The night wind howled past.
As Bang and Garou left, the other heroes also began to withdraw from the scene.
In the vast Z-City uninhabited zone, only two people and one dog remained.
And the desolate ruins.
Saitama stood blankly before a pile of ruins, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
In front of him, the old apartment building should have been standing.
There was his cactus that he watered every day, and the TV that, despite its average picture quality, had accompanied him for countless days and nights.
That was his home.
But now, as far as the eye could see, there was only overturned earth and shattered concrete.
It was as if dozens of missiles had plowed through here; not even a single intact brick could be found.
"My home... gone?"
Saitama extended a finger, trembling as he pointed to the rubble at his feet, his voice filled with disbelief.
Lin Mo stood not far away, hands in his pockets, sighing helplessly.
"Apparently so, Saitama-kun."
He kicked a piece of broken concrete at his feet. "The entire Monster Association was underground in this area. With a battle of that magnitude just now, the foundations would have collapsed long ago."
At his feet, the shrunken Pochy was obediently panting, occasionally rubbing his head against Lin Mo's trousers.
"That dilapidated apartment, it's gone, so it's gone."
Lin Mo sighed, walked over, and patted Saitama's shoulder. "Anyway, this area was due for demolition a long time ago."
"You can move into the apartment provided by the Hero Association. S-Class Heroes get pretty good benefits."
However, Saitama seemed not to have heard him.
The next second, he moved.
"Waaah! My TV! My cactus! My passbook!"
Saitama turned into an afterimage, frantically rushing into the ruins.
Dust flew everywhere, andStones flying everywhere.
Saitama was like a human excavator, his hands waving countless afterimages as he frantically dug through the earth in the ruins.
"Where is it! Where is it!"
"Ah! This is my toothbrush! Damn it, it's broken!"
Lin Mo's mouth twitched as he watched Saitama, who looked like he was about to dig through the Earth's crust.
"Alright, Saitama-kun."
Lin Mo said helplessly, "Out with the old, in with the new. Why not just buy new furniture and clothes? Those old things aren't worth much money."
"For an S-Class Hero's salary, this loss is just a drop in the ocean."
Hearing this, Saitama's digging motion suddenly paused.
He stood with his back to Lin Mo, his body stiff, hands still in the dirt, unmoving.
A strange silence spread through the air.
"What's wrong?" Lin Mo raised an eyebrow, a premonition of ill fortune rising in his heart.
Saitama slowly turned his head, a guilty look on his face as if he had done something wrong.
He stammered, his eyes darting around: "Th-that, King..."
"Just say it." Lin Mo's unease grew.
"Furniture and such, yes, I can buy new." Saitama swallowed, his voice growing softer. "But... but that..."
"What?" Lin Mo narrowed his eyes.
"It's the one you lent me last week..."
Saitama took a deep breath, as if expending all his strength, and said: "That limited edition game console, it seems to be down there too..."
The air instantly froze.
Even Pochy, who was wagging his tail nearby, keenly sensed the sudden change in atmosphere, whimpering and curling into a ball with his tail between his legs.
Lin Mo's calm expression vanished.
He froze, his eyes slowly widening, reflecting Saitama's shiny face.
After a second of blankness, memories flooded back like a tide.
It was a global limited edition released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a classic fighting game.
"What?"
Lin Mo's voice was soft, yet it carried the calm before a storm.
"Say that again?"
Saitama shrank his neck, cold sweat dripping down his bald head. "It... it's the one that was globally limited to fifty units, with a special signed certification... the pink one."
"You bald man!"
A roar echoed through the sky.
Veins bulged on Lin Mo's forehead, his usual cool demeanor instantly crumbling.
"Do you know how hard that was to get?! I told you countless times to be careful with it, and you buried it?!"
"I didn't do it on purpose! The house collapsed on its own!" Saitama argued, feeling wronged.
"Calm down, calm down, I need to calm down."
Lin Mo took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to hit the bald man with a "Purgatory Matchless Exploding Heat Wave Cannon."
"Maybe it can still be saved, the casing is made of special alloy, it should be very sturdy..."
Lin Mo suddenly looked up: "Where is it? Where's the approximate location?!"
"It's around here." Saitama pointed to a pile of rubble at his feet.
Lin Mo's eyes narrowed.
The next moment, a terrifying and suffocating Psychic Power wave suddenly erupted from him!
Boom!
The surrounding rubble seemed to lose gravity, floating up one by one.
Invisible psychic energy instantly covered the area Saitama pointed to, conducting a thorough scan.
Saitama blinked, looking at the floating megaliths around him, and exclaimed with a hint of envy:
"Oh, what a convenient ability, so fast for finding things. I want to learn that next time..."
"Shut up!" Lin Mo gritted his teeth.
Just for a moment.
Lin Mo's eyes suddenly moved, catching the familiar metallic reaction.
"Found it!"
Swoosh!
He made a grabbing motion in the air.
Deep within the ruins, a huge broken floor slab suddenly exploded.
A small, dark object, enveloped by Psychic Power, slowly flew before the two of them, hovering in mid-air.
Saitama's eyes lit up, and he immediately pounced to catch it with both hands.
"Great! Found it! I knew it..."
Saitama's voice trailed off.
Under the moonlight.
Lying in his palm was indeed the limited edition handheld console.
However... it was now broken in half, its screen shattered into a spiderweb, its internal circuit board exposed, and even emitting a wisp of black smoke.
"..."
Lin Mo's hands were trembling.
Saitama guiltily turned his head away and whistled.
"Ah, the moon, it's so round."
"Saitama." Lin Mo's voice had never been so cold.
"Here!" Saitama stood at attention, his body tense.
Lin Mo finally erupted, pointing at Saitama's reflective head and roaring:
"That was a limited edition! A discontinued item! Once it's broken, it's gone forever! You bald man, did you even take good care of it?!"
"I couldn't help it! The house collapsed, I didn't want it to!" Saitama argued, feeling wronged.
"Couldn't you have put it in a safe?!"
"Who keeps a safe in a normal home?!"
——————
PS: The plot will follow the original work from now on
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