Chapter 60: I Am Yuxing Kudo

Please stop asking, I really have only watched Nexus once and barely remember anything. Yuki was sweating profusely.

Kazuya Komon, Nexus, Noah, Adaptors, Alien Beasts, Jun Himeya, Night Raider Squad, TLT, Mitsuhiko Ishibori, Dark Zagi.

On the ten-minute drive, “Yuki” began recounting from the moment Kazuya Komon was escorted onto the vehicle by a group of men, and before long, he had nearly spoiled the entire plot of Nexus, inadvertently revealing the identities of all the characters.

Stop asking, stop asking—if you keep pressing, he'll have no choice but to dig up the vice-captain from X.

Having exhausted all his memories, Yuki could only resort to the confused refrain of “not clear, not sure, don’t know.”

Seeing there was nothing more to dig out, Mr. Hazumi merely smiled and let Yuki off the hook. The car gradually slowed as they reached their destination.

Getting out, Yuki looked around and could only think of one thing—

A construction site.

The main building was exactly the one Yuki had found online, matching the pictures, though now it seemed they were expanding to either side.

Mr. Hazumi led Yuki into the main building, up to the third floor, finally arriving at a space half office, half workshop.

“Did you read all the reference materials on the website, Yuki?”

“Yes.” Yuki nodded, recalling how the all-encompassing reference document made his heart tremble. He had originally planned to go through every knowledge point at least three times, but ended up barely managing two by this morning—it was truly not enough.

He needed to take the test quickly, while memories were still fresh, for he would surely forget everything once it was over.

Mr. Hazumi pointed to a desk and had Yuki sit there, then retrieved what looked like a test paper from a desk drawer and handed it to Yuki.

Yuki took the paper, pulled out his pen from his bag, spread the paper out and prepared to answer. But the moment he saw the test, he was stunned—

Every question was handwritten!

Perhaps sensing Yuki’s shock, Mr. Hazumi walked to his desk, picked up a small cup of concentrated coffee and sipped it gently, then said, “Yes, I wrote the questions, and I’ll grade them too. There won’t be any record kept—I’ll deal with it directly, so write as you like.”

“Yes…” Yuki didn’t get the answer he wanted, so he could only pick up his pen and carefully read the questions.

Half an hour later, Yuki had filled out the paper, checked the back for extra questions, and flipped it back to the front.

There was no need for further checking.

Yuki felt he needed a moment to recover.

None of these questions had anything to do with the reference materials—not a single point matched. So, these ten days of cramming had all been for nothing?

Yuki felt aggrieved—had he known, he would have just taken the test cold.

No, in this subjective world, perhaps it’s precisely because he studied so hard that the test content diverged from the reference materials.

Now, it was too late for regrets.

From the content of the questions, Yuki roughly understood what Mr. Hazumi wanted to know—mainly divided into three sections—

He asked how much Yuki knew about Earth;
He asked how much Yuki knew about the universe;
He asked how much Yuki knew about the Land of Light and the Giants of Light.

“Yuki” could only draw from his memory of Earth, blending official lore and fan interpretations, honestly writing everything as required.

In short, for anything answered correctly, it was what Taiga knew and had told him; what Taiga didn’t know was what he had dreamed of—perfect.

As for the mistakes… making mistakes was normal, wasn’t it? Taiga wasn’t some top student like Mebius; it wasn’t odd for his information to be off. If this meant Taiga would be dragged back for remedial lessons in the future…

Well, Yuki could only light a candle for the little tiger in advance.

And as for the information from his dreams—getting accurate information from dreams would be odd, while bizarre errors were to be expected.

On the way here, “Yuki” had also revealed his unusual knowledge of other universe’s Ultramen, and his perspective was remarkably peculiar.

Well, don’t ask. If asked, it’s all from dreams.

After carefully reviewing the test, Mr. Hazumi used a ready lighter to burn the paper to ash.

Yuki sat up straight, his gaze unwavering.

“Yuki, I hope you can join our team right now… If you don’t wish to, you can still change your mind.”

Yuki nodded in agreement immediately—if he didn’t want to join, he wouldn’t be here in the first place.

A three-part contract was placed before Yuki, who found the signing page and signed without much scrutiny, only skimming through the terms while searching for the signature spot.

The terms merely emphasized military discipline, confidentiality, responsibilities, and obligations—over ten pages and seventy clauses, all common and unremarkable.

As for resigning from his original company, Aegis, special personnel would handle everything—Yuki wouldn’t need to do a thing.

After signing, Yuki handed two copies to Mr. Hazumi's desk, keeping one for himself.

Now Yuki could finally call him Captain Hazumi.

Gathering up the two contracts, Captain Hazumi sat behind his desk and began to explain, “The urgency has its reasons: there’s a critical mission you must undertake immediately. Although I could send you directly without procedures and you'd probably comply, following protocol has its advantages.”

As he spoke, Captain Hazumi beckoned Yuki to his side, rolled up his left sleeve, removed a bracelet from his wrist, and placed it on the desk.

“You seem to have always been curious about my relationship with Zoffy, but since I didn’t say anything, you never asked.”

“….” Yuki’s expression froze—he strongly suspected this “Captain Hazumi” possessed something like mind-reading skills, seeing through everything, a truly unsettling trait.

He was indeed curious, but he also had enough self-control not to ask, keeping his doubt deep inside—only for the principal to bring it out so easily.

“I read what you wrote. You know the GUYS team sent a ‘gift’ to the Land of Light after a long interstellar journey.”

“In fact, besides a recording, there was something else.”

Yuki’s eyes shifted from confusion to surprise.

He had learned from Taiga’s radio drama that GUYS had sent a “gift” to the Land of Light. That gift is currently kept at the museum—a gun. Inside the gun was a storage medium containing audio greetings to Mebius and future classmates, which had become distorted after so many years.

Apparently, there was more than just the gun and audio files—

“Have you heard of the Personality Simulation Ten Thousand Questions?”

“It’s a theoretical model for artificial intelligence behavioral training proposed by Dr. Klan Bell in 1972. Dr. Bell designed ten thousand scenario questions. By setting behavioral patterns for each scenario and inputting them into a computer training program, the computer could simulate a highly realistic humanoid AI.”

“These ten thousand questions don’t merely cover everyday scenarios—there are far more than ten thousand frequent or rare situations in daily life. All scenarios were meticulously crafted by Dr. Bell; although there are only ten thousand, they can generate behavioral patterns for tens of millions of scenes.”

“Even if these ten thousand questions support humanoid behavior simulation across tens of millions of situations, the realism is still not absolute.”

“That day, the ‘gift’ sent to the Land of Light contained each GUYS member’s own ‘Ten Thousand Questions’.”

“Shingo Hazumi’s Ten Thousand Questions were given to Zoffy, while Mebius received those from the other members.”

“I don’t know how Mebius handled the sets he received, but Zoffy… he took Hazumi’s Ten Thousand Questions and examined them over and over.”

“He used his own body, his own consciousness, to replace the computer, simulating Shingo Hazumi’s behavioral patterns in his own sea of consciousness.”

“In the end, ‘I’ appeared.”

Yuki slowly exhaled, realizing he'd been holding his breath, perhaps from sheer astonishment.

“Yuki, who do you think ‘I’ truly am? Am I Shingo Hazumi, the human, or Zoffy, of the Land of Light?”

Upon hearing this, Yuki lowered his gaze, thought carefully, and gave his answer.

“It’s Captain Zoffy of the Land of Light.”

“Why?”

“Matter determines consciousness.”

This dialectical materialist perspective might not hold up in the subjective world of Ultraman, but Yuki followed his heart and gave this answer.

Zoffy smiled.

“And you, Yuki?”

“Me?” Yuki was startled, not expecting the question to turn back on him.

“I…”

Matter determines consciousness.

This body.

“I am.”

“I am Yuki Kudou.”

Yuki spoke firmly, enunciating each word as if to make them tangible, to settle them in his heart and leave a lasting mark.