Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"You're worried about something so small? They didn't use underground penetrating bullets to attack the monsters, but the two aren't at the point where they can cooperate. It's most likely that Renlong temporarily persuaded them to take care of it all at once."

Kinoshita Kei slumped to the bottom like a weight, inwardly mocking, "You guys are finished! I've seen countless films; if something goes beyond my expectations once, there will be a second and a third! Then your plan to change the dining table will completely collapse, leaving you with nothing but a table leg, and you'll be starving!"

Lucifer just stared at the screen, watching a bunch of Earth monsters emerge, and the monsters that the "future man" sent as helpers were intercepted by them.

“You’re annoying,” Lucifer said.

"What, you've gagged me and you won't let me think? I didn't say anything, so don't try to see what I'm thinking!"

“Hmm, let’s not keep it, let’s just see,” Lucifer thought for a moment. “Don’t even think about interfering with my mere human will.”

The slow current suddenly turned into a winch, and Kinoshita Kei was no longer falling towards the bottom of the unreachable abyss, but he was also unable to struggle upwards. The water grew jagged "fangs," and when it touched his skin, it emitted a piercing, sharp buzzing sound, like the howl of a banshee.

Kinoshita Kei knew that Lucifer probably didn't intend to keep him around, so he adopted a heroic stance and decided to hold out a little longer, like the underground party members in every TV show who stalled for time to create opportunities for their teammates. He thought it was better to make Lucifer spend more energy on him than to be able to deal with others without any hindrance.

The chainsaw-like flow of water was truly terrifying. Even though he forced himself to accept the fact that he was doomed, he felt a deep-seated fear—was he going to saw me apart? Chop me into pieces? Or finely chop me into minced meat? Does a consciousness have any soft bones?

"Did Uranus suffer the same torment?" Kinoshita Kei thought vaguely, "His will was completely crushed, becoming mere dregs in this sea of ​​consciousness?"

The long saw of the flowing water finally arrived. Kinoshita Kei watched helplessly as it sliced ​​into his waist. Surprisingly, he felt no pain, only a weakness that seemed to emanate from his very soul. With each sip of water, it brought out something that looked like shards of porcelain or some kind of gravel. Kinoshita Kei guessed that it was a part of himself.

As the fragments faded, he saw himself, still called Mu Xiajing, learning to ride a bicycle.

He was trying to imitate motorcyclists by leaning into corners, thinking he should lean his body too when turning. He kept falling as he turned, much to the amusement of passersby. Eventually, he crashed into the curb, cracking his tire, and rode home on the wheel. He remembered the rough curb and the soft grass that day; despite falling many times, he was still happily grinning foolishly.

Lucifer didn't need this, so the fragments were rolled into finer powder and drifted away with the water.

Kinoshita Kei looked as if he had been hit on the head with a hammer; he suddenly looked down and it took him a long time to slowly raise his head.

More fragments left his body, and a hole was torn in his waist, but it seemed that an even more profound void was spreading from the depths of his soul.

"I am Kinoshita, Kinoshita..." He saw a familiar child watching TV. A yellow airplane soared alongside a giant, with clouds hanging below its feet. Golden sunlight shone through the screen. The child waved his short hand, as if greeting the people on TV.

Kinoshita Keiya wanted to say hello, but as soon as he raised his hand, the image suddenly shattered, returning to a fragment the size of a fingernail, drifting away with the water.

It was specially selected so that the serrations wouldn't be turned into powder.

He reached out to grab it, but the water jagged his wrist, severing it. He stared blankly at his suddenly shortened arm as more debris gushed from the cut.

A sharp whistling sound came from the broken pieces, like the wind blowing through narrow cracks, as if the "foundation" supporting him was collapsing rapidly—he went from "I am looking at my own memories" to struggling to think "what is this", or "who is he".

The hand picking at the crumbs seemed to have a particular fondness for the child watching television.

He crushed the things he didn't need, keeping only the images of his child sitting in front of the TV watching giants and monsters, or the scenes of him buying DVDs and discussing the plot with his classmates, arguing about who was more powerful.

Mu Xiajing walked along with his schoolbag on his back, still an ordinary nobody who hadn't yet realized his own worth. He was still young, his steps were light, and the heaviest thing on his shoulders was his schoolbag.

He held a rented DVD or a card he won from a classmate as if he held the whole world in his hands.

The world is sunny and full of flowers.

As the child grew older, he stopped watching Giants & Monsters for a while because he thought it was too childish. Arguing with people about which monster or Ultraman was stronger was a dark chapter in his life he didn't want to recall. What's the point of arguing about something that doesn't exist? Whoever the writers say is stronger is stronger!

Besides, hardly anyone watches monster movies anymore. If you want to fit in with the group and find topics to talk about, you should watch something that everyone likes.

At that time, he was neither too young nor too old, and he longed for attention. Everyone praised good students who were sociable and outgoing, and he wanted to become a good student too.

At the very least, one should read at least some of Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, and Osamu Dazai—the kind of artsy and melancholic female classmates like. He only thought "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was very good; the dancing girl's shoulders and neck must have been soft and supple, and her clothes and long sleeves must have been filled with the fragrance of the flowers she favored—perhaps white plum blossoms, perhaps early cherry blossoms.

Or you could be able to quote things like "One Hundred Years of Solitude," even if you haven't actually read it, and then write some philosophical quotes from Wozki to stuff into your essay.

Years later, he had already

Having passed through the restless, attention-seeking adolescence, I know all too well that "attention" is like a hot potato; you can only hope to receive it if you have the ability to handle it—but who isn't a mentally sound adult? Others are more outstanding than you and work incredibly hard.

Unwilling to be left behind, he followed the crowd and experienced what is called "involution." He discovered that he would have to go without food or drink for 20 years to have a place to live. In addition, he would have to take care of his family and a bunch of elderly people. He was so afraid of the future that he felt like he was standing on the top floor of a building looking down at the ground.

The weary young man knew he was just a relatively diligent ordinary person, not comparable to a true hero, but he vaguely felt that "ordinary people shouldn't live like this."

He couldn't change anything, so he could only try to think less about trivial things and be a carefree idiot. While scrolling through short videos, he accidentally picked up "Ultraman fighting monsters" again from a funny clip.

The video featured a comical performance by an amnesiac Ultraman, accompanied by familiar marketing commentary such as "The editor thinks this and that." He watched it over and over again, with most of the comments being "hahahaha," interspersed with a few small ads adding him on WeChat.

Watching videos on a phone was still a bit of a stretch, so he stretched his arm out far away, just like when he was a child and would cradle the TV.

He saw that even with amnesia, Ultraman still defeated the monster. The film, catering to children's tastes and humorously presented, made the young man feel as if he had returned to the era of renting DVDs to watch cartoons. Back then, he couldn't understand why shows featuring live actors were still called cartoons; perhaps it was simply because they were for children?

But he's no longer a child. His doting parents now depend on him for their old age, and his sharp-tongued but academically successful teacher has been replaced by a boss who only cares about his worth. He used to be able to argue with people without any scruples, but now he has to carefully consider what he says because it concerns his "connections."

"This is my room, no one can see me." Feeling very safe, the young man threw away his phone, which was occasionally playing "hahaha" sounds, and started crying like a lost dog while watching a funny video.

Kinoshita Kei looked at the young man in the picture crying with his head covered, puzzled, and was surprised to find that he was also shedding tears.

“You’ve seen quite a lot,” a voice said, its tone gentle and soothing, like a spring breeze comforting the weeping person. “Since you like them so much, I’ll take you to see them. The Land of Light is very interesting, but let’s wait a bit… after we finish dealing with this universe first.”

Kinoshita Kei looked up. Was the voice coming from the sky? He wondered blankly.

"I know you yearn to stand out from the crowd. Who doesn't? To be the one who stands the highest, the one praised by others. Everyone will envy you. People who are jealous of you will line up from the Western Pacific to the Eastern Atlantic, but you won't even bother to look at them," the voice said.

Kinoshita Kei's brain, which seemed to have crashed or lost too much memory, finally came to a conclusion: "Cousins?"

“Yes,” the cousins ​​seemed to recognize each other as true relatives. He smiled and said, “We will become the strongest. The power of the giants is wonderful. Would you like to obtain the same power?”

Kinoshita Kei blinked, looking down at his leg being rapidly sliced ​​off, as if he were looking at two tree trunks being planed into a shower of sawdust.

He was bewildered and confused. Why couldn't he feel anything? His legs and hands seemed to have been severed, and there was a hole in his waist that felt like a ball could pass through. But there were no internal organs or flesh and blood; only tiny, sand-like things flew out. They were all telling the story of a "stranger," together forming the lives of Mu Xiajing and Mu Xiajing.

“We’ll take the power of the giants, and people will rely on you. No one will make things difficult for the savior, and you’ll be revered wherever you go,” the cousin’s voice sounded reliable. “The way to achieve this dream is simple. Now… don’t think about anything, leave it to me.”

Kinoshita Keishi stopped looking at his legs, which were about to disappear completely. He saw the sand rising into the air, the water flowing, and the hole in his waist spreading into his chest cavity. There was nothing there at his heart, except for a piece of fragment that shone with a bluish light, which was scooped out. It was larger than the other sand and looked like a small pebble.

He saw the young man wake up from his sleep, step out of the room, but did not realize that he was in a distorted aurora world in front of him. When he came to his senses, he was already floating in the void, with someone staring at him.

The person in front of them had the same face as the young man, except that one was wearing pajamas and had a messy head of hair, while the other was dressed neatly, carrying a bag on his back and holding half a red ball in his hand.

The man was surrounded by wisps of smoke. The young man looked up along the smoke and found that it was a shapeless, black thing that he didn't know what it was. It was extending "arms" or ropes and tightly binding a glowing... person.

The young man's perspective was subtle; he was standing inside this cloud of smoke, looking out at the things around him.

The man who looked exactly like him seemed hostile towards him. He shoved the young man and then kicked him. The young man took two steps back, then reached out and grabbed the arm that the other man was hitting him with—he always felt that if he left this pile of smoke, he would fall down.

"What a bizarre dream," the young man thought.

Only now did he realize what the "person" entangled in the shapeless thing was. He craned his neck, ignoring the person who kept trying to shake him off, thinking he was just dreaming.

As the saying goes, what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. I've been watching too much TV lately, so it's no wonder I dreamt about Ultraman and monsters. It's only in my dreams that I can see Ultraman that I've never seen before, so my brain is probably still a bit fuzzy.

But it wasn't closed.

"Go, Ultraman!" the young man exclaimed cheerfully, raising his arm in a shout.

The man who had been trying to shake him off froze. Suddenly, a red light rose in front of the young man. He looked over the man's shoulder and saw that half a red ball was shining as if it had come alive.

The entangled figure of light also lit up, its azure radiance dispelling the mist, as if it had truly been recharged with energy. The beam of light, running at full power, instantly pierced through the smoke-like mist, and the young man heard a terrible scream.

Immediately afterward, the "twin" who looked exactly like him shouted, "Lord Lucifer! The passage is unstable; it's this clone causing the trouble!"

The young man couldn't understand what he was yelling. To his surprise, he found his body being disintegrated and continuously fed into the half-red ball.

The Man of Light, panting, lowered his hand. The sudden turn of events had left him reeling. His gaze fell upon the figure that had appeared out of nowhere, and a strange connection was being established with that shout of "Go for it!" The damaged red sphere echoed his wish, and Ultraman gained the strength to continue fighting.

“It’s his…life energy.” Uranus watched as the young man who had helped him was disintegrated by the red sphere. Without thinking, he rushed into the mist. Completely opposite energies burned his body with blue smoke. He reached out to touch the young man.

Even knowing it was fake, seeing himself being disintegrated was still terrifying. The young man panicked, desperately clinging to the "twins" and screaming, "What kind of nightmare is this? Help!!!"

The cry for help seemed to have no effect; instead, the young man's body disintegrated more rapidly. At the same time, Uranus's hand touched the "twins" who were prying the young man's arm.

This man, who resembled the young man, was indeed a devout follower of Lucifer. Despite the excruciating pain of his body being burned by the radiance, he clearly made a vow: "Rebuild my Lord's body!"

The fading red light paused, then suddenly brightened again.

The bodies of the youth and believers melted away like snow in the crimson glow of the blood-red ribbon.

……

Kinoshita Kei finished reading the story.

He didn't remember who the young man was, so he naturally felt it was a story that had nothing to do with him.

But when the young man shouted "Go for it!" in a silly manner, he also inexplicably followed along with a mumbled "Go for it!"

The young man received a response from the red ball unintentionally, but there was no red ball here. So after Kinoshita finished speaking, there was still an endless body of water outside. The saw teeth cut him apart little by little, and the scraped debris flew everywhere, like a wood cutting factory.

The cousin whispered, "When we get there, others will be cheering you on. We will be stronger than them, take away their power, and you will be the savior."

Kinoshita Kei nodded slowly, and the bluish-green gravel was about to drift away with the current.

“No,” he suddenly said.

The gravel stopped in front of his chest, directly opposite the hole dug out of his heart.

"What?" the "cousin" asked. "If you don't want to move, we can go later... What's the first movie you want to see, Ultraman Tiga? We can go there first, but right now... you don't need to think about anything, you just need to..."

“Tiga…we can’t change the actor!” Kinoshita Kei looked up and said seriously to the void above, “If we change Daigo, it won’t look good.”

Chapter 187 The Path of Evolution

outside world.

In my dream, I saw Kinoshita Kei leaning back in his chair. His expression didn't change much, but his left hand, which was resting on the armrest, clenched tighter and tighter.

Upon noticing this, he immediately lowered his head, continuing to search for and capture machine vulnerabilities while simultaneously calling upon Gaia's power, though Lucifer seemed to ignore him this time.

"Has something changed?" he wondered.

The operator's voice suddenly confirmed his suspicions: "Wormhole activity detected. Armed force codenamed GUARD has activated a wormhole generator. Coordinates: 0°32′2″N, 160°56′0″E. Klaus reports that Alchemy Star proposed a plan to link to the vicinity of the moon and launch wormhole jump missiles for a fire strike. Klaus asks whether to activate jamming?"

Lucifer remained silent, raising his eyes to look at the white-haired man.