Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"Saya Shudo's access rights," the despicable "monster" in the memory space chuckled again, "TLT data."

"Ah!" Jun Sakuma exclaimed this time, causing Hiroyuki Misawa, who almost accidentally wrote down the document number, to look up at him with a resentful expression.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I just remembered that I needed to add a couple of sentences to the news earlier,” Jun Sakuma said to Samuel, having convinced his colleague. “But Commander Shudo is out on a field mission today.”

“She’s already back. She must have handed the task over to Nonomiya Mizuki.” Samuel heard the sound of brakes and Shuto Saya’s voice.

“Manager Matsunaga, we did investigate Riko Saito’s background,” the high heels echoed coldly in the corridor. “It’s hard to imagine that someone who is already dead would still be ‘alive,’ especially after several months.”

……

Using the partition of his workstation as cover, Jun Sakuma shrank his head behind the screen and opened his silvery eyes in a place unseen by the surveillance cameras. Through several layers of walls, he saw Saya Shudo pulling up the alien beast files.

Suspicious about Riko Saito's strange behavior, she decided to search the alien beast files for any clues, such as...

Alien beasts that can transform into human form, and the like.

This conveniently provided Jun Sakuma with an opportunity.

TLT job permissions are locked on a machine-by-machine basis. Logging in on other machines will trigger an alarm. Although Jun Sakuma saw Saya Shudo's account and password, he had no intention of using them.

What he wanted to collect were the passwords that Saya Shuto used when entering various classified databases.

I'll copy down the commands, slack off for a while, and wait until it's time to leave work.

Shintaro Hirata returned on time, leaving Hiroyuki Misawa with half his head buried in the pile of files.

"Aren't you leaving? Aren't you going to take Karin?" Hiroyuki Misawa asked him.

"Ah! I'm going!" Sakuma Jun, having received a question from his colleague, quickly packed his rarely taken laptop into his bag and said:

"Oh dear, I'm writing news for Shintaro, but I haven't finished screening the materials sent by the telecommunications company yet, so I have to take them back and work overtime."

Hiroyuki Misawa felt somewhat better after hearing this.

When it comes to overtime, whoever leaves first is a dog.

"Let's go, Misawa, don't work too late." The second dog also slipped away.

Hiroyuki Misawa bowed his head and continued his stubborn wandering in the hell of archives.

Go to Rina's house to pick up Karin, who was playing wildly with a dog named "Hayate," and bring her home. Then, order her to wash off all the dog hair.

After cooking a loving meal, there's an academic tutoring session that raises the risk of stroke.

Jun Sakuma finally turned on his computer in his room and delved into the database that he had been curious about and eagerly anticipating for so long.

The password key, which can only be obtained by the "head of the memory police of the Third Base," naturally contains many things that ordinary memory police cannot see.

Jun Sakuma saw modules such as "List of Key Targets", "List of Branch Coordination Letters", and "Early Warning of Suspected Alien Beast Incidents", and finally clicked on "TLT-J Annual Mission Indicators Overview".

The "Overview" is essentially a departmental work report, except that all the specific data is encrypted and should only be visible to those with higher privileges or the department head.

Shudo Saya's access level is limited to viewing general text; more detailed information requires a next-level password, but that's sufficient.

“Let’s look at the technical department first,” Samuel said abruptly.

Jun Sakuma was also curious about the technical department that could produce the Chromium Chester and the Memory Eraser. He clicked the link and the report scrolled down dozens of pages, revealing the text "Technical Department Indicators Overview".

The first part involves improvements to the Chromium Chester. In addition to the already in-service α, β, and γ variants, the δ variant will be rolled out this year. Simultaneously, a corresponding formation combat system will be developed.

In addition, the Omega series is currently in the production of a prototype, but development has stalled due to insurmountable technical difficulties. The technical department of the Japanese branch has taken on the design tasks for some components assigned by the North American headquarters.

The second part is the upgrading of weapons and equipment, which is not surprising. The weapons should explode more violently, fire faster, and preferably be smaller.

The research on phase synchronization caught Sakuma Jun's attention a few more times. He remembered that when the Assault Chester entered Meta's territory last time, the Night Raid team members were talking about things like "phase".

The third part is the main event.

"The River of Oblivion... its load-bearing capacity has been reinforced and upgraded?" Jun Sakuma uttered the unfamiliar term, "What is the River of Oblivion?"

He had never heard of this thing before, but if it wasn't important enough, the technology department wouldn't dedicate a specific section to developing a reinforcement and upgrade plan for it.

Moreover, the text contains another unfamiliar term, "visitor," which appears multiple times.

Jun Sakuma was completely confused, but he finally grasped one concept:

The River of Oblivion is a technology of the "Visitors," seemingly functioning as a "warehouse." Due to the activity of the alien beasts, TLT needs to reinforce and upgrade the River of Oblivion, and this action is inseparable from the "Visitors" who provide the technology.

Therefore, the main research and development is still at the North American headquarters where "The Visitor" is located, while the Japanese branch is responsible for the data monitoring tasks of Wangchuan.

Although I still don't understand what the River of Oblivion is, the meaning of this document is...

"Is the River of Oblivion here?" Jun Sakuma asked.

“I’m afraid that’s true,” Samuel said, vaguely guessing. “The name ‘Visitor’ is like how Earthlings refer to extraterrestrials. If TLT technology comes from outer space, then the sudden leap in technology can be explained.”

Junko Sakuma knew that there were alien beasts and Ultra Warriors in this world, but he had not yet accepted the concept that "aliens have visited Earth and humans are already using their technology."

But his experience as a police officer allowed him to quickly grasp the key: "Check these keywords... 'visitor,' 'Wangchuan,' 'TLT Japan branch location.'"

"Base location?" This time it was Samuel's turn to be confused: the first two were easy to understand, but the last one... why would he need to check the base location?

“Judging from these indicators, Wangchuan is quite large and not something that can be easily hidden,” Jun Sakuma said. “I know those old fogies at the top. If I were the head of TLT’s Japanese branch and knew that there was something important in their hands, the best way to strengthen defense would be to build a base on it.”

"Therefore, I suspect that the River of Oblivion is very likely located beneath some kind of base."

Chapter Sixteen: The Illusory Person (Bonus Chapter 7 for Bounty)

"First Base,"

The base of Night Raid Team B is located on the seabed of Ishikari Bay, Hokkaido, with a branch office in Sapporo's biological research department.

"It's set underwater! I thought it would be somewhere in Sapporo at the most?"

Jun Sakuma muttered the words in the document, sighing as he clicked the map button with his mouse.

[password: ...]

"Uh, as expected, I was stopped outside." Shudo Saya is the head of the memory police in the Third Base's jurisdiction. She can access a lot of information within her own jurisdiction, but information on other bases...

Clearly, her access was limited to the outer perimeter of the first base; crucial information like maps were not available to her.

Jun Sakuma leaned back, rubbing his increasingly receding hairline, his mind racing.

"Take a look at the combat records of Night Raid Team B." He rubbed his hands together.

Using the access granted to the Third Base to view the First Base's records, naturally no valuable clues could be found. Even the deployment time was only recorded as a date, and the mission itself was unknown. However, this date record was sufficient for Jun Sakuma.

Samuel, unaware of the intricacies of the TLT, was currently confused.

"Do you remember Night Raid Team A's operational report about Pedron? Doesn't the deployment date look familiar?"

"Hmm? Number 10, Number 15." The light particle brain's memory is still pretty good.

“The dates match,” Jun Sakuma slowly analyzed, “Given the distance, it’s impossible for Group B to have been dispatched to support Group A. The only possibility is that it’s because of the alien beasts.”

He then said, "If we record and compare the deployment times of each group in the Night Raid Team, there might be a high degree of consistency among them."

"That means... the alien beasts appeared at the same time."

Samuel saw that Jun Sakuma had pulled up data from other bases, opening several pages for easy comparison.

The Memory Policeman continued his deduction: "The Night Raid Team A's operational report on Pedron states that the alien beasts can learn human combat tactics and can autonomously evolve and combine into gigantic individuals."

As they spoke, the "waiting" message on the screen refreshed, and the deployment records of Night Raid Teams C and D also appeared.

Indeed, both the 10th and the 15th had mission records.

Jun Sakuma spoke with even greater certainty: "At the time, I guessed that there might be some connection between each individual alien beast, just like ants transmit information through their antennae—they are not scattered individuals, but organized groups, and moving together is a way for them to improve their hunting efficiency."

“The organization…” Samuel suddenly recalled the battle a few days ago, the scene of Faust commanding Lefreya to entangle him: “Faust may be… one of the organizers.”

"Do you think there will be other dark giants like that?" Jun Sakuma felt that one was already tough enough, and he couldn't handle any more.

“It’s just an intuition, I don’t know if it’s true or not,” Samuel stood up from his consciousness space, probably because he was a little uncomfortable from sitting for so long. “Why doesn’t this place have a place to rest?”

The space of consciousness was pale and empty. The floor was so hard that even though Samuel didn't care much about his quality of life, squatting in such a place for so long still made his bones ache.

Ah... Jun Sakuma's chair is not bad.

Upon realizing this, the guy seized control of the body amidst the homeowner's exclamation. Sakuma Jun switched places with him, standing blankly in the void of paleness.

"Hey you! Ugh... that wretched alien beast!"

Sakuma Jun stretched comfortably, tucked himself into the soft-cushioned chair, and said, "It'll be over in a minute. What information should we look at next?"

"Hey you, look at the time before you look at the documents!" Jun Sakuma yelled at the person who forced him to work overtime. "It's 3 a.m., you're not sleepy, but I am! I have to get up early tomorrow to take Karin to class!"

Samuel glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen; any later and he might hear the birdsong of dawn.

Thinking that tomorrow was another workday, he sighed slightly and switched places with Jun Sakuma again.

Sigh, when choosing a human host, you must choose one with a sofa in the consciousness space, or at the very least, a cushion will do.

My bones hurt.

……

Although it's winter, the weather has been quite nice lately, with a pleasant temperature and no biting winds.

Kazuki Komon had planned to find some free time to invite Riko to the amusement park. There were many nice snack shops nearby, and maybe they could try some takoyaki or something similar.

Moreover, since Riko's design is themed around "family," amusement parks, where people often bring their families to play, are also a good location for taking photos.

I'll give her a talisman then.

Komon Kazuki stroked the carefully wrapped little gift box.