Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

"...The machine armor race at least possesses powerful combat capabilities. The monster that chased them earlier was called the demon race, which seems to be one of the weakest monster races. Logically speaking, with the combat power of the machine armor race, it should have been able to instantly kill such a piece of trash just from the aftershocks of their journey."

"But she hasn't made a move yet, and instead she's been hiding under that cave with the humans... Is that right?"

Woz also understood what Yan Ming meant.

The two exchanged a glance, but only Gates looked at them with a headache.

"You two, can you please speak more clearly?"

"That means that the machine girl intentionally doesn't use her own power, just like she disguises herself as a powerless human and blends in with their human race."

"But...why would she do that? And what reason would she have to mingle with the human race?"

This is something that was completely unexpected.

No matter how much we reason, there are many reasons that could lead to this, but at least we can confirm that the machine race has probably mixed in with the human race, and the other humans are unaware of her identity.

Based on all the information above, we can draw a conclusion.

"The humans in this world seem to be doing their best to gather intelligence on other races."

Why do we do this?

Weak humans are destined to be unable to resist other powerful races by force... so even if they collect information on other races, it should be useless.

What exactly do the people of this world want to do?

“I’m sorry.”

Seeing the two still deep in thought, Gates couldn't help but offer his own idea.

"The best way is still for us to ask them in person."

"...Do you know where humans gather?"

"Of course we don't know, but we can go look for them! With the abilities of the three of us, surely we can find their location?"

"But even if we find it, what should we do after that?"

Wozniak then raised a new question.

"When I encountered those humans before, they clearly showed a very hostile attitude towards me... let alone towards the three of us."

"Tsk... There's actually such a troublesome thing!"

Gates, at a loss for words, slammed his fist on the table.

If these humans don't trust the three of them at all, then even if they find their location and talk to them face to face, they probably still won't trust them.

"And ultimately, what exactly are the three of us supposed to do in this world? Is it just to protect humanity?"

"It's probably not that simple."

Using intuition as a guide, Yan Ming then revealed his thoughts.

"...In my opinion, what we should be most concerned about is that Star Cup."

"Star Cup?"

Gates and Wozniak couldn't help but look at Yan Ming.

"I remember this thing being something that, if you get your hands on it, will make you a god in this world and allow you to rule it..."

"Could it be that, my Demon King... you intend to obtain the supreme treasure of this world called the Star Cup?"

If you obtain it, you can become a god... and even rule the world.

At first glance, this does sound quite appealing.

"I have absolutely no interest in becoming a god."

But Yan Ming responded indifferently.

"What I meant was 'what we need to care about is that Star Grail,' not that I need to obtain it. What I mean is, that thing determines the ultimate fate of this world. To figure out what we need to do in this world, we need to study that thing."

"All races in this world are fighting for the Star Grail; they all want to obtain it... I suspect humans are no exception."

"My Demon King, could it be that you mean...?"

Woz seemed to have guessed what Yan Ming was trying to say.

"You want humanity to... obtain the Star Grail and become gods who rule this world?"

Even Gates' eyes widened in surprise at Yan Ming's idea.

Yan Ming responded calmly to this.

"That will depend on the efforts of humanity itself."

————————————————————————

"cough…"

This is a human settlement.

After returning from the dangerous battlefield, Rick and the others quickly washed up and went back to their rooms.

But Rick didn't get a break.

He still needs to complete at least three hours of work.

"...At least the gains were still significant."

Looking at the various papers laid out on the table, all of them were notes taken out of the paper, documents related to the Forest Spirit species.

"Thanks to Hugh, I obtained many of the more confidential documents of the Forest Elves. Otherwise, I would never have been able to decipher those texts on my own."

Shubi... she is a machine race girl.

The reason I ended up here is actually because of a chance encounter about a few years ago.

At that time, Rick happened to meet her at the remnant base of the Forest Elves—he almost thought he was going to die.

In reality, that was the beginning of an encounter for Rick.

Unlike other Mechs, Shubi seems to want to understand what "love" is.

Therefore, Hughie stayed by Rick's side.

Pretending to be a human picked up by Rick, Shubi followed him around. Over the course of several years, Shubi has carried out at least hundreds of missions with Rick.

At first, many people questioned Rick's decision to let such a young-looking child work with him.

To this end, Riku had to fabricate a lie that "Shubi possesses the rare ability to decipher the languages ​​and scripts of multiple races." At first, no one believed it, but after Shubi demonstrated it briefly using the machine's analytical capabilities, everyone was finally able to put their minds at ease.

However, in all these years, Rick has never once made Hughie fight on his own initiative.

Because if we fight, our identities will inevitably be exposed... What's worse, it will trigger elven energy, which might attract the attention of higher-ups from other races.

Unless it's a special case, Rick doesn't even allow Shubi to use the simplest spatial teleportation.

Rick walked to the table in front of him and picked up the intelligence reports that he had written with Schwi's help.

"...Shubi."

“I…am here…Rick…”

"Whoa—?!"

Sometime later, it seemed that Hugh had returned to Rick's room.

The sudden appearance of that petite figure startled Derik.

"Don't scare me! I've been on high alert the whole time, you might really scare me to death, Shubi!"

“I…I’m sorry…then please, Rick…punish me…”

"No, no, it's better not to use such strange words."

Only during his time with Hugh could Rick briefly relax.

He waved his hand helplessly, sighed, then put down the paper in his hand and sat down with Shubi.

"You've really worked hard this time, Hugh. Without your help, we would never have been able to obtain so much useful information."

"Hmm...Shubi just...did what she had to do...Rick...as long as you're happy..."

Shubi's true personality isn't like that; she only speaks like that to create a certain persona.

"...Speaking of which, Shubi."

Putting some complicated matters aside, Rick's mind was instead filled with more difficult problems.

That's something he needs to consider more right now.

"There were indeed two spaceships that landed when we were being chased by the demons... right?"

Rick still remembers it to this day.

One of the spaceships was silver-purple...the other was red-yellow.

Then, two people stepped out of the spaceship.

A man holding a book, a man who... seemed completely unfathomable.

Rick felt an immense headache whenever he thought about their situation.

"Who...who are they? I can't tell what race they are at all...they look more like humans."

"Judging from their appearance alone... there's about a 98.8% chance... they're human..."

"But that's definitely impossible, right? He killed that demon with a single glare, and then flew up into the sky in an incredible way."

Rick knew very well that the humans of this world could never unleash that level of power, even until their death.

Therefore, even if Shubi talked to him about analysis and data, he still couldn't believe that those people were human or anything like that.

It's more like a joke... a really bad joke.

"Why...why are they appearing before us? What is their purpose? And what race are they?"

"Rick... cares a lot about... those people?"

"Oh, yes."

Rick nodded immediately and smiled at Huggies.

“Those with that kind of power are definitely not human, so they certainly wouldn’t consider our interests… But they saw us, yet they still chose to release Leeteuk… Why? What’s the point of doing that?”

"Moreover, I vaguely remember seeing that man wearing something like armor at the end. Could he be a goblin? But goblins have never shown anything like that."

"The most bizarre thing was the last man with the book... He appeared right in front of us, as if he had teleported."

"Just... just who are they?"

Looking at Rick in front of her, Shubi hesitated again.

“…Rick.”

But she finally mustered the courage to look at Rick.

Then…the actual truth was revealed.

"Those whom Rick saw were actually..."

boom--

Right at this moment.

The entire human settlement was shaken as a result.

------------------

the other side.

Yan Ming, who was sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

He predicted what would happen in the near future.

"...Another favor has come knocking on our door."

Volume 7: Game of Life ZERO: Chapter 294 Who's Next?

The earth and sky trembled.

For tribes where only humans live, even the slightest disturbance, like the wind or grass, can pose a threat, let alone an event like an earthquake.

"W-what happened?!"