Chapter 22: The Underground Monster Uprising

Early in the morning, the base alarm jolted Lin Yu awake.

“Captain, abnormal nuclear reactions have been detected underground in Tokyo, suspected to be from an extremely powerful monster. Several monsters that had been dormant underground have now appeared, causing widespread panic!”

“The Victory Team and the Guys Team have been fully deployed!”

This news invigorated Lin Yu.

Dressed in his blue-gray uniform, he glanced at the chaotic base and furrowed his brow slightly.

“The current state of the HUD team... Forget about leading humanity out of despair in the Firestarter Plan; even surpassing the Victory Team and the Guys Team feels like an unattainable dream.”

“We must change!”

“I’m not skilled in these matters; professional tasks require professionals. Finding new team members is urgent!”

With these thoughts, Lin Yu didn’t pause but quickly left. He needed to understand just how severe the riot had become. And what kind of monster underground was strong enough to trigger multiple monsters to riot?

...

Tokyo, downtown

At this moment, Tokyo had become a playground for monsters, with four rampaging beasts wreaking havoc. Although they had only appeared for about a minute, they had already caused catastrophic destruction.

People were fleeing, while a few fighter jets flew against the flow of the crowd, weaving between monsters and buildings, launching attacks.

“Whoosh!”

A missile trailing fiery exhaust struck precisely a grayish, rock-like monster about forty meters tall, equipped with two pincers.

The rock monster, Sadra!

“Wuo!!” the beast howled in pain, crushing a building with its pincers, hurling reinforced concrete wildly into the sky with immense force.

Ryuu Aihara, piloting a Type-10 fighter and sporting a bruised face, immediately pulled down the control stick; the jet plunged sharply, narrowly evading the attack.

Another Type-10 fighter, engaged in a struggle with a mud-splattered, anteater-like subterranean monster named Taleston, quickly came to assist.

Several missiles struck Sadra, suppressing it.

“Ryuu, stay alert! These monsters have gone berserk!” Captain Serizawa’s voice crackled over the radio.

“Understood!” Ryuu responded.

Another Type-10 fighter arrived to support the battle.

There were three Type-10 fighters present, yet the pressure showed no signs of easing.

They were facing Sadra, Taleston, and a pair of quarrelsome subterranean monsters—Gudun and Twin-tail—who were entangled with the Victory Team’s Swallow One and Swallow Two.

All four monsters had emerged from underground this morning, their moods highly unstable, immediately causing widespread destruction.

Victory Team’s Koryui and the Guys Team’s newest member, monster enthusiast Kurai Teppei, had detected through instruments that the outbreak was triggered by an abnormal vibration source some eight thousand meters deep underground.

Now, these two squads were working together to hold back the monsters.

“This isn’t working; there are too many monsters. We can’t hold out much longer!” shouted Lieutenant Munakata, with Rina beside him inside Swallow Two.

Swallow Two had almost exhausted its weaponry, yet Gudun in front of them remained barely harmed, growing ever more frenzied.

Its whip lashed out fiercely at Swallow Two!

The fighter slid sideways to dodge, but another whip followed swiftly.

“Rina, eject!” Munakata, experienced and quick-witted, immediately urged.

“No! The ejection system is damaged!” Rina’s voice trembled with despair.

It was unclear which collision had caused the malfunction.

“Is that so?”

“It's over...” Munakata said, his face showing no fear, only a smile of relief.

Closing his eyes, he awaited death.

One second, two seconds passed.

The imagined searing pain and shock never came. Instead, a sharp whistle made him snap his eyes open!

“Gegi!!”

“Lieutenant, it’s Ailer King!” Rina exclaimed joyfully.

“I see him!” Munakata’s eyes shone brightly, amber pupils reflecting the scene of Ailer King grasping Gudun’s whip with one hand, then slicing it in half with a crescent-shaped light blade.

This moment would be forever etched in his deepest memory.

“Assist Ailer King! Defeat the rampaging monsters!” Munakata ordered into the radio.

“Daiku received!”

“Shinjo received!”

Swallow One, which had been distracting Twin-tail, ascended rapidly and returned to the scene.

“Let these bastards see our might!” Shinjo, his eye swollen, locked onto Sadra who was chasing Ryuu in the Type-10 and opened fire.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!”

Three missiles, trailing thick, intense smoke, struck Sadra’s chest precisely, bombarding the monster with shockwaves and explosions, forcing it to topple against a building.

A bloodied patch appeared on its chest.

“This guy’s not bad!” Ryuu couldn’t help but glance toward Swallow One.

Thanks to his excellent eyesight, he saw Shinjo inside, who had just been punched in the eye by him, giving him a middle finger.

Without any mockery.

Shinjo’s swollen eye made him look comical, causing Ryuu to grin despite the pain from his own bruised face.

In response, Shinjo raised two middle fingers.

At the same time, he fired a few precise laser blasts at Taleston, saving a small car trying to escape.

“Has some skill, indeed.”

“But our Guys Team isn’t bad either!” Ryuu turned the Type-10 around, unleashing a barrage on the approaching Twin-tail.

Captain Serizawa’s Type-10 and another fighter also joined the fray, battling the monsters.

...

In just a few tens of seconds, Ailer King had pushed Gudun—the strongest of these four subterranean monsters, a beast that could give Jack a hard fight—to the brink.

For a moment, the destruction caused by the four monsters seemed on the verge of being quelled.

Even Lin Yu, watching from the rooftop of a building, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thankfully, though four monsters have appeared, none are particularly difficult opponents.”

“As long as we follow protocol, Ailer King can take them down one by one... hmm?”

Lin Yu’s keen Ultraman telepathic senses suddenly detected an anomaly.

He swiftly looked up toward the edge of the sky.

A small dot was rapidly approaching!

Almost instantly, a sonic boom shattered the nearby glass.

Malice!

“Danger! Ailer King, watch the sky!!” Lin Yu warned.

“Gegi?”

Ailer King, tail wrapped around Gudun, unleashed a powerful electric current that electrocuted the monster to death.

Before he could even claim credit, Lin Yu’s warning came through.

The next second, a powerful beam struck Ailer King’s chest, making him cry out in pain and stagger backward.

“Impressive defense! My skills didn’t even put you halfway down!”

“You’re worthy of becoming my pet!”

A haughty voice echoed from the sky.

A blue figure descended, shouting.

The Empire Alien!

That beam was... the Ultraman-killing beam—the Empire Alien’s signature technique designed specifically to counter Ultramen.

The original Empire Alien had dared to single-handedly challenge the six Ultraman brothers using this move.

Though he died tragically, it proved his formidable strength.

The second-generation Empire Alien in the movie was easily killed by Mebius, far weaker than the original.

But that didn’t mean his power was insignificant; overconfidence was a major factor in his defeat.

In fact, the second-generation Empire Alien’s strength should be considered the strongest opponent Lin Yu had faced so far—surpassing Granrein, Garula, Gudun, and Kiranbro.

“Empire Alien!”

“Damn it, why does an alien have to show up now?”

Lin Yu’s expression darkened.

Recalling the Zarab Alien who had been killed earlier and the ominous words it uttered before dying—"You will pay the price"—a troubling suspicion formed in Lin Yu’s mind.

Is this the Ultraman Alliance from the Mebius movie?

Could the Nakuru Alien and Gatsu Alien be watching from the sky?

Might the ultimate biological weapon of the Apollon race—the ultimate super beast Saurus—also be present here?

...