Ultraman Any Key: Qiming

Chapter 278, Section 274. The Beast in *Neo*: "If only Qi Ming were here then."

“Smailo Smailo Smailo Smailo”.

After finishing breakfast, Qi Ming went to the Victory Team's command room, scrolling through today's news while muttering to himself.

Kishida, standing nearby, said, "Smiling... the English pronunciation of 'smile'. I've been hearing you say that word a lot these past few days."

Qi Ming: "You may hear this every day in the future, so let you get used to it now so that you won't be stressed and go crazy later."

Unbeknownst to him, the metal ball containing the distress signal he had thrown out was intercepted by Carmila.

Everyone was completely overwhelmed by the water and didn't know what to do.

"Look, isn't that bastard Kento? He got promoted in the Defense Force and is holding a press conference!" Yamanaka exclaimed, also scrolling through the live news.

The crowd gathered around, and Qi Ming was also very curious about who this guy, who was called a "bastard" in the mountains, was.

Looking at the bespectacled man in the news, Qi Ming's heart skipped a beat: "Jian Tong... so it's him, Minister Jian Tong from Ultraman Neos. In this world, he belongs to the Defense Force."

This is also a corrupt and despicable high-ranking official who disregards the lives of his team members in order to cover up the ugly truth.

What an excellent matchmaking system! This grotto-like underworld has perfectly managed to "leave no bad guy unpunished."

Kishida looked at Qi Ming: "Let me explain. There was an incident like this before you joined the team."

He spoke eloquently.

That happened shortly after the formation of the new Victory Team, a period during which the Defense Forces' satellites disappeared one after another.

Captain Moroboshi sensed something unusual and, being a helpful member of the defense forces, wanted to assist them in investigating the matter.

The person in charge of handling the matter at the time was Jian Tong. He said that the Victory Team didn't need to meddle, and the well-talented Defense Force would handle the matter well.

A few days later, an unidentified, strange object fell into the TPC's territory.

Upon receiving the news, the Victory Team rushed over and found a strangely shaped object.

Kishida wanted to analyze this behemoth, but its surface was covered with a special metal, preventing the scanner from performing a deep scan.

Suddenly, the object came to life and became a monster, sucking Saijo Nagi's Hyuga No. 1, which she was piloting alone, into its body.

Everyone panicked. Dan Moroboshi tried to contact Nagi Saijo to ask about the situation, but the signal was interfered with by the monster.

At this moment, Minister Kento took the initiative to contact them, saying that the monster must be banished to outer space immediately, completely disregarding Saijo Nagi's life or death.

Moroboshi Dan refused to comply, but Kento pressured him by threatening the cabinet, saying it was an order from the cabinet.

However, TPC listened to the orders but refused to follow instructions, and despite the group's reasoned arguments, they still did not comply.

Jian Tong directly dispatched air forces to try to bypass TPC and forcibly take over the matter, sending this monster into space in a dozen transport planes.

But Yamanaka and Kishida refused to abandon their teammates, and their Hien-1 nearly engaged in combat with the defense forces' fighter jets.

In the face of the stalemate, in order to avoid escalating the situation and causing a negative impact, Jian Tong had no choice but to tell the truth.

It turns out that this is a monster called [Gigadred], which evolved from a meteorite and devoured all the previously disappeared satellites.

Many of those satellites are military satellites, so they contain an astonishing amount of energy.

Once a military satellite derails, it will activate an automatic detonation device and explode within three hours, generating enough power to destroy everything within a radius of 300 kilometers.

Such a short time is not enough to evacuate nearby residents.

This is why he was so anxious to get rid of the monster; he had been assigned to handle this matter, and if he messed it up, his future would be ruined.

"Future prospects... You're still thinking about the future? What do you think of the vice-captain's life?!" At that moment, Yamanaka wished he could jump into the screen and punch him.

Kenji retorted righteously, "Is your vice-captain's life more important, or the lives of the millions of citizens surrounding the monster? Can't you even do such a simple math problem? The GUTS team should be prepared to sacrifice themselves to protect the citizens!"

Dan Moroboshi said that all lives are equal and cannot be measured in this way, but he still insisted on carrying out the rescue.

Kenjiro said that he had already revealed the classified information to them. If things still went wrong, he could only say to the media that "the defense forces wanted to actively carry out their work, but the Victory Team kept obstructing them. They are all cowards who are afraid of death and disregard the lives of the citizens who could not evacuate in time for the sake of a vice captain." He told them to think it through.

This is an attempt to shift the blame onto the winning team and minimize the negative impact on himself.

When this part was mentioned, Yamanaka interrupted in the command room: "No, it's still so frustrating to recall this part now. This guy is even more infuriating than Qi Ming at the beginning."

Kishida gritted his teeth: "If only Qi Ming were here back then, we could have taken advantage of the darkness afterward to put him in a sack and beat him up!"

Qi Ming said, "There's an old saying in China: 'A gentleman's revenge is never too late,' hehehe."

Dan Moroboshi's heart skipped a beat, thinking, "You can't be serious, can you?"

Huimei chimed in, "That was really close. That guy definitely deserved to be taught a lesson."

Saijo Nagi, the person involved, remained calm: "In the end, I was saved."

She continued her story.

At that time, Dan Moroboshi led a team to try to rescue the monster, but the monster came back to life and began to wreak havoc on the surrounding area.

At the critical moment, Ultraman Seven appeared. He carried the missiles and lasers fired by the monster and pulled the Flying Swallow No. 1, piloted by Nagi Saijo, out of the monster's body.

Once again seeing the light of day, Saijo Nagi met Seven's eyes through the porthole.

At that moment, she truly believed in this "giant of unknown origin" and in Ultraman.

Seven then used his ice axe to cut off the monster's external weapons, and while it was immobilized, he threw it into space, thus ending the matter.

At this point, Saijo Nagi unconsciously looked at Moroboshi Dan, never expecting that the giant who descended like a god would actually be her captain.

After the incident, she felt that the captain had acted recklessly. She could have accepted it if he had abandoned her in that emergency and instead eliminated the monster.

Kishida: "The monster was eventually defeated, so Kenji, as the person in charge, was commended and promoted all the way up." This has left him resentful to this day.

Qi Mingxin said that the course of this past event was basically the same as that of episode 10 of "Ultraman Neos", titled "Decisive Decision! SX Rescue Operation".

The monster is still the same monster, and Jian Tong is still the same beast.

However, the person captured by the monster changed from the captain of the Harto Team to Saijo Nagi, and the one who transformed to save the person changed from Neos to Seven of Moroboshi Dan.

Qi Ming: "Still not angry? No problem. If I have bad luck with my gacha pulls next time, let's find a chance to beat him half to death and let's all vent our anger together."

Considering that Dan Moroboshi was still in front of him, Qi Ming didn't say anything too harsh, for fear of scaring him.

But Dan Moroboshi still had an expression that said, "It's all in the past, why bother with all that?" He just didn't want to scold the other members in front of them.

Yamanaka: "Great, let's do it this way!"

Kishida: "Gacha? Like FGO or Uma Musume Pretty Derby? Qi Ming, what's the name of the game you play?"

He thought he could be next, have more in common with Qi Ming, and get along better.

Qi Ming: "It's called 'Earth Online Hell Edition'."

Kishida: "?"

At this moment, Yamanaka, who was staring at his phone, said, "This guy is now at the same level as that 'Mountain Chief,' so he's become part of the core management team."

From the perspective of his authority, his task is to identify brewing dangers, nip potential problems in the bud, and prevent them from happening in the first place.

On a mobile phone screen in the mountains, Jian Tong, who had been promoted, faced the media cameras with an impassioned tone, as if he were the savior of humanity:

"It can be confirmed that Earth is being infiltrated by a large number of extraterrestrials!"

"They disguised themselves as ordinary humans, lurking in every corner of society, secretly plotting their invasion!"

"And we, the defense forces, will never stand idly by!"

He slammed his fist on the table and declared righteously, "We will thoroughly investigate all suspicious targets, digging three feet into the ground to find these alien spies! The safety of the citizens is our responsibility!"

The press conference was met with thunderous applause, while the people in front of the Victory team's phone screens looked on with disdain.

Huimei: "Is he trying to use this opportunity to expand his power and start a nationwide surveillance operation?"

Yamanaka: "However, if he can find those evil aliens and thwart their invasion plans, then he has done a good deed."

Kishida: "It's hard to say. This guy's purpose is not simple. Rather than eliminating aliens, he is more interested in taking credit for himself and getting promoted."

Dan Moroboshi lamented that moving forward with the wrong intentions could have serious consequences.

..............................

Meanwhile, after the Defense Force's press conference, Minister Jian Tong summoned his subordinates and ordered them to work overtime to find any suspicious clues and quickly find an alien to eliminate.

He needs to produce results immediately.

"First, this alien needs to demonstrate how he is different from Earthlings, such as by using superpowers."

"Then, he'd better reveal his true form, with strange horns and colorful skin like that."

"Finally, our defense forces eliminated the alien that was on camera, demonstrating the reliability of our defense forces to the citizens."

He said that no matter what, he had to find an alien within three days, and he wanted the citizens to see results immediately, to see the transformation of the internal system under his governance.

After the meeting, a group of people looked gloomy.

Finding an alien within three days is asking too much of a question.

"Where can we find this?" Aihara Ryuya was at a loss.

He also wants to eliminate the evil aliens and protect the Earth, but you've already made your statement. Those powerful aliens aren't stupid enough to not gather information, so they have to lay low.

Someone had a sudden inspiration: "Could we create an alien to complete this task?"

Another person objected, "Don't forget about TPC. They're always working against us. If we really want to forge something, they'll find something amiss, and then we won't be able to escape."

At that moment, a man in a white coat smiled with a refined and approachable air:
"I think there's no need for you all to worry like this. Minister Jian Tong didn't say that we have to kill those evil and powerful aliens."

"Some aliens who are weak and unable to perfectly disguise themselves still leave some clues."

"Regardless of his intentions in coming to Earth, as long as he has blood that is different from ours, the TPC has nothing to say."

His name was written on his name tag on his white coat: [Ryosuke Sanada].

That's right, he is Ryosuke Sanada, Horii's friend in the original "Ultraman Tiga" series, who received an Ebolon cell transplant.

In this world, he belongs to the defense force and serves as a director of the research department. Recently, he has become a confidant of Minister Jian Tong.

After he finished speaking, the group of people except for Aihara Ryu nodded: "You make a good point. Ryosuke, you've been getting smarter and smarter lately."

Some of his close colleagues felt that Ryosuke had changed recently. He used to be rather aloof, intelligent but lacking in emotional intelligence, and devoted himself entirely to his research. Now, he's become increasingly adept at social maneuvering.

I guess they want to improve.

Ryosuke Sanada didn't answer, but smiled at everyone and left.

Upon arriving at a deserted place, a crimson light flashed in Sanada Ryosuke's eyes.

These are the marks left by [Cerebro]'s possession.

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A major event is about to unfold!
There will be another update around 2 PM, pushing the plot to its climax. I'm going to write 10,000 words today!
I'm asking for your monthly votes again!
(End of this chapter)