Chapter 15: Might As Well Crash Into a Jeep

With a skeptical expression, Qiao Zhe lifted his foot and stepped into the portal. He tried to approach it cautiously, but the moment he touched the portal, the scene shifted instantly and without warning. His heart skipped a beat at the abrupt change, and he turned to look for the portal's position. There was nothing there; it was obvious this was a one-way passage.

"Damn! I've been tricked!"

But now he was inside, and there was no way for Qiao Zhe to retreat. He scanned his surroundings warily; on the surface, there were no traps. It resembled a massive arena designed for combat, with a shimmering energy shield overhead.

As Qiao Zhe pondered what Noah was up to, a voice, generated like an AI, echoed in his ear.

[Simulation training begins. The target skill for this session: Specium Ray.]
[Principle: Gather light energy in both palms, store negative energy in the right hand, positive energy in the left, cross the palms to generate Specium energy, and instantly convert it into a ray for release.]
[The training ground will randomly draw an enemy consciousness to be materialized for sparring.]
[Training ends upon mastering the ray or upon simulated combat death. All injuries are simulated.]
[Countdown begins: 30...29...28...]

Hearing these prompts, Qiao Zhe was momentarily stunned before realizing Noah intended for him to learn through real combat. The idea was good, but he couldn't understand the principles at all! Negative and positive energy? He had no clue how to transform them, let alone produce Specium energy.

It was like asking someone who hadn’t learned basic arithmetic or formulas to suddenly solve calculus—utter nonsense. Qiao Zhe thought to himself that the old trickster was, as expected, unreliable sometimes. He craned his neck and shouted,

"Hey, Noah! Your tutorial's wrong! You should start with the basics first—"

If the training proceeded as planned and his sparring partner turned out to be someone like Zetton, he’d just be beaten up for no reason. Unfortunately, Noah, having issued his instructions, slipped back into slumber to recover—creating such a special training ground had exhausted him.

The AI's countdown continued relentlessly, while in another universe—

The Land of Light.

Brilliant green cosmic matter covered the entire planet. If there was one word to sum it up: wealthy. Materials precious elsewhere in the universe were commonplace here. Under the glow of the Plasma Spark Tower, all buildings and streets were transformed into lush green.

In this energy-rich environment, it was like living submerged in spring water; Ultramen didn’t need rest. The Land of Light had a laid-back atmosphere. Generally, no one oversaw the Ultramen—if they lounged at home, it didn’t matter. Resources were abundant, and these saintly beings rarely did anything wrong, so the Space Garrison was mostly idle. Other than venturing out to combat evil, there was little to do at home.

With Ultramen gathering here, who in the universe would be foolish enough to raid the Land of Light's headquarters? Coincidentally, the group of Ultra "mafiosos" thought the same. Thus, while defenses existed, they weren't particularly strict.

Today's light from the Plasma Spark Tower was as radiant as ever. Father of Ultra, after a long day's work, saw that no one was coming in and used his psychic power to close and lock the door. As a veteran leader, he knew how to slack off; as for the rest of the work—wasn’t Zoffy around?

Though Zoffy's chest was adorned with many stars, he was still young; accumulating experience was never a bad thing. "It's been a while since I visited Belial; perhaps I'll go chat with him later..."

With these thoughts, Father of Ultra leaned back against his chair, reminiscing about his lost youth. As he pondered, the light in his bulbous eyes dimmed slightly, and he drifted off to sleep. Elder Ultramen were prone to napping—their spirit wasn’t as youthful as before. Unlike ambitious Ultras like Belial, who remained vigorous from start to finish.

Nowadays, Father of Ultra rarely used the Ultimate Blade, preferring instead to lift an Ultra dumbbell whenever he had a moment. But as he slept soundly, his consciousness was drawn out by Noah and transported to that special training ground.

"Mm!? Who!?"

When Father of Ultra came to, he found himself in a strange space, unable to speak.

"What’s happening!? Damn! Who are you, attacking an old man like me!"

Not only could he not speak, he couldn’t control his own body. Unlike Father of Ultra’s anger, Qiao Zhe was utterly dumbfounded.

Good news: no Zetton.

Bad news: his sparring partner was Father of Ultra!

How was he supposed to fight now!?

Qiao Zhe turned and ran for his life—this matching system was a disaster!

If the AI had a physical form, he’d want to crack open its head to see if it was just artificially stupid.

Boom!

The ground shook violently; a gust of wind swept dust toward him, toppling Qiao Zhe and leaving him sitting hard on the ground. Looking up, he saw a pair of large red feet.

Clearly, Father of Ultra had leapt down and blocked Qiao Zhe’s escape. But this wasn’t Father of Ultra’s intention; at the moment, he couldn’t control himself and hadn’t figured out what was happening.

Qiao Zhe didn’t know this. He looked up to see Father of Ultra, arms crossed, red cape billowing behind, gazing down at him kindly.

Those bulbous eyes made Qiao Zhe incredibly nervous; he swallowed involuntarily. Especially with those enormous horns atop the other’s head, clearly awakened to their true power.

Father of Ultra now tossed aside his cape, clenched his fists, and wore a look ready for battle.

Seeing him discard his cape, Qiao Zhe scrambled to his feet and shouted, "Wait! Wait!"

"Look at the gap between our strengths—it’s totally unsuitable for training!"

He remembered the AI had said that the sparring partner was drawn from someone’s consciousness. If that was the case, surely Father of Ultra wouldn’t attack a mere human?

In reality, that would be true, but here, Father of Ultra possessed only consciousness and couldn’t control his body. The reason for drawing consciousness was to allow materialization and full replication of power. The aim was authenticity.

And the inability to speak was Noah’s precaution against any villains luring Qiao Zhe with words, so he set a mute restriction.

Father of Ultra, noticing Qiao Zhe’s shouts, carefully observed this human. With the Ultra Eye and his strength, he immediately detected something unusual.

"This human is about to evolve into an Ultraman! But why does he have dark energy?"

Unable to speak, Father of Ultra mused silently.

"Training?"

Recalling Qiao Zhe's words, he vaguely understood.