Heroes.
What is a hero?
Linguistically, there are three interpretations.
One is a person with exceptional martial prowess,
One is a person with heroic qualities,
One is someone who selflessly dedicates themselves, faces challenges without hesitation, and strives for the benefit of the people, earning admiration.
In this world, there is a new interpretation of a hero.
It is a profession.
The job scope includes maintaining public order, combating crime, rescue missions, protecting the public, dealing with disasters caused by monsters or natural phenomena, and receiving rewards based on the size of their contributions to society.
However, Reinhard himself doesn't have much interest in this profession.
Even though it's a distinctive career.
Yet, Reinhard doesn't want to experience it.
It was just a proposal from Dr. Okazaki a few days ago that led him into days of serious contemplation.
Firstly, he doesn't lack money.
With the ability to create any tangible form of substance using Dark Matter, it's only natural that he can produce precious metals that can serve as hard currency.
However, Reinhard doesn't do this frequently.
Because there are things more valuable than precious metals, such as substances like rhenium, platinum, palladium, and even secondary actinide metals. Introduced by Dr. Okazaki, many laboratories were waving banknotes to buy them.
So, Reinhard doesn't need to feel troubled about money, and naturally, he won't become a professional hero for the sake of money.
Secondly, Reinhard doesn't consider himself a person who harbors intense hatred for evil.
Now possessing a certain level of ability, Reinhard only does what he can. If someone is attacked by monsters in front of him or if the weak are unreasonably bullied, he will never stand idly by.
But categorizing himself as a righteous comrade just based on these actions would be too shallow. After all, this can only be considered as small favors to others that don't involve any interests.
If the person is someone Reinhard can't defeat, he would choose self-defense without any guilt. If the actions harm his interests, he wouldn't hesitate to refrain.
To live happily and for a long time, such coldness and rationality are necessary.
Lastly, Reinhard is not like Saitama. He neither admires heroes nor has an interest in becoming a hero or engaging in hero activities.
He followed Saitama, who became a hero driven by interest, for a while. It mostly involved defeating monsters, stopping crimes, and similar tasks. After completing them, there wasn't any special feeling—although it was a bit exciting.
In short, there isn't a reason for him to become a professional hero.
'But what Dr. Okazaki said... trying to entertain myself, no, preventing myself from being so aimless and idle?'
Embarking on the path of traversing.
His future has completely deviated from the normal path, so he naturally can't face life ahead with the mentality of a normal lifespan of just a hundred years.
For Reinhard, the future is something both foreseeable and difficult to confirm.
Knowing that he will indeed become an existence continuously wandering in various worlds, maintaining this sort of idle attitude wouldn't be good.
His 'system' gives him too much freedom.
Aren't systems supposed to release tasks for the traverser to complete? After providing novice benefits, his system went silent.
So, in the end, he have to find something to do, huh?
"So, should I try becoming a professional hero?"
At least he can gain some experience and have some activities, right?
Contemplating this matter, Reinhard was on a walk.
"Speaking of which, there are too few people on the streets, right? This isn't near my apartment, it should be the nearest bustling street."
After walking for a while, not only were there few pedestrians on the street, but there were also very few cars on the road. However, this wasn't a deserted city, you could feel the presence of people in nearby residences, but they all seemed to be closing doors and windows, as if guarding against something.
"Is there a disaster warning?"
He took out his phone and checked, as expected.
It mentioned that a large group of mosquitoes was advancing towards Z-City, but they were not ordinary mosquitoes, they were extremely fierce. Livestock and people attacked by them would have all their blood sucked dry in an extremely short time. If encountered, death was certain.
The disaster level was 'Demon.'
A crisis that could potentially paralyze or even destroy a town.
"So scary, I should hurry back and lock the doors and windows." Muttering to himself, Reinhard quickened his pace.
There was a convenience store not far away.
Just as the sound of glass breaking was heard, a delinquent with a crowbar looted a large bag of items and emerged from there.
"What's happening?"
Looking up, he saw a massive dark cloud surging like a storm.
No, that wasn't a dark cloud.
It was a swarm of mosquitoes composed of a vast number of insects! They were acting with high group cohesion and coordination. The delinquent not far from Reinhard, who probably hadn't reacted yet, might be swallowed by the mosquito swarm without realizing it, becoming a corpse in the next second.
After sucking one person dry, the swarm of mosquitoes was not completely filled.
Sensing Reinhard just ahead, the mosquito swarm rapidly attacked towards him.
"It's so difficult to be an ordinary person in this world, huh?"
Encountering such terrifying incidents from time to time.
Reinhard, whose skin hardness could be raised to the level of steel, wasn't afraid of mosquito bites. However, it was still a disgusting thing to have insects touch his skin.
With this thought in mind, a metallic substance resembling liquid covered Reinhard's body at an extremely fast speed on the surface, eventually forming an armor dominated by red hues with some golden edges.
Mark 50 Nanosuit!
One of Reinhard's applications of Dark Matter.
The use of Dark Matter in the form of nanomaterials emitted from the body and assembled on the surface. In fact, Reinhard's clothes were also made of nanomachinery created from Dark Matter, which could directly connect with the Dark Matter inside the body.
After putting on the nanosuit, mosquitoes couldn't touch him at all.
However, some unintelligent mosquitoes were still foolishly clinging to him, turning him into a 'mosquito man.'
[Sir, the analysis is complete. This swarm of mosquitoes is commanded and controlled by a signal emission point that continuously emits signals. The current signal source is behind you at the 11 o'clock direction, 20 meters above the ground. In addition, apart from you, there is another person participating in the battle against the monsters at a distance of 110 meters from you.]
The artificial intelligence in charge of the suit's electronic system completed the battlefield scan and intelligence analysis, reporting it to Reinhard.
"Are there other people? But if they can participate, they must be powerful individuals, right? Could it be a professional hero from the Hero Association? Anyway, let's deal with this Demon-class disaster first."
The arc reactor on his chest emitted a dazzling light. Subsequently, various parts of the nanosuit opened up, releasing a high-temperature shock that instantly incinerated all the mosquitoes doing useless work on him and the swarm within a few meters radius.
Looking up, Reinhard immediately locked onto the mosquito-woman monster in mid-air.
Seemingly surprised and hesitant due to Reinhard's sudden appearance.
"There's another one?!"
Indeed.
It took a moment of daze, and the opponent was slower to react.
Looking closer, the other person was not an ordinary individual. If they were a professional hero, it seemed that if he intervened, the credit would be divided. In that case, it's better to withdraw.
Originally, he wanted to fire the railgun.
But he decided not to block someone else's way of making money.
Most importantly, he was just an ordinary person who needed protection for now.