ca-book Chapter 24 A Lament from the Deep Sea
Chapter 24 A Lament from the Deep Sea
Friday, 8 PM.
If the previous episode's "Requiem" about Ryosuke Sanada plunged viewers into a heavy reflection on involution and desire, then this week's trailer gives everyone the illusion that "we can finally relax a bit."
The trailer features sunshine, beaches, and one other scene...
It's Lina, the team member, wearing a swimsuit!
"Brothers! Everyone stand up! This episode is a bonus episode!"
"Lina's swimsuit! Director Gu really knows what's what!"
"Could it be that I won't get stabbed this week?! I can just watch the monsters make a fool of myself."
With this relaxed expectation, tens of thousands of viewers flooded into the live stream.
comedy?
No, this is actually a contemporary thriller disguised as a comedy.
The screen went black, and the title appeared.
Ultraman Tiga Episode 12: A Cry for Help from the Deep Sea.
……
The scene begins, just as the audience expected, with a vast blue sea.
The sunlight shone on the sea, making it sparkle.
Team member Lina is driving a car with Mayumi, who is dressed casually and is Shinjo's younger sister, at the beach.
The coastal highway meandered like satin. Mayumi rolled down the car window, and the sea breeze, carrying a salty smell, rushed into the car.
She took a deep breath.
"It's been a long time since I've gone for a drive."
She sighed, her voice carrying a long-lost sense of ease.
Lina responded with a smile, "Yes, the work of the Victory Team is always so busy."
They went to visit "Little Shepherd" at the aquarium together.
That was a dolphin.
This is also what Lina referred to as her "boyfriend".
Mayumi stopped in her tracks at the aquarium.
In the pool, a dolphin named Xiaomu appeared restless, repeatedly hitting the pool wall and emitting sharp cries.
The zookeeper shook his head helplessly: "It's been like this since yesterday, probably related to an undersea earthquake."
"It sensed something," Lina murmured.
The distant sea was as calm as a mirror, with sunlight scattering countless golden glitters.
No one could have imagined that something unusual was quietly brewing beneath this azure sky.
【Yay, it's Miss Lina!】
[Admiring the screen...]
Wow, I just heard Rena say she has a boyfriend, I thought Daigo was going to be heartbroken.
[Oh, it's a dolphin!]
Dolphins are quite intelligent!
[By the way, this episode seems pretty lighthearted.]
……
Then, the scene changes.
Inside the Oceanographic Institute, the atmosphere was completely different.
It was a deformed fish, its body covered in festering, bloody flesh.
The camera gave a close-up shot.
Its eyes bulged, its scales fell off, and it exuded an aura of death that could be felt even through the screen.
The cheerful background music just moments before abruptly stopped, replaced by the unsettling buzzing of the Geiger counter.
"Radioactive materials are seriously exceeding the standard."
Lina held the portable testing device, her smile vanished, replaced by deep worry.
"It's not just this one; recently, large numbers of creatures in this area have been dying."
"How is this possible?"
Mayumi covered her mouth, "This place isn't... even though it's near an industrial area, it's not..."
"Nothing?"
Lina looked at the sea. "An undisclosed nuclear leak? Or an undisclosed...discharge of radioactive wastewater?"
These lines were Gu Nan's personal additions.
Although it didn't specifically refer to any particular island nation's emissions incident, everyone understands what's going on.
Got it, it refers to a certain day!
How awful!
[Aren't these the same bastards who discharged nuclear wastewater before?!]
But it's only been a short time, and the internet seems to have already forgotten about it...
"This is a recombinant DNA factor."
The elderly scientist pushed up his glasses; the distorted gene sequence on the screen was unsettling.
"It's not a new species, but a mutation of an existing organism caused by a nuclear explosion experiment."
The laboratory was silent, with only the regular ticking of the instruments.
"How is this possible...? Those kinds of experiments were banned many years ago..."
"The decay of radioactive materials often takes a long time to wear down."
"This is the more troublesome part."
He switched the screen to display a set of geological data: "The frequency of submarine earthquakes is increasing, which is likely a chain reaction caused by the nuclear explosion. As for the radioactive materials—"
He paused, "Cesium will take 33 years... while plutonium will take 24,000 years to disappear."
Lina gasped, "Twenty-four thousand years..."
"Even if humanity goes extinct, the effects of these harmful substances won't fade away, right...?" Mayumi asked in surprise.
"We developed this."
The scientist pointed to the model in the center of the exhibition hall, "The ultrasonic fish-inducing signaling system can guide fish to avoid dangerous waters and also improve fishery efficiency."
The model emits a soft blue light, but at this moment, it is more like a double-edged sword.
The atmosphere in the live chat froze instantly.
Holy crap... these lines are so daring!
[I thought I'd get to see swimsuits, but Director Gu slapped me instead.]
[Radioactive material? So, this fish... has mutated?]
The scene shifts to the depths of the ocean.
There was no beautiful underwater world, only murky undercurrents and constantly rising bubbles.
Workers on an oil drilling platform operating at sea suddenly felt a violent shaking.
"An earthquake?"
"No! Look at the sea!"
"boom--!"
A huge column of water shot into the sky.
A monster with an extremely "comical" yet disgusting appearance emerged.
It has huge fins and bulging eyes like a frog, but those eyes don't reveal cuteness, but madness.
Monster Reilos!
Like a naughty child, it frantically destroyed the drilling platform, but behind this seemingly "naughty" action lay a terrifying force capable of tearing apart steel.
The workers scattered in terror, their screams and alarms echoing across the sea.
The Victory Team is on the move.
The Flying Swallow arrived at the scene.
Munakata commanded the attack, and the laser struck the monster, sending sparks flying.
But this monster was extremely cunning. Seeing that things were not going well, it suddenly dove into the sea and used the murky water as cover to escape.
……
TPC Base, Command Center.
Although the atmosphere was tense, the casual conversation about "boyfriend" from the original work was still retained.
"I heard that your boyfriend swims faster than professional athletes?" Daigu asked gossipily.
"Huh?"
Lina paused for a second.
He didn't deny it, glared at Daigo, and quickly overtook him.
[Haha, I can't hold it in anymore!]
Daigo probably never imagined his boyfriend would be a dolphin.
Don't panic, it's okay, Daigo is the rightful wife!
[Is Daigo competing with a dolphin for attention?!]
After the banter, comes the serious analysis.
Ye Rui stared at the monster image on the big screen, his face turning ashen.
"After analysis, it was found that this monster was originally an ordinary marine creature."
"It's because this area of the sea was an underground nuclear test site decades ago, and the recent oil spill... the combined effects of nuclear radiation and chemical toxins have caused it to mutate."
"It is a monster created by humans."
After those words were spoken, everyone fell silent.
Then, Director Sawai came out and said:
"The disastrous consequences of all the experiments humanity has conducted so far are now finally forcing humanity to bear the consequences itself..."
"The enemies don't just come from distant alien planets... Our actions have led to the emergence of new enemies in places we don't even know about."
"Reilos, in a sense, is a victim of nuclear experiments, and now it has become a threat to humanity."
[Alas, what a pity. Killing it would have been the best ending for any mutated animal.] [Reynolds is quite pitiful; it was originally just an ordinary fish, but it was turned into a monster due to nuclear contamination. It's truly tragic.]
"Wow, look at how things are going. I wonder if this stuff will be obsolete in a couple of years!"
【Aaaaa! But we don't have Ultraman Tiga in real life!】
Therefore, it is up to us humans to protect the ocean!