As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider

A dull thud echoed, the force traveling through muscles and bones. Lin Chen's left shoulder sank slightly, and the impact of the punch sent him staggering backward.

Lin Chen took three steps back to steady himself and raised his hand to signal to stop.

That's all.

Hikawa Makoto stood there, slightly out of breath. He simply removed his helmet, revealing a forehead covered in a thin layer of sweat. His hair was damp with sweat and clung to his temples, but his eyes were bright and clear.

He looked at Lin Chen, his tone calm and frank:

"You just stopped."

Lin Chen did not deny it, but simply said:

"You caught up."

A simple comment is worth more than any encouragement.

Hikawa Makoto lowered his head slightly, looking at his hands covered by armor. When he looked up again, his gaze was more resolute than ever before.

"Next time, I will stand firm on the real battlefield. I will not rely on your concessions again."

Lin Chen nodded slightly:

"I'm looking forward to it."

Recognition among the strong never needs to be publicized.

Takahiro Omuro, standing to the side, breathed a sigh of relief and gently clapped his hands. The applause was exceptionally clear in the quiet hangar. He didn't shout or yell; he simply expressed his heartfelt joy in the simplest way.

As Sumiko Ozawa watched the steadily rising data on the screen, a barely perceptible smile flickered across her lips before she quickly regained her composure.

"Data is qualified. G3-X can be officially deployed for missions."

The test ended, the hangar lights returned to normal, and the tense atmosphere gradually dissipated.

Hikawa Makoto and Omuro Takahiro nodded to the two men, then turned and headed to the equipment room to conduct post-battle checks and recharge the armor. Their footsteps faded into the distance, leaving only Lin Chen and Ozawa Sumiko in the hangar.

Sumiko Ozawa did not leave.

She remained in the control room, reviewing the battle data from the previous engagement. The waveforms on the screen flickered, and all the numerical values ​​were clearly displayed. Peak output, reaction delay, armor load, energy consumption... all the indicators were readily apparent, and all were several levels better than the old G3.

She compared the G3-X with the old G3, watching the steadily improving curve, tapping her fingertips on the table to confirm the final assessment. The new armor's stability, explosive power, and endurance all met the standards.

Just as she was about to close the window and archive the data, a pop-up window of historical data that had been automatically archived by the system suddenly appeared in the corner of the screen.

Time stamp: Six months ago.

Location: Hachioji Mountain area.

Source: Automatic recorder of G3 patrol aircraft.

An unusually sharp energy peak suddenly pierced into view.

Sumiko Ozawa paused, then clicked to zoom in on the waveform.

The peak lasted for a full ten seconds, exceeding the upper limit of normal energy fluctuations by ten times.

She checked the sensor calibration records, timestamps, and signal filtering logs three times in a row.

No errors, no interference, no misjudgments.

That was a real high-energy signal.

Sumiko Ozawa took off her glasses, gently rubbed her brow with her fingertips, and when she put them back on, her eyes were completely serious.

She exported this waveform separately, marked it as: Unknown?001, encrypted it, and stored it in a private file with access restricted to her alone.

The matter was not reported to senior management.

There is no point in panicking before the nature, threat, and source of the threat are determined.

She turned and walked out of the control room, where she met Lin Chen, who was preparing to return to the noodle shop, at the corner of the corridor.

Lin Chen draped his jacket over his arm, preparing to leave. The day's training and testing were over, and there shouldn't be any further problems. He needed to go back and help the old man.

Sumiko Ozawa came up to him and said:

"I have a mission tomorrow that requires you to come with me. If possible, come early."

Lin Chen frowned almost imperceptibly, but still agreed.

"can."

...

The following morning, in the Hachioji mountain area.

The morning mist hadn't yet dissipated from the mountains, and the dampness, carrying the astringent scent of grass and trees, permeated the winding mountain path. All around was so quiet that only the rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard, and the occasional bird call was quickly swallowed by the boundless silence. Far from the city, sparsely populated, and with excellent cell phone signal, this place was perfect for hiding secrets.

Sumiko Ozawa walked ahead, carrying a portable monitoring terminal. The screen displayed only a few smooth, undulating baselines. Lin Chen followed half a step behind her, asking no questions, but keeping his senses fully activated. No unusual movement in the surroundings escaped his mental perception.

The mountain road wound its way uphill, and after walking for about ten minutes, Sumiko Ozawa suddenly stopped.

She crouched down, placed the terminal on the ground, and then scanned it across the tree trunk and rocks. The waveform on the screen remained stable.

Lin Chen watched her series of somewhat unusual actions and finally spoke calmly.

What are you looking for?

Sumiko Ozawa paused in her work, without trying to hide or conceal anything.

She stood up, turned off the terminal screen, turned to Lin Chen, and spoke in a calm but unusually serious tone.

“While organizing the data yesterday, I found an automatic record from six months ago. Right here in these mountains, the patrol aircraft captured a ten-second high-energy signal. The energy intensity was more than ten times that of the ordinary Unknown signal, but it was completely different from the Unknown signal.”

Lin Chen's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Was it Agito?

"Are there any signs of a fight?"

“There’s nothing there.” Sumiko Ozawa shook her head. “Nothing, nothing at all. It’s like it appeared out of thin air and then disappeared into thin air.”

She paused.

“I suspect that it is very likely the power of light you mentioned a few days ago.”

Lin Chen gazed into the misty depths of the mountain forest without saying a word.

Why not tell the glacier and the tail chamber?

“Telling them will only distract them from their mission,” Ozawa Sumiko said calmly. “There’s no need to create panic before the truth is clear. You’re steady, quiet, and reliable in combat; I trust you.”

Lin Chen nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

He didn't ask any more questions, but simply took a step forward and stood in front of Sumiko Ozawa.

"I'll go ahead."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A hundred meters away, deep in the dense forest, a faint yet painful life force flashed by. The energy was chaotic and fragmented, carrying an undisguised struggle, like a severely wounded person on the verge of collapse.

At the same time, the screen on the terminal in Sumiko Ozawa's hand suddenly lit up with a sharp spike.

“There’s a signal!” she whispered. “The characteristics match those from six months ago!”

Lin Chen's eyes narrowed slightly. Without hesitation, he slowly approached the source of the aura.

The trees grew denser, and the light grew dimmer.

After turning past a huge rock, the two stopped at the same time.

There was nothing there; the unidentified object from before had simply vanished.

Chapter 73 News from Gills

At 1:27 a.m., two days had passed since he last explored Mount Hachioji with Ozawa, and he was assigned to night patrol duties.

Lin Chen pushed open the car door, and a blast of cold air rushed into his collar.

He had just finished patrolling a thicket in the Hachioji area, and his left jacket had several fresh thorn scratches. His white Toyota Hiace was parked in its usual spot at the alley entrance—under the streetlight numbered G3-02.

The G3 metal armband at the collar had worn a silvery-white finish against the corner of the wall. The faint sound of Takahiro Omuro typing on a keyboard drifted through the wired headset.

His right hand rested on the metal casing of the Orga phone at his waist; the cool touch kept him alert.

Pushing open the convenience store door, the copper bell jingled.

The cold white fluorescent lights hummed and flickered. The shelves were mostly empty, with only two tuna bento boxes left, their plastic wrap drenched in water droplets. Kato Miho dozed off at the checkout counter, her face pressed against a worn-out arithmetic notebook.

Hearing the noise, she was suddenly awakened.

Seeing Lin Chen's G3 uniform jacket, she immediately sat up straight, her fingers gripping the corner of her arithmetic notebook tightly. This was the seventh time this month; this silent G3 player always bought only a bottle of room-temperature mineral water, paid, and left without saying a word.

Lin Chen walked straight to the innermost part of the refrigerator—where the mineral water was cooled the least by the compressor and kept the temperature the highest. He couldn't drink iced water because of his Orphnoch constitution. He picked up a Suntory bottle with a slightly wrinkled label, a 2001 limited edition featuring Mount Fuji, produced three days prior.

He placed down two 100-yen coins with worn edges.

Miho took the coin and inserted it into the cash register, pressing the confirmation button with a "click".

Just as Lin Chen picked up the bottled water and was about to turn and leave, Miho suddenly called out to him in a low voice, "Um... please wait a moment!"

Her voice trembled slightly, and she immediately lowered her head, not daring to look Lin Chen in the eye. She quickly turned and took a hot Americano and a tuna sandwich from the back of the warming cabinet—the one with the highest temperature, reserved for night shift customers—and placed them in Lin Chen's hands. Her fingertips accidentally brushed against the back of his hand, and she recoiled as if electrocuted, her cheeks flushing red all the way to her ears.

Lin Chen's fingertips touched the warm paper cup, and he paused for half a second. He looked up at Miho, his pupils devoid of emotion, yet Miho's heart skipped a beat.

“Thank you and Officer Hikawa.” Miho’s voice was very low. “Last Wednesday, I was on my way home from my night shift at two o’clock when I was almost followed by a monster in the alley. It was your patrol car that drove up, and when the headlights shone on it, it ran away.”

She paused, biting her lip until it turned pale. After a moment's hesitation, she pushed the arithmetic notebook she had been clutching for a long time in front of Lin Chen and turned to the last page. On it was a green figure with three sharp spikes on its back, drawn crookedly in pencil, with the words "Good Brother" written in hiragana next to it. There were eraser marks on the edges of the drawing, indicating that it had been drawn many times.

“There’s one more thing.” Miho’s voice was trembling with tears, yet incredibly firm. “This was drawn by my younger brother, Kato Yuta. He’s eight years old. A month ago, he was attacked by a monster in Johoku Park. A green monster rushed out and saved him, tearing the monster to pieces. Then the green monster turned into an older brother in black clothes, patted Yuta on the head, and left.”

“Yota keeps asking to find that person, saying he wants to fight monsters together. I locked him in the house, and he climbed out the window and waited in the North City Park for a whole day. I was afraid he would be in danger…” She looked up, her eyes pleading, “Could you please investigate? The person who saved Yota, he must be a good person among the monsters.”

After speaking, Miho lowered her head deeply, her shoulders trembling slightly. She dared not look at Lin Chen's reaction, afraid of hearing a rejection.

Lin Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Green, three backstabs, can transform into a human, close-range kills of the Unknown, avoids crowds—Kamen Rider Gills, Ryo Ashihara. A lonely rider cursed by the power of light, misunderstood by humans, hunting the Unknown alone. How could he have forgotten him?

He took the arithmetic notebook, and with a sharp flick of his fingertips, neatly tore off the page with Gills' drawing, folded it into a small square, and put it into his inside pocket.

"We will investigate."

The voice was deep yet clear. Miho's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

He nodded slightly to Miho and uttered two words: "Thank you."