Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Inside the Victory Team's locker room, Horii was striking a "thinker" pose—his hands were crossed under his chin, his body leaned slightly forward, his eyes were blankly staring at the ceiling, and his fingers were unconsciously tapping his arms. He looked as serious as if he were solving some world-class problem.

"Horii, what's wrong with you?" Daigo, carrying a cup of hot coffee, walked by and stopped when he saw him like this. He thought to himself: What's wrong with you suddenly assuming a deep-thinking posture?
Upon hearing Daigo's voice, Horii slowly withdrew his gaze, turned to him, and asked seriously, "Daigo, I'm thinking about something."

"Uh, what's the matter?" Daigo put down his coffee cup and followed up on what he was saying, thinking that he was thinking about the development ideas for a new weapon.

Horii's next words left Daigo speechless: "Well, Daigo, do you think I'm handsome or not?"

Daigo fell silent instantly, almost dropping his coffee cup, his eyes filled with shock, as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"

Lina, who was looking through documents, Shinjo, who was organizing equipment, and Nori, who had just walked in, all stopped what they were doing when they heard this. They looked at Horii with disbelief. They exchanged glances, thinking to themselves: Do you want to hear what you're saying?! Discussing whether someone is "handsome" or not?
Horii, oblivious to everyone's odd behavior, asked expectantly, "What's wrong, Daigo? Is it hard to answer? Do you think I'm too handsome and you don't know how to describe me?"

"No, Hori, how did you even come up with that question?" Daigo finally found his voice and quickly changed the subject. He really didn't know how to answer such an absurd question as "Is Hori handsome or not?"

Horii scratched his head, sounding a little embarrassed: "Well, you see, Instructor (Choi Myung), his love life is pretty smooth, and there are always people willing to fight alongside him. I was thinking, is it because he's handsome that he's like this, so I started wondering if I'm handsome or not."

"Completely different!" Daigo quickly interrupted him, afraid that he would come up with even more outrageous ideas. "And," he paused, thinking that it seemed that none of Cui Ming's teammates, comrades, or close friends followed him because of his "looks." "I think it's probably the instructor's personal charm—he is decisive, protective of his teammates, and has strong combat capabilities, which makes him reliable. It has little to do with whether he's handsome or not."

After listening, Horii frowned and pondered for a while, then looked up at Daigo, his tone slightly unconvinced: "I have a lot of integrity too! The weapons I developed have solved so many problems for everyone, and I've been really good to my teammates!"

Daigo fell silent again. Rena couldn't help but burst out laughing, and Shinjo patted Horii on the shoulder: "Okay, you have a personality, but the way you're suddenly agonizing over 'whether he's handsome or not' is really a bit strange!"

Horii wanted to retort, but was interrupted by the "new weapon test data" handed to him by Nozue. Looking at the full screen of parameters, he finally pulled himself out of his "appearance anxiety" and returned to his field of scientific research, but there was still a bit of unresolved confusion on his lips: Is appearance really that important, in addition to personal charm?

Just then, Asuka walked into the lounge carrying a file bag. As soon as she entered, she heard a lively commotion inside and couldn't help but ask with a smile, "What are you all talking about? Why is it so lively?" "Nothing!" Daigo, Rena, Shinjo, and Nori answered almost in unison, their eyes showing a hint of panic—they were protecting Horii! They were afraid that he would say something about "being hung up on looks" and be laughed at by Asuka.

However, before anyone could smooth things over, Horii stepped forward and asked Asuka earnestly, "Asuka, I'm wondering, even though I'm pretty good-looking, why am I so much less popular with women compared to Instructor (Choi)?"

"??????" Asuka nearly dropped the file folder in her hand, her eyes wide with disbelief as she stared at Horii, her mind reeling: What are you talking about?! Worried about your and Choi's popularity with women? This topic is outrageous! How dare you?! Do you think you can compare to this... in looks?!
After a few seconds, Asuka finally spoke, both amused and exasperated: "Your Choi is indeed quite popular with women, but he's also helpless about it, okay? As you've all seen, he's basically either on missions or handling EDF work. Once he's done, he goes straight home and rarely goes out alone. How could he have time to cultivate 'popularity with women'?"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the lounge nodded in agreement—indeed, Cui Ming's life was so simple it was transparent; aside from work, it was all about fighting. Even when he occasionally dined with everyone, it was always a group activity, and they had never seen him alone with a woman.

Asuka continued, "As for his looks, Choi's looks are definitely not a problem, but he can't possibly suit everyone's taste. You guys think he's the tough guy type, but actually, if he didn't have that tense expression, he'd actually be considered a fresh-faced handsome guy?"

"It seems...it really is true." Upon hearing this, Lina suddenly realized that she had always thought that Instructor Cui Ming was full of "battle aura" and always equated him with "tough guy". Now that she thought about it carefully, Cui Ming's features were actually very clean, his eyebrows and eyes were clean, and his skin was not rough. It was just that when he was fighting or handling work, he always frowned and had a tense face, which made people overlook his "freshness".

Daigo chimed in, "Yeah, last time I saw the instructor wasn't wearing his combat uniform, but just a simple white T-shirt, standing at the base entrance waiting for Asuka. He seemed much gentler, and definitely had a 'fresh and handsome' look."

Horii listened to everyone's words, frowned and pondered for a long time, still somewhat unconvinced: "But even so, he didn't do anything special, so how come he's more popular with women than me?"

Asuka patted his shoulder helplessly: "That's because of the 'sense of security' he exudes! Whether it's fighting or doing other things, he makes people feel 'reliable,' and that quality is more attractive than his looks."

"A sense of security? Hmm, Earth. I definitely feel very safe around the instructors."

Horii admitted that this was a fact.
He felt incredibly safe around Choi Myung.
"Right, it's good that you understand. Actually, you'll gradually understand that Cui is a very good person." (End of Chapter)