Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The ship lost its way long ago, and its food and fresh water were running out. Rescue was slow to arrive. Due to a malfunction in the satellite phone, the captain could only call out on the public channel day after day, hoping that a passing ship would save their lives.

"Another storm! Where are we?" The torrential water blurred the windows, and the ship tossed and turned in the surging waves. The captain wanted to drink some beer, but his jug was empty. He remembered the celebration a month ago when the seafood was plentiful; the crew had opened case after case of beer, the white bubbles scattering all over the deck—it was pure luxury!

To be specific, the ship went astray a few months earlier when they salvaged a smelly piece of what appeared to be a large animal, and that same night they spotted a giant creature with eyes like a lighthouse. That day was also filled with a violent storm, and the surrounding fish were likely frightened away, forcing them to steer the ship into deeper waters.

The first mate had planned the route. Their original plan was to cross the equator, resupply in the South Pacific islands north of New Zealand, and head to Chile to catch giant squid. However, their satellite phone broke down in another unlucky thunderstorm, and they sailed into unknown waters. Even the GPS could not receive a signal, and they had to rely on the sun and stars to guide their way, hoping to reach the supply station as planned.

A hopeless voyage drives people mad.

The captain locked himself in his cabin, afraid to go out, and he noticed the restlessness among the crew.

Food was scarce, fresh water was running out, land was nowhere in sight, and they had been battered by storms for days. They didn't even know where they were. How could they expect the crew, who were hoping to "make a fortune at sea and return home", to remain calm and composed?

The first mate, second mate, and cook were from the same hometown as the captain. The cook quietly told him, "The crew has split into three small groups. Two of them want to turn the ship back to the west, and they want more food and water. You'd better go out and talk to them."

Talk? Talk my foot! The captain would say he'd be throwing his life away if he went out. The shortage of food and water is a reality, and the company's withholding of wages is also a reality; he's not generous enough to pay out of his own pocket to go to sea. As long as they continue southeast, they'll definitely reach Chilean waters. There, they can resupply and set up their nets a few more times. With money and food, all the conflicts can be resolved.

“Things are different now,” the captain said, trying to reassure the crew over the loudspeaker: “We have the TPC, a global organization, and a marine survey team composed of elite personnel selected from around the world. The company will definitely find out about the problem within three days of us going missing. We have submitted a plan to go to Chile, and maybe if we hold on for a few more days we will find the search ships and planes.”

Every captain, especially those on ocean-going vessels, must be good at making promises. He said, "This storm is a good omen, indicating that we have reached the warm westerly winds of the Southern Hemisphere. As long as we continue southeast, we will definitely see the Chilean coastline! I promise that I will apply to the company for subsidies and bonuses for everyone based on the catch!"

He has made countless promises throughout his more than 20-year career, but this time it failed.

He should have reassured the crew face-to-face with a sincere tone and a calm and firm expression. Instead, he retreated to the captain's cabin and spoke over the loudspeaker, revealing his complete lack of confidence.

The crew wasn't all young; there were also veteran sailors who made their living at sea. They only needed to calculate how many days they had been adrift to know exactly how much food and water they had. The captain and his supporters insisted on heading southeast, while most of the crew believed that turning back west was the only hope. At this point, it wasn't a question of how much they would earn, but rather whether they could make it back alive.

In times of crisis, human nature is the most vulnerable to torment.

A storm is good; it can cover up the noise, wash away bloodstains, serve as an excuse for an "accident," and allow an already repressed and conflicted crowd to erupt in the darkness.

A few hours later.

At dawn, a faint smell of blood lingered in the cabin. The new captain had thrown away the old captain's beloved wine jug.

Several young crew members were squatting in a corner, wiping away the reddish-brown splattered spots with rags.

Just as they were about to embark on their westward journey home, their "rescue" arrived belatedly.

Upon seeing a vessel several times its size appear on the horizon, along with the "TPC" markings painted on its hull, the first reaction of this ocean-going fishing vessel was to flee.

But no matter how fast they speed up, how can they outrun a helicopter taking off from that 10,000-ton ship?

"TPC South America Branch Marine Patrol Team," came the clear Japanese voice from the helicopter, indicating that they were already aware of the identity of the ocean-going fishing vessel: "We have received your company's request for assistance. Please reduce your speed, approach our vessel, and prepare for resupply."

Supplies? The new captain was uneasy. They had just received a batch of "supplies," and in order to pay their dues, every surviving crew member, whether they volunteered or were forced to, especially those who hadn't shed blood the night before, ate a piece of food simply roasted over a fire.

The new chef was forced into the role and lacked skill, but they had no other chefs available.

The helicopter noticed the ship's unusual activity, and its machine gun angled, aiming the barrel at the new captain through the forward cabin window. A rope was lowered, and several heavily armed team members descended onto the deck—this maritime patrol team had contingency plans for any possible scenarios.

The cleavers and harpoons used by the crew were no match for bulletproof vests and guns, so they obediently cooperated with the search.

A short while later, the 10,000-ton patrol boat caught up with the fishing boat, and the gangway connected the two ships together.

“I’m sorry, Professor Masaki, I never expected that a long-range test would encounter such a situation,” the head of the TPC South Pacific branch’s ocean patrol team apologized to the person beside him. “Now, what was supposed to be a rescue during the long-range test is turning into the detention of a prisoner awaiting sentencing. Do you think the test should continue?”

“Of course we should continue,” said Keigo Masaki, a 28-year-old physicist, mathematics professor, and aerospace engineering professor, to the person in charge. “The fishing boat can be sent back as evidence first, and I don’t think this was an ‘accident’ but an inevitability. You don’t need to feel sorry for this; this incident just happens to verify my theory.”

The person in charge nodded, apologized again, and boarded the fishing boat to observe the scene.

Masaki Keigo's assistant stepped forward and whispered, "Why can a heinous murder case validate your theory?"

“Human fragility,” Masaki Keigo turned around. The sea breeze carried a mixture of salty, bloody, and slightly foul smells. He frowned. “The shortage of food and water drove them to irrationality. The 2600-kilometer distance left them isolated and helpless. When they set sail, they certainly didn’t expect to drift to Nemo Point and kill and eat human flesh in a storm as proof of their integration into the group.”

The assistant recalled what she had seen in the fishing boat's galley, covering her mouth to stop the urge to vomit from rising in her stomach.

“This just shows the necessity of our research,” said Keigo Masaki. “You should get used to it sooner rather than later. In every corner of this world, there are many more people dying because of their ‘vulnerability’—dying at the hands of humanity itself, and at the hands of aliens.”

The assistant swallowed hard and nodded vigorously.

"Check if the submarine is in position. We can't afford to die on the cliff at sea," Masaki Keigo urged him. "The target's period of weakness is very short. The window of opportunity is in the next few days. We are about to have a tough battle, and the outcome will depend on this moment."

"Yes." The assistant jogged into the cabin. Everyone's attention was drawn to the fishing boat crew members being escorted by the team members. Only Masaki Keigo leaned against the railing, gazing at the vast and boundless horizon.

Chapter 84 Beneath the Ocean

The target Masaki Keigo mentioned, TPC code "Samuel," is a "monster" that the organization has been monitoring for many years.

The organization was established with two objectives: first, to eliminate the aliens who were running rampant on Earth, with the main targets being the Kirieloids, the Muzhen Star People, and others; and second, to become the guides for the "new humans".

The term "new human" arises because the environment of the cosmic era presents humanity with more explicit challenges. Earthlings, whose physical capabilities are inferior to those of cosmic beings and whose lifespans are short, are unable to survive in the cosmic environment and are therefore unable to cope with this great transformation. Consequently, some have proposed the grand proposition of modifying the existing human physique and guiding the evolution of "new humans."

The organization originated from a "transaction" with the Kirieloids. After previous researchers discovered its ambitions, they paid a heavy price to break away and established this unique underground alliance. Most of its members are individuals who disagree with the TPC's "peaceful" ideals, as well as victims of alien experiments.

Masaki Keigo really liked this team; their grand vision of "new humans" perfectly aligned with his own ideas—except for the "socialite" he had a one-way relationship with, a dancer named Tsutsuki Ayase.

She has money; as the president and CEO of the Saitek Group, Masaki Keigo is not short of research funds. She has connections; as a rising star in the industry, Masaki Keigo has never lacked talented people who come to him for recommendations.

He disliked the dancer's roundabout way of speaking and hated her mysterious manner even more. He was only happy when she received large sums of money. He resonated more with people like Dr. Dango who spoke frankly about their needs and ambitions.

He maintained contact with Tsukishiro Ayaka because of her irreplaceable intelligence capabilities within the organization.

"The monster codenamed 'Samuel' is hiding in TPC, living in human form, just like an alien," she revealed the information, her tone unequivocal. "I've obtained his energy spectrum data; the analysis work..."

Do you have time? If you're not interested, I'll contact someone else.

Masaki Keigo was indeed not interested in purely time-consuming analysis work, so the project fell to Dr. Tango Yuji.

Yuji Tango took the monitoring and sampling data and ran away from the Life Science Research Center on leave. He spent three days and concluded that "the target has relatively regular periods of weakness".

“Each time he appeared during a period of weakness, it was marked by his departure from the TPC headquarters base, which took about two days. His destination was unknown, but he was spotted in the South Pacific three times, in very close locations. I can define the area where he appeared,” said Yuji Tango.

For TPC, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of the South Pacific is the "Crimson Islands," where world leaders once held summits when the defense force was transformed into the Earth Peace Alliance. For those in the know, like Masaki Keigo, it's called "R'lyeh," an ancient cemetery.

Samuel is regarded by the organization's members as an ancient tomb guardian and a supporter of the "moderate" faction that currently dominates TPC. On one hand, he appears regularly in the South Pacific Ocean, doing unknown things, which is matched by his periodic weakness; on the other hand, he uses the alias Aiba Yu to keep an eye on the safety of TPC's high-ranking officials and important scholars, led by Director Sawai, like a dutiful bodyguard.

The organization's ideology clashes with that of the TPC. While they share a consensus on expelling aliens, the TPC is unlikely to budge on research into human genetic reconstruction and human modification. Undoubtedly, a figure like Samuel, whom Masaki Keigo and others have described as an "old fossil," could not possibly align himself with the organization.

Moreover, even if they were to temporarily cooperate with aliens willing to do business, they would never cooperate with a monster disguised as a human.

Cyborgs with human hearts—no, "new humans"—are different from monsters in human skin. This is what Masaki Keigo believes.

The assistant reported that the two submarines had arrived at the target area and were submerged and waiting.

Masaki Keigo laughed and said, "I like the military style. They only ask about the mission, not the reasons. They are absolutely obedient and absolutely execute. It's really good that the South Pacific Branch and the South American Branch haven't picked up the habits of headquarters."

He said, "TPC's 'peace agreement' is like a tiger sharpening its claws and pulling out its teeth, thinking that by doing so it can reap a forest of unity and friendship... What's the use of urgently equipping them with weapons now? The aliens don't take them seriously at all, to the point that the GUTS team has to rely on Tiga."

The assistant wholeheartedly agreed: "So the security at the higher levels actually sought the power of a monster... I wonder how much they paid for it, just like how our predecessors misjudged people and cooperated with the Kirieloids."

“They were naive back then and believed the sweet talk of the Kirieloids,” Masaki Keigo reminded him. “I know you like that dancer, and many people like her, but you should stay away from people like that. She was also a cyborg who collaborated with the Kirieloids on a project back then. These kinds of people are ‘victims,’ but they also mostly have psychological defects. In layman’s terms, they are called ‘perverts.’”

The assistant paused, stunned. "The collaborative project from back then... Professor Masaki, that was over a hundred years ago! And Miss Ayaka was so... so elegant and beautiful, how could she be..."

"The one you like, and many others like, is a woman over a hundred years old," Masaki Keigo glanced at him indifferently. "A cyborg with a much longer lifespan, yet instead of striving to acquire knowledge, she relies on her physical advantages to become a dancer. I laugh whenever I hear rich, brainless idiots praising her 'effort'."

The assistant was stunned by the youthful appearance of Tsuneyuki Kasumi in her memory. The young man's crush vanished with the adjectives "old lady" and "unambitious": "How old are people like her?"

“I don’t know, but the ‘new humans’ we guide will definitely be more perfect than those cyborgs, with a longer lifespan, enough for everyone to inherit wisdom and have enough energy and physique to develop themselves,” Masaki Keigo said. “Let’s start from here.”

“Capture, or obtain samples,” he said, leaning on the railing as the sea breeze made his clothes flutter. “’Old fossils’ are also useful. We need more biological data, especially for this kind of ‘monster’ that can come from 30 million years ago.”

……

尼莫点西南方向约379公里，49°51′S，128°34′W。

Deep in the ocean.

The crouching behemoth awoke from its brief hibernation.

He opened his eyes, and a golden light illuminated the perpetually dark seabed.

Here stand silent stone carvings as guardians, and dilapidated buildings. A 600-meter-wide road radiates outward from the center of the complex, passing through scattered pits and cracks, reaching an unseen edge before disappearing into the mud and sand.

After 30 million years of sedimentation, this city should not have existed. It and the stone statues sealed here should have been buried by silt and sand, carried by years of geological movement to the trench formed by the collision of the Pacific and Indian plates, then tilted, destroyed, and fell into the depths of the mantle, with all traces of glory and suffering given to the great power of nature.

But there is a slumbering ruler here, protecting this ruin, or rather, the graveyard, invisibly. The seabed sediments around it are replaced at an extremely slow pace, but R'lyeh remains unmoved, like an isolated island standing outside of time.

Until a "monster" returned.

He periodically removes the dissipated dark energy from the Dominator to prevent it from causing any unforeseen consequences, such as prematurely awakening Earth's monsters.

They continuously left new stone carvings around the area, making preparations to the best of their ability for the upcoming "eternal night".

He is the "tomb keeper," but not the guardian of Luluye.

This planet is both ancient and young, and most of the traces left by the ancients have disappeared, but he is willing to carry on their will.

“The same thing will not happen a second time.” The behemoth stood up, shook its somewhat stiff wings, and the carvings clinging to the forty-eight hundred-meter stone pillars lit up, as if in response, and the remains of R'lyeh were briefly illuminated by the light.

Chapter 85 The Opportunity for Change

"With only two submarines, even though they're carrying nuclear warheads..." The assistant expressed doubts about the plan's success: "Can we really achieve our goals?"

“Who can guarantee anything? There are always many uncertainties when facing something whose full picture is not yet known,” Masaki Keigo turned to return to his cabin. “If Zelda gas can be applied, I can raise the chances of success by another ten percent, but there are no ifs.”

The assistant followed closely behind and whispered, "It's all because Dr. Nezu is too stubborn to want to destroy it."

"Clatter," Masaki Keigo suddenly stopped. He turned around, looked his assistant up and down, and before the other could feel uneasy under his gaze, he said in a low voice, "You just said... 'stubborn'? Zelda gas is a great invention in the field of energy applications! It's just that those fools can't understand it, they only know its dangers but not its epoch-making significance! You used 'stubborn' to describe Dr. Nezu?"

"I...I..." The assistant, unaware that his casual remark had triggered a major incident, stammered, "I'm sorry!"

"Get this straight, Dr. Nezu is the talent we're trying to recruit!" Masaki Keigo took another step, and his assistant secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He said coldly, "If Zelda Gas can get sufficient funding, I believe its contribution will be no less than that of the yet-to-be-deployed Magus Power System, and it has an unparalleled advantage—it can promote the alienation of biological cells, for both good and bad reasons, and under natural development, it successfully turned a parrot into a monster bird!"

Even without Masaki Keigo's reminder, the assistant remembered the bird mentioned in the intelligence report. Having seen it and heard its call, Dr. Nezu's wavering resolve was firmly reaffirmed.

While fleeing under the wings of the strange bird, guarding the last sample of Zelda gas with his aging body, he declined the organization's invitation over the phone.