"I'm way older than you! I'm your senior!" Tatsumaki snapped, her expression turning sour as she folded her arms tightly across her chest.

"Let's go back," Shinji said calmly to Genos and Vaccine Man.

"Yes." Genos nodded, silently reminding himself that he still had much to learn from his teacher, especially when it came to maintaining composure under provocation.

Without another word, Shinji turned and walked away, the other two following at his side.

"...Are you ignoring me? Stop right there!" Tatsumaki's voice rose, brimming with irritation at being dismissed so casually. She was not used to being brushed off, least of all by someone who had just bested Dragon-level threats.

Yet Shinji, Genos, and Vaccine Man didn't so much as glance back. Shinji's mind was elsewhere. His focus was fixed solely on becoming the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails as soon as possible. He had neither the time nor the interest to indulge Tatsumaki's temper.

In the next heartbeat, the three of them vanished, Shinji teleporting them away in an instant.

Tatsumaki narrowed her eyes when they disappeared, frustration flashing across her face, but there was nothing she could do. Her sharp gaze then shifted toward the cluster of heroes who had been watching from the sidelines.

"What are you looking at?"

The air turned heavy at once. Faced with the No. 2 S-Class hero, Tornado of Terror, none of them dared to breathe too loudly.

"N-Nothing at all. We're leaving right now!"

"Yeah, let's get out of here. I'm not sticking around to see what happens if she gets mad."

"So... that means the Dragon-level threat is over? In that case, we can leave too."

One after another, the heroes scattered. None wanted to risk becoming the target of her bad mood over Shinji's disappearance.

"Honestly... heroes, the Hero Association, all of them are so unreliable," Tatsumaki muttered to herself before rising into the air, the wind spiraling around her as she flew off.

...

Back in Z-City, Shinji wasted no time. He headed straight for the streets, scanning every bulletin board and street corner for wanted posters. He wasn't after the bounty money; what interested him were the points he could earn by taking down wanted criminals.

These criminals were ranked in a system similar to professional heroes, classified from C-Class up to S-Class. The ranking wasn't purely about raw strength but about the overall threat they posed to society. Still, those with higher ranks were far from weak, which explained their steep bounties.

Shinji methodically collected every bounty listed in Z-City. Moving quickly, he hunted each target down and defeated them one after another.

[Ding! Host has defeated an "A-Class wanted criminal." Reward: 18 points!]

[Ding! Host has defeated a "B-Class wanted criminal." Reward: 12 points!]

[Ding! Host has defeated a "C-Class wanted criminal." Reward: 5 points!]

[Ding! First time defeating an "A-Class wanted criminal." Bonus reward: 15 points!]

[Ding! First time defeating a "B-Class wanted criminal." Bonus reward: 10 points!]

[Ding! First time defeating a "C-Class wanted criminal." Bonus reward: 5 points!]

[...]

By the end of the day, there was not a single wanted criminal left in Z-City.

[Points: 550]

Shinji opened his system panel, his eyes narrowing at the number. "Only a little over five hundred points... still far from enough..."

He stood there in silence, lost in thought.

According to his plan, Shinji needed to secure at least one Rinnegan before he could transform the Gedo Statue into the Ten-Tails. Ideally, he wanted a complete pair, but even a single Rinnegan required 1,000 points. Since he could not predict when Boros might suddenly appear, his immediate goal was to obtain one Rinnegan first and complete the set later if resources allowed.

As for the power of the Tailed Beasts, that came at no cost, so there was no need to worry about acquiring it.

With his objectives clear, Shinji made his way to the Z-City Police Department to claim the bounties he had earned.

"Hello, this is the Z-City Police Department. How can I help you?" the officer on duty asked.

"I'm here to settle my bounty claims," Shinji replied without hesitation.

One after another, he pulled out the bounty notices, then casually began retrieving the corresponding criminals from his Kamui space, dropping them onto the floor in front of the desk.

The stack of bounty notices was thick, but what truly stunned the surrounding officers was the sight of unconscious wanted criminals appearing out of thin air and piling up in the station lobby.

"These criminals are already knocked out. You can just lock them up," Shinji said in a calm, almost indifferent tone.

"Oh, please wait a moment," one of the officers said quickly, signaling his colleagues.

They moved fast, checking each bounty notice against the criminals on the ground. After a thorough verification process, they confirmed without a shred of doubt that every single one was indeed a wanted criminal, ranging from C-Class to A-Class.

Shock rippled through the station. One young man had captured this many wanted criminals entirely on his own? Could he be a professional hero from the Hero Association?

Suddenly, an officer's eyes widened in recognition. "Wait... are you the S-Class hero who stopped the meteor from falling?"

"Yes, though I wasn't an S-Class hero at that time," Shinji answered with a nod.

"So it really is you. That explains everything! There's no way an ordinary person could have taken down this many fugitives."

"S-Class Rank 5, Kamui... that's seriously impressive," another murmured.

Once they understood who stood before them, the officers' earlier astonishment turned into admiration. They immediately began processing his bounty payments. Even a C-Class criminal carried a reward of at least one or two million yen, while B-Class criminals often reached several million. A-Class and S-Class bounties were naturally far higher.

Unfortunately, Shinji hadn't found any S-Class bounty notices this time, likely because Z-City currently had no criminals of that rank on the wanted list.

By the time the paperwork was complete, the police had transferred over ten million yen to Shinji, an amount equal to 65,000 dollars. And this was just the result of half a day's work.

Still, the money meant little to him. His priority was points.

[Ding! The host's total assets have exceeded ten million yen. Reward: 100 points!]