Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Mashura lurked deep within the dark, damp sewers, sewage reaching its cap, the putrid water constantly washing over its body. Its eyes gleamed with an eerie green light, fixed on the ground, peering through the floors and streets towards the direction where the monstrous mushroom mother had been taken. A burning flame of grief and resentment raged within it, threatening to consume its reason. "Humans, so terrifying!" it roared inwardly, its voice echoing through the cramped space of the sewers, filled with boundless hatred. Those humans, piloting all sorts of strange machines, had pounced on it and the mother like ravenous wolves, showing no mercy, only a frenzied hunt and plunder.

"And that Storm One!" Matthewa recalled the Storm One piloted by Cui Ming, its formidable combat power and ruthless hunting methods sending chills down its spine. Wherever Storm One went, it seemed to cast a shadow of death; each of its attacks felt like an attempt to wipe Matthewa and its kind from the face of the earth. "It's terrifying, truly terrifying!!!" Matthewa's body trembled slightly. It had never felt fear so acutely before, a fear not stemming from mere power suppression, but from humanity's relentless, mad madness.

However, Matthewa possessed great intelligence, and even filled with grief and fear, it did not lose its fighting spirit. "I will not lose!" it vowed silently, the slime beneath its cap continuously secreting, dripping into the sewage and creating eerie ripples. It knew it had to be careful now; to it, the outside world was like a scene from a horror game. The humans of the Set team were like omnipresent, relentlessly pursuing demons in the game, and it was the isolated, unarmed human, vulnerable to utter destruction at the slightest misstep. "It's absurd just thinking about it..." Matthewa thought helplessly, but reality was cruel; it had no way out but to struggle for survival.

Just as Matthew was racking her brains for a plan, plotting to seduce an unfortunate soul as a host to regain her power and continue her revenge, the monster mushroom's true form had already been transported to the Seth Team's research base. Inside the base's large laboratory, Ultraman Hikari and Ultraman Tregear stood beside the enormous mushroom body. Hikari held a device that gleamed with an eerie light, his eyes sharp as an eagle's, carefully scanning the venomous components on the monster mushroom; Tregear, on the other hand, held a syringe filled with a strange potion, his eyes cold, revealing a thirst for knowledge about the unknown.

"Mere venom!" Hikari scoffed, his tone full of disdain. In the eyes of this top inventor from the Land of Light, even the most complex toxins were nothing more than a bunch of molecular structures that could be analyzed and deciphered. The device in his hand whirred rapidly, emitting a faint buzzing sound, and data kept flashing on the device's screen, analyzing the chemical composition and properties of various venoms one by one.

“Mere venom!” Torregia chimed in, a hint of mockery in his voice. In his eyes, this so-called venom capable of turning humans into mushroom people was nothing more than a low-level biological weapon. He raised a syringe, preparing to inject his self-developed antidote into the monster mushroom to see if it could neutralize the terrifying toxin. “Are you underestimating us?!” The two spoke almost simultaneously, their voices echoing in the laboratory. They had absolute confidence in their invention; in the Land of Light, they were known as “beast-level inventors.” How could they possibly take the venom of a mere monster mushroom seriously? Destroying it was only a matter of time.

. . . . . . . .

Inside the Set team's laboratory, Hikari's analytical device flashed red, Tregear's syringe emitted an eerie blue light, and Cui Ming had already set up a cooking station next to the massive body of the monster mushroom. "The fibrous structure of these gills is tougher than expected," Hikari said, pressing the analyzer against the mushroom's surface. Data cascaded across the holographic screen. "It will require a plasma cutter to process." Before he finished speaking, Cui Ming had already swung out a chain-blade-like cooking utensil, the blade wreathed in Set team-made high-temperature flames, instantly slicing off the mushroom's huge cap. The rising aroma was mixed with a slightly burnt smell of decomposing toxins.

Torregia chuckled as he injected a vial of fluorescent green neutralizer into the mushroom tissue. The slime boiled and churned, the originally deadly venom turning into harmless foam. "Now it's ready to cook." He raised an eyebrow at Cui Ming, only to see the chef grilling mushroom slices on a rack modified from the Storm One's energy cannon. The sizzling oil sparked and danced with the arc of electricity from the Hikari repair device. "Try this!" Cui Ming suddenly handed over a skewer of mushrooms sprinkled with cosmic spices.

As night fell, the remains of the monster mushrooms had been transformed into delicacies that filled the laboratory: mushroom soup made with nutritional fortifiers developed by Hikari simmered in a holographic pot, Tregear sprinkled seasoning powder made from the remaining spores on fried mushroom pieces, and Tregear even made chicken stew with mushrooms!
Then let's all start.

The toxins have been completely removed.

I must say, the monster mushroom is indeed powerful.
The taste is indeed delicious.

When the last piece of mushroom was devoured, only the satisfying sounds of chewing filled the laboratory. Deep in the sewers, however, Matthew suddenly shivered, a searing pain tearing at her soul—her spiritual connection with the Mother had been severed the instant the mushroom feast was finished.

The sewage suddenly churned violently, and Mashura's gills convulsed violently, countless drops of slime rolling down like tears. "No!!! The main body!!! No!!!!" It frantically slammed against the concrete walls of the sewer, spore dust fluttering down with each tremor, like scattered paper money in the eerie green light. Fragments of consciousness once shared with the mother body flashed wildly through its mind: the silence of the ancient Devonian period, the moonlight felt when it first broke through the soil, and the fear passed between them when besieged by humans.

"Original form! How could you die like this?!" Matthew's scream echoed through the pipes, carrying a trembling tone reminiscent of a human sob. It used its slime to draw distorted patterns on the wall—symbols of mourning unique to extradimensional beings—but was overwhelmed by emotion halfway through, its cap crashing heavily to the ground. Suddenly, the carefully preserved spores began to spray erratically, like uncontrolled tear ducts, staining the surrounding sewage a strange purple.

"No!!! You can't die so soon!!! I still need to save you!" Matthew curled up into a ball, its body expanding and contracting repeatedly, emitting a gurgling sound similar to a human sob. Suddenly, it frantically gnawed at its own gills, tearing off toxin-containing tissue—the stored energy intended for the resurrection of the mother—now transformed into a desperate outpouring. The spores floating in the sewage gradually lost their activity, like the last hope of this species, visibly extinguishing.

The distant roar of the Sett patrol boats echoed. Matthewa jerked her head up, her eyes, still wet with blood and tears, rekindling with a dark glint of hatred. She reassembled her shattered body, piecing together sharp edges in the sewage. Those soft tissues, once considered weaknesses, were now brewing an even more insane plan of revenge.

Massura compresses its body to the size of a palm, its gills curling into a fuzzy ball, with two wet "eyes" appearing on top. It crouches in the bushes behind the kindergarten, waiting for the children to pass by after school. When a little boy with a cartoon backpack curiously approaches, Massura immediately emits a sweet, electronic voice: "Little friend~ I'm a lost little mushroom sprite, can you take me home?" As it speaks, it shakes off a few fluorescent spores, which resemble scattered stars in the setting sun.

The little boy excitedly cradled it in his palm, completely unaware that the spores were seeping into his skin through his pores. The Massura spores wriggled cunningly in the child's warm hand; those spores, containing neurotoxins, had already begun to rewrite the boy's brainwaves. "Mom! Look what I found!" As the boy rushed into the house, the Massura hyphae had already entered his respiratory system through his nasal cavity, quietly weaving the first control network in his lungs.

Massura had already pushed its limits. It forcefully suppressed the intense emotional turmoil caused by the death of its mother, compressing its form to its smallest possible size, even causing its toxin secretion system to emit a piercing buzz from overload. When the little boy's chubby hands held it, the trembling mycelium almost uncontrollably released spores—but hatred made it hold onto its gills tightly.

Upon entering the boy's home, the aroma of cooking wafting from the kitchen suddenly made Matthew freeze. The boy's mother, wearing a strawberry-patterned apron, appeared from around the corner of the entryway, her eyes, concealing fine lines, suddenly brightening: "What wonderful mushrooms!" The moment she reached out, Matthew instinctively secreted a numbing mucus, only to have it enveloped by the woman's warm palm just before it touched her fingertips. "Well done, child." The woman's laughter was as gentle as melting butter, her fingernails lightly scraping across Matthew's fungal gills. This monster, poised to destroy humanity, suddenly felt a strange sensation—a sensation more moist than groundwater, warmer than spore resonance.

"Mommy! Look, it's a mushroom sprite!" The little boy stood on tiptoe to show off. Matthew took the opportunity to spray the spore powder into the woman's nostrils, only to be horrified to find that she had just affectionately rubbed her "cheek": "Hmm, I know, it's much bigger than your daddy."

"Huh? What does this have to do with Dad?" The boy looked up as the woman hummed a song and led Matthew into the kitchen. The rows of spice jars in the cupboard reflected rainbows in the setting sun. When the cast iron pot was placed heavily on the gas stove, Matthew finally saw a half-bag of dried mushrooms lying on the counter—they looked exactly like her.

“It’s alright, child, give me this mushroom. I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately.” The woman’s movements as she poured oil into the pan were fluid and graceful. The moment the flames leaped up, Mashura suddenly struggled violently. It finally understood the light in the woman’s eyes—it wasn’t love, but the fervor unique to a housewife discovering fresh ingredients, a fervor that sent shivers down the spines of all living things.

Massura wasn't afraid of being eaten; in fact, it was fine if it were. In its plan, the human digestive system was the perfect incubation chamber, where spores could seep into the bloodstream along with stomach acid, spreading the seeds of mutation throughout the host's body. But when the woman hummed a nursery rhyme and pressed it into the sink to wash it, this proud monster suddenly bristled—warm water mixed with lemon-scented dish soap seeped into its core tissue through the gaps in its gills.

"Wait! Woman! What are you doing?!" Matthew writhed wildly, its slime forming spiderweb-like strands in the porcelain basin. It watched as the woman lifted itself up, but not to chop vegetables!

"Wait! I can't be humiliated like this!!!" It was now terrified.

Matthewla never imagined that it would be so humiliated by a human! Even if it needed water, this wasn't the kind of water it wanted!

After completing the transformation of the woman, the eerie green light in Matthew's eyes intensified. It withdrew the slime-covered mycelium from the woman's limp body, watching as an umbrella-shaped cap rapidly rose from her head, her skin covered by a dense network of mycelium, completely turning her into a mushroom monster under its control.

"Excellent, first one done! Let's move out! I'm going to turn all the humans here into mushroom monsters!" Matthew let out a sharp screech, its voice a mix of madness and glee. It controlled the newly born mushroom monster, making it stagger towards the entrance and open the door. In the hallway outside, the neighbor uncle was humming a tune as he walked towards them, completely unaware of the impending danger.

The mushroom monster suddenly accelerated forward, opening its slimy mouth and spraying a mouthful of mushroom liquid at the man. The man tried to dodge in terror, but it was too late. The moment the mushroom liquid touched his mouth, he screamed in agony, and his body began to deform at a visible speed. Not long after, another mushroom monster was born, standing blankly in place, awaiting Matthew's commands.

Massura manipulated two mushroom monsters, like puppeteers, scattering them. One headed towards the neighborhood garden, where many residents strolled; the other moved towards the nearby supermarket, preparing to release more venomous spores in crowded areas. Meanwhile, Massura herself lurked in dark corners, continuously secreting venom and expanding her "mushroom monster army." A terrible crisis was spreading rapidly throughout the city.

As for the child, he had already been infected as well.

Next, Mashura is going to lead her army of mushroom people to cause trouble!

Matthewla refused to believe that this army of monsters couldn't handle humans!

What Mashura didn't know was...
This mushroom monster is perfect for triggering Cui Ming's special attack!

After all, Choi Myung can transform into a Kamen Rider. Although he won't kill anyone, he can definitely beat them all up.

Not to mention that Saeko and the others helped them.

So, this mushroom deserved its bad luck! (End of Chapter)