The official premiere date for One-Punch Man was drawing closer by the day.
As the lead actor, Alex naturally stood at the center of the storm, but the rest of the cast had not been spared either. Violet Grant, Ethan Wolfe, Emily, and the others, all of whom played important supporting roles, had become frequent targets of media attention. Whether they were appearing on variety shows or sitting down for interviews, no one could escape the same unavoidable topic: Alex's new project.
There was no helping it. Bleach had come first like a polished gem, setting the bar so high that public anticipation for this new drama had reached an almost absurd level. Ethan had been interviewed so many times over the past few days that he felt as though the number was about to surpass the total he had given in his entire decade in the industry.
And now, with the premiere almost upon them, he swallowed hard.
He did not even dare imagine what would happen if his performance disappointed people. The backlash alone might be enough to bury him.
By the time it was nearly eight in the evening, Alex was already seated in front of the computer in his office, waiting.
Maya, who had just returned from walking Iggy, leaned in curiously beside him. While she had been outside, she had noticed groups of people rushing back home in a panic, muttering things like, "Hurry up, it's about to start," or, "There's no way it can beat Bleach, anyway."
At that moment, this little country girl who had only recently stepped into the wider world once again realized just how terrifyingly influential her boss really was.
Unfortunately, he was a scumbag.
That was right. Ever since she had returned to the company with Alex a month ago, she had seen a different beautiful older woman follow him into the private room beside his office every couple of days. She might have only just become an adult, but that did not mean she understood nothing.
Thinking of that, Maya, who was bringing Alex a cup of tea, turned at what she believed was an angle he could not see and spat into it.
Taste my spit, you bastard.
Punishing scumbags was everyone's responsibility.
Yet the moment Maya placed the cup on the desk, Alex suddenly asked, without even looking away from the screen, "Did you spit in my tea?"
"H-Huh?!"
Maya shuddered so violently that she nearly tripped over her own feet.
"Idiot. If you're going to spit in it, at least stir it a couple of times. It hasn't even dissolved."
Alex's face darkened.
At most, he thought Bella was a little slow sometimes. But the girl in front of him was genuinely stupid.
"Come here."
He crooked a finger at her.
"B-Boss… please don't fire me."
Maya lowered her head, her voice shrinking into pitiful obedience.
She had already quit that talent show. If Alex kicked her out now, where else was she supposed to find a job that paid five figures just for walking a dog, keeping a few accounts, and serving tea? Besides, for a young girl trying to survive alone in the real world, a face too delicate could sometimes become less of a blessing and more of a weapon pointed back at herself.
Smack!
A crisp sound rang through the office.
Maya, who had been lowering her head, froze. Then she covered her backside with both hands, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"B-Boss… you hit me?!"
"I hit you because I wanted to. Was I supposed to pick an auspicious date first?"
Alex's expression was shamelessly arrogant. "Go pour a new cup."
"O-Oh…"
With her pretty face flushed red, Maya picked up the cup and turned away.
In her heart, she wondered whether she should be smarter this time and stir it properly after spitting.
That way, he definitely would not notice.
"There are cameras in the office."
Alex's voice floated from behind her without warning.
Maya jumped again, nearly falling flat on her face.
Alex was even more speechless now.
Judging by her reaction, she really had been planning to spit a second time.
Had he not scared her enough just now?
Five minutes later, Maya returned with the tea.
"Boss, your tea. This time I definitely didn't spit in it…"
After setting the cup down again, she muttered softly, "I heard shut-in nerds are supposed to be happy if they get a girl's spit…"
Black lines practically appeared across Alex's forehead.
He was not some deranged manga protagonist who enjoyed women's bodily fluids.
And for the benefit of all the poor single brothers out there who had never kissed anyone before, let him make one thing clear: a girl's spit did not taste like anything magical. On the contrary, if she had any oral health issues or had eaten something strange before kissing you, that flavor could ruin your entire day.
As Alex's dramas and films continued to spread through the mainstream, terms like "figures," "merch," "adorable," and "shut-in nerd" had quietly begun seeping out of niche fan circles and into everyday speech. At this rate, once Initial D premiered, words like "NTR" would probably flood the internet as well.
After this brief, questionably sweet daily episode between an overbearing boss and his airheaded little assistant, the time in the lower right corner of computer screens across the country reached exactly 20:00:00.
This time, the domestic premiere rights for One-Punch Man had not been bought by only one platform. StreamPlus, ViewTube, and NovaVideo had all managed to secure broadcasting rights.
The reason was simple: the head of StreamPlus still did not have unconditional faith in Alex's power.
In fact, even now, he still regretted spending an astronomical sum to purchase the exclusive domestic streaming rights to the first three parts of JOJO. Even though JOJO had maintained considerable popularity and had already shown the kind of vitality that could endure for years, what businessman cared about such things?
What he wanted was view count.
View count meant money.
Had he been given another chance, he would rather have spent that money purchasing the domestic exclusive rights to Bleach.
Alex had a feeling that this time, the man was probably going to regret it again.
The first episode of One-Punch Man was opened.
As the playback page gradually cleared, live comments flooded the screen.
"Three months! Three whole months! Do you know how I survived these three months?"
"Aizen fans reporting in!"
"Lord Baldy fans reporting in!"
"Alex is actually playing a good guy this time? This feels so weird."
BOOM!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!!
The opening theme had not even begun. In the middle of a modern city lined with towering skyscrapers, mushroom clouds rose one after another in terrifying succession.
Civilians screamed in horror, fleeing in the opposite direction of the explosions. A reporter standing by the roadside wore a safety helmet, his face slick with cold sweat as he delivered a live report to the camera.
"As you can see, this unprecedented destructive force is still escalating. The Hero Association has now classified this disaster as Dragon-level - "
BOOM!
Before the reporter could finish, the violent blast from the explosion sent the entire camera crew flying. The live broadcast was cut off instantly.
In a dimly lit room, a man in pajamas looked at the television screen filled with static, then stood up in an utterly flat tone.
"Guess I'll go."
His face had not been shown yet, but just from the shine reflected on that bald head, viewers who had been following the production could already guess who it was.
At this point, the audience was not particularly satisfied with the opening sequence.
That intensely American superhero-style beginning was something they had already grown tired of through Marvel. In fact, after Avengers: Endgame, Marvel had been sliding downhill for years. The latest Spider-Man movie had even pulled out the gimmick of bringing three Spider-Men together, only to produce something embarrassingly messy.
Seeing such a heavy superhero flavor right from the start, not only domestic viewers but even overseas audiences began to frown.
Was Alex about to crash this time?
At the center of the ruined city, where flames swallowed the streets and rubble stretched in every direction, a purple, Piccolo-like monster walked leisurely across the wasteland.
Without question, he was the culprit behind this horrific destruction.
"Waaah… waaah…"
At that moment, the cry of a child sounded especially sharp.
The monster abruptly stretched out his hand. His palm swelled dozens of times larger than before, reaching toward a little girl kneeling on the ground and crying helplessly.
But in the next instant, a blur flashed past and carried the fainting girl safely to the side.
"Hm? Who are you?!"
The man who had only shown his back before finally appeared from the front.
The moment the audience saw Saitama's ridiculously plain battle suit, obviously inspired by classic superhero costumes, along with his white cape and the dead, empty look Alex had perfectly carved into his face, many people could not hold back their laughter.
After all, the viewers rushing to watch the premiere at the earliest possible moment were mostly fans of Bleach. Their impression of Alex was still firmly fixed on Sosuke Aizen: calm, elegant, overwhelming, and terrifyingly charismatic.
Yet now, after only a few months, seeing Alex with that lifeless, blank expression created such a violent contrast that they burst out laughing before they could stop themselves.
"I'm just a hero for fun."
His tone was careless, almost perfunctory, as if he could not be bothered to explain himself properly.
With his very first line after officially appearing, Alex used Saitama's mouth to reveal the core of the entire series.
"Hm? What kind of half-assed setup is that?"
The monster raised an eyebrow, voicing the exact complaint sitting in the audience's minds.
"I was born from the polluted environment humans have created - Vaccine Man!"
"The Earth is a complete living being, and you humans are nothing but pathogens eating away at its life."
"To stop all the evil humanity has inflicted upon this planet, I was born through the will of the Earth itself!"
In the next second, his body expanded violently, just as his palm had moments earlier, swelling to dozens of times its original size. His face twisted into something even more hideous as he leaned toward Saitama and roared.
Hearing Vaccine Man's furious declaration, many viewers were momentarily unsure what to say.
Because, at first glance, the monster's argument actually seemed to make a little sense.
So next would come the clash of ideals between protagonist and enemy, right?
Would the protagonist say something profound to change the monster's mind?
Or would he fall silent, unable to refute him, and choose to fight first before slowly exploring the answer in the story that followed?
Just then, Vaccine Man transformed into a towering fanged monster as large as a high-rise building and lunged toward the protagonist.
"Human! I'll wipe you all out right - "
Splurt!
The camera shifted.
Saitama remained expressionless. With a casual swing of his right fist, he punched through the monster's abdomen as easily as a bullet piercing a balloon.
Dark green blood, unlike anything human, rained down from the sky along with chunks of torn flesh.
The scene happened so abruptly that viewers did not react at first.
Then Saitama's expression synchronized perfectly with the audience's own. He stared at the fist that had just instantly killed the monster, his eyes widening as his face gradually collapsed into despair.
And finally, he screamed in utter breakdown.
"I finished it… with one punch again!!!"
After Saitama's anguished cry, the passionate opening prelude that had thrilled viewers in the trailer finally erupted.
It was here.
Jay's theme song.
"One puuuuunch!"
The reversal within the first five minutes instantly ignited the live comments during the opening sequence.
"Alex tricked me again. I thought we were about to get a battle of ideals between protagonist and villain, and then… that was it?"
"So it really is One-Punch Man? Don't tell me every enemy from now on gets beaten in one punch."
"No way. Obviously this is just the first episode giving us a quick rush. If every opponent goes down in one punch, how is the plot supposed to continue?"
"Alex really doesn't care about that handsome face of his. He shaved his head just like that."
"If Logan had that kind of dedication, he wouldn't have been roasted so badly."
"Can we not bring up that movie here? Bad luck."
"Just from these five minutes, I've already decided to keep watching. At least the protagonist doesn't waste time arguing. He sees a problem and starts swinging. That personality really hits the spot."
"Agreed. Even in Marvel, where superheroes are everywhere, you don't see many protagonists who skip the long speeches and just punch first."
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