It was precisely because the Barossa Aliens loved throwing themselves into death that they had not overrun the universe.
After all, every reproduction cycle multiplied their numbers by ten thousand—an utterly terrifying figure to imagine.
Fortunately, these creatures had an irrepressible habit of courting disaster. Otherwise, the entire universe would have long since become Barossa territory.
After finishing off the Barossa Alien, Belial cancelled his transformation and walked over to Riku, checking his injuries.
Taking advantage of the moment, Haruki rushed to the site of the explosion to search for the Ultra Medals.
Perhaps the protagonist's luck was at work—before long, Haruki managed to recover all of them.
…
With Celebro dead, all leads on Tartarus were severed.
At present, the only thing Yuzhou knew for certain was this: Tartarus was fully aware that Yuzhou was on this Earth.
As for the device Celebro had used to manufacture medals, Kaburagi had discovered it in the underground basement of Celebro's residence.
However, instead of reporting it immediately, Kaburagi recalled the words of the man who had once saved him—if you encounter something strange, ask Captain Hebikura of STORAGE.
As a result, the machine ultimately ended up in Juggler's hands.
"This device… is no ordinary piece of equipment," Juggler said, setting the medal-manufacturing machine down on the floor after arriving at Yuzhou's residence.
"Indeed," Yuzhou nodded in agreement.
"The fact that it can produce so many different kinds of medals already put it on par with Hikari's technology."
If Fukuide Kei were present, he might even be able to reverse-engineer its core principles.
"By the way," Yuzhou said, abruptly changing the topic, "you know Tartarus, don't you?"
"Tartarus? You mean that little golden guy?"
Juggler chuckled.
It was obvious that Juggler knew of Tartarus's existence—and had even given him the nickname Little Golden Man.
Granted, Yuzhou himself used that nickname quite often.
"Yes. And he's far from simple," Yuzhou said calmly.
"Right now, all I want is to find him."
"Why?"
Juggler looked puzzled. Yuzhou had always lived rather comfortably—he couldn't see why Yuzhou would deliberately seek trouble with Tartarus.
"I used to want to test him," Yuzhou replied.
"But now…"
A faint, enigmatic smile appeared on Yuzhou's face as he glanced at the medal-manufacturing machine left behind by Celebro.
"…I want to carve a piece of flesh off him."
"I get it," Juggler said, eyes widening slightly as he looked at Yuzhou.
He immediately felt that this idea had merit.
Tartarus's ability to escape was well known—even Juggler had heard rumours. But if the goal was merely to make him leave something behind, it might truly be possible.
And what was Tartarus's objective?
The Land of Light.
To seize that beautiful kingdom.
Which was why Tartarus had attempted to abduct Ultraman Yullian. Frankly, that plan was idiotic—did he really believe kidnapping the princess of the Land of Light would force the Ultras to surrender their homeland?
Pure fantasy.
Of course, Yuzhou believed this was merely one of Tartarus's methods.
After all, Tartarus could traverse time and space, creating endless possibilities.
If Yuzhou stopped him once, there would be a second time. A third.
Unless someone could pursue him relentlessly every single time, Tartarus would inevitably gain the opportunity to build a powerful legion.
Yuzhou was convinced that day was not far off.
"I've got a situation. I'm heading out," Juggler said suddenly as a report from Yuka came through his earpiece—another monster had appeared.
"Where?" Yuzhou asked.
"I'll go take a look as well."
"Haruki's hometown."
…
Yuzhou did not return directly to STORAGE with Juggler.
As the captain, Juggler rarely deployed personally. Typically, it was Yoko and Haruki who piloted the Special Storage Machines.
Haruki happened to be on leave, and with the monster appearing in his hometown, Juggler directly assigned him the task of evacuating civilians.
The pilot of the Special Storage Machine Windom this time was Yoko.
King Joe's parts had already been recovered by STORAGE, and construction of the third Special Storage Machine was underway.
However, compared to the original timeline, it was still incomplete.
Thus, the deployed unit was once again Windom.
But by the time Yoko arrived on the battlefield, Ultraman Z had already appeared.
The opponent was Red King.
"Lord Z!"
Seeing Ultraman Z already engaging the monster, Yoko instantly turned into a devoted fangirl, providing support from the sidelines.
Inside Z's body, Haruki was completely calm.
According to Z's explanation, Red King was powerful—but also one of the monsters Ultramen defeated most frequently.
The one before them was merely a standard Red King.
The strongest variant was EX Red King.
Yuzhou arrived early and frowned slightly upon seeing the Red King.
In the original storyline, Red King had appeared to protect its eggs, attacking buildings out of desperation.
And after Haruki learned the truth, he would fall into a state of emotional paralysis whenever facing monsters.
In truth, Yuzhou felt little sympathy about eliminating monsters.
On Earth, once a monster posed a threat to humanity, it was, by definition, an enemy.
It was no different from a man facing a tiger.
If the tiger intended to eat the man, and the man killed it in self-defence—only to discover it had cubs—
Those cubs would eventually grow into man-eating beasts as well.
Fail to eliminate the roots, and disaster would follow.
"…Only Cosmos would be that merciful," Yuzhou murmured with a sigh, shaking his head.
Cosmos had entire planets dedicated to monster coexistence.
Earth was different.
One side developed interstellar civilization.
The other developed weapons.
Still, if Haruki were allowed to kill this Red King outright, he would likely refuse to fight afterward.
And when that happened, who would be left to clean up the mess?
Wouldn't it still fall to people like them—the old veterans?
Yuzhou took out a blue Z Riser from his coat and pulled the trigger.
A golden spatial gate opened before him, and Yuzhou stepped straight through.
"Yuzhou — access granted."
After inserting the Light Identity Card, the Z Riser cleared the access lock.
Three medals appeared in Yuzhou's hand.
"Overlord."
"Cheat Merchant."
"Voice of Reason."
He inserted the medals one by one into the Z Riser and activated it, reading their data.
"Agul."
"Hikari."
"Cosmos."
As the scan completed, light engulfed Yuzhou's body, transforming him into Ultraman Tiga — Multi Type.
He pulled the trigger once more.
Three blue, spectral silhouettes flew out from the spatial gate and merged into his body.
Instantly, Yuzhou felt three distinct forces reshaping his form.
Ultraman Tiga — Ascended Form!