Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Recently, Daigo has been pondering a question in his mind—that his unexpected acquisition of the ability to transform into Tiga wasn't as "indispensable" as he seemed.

He used to think that when Earth faced the threat of monsters, Ultraman would have to step up; but during this time, while following the GUTS team on missions, he found that in most cases, TPC could handle it on its own, especially when Instructor Cui Ming was around, Ultraman didn't even need to take action.

Just like now, Daigo stood in the cockpit of the Victory Flying Swallow, looking at the scene on the ground below, his heart filled with complex emotions—Choi Myung was piloting the Nix mech, chasing several enormous dinosaur monsters across the plains on the outskirts of the city. The mech's silver shell gleamed coldly in the sunlight, and every shot from the energy cannons on its arms accurately hit the monsters' weak points, forcing the dinosaur monsters to flee in terror, utterly powerless to retaliate.

“This is clearly a biological weapon dropped by the Naga.” Lina, in the passenger seat, frowned as she operated the instruments to analyze the monster’s data. “What were they thinking? Knowing that Instructor Cui Ming was here, they still dared to send monsters to Earth. Aren’t they just handing themselves over to be dealt with?”

Daigo didn't reply, but just stared at the figure of Cui Ming piloting the mecha on the screen, his confusion deepening: Yes, what are these aliens thinking? With Instructor Cui Ming around, whether it was the previous Gakuma or the current dinosaur monster, they could be easily dealt with; TPC's technological strength is also constantly improving, and the weapon systems of the Nix mecha and the Victory Flying Swallow are more than enough to deal with ordinary monsters.

Does Earth really need Ultraman's help?

He recalled the scene when he first transformed into Ultraman Tiga—back then, facing Golza and Melba, TPC's weapons were completely ineffective; it was Tiga's appearance that stopped the monsters from destroying the pyramid. But now? With Cui Ming leading the charge and TPC's advanced equipment providing support, it seemed that whether or not Ultraman existed wasn't so important anymore.

Sometimes he even wondered: if he didn't have the ability to transform, and was just a member of the GUTS team, carrying out missions with everyone, could he still protect the Earth? After all, Instructor Cui Ming was more "direct" than Ultraman—Ultraman had to worry about public panic and being exposed, but Cui Ming didn't care about these things and took direct action when threatened, which was more efficient.

"Daigo, what are you daydreaming about?" Rena's voice pulled Daigo back to reality. "Instructor Cui Ming is about to take down the last monster. We're going to go help clean up the scene."

"Oh, okay." Daigo snapped out of his daze and maneuvered the Victory Swallow to descend. He watched as the Nix mech below kicked down the last dinosaur monster, and the confusion in his heart still lingered—he didn't know what use his "transformation ability" would be in the future.

Daigo wasn't entirely "idle"—some time ago, when the main EDF force was deployed to snipe monsters along the Pacific coast, a Golza subspecies broke through the city's defenses. It was Daigo who secretly transformed into Ultraman Tiga and repelled the monster before it destroyed the city.

Tiga's battle did indeed make headlines, with television stations repeatedly broadcasting footage of the giant fighting the monster, and newspapers using headlines like "Mysterious Giant Reappears." However, this buzz didn't last long, quickly overshadowed by another wave of discussion—the focus of everyone's attention soon shifted to the "dinosaur monsters" that Cui Ming was chasing. Daigo sat in the GUTS team's rest area, watching his teammates huddle together discussing the news, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside him. Horii, holding a tablet, was scrolling through high-resolution photos of dinosaur monsters, his voice excited: "Look at this one's skeletal structure! It's so similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Cretaceous! How did the Naga people cultivate them? If we could capture one alive for research..."

Xincheng also joined in, pointing to the scene of the monster running on the screen: "This thing is even more shocking than the dinosaurs in the movies! Yesterday, my relatives from my hometown called to ask me if I could get them a live photo of the dinosaur monster, saying that their child was clamoring to see a 'real dinosaur'."

Lina shook her head with a smile: "I didn't expect everyone to be so enthusiastic about dinosaurs. They weren't this excited when Tiga appeared before."

Hearing this, Daigo unconsciously tightened his grip on the water glass in his hand—he wasn't jealous, just a little confused: Tiga dealt with monsters that also threatened the city, so why was everyone's attention always more drawn to the dinosaur monsters?

He quietly opened the news app on his phone and searched for "Tiga". Most of the results were old news from a few days ago, and the discussion in the comments section gradually quieted down. But when he searched for "dinosaur monster", the latest live videos, expert analyses, and even pre-sale information for "dinosaur monster merchandise" were at the top, and the comments section was full of messages like "So cool" and "I want to see it in person".

Perhaps it's the sheer allure of the word "dinosaur" itself? Daigo thought to himself. Dinosaurs are the "prehistoric overlords" that humans have heard about since childhood, a mysterious symbol hidden in the childhood memories of countless people—they are both familiar and strange, carrying the weight of ancient creatures, yet also carrying a layer of regret due to their "extinction." The dinosaur monsters released by the Naga people perfectly fill this gap: they have the appearance of dinosaurs, yet possess the ferocity of monsters. These creatures, a combination of reality and imagination, naturally arouse more curiosity in ordinary people than "mysterious giants."

Moreover, Tiga's appearance is always accompanied by "crisis" - every time he transforms, it is when the city is threatened, and the public sees more destruction and tension; but although dinosaur monsters are also a threat, the scene of Cui Ming driving a mecha to chase them is more like a "controlled shock performance". There is no large-scale destruction, only the visual impact of "prehistoric behemoths reappearing", which is naturally easier for people to let down their guard and be simply attracted.

Daigo has loved dinosaurs since he was a child. When he was a child, his family's bookshelf was filled with various dinosaur illustrations. He could study the pictures for an entire afternoon, from the sharp teeth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex to the hard head shield of the Triceratops. When the school organized a trip to the Natural History Museum, he was always the first to rush to the dinosaur skeleton exhibit area, looking up at those huge bones and imagining what they looked like running on the ancient Earth.

But now, looking at the dinosaurs on the screen that had been transformed into monsters by the Naga, he felt nothing but regret.

"These should all be native Earth dinosaurs, right?" Daigo murmured softly, his tone uncertain yet unable to resist thinking in that direction—the skeletal structure and skin texture of those dinosaurs were so similar to the prehistoric dinosaur fossils he had seen in museums, especially the Triceratops monster that was repelled by Cui Ming's mech; the shape of its three horns was almost identical to the "Earth Triceratops" described in the encyclopedia. (End of Chapter)