Ultraman: I Really Didn't Want to Rule the World

This kind of pressure is truly unbearable for most people. And I've also heard that the person in this family is very special—a rare psychic with precognitive abilities. Doesn't that mean facing such terrifying darkness every day?

Thinking about it this way, the tanuki suddenly felt a little sorry for that human.

The raccoon avoided his gaze, lowered its head, and spoke with increasing respect: "A grown-up child will always have their own ideas."

From your description, it seems your son has simply misunderstood something; we can clear it up when the time is right.

Childcare experience? He only has experience serving people. Speaking of which, Young Master Ayan's personality is that of a big kid, maybe they can relate to each other?

Hong Tu nodded: "You think so too, right?"

The raccoon nodded repeatedly, occasionally sharing tips it had heard about how human fathers and sons could get along, which made Hong Tu happy.

Having received affirmation from Tanuki, Hong Tu was full of confidence and wanted to explain things to Kirino. Unfortunately, Kirino kept avoiding him.

Therefore, Hong Tu harbored even greater resentment, and consequently, she began to wander around at night more and more frequently.

"Sigh," Hong Tu sighed, looking worried and distressed.

"Kurenai, what's wrong lately? You seem troubled." Onoda sat down in the seat opposite him at the table.

"Ah, it's Mr. Onoda." Hongtu looked up. "Did you come here only with some news?"

"Oh, didn't a monster appear around here yesterday?" Onoda changed the subject as soon as the news was mentioned. "The monster appeared briefly and then disappeared quickly. We found nothing yesterday, so I'll come back today to see if I can find any clues."

"Isn't that the job of the GUTS team?" Hong Tu tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Besides, that monster is probably some kind of mirage. It's not a real thing."

Upon hearing this, Onoda knew that Hongtu must know something, so he took out his notebook, intending to write it down: "You were working around here yesterday too? Would you mind telling me?"

“Mr. Onoda is really dedicated.” Hong Tu suppressed his worries and regained his usual gentleness. “I happened to work at this shop yesterday.” He pointed to the restaurant behind him with a sign that read “Rest.” The owner must have left in a hurry because the tables and chairs at the entrance hadn’t been put away before he closed the door.

“I definitely saw that monster. It shouldn’t be a physical object, because a car didn’t stop in time and passed right through its feet.”

"I see, a mirage-like monster." Onoda wrote down everything he said.

"Also, I saw TPC people arrive at the scene early." Hong Tu paused, then revealed a bombshell.

"TPC? Is that the GUTS team?" Onoda paused, pen in hand. "They knew all along that the monster would appear?"

“It wasn’t the Victory Team, it was another department of TPC. I happened to have seen that officer before, so I recognized him,” Hong Tu said. “They must have expected it. I saw the monster appear shortly after they appeared. Moreover, when the monster appeared, they didn’t panic. Instead, they stayed nearby calmly, as if they were recording data.”

“Recording data?” Onoda, with his decades-old keen sense of news, immediately sensed something unusual about this.

This doesn't sound like a normal operation. If they anticipated the appearance of a monster, why wasn't it the GUTS team that was dispatched?

Moreover, the GUTS team only mobilized after the monster appeared, as if they had only just learned that the monster was going to appear.

Recording data, but what kind of data?

This is definitely not an ordinary operation.

"Do you know where they used to record data?" Onoda asked, tidying up his notebook.

“Ah, it’s on the second floor of that building.” Hong Tu only showed it to him.

Onoda nodded, picked up his camera, and walked towards the building. About ten minutes later, he stood in front of the building and said, "This is it."

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned his head and saw Hong Tu standing in front of the restaurant, waving and greeting him from a distance, even though it was more than half a street away.

Seeing Onoda enter the building, Hong Tu turned and left.

He did work here yesterday, but because of the appearance of that "monster" yesterday, the restaurant owner is afraid to open today. So, he didn't come here today to work.

As for meeting Onoda, that was truly an accident.

I hope Mr. Onoda will like the gift he gave me.

But then I remembered that he knew what to give as a gift, but his own child didn't know what to give. Thinking about it this way, I realized I was a really bad parent.

The young man narrowed his eyes slightly, and that last trace of dark power called "fear," which was imperceptible to humans, was easily swallowed by him as if he were breathing.

Would Little Boomer be happy if monsters weren't allowed to appear?

Onoda pulled up yesterday's news, repeatedly searching for the building in the video, and then looking out the window to find where the monster appeared.

"That's really strange." He looked out the window at the street, frowning.

According to the news, the monster appeared right in front of this building. But that's what makes it even stranger.

If what Hong Tu said is true, then the TPC department is recording data on this floor. But this building is so close to the monster that we can't even see its full shape clearly. How could they possibly be observing monster data from this location?

No matter what, it's the top floor.

But if they're not observing the monster's data, then what data are they observing?

Onoda walked up to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, and inadvertently looked down to see the street clearly.

A guess gradually took shape in his mind.

Chapter 76 The Monster of the Mirage

Onoda stood at the window, looking in the direction he had come from, trying to find the shop where Hongtu had been yesterday.

If Hong Tu works at that restaurant, how did she discover that the TPC people were recording data on the second floor of this building?

Onoda realized today that this young man who frequently submitted articles to his newspaper seemed quite unusual as well.

But he didn't have time to think about it further. He could only assume that the other party probably had some special channels, so he turned his attention to this TPC operation.

Onoda searched the floor but found very few clues.

All he could confirm was that someone had been here yesterday, bringing some rather heavy machinery with them.

Meanwhile, in another city, panic ensued.

The monster that appeared yesterday has reappeared in a different city.

Onoda saw the news on the huge screen embedded on the outside of the building, and he instinctively took off running.

He needs to verify his guess.

This time, the monster appeared for only a moment before disappearing.

As soon as Onoda got into the car, he learned that the monster had disappeared again.

"Damn it!" Onoda hadn't even had time to start the car before he slammed his fist on the steering wheel in anger. "What the hell is that monster?"

Just like last time, the monster disappeared as soon as the GUTS team received the report.

There were no casualties, no destruction; it was like a fake monster that appeared under the blazing sun and vanished in an instant.

But Onoda still decided to go and take a look. The TPC operation that Hongtu had mentioned earlier was somewhat concerning.

Unexpectedly, he saw an acquaintance at the scene.

“Ah, Mr. Onoda,” Hong Tuzhu noticed a gaze and turned around to see Onoda looking at her. “You’re here too? I took a picture of that monster, do you want it?”

"You took the photos?" Onoda's expression went beyond mere surprise.

Hong Tu nodded and handed over the small camera in her hand: "This is the camera I carry with me, so it might be a little blurry."

Onoda didn't have time to think much before turning on the camera and starting to look at the photos taken by Hongtu.

There was only one photo of the monster. Just as Hong Tu said, the monster in the photo was very blurry, and as a veteran reporter, Onoda could tell that something was wrong with the photo.

The only thing blurry in the photo is the monster. The surrounding buildings and the bird in the sky are all clear, but the monster in the center of the photo is so blurry that it's barely visible.

"Was this taken when the monster appeared, or when it disappeared?"

“When it disappeared,” Hong Tu said, “the monster appeared for a very short time. Moreover, it happened suddenly, causing quite a bit of panic.”

Although it only lasted a few seconds, it already resulted in multiple stampedes.

Onoda frowned. This kind of incident happens almost every time a monster appears; it's become commonplace. Why would Hongtu specifically bring it up?

"It feels like this monster was created just to scare people," Hong Tu said, seemingly casually.

"Scary?" Onoda frowned. In his mind, all the clues were connected, and the guess became clearer. All that was left was the evidence.

"Hong, you said before that you saw TPC people appear near the monster in advance, is that right?" Onoda looked at Hong Tu.

“Yes, that’s right,” Hong Tu nodded blankly. “What’s wrong?”

Do you know if they're nearby right now?

“They’ve already left.” Hong Tu pointed to a building in the distance. “They were in that building before.”

Onoda nodded to him and quickly ran over there.

Behind him, Hong Tu watched his retreating figure from afar, revealing a meaningful smile.

Suddenly his expression froze. Wait, didn't Mr. Onoda return the camera to me?

Onoda searched the building and found similar traces on the lower floors.

If it's really as he guessed, then these people have gone too far!

Onoda began tracking down that team's TPC division, and his investigation confirmed his suspicions.

TPC did indeed have a group of people secretly creating panic among the crowd. They not only projected images of the monster, but also spread rumors about it.

The phantom-like monster didn't initially cause much panic, but these people tried to make it a source of fear.

What are they trying to do by deliberately making people believe in the existence of a fake monster, thereby causing panic?

Because they cannot openly follow him, Onoda still does not understand their purpose.

However, after investigating, Onoda became too concerned about the spread of their rumors.

These people are being far too optimistic. The rumors didn't cause widespread panic as they hoped; instead, they simply provided people with more fodder for gossip.

To be honest, Onoda was speechless when he learned about this situation.

Just something to talk about over tea? Are you guys serious? When the monster images appeared, everyone ran so hard, but as soon as the monsters disappeared, they acted like nothing happened. Is it just a habit?

Of course, red tea also deserves a small part of the credit for this.

He completely devoured all the accumulated fear in humanity; many people probably felt more relief after the panic subsided.

Onoda is currently investigating TPC's activities, while Hongtu is also searching for that monster.

Of course, it's not the monster image released by TPC, but a real monster.

Hong Tu initially thought the monster was some kind of illusion created by TPC, but after it appeared a few times, he realized something was wrong.