บท 13: BALD

In an apartment in City Z.

*THREATENING AURA*

A powerful-looking man with three claw marks across his left eye stared down at the newly opened game console in Saitama's apartment. He inspected the game equipment seriously. If someone didn't know what he was really like, they might think he was incredibly angry or suspicious. This was just how this man was. To the people of this world, he was known as the strongest hero, King.

Suddenly, the intense aura received as King redirected his attention back to Saitama, who was lying lazily on the floor with a magazine on his face.

"I'm not familiar with this game console," King said slowly.

He moved over to the tv to plugin the custom console. It was a strange-looking play console, which looked like an old oil lamp. Which 3 blue headbands, that came with it, which King deduced must be a way to play the game. He had heard of VR games before, but he wasn't a big fan. He plugged in the console and an introduction screen rolled where the logo of the console flashed: [Genie Lamp].

"Do you want to play?" King asked over at Saitama.

*WOOSH*

Saitama blew slightly and the magazine flew off his face, then he sat up and shifted himself over to the console.

"Fine. Hey Genos, do you want to play?" Saitama asked, looking over towards the kitchen area of his apartment.

"No thank you, sensei," Genos answered, peaking his head out of the kitchen. He was wearing a pink apron.

Saitama paused for a moment and remembered that Genos had been bugging him recently about how he could overcome his limits. He regretted ever agreeing to be Genos's teacher since he didn't know what he could teach him! He often had an internal struggle with how to be a good teacher for him.

"Genos... if you want to overcome your limits, you should set some goals for yourself. Don't just wait for me to give them to you." Saitama said while nodding to himself.

'With this, he should feel more comfortable setting goals in the future. And I wouldn't need to stress myself to come up with new goals for him.' Saitama thought to himself.

"I understand, sensei!" Genos said loudly, after reflecting in deep thought.

Then, Genos took off his apron and sat down next to Saitama and King. He took his own headband and got ready to play the game.

'Sensei was clearly disappointed in me when I answered I was too busy to join them. Sensei is trying to say that strength comes in many forms, and the goals are ever endless to reach the pinnacle of strength. Perhaps, even this strange gaming device is another way sensei hinted at me to use to find a way to overcome my limits.' Genos thought to himself.

"Alright," King shrugged seeing Genos join them.

The three of them placed their headbands when the TV told them to and fell asleep.

...

The three of them were floating in an endless void of starry skies with three menus in front of them.

"Huh?" Saitama blinked.

"W-where are we?" King asked, trembling.

"Sensei, sure enough. This game isn't simple." Genos said.

[Welcome Players, to the Genie-Verse!]

[Greatest game ever played, where the ultimate reward is your heart's desire.]

[One wish, granted without limits.]

[It is detected that you received an advanced copy of Genie-Verse and are afforded a lucky spin: A chance to gain unique classes, items, or races.]

[The game begins at 68:21:32:01. You may create your avatars in the meantime.]

After the logs of information were read by the three of them, they had varying reactions. Saitama had a slightly interested look on his face, Genos had a thoughtful look, and finally, King's eyes were shining brightly.

"So we are inside the game?" King questioned excitedly.

"My greatest desire." Saitama mumbled, his eyes shimmering slightly.

"I think we should create our avatars first. Judging by most MMOs I've played, the common tropes are to have different races handle some things better than others." King spoke his thoughts to the others.

As he was talking, Saitama clicked an item in his menu and a giant roulette wheel appeared in front of them with different numbers on each section. It started spinning fast.

"What did you do, sensei?" Genos asked, peeking over Saitama's shoulder to look at his menu.

"I just pressed the [Lucky Spin] button in the menu," Saitama said.

"I wonder what kind of rare class you might get. If what I understand about this game is true, we should have one of the first few copies. And we get a beginners benefit because of it." King analyzed easily.

King and Genos wasted no time and clicked their [Lucky Spin] option as well. Two additional wheels appeared and began spinning just like Saitama's. But at this point, Saitama's wheel was coming to a stop after spinning for so long. It finally came to a stop on an option, which was marked orange in color, meaning he got a unique class.

"What did you get sensei?" Genos asked.

But Saitama didn't answer. He just looked at his unique class with an aggrieved expression. Time passed and he continued to remain silent, leading both King and Saitama to get curious enough to look at his menu logs.

[Congradulations! You have received the unique class: [Bald]].

The two of them fell silent as well.

"Sensei, I'll buy more sea kelp," Genos said, reassuring his master that he had his support.

King and Genos' roulette wheel also came to a stop, with their options landing on a class and a race space respectively.

Saitama couldn't help himself, wanting to know what they had gotten. Perhaps he wouldn't feel so bad if one of them also got a strange reward. However, he was destined to be disappointed. Genos gained the unique heteromorphic race: [Living Artifact] and King gained the unique class [Son of Destiny].

Saitama decided to leave the game immediately. And Genos followed him, picking up some sea kelp from the grocery store. It is rumored to help hair growth.

...

In another universe, Watchtower, Justice League.

"Batman, this 'game console' you received is very scary." Doctor Fate explained to Batman seriously.

"The magic power emitted from it alone... far out rivals me. I doubt there is a rival for whoever made this item in this known universe. The Lords of Order had also taken an interest in it when you delivered it to me. Even they, find cause for concern of this." Doctor Fate warned seriously.

"What can you tell me?" Batman questioned.

"It's indestructible, or at least a force greater than what takes to destroy the universe would take to destroy it? The package was addressed to you, and the bands inside are meant to have some connection to a different dimension or universe. From what I and the Lords of Order can tell... you can choose up to two others to participate in... whatever the being that made this had intended for you too." Doctor Fate explained.

Batman paused, his thoughts racing with different scenarios.

"And what would happen, if I didn't do what this being wants?" Batman asked, his voice still steady.

"I have no idea." Doctor Fate said, shaking his head.