55. The Jeep will beat you to a pulp.

Qi Ming glanced through the comments and said, "I understand and sympathize with those who lost their property in the disaster."

"However, even if I could do it all over again, I would fight the exact same way."

"If I were to be overly cautious out of concern for these concrete shells and thus end up defeated, the situation would only become far graver."

Dan Moroboshi countered, "Weren't you the one who fled without a fight?"

Qi Ming then tapped on another video, which featured Aihara Ryu roaring in fury.

"Damn it! What kind of third-rate combat technique is this? You actually ran away!"

"Just look at what you were supposed to protect! Can you even call yourself an Ultraman?"

Qi Ming sighed. "I never expected to receive this kind of treatment. This mad dog really bites anyone he sees."

"Still, when I was browsing the news, I saw that his entire squadron was wiped out while trying to stop a monster, so I suppose I can understand him to some extent."

"By the way, this video has quite a lot of comments too. Let me take a look."

He opened the video, where the comment section was likewise filled with all sorts of fierce remarks.

"I think incompetent people like them are the biggest bastards. How dare they have the nerve to point fingers at Ultraman? Shouldn't protecting the city be the responsibility of the military?"

"That's right! It's not like we pay taxes to Ultraman!"

"What are we going to do if he gets berated into leaving? Who is going to protect us when monsters appear in the future?"

"Why don't we start a religion to worship Ultraman? We can just pray to him when something happens. That might actually be more useful than relying on these good-for-nothings for protection."

"Still, Ultraman isn't omniscient and omnipotent like God. He didn't even solve the monster problem this time and just ran away instead. I've been on tenterhooks ever since, terrified that that big shark is going to come out and destroy the city again."

"..."

Qi Ming clicked his tongue in wonder. "It's hard to tell whether these people are even in their right minds. While the Defense Force is indeed pretty useless, those soldiers were risking their lives to protect them, after all."

Dan Moroboshi chimed in as he read the comments as well. "Did you see that, Qi Ming? People are all expecting you to defeat that shark and safeguard the peace."

Qi Ming: "?"

He let out a long sigh and once again meticulously explained the whole sequence of events to Dan Moroboshi.

First, Keigo Masaki is not a madman. He is someone aiming to become the savior; he has no intention of manipulating the underground shark to destroy the city.

Second, Staff Officer Gondo already knows that there are more stone statues in Kumamoto City, so Keigo Masaki is about to have his hands full defending himself.

Let villains fight villains. You two can bash each other's brains out, while I sit back and watch the storm rise.

Dan Moroboshi thought for a moment, still feeling that Qi Ming's current combat prowess needed improvement, and resolved to put him through a special training regimen.

Special training...

Qi Ming pondered for a moment and said, "Very well. I'm not good at aerial combat. Do you have any way to help me get the hang of it quickly?"

During his previous battle with the Kyrieloid, when the enemy fled into the air, Qi Ming had not flown up to pursue him precisely because he was reluctant to step into an unfamiliar domain.

If he could soar through the skies proficiently, then when facing flightless monsters in the future, he could simply kite them from a distance using air-to-ground tactics.

Dan Moroboshi nodded outwardly, but inwardly he wondered: Could Qi Ming be practicing this just so he could run away from the air more smoothly in the future?

Just when Qi Ming thought this captain would use his own experience to fill in his shortcomings...

The next day, upon arriving at the agreed-upon location, he laid eyes on a jeep.

A deeply ominous premonition welled up in Qi Ming's heart.

A beach, a jeep, Dan Moroboshi.

Heh, Captain, you surely don't take me for a pushover like Gen Ohtori, do you?

Dan Moroboshi stepped out of the jeep and announced that flight training could wait; what needed training right now was Qi Ming's "ability to withstand blows."

Although Qi Ming's performance had consistently been acceptable, Dan Moroboshi firmly believed that as long as he was given a bit more "encouragement," Qi Ming could become stronger and do a better job.

"You must live up to people's expectations, solidify their trust in the Ultraman, and not let them down."

Next, Dan Moroboshi began to expound at length on "a man's sense of responsibility," much like the spiel he gave Gen Ohtori in the original *Ultraman Leo* series.

Qi Ming looked at Dan Moroboshi expressionlessly, not uttering a single word.

"Those houses represent the painstaking efforts of construction workers and are the memories of countless families."

"Didn't you say yourself that Ultraman is not simply a monster-slaughtering machine? During battle, you need to be mindful of these things to some extent."

Dan Moroboshi intended to use the moving jeep to simulate the underground shark's charge and force Qi Ming to take the hit head-on.

He claimed this training was not only aimed at dealing with the underground shark, but also meant to enable him to better consider the bigger picture in future battles.

Qi Ming finally spoke, a trace of fatigue tinging his tone.

"Ultraman is indeed not a pure monster-slaughtering machine, but I am not a pure Ultraman either."

"Captain Dan Moroboshi, you'd better treat me as a human being—a human being with common human traits, someone who values his own life and fears death."

Dan Moroboshi was stunned. "You say you fear death?"

Qi Ming replied as a matter of course, "Of course. I'm still young; how could I not be afraid of dying?"

"In reality, I could force a victory against the underground shark by overriding type disadvantages, and I am entirely capable of using my own body to block attacks and protect buildings during battle."

"However, I will not do so, because doing so would get me injured, far exceeding the bounds of what is 'within my power.'"

"The Earth is fraught with dangers at present, and goodness knows how many evil forces are eyeing me, this 'stumbling block,' as their target."

"I must remain vigilant and win at the minimum cost, leaving no openings for those fellows to exploit."

At this point, a flicker of mockery crossed Qi Ming's eyes.

"Aren't the concrete roads in the city also the hard work of road workers? What should we do if they get crushed underfoot? Perhaps we should just stop fighting altogether."

"As expected, Teacher Gao was right: doing more leads to more mistakes, doing less leads to fewer mistakes, and doing nothing leads to no mistakes."

"This..." Dan Moroboshi was left speechless, never expecting that his offhand words of encouragement would provoke such a fierce counterattack from Qi Ming.

He asked, "You mentioned being targeted by someone. Do you have any clues?"

Qi Ming answered, "None. It's just an intuition."

Dan Moroboshi pressed on, "You mean to say that based merely on a guess, you are afraid of getting injured in battle and unwilling to give it your all?"

Qi Ming thought to himself that unless he put it harshly, Dan Moroboshi simply wouldn't listen.

"That's right. I am determined to go home alive; my strength is needed there."

"As far as I'm concerned, the lives of everyone else in this world combined aren't as important as my own. Do you understand now?"

Dan Moroboshi's expression shifted drastically. "You are far too radical!"

Qi Ming stepped forward and patted the jeep's engine hood.

"Furthermore, I fight to keep a clear conscience, not to satisfy you."

"You can spare me these lectures."

With that, Qi Ming delivered a fierce palm strike, indenting the engine hood deeply, and then walked away without looking back under Dan Moroboshi's dumbfounded gaze.

"What a wasted trip." On his way home, Qi Ming wore a grim expression.

With formidable external enemies lurking and internal schemers plotting, communicating with Captain Dan Moroboshi either meant being subjected to pressure or talking to a brick wall.

If push came to shove, maybe he should just fall back on those "escape routes" he had scouted out earlier.

Wait, where was the road?

Hadn't I just walked down this path? Why is there not a single soul around except me?

Qi Ming snapped back to his senses, realizing he had been wandering in circles around the exact same area as if trapped in a supernatural ghost maze.

Just then, a low voice accompanied by a chilly gust of wind came from behind him: "Have you started to lose faith in this world?"

Qi Ming whirled around abruptly, the massive figure appearing before his eyes making his pupils contract.

A body of black and red, rib-like exoskeleton, pitch-black eyes, and a Color Timer.

Sure enough, his intuition had been right—something truly was stalking him in the dark.

This guy is—Dark Mephisto!