Am I a Kamen Rider or the real young master who was switched at birth?

Deep inside the dark passage, the air was damp and cold, carrying a pungent smell of stale sewage and rust.

This underground passage was once the main channel used by the factory to discharge industrial wastewater. The inner wall of the pipe is pitted and corroded by the years, and water droplets fall from above from time to time, hitting the water and making a hollow echo.

The water stains on the wall shimmered with an eerie, cold white light under the fluorescent glow, like countless eyes seeping out from the cracks in the wall, watching everything in the shadows.

Zheng Dao leaned against a half-collapsed concrete bunker, his chest heaving violently.

The blade, devouring light, rested on his knee. The dark purple energy on the blade had dimmed considerably, and the crystal core at the end of the hilt no longer pulsed as brightly as before. Instead, it resembled a dying heart, beating weakly only once every few seconds.

Behind him were the last few mercenaries who could still stand, their black combat uniforms covered in mud and blood. One man's helmet was half cracked, and another was clutching his arm against the pipe wall, blood seeping from between his fingers.

Zheng Dao growled hoarsely and urgently into the communicator on his wrist: "Calling for backup—calling for backup! We're trapped in the secret passage—the B-sector drainage main! We're blocked from both the front and back! There are at least three Awakened targets. Fire support, now! Anyone who can hear me, reply immediately!"

There was only silence on the communicator. He slapped the communicator hard, changed the channel, but there was still no response.

Zheng Dao gritted his teeth and then punched the concrete debris next to him, shattering it into several pieces.

Just then, a fireball roared in from the darkness ahead of the passage, illuminating the walls on both sides of the passage.

The fireball struck the edge of the bunker and exploded, sending shards of concrete flying everywhere. A mercenary who didn't have time to duck was hit in the forehead by a shard.

He groaned as he was hit, and a charred crack appeared on his helmet.

Lin Xingran's excited voice came from the front of the secret passage, his tone filled with an extremely enjoyable joy.

"Hahaha—hiding won't do you any good! Just come out and become my credits! I'm still short several practical credits this semester. Don't run away, one at a time, I promise I won't kill you! At most, I'll just give you a perm; I'm very skilled, I'll give each of you a big afro!"

As she shouted, she threw out two more fireballs, which exploded alternately in the narrow space of the dark passage, casting long and messy orange-red shadows of everyone.

Zheng Dao extended his blade from the edge of the cover. The light-devouring crystal core flickered slightly in the firelight, but before he could swing his blade, another golden light exploded from behind the secret passage.

Long Aotian darted out from the branch of the main drainage canal, his long black hair whipping back as he ran.

He crossed his hands in front of him and drew a half circle, and a golden-red dragon-shaped energy condensed from his palms.

Then he pushed forward with both palms, and the golden dragon flew out of his hands.

It left a scorching golden-red trail in the narrow passageway, then precisely passed through the gaps in the cover and struck the first few men in black who were aiming their guns.

The moment the dragon's breath exploded, the men in black were thrown back, losing all ability to resist.

Zheng Dao no longer hesitated. He stood up from behind the cover, then gripped the hilt of the Light-Eating Blade with both hands. All the muscles in his body tensed up in an instant, and the dark purple crystal core at the end of the hilt burst out with a dazzling light.

He roared and swung his sword down. The blade struck the ground, and a dark aura exploded from the ground, then slid rapidly forward along the floor of the secret passage.

Wherever the blade energy passed, the puddles and broken concrete on the ground were neatly cut apart. Even more strangely, the blade energy suddenly twisted after flying a few meters, and then turned into a phantom emitting black smoke.

The ghost had no feet; its lower body was a swirling cloud of black smoke.

Its upper body barely maintained the outline of a human, but its two arms were almost twice the length of a normal person's, with five sharp black claws at the tips of its fingers.

It opened its mouth and let out a sharp screech, inside which was only a bottomless darkness.

Lin Ying quickly stepped out from behind Lin Xingran. She turned her body slightly to the side and raised her hands in front of her.

Ice-blue energy rapidly condensed at her fingertips, causing the surrounding temperature to drop several degrees in an instant, and a thin layer of white frost began to form on the water stains on the walls of the secret passage.

Then she pushed her palms forward, and a thick ice wall appeared out of thin air in front of her palms.

The black phantom's claws struck the ice wall, producing an extremely sharp impact sound.

Spiderweb-like cracks instantly appeared on the surface of the ice wall, spreading rapidly in all directions. Then the ice wall exploded, and fragments flew through the air, turning into countless tiny ice crystals that drifted away.

The black phantom passed through the fragments of the ice wall, its body stretching into wisps of black smoke between the fragments before reforming and pouncing on Lin Ying from an even more treacherous angle.

Lin Ying dodged to the side, and the ghost's claws grazed her shoulder, leaving a few extremely thin trails of black smoke in the air.

Long Aotian put his right index finger to his lips and then gently bit the tip of his finger with his teeth.

Bright red blood seeped from the wound. He flicked the blood from his fingertip toward the ghost, and the blood droplet traced a tiny arc in the air before landing on the ghost's shoulder.

The ghost let out a piercing scream, and its entire upper body exploded into a cloud of black smoke as if it had been branded with a hot iron.

It retreated frantically for several meters, its body twisting and deforming as it went, black smoke scattering and then barely managing to gather back up.

Long Aotian gave it no chance to breathe. He crossed his palms in front of him, and a ball of golden-red dragon breath energy condensed between his palms.

Then he thrust both arms forward simultaneously, and a thick golden light shot out from between his palms, accurately hitting the center of the ghost's chest.

The ghost was flung away by the golden light, then tumbled several times in the air, large swaths of black smoke peeling off its body. Finally, it transformed into an extremely thin black line and shrank back into the blade of the light-devouring sword.

The core of the hilt of the light-devouring sword flashed violently several times after swallowing the ghost, and then dimmed again.

Zheng Dao glanced back; there weren't many mercenaries left standing behind him.

He gritted his teeth and made a gesture to the remaining people.

The mercenaries helped each other retreat deeper into the dark passage. Zheng Dao walked to the corner of the wall and kicked open a rusty, round manhole cover.

Beneath the manhole cover was a narrower and deeper branch of the sewer, emanating a strong stench of decay, with sticky moss crawling all over the pipe walls.

Before leaving, Zheng Dao took out a palm-sized remote control from his waist and then pressed the switch with his thumb.

The indicator light on the remote control flashed several times, but no explosions were heard from the direction of the industrial area.

He paused for a moment, then pressed the button again, but there was still no response.

Then he heard Lin Yumin's calm voice coming from the other end of the secret passage: "All the bombs are taken care of. The fuse of the last one was glued on; I almost broke my fingernail while removing it."

Zheng Dao cursed angrily. Without further hesitation, he swung his sword and unleashed a burst of sword energy towards the top of his head.

The blade's energy struck the ceiling above, slicing through bricks and steel bars. The entire ceiling collapsed with a roar, and rubble and concrete blocks rained down, completely sealing off this section of the secret passage entrance.

Amidst the swirling dust, Zheng Dao also leaped into the sewer.

……

The air in the sewers was damper and colder than in the dark passages. The walls were covered with sticky moss, and the sewage underfoot was ankle-deep, making each step feel like being sucked in.

Zheng Dao and his remaining troops stopped at a slightly more open intersection of pipes.

Several mercenaries who were still able to move slumped on the ground, panting heavily. The injured one leaned against the pipe wall, and someone gave him an emergency injection, which made him look a little better.

Zheng Dao stood in front of everyone, staring at the still-flowing sewage ahead, his shoulders heaving more deeply than usual.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, turned to look at his surviving brothers, and said in a hoarse voice, "Can you still walk?"

The mercenaries looked at each other and then nodded in unison.

Just then, footsteps came from the darkness in front of the sewer.

A magenta light slowly emerged from the depths of darkness.

Kamen Rider Decade slowly emerged from the shadows of the secret passage. His emerald green compound eyes stood out conspicuously in the darkness.

He walked to the center of the pipe junction and stopped. He took out a new card from the card box at his waist with his right hand, tapped it lightly with his fingertips, and then looked up at the stubborn remnants of the enemy who were putting up a last stand.

"Surrender. Tell us everything you know. About Shen Yunzhou's organization, about that cocoon, about the people behind you. That way you'll take less beatings."

Several mercenaries almost instinctively raised their guns.

Zheng Dao also raised his right hand, the remaining dark purple energy on the blade shimmering slightly in the reflection of the sewage.

He pursed his lips into a tight line, then forcefully swung the hand that was raised in the air down.

"Fire!"

Bullets were fired at Decade from several directions simultaneously.

The energy bullets left trails of blue or red in the steamy space, and the muzzle flashes illuminated everyone's faces.

Decade stood still without dodging. He inserted the new card case into the belt slot.

The moment the slot swallowed the card box, the crystal core of the belt burst forth with a magenta light.

"In that case—I'll use my new strength to fight you."

The belt emitted a sharp game sound effect—"KamenRide Genm! Dangerous Zombie LV10!"

All the bullets struck the long, black light barrier that suddenly appeared in front of Decade.

The light screen had rough pixelation, like playing an old arcade game, with dense red codes jumping around on it.

"Buggle Up!" The screen began to flicker violently, and a red pixelated armor was frantically switching on the screen.

The bullets struck the surface without making a metallic clanging sound; instead, they were silently swallowed up, as if falling into a bottomless pixelated well.

"Danger! Danger! Genocide! Death the Crisis!"

The flames from the explosion ripped across the light screen, but could not penetrate it.

Then, from the epicenter of the explosion came a final, low sound—"Dangerous Zombie!"

A black and white figure leaped straight out of the flames of the explosion.

The combat boots stomped into the sewage, creating a shockwave that was a mix of black and white, blowing all the trash and debris on the water's surface in all directions.

Kamen Rider Genmu Zombie Player LV10 stood before everyone.

He was taller than Decade, and his 2.05-meter height made him appear particularly imposing in the low-ceilinged sewer pipe intersection.

The black and white color scheme gleamed with a cold metallic sheen in the darkness, and the red Knight's Gauge display on the chest, which should have shown the health bar, was completely empty from beginning to end.

The collarbone and chest area are covered by a full-length white exoskeleton armor, and the black and white helmet on the head is split in two from the front.

Its mouth was covered by a complete white semi-transparent mask, its right compound eye was bright red, like a fresh heart beating, while its left compound eye emitted a blue light.

Two completely different gazes shone simultaneously in the darkness.

The grid-shaped silver breathing mask mimics the arrangement of skeletal teeth, with mechanical fixing structures extending from both sides.

He stood in the darkness, leaning slightly forward with his arms hanging at his sides, his head tilted a little to the left as if it had no bones.

The mercenaries who were still holding guns instinctively took several steps back, their backs hitting the pipe wall with several dull thuds.

Kamen Rider Zombie Player slowly raised his head, and his blue and red compound eyes, hidden beneath the shattered mask, swept over the gunmen in front of him.

Everyone who was swept by those eyes felt a chill run up their spine.

Then he spoke in a low, hoarse voice: "Undead Zombies—Game Begins."