Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Chapter 711 The little golden man didn't come, that's alright.
In the strategic seminar room at EDF headquarters, the cold white ring light strip cast long shadows of the three men. Cui Ming leaned against the holographic projection control panel, his combat boots casually kicking at the monster carapace fragments piled in the corner, the metal knee pads clanging against the control panel.

As he casually glanced at the message, saying, "Well, at least in Cui Ming's eyes, these extradimensional beings are still quite good as backup military rations," he was slicing a piece of dried two-tailed monster meat with a tactical dagger. The "rustling" sound of the blade cutting through the scales abruptly stopped.

Sawai's fingers tightened suddenly around the coffee cup, the brown liquid rippling on the rim of the bone china, reflecting his suddenly contracted pupils behind his glasses.

There's just too much data, so I need to wear protective glasses.

Sawai admitted that what Choi Myung provided was really good.
Yoshioka's hand, holding a cigar, hovered above the ashtray, gray ash falling softly onto his gleaming military boots. He opened his mouth, but only managed a muffled cough.

Cui Ming seemed oblivious, tossing a slice of meat into the air and catching it precisely with his dagger. He then used the tip of the dagger to flick the meat skewer in front of the two men, saying, "As you can see, this is a sample of meat from an extradimensional creature."

As one of Cui Ming's food reserves, Cui Ming didn't care about the thoughts of those otherworldly beings.
As long as it's edible, it's fine.
Of course, what the extradimensional beings think is not something Cui Ming needs to worry about.

After a few seconds of stillness, Sawai coughed lightly and tapped the table quickly with her fingertips to activate the holographic star map.

A dazzling galaxy flowed across the dome, the Ultraman logo shimmering on the Orion Arm. He pushed up his glasses, breaking the silence: "Cui Ming, about the Giants of Light you mentioned last time..." Before he could finish speaking, Yoshioka had already torn down a tactical map and spread it on the table, his pen nib slamming heavily into the red dot marked "Ancient Civilization Ruins": "So, tens of millions of years ago, a race of Giants of Light was helping to protect humanity? How did those technologically advanced humans..." Yoshioka knew that Cui Ming must have some questions about how he knew so much, but now he was more concerned about how the ancient humans had perished.

Cui Ming waved his hand and said, "I can only say that this really isn't the giants' fault." He slammed his hand on the control panel, and the holographic image abruptly switched to a sky full of flying purple pollen, with the ancient city twisting into ruins in the mist. "Because humanity itself failed the test." His voice seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of his chest, his knuckles heavily tapping the stem of the blooming Gijera flower in the projection, "When the pollen of this plant seeps into the air, the entire civilization is like being put on pause." In the image, the light of the Giant of Light dimmed amidst cheers, and Gatanothor's tentacles slowly rose from the seabed.

Sawai swallowed his shock, his Adam's apple bobbing, while Yoshioka poked a hole in the back of the map with his pen. A sudden air raid siren outside startled a flock of white doves, but the gazes of the three in the conference room were already fixed on the human arm reaching towards the sky in the holographic projection—the moment the fingertips touched the petals of the Cigela flower, all the lights representing civilization went out simultaneously, leaving only Cui Ming's last words echoing in the siren: "It wasn't the monsters that destroyed the ancient world; we chose to drown in illusory honey."

"."*2
The air in the conference room seemed to be pressed down by an invisible weight, so silent that you could hear Yoshioka's Adam's apple bobbing. Sawai took off his glasses and repeatedly wiped the lenses with his fingertips, but his gaze behind the lenses remained hazy, reflecting no light whatsoever. The shooting star outside the window had long since vanished, leaving only the city's neon lights staining the glass with blood-red patches of light, which, together with the collapsed ruins of the ancient city in the holographic projection, outlined a suffocating apocalyptic scene.

"Qijiela," Yoshioka suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice, his tactical pen twirling twice in his palm but never landing on the paper. He recalled the yellowed documents in the archives; some unpublished ancient murals did indeed depict purple, vine-like plants entwining pyramids. Now, thinking back, those distorted faces and raised arms were not sacrifices, but a desperate struggle drowning in illusion.

Sawai put his glasses back on, the metal frames making a soft clanging against his nose. "No wonder...no wonder the technological gap in the ancient civilization was so complete." He pulled up the energy parameters of the city's defense network, the fluctuating numbers suddenly becoming glaringly obvious—humanity's energy system, developed over a century, was so fragile before the utopia built by the pollen of the Gijera. Cui Ming leaned against the control panel, the "crunch" of his combat boots crushing gravel particularly clear in the silence. He reached out and touched the holographic projection, his fingertips passing through the phantom of Gatanothor, the black tentacles instantly twisting into the shape of a blooming Gijera: "If humanity cannot extricate itself from this illusion on its own, then it's useless." His voice seemed to drift from another dimension, the scars beneath his combat suit rising and falling with his breath, gleaming with an eerie silver light in the cold light.

Yoshioka suddenly looked up, his pen piercing the paper: "Ultraman is not a god." But the words caught in his throat. He recalled the footage of the first Ultraman descending to Earth in the archives, the light that tore through the night sky, the giant hand that lifted up the building, clearly exceeding the limits of human cognition.

“Okay, actually Ultraman can also be a god,” Sawai added in a low voice, his pupils behind his glasses slightly contracting.

After all, in some cases, these abilities are simply too amazing.

Although I haven't encountered it yet.
“Some of Ultraman’s abilities are so powerful that they’re practically divine,” Cui Ming suddenly chuckled.

"But it is light," the words seemed to be spoken to the two of them, or perhaps murmured to themselves. The air conditioner blew a new page into the combat notebook, on which were scribbles of giants of light in different forms, while in the corner, the words "The Price of Light" were repeatedly written in red pen.

Sawai's gaze was suddenly drawn to the light pattern on Cui Ming's collarbone; the blue light had a similar frequency to Ultraman Tiga's timer. Just as he was about to ask a question, Yoshioka slammed his notebook shut: "So what we need to do now is ensure that humanity doesn't repeat the same mistakes?"

Cui Ming was silent for a moment, then reached out and turned off the holographic projection. In the darkness, the light patterns on his collarbone shone even brighter, like a miniature star: "No, it's to remind humanity—light can illuminate the way forward, but only humanity itself can truly hold the torch."

Cui Ming has always believed that humans can ask Ultraman for help, but that doesn't mean they can rely on Ultraman for everything.
Hmm. It's about time I went back too.

Anyway, for this side, it's probably only a day for me to leave.

The same goes for over there.
but
Cui Ming looked around.
Hmm! It doesn't have the feel of an Oscar.
(End of this chapter)