Chapter 1442
Yapool: Storm 1!!! Cui Ming: Are you sick?
"I will defeat Storm One head-on..."
The Yapool was crouched in the laboratory, its massive body huddled among a pile of petri dishes, its single eye fixed on the image of Cui Ming on the screen. The image had been bought from the cosmic black market; it was blurry, but enough to make out Cui Ming's deadpan face.
"It's not using traps...it's not using super beasts...it's not using extradimensional space..."
It muttered to itself, its claws tapping the table unconsciously, in the same rhythm as Cui Ming's habit of tapping his gun holster.
“It was I… the Yapool… who personally… defeated him head-on…”
The subordinates beside him looked at each other, then simultaneously took three steps back.
“Sir…” one of the bolder ones approached, his voice trembling, “Are you… are you under too much pressure lately? Should we… should we go to the other-dimensional sanatorium to rest?”
"Pressure?" The Yapool turned his head, a morbid light flashing in his single eye. "I have no pressure! I have plenty of motivation!"
It suddenly stood up, its huge body knocking over three petri dishes, spilling green culture medium all over the floor.
"What do you know?! That Cui Ming guy... when he killed me, he always came straight at me! A stun gun to my face! A fist to my head! A kick to my stomach! He never used any underhanded tricks! Never!"
The voices of the Yabo people grew louder and louder, like some kind of ancient aria.
“He killed me in the most primitive, direct, and violent way! That was respect! That he treated me as a true opponent! So… so I had to respond to him in the same way!”
“My lord…” another subordinate weakly raised his hand, “But… the Qiangbo King you created last time, he, you know…”
"That was an accident!"
"The time before last, the super beast you personally controlled was... well..."
That was a mistake!
"The time before last, you trapped him in an alternate dimension, but he just blew through the space wall, rushed out, and cornered you at the door, killing you for three days..."
"That's...that's..."
The Yabo people were speechless.
It stood still, its massive body frozen, the light in its single eye flickering.
Then it crouched down, hugged its knees, and started to exude that aura of a "large dog that has been bullied terribly".
"I know... I know I can't beat him head-on..." Its voice lowered, trembling with tears, "But... but I'm not willing to accept it..."
"I don't even care about Ace anymore..."
It raised its head and looked at the life-size model of Ultraman Ace in the corner of the laboratory—it had sculpted it with extradimensional energy and used it to practice its fighting skills every day.
"What's Ace? Metallium Beam? Vertical Guillotine? I'm sick of those moves!" Yapool curled his lip, looking disdainful. "But Trevor is different... Every punch and kick he throws is new... He kills me in a different way every time..."
"This creativity...this imagination...this aesthetics of violence..."
The Yabo people's single eye twinkled with tiny stars, like some kind of morbid worship.
"Only he... only Cui Ming... is worthy of being my nemesis... worthy of me defeating him in a direct confrontation..."
The subordinates looked at each other in bewilderment once again.
"Sir...aren't you...a little..."
"What's up?"
"A little...masochistic?"
"roll!!!"
Yapool slapped his subordinate, sending him flying through the laboratory wall and into the dimensional sea.
"I'm not a masochist! I'm a nemesis with dignity! Nemesis, understand?!" It turned around and looked at Cui Ming's image on the screen again, the obsession in its single eye solidifying into a tangible form.
"Cui Ming... wait for me..."
"Next time... I will create the most perfect super beast... I will control it myself... I will use my fists... my claws... my teeth..."
"Face to face... defeat you..."
"And then...and then you killed me...it's okay..."
"At least... I tried..."
The laboratory fell silent.
The subordinates huddled in the corner, afraid to speak.
The Yabo man continued to stare at the screen, his claws tapping the table faster and faster.
On the screen, Cui Ming was eating instant noodles when he suddenly looked up, as if he had sensed something.
"The Yapools..." he frowned, "What are they up to now?"
Saeko Busujima, sitting beside her, asked with a smile, "Want to go back and take a look?"
“No.” Cui Ming slurped up a mouthful of noodles. “I’ll go back and collect the specimens after it creates the super beast.”
Are you sure he can build it?
“It will definitely build it.” Cui Ming’s lips curved into a smile. “That guy… is even more persistent than me.”
Inside the interdimensional laboratory, the Yapool suddenly sneezed.
It rubbed its nose and continued staring at the screen, its obsession burning even brighter in its single eye.
“Cui Ming…I’m here…”
"This time... I will defeat you head-on..."
Even if... even if you turn me into a specimen again...
"I also want to... die...with dignity..."
This is the obsession of the Apo people.
A kind of morbid, twisted existence that even death cannot erase, yet which inexplicably commands respect—
The dignity of arch-rivals.
If Cui Ming knew what the Yabo people were thinking, he would think it was insane.
In Cui Ming's view, the twisted logic of treating life-and-death battles as sworn enemies and bonds, the self-righteous obsession, and the morbid mentality of beautifying the experiences of being killed countless times, made into specimens, and cornered and tortured at the door as some kind of romantic relationship are all signs of a brain being filled with water.
No, is there something wrong with you?
Cui Ming couldn't understand why the Yapool people felt there was some special connection between them. Killing the Yapool people was no different from stepping on a cockroach or swatting a mosquito. No ritual was needed, no emotional buildup, and certainly no sense of dignity in a direct defeat or respectability as an enemy. The Yapool people created the Super Beasts, the Super Beasts threatened Earth, so he killed the Super Beasts, and incidentally, killed the Yapool people as well. The process was simple, the cause and effect clear, without any unnecessary emotional baggage.
It's like we have a really good relationship.
Cui Ming felt no personal affection, hatred, anger, or obsessive rage towards Yapool. Yapool was merely a code name on his list, a threat to be eliminated, a source of Super Beasts. Nothing more. He didn't remember how many times Yapool had resurrected, nor how many times he had killed it, and he didn't care what kind of Super Beast it would create next. It came, he killed it, and it left. That was all.
Cui Ming's thoughts have always been exceptionally pure.
He doesn't engage in psychological warfare, mental torture, seek the thrill of conquest, or revel in a feast of slaughter. He picks up the stun gun, pulls the trigger, watches the enemy fall, confirms they're dead, and then turns and leaves. No words, no pauses, no recollections. His mind doesn't contain any enemies worth remembering, only entries that need to be deleted.
My only goal is to kill my enemies, nothing more. (End of Chapter)