They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 265 The Lightning Man Strikes

"Stand up and talk."

After a brief silence, Masaki Keigo grabbed Daigo's arm and pulled him up from the ground.

His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable power.

Daigo staggered to his feet, but his gaze never left Masaki Keigo.

Masaki Keigo let go of his hand, turned around, picked up the towel, and handed one back to Daigo.

"In my opinion, giants are simply a power that humanity has not yet been able to fully understand and master."

Then, Masaki Keigo spoke.

"Is that all?"

Daigo was completely stunned. He had considered countless possibilities, but he never expected the other party to answer like this.

"Ha~ The development of human technology, in essence, is the development of cognitive level."

Seeing this, Masaki Keigo smiled. Without waiting for Daigo's reply, he continued speaking to himself.

"Initially, humans could only perceive the world through their five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Therefore, what we could see and understand were only the most superficial phenomena in the macroscopic world."

A stone will fall, a tree will grow, and the sun will rise in the east and set in the west.

Later, we invented the microscope, and we saw a whole new world, a world made up of countless tiny lives.

We have also built a particle collider to break down matter and explore mysteries deeper than the atomic nucleus.

The observable world we know has expanded from the macroscopic to the microscopic, which led to quantum physics and everything we have today.

"Therefore, it is perfectly normal that there are things in this world that humans cannot understand for the time being."

That wasn't a miracle; it's simply because our level of understanding hasn't reached that level yet.

Transforming these so-called 'unknowns' step by step into 'knowns,' summarizing the patterns within, and turning them into technologies that can be analyzed, replicated, and utilized—this is precisely the mission of us scientists.

"Is that why... that's how you gained the power of the Titans?"

Upon hearing this, Daigo instinctively replied.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, Daigo realized he had misspoke and immediately regretted it.

"Heh~ I guess so."

"So, in response, should I also call you... Ultraman Tiga?"

Upon hearing this, Masaki Keigo simply smiled and then asked in return.

"Hey?!"

Daigo was struck dumb, frozen in place, his mind blank.

His eyes widened as he stared at Masaki Keigo in disbelief, his mouth slightly open but unable to utter a sound.

Exposed?
His identity...has been exposed?

How could that be? He believed he had hidden it well enough; apart from the captain, no one should know this secret!

Seeing Daigo's comically terrified expression, Masaki Keigo's smile deepened.

"It's not hard to guess. Every time the Victory Team goes out, your fighter jets have an alarmingly high crash rate."

However, every time your Flying Swallow crashes, Ultraman Tiga always appears at just the right moment.

"Once is a coincidence, twice is luck, three times, four times... Daigo, do you think there can be so many coincidences in this world?"

"..."

Daigo scratched his head; there was nothing he could do about it.

After all, he was a pilot who had only recently become a pilot, and the WING series Flying Swallow was more difficult to control than ordinary aircraft.

It wasn't his intention to crash the plane...

"Since...since you, Mr. Masaki, also possess the power of a Titan, then why...why do you still push forward with the [Evol Project]? And why do you still build that global defense system?"

However, after Masaki Keigo revealed his identity, Daigo felt a sense of relief and then asked the question.

This time, Masaki Keigo didn't answer directly. He glanced at the clock on the wall, then said to Daigo,

"Let's go, I'll take you to see a place." With that, he walked straight out of the training room.
Daigo paused for a moment, then immediately followed.

The two walked one after the other through the quiet corridor in the dead of night.

Finally, Masaki Keigo stopped in front of a heavy metal door and passed the dual verification of iris and fingerprint.

"laugh--"

The doors slid open slowly to both sides, and a smell mixed with engine oil, metal, and ozone wafted out.

This is the central hangar of TPC's Far East headquarters.

Unlike the hustle and bustle of the daytime, the hangar at night is exceptionally quiet and solemn.

The lights on the dome were only half on, and the soft light shone down from above, illuminating the Flying Swallow No. 1, Flying Swallow No. 2, and other special vehicles parked in various places.

However, the place is not deserted.

Beneath the massive machine, beside the open maintenance platforms, many figures are still busy at work.

They were members of the base's maintenance team, meticulously inspecting and maintaining the aircraft by the light of portable lights.

"This is……"

Daigo was somewhat stunned; it was the first time he had ever come to the hangar so late at night.

"Did you see that, Daigo?"

"Protecting humanity is never the responsibility of any one hero. It should belong to all of humanity, the responsibility of each and every one of us."

The power of giants is immense, and I never deny that.

But if humanity places all its hopes on a miracle that it cannot understand or control.

Then, this civilization will never truly 'stand up'.

Masaki Keigo said to Daigo.

"And everything I've done is to tell everyone—human beings can protect themselves with their own hands, their own wisdom and courage!"

Masaki Keigo's words exploded in Daigo's mind like a thunderclap.

Perhaps, as Masaki Keigo said, power is power.

Whether it's the Titans or Unit-01 piloted by Shinjo, they are merely tools.

What truly matters is never power itself.

It is the heart that harnesses power.

“I understand, Mr. Masaki.”

From that night on, Daigo's mindset underwent a complete transformation.

He stopped dwelling on "why the giants chose him" and began to think actively about how to better utilize this power.

So whenever he had free time outside of work, he would go to Masaki Keigo and ask him for advice on how to use the power of the Titans.

Masaki Keigo temporarily refused Daigo's offer because his combat experience came from his counterpart in another world, and it was virtually impossible for Daigo to reach his level in a short period of time.

However, he didn't rule it out outright. Instead, he told Daigo that if he wanted to master the power of the Titans, he had a simpler and more direct method, but the equipment would need some time to be completed.

What he was referring to was, of course, the genetic information reading device based on the Animus from the Assassin's Creed world, which he had modified.

Through his research on his own ancient warrior genes, he has gained a preliminary understanding of how to encode and read this special genetic information.

His original plan was to approach Daigo after the machine was completely completed.

Unexpectedly, plans can't keep up with changes, and Daigo discovered his identity first in such a dramatic way.

Theoretically, this machine could allow users to gain combat experience from ancient mutants.

Just as the project was coming to an end, Masaki Keigo received an email on his personal terminal.

He opened the email, and the sender's name caught his eye—Dr. Mizuno.

The email's content was quite simple: the sender had discovered the Lightning Man's whereabouts...

(End of this chapter)