Ultraman: I am really just a human.

Chapter 387 Guinea Pig

Gaim.

Fruit and dessert shop.

"Alright, here comes the special orange fruit parfait."

The shop manager, wearing a floral shirt, handed Xia Chuan a cup of dessert.

The tall glass contained ice cream and cream at the bottom, topped with slices of fresh fruit. The flavor was subtle, a mix of sour and sweet, and seemed to have a lot of added seasonings.

"I heard you were missing for a few days and came back as an armored knight. Are you alright?" the shopkeeper asked casually.

"It's nothing, it's just that I can't find Kuzuha anywhere... Kouta."

Natsukawa placed the Sengoku Driver and the Orange Lockseed together on the counter.

This belt, which was already bound, was no longer usable, but he still had the Alliance's mass-produced Sengoku Driver, which he intended to hand over to Kouta Kazuha, but he couldn't find anyone to help him.

I always feel like something's not quite right about this world.

He did interfere with the plot a little, but not enough to make the protagonist, Kouta Kazunaba, disappear.

No matter where they searched, they couldn't find any trace of Kuzuha Kōta.

Whether it's the garage where the dance troupe usually operates or the dessert shop, which is the main setting.

The only place I haven't visited yet is the Kuzuha family.

"Kouta should have an older sister at home. Let's go over in the evening," the shop manager suggested. "Don't rush. Since leaving the dance troupe, Kota has been working part-time."

"I've been to the places where I work."

Xia Chuan inserted a straw into the glass, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the round-hatted merchant in the corner selling low-level locks.

Perhaps because his level was not high enough, the information he could read from the dungeon world was quite limited. He only supplemented the framework based on his memories, and the specific details were seriously missing.

All events in the world of Gaim are caused by the Helheim Forest. The plants in the Helheim Forest are exceptionally powerful, and any world that is invaded by them will quickly suffer ecological collapse and perish.

In order to cope with the crisis, humanity formed an organization called "World Tree" and set up its headquarters in a small town where spacetime rifts were particularly active, which is now Zeya City.

The Sengoku Driver was developed to enable humanity to live safely in a post-apocalyptic world.

Currently, we are in the data collection phase before mass production.

The merchant in front of us actually represents the "World Tree," and his act of peddling locked seeds is part of the plan.

Initially, street kids used Lockseeds to summon Otherworlders to fight, and later they used the Sengoku Driver to enter actual combat.

The belt on his wrist was one of the test products released by the other side under the guise of a "secret weapon," and all combat data would be secretly monitored and transmitted to the World Tree headquarters.

The belt's developer, "Sengoku Ryoma," is probably observing from the shadows.

To improve the data, these guys will keep pushing for street fights, and he, having become a guinea pig, will probably find it hard to stay out of it.

He certainly had no interest in participating in street fights, which were like children's brawls, but he could obtain items to enter and exit Heim Forest through the World Tree.

That's the main battlefield.

Another treasure is the "Genesis Driver," a belt that was upgraded using data from the Sengoku Driver.

Since we're already here, we should at least gain something from this trip.

The only problem is that Sengoku Ryoma, the belt developer, is incredibly talented but not a good person at all. In Gaim, he not only secretly adjusted his own belt to the highest performance but also tampered with other belts and left backdoors.

It would be best to find a way to obtain the original data.

He doesn't have much research and development ability, but he can hand it over to his former teammate, Taki Akihisa.

That kid is a top scientist.

"Hey, hey..."

The round-hat merchant saw off a boy who had obtained the Lockseed, then observed Xia Chuan while pressing down on the brim of his hat, his brows gradually furrowing.

"It would be troublesome to leave the Sengoku Driver unused. There are only 6 testing slots available, and each driver is very precious."

He gave up a spot because the "Gaim" dance crew was in a bad situation, in order to prevent the street fights from calming down.

Xia Chuan's current neglect of the dance troupe is not in line with his expectations at all.

According to the investigation, the dance troupe leader must have cared a lot about the team and taken good care of the members.

What's the situation now?

"You must have something more important to do than finding people, right?" the black-hatted merchant couldn't help but lean closer and say. "If things continue like this, your team will lose all its foothold to the Baron team."

"This has nothing to do with you, right?" Xia Chuan raised his head slightly.

"Of course it's relevant," the round-hatted merchant glanced at the Sengoku Driver. "This thing isn't cheap. If it doesn't work, how can I sell it to others? We agreed that the condition for giving it to you for free is that you defeat the Baron team."

"Beating the Baron team isn't difficult, what's the rush?"

"Then I'll wait and see."

After taking a deep look at the young man in front of him who seemed like a completely different person, the round-hatted merchant snorted coldly and dragged his suitcase back to the corner.

The experiment with the Battle Driver is related to his ultimate dream of becoming a god, so he doesn't mind temporarily stepping back from the background and getting rid of a guinea pig ahead of time.

……

"call!"

in the afternoon.

As Xia Chuan walked out of the dessert shop under the raised eyebrow of the round-hat merchant, he noticed the sky had changed color as soon as he stepped onto the street. Dark clouds swept by, obscuring the sun, as if some kind of terror was about to descend.

The spatial cracks appeared more frequently in the sensor.

Although most of these were temporary passages that quickly returned to normal, with only occasional outsiders falling out, the chaos intensified and the number of outsiders soon grew to a considerable size.

"I've finally found you, Hiroya Kakui!"

A group of young men in red and black trench coats rushed toward the dessert shop with great momentum. The leader, with a cold face, pushed aside the "Gaim" team girls who were blocking his way and stood directly in front of Natsukawa.

"I heard you got a secret weapon from SID. Let's have a duel. If you win, I'll return the stage in the west to you, and as a wager, I'll give you this A-rank Lockseed as well."

"Ignore them, Yuya!" The girl anxiously grabbed Natsukawa. "These guys are trying to take away our street dance qualification. If we lose..."

"It doesn't matter to you guys who are at the bottom of the rankings, right?"

The young man interrupted him coldly.

"The weak should leave the stage. If a bunch of stray dogs calling themselves a team only makes them a laughingstock, they'd better just disappear! Make a decision, Yuuya Kakui! Don't you even have the courage to duel?"

Xia Chuan's gaze fell on the lock in the young man's hand.

Pineapple Lockseed, which is also an A-grade Lockseed like Orange Lockseed, was unavailable to these street dancers before. The so-called final battles were mostly fought with D-grade Lockseeds, or at most C-grade.

It seems that the seed dealer has started to make his move.

"Are you the Baron team's Kaito with the Kamen Rider badge?" Natsukawa asked tentatively, referring to the information in his mind.

Are you kidding me?

The cold-faced young man's eyes were filled with anger.

In the street dance community, who doesn't know him as the leader of the Baron team?

Since the start of the Otherworlder game, even ordinary people have frequently seen him on television.

"Sorry, let's talk about the duel later. I don't have time right now."

After confirming that the young man in front of him was the second male lead and final boss of "Gaim," Xia Chuan focused his gaze and turned to face the alien soldiers surging from all directions.

"Or we could change the way we fight."

"What?"

The cold-faced youth narrowed his eyes upon seeing the foreigners suddenly appear around him, but before he could make a move, he was forced back by the intense light.

"Clang!"

The orange-shaped fruit armor fell out of the alien world, wrapped around Xia Chuan's head, and quickly unfolded.

"Transform!"

A brief flash of orange light appeared, and Xia Chuan raised his twin swords to launch the first attack.

Not only in Zeya City, but also in the Heim Forest across the river, something seems to be going wrong.

He vaguely heard the screams of the knights of this world.

Has the battle for the Golden Fruit begun?

(End of this chapter)