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Meng Er quickened his pace and ran towards the village with the horseshoe crab in his arms. Although he still didn't understand what happened, he knew that it was his father's voice. His father was still there and hadn't left him!
Chapter 58: Super Beast Attacks
There were many people gathered on the beach in the early morning.
"Are you really not bragging about the super beast you mentioned?"
Village policeman Matsugami Fujimura asked with some suspicion. The man who pulled him to call the police was a bearded sailor. As someone who grew up by the sea, Fujimura was very familiar with this group of people, even though he was not a fisherman. They usually went fishing and soaked themselves in wine jars when they came ashore, just like this bearded man. You can still smell the wine.
"It's true. There was another child who saw it at the time." Seeing that the police didn't believe him, the bearded man got a little anxious. He looked around and unexpectedly spotted the little boy hiding outside the crowd. "Officer, it's him! It's this child!"
"Meng Er!" Village policeman Song Shang also saw this little bastard who had been searched for by many villagers for most of the night. "Where did you go yesterday? We didn't even see you come back at night. Everyone thought you fell into the sea to feed the fish."
"I found my dad. I was with him last night."
"Your father? What nonsense are you talking about? Come on, don't run away today, come back to the village with me! You are still being pretentious, Mr. Konno may not agree to adopt you, you are so naughty."
Song Shang didn't want to waste any more time, so he walked up and pulled Meng Er away.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Mr. Policeman, this is the kid. He can prove what I said. He also saw the super beast last night!" Seeing that Fujimura did not believe his report and was about to leave, the bearded man hurriedly stopped him and said, "He also stole things from our ship. We can't let him go!"
"Stealing? Meng Er, you stole something?"
"no!"
"You're still quibbling. I clearly saw you take it..." The bearded man kept on biting. He didn't care whether the boy stole anything or not, but just wanted him to prove that it was the super beast that attacked the crew. Otherwise, if the other party's family members said that there was an accident while sailing, as the owner, the funeral expenses and various compensations would not be enough to pay even if he sold the boat, and he would lose everything to pay for the death.
If it can be confirmed that it was an attack by super beasts, the government will provide compensation to those who died in the attack, which can greatly reduce the amount of compensation. He may even only need to pay a few hundred thousand yen in humanitarian compensation to avoid gossip.
"That's a horseshoe crab, it's not yours. The teacher said that horseshoe crabs are endangered species and cannot be caught!"
"Wait, you guys poached horseshoe crabs? I can't pretend I didn't hear that."
"No... Mr. Policeman, don't listen to his nonsense. We didn't..."
"So what did Meng Er steal?"
"This..." The bearded man was at a loss for words for a moment, and said with a sad face, "Shouldn't you be paying attention to the super beast? The super beast eats people!"
"The super beasts are the business of the TAC team, so of course I will report them. But the poaching of horseshoe crabs is my business. Come on, follow me to the police station!"
As Song Shang took the bearded man away, the crowd gradually dispersed. Meng Er wanted to leave as well, but saw a fat uncle approaching him. It was the uncle he had seen getting off the bus yesterday.
"Your name is Meng Er, right? Did you really see what happened last night?"
Meng Er didn't say anything. Then a girl came over and handed him a white conch.
"Is this yours? I just saw it fall from you."
Meng Er quickly touched his pocket and found that the conch his father had given him had fallen out of his pocket. This was his treasure. Meng Er took the conch and thanked him.
"Isn't that quite polite?" Konno smiled and ruffled the boy's hair.
"Meng Er, this is my uncle, he is a member of TAC." The girl Yumiko said. She is the daughter of Konno Tsutomu's cousin Konno Taro. She is the child of the family that is going to adopt Meng Er.
Meng Er knew Yumiko, they were both from the same village, but they had never spoken to each other before and were not very familiar with each other.
"Listen to me, Meng Er, I heard about your father. Their fishing boat was attacked by a super beast at sea. The intelligence said it was a super beast with huge tentacles."
"Giant tentacles?"
Hearing Konno mention the giant tentacle, Meng Er recalled what he saw yesterday. Although it was just a glimpse, he also saw a huge tentacle dragging the crew into the sea without any resistance.
He suddenly realized that the super beast he saw yesterday was probably the one that killed his father! That super beast, the murderer of his father, was right in front of him yesterday!
He was so busy running away that he didn't even notice it. Meng Er suddenly felt very angry, not knowing whether it was towards the super beast or towards himself.
"Uncle, are you really a member of TAC? Can you destroy the super beasts?"
"Of course." Konno took out the communicator with the TAC logo and waved it in front of Meng Er. "It has always been the responsibility of our TAC to destroy the super beasts."
Meng Er nodded seriously. His father had been out at sea for many days and he had a premonition that his father would not abandon him unless it was absolutely necessary. So he had already bought bamboo strips and white paper, but he still held some hope in his heart, hoping that his father's fishing boat was delayed by something, until he got the exact news from the police station yesterday.
My father was killed by a super beast.
The villagers said that he was stimulated and had mental problems. But Meng Er knew that he just wanted to avenge his father. No one would believe that a twelve-year-old child could really destroy the super beast, so in their eyes, Meng Er was stupid and just talking nonsense.
But Meng Er was serious, not because he wanted to prove anything, but just because he wanted to do it.
After confirming Konno's identity, Meng Er let down his guard.
"Okay, follow me!"
Meng Er led the two across the beach and came to the cave. In the shallow water in front of the cave, there was a horseshoe crab lying on the beach.
"Is this the horseshoe crab that the fishing boat poached yesterday?"
"Yes, and he is my father."
"What, your father?" Yumiko couldn't help but laugh out loud, but then she felt that it was a bit rude and held back her smile, "But people can't have a helmet crab as a father. Helmet crabs can only give birth to helmet crab babies."
"But he is my dad, he can talk to me! Listen!"
Meng Er picked up the horseshoe crab and heard his father's voice again. But Konno Tsutomu and Yumiko heard nothing.
"What did it say?" Konno asked tentatively. He was not sure if this was a child's prank.
"My father said that Gaia saved him and allowed him to stay here. He wanted to watch me grow up."
"Gaia? Is that really the name Gaia?"
"Yes, that's what my dad said."
Konno was a little surprised to hear Ultraman's name coming out of the child's mouth, but he couldn't help but believe it. Although resurrecting the dead sounds like a fantasy, since it's Ultraman, it doesn't seem so unacceptable.
"What else did he say?" Konno unconsciously changed the way he addressed the horseshoe crab from 'it' to 'he'.
"Dad said that a terrible creature appeared in the sea. It was a 'man-eating helmet crab' and it was controlled by aliens. It grew bigger day by day by eating people, and its hatred for humans was also increasing day by day."
"Hatred of humanity?"
"Yes, because the helmet crab was about to be extinct by humans. So it was very angry, and the aliens transformed it and gave it the power to take revenge on humans."
Konno opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Horseshoe crabs have lived on this planet for 20 million years, and they appeared before the dinosaurs. In comparison, even if we count from the early Homo sapiens, humans have only existed for years.
It has experienced five mass extinctions in Earth's history. As an earlier species than trilobites, it witnessed the extinction of trilobites, carnivorous armored fish, therapsids, a large number of mollusks and brachiopods, and finally the extinction of dinosaurs. However, horseshoe crabs have survived natural disasters time and time again and have survived to this day. They can be called living fossils, a miracle of immortal life.
But today it is on the verge of extinction because of humans.
It has every reason and qualification to take revenge on humans. Whether it is eating people or even destroying cities, compared to what humans have done to them, any revenge is reasonable.
But Konno wouldn't allow it because he was human.
"Wait, my dad said the Ultra Beast is approaching! It's coming!"
"What?" Konno was shocked. Almost at the same time, the entire sea surface began to shake.
"Go, go quickly!"
Konno was on vacation, so he didn't have any weapons with him. The only thing he had was a communicator.
"TAC Headquarters, calling TAC Headquarters, please answer if you hear me! A super beast has appeared on the coast of Okayama!"
Beidou, who was patrolling the sky in the Universe, was the first to receive the information transferred by the headquarters.
"Okayama? I see. I'm over the Seto Inland Sea and can be there in three minutes. But Konno, we've been patrolling for two days and haven't found anything. How can he encounter a super beast even when he's on vacation? I don't know whether to say it's good luck or bad luck."
In the ocean, the seawater was boiling and emitting a large number of bubbles. A huge shadow gradually emerged from the bottom of the sea, then broke through the waves and rushed out of the sea. It was a creature with a crab's mouthparts, a tail like a long tentacle, and four pairs of molted claws on its chest.
It's not just a horseshoe crab, it's more like a monster made up of various marine creatures.
"It must be the Yabo people again, playing with the creatures on Earth at will. How abominable."
The Yabo people obviously have such powerful scientific and technological technology, but they like to transform the indigenous creatures on the earth to attack the earth. It has to be said that they have a very bad taste.
The super beast kicked the flood control embankment, but the tens of thousands of tons of force were far beyond the ability of the concrete embankment to withstand, so it was easily broken. The seawater poured back through the gap in the embankment, flooding a low-lying salt field.
"Uncle, aren't you a member of the TAC team? Can't you attack the super beasts?" Meng Er followed Konno and Yumiko to the shore, feeling somewhat unwilling.
The murderer who killed his father was right in front of him, but he could only run away. He held the horseshoe crab that his father had turned into in both hands, and ran while looking back from time to time.
Although it was a marine creature, the super beast spit out flames from its forehead, igniting the sea houses and tents in the open area on the coast. It then walked towards a factory that refined seafood.
Thinking of the boast he had just made, Konno felt a little embarrassed.
"I'm on leave now, so I don't have any weapons with me. But it doesn't matter. I've already contacted headquarters, and the TAC team's plane will be here soon."
Just as Konno said, two minutes later, the Aira piloted by Hokuto appeared above the super beast.
"This is Beidou, I have arrived at the location of the super beast."
"How is the evacuation going?" Captain Long asked on the communicator.
"There are still some people evacuating on the shore. Oh, I saw Konno. He was running with his two children."
"Don't attack yet. Attract the attention of the super beasts. Attack after the evacuation work on land is completed."
"understand!"
Beidou replied, deliberately passing over the head of the Chao Beast, attracting the Chao Beast's attention. The tentacle-like tail lashed towards Gaara, but Beidou easily dodged it.
"That's it, sea monster, follow me!"
The Chao Beast's tail lashed out a few more times, but facing the nimble Gaara piloted by Beidou, it was like trying to whip a fly with a rope, completely useless.
A moment later, follow-up support from the TAC team also arrived.
They were the Eagle and the Cosmos. The Eagle Sky Fortress, which had been badly damaged in the Battle of Baraba, had finally completed its renovation and returned to the battlefield.
"The evacuation has been completed. Everyone listen up and attack the super beast!"
Chapter 59: The Weakest Super Beast
Although human weapons rarely have a record of directly defeating super beasts, the Eagle's firepower is still very strong. It is equipped with various conventional weapons that humans have developed except for nuclear weapons, including but not limited to rockets, missiles, lasers, etc.
The missiles fired in succession covered the Ultra Beast with full firepower, causing the Ultra Beast code-named King Crab to retreat step by step.
"Very good, the missile is effective, find its weakness and continue attacking!"
King Crabbe continued to spray flames, but he was unable to do anything to the TAC team's high-mobility aircraft. The continuous bombardment of missiles and rockets gradually made it unable to bear it. Even one of the claws on its chest was broken.
Even after being transformed by aliens, one of the main reasons why horseshoe crabs have survived from 500 million years ago to today is that they are timid. Any stubborn creature would have long been extinct in the long river of time. This timidity has been deeply imprinted in their genes.
Realizing that something was wrong, it stopped and even wanted to escape into the sea.
"It seems that we don't need Ultraman to save the day this time." Yamanaka, who was driving the Cosmos, said optimistically. This Ultra Beast was far inferior to the previous Baraba and Ace Killer. Perhaps it could become the first Ultra Beast defeated by the TAC team itself.
"Don't be careless. This super beast is controlled by the aliens. The Yabo people may have other plans."