Chapter 1: Assassination

Bang—!
A sudden gunshot shattered the silence, startling a few crows perched in the trees.

A young man had been walking calmly along a street bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun, on his way home. But as the shot rang out, his body jerked violently, and a burst of blood sprayed from his chest.

There was neither struggle nor cry; the young man collapsed forward in utter silence, his shopping bag slipping from his hand. Two bottles of soda rolled down the sloping street, spinning away into the distance. Blood, dark and thick, began to spread beneath him, soaking a wide patch of ground.

“Yuki! Yuki!”
The cry, mingled with terror and grief, lasted only a few seconds before fading away, leaving nothing behind.

The assailant hid on the balcony of a small building by the street, concealed in the shadow of a pillar. The hand clutching the gun still trembled—

I did it… I did it!

Staring at the faintly shimmering “thread” as it began to unravel, the Kukarachian could barely contain his elation, stomping his feet in excitement.

He should never have touched a gun. He wasn’t even in the combat team—just a logistics worker, responsible for maintaining broadcast equipment.

Yes, he was employed by a privately contracted auction house. This time, the lots included more than a dozen monster weapons, so the auction house arranged a live demonstration to facilitate the sale. They chose Earth as the site, and dispatched three teams to prepare ahead of time.

Yet, only fifteen minutes ago, their demonstration was ruined—an unknown Giant of Light had suddenly appeared at the demonstration, pulverizing the monster weapon that was up for bidding. The auction had to be suspended.

After all, it was the Giant of Light; he could, at any moment, fly up to low-Earth orbit and obliterate the auction ship. Out of caution, the ship immediately activated interstellar jump and fled, abandoning the preparation teams on Earth.

Now, nearly all of the staff in the prep team had lost contact. Only the terrified voice of the Kukarachian remained on the comm channel. As a logistics worker, he had no knowledge of the security team's operations. He didn’t know where the team was, what had happened to them, or if they were dead or alive. He only saw their names disappear from the channel one after another, until only his own name lingered, eerily alone—he felt as though the next moment, he too would vanish without a trace.

The Kukarachian no longer expected the auction organizers to pay his wages. By rough estimate, including penalties, the hosts would suffer losses of several million credits. Forget wages—faced with such losses, they might even dismantle him for parts to cover their debts!

If he simply fled, there was no doubt he’d become a wanted fugitive. The auction house had powerful connections; being targeted by such an organization, he’d live like a rat in the sewers, forever on the run, never able to establish himself in the galactic community again.

He refused to accept such a fate!
Driven to desperation, the Kukarachian rummaged through the temporary hideout and found a spare gun.

His hands still shook as he loaded bullets, one by one, into the magazine. When had he last pulled a trigger? Perhaps a hundred years ago?

With a click, he snapped the magazine into the grip and chambered a round.
He exhaled deeply.

The Giant of Light had vanished, but the Kukarachian possessed a unique ability—heightened senses. He sharply detected a nearly invisible, ultra-fine thread extending from where the giant had disappeared.

Calling it a “thread” was perhaps inaccurate. It wasn’t a physical thing—it was a peculiar aura, atmosphere, or perhaps an “information flow.”

Twisted together, they formed a line leading into the distance.
Had the Kukarachian not possessed perception surpassing even his own kind—and most ordinary cosmic species—he never would have noticed it.

He followed the line, tracking it for more than two hours until he finally reached its end, discovering a human clad in a security company uniform.

He not only found the human, but also sensed the Giant of Light, though invisible to his eyes. With his enhanced hearing, he could catch the conversation between the giant and the young man.

So this is an Ultra Warrior and his human host… No matter how he looked, the host was just an ordinary man—low energy levels, fragile body.

The Kukarachian knew he wasn’t a match for the Giant of Light, but if his target was this ordinary human, he was certain he could kill him easily!

If he could slay the giant’s human host, perhaps he could offset his failures, at least in part.

Hidden in the shadows, he confirmed once more that the human was within range. He raised the gun, took aim, and decisively pulled the trigger.

The human fell instantly.

Ha! Pathetic, so pathetic! Such a mighty giant, yet he chose such an obvious weakness!

As the human’s voice fell silent, the Giant of Light, who had been chatting and laughing moments before, vanished as well.

The Kukarachian let out a long sigh of relief, preparing to go over and investigate—hoping to find evidence proving he had indeed killed the Giant’s host.

But in the very next second, agony erupted from behind, engulfing him.

In that instant, he seemed to understand, at last, how his teammates had died.

There was no chance to struggle.

As his body shattered and consciousness sank into chaos, his last sight was filled with blue-violet lightning—

A figure appeared out of thin air, landing lightly at the scene of the shooting. He walked with a jaunty step, circling the fallen victim, then looked up at the sky.

“Ha, see? What did I say?”

“I warned you before—the flaw of the Taiga Spark lies in its use of bonds as a link, which exposes the human host fighting alongside the Ultra Warrior to the risk of being tracked.”

“And back then, what did Old Six say? Let me think… Oh right, ‘Believe in the power of bonds,’ wasn’t it?”

Looking at the human lying in a pool of blood at his feet—having lost his life upon his first transformation into a giant—Tregear burst out laughing.

“Haha, believe? How can anyone believe in that?”

“In the end, this is what happens. Bonds, ties—they save no one, ever.”