Ultraman: It turns out this is the easy mode.

Before setting off, the Kirieloid special operations team spent a full half hour in the underground caves conducting "pre-battle preparations"—each member repeatedly checked their camouflage equipment to ensure they could perfectly disguise themselves as humans, and even deliberately severed their mental communication with each other. In their words, "Storm One's scanner can detect mental fluctuations; if we don't cut off communication, we'll be targeted before we even get close to the target!"

This caution stemmed entirely from the shadow cast by Cui Ming's death. Several previous operations had ended in the complete annihilation of the team because Kaina had locked onto their mental communications. Therefore, this time, they were willing to risk "inability to coordinate during the operation" to sever all communication and rely solely on pre-set routes and codes.

The task force's objective was clear—Kimi's old house on the outskirts of the city. According to their prior intelligence, it was where Kijima lived before she married Choi Myung; although she didn't go there often now, she would occasionally return to retrieve old belongings. Their plan was to infiltrate the house, plant a miniature bomb, and detonate it the next time Kijima appeared. This would both eliminate this "core of the Victory Team" and give Choi Myung a warning, while also salvaging some of the face lost during their previous capture.

But what they didn't know was that Cui Ming had already figured out this "intelligence".

It had indeed been a while since Izumi had visited that old house. Cui Ming had long since discovered that the Kirielod people were secretly investigating Izumi's whereabouts, so he simply went with the flow and deliberately left traces of "occasional activity" around the house—for example, having the cleaner clean the door once a week, occasionally opening the windows for ventilation, and even leaving a few old newspapers in the mailbox at the door to create the illusion that it was "still in use."

To put it bluntly, this house was a trap deliberately set by Cui Ming, just waiting for the Kiriello people to take the bait.

The five Kirieloids in the action team carefully avoided the city's surveillance cameras along a pre-planned route and made their way to the vicinity of the old house. They split into two groups: one to guard the perimeter, and the other to infiltrate and plant the bomb. Because communications were cut off, the members on guard duty could only rely on visual observation and were completely unaware that in the black vehicle on the distant street corner, Kaina's scanning system had already clearly marked their location.

The three Kirieloids tasked with infiltrating the house used their mimicry abilities to disguise themselves as maintenance workers and easily opened the door—the lock had been replaced with a simplified version by Cui Ming specifically to allow them to "successfully infiltrate." They rummaged around the living room and bedroom, quickly finding the pre-selected "bomb planting point," and began skillfully assembling the miniature bombs.

Just as the bomb was about to be installed, the front door of the house was suddenly kicked open with a "bang," and Cui Ming appeared in the doorway, his energy gun pointed directly at them: "Don't move, or I'll blow up your mental cores."

The Kirieloids froze instantly, the bomb parts in their hands clattering to the ground. They couldn't understand how, despite cutting off communications and avoiding surveillance, they had still been discovered by Cui Ming.

"You think cutting off communications will let you evade the scan?" Cui Ming approached step by step, his tone full of sarcasm. "Kaina's thermal imaging system can find you even if you disguise yourself as stone. Besides, this house has been uninhabited for a long time. You actually believed those 'signs of activity'?"

Hearing the commotion, the two Kirieloids on perimeter guard tried to rush in to help, but were surrounded by TPC members who had been lying in ambush. They wanted to fight back, but the sight of the energy gun in Cui Ming's hand instantly shattered their courage—the fear of being chased by Cui Ming earlier surged up, and they almost couldn't maintain their mimicry. "See, we've caught a fish," Cui Ming said into the communicator, his tone as relaxed as if he were watching a fish take the bait. "Take these guys back to base, lock them up with the one we captured earlier, and 'ask' them if they have any other accomplices."

The Kirieloids in the action team were completely dumbfounded. Their painstakingly devised "special operation" was nothing but a laughable trap in Cui Ming's eyes. Cutting off communications, infiltrating in disguise, carefully selecting locations… all their "special preparations" had become mere prelude to falling into a snare.

It wasn't until they were handcuffed with energy-suppressing handcuffs that they realized they had never escaped Cui Ming's control from the very beginning. Their fear of being hunted down led them to cut off communication, but this very fear ultimately caused them to fall into the trap even faster.

Inside the cockpit of the black vehicle, Kaynar's virtual image floated on the central control screen, blue data streams rapidly flowing around her. As the Kirieloid special operations team approached Kijima Megumi's old house, her scanning system locked onto the target and immediately connected with Cui Ming's communication system: "Report, five unknown energy entities detected, disguised as humans, approaching the target house. Preliminary identification indicates they are a Kirieloid operations team, carrying suspected explosive device parts."

Cui Ming's calm voice came from the other end of the communication, without any unnecessary words: "Be prepared and execute according to the plan."

"Received." Kaina's virtual image nodded slightly. As a super AI, she instantly understood Cui Ming's intention—not to take direct action, but to first activate the pre-set trap device inside the house to ensure that the Kirieloid was completely trapped inside, preventing it from escaping or detonating the device and causing damage.

The scene inside Megumi's old house instantly changed. Several inconspicuous cardboard boxes piled in the corner of the living room, seemingly labeled "old clothes" and "books," were actually "multi-functional capture devices" that Cui Ming had set up long ago. As Kaina remotely issued the activation command, fine metal mesh quietly popped out from the side of the cardboard boxes, and wheeled support legs extended from the bottom, quickly moving around the room to form an invisible energy barrier.

Another cardboard box in the bedroom opened its top cover, raising a small drone. Its miniature camera began transmitting live footage, clearly showing the Kirieloids' movements back to Kenar's system. Even more discreetly, a "sound suppressor" hidden in the ceiling quietly activated, releasing low-frequency sound waves perceptible only to extradimensional beings. This interfered with the Kirieloids' mental bodies, making it difficult for them to concentrate on controlling their mimicry or assembling bombs.

These devices were specially prepared by Cui Ming for "Operation Decoy"—they wouldn't be exposed beforehand, yet they could function at crucial moments. Kaina quickly checked the data on the central control screen, confirming that all devices were operating normally and that the energy barrier was strong enough to trap the Kirielod, before reporting back to Cui Ming: "All the pre-installed devices inside the target house have been activated. The energy barrier covers an area of ​​120 square meters. The sound suppressor is functioning normally, and the drones have begun real-time monitoring and are ready to coordinate the operation at any time." (End of Chapter)