Chapter 1183: NO．87：It's hard not to doubt the god-ghost duality

NO．87：It's hard not to doubt the god-ghost duality

Under a world processed with color inversion and purple filter adjustment, in front of the slightly twisted mechanical stand, each of the eight glass columns holds a person.

However, it is not soundproof.

"Yo, you guys are here." The suit-clad man leaning against the glass wall smiled especially nonchalantly with someone else's face.

And in the column beside him, a youth also in a suit but with a more custom style had just withdrawn his gaze observing the surroundings:

"Sai Luo…"

"Jie De, I've told you not to lay hands on the illusion~"

He called out softly, but was interrupted by the other person's cheerfully spoken words as if they hadn't heard.

That lighthearted tone made it seem as if Jie De hadn't caused a total party wipe by snatching the opener, but merely made a small mistake.

On the contrary, Jie De's reaction was completely normal—he had sunk so low he was about to kneel before everyone.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Sai Luo, Mr. Aomo, and everyone…"

"……"

Wuxi activated the demon transformation again, repeatedly scanning with those eyes that could see more demons, finally landing on Aomo, who could faintly see the outline of Sai Luo's earphones beside his feet, and called out softly once more: "Sai Luo…"

And in the glass column diagonally behind him, Ailisuzhi curiously examined this somewhat eye‑hurting scenery: "Oh, is this the legendary other dimension? Chazuo, how does it compare to the dream world you told me about?"

"…There's no comparison; the dream world is…"

Chazuo's eyes widened as if he had discovered something unbelievable.

"How could this…"

"Chazuo?"

"Can it be shaken…" In the column behind, Aimu Zhiji nodded, then lightly tapped the person beside her: "Mei Pu classmate, I heard you have a mechanical body monster card…"

"Just a moment, the process of trying to wake Senior Bai Ren is underway."

"Huh?"

……In this setting where everyone was whispering, yet the background noise was somewhat noisy, Aomo merely raised his hand to rub his nose bridge, while Sai Luo beside him instead raised his volume slightly and said:

"Everyone, don't rush to break through—I'll say something first."

"Now you should all be able to see that this guy is still pretty schizophrenic—although he's locked us in this kind of glass tank, he doesn't have the tar of the Hippolytians, and even this broken cover, while it seals telepathy and radio waves, doesn't seal sound, making it very half‑assed."

"What do you want to say?" Suzi frowned and asked, "Don't spout these aimless things—what conclusion are you trying to reach? Surrender?"

"It's just surrender," Aomo said at this point, making the other girls and Xiao Lu look over, "Sai Luo, don't think you can easily override—you were wearing earphones playing games earlier and didn't hear the Aliens' voice, right?"

As soon as that was said, cries of "Huh?" and "Ha?" erupted, and the man instinctively glanced at his own feet, then gave an embarrassed laugh: "Uh… I've been waiting a long time for anyone to come, and I'm used to playing with earphones on…"

"I know—I noticed your habit of wearing earphones to play games in the activity room," Aomo nodded expressionlessly, "Usually it's a good habit, but this time…"

He turned his head: "You heard it, Xiao Lu—don't be too hard on yourself."

"Your initial shout was wise and also crucial—I guess he missed the Aliens' words because he was gaming with earphones on, only reacting to the sound after you shouted."

"Uh…"

At this moment, just looking at that man's embarrassed smile, as if he were at work, someone's inference could be confirmed, but Xiao Lu didn't take advantage of it.

His mood remained low: "But we're still locked in…… What kind of crucial is this……"

"The crucial point is that we ran into him playing games before we even entered, preserving his last shred of dignity."

The youth, towering over two meters in his demon form, looked down at the man with an especially cold gaze.

"Uh…"

Now not only Xiao Lu didn't know what to say, but Sai Luo, who ought to have defended something, also didn't know what to say, hesitating for several seconds before awkwardly pushing his hands away: "Don't, don't be like this—I'm actually thinking of everyone's benefit."

"You want to say that guy is essentially harmless but can be left to the ace to handle?" Despite the disdain, Aomo never lost his judgment, just as he had done when Sai Luo tried to steer the conversation away, constantly verifying the information that could be summarized from the scene before him.

In this world, the filter's color is a harm that worsens over time for ordinary eyes, but for the demon's soul‑reaching vision it means nothing.

He could instantly see that the Alien's soul state was not merely weak, but better described as thin and deficient.

Compared to those illusions that are essentially gravitational pull devices, He fits the state of a wandering soul more.

And He is a solitary wandering soul.

The uniqueness of being solitary lies not in its lonely predicament but is directly reflected in its appearance—in fact, the Alien individual in the Ultraman main universe differs markedly from the widely known Alien design.

The true Alien individual is the slender, pointy‑headed figure seen hunched before the console, busy all the time, rather than the widely known image of a body covered in spikes, like a durian‑lychee hybrid with twin horns.

That latter appearance is actually the form of Aliens merging and enlarging; after being eliminated by Aisi, the Alien race's grudge still retains that posture.

This directly caused many Ultraman fans who don't follow Aisi's history to remember only the spiky‑bodied Alien, unaware that the Alien's original look is actually somewhat comical and strange.

As previously mentioned, the Alien race excels in scientific research, with its chief creation being the super beast.

By fusing cosmic, extradimensional, and earthly lifeforms as needed, this race relies on external aids, making individual strength relatively limited; they often appear by possessing powerful monsters, super beasts, or even humans themselves.

This is also the reason for the low fame of their true forms.

Either they conspire in those damned‑weird filter visuals, or they appear by possessing other creatures—who knows what they look like in the nude? Aomo only learned their normal‑colored appearance from figurines shown by other transmigrants—a truly speechless channel.

But now, they are directly seeing the original Aliens in the Aliens' extradimensional base, which in a sense is worth the price of admission.

The admission is indeed low—just being locked in a glass cover—and from Aomo's current observation attempts, he's already discovered that what's lacking here isn't only the solitary Alien spirit, but the base itself is deficient.

In this spacious place that should hold various devices and cables, there's a bald patch in the east, a missing section in the west, and the floor layout has some gaps that aren't very reasonable by human logic.

Although one could chalk it up to alien versus human placement logic, considering Sai Luo's perpetually relaxed demeanor, Aomo thinks the base's deficiency is quite plausible.

That said, no one expected such a twists‑and‑turns development.

I thought it was just a minor hassle, but then an Alien appeared—the kind that becomes troublesome or even unmanageable given time to develop—and while considering whether to crush it outright in the cradle, we discovered the other side's consciousness was entirely muddled.

"Aisi… you aren't Aisi…… Aisi…… where are you?"

"Why… why does Aisi's aura linger here…… you lot, no, you aren't……"

"Aisi… what have you become……"

"Horse girl…? Racing horse girl… what is that? Is it Aisi? No, neither……"

Talking to oneself is a sign of mental abnormality, and fiddling with a lever back and forth at the console, repeatedly pulling on the only normally colored screen floating in midair, is an even more obviously insane behavior.

Not only that, right? They must have had contact with the horse girls here; I've seen them using those instruments to constantly link with the subconscious of other horse girls, and I feel it wouldn't be good to abruptly cut them off.

Compared to that uncle who insists a super beast feels no pain, who fights decisively and with a tide-like offensive, who could be called the Yabo Ren Slayer, Sai Luo's words were surprisingly patient and calm.

"Did they tell you that?" Suzi asked.

"No way, I figured it out myself. At first I thought Mi Yu had really seen a ghost, but then I realized it was all just a phantom extracted from the subconscious—none of them are actual spirits."

"None of them are spirits?" Bai Ren suddenly looked up.

"But that guy is."

"" Bai Ren fell silent, torn in the rare subtle wavering gaze beside Beautiful Bay Wave, muttering under his breath words like "alien," "spirit," "alien," "spirit."

Looks like that's also a sign of mental abnormality.

"All right." Aomo nodded, withdrawing from the convenient but not very economical demonization.

Seeing the opponent perform at such an exceptional level, he had to admit that aside from the earlier operation being somewhat clumsy, it was a minor issue; but the timing of that clumsiness was just right, making him recall the question he had wanted to ask but felt awkward about:

"Whether the past eating-deflation segments actually happened."

Now I think, although the reasons differ, it might be true… but that's not the point right now.

The point was his sudden flash of inspiration, but Chazuo spoke first with a related idea:

"Linking the group subconscious… trainer… those racehorses running together in the dream…"

"Ah… maybe I should go find Miss Shu later to talk about cause and effect."