At a glance, Saitama found the woman familiar.
Then it clicked.
She was the direct descendant of Merlin from Transformers 5.
But now that Megatron had awakened from America's Sector Seven and seized the AllSpark, he also wanted Merlin's Staff.
The original plot had already changed.
In Megatron's original plan, once he obtained Merlin's Staff, he could draw Cybertron from the depths of space. Then he would use Earth's geothermal core to rebuild Cybertron.
What he hadn't expected was that all his hard-won intel on Merlin's heir would point to the woman before them.
Her name was Vivian.
A brilliant, multifaceted British woman—an Oxford professor—independent and strong, a little aloof, even forceful at times.
To make someone like Vivian, a pure academic, believe and recall anything about the wizard Merlin was… optimistic, to put it mildly.
From start to finish, Vivian believed the popular stories about Merlin were false.
"We've always said that King Arthur had a white-robed mage at his side, someone who saved him whenever he was in a bind, and that's how Arthur's legend was made!
"But who really knows whether that white-robed mage was a fiction created by the royal court itself to glorify Arthur's 'divine' wisdom, as if he were helped by a god?
"Arthur's story is centuries old, and none of us living after his legend have ever found anything that could be called magic.
"So magic is just something imagined by those before us—like what's described in The Lord of the Rings."
Whenever the machine overseers in City No. 1 loosened their patrol cadence, Vivian would give lectures like this.
For those molded by modern science and forced to listen to her in the museum for a rationed slice of bread, her words rang true enough. They were there for bread, not to debate whether Arthur's companion was a white-robed "Gandalf" or a black-robed "Gandalf."
Today, Vivian seized on a gap in the patrols and fled City No. 1—only to trigger a disaster.
"Alert, alert: subject attempting escape from City No. 1!"
"Escapee classified: key individual!"
"Priority updated: retrieval of key individual is now City No. 1's top task!"
In a heartbeat, dozens of aerial drones swarmed out of the city, pouring fire down on Vivian, while a line of ground mechs sprinted after her.
Just as she was about to cross beyond the city's control perimeter, she collapsed, spent—right in front of Saitama.
He looked down at the Western chill of her noble features and the tall, statuesque frame unique to her people.
"Help me! Please—help me! I… I really don't want to keep lecturing in that museum! Those machines are insane!"
Fear filled Vivian's wide eyes.
She knew that if she was dragged back now, there would be no next chance.
But before she finished, her eyes suddenly widened.
Heaven help her.
A living man had been standing right there—
And in an instant… he was gone.
Before she could blame it on hysteria and hallucination, explosions rolled across the street.
A man in a yellow coat and red cape flashed through the gunfire—punching, again and again, to save the day.
Boom—boom—boom—
In the sky and on the ground, a quick-moving silhouette appeared beside every attacking mech.
When that silhouette vanished, each mech toppled.
As it all ended, Saitama smashed an incoming tracking missile with a single punch, then stood in the blast wash like a mountain.
Whoosh—
A wave of heat rushed past.
Vivian saw only the powerful figure standing before her.
All she could see was his back.
"Are you all right?"
The voice was calm.
"I-I'm fine."
Vivian swept back windblown hair and forced herself steady.
"Good."
Saitama said, "I've heard this place has fallen under machine control—and no one came to save it."
Vivian's breath caught. "You… you really came to save us?"
Rescued, she still felt unsettled by his overwhelming power, but something in her heart told her Saitama was a good man.
Perhaps that's how every beauty saved by a true hero feels.
Vivian was a true academic who had never faced anything this perilous. Something quiet and new opened in her chest.
She suddenly wanted to know the name of the strong man who had saved her.
"Turns out what Mom said might be true. I thought it was nonsense: that even the coldest, strongest woman might still wish to lean on a man."
Her heart trembled—but she was no naïve girl. She wouldn't run up to confess to someone she'd met for the first time.
There were more important things to do. She would shelve the impulse of romance and watch this man's character a little longer.
She steadied herself. "Thank you… for saving me. But there are many others here who need help. Please—go and help them!"
"Okay."
Saitama nodded and moved on.
Just now, the long-silent TF5 main quest flickered to life in his system.
He knew it was time to clear another objective—and reap the rewards.
He also noticed the city goodwill counter jump by +80.
"I just got to City No. 1 and don't know anyone. Must be from the TF5 heroine I just saved."
Moments after he stepped off, Andrew, his soldiers, the girl, Cade and the others arrived at City No. 1.
They saw a woman at the gate—aloof, elegant, coldly beautiful.
And she was looking at Saitama's advancing back.
(End of Chapter)
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