must've crossed paths with him during the rampage... and he sent her flying."
"That explains why I haven't run into the bald demon king today."
He turned his gaze back to the twitching, barely-alive form of Mosquito Girl.
In the original plot, the House of Evolution sent Beast King next… and then got wiped by Saitama and Genos in a single day.
"So right now... they're probably scrambling. No way they're coming back for her."
Kaito's eyes gleamed.
This was it.
A rare opportunity.
Mosquito Girl was battered, powerless, and completely at his mercy. For his Intimidation System, this was like a gift-wrapped bundle of free experience.
She couldn't attack. She couldn't flee.
She could only fear.
A perfect specimen for farming Intimidation Points.
He stepped closer, the red aura around him flaring slightly.
His gaze flicked over her form for a moment. Though ravaged and bloodied, her body still held a strange, eerie allure—her skin pale with a ghostly glow under the shop lights, her curves accentuated even through the wounds.
He exhaled, trying to suppress the intrusive thought.
"...Focus. This isn't the time for that kind of thinking."
Kaito clenched his fists.
He wasn't here to indulge. He had a path. A system. A goal.
And right now, that goal was simple:
Intimidate. Dominate. Level up.