After hearing Puri-Puri Prisoner.
To be honest, Fang Mo was already somewhat reluctant to attend the meeting at the Hero Association.
Although the other S-class heroes did indeed intrigue him, the problem was... if he got too close to Puri-Puri Prisoner, others might easily misunderstand him for being overly masculine.
But just as Fang Mo was reluctant to go,
The two staff members from the Hero Association began to panic.
After all, their task was to coax Fang Mo into attending the meeting, and if they failed, they feared they might be held accountable by their superiors.
With this in mind, the two staff members tried their best to persuade him for quite a while.
It must be said that their luck was quite good because soon after, someone knocked on the door again, and this time it was Saitama and his disciple Genos.
"Ah, Fang Mo."
Saitama casually stood at the door and greeted, "By the way, is Ancient One at home?"
"Are you here to see me, or to see Ancient One?"
Upon seeing this, Fang Mo couldn't help but retort, "Why do you always ask if she's home every time you knock on the door, have you fallen in love with her?"
"What are you talking about?"
Saitama couldn't help but touch his forehead and said, "I just simply want to hitch a ride, okay?"
"Mr. Fang Mo, the Association should have informed you as well."
Hearing this, Genos also spoke up, "I just received a phone call. The Association has suddenly called all S-class heroes for a meeting over something very urgent. Saitama-sensei thought of Ancient One since she is also an S-class hero, so he wanted to use teleportation magic to go together."
"Yeah."
Saitama nodded and added, "Seems like it could save quite a bit on travel expenses."
"…Travel expenses?"
Hearing Saitama's reasoning, Fang Mo first showed a surprised expression, but soon casually took out a gold bead and handed it to Genos: "Here, take this."
"Mr. Fang Mo, what is this for?"
Genos was a bit puzzled but accepted the gold bead politely.
"For the travel expenses."
Fang Mo spread his hands and explained, "Ancient One is always out of it all day, and now I don't even know where she has run off to, I don't feel like traveling... Anyway, you just go ahead by yourself for now, and then I'll teleport you over."
After saying this,
Fang Mo also pulled out an Ender handle and gave it to Genos.
"This…"
Genos hesitated for a moment, but before he could decide what to say, suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder, and turning his head, he saw it was Saitama.
"Saitama-sensei, you…"
"Genos."
Saitama suddenly became serious: "I remember you run on gasoline, right? Fuel is pretty expensive these days, so it seems better to let your sensei travel, here, give me the travel money."
"My power reactor doesn't run on gasoline…"
Genos explained helplessly, but seeing the eager look on Saitama's face, he immediately handed over the gold bead and the Ender handle: "Alright, as long as you're happy, sensei, by the way, the Hero Association's headquarters is in A City."
"Okay! Got it!"
Saitama energetically gave a thumbs up.
Just as he bent his knees slightly, the next second he powerfully jumped up, and with a loud boom, the ground shook violently.
As Saitama's figure disappeared, Fang Mo's curses rang out at the same time.
"F***! My villa!!!"
Yes, because Saitama had jumped with too much force, it caused a massive shockwave, which destroyed half of Fang Mo's courtyard.
Even though his villa was built with nanoscale materials and was very sturdy, it inevitably suffered damage. The entire foyer exploded, with floors and walls flying everywhere, and dust instantly poured into the living room.
Luckily, Genos, who was exceptionally sensible, immediately apologized to Fang Mo.
And thereafter, he hurriedly helped with the repairs.
As mentioned before, the villa was built with the latest nanotechnology, so the repairs were relatively easy. During this process, Genos also briefly chatted with Fang Mo about Saitama's recent status.
In fact, since the end of the Paradise Group incident,
Fang Mo had been busy researching modules, lotteries, doctors, and operators.
While Saitama had been busy dispensing justice.
So, there wasn't much interaction between the two.
At most, it was during the Deep Sea King incident when they met again in J City and together dealt a crushing blow to Cthulhu.
At this moment, after hearing Genos's description,
Fang Mo realized that Saitama had been diligently leveling up recently.
Currently, Saitama was ranked fifth among B-class heroes, which is even higher than his original position in the source material. It must be said that this rate of improvement was indeed a bit exaggerated.
But Fang Mo thought a bit more about it.
He felt that Saitama's rapid rise in hero levels might have something to do with him.
After all, during the Deep Sea invasion event, Fang Mo did modify quite a bit of the storyline. The citizens witnessed Saitama blasting the Deep Sea King into smithereens with one punch, which won him quite a bit of applause and fans.
You should know that in the original story,
Saitama's reputation was still very poor at this point.
If Fang Mo remembered correctly, in the original, Saitama, because he shattered a previous meteorite… ended up offending a weakling named Tanktop Black Hole. This guy was really hypocritical, coming up and scolding him for why he only shattered the meteorite but didn't block the meteorite fragments, leading to heavy losses in Z City.
Honestly, the general populace in this world of the One Punch Man… also seemed a bit brain-deficient.
Just by hearing someone casually say a few words, they unanimously believed Saitama's character was very poor and trashy, and they started to boycott this real hero.
The reason was pretty brain-dead.
Really just because he didn't block the meteorite fragments…
Later, during the Deep Sea invasion event, Saitama got lost and was the last to arrive at the battlefield, and right upon arrival, he immediately killed the Deep Sea King with one punch.
As expected, he was once again doubted by the crowd.
And the person who raised this doubt was actually the idiot who Fang Mo continuously killed and revived, eventually turning him into the Fear Egg. This idiot stated that since the Deep Sea King could defeat A-class and S-class heroes, why was he killed by a mere C-class hero?
So, everyone started doubting.
Whether these A-class and S-class heroes were really useless or not.
In the end, it was Saitama himself who tarnished his own image, stating he deliberately stole other people's credit, and if others hadn't worn down the monster's stamina, he wouldn't have been able to pick up a bargain or anything…
It was by blackening his own image.
That he forcibly preserved the honor and efforts of other heroes.
Because of these events, Saitama's reputation was actually very bad in the original story, many people even wrote letters to insult him, and it was almost to the point of sending him razor blades.
But now with Fang Mo's involvement,
It seems the course of events has become a bit different.
You should know, Fang Mo is now one of the largest shareholders of the Hero Association. Other heroes are waiting for the Association to pay them, whereas Fang Mo… he directly pays the upper echelons of the Hero Association.
His power is ridiculously strong.
Even a dragon-level disaster like the super meteorite was solved by him with a mere lift of his hand.
Even more outrageous is that Fang Mo's own popularity is also frighteningly high. After the previous Association assessment personnel went mad… and then received a huge amount of compensation money, and the incident in J City where Fang Mo exploded gold coins, many citizens knew that the S-class hero Priest was extremely generous when he took action.
Previously, there was a survey among the public called "Which hero do you most want to be saved by after encountering a monster".
Initially, the top few spots on the list were usually KING, or Tatsumaki, Sweet Mask, and others like that, but now the first place has directly become Priest.
Of course, the reason given by the public was also very reasonable.
Other heroes only save their lives, but Priest saves people and also gives them a lot of money.
Even there have already been organizations like the 'Original God Church' starting to form among the public. Actually, everyone doesn't really know what this Original God is all about, but all fans have begun to respectfully refer to Fang Mo as 'Pope'.
Considering Fang Mo's outrageous popularity, financial power, and strength.
The Hero Association had no other choice but to treat him like an ancestral figure.
And it was also because of this, that Saitama, who had previously acted together with Fang Mo in J City, was similarly receiving special treatment from the Hero Association.
After all, these high-level officials of the Association might be good for nothing else, but they are skilled at observing others and gauging their intentions. They also noticed the special relationship between Fang Mo and Saitama, so to a certain extent, they also gave him a backdoor or helped create a momentum for him.
Just find a few media outlets, write some articles saying Saitama and Fang Mo have a good relationship, then this group of fans will help speak well of Saitama themselves.
In any case, after chatting with Genos for a while,
Very quickly, the damage near the villa's entrance was almost completely repaired.
During this period, Genos also briefed on some matters, like how Saitama had made some new friends, like Bang, KING, and Fubuki.
This did surprise Fang Mo a bit, it seems that even in the One Punch Man world, the inertia of the storyline still exists. Initially, Fang Mo thought this hot pot group would run to his side, but it turned out they were still with Saitama, even during the meteorite event Saitama didn't show up… and he doesn't know how he got to know Bang.
But speaking of which,
Saitama has already gotten to know KING, Bang, and Fubuki and established the hot pot group.
While on his side, there's Puri-Puri Prisoner, Sonic, Mumen Rider, Darkshine, and possibly Child Emperor joining soon, so what kind of group is this on his end?
…Why are they all men?
"F***, no, no!"
Thinking of this, Fang Mo couldn't help but shake his head: "I have to add a couple of women in, otherwise, isn't this just becoming a new Nippori?"
"Mr. Fang Mo, what did you just say?"
Just after laying the last piece of flooring, Genos looked up, somewhat puzzled, and asked.
"Oh, nothing." Fang Mo shook his head in response: "I said it's about time, let's go directly to the Association headquarters."
After finishing his words, Fang Mo pressed a hand on Genos.
The next second, Ender Teleportation was activated, and the two of them appeared in front of a massive building.
Indeed, the meeting place this time was not at the Association headquarters in Z City, but rather at the true main base of the Hero Association in A City, which is a grand building resembling a steel fortress.
After Fang Mo teleported over, he discovered that the headquarters was now under martial law.
And since Saitama is a B-class hero, he didn't have the authority to enter the building alone, so he was negotiating with the Association's staff.
Actually, sitting on the chairs near the entrance were two individuals dressed as samurai, Fang Mo glanced at them, and it seemed they were S-class hero Atomic Samurai's disciples, called Bushidrill and Iaian, who were apparently waiting for their master here.
As for their master, Atomic Samurai, he had clearly already entered the Association headquarters building.
Of course, the Association staff were also persuading Saitama to wait outside since B-class heroes really don't have the authority to enter the Association building.
But upon seeing Fang Mo and Genos,
They didn't say anything further and quickly invited the two to join the meeting.
"Let Saitama-sensei join as well."
As if to stand up for Saitama, Genos took the initiative to invite his own sensei: "If there really is some serious crisis to be resolved, sensei, you are much stronger than I am."
Since even the S-class heroes were saying so,
These few staff members naturally didn't dare refuse, and could only silently open the door.
But just as Fang Mo and his group were about to enter the Hero Association headquarters, a robust voice suddenly came from not far behind them.
"Isn't this the Priest kid?"
Fang Mo turned his head to look, and saw a middle-aged man with a strong presence, currently wearing a black tight outfit, hands behind his back, walking towards them.
"…Silver Fang?"
Fang Mo took one look at the man, clearly also feeling a bit surprised.
From the looks of him... he could indeed recognize the man's general identity, but compared to the previous old state, this guy was now much more spirited, almost like returning to his forties from his twilight years.
It wasn't just that his whole body's muscles had become more robust, but his spine was also much straighter, and even the wrinkles on his skin had mostly disappeared, his silver hair and beard had all turned black, and the current Bang exuded a composed and steady martial arts master's aura.
"That fruit you gave me, its effect is truly astonishing."
Bang slowly walked over, his expression clearly very complex and emotional: "Had I known earlier that this gift was so precious… perhaps I would have returned it to you."
"Hey, don't mention it."
However, Fang Mo responded with a smile: "It's just for us to go get a foot bath together…"
"Cough, cough, cough."
Hearing this, Bang's face also turned a bit unnatural: "Although I made mistakes when I was young, I have long since reformed."
"Isn't this a good chance to revive your spirit, aren't you considering it?"
Fang Mo asked cheerfully.
"I'm really not thinking about that right now." Bang shook his head, somewhat sighingly: "Rather than that, I'm more interested in passing down my Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist… it's the culmination of half a lifetime's efforts."
"Oh, that's easy to say."
As Fang Mo walked towards the inside of the Association, he signaled for the others to follow: "You have all the time now, just find another disciple."
"My dojo had a problem before."
Bang sighed: "Charanko told me about his reckless actions before, actually, I didn't want him to invite you… but there's no helping it, my dojo now only has him as a disciple left."
"Garou, right?"
Fang Mo nodded, he of course knew about this: "That kid scared all the other disciples away, then he himself slipped away, and now no one is willing to go to your dojo, almost causing the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist to be lost…"
"You knew about these things too? Did the kid Saitama tell you?"
Bang turned his head to glance at Saitama beside him, but then he immediately started promoting again: "Speaking of which, do you want to learn my martial art?"
"Not learning."
Fang Mo walked and shook his head in refusal: "I don't have the time."
Honestly, Fang Mo's path had always been one of overpowering force, one punch to break all techniques, he really wasn't too keen on martial arts.
"This is my ultimate technique, according to your talent, you could probably learn it just by watching a few times."
However, even though Fang Mo had refused, Bang was still a bit reluctant: "You don't need to formally become a disciple or anything, just directly watch me perform a set of punches, you gave me such a precious gift, and I really don't have anything else worthy to offer, just please watch it."
"It's not that, you keep making me punch…"
Hearing this, Fang Mo couldn't help but want to explain something.
But just as he was about halfway through his explanation, without any warning, a system notification suddenly popped up in his mind.
[System Notification: New module characteristic detected, research to obtain download permission.]
~~~
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