Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

In outer space, three small Reicuran alien spaceships, arranged in a triangular formation, slowly approached the Earth space station. Inside the cockpits, several Reicuran aliens shouted "Cooperation!" but their hands were busy—the pilot of the left spaceship quietly adjusted the weapon's aiming angle, pointing the cannon at his companion's spaceship on the right, thinking, "When the battle starts, we'll take advantage of the chaos to cripple this guy's spaceship, reducing the number of people we can share the spoils with"; the leader of the middle spaceship was secretly activating the backup escape pod, ready to abandon his teammates and run away if things went wrong.

"Prepare for action. According to plan, upon approach, use the pulverizing ray to destroy the space station's defense system!" The leader's voice came through the communicator, his tone full of arrogance. "Hmph, let the Earthlings know what strategy is! Let them understand how terrifying the cooperation of us Reicuran people can be!"

“That’s right!” The other Reicurans feigned agreement, but each harbored their own agenda. The pilot of the right-hand ship was already counting down, planning to launch an “accidental” energy blast at their companion on the left once they were within attack range.

Just as the Reicuran aliens' ship was about to enter attack range, the Earth space station suddenly sent a communication request. The screen displayed the image of a space station operator, whose voice was wary: "Unknown ship. Please immediately identify yourself and state your purpose, or we will take defensive measures!"

The Reicurans exchanged smiles but did not respond—what they wanted was to catch them off guard, and once they were close enough, they would use their shattering beam to instantly destroy the space station's communication and defense systems, leaving the Earthlings no chance to call for help.

But the next second, a scene that completely stunned them unfolded—the outer shell of the space station suddenly flipped up, revealing rows of pitch-black cannon muzzles. The dense array of turrets, like the quills of a hedgehog, instantly aimed at the Reicuran alien's spaceship. These turrets were thicker than the defensive weapons humans usually deployed, their muzzles gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, clearly heavy weapons that had undergone special modifications.

"What...what's going on?!" the pilot of the spaceship on the left screamed, nearly dropping the control stick in his hand. "How come they have so many turrets?! Weren't we told that the space station only had basic defenses?!"

The leader was stunned. The "signal eye" turned grayish-white with shock—according to the intelligence they had gathered, the Earth space station's defense system was only capable of dealing with small meteorites, and there were no such densely packed heavy artillery emplacements. This was completely different from the "easy raid" they had anticipated; it was like punching cotton and getting pricked by the thorns inside.

"What's going on?! The intelligence was wrong?!" The pilot of the right-hand spaceship panicked. His hand, which was about to fire the "accidental" energy blast, froze on the control stick. Now, forget about scheming against his teammates; even his own survival was in question. The caliber of those turrets was enough to destroy their small spaceships. Once locked on, there was no chance of escape.

The space station's communication came through again, this time with a cold tone: "Unknown spacecraft, you have entered Earth's defense alert range and are refusing to identify yourselves. Cease your advance immediately, or we will open fire!"

The Reicurans exchanged bewildered glances, their previous arrogance and scheming vanishing instantly. Their leader stared at the screen filled with countless turrets, swallowed hard, and for the first time, a sense of retreat arose within him—let alone destroying the space station, if they dared to take another step forward, they would likely be riddled with bullets by these turrets.

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!" The leader of the Reicuran aliens stared at the turrets aimed at him on the screen, his voice trembling. His previous arrogance had vanished, and now he had only one thought in his mind—to escape this damned place as quickly as possible, or he would be blasted to pieces by the Earthlings' turrets sooner or later.

The other Reicurans panicked, reaching for their ships to try and escape the space station's attack range. But the next second, everyone froze—no matter how they pushed the control sticks, the ships wouldn't budge. A red "system locked" warning popped up on the screen, and even the engines began to slowly shut down. "W-what's going on?! Why can't we control it?!" The pilot of the ship on the left frantically pounded on the control panel, his eyes filled with terror. "My ship won't move! Who the hell did this?!"

The situation was worse on the right-hand side of the spaceship. Not only were controls malfunctioning, but the communication system was also becoming unstable, with only intermittent curses from their comrades audible. The pilot slammed his fist on the control panel and roared, "The system's locked! Someone's tampered with the ship! It's definitely one of our own!"

The leader's ship was not spared either. The malfunction message on the screen kept flashing. Looking at the scene in front of it, the "signal eye" instantly turned into a furious crimson: "Damn it! It must be one of you! In order to take the chance to escape for yourself, you actually locked the other people's ships!" It cursed as it frantically tried to unlock the lock, but no matter how many commands it entered, the system did not respond at all - obviously, the person who set the lock had made thorough preparations to cut off the other people's escape route.

"Bullshit! I suspect you did it yourself!" the pilot of the left-hand spaceship immediately retorted. "You definitely wanted us to be bait so you could secretly activate the backup escape pod and run away! Don't think I don't know you've hidden escape equipment in the spaceship!"

"I bet it was you! When we were assigning tasks, you kept staring at my energy core. You were definitely trying to take advantage of the chaos to steal it!" The pilot of the right-hand spaceship also joined the argument. The already fragile "alliance" completely exposed its internal strife at this critical moment.

The space station's turrets were still aimed at them; the ships with their engines shut down were like targets floating in space, ready to be blasted into dust at any moment. But the Rechuran people didn't think about joining forces to crack the system. Instead, they blamed and insulted each other, and even began to use the few small weapons they had left on their ships to target each other—the ship on the left fired a weak light blast at the ship on the right. Although it didn't cause much damage, it completely ignited the fuse for infighting.

"You dare hit me?! I think you're asking for trouble!" The pilot of the right-hand spaceship, his eyes bloodshot, recklessly activated his backup weapon and retaliated against the spaceship on the left. The leader, watching the scene of infighting before its eyes, trembled with rage, yet was helpless—its own spaceship was locked on, and it couldn't even activate its escape pod. It could only watch helplessly as its companions schemed against each other in their final moments.

The space station operator frowned as he looked at the chaotic scene of the Reicuran aliens on the screen and said into the communicator, "What's wrong with these aliens? They're fighting amongst themselves before the battle even starts?"

The colleague next to him shook his head with a smile: "Who cares about them? They're a bunch of people who betray each other. We don't even need to lift a finger; they can destroy themselves."

In outer space, the Reicuran aliens' ships were still attacking each other. The sounds of system lock-on alarms, shouts of cursing, and explosions of weapons mingled together, creating an absurd and ironic farce. They had originally intended to scheme against Earthlings, but unexpectedly, they were defeated by their own kind; they had proclaimed an "unbreakable alliance," but in the face of life and death, their true nature of "allies are the real enemies" was revealed.

The leader, watching the space station's turrets draw ever closer and its comrades attacking each other, finally realized with despair—not only had they failed to conquer Earth, but they were also about to lose their lives due to their own people's schemes. And all of this was simply the inevitable consequence of their selfish nature. (End of Chapter)