T/N: It’s me!
again, this chapter is a little bit boring…
well for me anyway, here is chapter 3!
enjoy~
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The drawbacks brought by Hollows were obvious.
But they also brought considerable benefits.
One of those benefits was Ether.
A unique type of energy produced only within Hollows.
This energy was widely used across modern cities.
Beneath New Eridu, pipelines for transporting Ether ran everywhere.
Almost all equipment in the city relied on Ether to function.
This was also why the massive Hollow Zero Limbo sat right next to New Eridu.
Certain city departments acted like diligent worker bees.
They constantly entered the Hollow to extract its Ether and supply the city.
Whoever decided to build New Eridu here was either a bold genius or a complete madman.
After all, Old Eridu had been destroyed by the sudden appearance of Hollow Zero Limbo .
Building a new city right next to it was like openly challenging that terrifying Hollow Zero.
Yet New Eridu’s prosperity also depended heavily on Limbo .
In a world where Hollows could suddenly appear anywhere, nowhere was truly safe.
A city could be thriving one moment and swallowed by a Hollow the next.
Its residents would be left displaced and starving due to lost productivity.
But New Eridu had grown far more bustling and prosperous than the city Louis had lived in before.
It stood at the pinnacle of this world.
All thanks to the advanced technology developed to utilize Ether and the endless Ether resources within Limbo .
In Louis’s view, Ether was almost like quantum mechanics.
Anything science couldn’t explain was attributed to Ether.
He had heard all this from the uncle at the coffee shop downstairs.
Calling him an uncle might not be quite right.
He was a self-aware robot who could brew coffee.
In the simple and honest New Eridu, you could always see robots walking around, each with unique skills.
Louis wouldn’t be surprised if an AI uprising happened at any moment.
Coming to such a dangerous world, Louis had initially planned to slack off, eat well, and wait for death.
However, on his very first night here, when he was lying awake at four in the morning, a light shone into his world.
It opened the door to a new one.
Louis still remembered that scene vividly.
A transformation belt along with the Kabuto Zecter had landed right in front of him.
He first rubbed his eyes, confirming he wasn’t seeing things.
But he felt somewhat relieved.
At least the belts he had scrimped and saved to buy were accompanying him in a strange way.
As for why he knew it was his, the scratch on the Kabuto Zecter told him.
One touch confirmed it.
Since his personal property had returned, Louis naturally wanted to have some fun.
In the middle of the night, he stood in the dimly lit room, fastened the belt around his waist, struck the same pose as the toku protagonist, and shouted those two words with force.
“Henshin!”
Henshin.
As the Kabuto Zecter slid into the belt’s slot, hexagonal modules extended from the top and bottom of the belt.
In an instant, Louis transformed into Kamen Rider Kabuto.
At that moment, Louis looked down at his armor-covered hands and the suit covering his lower body.
He felt utterly bewildered.
Had he bought a fake?
No, he had bought a real one!
Stumbling to the mirror, Louis looked at his reflection.
He had completely transformed into Kamen Rider Kabuto from his memories.
The suit’s specifications quickly surfaced in his mind.
The upper body armor could perfectly defend against even a 2.4-meter combined enhanced armor-piercing round.
It possessed immense strength, capable of lifting 25 tons with one hand for extended periods.
It contained highly compressed oxygen, allowing free movement for up to ten hours even at altitudes above 5,000 meters.
One could say it was a superhuman with maxed-out survivability.
“Walk the path of heaven, and rule over all.”
“the man who walks the path of heaven and rule everything”
Louis subconsciously uttered that famous quote.
The immense power brought by the transformation belt made him acutely aware that if he went on a rampage, he could likely destroy the Six Points Street where he lived at an incredible speed.
But after gaining this power, he didn’t do that.
Instead, he pondered why this power had fallen into his hands.
His purchased belt had become sentient.
For now, he’d explain it with quantum mechanics.
Its appearance couldn’t be without reason.
After some deep thought, Louis realized that threats like Hollows and Ethereals, which endangered humanity, were essentially the antagonists in the world of those armored heroes.
The power of those armored heroes was born to protect humanity.
So, as someone who had inherited that heroic spirit, what could he do for the people of this world?
The answer, of course, was that he could.
If Louis wanted, he could toss the belt out the window right now, leaving it for someone destined to find it, while he hid like a coward and survived until the end of the world.
But as a toku fan, that heroic spirit was already deeply ingrained in his heart.
Before, there was no opportunity.
Now that the opportunity was handed to him, if he didn’t seize it, was he even a man?
Louis could responsibly say that any toku fan had imagined the scene of transforming and becoming a hero.
Even if it meant risking their life each time, it was the line between being a momentary hero and a lifelong coward.
If coming to this world was a rebirth, Louis would absolutely seize this chance.
How dangerous the Ethereals in this world were, Louis didn’t know yet.
But he felt that with Kabuto’s power alone, he could probably carve a bloody path through a large area.
However, another thought crossed his mind.
Where were the other belts he had bought?
Had they become sentient too?
Thinking further, Louis felt a bit afraid to continue.
Some of the armored heroes corresponding to those belts were world-destroying, universe-shattering level.
If one came and kicked Hollow Zero into oblivion, he wouldn’t be surprised.
The power system for those armored heroes had long been somewhat broken, and of course, he had the corresponding belts too.
Louis didn’t dwell on it too much.
After learning how to de-henshin, he played with it in front of the mirror again.
Only after the Kabuto Zecter emitted a protesting emotion did Louis realize it now had self-awareness.
It was no longer just a toy.
Moreover, its body had been greatly enhanced.
Now, forget dropping it on the ground.
Even tying TNT to it and blowing it up twice would leave it shiny and bright.
Satisfied, Louis hugged the transformation belt and the Kabuto Zecter and went to sleep.
The next day, he accepted his identity as a police academy graduate.
Looking back now, this identity wasn’t randomly assigned.
It was very important.
If he wanted to become an armored hero protecting humanity, the best place to go was naturally the New Eridu Public Security.
The Public Security officers there often entered Hollows to fight Ethereals and could obtain firsthand information about Hollows.
From then on, all of Louis’s actions were aimed at joining the New Eridu Public Security.
With his experience as a mature office worker, maneuvering wasn’t difficult.
Moreover, on his second day in this world, he encountered his second belt and figured out the pattern of the belts’ appearances.
Every day at exactly 4:00 AM, the belt in his hand would suddenly disappear, replaced by another belt.
He couldn’t choose the belt with his own will.
In other words, he might randomly get a world-destroying armored hero belt, or he might get one of those…
less favorably reviewed belts.
I’m talking about you, Ryuga Banjo.
Louis’s second belt was precisely the Build Driver along with two matching transformation devices: the Cross-Z Dragon and the Dragon Fullbottle.
When he got this entire set of ‘getting beaten up’ gear, he felt utterly terrible.
Louis stared at the belt for a long time.
Is it powerful?
Kamen Rider Cross-Z is of course powerful in its settings, with a punch force of 27 tons.
But why does he always get beaten?
After thinking about it, it might still be true.
If you don’t even know how to drive, what’s the point of talking about performance?
Then Louis realized that this statement perfectly applied to himself.
In tokusatsu stories, people who suddenly obtain a transformation belt either have undergone mutations themselves or have already developed strong physiques and combat experience.
If they have neither of these…
they actually won’t die too miserably.
After all, the belts have a novice protection period.
If they don’t encounter a great demon king in the novice village, even a shut-in who struggles to carry a bucket of water can still one-punch enemies and make monsters wear masks of pain, thanks to the amplification of tens of tons of punch force.