Ultraman floated in mid-air, looking down at the zombies surging in from all directions.
There were quite a few of them, roughly a hundred or so upon a quick glance, dragging their twisted steps as they closed in on the Villa, muttering incoherent words like “hungry,” “meat,” and “eat” from their mouths like a bunch of broken repeaters.
Honestly, even if all of them were added together, they wouldn’t survive a single serious sweep of Ultraman’s Heat Vision.
Ultraman silently estimated in his mind that if he let loose, he could probably clear the area in a single second.
But he wasn’t alone now.
Ultraman looked down and saw Mami Tomoe already raising her flintlock rifle, while Lego Batman was assembling a cannon he had pulled out of nowhere.
Since it was a team battle, he had to leave his teammates with some sense of participation.
Ultraman didn’t use his Heat Vision.
The visual effect of that ability was too explosive, and the scene of burning someone to ashes didn’t fit the persona of a “gentle and sunny man of tomorrow” at all.
He would try to save this move for mechanical creations.
Freeze Breath was much gentler freezing them solid without shattering, making it look like a subdual rather than an execution.
A blast of white, freezing air blew from his lips, spreading forward along the ground.
Wherever it passed, the zombies were frozen in place, maintaining all sorts of bizarre postures.
On the ground below him, Mami Tomoe raised a white flintlock rifle with one hand and pulled the trigger at a zombie that was approaching the window.
The gunshot was crisp, and the zombie fell to the ground.
Mami Tomoe didn’t stop to reload; instead, she simply let go.
Before the gun even hit the ground, it dissolved into golden specks of light, and another brand-new flintlock rifle already appeared in her hand.
Shoot, release, regenerate the entire sequence of actions was as smooth as flowing water, like an elegant ballet of Death.
Ultraman scanned the battlefield with his peripheral vision while evaluating in his mind.
There was nothing to complain about Mami Tomoe’s combat style; it was consistent with her performance in the original work.
What truly surprised Ultraman was the plastic figure, barely reaching his knees, by his feet.
Lego Batman was crouching on the ground, using a small hammer to smash the floor, piecing together the shattered Lego bricks one by one.
The bricks seemed to come alive in his hands, rapidly assembling into a miniature missile launcher.
Following this, Lego Batman pressed a button, and a Lego missile flew out trailing a tail of fire, precisely hitting a zombie that wanted to sneak up from behind, blowing it into a pile of colorful plastic parts.
The combat style of Lego World could actually be used in the normal World.
Looking at the Lego fragments scattered on the ground, Ultraman silently updated his assessment of this plastic Batman kid-friendly or not, his combat power could not be underestimated.
Ultraman’s gaze swept past the current battlefield and landed at the end of the street.
Five meters tall, bloated all over, leaving shallow craters on the asphalt with every step.
It was that giant zombie.
It was walking this way, its rotting eyeballs rolling as it locked onto its target.
Ultraman moved.
No one could see his trajectory clearly.
The giant zombie had just taken a step when a fist appeared in its field of vision, getting closer and larger.
Then its vision cracked no, its entire body tore apart.
The fist pierced through its skull, and the impact traveled down its spine, tearing the five-meter-tall body into several fragments.
Black blood and minced meat splattered in all directions, but not a single drop touched Ultraman.
Ultraman had already moved ten meters away the instant he hit the target, his cape gently settling in the wind.
…
Jina cowered in the corner of the room, still clutching the kitchen knife in her hand.
Her fingers had gone stiff, her knuckles white, and her panicked face was reflected on the blade.
Suddenly, she realized something: it had gone quiet outside.
the banging on the doors, the rattling of the windows, and the hoarse voices had all vanished.
Jina hurriedly opened the Chat Group.
[Jina]: Everyone, are you okay?
[Superman]: It should be mostly resolved.
Although we still don’t know the origin of this energy barrier, the zombies have been cleared out.
“Huh? Already cleared out?” Jina stared at the line of text.
Her first reaction wasn’t relief, but shock.
How many minutes had passed since she sent out the call for help?
Those things that had surrounded the entire street were just gone?
Jina put the kitchen knife on the floor her fingers had been stiff for so long that her joints popped with a click when she let go of the handle and then walked tremblingly to the door, stood on her tiptoes, and looked out through the peephole.
Someone was standing outside.
A tall figure, a blue and red bodysuit, the S-shield on his chest, and that gentle face.
Jina opened the door.
Tears welled up the instant she saw that face, a release of “finally safe” relief.
Jina threw herself into the red and blue figure, turning all her previous fear into tears.
“Alright, it’s over now.” Ultraman’s voice was very soft as his palm gently patted her back.
Mami Tomoe stood to the side with her hands folded in front of her, a smile playing on her lips.
Mami Tomoe didn’t speak to interrupt, simply watching the scene quietly.
Lego Batman also looked over.
His gaze lingered on the hugging duo for a second before he lowered his head to continue messing with the scanner in his hand.
Once Jina finally calmed down, she stepped back from Ultraman’s embrace with some embarrassment and wiped her face with her sleeve.
Her eyes were still red, but her gaze had stabilized.
“Really thank you, everyone.”
“Next,” Ultraman raised his head and looked at the purple energy barrier that still enveloped the block in the sky, light slowly flowing across its surface, “let’s see what this thing actually is.”
…
Meanwhile, at the other end of the street.
A squad of fully armed personnel was filing down from an armored personnel carrier.
They wore uniform dark grey combat gear, their bulletproof vests hung with various detection instruments and spare magazines, and the visors on their helmets flickered with a faint blue light.
The leader turned on the communicator, his voice low and professional.
“Report, we have entered the Shadow World. Energy detection shows that this is the area where the previously recorded zombie crisis event occurred.”
He looked around, his brow furrowing slightly under his helmet.
The street was completely empty, with no zombies or signs of destruction, too quiet to seem like a coordinate point that had just been designated as an anomaly zone.
“But we haven’t encountered any zombies here,” another team member chimed in, tapping his detector twice with his finger, his tone shifting from confusion to surprise.
“They might be gathering somewhere wait. Report, the energy barrier in the sky is dissipating.”
Everyone looked up at the same time.
The purple energy barrier was fading at a speed visible to the naked eye, like a layer of thin mist burned through by the sun, its edges already starting to peel away and dissolving into fine points of light in the air.
There was silence on the other end of the communication for a few seconds, and then a new voice came through older and more composed.
“Confirmed. The source of the anomaly may have been resolved by an unknown force. Entire squad, enter alert status, continue searching the scene, and collect energy residue samples. If there exists an entity in this Shadow World capable of independently clearing anomalies, we need to know who it is.”