Rimuru had already arrived at a convenience store in City A and finished shopping, but just as he finished, a massive energy blast flew in from out of nowhere.
His amber eyes glared at the incoming energy blast, and a powerful repulsive force appeared in its path, sending it flying back at an even greater speed.
The surrounding citizens all looked as if they had seen a ghost and began to gather and discuss what had just happened. Although they didn't know each other before the energy blast arrived, it didn't stop them from chatting about the narrow escape they had just shared.
Rimuru, meanwhile, ducked into a small alleyway without any surveillance cameras while carrying two large bags. After putting everything into the System Space, he walked toward home empty-handed and light-hearted.
Even though the system had completely crashed, a small portion of its functions were still usable, such as the System Warehouse and withdrawing this world's currency from the System Mall.
Rimuru had discovered that money could be exchanged infinitely in the System Mall without needing anything in return. To the system, such things were likely considered the lowest grade of items.
It was precisely because of this that Rimuru could live so comfortably. As for Saitama, he was just along for the ride. There was no helping it; who could resist luxury when it was available? Besides, before he transmigrated, he was just an ordinary college student.
While Rimuru was lost in thought, another energy blast flew toward him. In the next instant, Rimuru's right hand instantly transformed into a vast screen of water, swallowing the incoming blast and storing it in his Stomach to be digested into pure energy to nourish himself.
What Rimuru didn't notice was that the system, which had been dormant in his sea of consciousness for a long time, absorbed all the energy from the decomposed blast and emitted a faint glow, but that was all.
Because the energy was still too little, it was completely insufficient to support the system's operation.
"Report: Unknown energy blast decomposition complete." Just as Rimuru snapped back to his senses, a cold, mechanical female voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
And his hand, which had just turned into a screen of water, returned to normal.
"As expected, there's no need to worry about you." Saitama's voice reached Rimuru's ears at the right moment. Rimuru turned his head and saw that Saitama had actually come out wearing his yellow jumpsuit.
"Why are you here? Is there a monster?" Seeing Saitama in that outfit, Rimuru knew there must be a monster. After all, he had lived with Saitama for three years.
He had personally watched Saitama go from having a full head of hair to becoming a 'braised egg' like he was now, so Rimuru knew all of Saitama's habitual movements.
Similarly, Saitama also knew Rimuru's habits.
"Yeah, I want to see if that monster can withstand a punch from me." Saitama nodded and clenched his right hand, which was clad in a deep red glove.
"I'm coming with you. How dare it try to sneak attack me? This grudge must be settled!" Rimuru's tone was somewhat unfriendly.
Saitama silently offered a prayer for the monster they hadn't even met yet. There was no helping it; Rimuru's methods were simply too terrifying.
The two of them observed where the energy blasts were being fired from and then ran toward the source.
As they ran toward the source, energy blasts would occasionally fly over, and a few were punched into dispersion by Saitama.
When the energy blasts were so easily dispersed, Saitama felt a bit disappointed. How could they be broken so easily? They were truly too fragile.
The others were actively eaten by Rimuru using Predator, decomposing them into energy, but all of this energy was absorbed by the system.
After the system absorbed that energy, its light grew a bit brighter, but Rimuru still didn't notice.
On the other side of the battlefield, two heroes had already fallen to the ground. However, one could tell from their slightly heaving chests that they were only heavily injured and unconscious, not dead.
These two heroes were Smile Man and Lightning Max.
A little girl, covered in dirt, was standing amidst the city ruins wiping away tears and crying loudly, calling for her mom and dad.
The source of the city's destruction, a deep purple monster, showed a cruel smile upon seeing the little girl. It walked toward her step by step, enlarging its right hand to grab her.
However, the deep purple monster didn't feel the expected sensation. It opened its clenched fingers and saw that they were empty; there was nothing there.
Saitama stood to the side holding the little girl, who had fainted from the sudden high-speed movement. After setting her down, he heard the purple monster's fatal question: "Who are you?!"
"I'm just a passing Slime, remember that." Rimuru spoke before Saitama could, using a cocky tone, with his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie.
"And I'm just a guy who's a hero for fun." Saitama wasn't annoyed; he waited for Rimuru to finish before following up immediately, giving the purple monster no time to speak.
In fact, Rimuru had already vaguely guessed who the one firing the energy blasts was when he first saw them. After all, he had followed this manga in his past life, though it was so long ago that he was only in seventh grade when he read the last chapter.
He was already a junior in college now, and having not read it for so long, he couldn't quite remember. But seeing that purple monster confirmed it: it was Vaccine Man.
A guy who claimed to be the apostle of the Earth, wanting to wipe out all humans because they were destroying the planet, so that the Earth could return to its original state.
While introducing himself to Saitama, Vaccine Man's body transformed into his awakened state. His height instantly shot up to eighteen meters, small spikes appeared all over his body, and two massive tusks like elephant ivory grew from the sides of his mouth.
Just as he was about to launch an attack at Saitama, he was directly eaten by Rimuru using Predator, leaving nothing behind.
"Hey, hey, didn't we agree to let me try? Why did you eat him again?" Saitama complained, looking at Rimuru, whose arm had returned to its original state, with some dissatisfaction.
"Don't bother, there's no way to test it. This guy couldn't even dodge my Predator, let alone your punch."
Rimuru waved his hand and walked straight to the little girl lying unconscious on the ground to squat down. After confirming her condition, he stood up.
A vast amount of pale blue Slime fluid appeared around him. The 1.3-meter-tall Little Loli vanished, replaced by a cold beauty standing 1.9 meters tall with pale skin and blue-white hair reaching down to her ankles. Her eyebrows were just small white patches.
On her head were a pair of brownish-maroon horns that looked like rabbit ears, and in the center of her forehead was a thin line that one wouldn't notice without looking closely. Her eyes were a pure white, her cherry-like mouth wore rose-red lipstick, and she wore a white robe with black magatama patterns.
"Why did you suddenly use Mimicry? And you turned into that woman named Otsutsuki something." Saitama looked curiously at the Rimuru before him—or rather, Rimuru mimicked as Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
"The girl's parents are dead. I'm just saving people." A low, mature female voice came from Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's mouth.
Then, the thin line between Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's brows gradually opened, and a blood-red eye appeared at the center of her forehead.
The eye contained circular patterns and nine small magatama, evenly distributed across the ripple-like lines.
In the next moment, two waves of life force radiated from that blood-red Rinne-Sharingan, eventually drifting into a pile of ruins.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki also raised her right hand, using repulsive force to blast away all the stone slabs in that area. Having finished everything, she walked toward Saitama step by step, her figure gradually shrinking until she returned to being a 1.3-meter-tall Little Loli.
"Let's go, time to go home." Rimuru poked the back of Saitama's knee with his elbow and took the lead in walking away.
Saitama also stepped forward to follow Rimuru. "I say, where are the groceries I asked you to buy?" Looking at Saitama, he must have seen such scenes many times; his face was full of indifference, and he even started discussing groceries with Rimuru.
"Oh, there was no time to buy them. I had just arrived when I was attacked by that Vaccine Man's energy blasts."
Rimuru chose to hide the truth that he had already finished shopping and decided to buy another set for Saitama to carry.
"Fine, fine, let's hurry then. We went through all that trouble for nothing, and you didn't leave a single thing for me, you guy."
The two walked side-by-side toward the unaffected urban area of City A to find a convenience store. However, neither of them noticed a man wearing a black high-collared sweater, with three scars covering almost the entire right side of his face and blonde hair swept back into a pompadour.
His mouth hung open as he stared at the departing Rimuru in utter disbelief. Just now, what on earth was that?!!
And that resurrection technique, which he had only ever seen in games—what was that all about??!
However, no one was there to answer these questions for him.
Rimuru and Saitama had already emerged from a large shopping mall. They hadn't gone there for anything else but the limited-time cakes sold inside.
Taking advantage of the monster's appearance, Rimuru had seized the opportunity to buy out all those cakes and even bought a vast amount of groceries for Saitama to carry.