After King Guesra finished his meal, Charija hurriedly dragged Yu Zhou back with him.
Charija's current residence was also on R'lyeh.
No one really knew where he got so much money, but he had managed to rent a rather spacious room.
The place was fully furnished, every facility complete.
Walking over to his computer, Charija switched it on and opened up a game titled Monster Arena.
"This is a monster-raising game," Charija explained as the program loaded. "You can create your own monsters in it, or more simply, just input the data of monsters you already know and then modify them."
"Here—look at the one I created."
As he spoke, the computer screen displayed a monster of his own design.
"For this one, I used Golza's body, added Zoiger's wings, and King Guesra's tail," Charija said proudly. "Doesn't it look terrifying?"
"I guess it does…" Yu Zhou muttered, eyeing the mismatched creature on the monitor.
"This game isn't just about creating monsters—you can also battle other players online," Charija added, excitement rising in his voice as he opened the matchmaking interface.
The way he fidgeted in anticipation reminded Yu Zhou of a child waiting to play his very first video game.
Within seconds, a match was found. Clearly, the game wasn't obscure—in fact, it was pretty popular.
The battle began. Charija gripped the controller tightly, commanding his stitched-together beast against his opponent's flying bird-type monster. But he wasn't flustered.
After all, he had fitted Golza's body with Zoiger's wings.
"Up, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A…"
Charija's hands danced across the buttons, unleashing a flurry of combos. On the screen, his monster soared upward, striking again and again before whipping its massive tail and slamming the bird-monster into the ground.
Then, with a purple glow flickering from its forehead, it unleashed a finishing move.
In an instant, the enemy monster's health bar was wiped clean.
But even after the opponent was defeated, the game didn't end.
Charija's monster lumbered forward, opened its massive jaws, and devoured the fallen creature whole. Its body swelled, growing stronger as the screen finally flashed: Victory!
"…Isn't this exactly like those 'start with a single beast, grow stronger by devouring others' mobile games?" Yu Zhou muttered, stunned.
Back in his own world, ads for those games—starting with a fish, a pig demon, or even a toad—were everywhere. He never thought he'd see the concept brought to life here.
"Want to try? It's actually a lot of fun."
Charija practically sounded like the game's salesman as he continued to sing its praises.
"Fine, fine—you win. I'll play," Yu Zhou said, holding up a hand to stop him.
Charija grinned, pulling out a disc from his drawer. "Here's the game disc. Just install it and you're good to go."
"A disc, huh? Haven't seen one of these in ages."
In Yu Zhou's world, discs had been obsoleted for years, swept away by lightning-fast internet development. Compared to that, this world's tech was still lagging behind in some areas.
Taking the disc, Yu Zhou returned to his room in the Crystal Palace.
"Well, I've seen enough ads for games like this. Might as well give it a real try today."
He slid the disc into his computer, installed the program, and launched it.
After registering a new account, he entered the monster creation screen.
"What kind of monster should I make…" Yu Zhou rubbed his chin in thought.
He could either load existing monster data or mix and match parts from the default library. There was even an option to build a completely original model with custom stats and appearance.
But creative modelling wasn't exactly his strength.
Just as he was debating, his phone rang.
Glancing at the caller ID, he saw it was Captain Megumi at the TPC base.
"Hello, Captain," Yu Zhou answered.
"Well done this time, Yu Zhou," came Megumi's voice over the line. "You successfully stopped the Antarctic ice from melting and prevented the Ice City Base from being destroyed."
"That was all thanks to Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia," Yu Zhou chuckled. "What's that got to do with me?"
Of course, the deeds had been his while transformed, but only Megumi knew the truth.
Very few in TPC's upper ranks were aware of his Ultraman identity. Even back aboard the Artdessei, only those in the command hall had witnessed it firsthand.
"Oh right, Captain—Tomoki hasn't gone back to Jupiter yet, has he?" Yu Zhou asked, remembering her son.
Her son, Tomoki, was a child prodigy—a hacker and computer genius, second only to Seiji Hokuto himself.
"No, not yet. Why? Do you need something from him?" Megumi asked.
"Yeah, but nothing too serious."
Yu Zhou was thinking that if Tomoki was free, maybe the boy could help him design a monster for the game.
"I'll give you his contact," Megumi said. "Just talk to him directly."
"Thanks."
After a short chat, they hung up.
Yu Zhou quickly got in touch with Tomoki.
The boy was surprised to hear that his senior wanted to play a video game, but still agreed eagerly to help.
Yu Zhou described the kind of monster he had in mind, detailing its appearance and abilities.
Not long after, Tomoki sent him two files. One contained the monster data. The other…
"Senior, I did a little extra. I also made you a Tiga character for the game."
The message on his screen made Yu Zhou pause in surprise.