Chapter 923: with translation of chapter title

NO. 46: Provocation

【Monster is Necessary: Hey hey, little snake, are you there?】

【Yuehuanshe: Here, what's the matter?】

【Monster is Necessary: It's the novel I mentioned before……Please pay more attention.】

【Yuehuanshe: Okay, then have you thought of how to apologize?】

【Monster is Necessary: Uh…still haven't thought of it.】

【Yuehuanshe: First, consider what souvenir to get? Think of what you like, or what Miss Baoduo likes; to be honest, I'm not really sure which side her preferences lean toward.】

【Monster is Necessary: Hmm…let me think……ah, how about a hair curling iron?】

【Yuehuanshe: That's too mundane; I think neither the other party nor Miss Baoduo really lacks such things.】

【Monster is Necessary: Mm…Liuhua indeed seems to have a decent family background……Ah, how about Yuta's merchandise! She still seems to like Yuta!】

【Yuehuanshe: No matter how you say it, it's a bit presumptuous, Xintiao classmate; and aren't you completely basing this premise on Miss Baoduo? Isn't the person you need to apologize to that lady?】

【Monster is Necessary: Liuhua also needs to be met, after all, a gift should be given; moreover, is this too presumptuous?】

【Yuehuanshe: Even if Miss Baoduo and Mr. Hibiki are really dating……well, never mind those premises; no matter how you say it, the guy's side is still too presumptuous.】

【Monster is Necessary: But I've seen quite a few successful cases.】

【Yuehuanshe: What kind of lady would like to collect……no, what do you mean by a successful case?】

Specifically, what is it like? Is the other party's boyfriend also a transmigrator with works?

Please tell me about this rare case; I want to record it to broaden my horizons】

【Monster is Necessary: This isn't important! Anyway, let me think……ah, how about a ticket folder? Liuhua also gave me one before!】

【Yuehuanshe: …If you're satisfied, that's fine; I need to continue training Chazuo, please spare some attention to monitor Peng and their feedback】10.14.9:24

——

Usually speaking, even casual viewers who aren't interested in sci-fi topics will at least know a few clichéd elements.

For example, androids, for example, brain‑machine interfaces, and also……

Clones.

Exploring the boundaries of ethics and morality, the sole struggle for social identity.

In the Border Gate District, such topics actually reside in a sci‑fi category with a relatively low audience.

And what creates this fact is precisely the hidden danger that such works wish to explore——

——How do you view another self in the world?

One might replace you, one might make you feel 'cheap' as a doppelgänger, or it might simply be a helpful convenience.

People who care about this point usually find it hard to have a good immersive experience.

Those who don't care about this point usually aren't interested in such stories.

Of course, the real reason it has such a low audience is still that, in the Holy Terra Federation, the clone‑person topic isn't sci‑fi enough.

Doppelgängers, clones, another self——

Things achievable with technology and source energy simply don't work, whether written as sci‑fi or wrapped as fantasy.

When published, they can only be shelved in the urban or light‑novel sections, etc.

And Xintiao Qian undoubtedly has to face the worries typical of an urban light‑novel protagonist.

After all……

The so‑called black‑haired Xintiao Qian is precisely the "backup" she left behind at Cuckoo Terrace.

As a monster born from fear of retaliation in an unconscious state, the black‑haired Xintiao Qian, while being backup data living alongside Qian, actually holds values different from the original.

Not wanting to be "Xintiao Qian", but rather wanting to be "Baoduo Liuhua" or something.

Even the hair is the same black as Liuhua's.

As backup data that differs from the original data, black Qian holds no existential meaning for Xintiao Qian.

She quickly regarded it as a failure and forgot it; this oblivion even lasted until Xintiao Qian was rescued by Gulite and others.

Yes.

Although black Qian caused trouble along the way, and was likewise rescued by Yuta, Liuhua, etc., and reconciled with her obsession.

But that story, which took place in a parallel world, was for Xintiao Qian herself an "I had no idea this was happening!" irrelevant personal experience.

If not for returning to reality and then transmigrating to Heaven Gate City, she would probably really sigh upon seeing black Qian:

"Who are you?"

But because her love of monsters never changed, she ultimately came into contact, while surfing the net, with countless transmigrators who built the "Hometown Specialty Culture Circle".

Electric Superhuman Gridman

Sequel: Electric Superhuman Gridman: The Demon King's Counterattack

Electric Superhuman Gridman: Children Create a Great Hero

American version: 《SuperhumanSamuraiSyber-Squad》

And——

——《SSSS. GRIDMAN》

Thanks to her sensitivity to the name Gridman, she eventually encountered this work.

Likewise, she also read many derivative works under this IP.

This also includes 《SSSS. GRIDMANNOVELIZATIONS》, a novel whose setting is like an "endless August".

The story basically recounts how Xintiao Qian, existing as a "backup", falls into an existential dilemma about her own definition, goes to extremes, hates the original, and hopes to create a monster truly capable of destroying Cuckoo Terrace, becoming a god to replace this world's original deity, but is stopped by Yuta, Liuhua, and others.

It is worth noting that the other party appeared after Gulite showed up and, a few days later, after again defeating his earlier confident work "Mechanical Gulkiraras", showed up at Cuckoo Terrace High School, causing the city's timeline to repeatedly loop from September 4.

In essence, after the school festival, another parallel world was created, attempting to replace the original world.

This plan was naturally thwarted by Yuta and the others, but when they finally reached a reconciliation with the Ultraman alliance, Alexis intervened, reviving the monsters and sending them berserk, forcibly initiating the final battle.

If this were a typical tokusatsu story, by this point they would have thoroughly sacrificed to heaven.

Villains attempting to turn back are simply sent away by worse villains, which is also a kind of unspoken convention.

But this is Ultraman's story.

As long as you are willing to believe in Ultraman, the restorative beam can give you a grand reunion!

The black‑haired Akane was ultimately rescued and chose to live in that parallel world.

She sent Yuta, Rikka and the others back to their original world, and before that she also made a promise with Rikka: next time she parts with someone, she must face it with a smile.

But frankly, aside from that final segment, Akane herself had no real sense that these events had actually happened.

Yet such a direct reference was enough to make her recall that work, which was utterly different from herself.

Despite the healing from Rikka and the others, she could not erase her own mistake; it would become another debt weighing on her, and Akane had in fact fantasized more than once:

Someday, after finding a way to the Azalea Terrace, besides reuniting with and caring for everyone, she would also have to visit that black‑haired "herself".

By then, she wanted to go over and sincerely apologize.

She would pass on the monster model that probably only she would like, bringing instead the carefully selected ticket holder, identical in style to the one Rikka had originally given her.

Because the other party is not herself.

That black‑haired Akane ought to have returned to the life of an ordinary high school girl.

But reality always ends up contrary to wishes, doesn't it?

In the bag she finally picked up, there was no ticket holder.

Only monster models, uniform in type.

You should listen to him and stay hidden in that world honestly; this is an opportunity that Calibre specially left for you.

She has black short hair and dark red eyes, appearing exactly like a mirror image, yet though she was once a 'backup,' she is utterly different inside.

She gazes at Akane Shinjo sitting opposite her, feeling an effortless joy.

After all, it was the other side who voluntarily appeared in this world, even right in front of her.

"Opportunity? You seem to be under a misconception; I've come to give you an opportunity."

Her finger rests on a turtle-shaped monster model that, though leg-shaped and seemingly able to stand, is posed prone; she wears a friendly, modest smile, her sweatshirt hoodie on, as she looks down at everything beside her that has been compressed from 3D into a 2D plane.

First, she curiously surveys the room, including Calibre, then she looks toward Black Akane, who is staring intently at the monster model beneath her finger.

"Why that expression? Is it just because you've never seen this little guy?"

The ever-changing monster: Didolas, named after the Diderot effect—namely, the 'the more you get, the less you feel satisfied' effect: when one hasn't obtained something, the mind is calm, but once obtained, one feels unsatisfied.

This is a monster once controlled by a raccoon, and it is one of the chips she carries.

"What is that thing?"

Black Akane stares fixedly at it; what she minds is not its ability to compress 3D into 2D, but that she cannot tolerate:

"That's absolutely not a monster you (I) could create!"

Akane Shinjo can design many monsters, but only those that can truly be instantiated are works infused with emotion.

In fact, whether it's Gridman's side increasing its power, or Akane Shinjo's side increasing monster strength, or even Alexis Calibre's goal, they all point to a fundamental rule:

Emotion converges into power.

Although it's clearly an electronic world, it is remarkably idealistic; this idealistic rule also holds in the world of Ma Zhongpeng—there, monsters are even born from people's hearts, and the original sink even explicitly states that the emotional fluctuations of Ma Zhongpeng and Nan Mengya are also food that monsters like, so they became a couple for quite a while.

The finally fused monster, Gakura, can be said to have been nurtured by Peng Ya's emotions, then further elevated to a second stage by the will of several individuals influenced by monster eugenic thought.

Therefore, Black Akane is very aware of her own limits.

The darkness in her heart is limited, and this limit is roughly equivalent to Akane Shinjo's, so the monsters she currently commands are essentially just data that Akane has used.

Therefore, when Akane Shinjo pulls out the Didolas model, her gaze is instantly captured by it.

The existence of the completely replaced Akane Shinjo is, like the former Akane Shinjo, a lone Black Akane; for a moment, she resembles a Lovecraftian investigator, as if encountering something utterly incomprehensible.

But that should have been a simple, straightforward thing, regardless of its composition or origin.

"Of course, this was figured out with someone else's help; it can be said to be a partial reflection of her."

The bigger reason is the data framework written with Suzuko's help; otherwise, it couldn't be used without the premise of instance enlargement—Akane alone didn't explain this point.

Such a person who answers selectively when asked has already become an extremely evil presence in Tsuburaya Productions!

Now, this extremely wicked little girl nonchalantly lifts a finger, and with her other hand tucked in her pocket, pulls out her own Apple phone, tapping the screen without regard for anyone, though she also glances at the Black Akane sitting in the computer chair.

"Perhaps it includes you as well?"

Having said that, she continues tapping her phone, paying no heed to the other's furrowed brows.

Such behavior also causes Calibre, bound by his own chains to the wall not far away, to sigh like an old father seeing his daughter go astray:

"The changes are really big, little Akane."

"You're the same, Calibre—I'm disappointed that you'd follow someone like this." Akane also shakes her head like a daughter seeing her father go astray, as if lowering her hand after typing a string of characters.

She lowers her head to look at the four boys gathered before Black Akane.

At this moment, a hint of sadness finally appears on her face.

"Really, not a single one is original, Black Akane."

"Do you think relying on just a weird model can protect you?"

"Really speechless—who said I only have one?" Akane lifts her satchel.

"I've prepared plenty of surprises for you~ After all, it's a revisit to the old place, so we must be fully prepared; if it were Little Snake, he'd definitely say that."

"But even so, would you like to make a bet with me?"

"Ahaha, I'm the one who's speechless at you~ You strike a pose of having victory in hand, and even now you want to bet with me, Akane Shinjo—what on earth are you thinking?"

"Thinking that we must let red return to red, black return to black, and go back to how things originally were."

Raising both hands, imitating Baltan and also making a gesture like a small controlling clamp, she clipped it twice, and Akane cheerfully said:

In other words, I don't approve of your appearance; I am preparing to become your hope.