Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Inside Cui Ming's Giga Battle Device, the one living the best right now is actually Dadarahos, who was previously being hunted down by Cui Ming.

It lay sprawled on a massive energy crystal, its pine cone-like skin rising and falling slightly with its breath, the horns on its head gleaming with a dark, eerie light. Its eyes, which usually gleamed with cunning, were now half-closed, as if basking in the afternoon sun. Its signature spiky body was stretched out, its belly slightly bulging, and it chewed slowly and deliberately, a half-torn piece of meat from the prey Cui had released, seemingly resigned to its fate.

Now that it no longer has to be chased by Cui Ming, it has become lazy.

The old Dadarathor, who used to live in constant fear, hiding and even sleeping with one eye open, is dead. Now, it's too lazy to even walk; rolling from one end of the crystal to the other is its daily exercise. It's even learned to wash its face with its paws, though it's washing its spiky face with clumsy and comical movements, but it exudes a lazy comfort to the core.

The main thing is that it's great not being hunted down.

D'Artarahos's horns would tremble involuntarily as it recalled those days. Back then, no matter which dimension it fled to, no matter which dimensional rift it hid in, that guy named Trevor would always catch up with it like a ghost. It remembered most clearly the time when it had just established a new hideout on a remote planet, and before it could even take a sip of water, the sky above it split open, and a silver giant descended from the heavens, crushing its base gate with a single stomp. That wasn't a battle; it was a one-sided hunt, a hunter toying with its prey.

Moreover, there's food here, and life is good.

The combat device was brimming with energy, and prey was regularly delivered. Although those mindless monsters weren't very bright, their meat was delicious and they were full of energy. D'Artaghors no longer needed to steal, rob, or cheat, nor did it need to risk being discovered by the Space Garrison to plunder resources. It could simply lie here, catch a prey when it was hungry, find a comfortable corner to sleep when it was tired, and watch Gomora and Red King fight for amusement when it woke up. Its life was a hundred times more comfortable than when it was a space pirate.

Most importantly, you don't have to worry about being hunted down by that terrifying thing, Cui Ming!

That was the real nightmare. Dadarahos rolled over, scratched its belly with its paw, gazed at the deep purple-blue sky of the energy space, and let out a satisfied burp. Before, it would jump at the slightest sound, but now, even if Red King snored beside it, shaking the ground, it could sleep soundly. Because here, Trevor was its master, its leader, its protector, not the Grim Reaper who traveled through time to kill it.

They'd really travel through time to kill you!
Dadarahos remembered one time when it even escaped back to the mother planet Dadar, hiding inside the protective shield of the planet's core, thinking it was finally safe. But Cui Ming chased it all the way to Dadar, smashed the mother planet's shield with a single punch, and dragged it out of the core like a chick. That despair, that inescapable fear no matter where it fled, was deeply etched into its soul. So now, it would rather be Cui Ming's lackey, rather live a life of idle existence in this combat device, than experience being hunted again.

It rolled over, buried its face in the cracks of the energy crystal, and made a satisfied humming sound.

"...It's better to be a salted fish..."

Many people know what Cui Ming did.

In the top-secret files of intelligence agencies around the world, in the private communications of high-ranking officials at NERV headquarters, and in the eyes of special organizations lurking in the shadows, the name Cui Ming was no longer just that of a simple acting commander. Every move he made, every transformation he made, every feat of turning the impossible into possible, was branded into the memories of those in the know. From single-handedly defeating the Angels, to cutting the extradimensional beings into pieces, to forcing the ancient monster Gomora to dig a tunnel to escape, this intelligence circulated silently in certain circles, becoming the most chilling topic of conversation.

Aside from SEELE and Rokubungi Gendo, they were immune to the intelligence services. It was a subtle yet cruel isolation. The old fogies at SEELE, sitting in their rocky circle, thought they controlled the global intelligence network, believing their eyes and ears were everywhere, unaware that the reports they received about Choi Myung had already been carefully filtered by the five liaisons—leaving only insignificant scraps or even fabricated information. They thought Choi Myung was just a somewhat capable acting commander, that he had secured his position through luck and brute force. As for Rokubungi Gendo, he was an even more pitiful creature kept in the dark. Lying in his hospital bed, roaring into his communicator, he was completely unaware that the outside world had changed drastically, unaware that NERV, which he so desperately wanted to reclaim, had already listed him as a top-level target of intelligence cover.

Cui Ming's identity was far too special; he was frightening enough anywhere.

He was not merely the acting commander of NERV, nor simply a giant capable of transforming into Ultraman Ace; he was Storm One, who had hunted down aliens and defeated monster armies across countless worlds, striking fear into the hearts of extradimensional beings. This accumulated resume created an almost conceptualized fear. Even if he were merely sitting quietly in his office drinking tea, exchanging a few words with Asuka in the corridor, or walking expressionlessly through the lobby, those who knew his background would instinctively hold their breath, cold sweat seeping down their backs. He didn't need to be angry, he didn't need to transform; his mere existence was enough to make the air heavy.

So it's normal that a lot of people are paying attention.

Intelligence agencies around the world listed him as a top priority target, analyzing his every move around the clock; NERV headquarters staff, though not openly admitting it, exchanged rumors about him daily; even the aliens and monsters lurking in human society received warnings from their own kind—stay away from that human named Choi Myung, the farther the better. This attention wasn't out of curiosity, but rather a biological instinct, a vigilance akin to a rabbit instinctively watching for a wolf's movements.

Now, Cui Ming is subduing monsters, though no one has seen it...

When Gomora disappeared deep underground, only Cui Ming pursued it, without any followers or live-streaming equipment. What happened deep underground remained a complete mystery. When the reinforcements arrived, they found only a rock wall melted by the intense heat and a huge, empty underground cavern. There were no signs of battle, no debris from an explosion, not even a drop of blood, as if the enormous monster had never existed.

But the monster's reaction disappeared, and subsequent investigations found no body. What does that mean?

Analysts from various countries convened emergency meetings, satellite images were repeatedly magnified, underground sonar was scanned again and again, and thermal imagers covered the entire area. But all the data pointed to the same bizarre result—Gomora's energy signal had completely disappeared, not dissipated after death, but rather erased in some more thorough and cleaner way. No body, no remains, no residual energy; this ancient monster, capable of destroying a city, simply vanished into thin air.

"It's been subdued..."

The intelligence chief of a major power stared at the blank data on the screen, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table, the sound as dry as if he had walked in the desert for three days. An absurd yet most plausible hypothesis popped into his mind—Troika hadn't killed Gomora, but had taken it away, taming this ferocious monster like a hunting dog, bringing it under his control. This thought chilled him to the bone, because if it were true, it meant that the power Troika wielded far exceeded their understanding of the concept of "humanity."

"What exactly is he...?"

Meanwhile, at NERV headquarters, the man who had just returned from underground sat calmly in his office, sipping hot tea from his thermos, as if nothing had happened. But everyone knew that something had changed.

The disappearance of one monster signifies the formation of an unknown and far more terrifying格局 (geju, a concept encompassing both order and structure). And Cui Ming sits at the very center of that格局, ​​as calm as a bottomless lake. (End of Chapter)