Moonlight team, are you awake?

"A perfect opportunity!" Upon seeing this, I immediately condensed a photon ice blade, gathering a large amount of light energy at the top of my head, and then instantly shot it out, shattering Neodaranbill's body on the spot.

After so many battles and rest, the Light of the Earth in my dream has recovered a lot. In the first battle, he could knock him unconscious with just one burst of light ice blades. However, now he can kill Neo Dalanbil with another burst of light ice blades after blowing up Mozhi. Both his strength and endurance have been significantly improved.

While obtaining more light from the earth and ocean is the fastest way to become stronger, the willpower of the human host can also achieve a significant amplification effect.

In the original work, Fujimiya's Agul V1 obtained the Ocean Light twice, transforming into a stronger V1 form. Its strength could easily defeat Argyros, who was equivalent to Agul before the enhancement, showing that the improvement was very significant.

However, without obtaining more Earth Light, I was able to raise Gaia V1's strength to the same level as the second-stage enhanced Agul V1 through my own willpower, which shows that obtaining light from Earth is not the only way to become stronger.

Of course, this is just a last resort. If there were a chance to glean some light from the earth and the sea, I would absolutely be more than happy to do so.

At this moment, Gaia, with its red lights flashing, stood side by side with King Black in the rising sun, facing Neodaranbil, who had been blown to ash, and Mozhi, who had been reduced to nothing.

Under the bright morning sun, after playing two exhilarating games, I had for the first time the illusion that "this game might not be unbeatable after all."

"That's more like Ultraman! Monsters can be defeated, and the defense team is working hard, so I have to do my best too." I put my hands on my hips, feeling full of pride.

Of course, he was unaware that reality was about to deliver a severe blow to him.

He looked up at the sky, took off in a very standard Ultraman pose, and disappeared into the rising sun, flying away for the first time in a long time.

In mid-air, he transformed into a particle of light and returned to the ground, landing beside the photon.

"Did you earn too much from these two live streams? I felt the matches weren't particularly intense," he asked.

Photon weakly replied, "I poked it... I made quite a bit of money in these two rounds."

"Huh? Why? Do you guys like watching these 'noob-stomping' matches?" I scratched my head, completely confused.

"These two games were definitely stomping noobs, but some unexpected events really turned the live stream into a huge spectacle..." Guangzi didn't know how to explain it to Meng, so he could only shakily point his phone screen at him, then open the webpage translation function of the live streaming app and translate the comments into Earth language for Meng to see.

I bent down slightly and squinted as I read through the viewers' comments one by one.

At first, he was quite amused: "Yapool is right. When it comes to resentment, if this guy claims to be number two, no one dares to claim to be number one. His pure resentment, which has been used to whip corpses from the Showa era to the Reiwa era, is unmatched."

"Master Gu, you son of a bitch... I've been grinding through over a dozen waves of monsters in 48 hours. By the time you arrive on foot, I'll probably be either dead or have already slain over a hundred waves of monsters and become an Arch-Tempered King. You've come here for nothing."

"Haha, it's hilarious to see the Zettonians and Baltanians pulling each other's hair! Give it more force!"

"Hmm? Is this [AAA Metal Doll Custom Miss Sea] a Salome alien?"

"Ok?"

"Uh-huh???"

"ah????"

Looking at the screen, my dream's expression gradually changed from playful to indifferent, and finally it started to laugh strangely.

"Hehehehe...gagagaga...hehehehe..."

"I dream, are you... alright?" Mitsuko looked at him with great concern. She knew this was a huge shock, but surely I dream wouldn't have gone insane because of this...?

I waved my hand and said, "I'm fine. I was just laughing at how I naively thought this dungeon would be easier for me."

It was just a fight against Mozhi and Neodaranbil; perhaps this low-intensity battle is already considered a break for this instance.

The real battle is only just beginning.

"If all else fails, how about using Zetton? Didn't you say that Zetton has a perfect chance of winning against this fake Ultraman?" Photon suggested.

I dreamt I could only ever use Jaden as a backup plan. Nobody uses their lifeline so casually, and besides...

"I didn't say that we can't win without Jetton."

Now, when faced with the elbow strikes from the dungeon, I am no longer as devastated and lost as before. I am even inspired to try and see if I can overcome the high-difficulty dungeon with my fancy skills.

Chapter Forty-Seven: The Former Prodigy

For me, the only good news is that the enemy hasn't attacked yet. Although they might be doing modifications and upgrades, this gives me relatively ample time to prepare.

At this moment, I am once again grateful that my decision to place an order with Black King was the right one. If I had made that wrong move, today might have been another losing game.

One of the reasons I initially chose Black King was because of his exceptional versatility; he could be used to train specific enemies in a targeted manner, and the training results were terrifying.

The specially trained BlackKing was able to catch Ultraman's Specium Ray with its bare hands, which was simply unbelievable, but it did it. Ultraman's other trump card, the Ultra Bracelet, was also easily countered by BlackKing; that thing had previously instantly defeated Bemstar.

Since I can withstand the Specium Ray and the Ultra Bracelet, and I can train my fighting skills to defeat Ultraman, then after I specifically train Black King, defeating Mecha Gaia shouldn't be a problem.

Many of the previous enemies were unexpected by me, so I couldn't train King Black specifically; I could only train him in general tactics.

This time it's different. I can personally take to the field and let King Black try his best to counter my various special moves. As long as King Black can withstand I's attacks, then resisting Mechanical Gaia's attacks will not be a problem.

Perhaps because the Destruction Entity was about to make its move, the Earth became unusually quiet for the next dozen or so hours. No monsters or strange events occurred.

I dreamt that Black King and I began special training at life-size in a remote suburb. The reason we didn't grow to gigantic size was because we didn't want to cause trouble. The noise from fighting at gigantic size was too great. If the defense team noticed us, although it probably wouldn't lead to an attack, it might still cause unscrupulous news media to take things out of context and spread fake news.

"King Black, don't run! Charge towards the quantum streamlines!"

I dreamt that I tentatively fired a quantum streamer at King Black with minimal power. King Black tentatively stretched out his hands to block it, but his palms were burned a few seconds later, and he screamed in pain.

"Is it because the quantum streamer is too hot?" I was a little puzzled. Logically speaking, the Specium Ray is also a high-temperature ray. How did the first Black King manage to catch it with his bare hands?

Seeing King Black covering his little hand with a pitiful expression, I could only pat its head and say, "If we don't have any ideas, let's take a break. Forcing it to train might backfire, and if it gets injured, it'll be like shooting ourselves in the foot."

King Black nodded with a "woof," and was then put into a monster capsule by my dream.

Aikona said that the monster capsules are filled with ample resources such as air, water, and food. It is said that the monsters inside are like living in a dormitory, and eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping are not a problem. As for replenishing resources, they will send people over regularly to maintain the capsules.

I dreamt that I put King Black back into the capsule to rest, then stretched and transformed back into my human form to go to a nearby town to buy some food and drinks.

He and King Black had been training here for a whole morning, and overall it had been quite fruitful. King Black had roughly figured out Gaia's main combat system, and could easily deal with both teleportation attacks and Gaia's cutting and assault tactics.

However, neither I nor Black King had any clue how to catch the light with our bare hands.

I dreamt I was going out to clear my head and recover my strength and spirit. If I still had no clue, I would contact Eikona to see if she could offer any advice. After all, in the original work, it was the Nackle aliens who were responsible for analyzing and cracking the Specium Ray. I just didn't know if Eikona and her team had the same level of technical skill as that Nackle alien.

After hiking through the mountain roads, I arrived at a nearby town. It was a rather remote town with typical village architecture. However, it was much more prosperous than I had expected, with quite a few shops and supermarkets. It was unusual for such a remote town to be so bustling.

I dreamt I walked into a convenience store, bought a boxed lunch, and squatted down to eat it by the roadside. Just as I was enjoying my meal, I noticed that the school gate not far from the convenience store was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, preparing for some kind of welcoming ceremony.

"There are actually people here who deserve such a grand reception?" I was quite curious, because the level of reception seemed to be quite high.

After quickly shoveling the food out of my mouth, I got up, patted my bottom, and headed towards the school gate.

At that moment, the security guard at the school gate was directing the movers to unload the flowers and banners from the truck. Looking at so many flowers and brightly colored banners, I couldn't help but walk up to the security guard and ask curiously, "Uncle, is some important person coming? The welcome ceremony is quite grand."

The security guard glanced back at him and asked, "Young man, you're not a local, are you?"

"Of course, I was just passing through this area on a road trip and stopped by to buy some things," Meng casually replied.

"Hehe, you've really caught up with us. We're getting a very important person here today. To be honest, I watched that kid grow up." The security guard chuckled, seemingly quite proud of this past.

The security guard explained that today they were welcoming a gifted boy who had graduated from the school. It was said that the boy had self-studied the fifth-grade curriculum in the second grade, which seemed like a genetic mutation to outsiders. The reason he only revealed his talent in the second grade was because he was not familiar with the school in the first grade and did not dare to show it.

After the homeroom teacher discovered that this boy was a talented student, he immediately reported it to the principal. The principal, along with the teachers of all subjects, gave him an emergency test. The results showed that the boy could score almost full marks on fifth-grade questions. So the principal immediately let him skip a grade and assigned him the best teacher in the school to tutor him one-on-one from the second grade until graduation.

At that time, the boy's family was quite poor. He was the kind of ordinary family whose parents sent him to the town's primary school with a "let's give it a try" mentality, not knowing when he might drop out.

When the principal learned about the situation, he was shocked. That very evening, he personally drove several teachers to the parents' home, leaving the parents quite bewildered, thinking that their child had committed some serious offense.

The principal spoke to them very seriously all night, telling them that their family had produced an SSR child, that this child's future was absolutely limitless, that they should feed the child well, pay more attention to his physical and mental development, not criticize or scold him, and that they should communicate with the school immediately if there was anything, and that the school would help with anything.

The couple, who had farmed all their lives, were so excited that they couldn't sleep all night, unable to believe that their child was so outstanding.

The boy lived up to expectations; he was a veritable knowledge black hole, able to learn anything you taught him. The principal spared no effort in sending him to various Olympiad competitions, and he won every single one. This remote little place began to gain recognition time and time again.

During this period, many prestigious schools drove luxury cars and, despite getting their shoes muddy, made a point of visiting them, wanting them to send their children to their schools and promising to solve any problems.

However, the couple felt that their child's success was entirely due to the principal's righteousness; if the principal hadn't acted, their child, no matter how intelligent, would have been wasted. Therefore, they declined the prestigious school's offer. Upon hearing this, the principal, a middle-aged man, was moved to tears.

After that came a series of competitions, from winning awards in the county to advancing to the city, and from winning awards in the city to advancing to the province. When the owners of the local market heard that such a promising young talent had emerged from their area, they all generously donated money, providing the principal with a lot of funds for his activities, so that the boy could have whatever he wanted.

The principal was able to hold his head high from then on, transforming from an unknown figure into someone who could speak on stage in large-scale competitions time and time again. Later, when the child was going from junior high to senior high school, he continued to show concern and support. The child was grateful and, even though he had long since lost touch with the elementary school, he would bring the principal and teachers out whenever he had the chance to make a name for himself in front of the big shots.

When that child started elementary school, the security guard was only in his thirties. Now he's almost sixty, and even after more than twenty years, he still talks about that boy's story with great enthusiasm and his eyes light up.

"So, what happened to that genius boy later?"

I have no doubt that there are such geniuses in this world, especially in the Ultraman universe.

To put it simply, take the Defense Force Headquarters. Any researcher you randomly pick from the Space Development Agency was once the most outstanding teenager in a city or even province. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they are all top students.

"Him? He joined the Earth Defense Force at a young age and went off to make a name for himself. But he never forgot about us. Look at us, even though it's a remote town, we're doing pretty well, aren't we? It's all thanks to his legacy," the security guard said with a smile.

Just then, the movers unfurled a welcome banner, and I curiously peered closer to take a look—

[A warm welcome to Dr. Tango, Research Director of the Earth Defense Force, on his return to his hometown]

"what?????"

Chapter Forty-Eight: A Twist of Fate

When I saw the Empress's name appear above, I was speechless for a moment, but then I thought about it and it didn't seem unreasonable.

Tango's ability to become the research director at the Earth Defense Force Headquarters, a place teeming with superhuman talent, speaks volumes about his abilities. Although he's portrayed as a buffoon in the original work, no one has ever denied his capabilities.

As one of the most outstanding geniuses in the entire Ultraman series, Masaki Keigo also highly recognized Tango's talent. The two of them almost realized their plan to mass-produce Ultraman.

In terms of talent and ability, Tango certainly possessed them, and was among the best in the world.

However... this person, just like Dr. Otomo, is an unlucky guy.

Although Dr. Otomo is also a clown, the projects he does are truly amazing. He not only cloned the two powerful figures, Hiltonon and Silvergon, but also managed to fix Silvergon's frog-eye defect and even created a terrifying monster like Neozalus.

Like Tango, he is a very talented person, but he does not conform to the core values ​​of Ultraman. Cloning Ultraman and artificially creating and controlling monsters are absolutely taboo in the Ultraman series. Anyone who dares to do them will be in trouble.

Even in this hellish world, I wouldn't dare let them operate freely.

Why? Because there's absolutely no room for error! If Dango and Otomo were to create a human-made Gaia or Neozars, and then Sphia looted it, it would be hopeless, and everyone would just die.

Just like the artificial Dyna Terranoid created by Gondo, after being looted by Sfia, it turned into the ultimate monster, a humanoid self-propelled bomber with infinite health and mana, capable of firing Solgent Rays without limit. If it weren't for Asuka's power-up and Gondo's sacrifice which strengthened Dyna's idealism, that one wave alone could have wiped out all of humanity.

As for Neozars, this thing has an alternate identity in Dekali called Neomegas. After being looted by Sphia, he can evaporate a fully healed, strong Dekali with a single beam of light. If that kind of damage were to hit my current self, it would be enough to start a full-blown fight.

Listening to the story of that spirited and talented young man, and then looking at the name of the Empress on the banner, I felt a little strange for a moment.

A short while later, a black luxury sedan slowly drove up from the road, slowed down and stopped in front of the school, and Tango, dressed in a formal suit, stepped out of the car.

Tango's simple entrance surprised me once again, because Tango is usually a very domineering and ostentatious person at work. In his usual style, he would have at least a dozen luxury cars leading the way and walking on a red carpet before getting out of the car.

After getting off the bus, Tango immediately greeted the security guard next to me. He even remembered the guard's name. His warm and approachable manner was unlike him at all.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the uncle, Tango noticed Gamu standing next to him. Since Gamu was dressed casually and had gotten a little dusty from walking through the mountain road, Tango didn't recognize him at first.

"My Dream team member? What are you doing here?" Dango looked at the uncle, then at My Dream, and felt a little awkward.

He suddenly felt a little unsure whether he should act in the manners he was used at work or back home when facing the situation.

I explained, “It’s a coincidence. I was on a road trip during my recent break and ended up in your hometown.”

"Is that so... I seem to remember seeing you at headquarters not long ago." Dango scratched his head. "It's probably just too much of a coincidence."

"Oh right, Dr. Tango." I suddenly remembered that Tango had studied quantum streamlines before. He even developed a method for artificially launching quantum streamlines, but that thing was guaranteed to explode, and it was too labor-intensive.

"Any questions?"

Back in his hometown, Dango was much more amiable than usual. At that moment, he really did resemble the young man the security guard had described. But it was hard to tell which one was the real him. Was it the arrogant Dr. Dango at work, or the kind former genius from his hometown?

"I would like to ask about your previous research on quantum streamlines."

"Academic questions? Sure, if it's just a purely academic discussion, it has nothing to do with Horii." Tango pushed up her glasses, turned around and said politely to the security guard, "This is my friend, he is also a classified member of the Earth Defense Force. I'll have a private chat with him for a while, please don't spread our business around."

"No problem! I'll talk to the cafeteria later and ask them to add more food to the special dishes." The security guard turned around and left with a smile.

"It's still the same as before, just eating from the same big pot with everyone. I really miss Aunt Kawashima's big pot cooking skills. The kind of food cooked in a small pot tastes the same everywhere, it's not special!"

"Alright, same as always for lunchtime, don't be late!"

To be honest, Tango at this moment feels completely unfamiliar to me.

He's so easy to talk to, he's a completely different person from how he is at work!

I even dreamed of transforming immediately and using Ultra Vision to scan Dan Hou to see if he was possessed by some alien or ghost.

But it seems unnecessary, because this is Tango, the boy in the old man's story.

"Let's go." Turning around, Danhou seemed to have regained some of the aloofness she displayed at work.

He and I strolled along the tree-lined corridors of the campus, supposedly discussing academics, but in reality, he was the one doing all the talking, while I could only occasionally chime in. Fortunately, the original owner's superb academic memories remained in my mind. Although I couldn't achieve the same genius-level scientific research as the original owner, I could still manage to do some academic Q&A using these memories.

After rambling on with Tango for a while, I finally found an opportunity to ask the question he wanted to ask: "Dr. Tango, your research on light quanta is so in-depth, have you considered how we should defend against this kind of attack?"

Dango looked at Imu with some surprise: "Are you worried that Ultraman Gaia will attack us?"