Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

In the dark underground cave, water droplets seeped from the damp rock walls, the "drip" sound particularly jarring in the deathly silence. Five dinosaur-men sat around a rough stone table, their faces, covered in artificial skin, barely concealing their anxiety—especially Adam, the largest of them, whose claws had carved deep marks into the stone, his tone resolute with a do-or-die determination: "We have to go talk to Storm One... If this continues, we might really get kicked over like a stray dog ​​on the street!"

Sitting opposite him, Yi Wu subconsciously rubbed the sharp claws hidden in her sleeve, the scales on her fingertips turning slightly outward due to tension: "This... we still have to rely on artificial skin to mimic humans and pretend to be obedient to the Naga. If we actively seek out Storm One, won't he think we're bait sent by the Naga? Besides, the Naga's detectors are buried three kilometers outside the cave. Once we leave the surveillance range, we'll definitely be discovered!"

"Afraid of the Naga? We should be more afraid of Storm One!" Adam slammed his fist on the stone table, sending stone chips flying. "Didn't you guys see what happened last week? What kind of monsters did that guy fight? Not to mention the native Golza subspecies of Earth, he even wiped out Bemstar, who could withstand the main cannon of the TPC space fleet, in one hit?"

These words struck like a boulder into the water, silencing the other dinosaur-men instantly—they had secretly observed the battle from the abandoned subway tunnels: Bemstar had opened its abdominal absorption organs and swallowed the attack of the SG weapon "New Magus Power Cannon," and the TPC's mechanized forces had surrounded it for twenty minutes without breaking through its defenses. Then, Storm One, piloting its mech, swooped down from the clouds, using the momentum of its descent to kick Bemstar in the head. With a muffled "thud," the cosmic monster's head was smashed open, its corpse crashing heavily into the Pacific Ocean, creating a hundred-meter-high wave.

"And that fire monster from three days ago!" The youngest dinosaur-man suddenly spoke, his voice trembling. "Ultraman Tiga was locked in combat with it. The monster's high-temperature flames could even scorch Tiga's composite skin. Then Storm One found an abandoned building as cover and used the machine gun on its mech as a sniper rifle, blowing up both of the monster's eyes in just two shots! The whole thing took less than ten seconds, more accurate than TPC's 'Black Machine Gun'!"

Yi Wu's face paled even more. She remembered the "mission" the Naga had given them—to guide a group of modified dinosaur monsters to attack the TPC Far East headquarters (the pyramid-shaped building nicknamed the "clothes rack") next week. They would have to be there in person to calibrate the coordinates, but Storm One, as the core combat force of the headquarters, would definitely be stationed at the front line: "I know we're pretending to be Naga's lackeys to save our lives. After all, that guy tricked us into thinking he was going to 'rebuild the dinosaur planet,' but he actually wanted to destroy us and humanity together. But with Storm One's attitude, does he care if you're an enemy or a disguised ally? If he sees us calibrating the coordinates, he'll think we're here to help the monsters and kick us right away..."

"That's right! Don't let our own side wipe us out in a second!" Another dinosaur-man pawed anxiously at the stone table. "We're not like those modified dinosaurs, we're intelligent! It would be such a shame to die at the hands of our own people without even knowing why!"

Adam took a deep breath, suppressing his surging emotions: "The Naga's detectors have a three-minute signal blind spot every hour. During that time, I'll use the old communicator in the cave to contact TPC and say I have 'key intelligence about the Naga modifying Earth's dinosaurs.' As long as we can see Storm One and explain how we've been deceived, we might even be able to help us deal with the Naga—it's better than sitting and waiting to die."

He stood up, his knuckles white from clenching his fists, the muscles beneath his artificial skin tense as if on a string: "I'll put on the thickest camouflage, avoid the TPC's patrol airships 'Multi-purpose Airship 07,' and go straight to the Grand Dome outside headquarters to wait for him. Hopefully, that guy will let us finish speaking and won't start firing the moment we meet..."

A deathly silence fell over the cave, broken only by the sound of dripping water. The other dinosaur-men watched Adam's retreating figure, their eyes filled with deep worry—they had witnessed Storm One's ruthlessness towards "suspicious targets," and they knew the Naga's cruelty. This step forward meant either survival or certain death, leaving not even a corpse behind. Yi Wu gently touched the communicator on her chest, silently praying: at least don't let us, the "native inhabitants of Earth," die at the hands of those who protect Earth.

In the operations command center of TPC Far East headquarters, Cui Ming was staring at the encrypted information on the screen—it was a message sent by the dinosaur man Adam through an old communicator. The message was filled with an urgent desire to survive, and it also included a map of the locations of the Naga's detectors buried around the city, as well as a list of the modified dinosaur monsters that would attack the headquarters next week.

“These guys seem to know what’s going on.” Cui Ming’s finger slid across the screen, bringing up the Dinosaur Men’s data—from being deceived by the Naga and forced to disguise themselves as humans, to secretly collecting evidence of the Naga’s modification of Earth’s dinosaurs, all the information matched TPC’s previous investigation. He had already made up his mind: the Dinosaur Men were not the enemy, but merely coerced “middlemen,” and worth meeting. But Cui Ming never fought an unprepared battle. He pressed the communicator and said concisely to the technician on the other end: “Retest the Nix mech’s weapon systems, focusing on checking the aiming accuracy of the machine guns and the explosive power of the leg thrusters. Also, add an anti-detection coating to the outer layer of the mech.”

"Understood, Instructor Cui!" the technician's voice quickly came through. "Do we need to carry SG weapons? Like a portable version of the 'New Magus Power Cannon'?"

“No need, just bring conventional weapons.” Cui Ming shook his head, his eyes sharp. “This is a meeting, not a battle. Don’t let them think we are hostile. But we also need to be prepared—if the Naga people come along, or if there are spies among the dinosaur people, we need to be able to deal with them quickly.”

After hanging up the communication, Cui Ming pulled up the patrol route map of TPC's "Multi-purpose Airship 07" and marked several "blind spots" on it. These were the airspace corresponding to the "detector signal blind spots" mentioned by Adam, and also the meeting place agreed upon by both parties: an abandoned factory on the edge of the city, which was far away from the Naga's surveillance and convenient for TPC to set up hidden sentries.

He even contacted Hori specifically, asking him to bring a monster language translator and an "anti-mimicry detector": "Dinosaur people can use artificial skin to disguise themselves as humans. Your detector can identify their true form, right? Don't let a 'fake dinosaur person' come and we be kept in the dark."

Hori confidently assured him, "Don't worry! This detector can detect energy fluctuations under the simulated skin. It can accurately identify even the most advanced 'artificial skin' of the Naga!"

With everything prepared, Cui Ming glanced at the clock on the wall—two hours until the meeting. He picked up the dagger on the corner of the table, gently wiping the blade with a cloth. He already had a plan in mind: if the dinosaur people were telling the truth, he would cooperate with them, using the Naga intelligence they possessed to prepare in advance for next week's monster attack; if it was a trap, he would immediately activate the mech's emergency combat mode and deal with the immediate threat first.

For Cui Ming, whether in negotiation or battle, the most important thing is to "seize the initiative"—even when facing coerced dinosaur-men, there can be no slackening. After all, in this world teeming with aliens and monsters, any negligence could lead to disaster.

He sheathed his sword, rose, and walked resolutely towards the mech parking area: "I hope these dinosaur people truly understand which side they should be on." (End of Chapter)