Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

She was the luckiest person, having safely passed through the most dangerous first stage without any physical abnormalities or temporal errors. Now that she had completed all her missions, she was just waiting to send a signal to headquarters before embarking on her journey home.

"Uh, I don't really want to go back." She gazed at the petals of a beautiful woman with delicate makeup, which seemed to know the visitor's favor, and the petals under the full moon even emitted a shimmering glow.

Even holographic images can't compare to being truly immersed in a scene where flowers bloom in the sunset, fragrance lingers around your nose, and insects chirp softly in the night. It's far more captivating than being there in person.

"It's so beautiful, just like the book says, no, even more beautiful than the book describes!" Onodera Hitomi walked contentedly into the depths of the park.

Behind me, the gray branches pointed to the sky. The carefully nurtured trees had no extra branches, and their sturdy forks swayed in the wind.

There are no flowers on it!

Hitomi Onodera pulled a travel brochure out of her bag and complained, puzzled, "Why can't I see it?"

She put on her sun hat and walked briskly through the park late at night, imagining herself amidst a sea of ​​vibrant flowers under a clear sky, where the warm breeze seemed to intoxicate the visitors.

Chapter 80 Investigation

"The 'sleepwalking' incident hasn't even reached a definitive conclusion yet, and now this unknown nocturnal creature has appeared?"

A group fully armed

People hurried past, dressed in camouflage uniforms and standard bomb suits, having received orders to deal with varying degrees of abnormal behavior among residents found to be concentrated in Taitung District. It was an event that suddenly occurred one day, almost like an "infectious disease," initially concentrated in a residential area in Taitung District, and then spreading outwards. Residents behaved normally during the day, but at night they always felt like they were still in the daytime, some going to work, some going to school.

Some people stood at the company entrance pretending to pull out their laptops, raising them high in the air and cheering, "The client approved my brilliant design!" Others clung to streetlights, declaring world peace and claiming they were clinging to the Statue of Liberty's leg hair. Passersby, seeing this, diagnosed the problem and called the hospital. When they woke up, they found themselves in hospital beds. The mentally exhausted doctor asked if they felt unwell, to which they replied, "Oh, I feel a bit tired, like I haven't slept all night."

The doctors couldn't find the cause either, only saying it might be sleepwalking. But what kind of sleepwalking is this, with so many people without a history of it suddenly getting it! All they knew was that these people were generally experiencing mental confusion, unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.

GUARD sensed something was up almost immediately; their intelligence department had a far more acute sense of smell than outsiders imagined. Lizard, a dedicated unit built around the intelligence department of the Geo base to investigate supernatural phenomena and strange events on the ground, immediately sprang into action, investigating everything that had happened around the residents exhibiting "sleepwalking" behavior through various means.

And so, the scene that Kinoshita Kei is now witnessing unfolds: the men in black, irritably hanging up the phone, muttering "They never stop," clearing away their half-eaten plates, interrupting their lunch break to go out and investigate the so-called newly received report of "unknown nocturnal creatures."

Kinoshita Kei clicked his tongue, remarking on how prone the intelligence chief was to stomach problems, when he immediately received a message from his superiors. Team Leader Fukui's face was right on the screen: "Hmm? Still eating?"

"It's only 12:15. Where else could I be if I'm not in the cafeteria?" Kinoshita Kei hurriedly swallowed his fries, almost choking on them, wondering why the Suzhou chef wasn't on duty today.

"Your appetite is about the same as Nakai's, but you haven't learned any taste at all. You don't even know to eat your own food when you see who's in charge of the cafeteria today?" Team Leader Fukui's words were startling. With a serious expression that was completely different from what he said, he said, "The intelligence department needs someone to be in charge of analyzing the spectrum. You're suitable. Head to the ground at 1 o'clock to meet up with Lizard's Yorinama and investigate the unknown creature that is suspected to be a monster."

“Why would I need to go to the equipment?” Kinoshita Kei didn’t want to go through the complicated security procedures, and he wouldn’t let his own people do it either: “Just send the data to us remotely.”

"The suspected transmission medium for the incident in Taitung Ward is radio waves," Team Leader Fukui said. "Lizard operates in Taitung Ward, so you should know what the problem is with the data transmission. Stop talking nonsense! If you didn't get enough fries, there will definitely be leftovers when you come back! The cafeteria has as many as you want!"

Kinoshita Kei pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth and said in a muffled voice, "If you do this, our chef will cry. You're dampening his enthusiasm for his work."

"The astronomy research team doesn't have the enthusiasm for frying fish and chips in their heads."

"Alright, I'll set off right away. Who should I contact? Go directly to Rainuma?"

Team Leader Fukui gave him a contact number, which Kinoshita entered into his device. A one-inch photo popped up next to him—it was the guy who had just made the phone call with a dark expression!

"Big Brother doesn't seem very approachable." Kinoshita Kei tearfully bid farewell to his lunch break and jogged in the direction the group had gone.

The other person was already waiting for him at Exit 4, and Kinoshita Kei could almost imagine the other person's impatient look.

……

At the Ariel base, XIG members also received an investigation order.

"We're going to investigate unknown nocturnal creatures?" Kajio Katsumi and his team exchanged bewildered glances. "We're pilots..."

“That’s right, I’m sending you to investigate on the ground,” Tsutsumi Seiichiro said, opening the coordination letter from the intelligence department amidst the increasingly puzzled look on the other’s face: “Lizard has confirmed, through analysis of the reported clues, that the nocturnal unknown creatures pose a certain degree of danger and requests the assistance of a dedicated combat team.”

“I remember they have their own units.” Kajio Katsumi accepted the order, though she found it strange.

Seiichiro Tsutsumi watched the group leave for the transit cabin and then sent an order to Gamu Takayama to come and assemble. The latter asked, "Investigating the unknown creature is no problem, of course. Since it is nocturnal, our people should be on duty at dusk and dawn to monitor and deploy, and find the locations where it appears and disappears... But are we going to ignore the 'sleepwalking' thing?"

"Lizard has focused its efforts on the 'sleepwalking' incident, so it can't spare any manpower for the nocturnal unknown creatures and needs to coordinate support."

After giving these instructions, Seiichiro Tsutsumi went to the command room. The support personnel requested in the coordination letter from the intelligence department had been notified, and all that was left was for the young and energetic guys to set off. The people who really needed to be reminded were Atsuko Sasaki and Georgie. Without their real-time monitoring of the entire area using the equipment at the Ariel base and their transmission of guidance to the team members, the investigation would easily be in complete darkness.

"At that time, you may have to process data from two directions: monitor the radio wave situation in the area where the Lizard investigation team is located, and provide guidance to Captain Kajio."

Georgie nodded repeatedly with wide eyes, seeing that she was hiding something behind her back again, probably chewing gum or a popsicle.

She brought snacks like those into the work area again. Seiichiro Tsutsumi saw through it but didn't say anything, and instead focused his gaze on Atsuko Sasaki.

The latter looked sleepy, with his eyes half-open, until he perked up when he mentioned "Captain Kajio".

"Atsuko? If she needs a rest, you can have Ayaka Ukai come over..."

“No,” Atsuko Sasaki finally recovered a bit, “I just didn’t sleep well, I’m fine now!”

……

Meanwhile, Kinoshita Kei made contact with the Lizard investigation team.

"People who sleepwalk generally experience lethargy, slow reaction, and hallucinations?" Kinoshita Kei flipped through the information provided by the intelligence department: "The former is understandable; not sleeping all night will definitely make one lethargic, but hallucinations... a short day of poor rest shouldn't be enough to cause this. Hey, I'm just a stargazer, I can't handle this kind of thing. You should seek help from biological researchers."

"The Institute of Biology has already given us their preliminary report. Since most sleepwalkers reported receiving phone calls 'before going to sleep,' the conclusion is that it is suspected to be something transmitted through radio waves. The investigation site is in Taitung District. We actually need your spectral analysis as part of the process... We also need to use your space analysis equipment."

The man in black wasn't as difficult to deal with as Kinoshita Kei had anticipated; he was just impatient. "Three of the twelve sleepwalking cases in the hospital are no longer able to communicate. The hospital sent them to the psychiatric ward and they're being kept under restraints. We've analyzed thirty-two possibilities based on the information we have. Please verify them one by one! For example, if we can't find it, it could be a space monster, a tiny monster, a shadow-loving monster, a possessing monster, etc. The astronomical research group's instruments have the highest sensitivity in the entire base! Their spectral analysis and monitoring of high-energy objects are unparalleled!"

Kinoshita Kei opened the page on "possible conjectures" that he had pointed out, and seeing the densely packed ideas, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling: "But I remember that there was a smaller version of those devices that optimized certain capabilities, which was allocated to the intelligence department. Senior Nakai personally oversaw the process and distributed it to you!"

The man in black rubbed his hands together and gave an embarrassed smile: "We don't know how to use it."

Kinoshita Kei stared blankly: "Where's the user manual?"

“We think it’s great that you’ve published versions in multiple languages, including English, Chinese, French, and German, but…” the man in black said shyly, “we can’t understand them all together.”

Chapter 81 The Outlining Master's Unsuccessful First Attempt

People cannot be generalized.

Just as Kinoshita Kei couldn't believe that someone would be unable to understand their foolproof tutorial booklet, Kajio Katsumi also couldn't believe that he, the captain of Team Lightning, especially with his subordinates following behind him, would fail to hit that unknown nocturnal creature even once!

"Oh!"

He pulled the trigger again, the bullet grazing the top of his opponent's shoulder as it flew into the dark sky. The werewolf howled and charged forward like a tower without even flinching. Kajio Katsumi's men, however, knew exactly how to rescue their commander from danger. They opened fire, "Bang bang bang," the tracer flashing, and Kajio Katsumi clearly saw the saplings behind the werewolf suffering the consequences.

Damn, that's the pilot's superb dynamic vision!

He was certain that his subordinates were just like him, truly "excellent" pilots from the same unit! When piloting a fighter jet, they could point and shoot exactly where they wanted, saying they'd bomb this tree but never hit the rabbit passing by next door. But once they were off the plane and on the ground, they became like chickens on the ground, their shooting skills like a sunset glow, shooting at the sky, the ground, and the air, but never hitting the enemy!

High mountains, my dream! Don't think I didn't hear you laughing! Your marksmanship isn't much better; it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Let's all practice together, just you wait!

The werewolf had no idea of ​​the turmoil surging in his heart between those few shots. All he wanted to do was chase away the swarm of flies in front of him and find a high place to look back at his old home, dreaming of when he could go back.

"Roar—" It charged toward Kajio Katsumi, and before the latter could dodge, it slapped him aside first.

In that instant, Kajio Katsumi felt as if he had been hit by a truck, or a human bomb wrestler in a professional sumo wrestling match. The slap landed on his left arm, and he seemed to hear the bones groaning.

The force was so strong that his body was thrown sideways in mid-air. He couldn't control his direction and could only fly out with the force, crashing into a concrete wall with a "bang." He felt a tightness in his chest and almost passed out.

Immediately following was the pain of having all the bones in his body broken, and the communicator on his wrist rang, with Atsuko Sasaki's anxious voice coming through.

"How dare you ask 'Are you alright?'" In the last second before passing out, Kajio Katsumi decided that she would go back and make the operator who blindly led people to the monster's face pay!

Atsuko Sasaki didn't receive a reply from Katsumi Kajio, but instead got a response from Gamu Takayama: "Captain Kajio is unconscious and needs to be taken to the hospital immediately. That werewolf..."

He turned to look at the werewolf with amazing jumping ability. The latter had jumped to the top of a tall building nearly 100 meters away in just a few leaps. From Gaoshan Gamu's perspective, he could only see a dark shadow that could be vaguely identified as human.

“You continue the pursuit, I’ll take Kajio back,” Tsutsumi Seiichiro said as he approached them a few blocks away. “Atsuko…we’ll talk about it when we get back.”

Atsuko Sasaki knew she had made a grave mistake. With Georgie in charge of analyzing the radio waves, the task of guiding Katsumi Kajio and Gamu Takayama fell entirely on her shoulders—and she genuinely wished she could have done better, at least to gain Captain Kajio's approval.

A few words of lukewarm praise.

But just now, as she stared at the screen, she started to feel dizzy again. Rings of golden firefly-like light descended from the sky, as if coming from nothingness and heading towards an unknown place beyond sight.

An amusement park is depicted in the sea. A gothic girl, dressed in gorgeous clothes, with exquisite makeup and every strand of hair perfectly curled, stands in front of the carousel and smiles at her, saying, "Are you alone? Want to come ride with me?"

"Don't get distracted," she told herself, trying to stay focused. It seemed to work. After this self-reminder, she cheered herself up a bit and guided the group through the streets and alleys to catch up with the unknown nocturnal creature, the werewolf. She continued, "Target change direction. Head to Yunyin Street and turn right at the next intersection. The target will be right in front of you."

Kajio Katsumi and the others trusted her guidance implicitly. They turned right as instructed, thinking they could launch a surprise attack from behind. Little did they know that when Kajio Katsumi rushed out, she came face to face with the werewolf! The werewolf's yellow teeth, dripping with drool, were almost touching the tip of his nose!

"Roar..." the werewolf bared its teeth.

I have bad breath.

Kajio Katsumi instinctively raised his gun to fire, but the werewolf reacted as fast as a real wild beast. Before he could get into a proper shooting stance, the werewolf did a backflip, and Kajio Katsumi's hastily fired bullets into empty air. The werewolf created distance and carefully examined the four people who had suddenly appeared in front of him.

Kajio Katsumi and the other three didn't want to wait for it to examine them. They knew the importance of seizing the initiative, so they raised their guns, aimed, and pulled the triggers in one smooth motion, "Bang bang bang bang!" The firing was rapid, and all of them missed the target at close range. They were heroes among the masters of human outline.

"I..." Kajio Katsumi, the master of outlining, didn't know whether to coldly survey his teammates or examine himself first, while the werewolf rushed up and knocked him down instantly with a fan-like slap.

Only then did Atsuko Sasaki break free from the golden sea of ​​fireflies, staring blankly at the scene on the screen, her body covered in cold sweat.

Georgie had already reported the radio wave observation data. She turned to look at her colleague with a worried expression.

……

"Mission accomplished! Come pick me up and take me home, you lecherous old chairman, you deadbeat Ayane." Hitomi Onodera walked through the dark streets like a soul wandering in chaos.

Before her was a sea of ​​fireflies, their beautiful golden rays outlining familiar faces. They were waving to her from afar, praising her for doing a good job. Our long-cherished wish had been fulfilled; no one had died, and the story of humanity and the Earth would continue.

All she had to do was turn on the communication machine and send a signal to the distant future: "SuT-002 observer confirms target location environment is good, development potential meets standards, 'Celestial Realm' successfully activated, atmospheric filtration complete, 'Flame Mountain' successfully activated, water source regeneration complete, 'Deep Green' successfully activated, environment construction complete."

"The 'past' has been transformed, the 'future' reconstruction has begun, the history of humanity and Earth is being rewritten, trajectory N1265 is being evaluated, please prepare—we will reconstruct a new world."

She thought she had done everything mentioned above. As usual, she opened the hidden compartment in the bed, took out the machine that hadn't worked properly before, and skillfully sent a signal, humming a cheerful tune:

"Today, I look into the distance, and under the boundless blue sky is my home, with its red brick and green tile houses, and laughter flowing in the river."

"The birds told me to go to the other side of the sea, where the autumn harvest is in full swing."

"The time was just right, so I embarked on my journey, disregarding everything else, to confirm what I saw and thought."

"I have stirred up time and space, and finally returned to your embrace, my dream Earth, my home."