[This Chapter Is Sponsored by Cade Atkinson! Everyone, please thank him in the comment!]
"It should be here."
After the two entered the apartment building, Genos quickly locked onto a particular room.
"How do you know Saitama lives in this room?" Fang Mo was curious after seeing Genos' actions. After all, he could see Saitama's chibi avatar on the mini-map, but Genos obviously didn't have that capability.
"It's obvious, this apartment has been deserted for a long time."
Hearing Fang Mo's question, Genos began to explain: "This room is the only place in the building that shows signs of life."
At this point, Genos pointed to a spot not far away: "Look, there are even sensei's footprints over there."
Fang Mo turned to look.
Indeed, there were several dark footprints on the ground.
Previously, when he was dealing with a swarm of mosquitoes, he accidentally burned Saitama bald and bare.
Since the clothes and pants were gone, the shoes obviously wouldn't have survived either. So, he walked home barefoot, probably getting mud on his feet along the way, leaving many footprints.
In fact, the two had followed these tracks all the way here.
While Fang Mo was thinking about this, Genos, standing neatly at the doorway, shouted loudly, "Sensei!!"
Clearly, the soundproofing of this cheap apartment was not good.
Before long, footsteps came from inside the room, followed by a creaking sound, and a bald head peeked out from behind the door.
"...Why did you follow me here?"
The bald head was clearly Saitama, who had already taken a bath and changed into new clothes, now looking helplessly at the two men: "Well, I..."
"Hello, Saitama-sensei, my name is Genos!"
Before Saitama could finish his sentence, Genos introduced himself vigorously.
Hearing this, Saitama started to get a headache and couldn't help but say, "No... Can you stop calling me 'sensei'?"
"Master!!!"
Genos shouted again.
However, before Saitama could respond, Fang Mo next to him nearly shouted in admiration, "Good! Very spirited!"
"..."
Genos remained unmoved, seriously staring at Saitama, but Saitama was obviously taken aback, turned his head to glance at Fang Mo before looking back at Genos: "You can't call me 'master' either, I haven't agreed to take you as my disciple... wait, are you the only one who wants to be my disciple?"
Then Saitama looked at Fang Mo again: "What's his deal?"
"I don't know."
Genos shook his head: "He just said he wanted to hang out with you."
"...Huh?" Saitama was taken aback, then turned to ask Fang Mo, "We know each other?"
"Hey, you know me now."
Fang Mo grinned, "Let me introduce myself first, I'm Fang Mo, formerly a quack... cough, a gold-medal forensic expert, currently planning to take an exam for a human scalp follicle regeneration specialist certificate."
"...What's that?"
Saitama was clearly confused.
"It's for treating baldness." Fang Mo shrugged, knowing that Saitama was sensitive about his baldness, so he quickly added, "But this visit isn't work-related, mainly I wanted to spar a bit with you and compensate you for your clothes and pants."
"Oh, no need, those clothes and pants were cheap."
Saitama was easy to talk to and shook his head: "As for sparring, well, come inside first."
Perhaps he felt it was impolite to keep standing at the door talking.
After a moment's thought, Saitama stepped aside to let them in.
Naturally, the two walked into the apartment, which admittedly did feel a bit cheap, even cheaper than the one Hayakawa Aki's rented before.
Hayakawa Aki's apartment at least had a few rooms, whereas Saitama's current place... it was really just the most ordinary kind of room a Japanese worker might have, very small and not particularly clean, as one might expect from a single man who wouldn't keep everything perfectly tidy.
Quickly.
Saitama brought over two cups of tea.
"Speaking of which, I really wasn't planning on taking a disciple or sparring." Saitama handed them the tea, continuing, "Anyway, drink up and then head back."
"Not taking a disciple is one thing, but why refuse to spar too?"
Fang Mo immediately said, "If you're worried about the destructiveness, we could go to Mars to fight, otherwise I'll just lose it right here. If the two of us get serious, we could punch through the atmosphere in one second, shatter the biosphere in two..."
"Going to Mars is a bit too much, isn't it?"
Even after hearing Fang Mo say this, Saitama still looked indifferent but suddenly turned to look at Genos and said, "Hmm, so all your injuries are healed?"
"Yes, because I'm a cyborg."
Genos immediately explained, "As long as the parts are replaced, this body can be fixed right away. Similarly, I don't have human vulnerabilities. As long as I'm not careless, I will have no weaknesses."
"That sounds strange."
Saitama, seemingly clueless about mechanical enhancements, responded nonchalantly.
"What about your body, sensei? What parts are used?"
Genos asked with childlike curiosity, "Especially your head armor. There must be some strong parts hidden under that synthetic scalp, right?"
"It's just a real scalp," said Saitama.
"What?" Genos hesitated, "Then sensei, you mean... you're just naturally bald at a young age?"
"Can't I choose to be bald if I want to?"
As soon as baldness was mentioned, Saitama seemed a bit irritated: "So what's the deal with you, kid? Don't you have any common sense at all?"
"Do you want to hear my story, sensei?" Genos suddenly asked.
"No," Saitama replied irritably.
"Until a few years ago, I was still a living human being, leading a peaceful life with my family in this bleak society. But then one day..."
However, despite Saitama clearly stating he didn't want to listen, Genos continued to talk about his tragic past. He spoke very quickly, but it was clear Saitama had no patience for it.
"Will you shut up?"
Saitama, unable to help himself, rubbed his forehead: "Can't you summarize it in less than twenty words?"
"Exactly, your story is really not interesting at all," as Saitama said, Fang Mo nodded in agreement: "With that speed of speech, you might as well try rapping, it might be more interesting. How about I get you started..."
Before Genos could say anything else.
Fang Mo rhythmically tapped his index finger on the table.
"Alright, let me sing you my story, dedicated to everyone here."
As he started humming softly, "Twenty years ago, I was still a boy. We had a house and money, every day was full of joy~"
"Hold on a second."
Just as Fang Mo began to sing, Saitama interrupted him: "That doesn't sound right, this kid looks only about twenty years old, right?"
"I'm singing about my story, what does it have to do with him?" Fang Mo retorted.
"..."
Saitama fell silent for a moment, then after a while, he grudgingly asked: "You're not just here to make trouble, are you?"
"Then let's just have a fight."
Fang Mo shrugged, "It's called making friends through fists. In my previous country, there's a saying, 'No fight, no acquaintance.' Maybe after we fight, we'll become friends."
"You don't need to fight to make friends."
Saitama couldn't help saying, "If we have common interests, naturally we can become friends."
While the two were discussing the matter, Genos suddenly interjected, "Sensei, I've summarized it."
"In short... I hope you can teach me how to become strong like you!" Genos said earnestly.
"Oh, is that so?"
Saitama nodded, then stroked his chin as if pondering something, and soon made a decision: "I indeed can teach you, but you should know it's very painful. Are you sure you can keep up?"
"Of course!"
Genos immediately got excited: "No matter what, I will persevere!"
"Then listen well."
Saitama said seriously, "To become like me, you must do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer run every day, regardless of wind or rain. How about that... does it sound painful?"
"… What?"
Genos froze in place after hearing the explanation.
Indeed, he was somewhat bewildered. Not only did the training seem insufficiently intense, but this mere physical training also appeared useless to him.
"Hey, hey, aren't you just leading the kid astray?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Mo couldn't hold back any longer and interjected, "That method doesn't work at all, does it?"
"How can it not work?"
Saitama was a firm believer in the method, earnestly saying, "This is the secret to my strength. I've never mentioned it to anyone else before. Oh, and one more thing—you can't use air conditioning no matter how hot it gets in the summer."
"Just say you're poor, don't make excuses about the air conditioning, okay?"
Fang Mo became agitated upon hearing this: "Do you even know how hot it gets during summer? The year I worked there, I felt like my life was... wait, who invented air conditioning? Oh right, I feel like my life was given by Willis Carrier. Without him, there would be no me today."
"Well, I think..."
At that moment, Genos suddenly spoke up, "Actually, it's not so bad without the air conditioning."
"You see, even he says so."
Upon hearing this, Saitama gestured helplessly towards Fang Mo: "So it's not about being poor, it's just a form of training..."
"No, brother, have you even looked at what your disciple is? He's a robot, not human. If he gets hot, he can just install a water cooling system, that's it. You, being human, might break genetic locks or push past your limits each day, but your training methods just aren't suitable for him, okay?"
"Huh?"
Saitama was puzzled and scratched his head: "Why not?"
"Mining carts also undergo intense training. Did they become stronger?" Fang Mo spread his hands and said, "In the mines, they are the loudest, train the hardest, and feel the hottest... but what's the result? They are still scrapped and sold by weight."
"Uh..."
Saitama was suddenly taken aback, wondering what exactly a 'mining cart' was.
"That makes some sense."
Genos understood Fang Mo's theory and nodded subconsciously, then curiously asked, "Then... Mr. Fang Mo, how did you become stronger? Wasn't it through training?"
"Don't follow my method."
Upon hearing this, Fang Mo waved his hand immediately, "The way I became stronger is much more painful than Saitama's. You wouldn't be able to do it."
"More painful than mine?"
Hearing this, Saitama grew curious, "Do you do two hundred sit-ups every day?"
"Mr. Fang Mo, could you share your method of becoming stronger?"
Genos was equally curious.
"Well, alright."
Fang Mo shrugged indifferently and said, "To become as strong as I am, excluding luck, you'd need to eat shit a hundred times a day..."
Genos: "??"
Saitama: "???"
Fang Mo's method of becoming stronger was indeed explosive. Both were shocked and stunned for a long time, even Genos felt his CPU almost burn out... Was he really human? Humans reaching such extremes just to become stronger?
It took them quite some time to recover and return to normal.
"Your method of becoming stronger is indeed very tough..."
To break the awkward silence, Genos took the initiative to speak, "Compared to that, I believe your method is much more difficult than Saitama-sensei is. So the principle behind your fire-breathing was to release and ignite methane gas?"
"You didn't turn into a monster, which is really tough."
Even Saitama couldn't help but comment, "But... are you sure this actually makes you stronger? Are you not joking?"
Yes, there is a strange rule in this world.
That is, humans can also become monsters, whether transformed by external forces, psychological distortions, or bizarre external factors.
Like eating too many crabs and becoming a crab monster, or fusing with a leather suit to become a leather monster, such strange theories exist in other worlds, but they are indeed a reality in the world of One Punch Man.
So if someone really ate shit every day, they might indeed become some sort of divine shit warrior, controlling all the refutations in the world, truly a dragon-level monster.
"Cough cough, I said it tastes like shit, not that it's actually shit."
Fang Mo coughed twice to clarify, "After all, if I mentioned anything else, it might be even more disgusting... and I don't do that anymore, now I just read books. Knowledge is power, as they say."
However, before he could finish...
Fang Mo suddenly noticed several red dots rapidly approaching on his minimap.
"Hmm?"
Seeing this, Fang Mo paused for a moment, but soon remembered the related plot—it seemed that because Saitama had killed Mosquito Girl, the House of Evolution targeted him to capture him for experiments and sent a bunch of cyborgs to capture him.
"What's wrong?"
Saitama noticed Fang Mo's reaction and curiously asked.
"You might not believe this, but your house is about to explode."