ebookland Chapter 36: A Tear-Jerking Masterpiece!
Chapter 36: A Tear-Jerking Masterpiece!
Friday, 8 PM.
Night had just fallen in Jinghai City, but for the generation of young people who are fans of "Ultraman Tiga" on Bilibili, the nightlife was just beginning.
After the clumsy AI script controversy surrounding "Qiao Tianzun" last week, and Su Man's behind-the-scenes "praise to kill" plan, the current online environment is in a state of chaos.
But it was precisely because of this fervent atmosphere that the viewership for "Ultraman Tiga" exploded tonight.
Online users: 100,000+!
"Brother Nan, this is getting a bit too hot."
Chen Bo looked at the frantically scrolling comments in the background and felt a chill run down his spine.
On the screen, countless accounts claiming to be "die-hard Tiga fans" were spamming the chat:
[A masterpiece has arrived! All bystanders, please leave!]
[I've said it before, only Ultraman Tiga is true tokusatsu; the rest are garbage!]
[Is it the Rapid Form tonight? Is the Aerial Form going to wreak havoc? Let's just have fun!]
These comments were mostly orchestrated by online trolls hired by Su Man, but they did indeed entice many of her die-hard fans.
What everyone is really looking forward to is a visually stunning spectacle, a thrilling and visceral experience like "No Slavery".
Gu Nan certainly cannot do as they wish.
"Chen Bo... let's turn off private messaging in the background. I'm afraid someone might try to come and chop me up through the internet later."
"Haha! You believe I can chop you up?"
The screen dimmed, and the familiar opening theme song began to play.
The title appears—
Ultraman Tiga Episode 15: Dream Run.
……
[Video begins]
The film opens with a bright blue sky, without any monsters causing any grotesque or other disturbing elements.
The location is the testing grounds at TPC headquarters.
The power-generating satellite at the beginning of the film once again showcases Tiga's grand worldview. It represents a system that TPC is researching to generate electricity using sunlight, with the aim of achieving unlimited access to clean energy.
However, this system was merely developed by humans for convenience, and its impact on other organisms on Earth has not been detailed...
The scene then shifts to a dark cloud in the atmosphere, within which a life form called Lightning Man seems to be stirring restlessly.
Shinjo and Daigo are patrolling over Kyuro Island in the Victory Flying Swallow No. 1.
"This is Xincheng. We are above Jiuliangliang Island. Everything is normal here!"
If everything seems normal, then everything is abnormal!
[I feel like this flag is going to go wrong]
[By the way, do these two guys lose a plane every time they go on a mission?]
……
The comments in the live chat quickly became reality...
The aircraft suddenly encountered strong electromagnetic interference.
"What happened?!"
"I don't know, we encountered a strong electromagnetic wave!"
"Switch to manual operation, leave everything to me!"
"I've let go!"
Daigo raised both hands.
Upon seeing this, Xincheng paused for a second.
"Daigo...it's still no use..."
"what?"
"Aaaaaaahh ...
The two who crashed their planes staged a thrilling scene not long after the start.
[Hahaha! They really are the two who crashed!]
[Everything is Normal]
[A forced crash, huh? Hahaha!]
……
The scene then shifts to the rest area.
A girl in a red dress ran over.
"elder brother!"
It's Mayumi.
Holy crap! It's my wife!
Brother-in-law! Xincheng, you're like a brother to me!
This is so sweet! This is what real men should watch!
In the story, Mayumi is very worried because she heard that the Flying Swallow had an accident.
However, I am now happy to see that the new city is fine.
"Great, brother! Your leg isn't broken!"
In one sentence, everyone was certain that Mayumi was his younger sister, and they couldn't be closer.
Then, she took out her phone, her face beaming with undisguised happiness.
"He's back."
Mayumi clung to Shinjo's arm affectionately, "Takuma said he'll come back to see you after this competition. Brother, don't come with a long face, or you'll scare him away."
Shin-chan looked reluctant, a typical case of a "sister complex" kicking in.
"What kind of race car driver is he? Always wandering around outside, unreliable..."
Despite saying that, seeing his sister's happy expression, Shinjo softened and sighed helplessly, "Alright, alright, I'll see him. But let me make this clear: if he dares to bully you, I'll blast him with the Flying Swallow."
"Thank you, bro!"
Mayumi jumped up happily, the sunlight shining on her face, making her look as beautiful as a painting.
The audience watching on screen were also touched by this heartwarming scene.
[I'll eat this dog food! Mayumi is so cute!]
[Who is Tuomo? The national motorcycle championship champion? This character setting, while a bit overpowered, is still a good match for my wife.]
However, good times are always fleeting.
The scene then shifted to an altitude of 10,000 meters.
A commercial airliner—Airline Flight 206—is weaving through the clouds.
Inside the cabin, a handsome man with long hair and a determined look is looking at a photograph in his hand.
The photo shows him and Mayumi together.
He is Tuomo.
He gently stroked the photo, a tender smile on his lips, his hand tightly clutching the same necklace he had prepared to give to Mayumi.
"Mayumi, wait for me."
Everything seemed so perfect.
until--
The clouds outside the window suddenly turned an eerie blackish-purple.
The strong electric current interfered with the aircraft's instrument panel.
The captain's terrified cries for help blared over the radio: "Mayday! Mayday! Encountering an unidentified strong magnetic field! Control failure!"
There was no warning whatsoever.
A massive black cloud instantly engulfed the entire plane.
There was no explosion, no debris falling.
It just vanished into thin air like that.
It disappeared into the vast sea of clouds.
……
There was a momentary vacuum in the chat room of the Bilibili live stream.
This was followed by a series of question marks.
【? ? ? 】
[Holy crap? What's going on?]
[Gone? The plane is gone?]
"Stop messing around! Takuma's still up there! Didn't we agree to come back and get married?"
[This is a really fast-paced cliffhanger! They just said they were going to meet the parents, and then the plane crashes?! Screenwriter, come out here!]
The camera cuts back to the TPC operations command center.
The alarm blared loudly.
"Flight 206 has lost contact! Radar signal has disappeared!"
"The location where it disappeared was over Jiuliangliang Island!"
Xincheng, who was drinking water, dropped his cup on the ground with a "crash" and shattered it.
He rushed to the big screen and stared at the flight number.
206.
That was the flight that Mayumi mentioned, the one Takuma was on.
"Impossible...this can't be happening..."
Xincheng muttered to himself.
He wasn't afraid of monsters; he was afraid of seeing his sister cry.
……
In the following plot, Gu Nan used a lot of cross-cutting montage techniques to bring the "cruelty" to the extreme.
This is his expansion of the original work based on his own understanding, and it is also a necessary process to further portray the character.
On one side is the outside of the TPC base.
Unaware of the situation, Mayumi was dressed in her carefully chosen clothes, humming a song, and waiting with great joy for the person who would never land.
She kept glancing at her watch, her expectant expression heartbreaking.
On the other side, the Victory Team was urgently dispatched.
Xincheng sat in the Flying Swallow, the veins on the back of his hand gripping the control lever bulging.
"Xincheng, calm down!"
Daigo shouted from the back seat.
"How can I stay calm!"
Shinjo roared, his eyes red-rimmed, "That's the person Mayumi loved most in her life! What will Mayumi do if something happens to him!"
This intense emotional conflict instantly shattered the previous atmosphere of "watching a satisfying drama".
The audience's hearts were in their throats.
No...please don't die!
[This is too cruel! The sweetness just now is now turning into pain!]
[Gu Nan, you're ruthless! You're killing him by destroying his spirit!]
[They must have been captured by a monster, right? Tiga can definitely rescue them, right? Right!]
People are still clinging to illusions.
After all, this is a tokusatsu drama, and there have been precedents of people being swallowed by monsters and then rescued...
For example, the astronaut in the fourth episode, although he turned into light...
Wait, it turned into light!
Thinking of this, the veteran fan felt a jolt in his heart.
……
On Mayumi's drive to the airport, the monster finally appears.
Above Jiuliang Island, that strange cloud formation began to gather.
Lightning Man.
That tragic creature that appeared in episode 6, mutated by human electromagnetic waves.
But this time, they are not the same group that Tiga sent away before.
Instead, they were a much more manic, completely different group.
Stimulated by the microwaves from the solar power station, countless lightning beings gathered together and transformed into an even larger and more ferocious monster—Gazort II.
It roared, spewing spheres of plasma light from its enormous mouth.
"Give him back to me!!"
Shinjo piloted the Flying Swallow, charging headlong into the monster.
The lasers fired wildly.
However, Gazort II was even more powerful than the first generation.
It simply waved its arm, and a massive electromagnetic storm sent the Flying Swallow spinning wildly like a leaf.
"boom!"
The Flying Swallow was hit in the wing and plummeted to the ground, billowing black smoke.
During the fall, Shinjo witnessed a scene that filled him with despair.
The monster's body became semi-transparent for a moment.
The complete airplane was not inside the monster's belly.
Only some twisted metal fragments, and...
An empty void.
"No vital signs detected..."
Ye Rui's somber voice rang out on the communication channel, "The passengers on Flight 206... all... have zero chance of survival."
This sentence sounds like a court judgment.
The live stream chat exploded.
[Dead...dead?]
[I can't accept this! Takuma is so handsome, and he hasn't even met Mayumi yet!]
[Spotlight! Give me back my wife's smile!]
[Sending razor blades! This time they're really going to send razor blades!]
……
The scene changes.
The injured Shinjo and Daigo made an emergency landing on the ground.
Ignoring his wounds, Xincheng struggled to his feet, wanting to save the person or at least retrieve some of their belongings.
Just then, the roar of a motorcycle came from afar.
"Buzz—Buzz—"
Against the backdrop of billowing smoke and the ruins ravaged by monsters, a motorcycle sped through the fog.
The people in the car were wearing racing suits and helmets.
With a beautiful drift, the car came to a stop in front of the new city.
The man took off his helmet.
Long, flowing hair and clear, bright eyes.
It's Takumo.
He was completely unharmed, not even a speck of dust on his clothes.
He looked at the disheveled new town and gave that signature, warm smile.
"Hey, brother-in-law, you look so disheveled!"
Xincheng was stunned.
Daigo was also stunned.
The viewers in front of the screen were even more dumbfounded.
[Holy crap! He's not dead?!]
Wow! They won the revival match?!
Man! Shatter the curse of the plane crash!
[That scared me to death! I knew it! How could they all be wiped out?!]
[Takuma is amazing! He survived that? Did he parachute?]
[Great! Great! Director Gu, I misunderstood you. Please take the razor blade back!]
What kind of plot twist is this? The race car driver will be resurrected?!
The live chat was filled with jubilation, with comments like "We won the revival match!" and "What a relief!"
……
Takuma did not explain how he survived.
He simply stared in the direction of the monster in the distance, his eyes revealing a tenacity that was not of ordinary people.
"Shinjo, where's Mayumi?"
Tuomo asked.
"She's in the shelter..."
Shinjo answered instinctively, then realized what she meant, "Wait, why are you...?"
"There's no time to explain."
Tuomo put his helmet back on and got back on the motorcycle.
"The monster's target is the solar power plant, and Mayumi is probably heading in that direction too, right?"
"I'll distract it."
"Are you crazy?! That's a monster! Are you going to ride a motorcycle to your death?!" Shinjo rushed up to try and grab him.
But his hand grasped at empty air.
Shinjo's fingers passed through Takuma's shoulder as if they were passing through a wisp of air.
That instant.
The background music suddenly became ethereal and quiet.
Xincheng stood frozen in place, his pupils contracting violently.
Takumo did not turn around.
He started his motorcycle and, in a flash, hurtled towards the enormous monster.
The screen froze on Xincheng's face, which was so shocked that he was speechless.
……
In the live stream, the comments celebrating the "resurrection" disappeared instantly.
Instead, there was a long period of deathly silence.
Then came the overwhelming flood of information:
【？？？？？？？？？？？】
[The hand... went through it?]
[Am I seeing things? Xincheng didn't catch him?]
[As long as I'm still alive... even if I'm already... already what? Already dead?!]
【No way... this is a ghost?!】
【soul?】
Holy crap! This is worse than death! They were right there in front of me, yet we're already separated by life and death?!
[Gu Nan! You're not human! You're really not human!]