Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

To conserve energy, the three crew members shut down most of the equipment on the spacecraft, only turning on the power reactor when changing course and turning. The intelligent robot also used the most basic maintenance budget, ensuring that resources were used where they were most critical.

They piloted their cargo ships as close as possible to every star system they passed, in order to store enough light energy to guard against sudden dangers in the universe—such as wandering small black holes.

They set their sights on the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, at this speed, if the voyage goes smoothly and the cargo ship doesn't break down halfway, they will arrive on Earth in 762 million years.

It was clearly a hopeless journey, but they didn't want to end their lives in their own hands, so they encouraged each other and crawled home like snails in the distant Andromeda Galaxy.

In their minds, their only hope was to encounter a kind-hearted person piloting a spaceship capable of space jumps along the way.

Unfortunately, the entire frontline force of the Earth's expeditionary force was replaced by "zombies" who could only execute programs. If they dared to say "pilot the spaceship back to Earth," those undead would just shoot the three deserters into space debris. So, they couldn't find a fourth person to sit around a mahjong table. Sometimes they wondered if the cargo ship was the last Earthling in the entire expeditionary force.

Then, the alarm that hadn't sounded in the spaceship for years suddenly blared hoarsely through the cockpit, like a chicken stretching its neck, startling the three of them so much that their hair stood on end.

"What? What?" The person in charge leaned forward and looked at the monitor screen.

The energy intensity in the monitoring equipment suddenly spiked to an unbelievable level, and the eerie white light pierced through the screen, hurting people's eyes.

After a short while, the light gradually cooled, revealing... a person wearing a blue uniform?

"Hello." His pronunciation was a little awkward, like a foreigner learning a language for the first time, always with an accent.

The polite yet vulgar words sent a chill down everyone's spine: "I've come to take you home."

Chapter 168 A Second-Rate Translator and His Last Will

"Their expressions are a bit strange." Aiba Yu thought they would show wariness or shock, the typical reaction of a normal person seeing an unfamiliar life form, but he never expected them to show such...

He clearly saw the man in the lead twitch at the corner of his mouth, then immediately smooth it out.

"May I ask who you are? Which nebula are you from?" The brain of the trio released the little robot, which was limping and trying to go to work, but the brain reached out and pulled it back, neatly flipping it upside down on the table. Its six claw-like legs kicked wildly in the air, just like a crab flipped over.

“He asked you where you’re from,” Slime said, offering a half-baked translation: “Your strange expression might mean your pronunciation isn’t standard. It’s normal, it’s normal. Learn from me.”

"Oh, tell him I'm from Earth."

“Alright,” the slime said, “I’m an Earthling.”

As we all know, a living language can evolve, not to mention that after venturing into the universe, it incorporates elements of "extraterrestrial languages".

So, although the language they use now is based on English, it's like how people in the 21st century view English in the 16th century—of course, the difference is much greater, like the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Simply put, it's unrecognizable.

Therefore, Aiba Yu could only communicate with the three through the slime's translation. Telepathic communication was certainly possible, but he was not in a good state and needed to devote more energy to repairing his body. He had already used too much telekinesis and was now having a headache.

The slime's language system comes from fragments of memories of dead aliens, pieced together from scratch. Of course, the aliens didn't have any nice things to say to Earthlings. When the irritable Earthlings and aliens on the front lines talked, the concept of "civilization" didn't exist. It's reasonable that they used words like "Laozi" as "I".

Fortunately, the slime could distinguish that "grandpa" and the real "grandpa" were pronounced the same, otherwise Aiba Yu would have blurted out "Grandpa is an Earthling".

Aiba Yu stumbled over his words, trying to imitate the pronunciation of a slime.

The three of them looked shocked.

"Can Earthlings nowadays transform into photon states?" the trio's brain murmured, his mind filled with doubt as he glanced at the energy indicator records on the monitor.

光辉

At the moment it appeared, the number on the record was:

???

Great, off the charts, can't beat it, it's just a pathetic garbage-collecting cargo ship.

He continued the conversation, his tone becoming increasingly respectful: "May I ask... which star system of Earth are you from?" Since there were no humans living on Earth in this part of the universe, he naturally assumed that the other person was from some colony star system.

The other person paused for a moment, then said with a serious expression, "Earthlings."

"It seems like it should be the other way around, it's ambiguous," the slime whispered a reminder.

“Oh, primitive Earthlings,” Aiba Yu added.

The trio exchanged glances, reaching a consensus that "this guy is definitely messing with me." The person on the left blinked their left eye, a signal that they had agreed to take action, while "Brain" shook their head frantically; the person on the right twitched their right lip, a signal that they wanted to maintain the status quo, while "Brain" gave a thumbs-up.

Since you can't beat them anyway, and they want to talk to you, what can you do but lie back and see what kind of convoluted and cunning things they have to say?

"Please call me Laozi Xiang Shuyou," the other person began to introduce himself.

"This retro name... it sounds like something out of SuT," the person on the left whispered, "Could it be that someone from somewhere messed up the timeline and actually brought primitive people here?"

"Where could primitive humans transform into a photon state?" The "brain" turned its head, suddenly remembered something, and gasped: "Ugh Ugh Ranos?! Is he here to seek revenge for us abandoning him on Earth and running away on his own?!"

“Not Uranus,” Aiba Yu knew he should maintain a friendly smile, “but I’m here to send you home.”

"...Was he trying to say 'go to the west'?" The person on the right frowned. "'Go back to your hometown' or something like that."

“I’m going back to my hometown.” Aiba Yu nodded.

Then he saw the person opposite him freeze in shock.

"So excited?" The slime scratched its non-existent head: "You Earthlings really miss your hometown."

"Also, I'd like to ask you some information about the 'Spearhead' project. The Wishing Ball is finished; it's time to end the war," Aiba Yu continued.

The three then realized that this alien, who was pretending to be an Earthling and the human form of Uranus but was actually from some unknown universe, had come to threaten them in order to extract information.

Boom-!

"Brain" looked refined, but he was the first to slam his fist on the table: "I am a lieutenant colonel in the expeditionary force, the third in line to the Miratie family! Even if I'm wandering here, it's only because I don't want to mingle with 'corpses'. Don't think you can take advantage of me and get information out of us! You can hijack our ships, you can take our lives, but don't expect me to utter a single word of information!"

The people on the left and right sides also leaned in, looking fierce, with their sleeves rolled up and arms exposed. They spoke quickly and urgently, leaving Aiba Yu completely bewildered. The slime stretched out its mimic arms and coiled them into a flower shape, before finally stammering, "The talks broke down."

Although I don't know why the talks broke down, judging from the other party's agitated expression, it seems that they can't continue.

After thinking about it, Aiba Yu realized that the three people's suspicions were understandable. Under normal circumstances, few people would trust a stranger based on just a few words.

As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words, and he decided to gain trust through concrete actions.

What better action could be than sending them back to Earth?

The three of them launched into a long, impassioned speech, declaring that those damned aliens wouldn't get anything good out of them even if they threw them out of here.

Before they could finish their sentence, the alarm light on the instrument reappeared, the blinding light accompanied by a “???” value, making the three of them think, “Ah, are we really going to die?”

But things often take unexpected turns. The three found that their heads were still intact, their arms and legs were still responsive, and the light had dimmed, turning into a soft glow that quietly enveloped the outside of the cargo ship.

According to the monitor, a high-energy object had created a dome that enveloped the spaceship. The dome was semi-transparent, like a thin veil, and they could still see the starry sky outside.

The high-energy thing resembled a humanoid shape—they had seen many similar things, such as humanoid monsters controlled by aliens, or "demons" also controlled by Earthlings, and it also resembled Uranus, but as he himself said, it was clearly not Uranus.

Before the three could catch their breath, the twinkling lights in the starry sky suddenly elongated, turning into extremely thin streaks. It was as if they were sitting in a car flying very low, with streetlights casting straight shadows on the car windows.

"We've been robbed by aliens." The "brain" was utterly despondent.

“This speed…” The person on the left, who was also the crew member in charge of steering the ship, stared at the speed indicator with a pounding heart. This thin-skinned, large cargo ship, which could barely reach one-third the speed of light, was being forced to match the speed of light. The other two people were not very sensitive to the outside scenery, but he knew very well that it was a sign of spatial jump.

"It's over, it's going to disintegrate." They were drifting hopelessly in the Andromeda Galaxy because this cargo ship was a short-range vehicle and could not perform warp jumps at all. They also wanted to steal a better spaceship and escape, but the "corpses" created by those wishing orbs were guarding the key ships too closely, and they had no chance at all.

Do these aliens threaten humanity with this horrific method of annihilation: disintegrating their spaceships, leaving them to drift in spacesuits in distant galaxies, and ultimately becoming insignificant space debris in the cold universe?!

The "driver" responsible for steering the boat trembled as he released his grip: "We...we still have time to write our wills, even if no one will see them, but..."

There's nothing we can do; we're just really unlucky.

"I shouldn't have applied to join the expeditionary force." "Brain" deeply regretted his rebellion. He thought he could make something of himself, but he never expected to witness the mountain of flesh in the Wishing Ball. He realized that it wasn't about making a career, but about going to the gates of hell.

“I have no one to write it,” the man on the right said. “I have a land deed that allows me to sell to my neighbor at a low price after the title expires, which is a bargain for him.”

"You can write to your neighbor and tell him not to keep a baby monster in your house," the driver suggested.

The man on the right stroked his beard: "Let's hope he survives."

In the distant Andromeda Galaxy, a giant carefully holds up a silver orb of light, which protects the fragile short-haul cargo ship and the humans inside.

The humans inside were writing furiously, occasionally dropping a few golden beans.

"What's wrong with them? What are they writing?" Samuel couldn't understand the evolved script.

“They’re writing letters to their family and friends,” Slime figured out. “They’re probably excited to know they can go home.”

Why should you write a letter to your family when you go home?

The slime scratched its head: "You're asking me? Who should I ask? Is it possible that giving it in person has a sense of ceremony? Your Earthling customs are really strange."

Chapter 169 The Guidance of the Vanguard

Three deserters from the "future" universe, facing their own "last wills," broke down in tears.

Unbeknownst to them, in another distant universe, Earth's "vanguard" re-established contact with the organization, and a bridge for communication between the two worlds was being opened.

The "suicide note" probably won't reach family and friends, even if the ship is lucky enough to return safely to its homeland.

Hitomi Onodera practically pressed herself against the dark metal box, its exterior cool, its interior warm—from the heat generated when it was in operation.

After being stripped of her privileges, Hitomi Onodera realized her predicament and simply removed the crucial switch from the transmitter. Thus, the antenna became useless, and the metal box would only be a souvenir.

But it lit up anyway, the regular indicator lights showing that it was working normally. Hitomi Onodera climbed onto her tatami mat, lifted the bedding, and opened the storage cabinet under the floor. The circular metal plate lying inside sent chills down her spine.

"How is this possible..." She scrambled to the transmitter and shakily opened the outer shell.

At the bottom where the antenna connects to the main body, a brand-new metal plate fits perfectly into the groove, just like the one she is holding in her hand, with fine lines as fine as hair.

"Could there be survivors from SuT? A second batch of 'vanguards,' or a third batch?" Without thinking, Hitomi Onodera first pulled out the metal piece that had appeared out of nowhere, and the signal light changed from flashing regularly to flashing wildly.

She got up and kicked the flashing light on the metal box, hoping to force it to turn off. When that didn't work, she grabbed a pair of scissors and started stabbing the indicator light repeatedly.

She was in a state of utter confusion, feeling as if she were adrift in a raging storm, her mind filled with the thought, "They're coming, they're coming!"

"I need to calm down, I need to calm down," she threw away her glasses, which were cumbersome and tended to slip down when she exerted force, gripped the scissors tightly with both hands, and stabbed down hard, cracking the indicator light: "No matter how much data is transmitted, just stop it for me!"

"Wow—"