Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Gatanothor huddled in the dark depths of the sea, its murky eyes filled with agitation. Its massive body occasionally nudged the surrounding rocks, causing subtle tremors to spread across the entire ocean.

Of course, this is the only way it can relieve boredom.
Going out means getting beaten up.
它懂
but!

The more it thought about it, the angrier it became, its anger churning like lava—this was just too much!
"What the hell is that Nexus?" Gatanothor roared inwardly, his tentacles slapping the sea in frustration, the splashes disappearing in the darkness in an instant.

It simply couldn't understand why, even though it was the one who had personally wiped out humanity and considered itself one of the best at "creating despair" in the dark, the intense, overwhelming aura of despair emanating from Nexus made it feel uneasy. It felt so uneasy that it wanted to break the seal and confront Nexus face to face!
Why do you say that?

The more Gatanothor thought about it, the more outrageous it seemed—when it awoke, it overturned the cities of an ancient civilization in one fell swoop, driving humanity to the brink of extinction. Although it didn't completely wipe them out, it did exterminate most of humanity. At that time, it could clearly feel the despair of the entire land, so much so that it felt it was "enough."

But! This "but" weighed so heavily on its heart that it could crush a mountain!

"Why the hell is the amount of despair Nexus carries far exceeding the number of humans I've wiped out?!" Gatanothor's tentacles slammed into the seabed, sending countless tiny creatures scattering in all directions. It wasn't that it hadn't seen Ultramen burdened with despair before, but it had never seen anything so outrageous—the despair on Nexus was like a collection of the despair from several "extinction-level events," so thick it was suffocating, even making this dark creature feel uneasy.

"I can count!" Gatanothor emphasized in its mind. Although it had lived for millions of years, its perception of "quantity" had never been wrong. "The amount of despair on you is definitely wrong!!!" It could even vaguely sense that Nexus's despair included not only human despair, but also the despair of other races, and even the despair of some civilizations it couldn't even name. How could a dark giant withstand this? It was clearly taking on "all the misfortunes of the universe" upon itself!
It has been sealed in the seabed for so many years, doing nothing but pondering this matter. But the more it ponders, the more confused it becomes, and the more confused it becomes, the more frantic it becomes. It can understand that Ultraman carries despair when protecting humanity, but Nexus's situation has gone beyond the scope of "protection" and is more like "collecting" despair!
It sensed something was wrong! A huge problem!!!

A crimson glint flashed in Gatanothor's eyes, its inner turmoil of doubt and rage nearly bursting forth. It even began to suspect that Nexus had secretly experienced several "civilization extinctions," otherwise how could it harbor so much despair? Or perhaps, this Ultraman wasn't "protecting" at all, but rather "absorbing" despair?
The more Gatanothor thought about it, the more horrified it became. It couldn't help but shrink back – it wasn't afraid of fighting giants, but it was afraid of dealing with things that were "not right," especially something like Nexus, whose "desperate numbers were abnormal," which always made it feel like there was some more terrifying secret hidden behind it.

"No way, once I'm unsealed, I'm going to ask that guy!" Gatanothor made up its mind. Even if it didn't get an answer, it had to get Nexus to give it an "explanation," otherwise it would hold its anger for another ten million years!

Gatanothor may still not understand that it is not simply a "dark destroyer"—from a cosmic perspective, it is, in a sense, a test of Earth's civilization by the darkness of the universe. Millions of years ago, the ancient civilization failed this test and ultimately perished; and now, humanity must face it as well.

No one can explain why Earth, in particular, receives such "special treatment" from the universe—having to endure the trials of darkness and be targeted by countless cosmic forces.

Over the years, while investigating non-Earth invaders, Cui Ming had already sensed something was amiss. Whether it was intercepted cosmic signals or information pried from captured aliens, they all pointed to one fact: in this world's universe, many forces were eyeing Earth like hungry wolves eyeing a piece of fat meat. Some wanted to plunder Earth's resources, some wanted to use Earth as a "colony," and others simply wanted to use Earth as a "testing ground" to test their new weapons or abilities.

"What exactly makes Earth so special?" Cui Ming pondered this question more than once. He had reviewed the surviving records of ancient civilizations and studied the messages left by Ultraman, but he still couldn't find a definite answer.

Earth's resources are not the most abundant in the universe, and its technological level can only be considered "above average" in the universe, yet it has become the target of everyone's attacks. The reason behind this has always made him feel uneasy.

However, something has made Earth much safer for the time being – thanks to the legendary warrior GGGG's golden hammer, which has the feat of "annihilating a planet with a single blow".

The Brave King, wielding his golden hammer, stormed the enemy's home planet. With a single blow, the entire planet was reduced to cosmic dust. The scene of this battle was captured by probes from numerous cosmic forces and transmitted across much of the universe.

From then on, those forces that had previously harbored ill intentions towards Earth instantly became docile. After all, with a being on humanity's side capable of "annihilating a planet with a flick of the wrist," no one wanted to become the next planet to be smashed to pieces by a golden hammer. Even those forces that still harbored malicious intentions only dared to secretly probe around Earth's periphery, and dared not easily take action to cause trouble.

"At least we can catch our breath for now." Cui Ming looked at the report in the intelligence database that "there have been no large-scale movements of cosmic forces recently" and breathed a sigh of relief. But he knew very well that this was only temporary—once the deterrent power of the King of Heroes weakened, or if a stronger force appeared, those cosmic forces would eventually make a comeback.

He handed the report to Megumi Kijima beside him, his tone serious: "Although no one dares to cause trouble now, we cannot let our guard down. The Victory Team has just been formed, and the EDF division also needs to strengthen its training. We must take advantage of this time to improve our strength as soon as possible, otherwise we may not be so lucky when the next crisis comes."

Megumi took the report and nodded seriously: "I understand. The Victory Team members have already started targeted training. We will conduct more joint drills with the EDF branch to ensure seamless cooperation in the event of a real incident."

(End of this chapter)