Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

He felt as if someone had breathed on his ear just now, in a deep voice, and he couldn't help but think of the organ playing in unison in a church.

He shuddered and quickly wiped away the ominous star; the half-dry water stain disappeared on the bench in a few swipes.

But he didn't feel like he had actually wiped it; the way the water stains dried made it look more like they had seeped into the wood.

He quickly banished the strange thought, and as he stood up, he was somewhat dazed. He accidentally kicked over the half-finished bottle of mineral water he had been drinking, and the uncapped bottle rolled out and tumbled into the lawn.

Water poured out, and the water stains continued to expand, soaking the gray paving stones on the riverbank.

Ships with their signal lights flashing passed by slowly, their lights shimmering on the water.

Of course, the main color is orange, which belongs to the streetlights. He wanted to pick up the bottle and throw it into the trash can, his fingers touching the cool water.

It shouldn't have been able to create a reflection. When the streetlights shone on it, all you could see was the shimmering light mixed with the pitch-black water; you couldn't see anything at all.

But he happened to see a "reflection," a reversed pentagram.

The pentagram gleamed a bewitching dark red in the pitch-black water, and the water stains from the half-empty bottle of mineral water looked like a corner of an abyss that had been poured out, threatening to plunge one in if one wasn't careful, like the soul of Tartarus that had been lost.

He could feel his head getting heavy, and the inverted pentagram was getting bigger and bigger. Just as he was about to fall forward, he suddenly reached out and braced himself against the edge.

"Ah!" He was so frightened that he collapsed to the side, flinging the plastic bottle away as if a ghost with long, thin fingers and a face covered by black hair was crawling on it.

Without even considering retrieving it, he took off running.

"Splash." The flying plastic bottle rolled into the river, and water stains flowed silently on the gray bricks.

Chapter 121 The Storm Is Brewing

Because of the cold weather and the constant overcast skies and wind, the amusement park has been much less busy.

The occasional guest stands out.

For example, a girl wearing a wool coat and scarf on top, but still wearing a short skirt and long boots on the bottom.

Qian Shulian returned after taking off his teddy bear costume, drenched in sweat, the cold wind making him shiver. The Evolution Trustee warmed him up in his arms, and he chuckled softly, "Thank you."

"Who are you talking to again?" Matsunaga Hazuki, the girl I had met once before, came up to me again. Her hair was brown, and she wore a brown scarf and a similarly dark brown skirt. She always seemed to smell of warm chocolate.

Last night, Qian Shulian still managed to brush it off at the park, without telling her about the disappearance of the alien beast.

Xi—it's impossible. No matter how carefree he is, he wouldn't tell a girl who had been attacked by a monster about something like this, even if her surname is Matsunaga.

After finally getting rid of her, she came straight to the amusement park the next day.

Ooshiro Takashi looked at the two of them and muttered to himself, "This kid's got a good reputation with women..."

"It's okay if you don't answer, Lian, let's go on a date!"

With half his body pressed against the window of the small house, Takashi Ooshiro opened his mouth wide, his jaw freezing in mid-air.

"Um, what are you saying all of a sudden? What date?" Senju Rei took a step back and almost bumped into the table, but Matsunaga Hazuki wouldn't let it go: "This is our third meeting. You saved me once, so it's normal to want to ask you out to a restaurant or something, right?"

"Who is that person?" Takashi Ooshiro asked the person standing at the door of the small house in a low voice.

Mizuki Nonomiya, a memory police officer tasked with surveillance, gripped the memory eraser tightly: "Who knows?"

Hearing the creaking sound, Takashi Ooshiro focused his gaze on the "cell phone" in her hand.

Senju Rei retreated around the table, while Matsunaga Hazuki leaned forward to chase after her. The two circled the entire table. Senju Rei, suddenly confronted with such a direct "attack," lost her usual cheerfulness and asked, "What do you want?"

"Is something wrong?" Matsunaga Hazuki handed over a piece of paper with an air of authority: "Are you free tomorrow? Here, at 1 o'clock."

"Ah, ah?" Chiju Rei took the note, but before she could push it back, Matsunaga Hazuki had already walked past her and taken a few steps toward Nonomiya Mizuki.

The latter was raising his phone to try to photograph this "suspicious person observing an important target." Matsunaga Hazuki looked directly at the camera, smiling and talking. Although she was speaking to Nonomiya Mizuki, what she said was clearly directed at Chiju Rei: "I'll be waiting for you here. Don't break your promise."

……

Senju Rei was holding the piece of paper with a headache, as were Sakuma Jun and the others.

The difference was that the paper was covered with relationship diagrams, specifically about the small alien beast attack incident.

"So, those who have become alien beasts have all encountered some kind of misfortune, whether it's school bullying, being ostracized by colleagues, or being verbally abused by customers." Jun Sakuma found the three people they had investigated who had been confirmed to have mutated into alien beasts through the CIC report and retrieved their information.

"Their targets were often people they had conflicts with. The surviving student lost a hand and was not eaten because he was Takuma's friend. The real conflicts were with delinquents. The sewage treatment plant workers were walking back and forth between the administrative area and the duty room. According to the testimonies of the escaped workers, he had argued with the night shift schedule and the manager. The manager and he had a long-standing dispute. The night shift schedule was just the trigger. And then there was the strangest thing: the riverside restaurant..."

Jun Sakuma continued, "The restaurant's decor is very similar to the one where the waiter who turned into a monster works. Perhaps it was a case of mistaken identity, an undeserved misfortune."

“And what they have in common is this.” Jun Sakuma opened the photos of the “relics” left by the sewage treatment plant employees in the duty room, and the notebook he had opened was filled with a bunch of repetitive notes.

“Takuma has a registered account in ‘Fantasy Paradise’ and recently liked a lot of poems that chant the verses about the monster Barnibu; the sewage treatment plant worker’s notes are full of sentences like ‘Go find Barnibu’, and he copied that sentence into almost an entire page… The restaurant waiter’s information is incomplete, but if we investigate in this direction, we should be able to find something related.”

His reasoning sent chills down the spines of Bao Lücao and others.

They usually manage forums and online information, so they naturally know how many nursery rhymes and poems about Barnibu have been spread. The seeds have already been sown everywhere along the internet, and it's not a problem that can be solved by blocking the news—even little children can sing those things! It's being passed on by word of mouth, and more and more people will only know about it.

Runping had previously thought it was just something people were talking about and was optimistic about it. Now, like Genrai Jinzo, he was full of worry and regretted not noticing the anomaly sooner.

"If that's really the reason, there will only be more and more attacks by small alien beasts!" Runping voiced everyone's concerns: "Whether it's useful or not, I'll go expand the forum's censored keywords now!"

“Kenlai, you have a wide network of connections. Do you know anyone who understands databases? We need to filter out the forum registration accounts that have recently liked a lot of Barnibu’s poems, find their IP addresses, and these people… are a high-risk group for mutating into small alien beasts!” Sakuma Jun said, glancing at Samuel, who had been silent all along. The latter was actually dozing off against his cup!

"Hey you! Samuel!" He lightly poked the little man's shoulder, causing him to sway and almost slip to the side. Sakuma Jun said urgently, "Now is not the time to be lazy!"

Samuel shook his head, trying to shake off the drowsiness; his mind was a little slow. "Ah, you mean...humans turning into alien beasts?"

"Of course! The alien beasts aren't just being released by the Dark Giants anymore; they're spreading everywhere like a virus!"

"Hoo—" Samuel paused for a moment, then moved closer to the hot porcelain cup under Sakuma Jun's dangerous gaze: "If you know 'Tatsumi,' you should have seen those 'monster humans' who can tear apart armored vehicles with one hand, right?"

"This……"

Jun Sakuma recalled those bizarre and fantastical dreams.

He used the perspective of "Xun" (巽) as his first-person viewpoint, holding a gun wrapped in non-slip cloth, traversing dense forests, snow-capped mountains, caves, and grasslands of unknown origin.

The only chance to deal with those monster humans who can catch bullets with their bare hands is to snipe their eyes when their attention is diverted.

Later, when he awakened another power, those monster humans became opponents he could fight, or rather... a single monster human was no match for him; it took several of them ganging up on him to cause any trouble for "Xun".

The next dream takes place several years later, and no one calls him "Xun" anymore. Whether it's hatred, worship, joy, or loathing, everyone calls him "Samuel".

"When those 'monster humans' who have lost their minds are born, the weak ones directly become monsters, and the stronger ones, in the end, also become monsters—just like these three people," Samuel said.

After days of overcast skies, the first rumble of thunder finally sounded.

A bolt of lightning rolled from one end of the city to the other, paving its way with lightning and leaving its trails in torrential rain.

Countless people are drawn to it, some with a fleeting glance, others with a silent gaze, some in warm rooms, others wandering the streets in the bitter wind and rain.

The inverted pentagram is everywhere—in water stains, glass curtain walls, mirrors in every household, in children's lullabies, in the whispers of the disheartened—wherever there is a thought, it is omnipresent.

"We skimmed over the mountaintop and circled the city."

"The vast wilderness is both far and near; who says one must always conform to the group?"

"The stars have vanished and the moon has disappeared, leaving me nowhere to hide. My heart is willing to succumb."

"They talk a good game, but they're far more ruthless than monsters when it comes to cannibalism."

"Barnibu, is your oneness truly real?"

Chapter 122 The Emotion of Liking

It rained heavily all night, but the sun came out the next morning.

The air is always fresh after the rain. Although the temperature drops sharply and children who are afraid of the cold have to wrap themselves in down jackets, it does not dampen people's enthusiasm at all.

Overjoyed at finally seeing the sunshine, Kazuki Komon, like the others who went out to greet the sun, finished his mission and headed to the amusement park.

He received information about the son of Prometheus from Kirasawa Yuna, and became increasingly anxious about Senju Rei. As soon as he had some free time, he decided to visit him, worried that he might be having a hard time, whether the tin house was leaking at night and letting the wind blow through, and that he mustn't let this young man who called him "cousin" get cold.

As a result, he didn't get cold, but he was almost overwhelmed by the jealousy of a certain police officer in a suit.

"What's wrong?" The atmosphere was silent and strange. He asked Ooshiro Takashi in a low voice.

The latter stared strangely at the young people walking together in the distance, and the black suit hanging not too close or too far behind them, and explained: "It's just like you see, some people want to take advantage of the situation, and some people won't let them."

Huh? Kazuki Komon followed his gaze.

Of the two young men in the distance, one was Chishu Rei. After the two walked a short distance, the man in the black suit, Nonomiya Mizuki, would quietly follow them for a while, then quickly and stealthily hide behind a tree or in a corner to conceal himself.

“…I recognized this amusement park from the Ferris wheel in the photo, and then I found you,” the girl with short hair walked slowly, the wind blowing her bangs across her forehead. She looked up to enjoy the sunshine she hadn’t seen for many days: “I was observing you for a long time that day, didn’t you notice?”

"No." Chishu Rei felt unusually reserved, especially after noticing the gaze that kept pricking her back.

"Maybe I was too far away. Yeah, I know it's like being a voyeur, and it's embarrassing to talk about, but I just wanted to know what Dad was up to—and then I met you in the park! I never expected you to save me."

"Uh, actually it wasn't me. Someone else arrived first, and I met up with them..."

"Then could you please thank him for me?" Matsunaga Hazuki didn't look like she had fainted from fright before. Perhaps it was because her father always kept things from her, and she had become used to this kind of thing and was quite open-minded: "If you don't want to talk about Barnibu and the alien beast, then I won't ask. If it's really like in the story, and someone is protecting us silently, you can contact them, right? If you have the chance, please pass on my gratitude to them."

"Oh! If it's alright, could I bring some of my own handicrafts with me for our next date? Could you please give them to them?"

She raised her voice when she said the word "date," and Mizuki Nonomiya pursed her lips and followed her closer.

Qian Shulian felt a little uncomfortable with this half-hearted approach, as if he had done something wrong and the teacher knew perfectly well but just wouldn't criticize him, yet the other party meant well and he couldn't refuse: "Yes, I will pass it on."

Then he wondered why Matsunaga Hazuki's memory hadn't been erased, and his doubts deepened, so he became much more cautious in his reply.

"Your voice is so easy to recognize, I recognized it right away, it sounds like orange soda." Matsunaga Hazuki was tired from walking, so she found a big rock to sit on, not caring at all about the cold.

Can one's own voice be compared to food? Qian Shulian didn't know whether to nod or shake her head.

"Hey," the girl in the short skirt sat up a little, her legs dangling in mid-air, her body slightly leaning forward, her tone ambiguous, whether teasing or curious: "Do you have someone you like?"

!!!