Chapter 1263: NO．167：Squeak squeak, I really want to mouse

NO．167：Squeak squeak, I really want to mouse.

It cannot be denied that the social appearance of a period can be judged entirely based on whether public security is good or bad.

In the early days of the Holy Terra Federation's founding, even before the Federation was established, all of Earth's land was still divided by nations and plunged into or intermittent warfare.

The international status of horse racing, its economic share, or, put together—the weight of interests—would not be as exaggerated as it is now.

Likewise, at that time, Earth often faced disturbances caused by native monsters unearthed or mutated in different regions.

As well as attacks by extraterrestrial monsters and artificial monsters.

Besides, there were also a rich variety of local demons, monsters, and extraordinary individuals, but Earth was not much different from Earth in the Ultraman universe.

After all, it's well known that there are no shortage of extraordinary individuals and monsters on the Ultraman set; they just usually appear only after several or a dozen episodes.

But on this Earth where the Terra Federation is located, background characters basically appear in every episode's crowd shots.

However, this makes no big difference for Ultraman.

After all, the Ultraman warriors of the Land of Light are essentially a large cosmic patrol team—they intervene in all kinds of trivial injustices within their patrol range.

In other words, the job of this group of Ultraman is not to fight monsters.

They each have their own job duties in the Land of Light, and besides that, their commonality is maintaining public safety and upholding justice (?).

And the reason fighting monsters is so well known is still because the monsters in their universe are as common as wild animals.

You can see them on any planet; aliens even keep a few as pets, and Earth is practically a home for monsters and aliens, with monsters showing up in some remote corner of Japan every now and then.

So, in terms of their commonality—or moral standing—even if a place has few monsters, if something outrageous and heinous appears, they will still intervene.

Before the Land of Light office was even built, the Federation already had plenty of records of living Ultraman, though they were more about the various giants of light who participated in Earth's history than the famous IP 'Ultraman'.

Whether they incarnated themselves or chose a human host, their busy and combative appearance looked no different from back home; the only difference was that instead of frequently fighting aliens and monsters, they now frequently fought aliens, monsters, demons, and even humans.

At first glance, it seems they've been ruthlessly disenchanted, losing the divine filter everyone usually associates with Ultraman warriors, but frankly, Ultraman naturally have a variety of personalities just like people—some with a high divine aspect, some with a low divine aspect, and—

——When humanity, with its narrow gaze, looks up at the figure of the light giant, no matter how carefree, funny, or down-to-earth the Ultraman is, they will eventually quiet down and stand still like a divine statue.

It is precisely this narrow view that makes it impossible to escape the divine essence of any Ultraman, and once the chronicler's status equals or even exceeds theirs, everything they describe can be relatively fair and stable.

Even a bird's‑eye view can summarize their everything that lacks any mystical veil.

Under such premises, true divinity can truly be revealed—for example, the alternative first generation that Aomo has always highly praised.

Lipiya.

Silent and few‑spoken, universally loving yet inwardly restrained, sometimes guiding humanity, sometimes willing to suffer for humanity.

That physical humanoid form, which lacks even a timer, can be called the ultimate life form humanity can hope for—a giant of strength and beauty.

But when he disguises himself as a human, maintaining his usual behavior patterns and tone of speech, you only get the impression that he is a person whose behavior has a touch of pretense.

However, bringing this up now is not to emphasize the divine impact of the vast existence itself, but because he is gazing at the secret base on Teresan Back Mountain with that somewhat pretentious expression.

"So I just need to watch her, and that's enough?"

"Yeah, I can't devote all my time here; after all, even if I used the old man's and my master's training style to urge her on, she'd probably need more sprint‑training, right? If it weren't for Jie De's inability to keep a secret, I'd actually want to call him over."

"As for not being able to keep a secret, maybe you're not qualified to say that about Xiao Lu?"

Sai Luo's big rat gave him a sideways glance, and Lipiya couldn't help but steal another look at that big rat, her expression unchanging.

"Mm, please."

A neutral response, sounding like a voice from the void, apparently came from Ace.

"Good," Lipiya replied bluntly, "I have this time."

"Really? We don't need to force it," the big rat said, looking up at him, "adjusting the schedule is also part of it."

"Really, I've just been traveling around lately following other friends' suggestions," Lipiya said expressionlessly, glancing at a distant Gechengwangpai.

"I'll also read books about Uma Musume knowledge, but why? Why doesn't she go find her trainer?"

"I've contacted them; they're a very conservative person who doesn't really expect her to succeed."

"You're being way too conservative—my original words were clearly 'a coward!'" Sai Luo muttered indignantly, "It's really too bad that Gechengwangpai's personality would have such a trainer."

"A trainer's and an Uma Musume's personalities don't have to match; complementarity is also a case."

"Really?" Sai Luo lowered his gaze to Aomo, reaching out a paw, "I can't tell."

"Don't keep staring at me and Xiao Lu thinking you can figure it out," Aomo lifted his claw to pry open his dishonest paw, "and do you even have any awareness of your own situation?"

"Isn't it just being watched by an alien organization, which also keeps an eye on the horse‑racing circle? Feels pretty much the same as those two previous things."

"How is an invasion of Earth not much different from just raking in money?" Perhaps because the team must have a troublemaking alien, when Bi Ze isn't around, Sai Luo acts like Bi Ze, tiring Aomo out—"We haven't even figured out the nature of this yet; raking in money might just be a prelude."

"In this world it's pretty much the same, anyway—the impact of invading Earth isn't as great as a big money‑making scheme," Sai Luo, already somewhat eroded by internet culture, said indifferently, after failing to pet the fur he turned back and said, "So for this guy's plans, I'll have to ask you to help out temporarily, Lipiya."

He looked at this fellow interdimensional kin whom he'd seen not a few times but with whom he'd hardly interacted privately, always giving him a subtle sense of oppression.

Compared to the elegant and humble Mirror Knight, compared to the stubborn mechanical Jean Burt, Lipiya's temperament amounts to opening a new steady, neutral lane for him—something like Uncle Zoffy.

"No problem." Although it's a bit repetitive, Lipiya still responded, though she inevitably glanced at the guinea pig the size of a canine lying beside Sai Luo.

"But regarding Aomo's appearance, I've wanted to ask…"

"A botched gacha pull after a shipment, a convenient transformation that's oddly attractive to people's palms, and being asked over and over why—can you understand?" After chatting with Sai Luo, the guinea pig blurted out an answer to Lipiya's words, showing a bit of mouse‑mouse impatience.

"…Other than the first sentence, I get it—what's a 'shipment'? Is it related to monster cards? Or is it some new human coinage?"

"Exactly, a human thing, diedie!"

"…?"