Chapter 61: Dual Personality

People who are so busy their feet never touch the ground often say, "I wish I could split myself in two," but the invincible Captain Zoffy actually did just that! In the end, he forcibly turned himself into a person with dual personalities.

Dual personalities... isn’t that a serious psychological disorder? Yet no one stopped Captain Zoffy from doing this—where was the chief captain? Where was the commander of the Crusaders? Yuxing had every reason to suspect that Captain Zoffy carried out this act entirely on his own, in secret, without telling anyone.

The Giants of Light themselves are almost entirely composed of light; their material form is actually quite insubstantial—really, only their skin and physical appearance exist in the material world, the rest is mostly light.

So, with the technical support from the Bureau of Technology, Captain Zoffy succeeded in splitting "himself" into two... and even prepared an independent consciousness for his "other half," allowing it to operate separately from the main body.

Thinking about it... Could it be that by separating out the "Shin Go Harumizu" part, his "multiple personality disorder" was cured without intervention? Was this your plan, Captain?

"There’s an urgent mission I need you to undertake, Yuxing."

Captain Harumizu paid no mind to Yuxing’s wandering thoughts and called him back to attention. Hearing his name, Yuxing snapped out of his reverie and, following the captain’s gesture, turned his gaze to the silver-white bracelet-like item on the table.

On the bracelet were three conspicuous square transparent gems lined up side by side. The design immediately reminded Yuxing of Zero’s Ultra Zero Bracelet.

These three transparent gems were probably colored before, but now their color had faded completely, perhaps similar to the situation with Taiga’s Light Key—they had run out of energy.

"This is a storage bracelet, mainly used for... communication. According to its original design, when fully charged, it could support sending two million words worth of Ultra signatures."

"But I used up all its energy to transform into a giant, and now it’s left like this."

Yuxing thought it over and understood. For example, these gems were meant to be batteries supplying a mobile phone, but Captain Harumizu forced them into an electric car and went speeding down the road, draining their power instantly.

In fact, even after transforming into a giant, the giant’s strength was only a tenth of Zoffy’s, and the transformation lasted just three minutes.

This bracelet wasn't a disposable item—it was designed to be rechargeable. Yet on Earth, the recharging speed was slower than a turtle’s crawl. It had been more than half a month, and the three storage crystals were still transparent, showing no signs of recovery.

Yuxing asked, "...Is there a device in the Land of Light that synchronizes and displays this bracelet’s energy levels?"

"Also?..." Captain Harumizu immediately understood, realizing that Yuxing’s "knowledge reserves" included all sorts of obscure information. "Are you referring to Zero’s bracelet? Yes, this bracelet has a corresponding device, so the Land of Light is already aware that the bracelet’s energy dropped from full to empty."

"Won’t that cause panic over there? Suddenly losing contact like this..."

"Panic? Not at all." Captain Harumizu’s expression was relaxed, showing no awareness of being a missing person. "Before I went to meet you that day, I had already sent back information about the situation here, along with contingency plans for loss of contact after the energy ran out."

"About ten days ago, I received a message from Zoffy—the Land of Light was prepared and would arrange for a warrior to help me during this gap period, ensuring smooth communication, with all signatures sent on my behalf."

"A warrior?"

"Yes, in theory, they should be in position within three days. But so far, twelve days have passed, and no one has arrived."

Yuxing was stunned, and his expression grew grave.

Missing an appointment on the battlefield is a serious matter.

Since this was an officially deployed warrior to Earth, even if the mission was just to serve as a communications officer, he would certainly be a regular member of the Space Defense Force, and would never make such a mistake.

"Of course, the Defense Force noticed this, since I never sent them confirmation that the person had arrived—in other words, no one ever showed up."

"On the third day after I received the departure notice—the second day, actually—the Defense Force sent an additional message, saying they had begun searching for the warrior. Three days later, they confirmed that the warrior was last seen four days prior in the M5 star system, about six light-years from Earth. After that, they lost all trace."

"......"

Missing in action?

Yuxing frowned deeply, thinking of another possibility—was the fate of the script at play once again?

"So I have to make two preparations. On one hand, I'll remain here because we agreed to meet here, and I must wait so the warrior can find me if he arrives. On the other hand, I need to start recharging this bracelet instead of just waiting."

At Captain Harumizu’s signal, Yuxing picked up the metal bracelet on the table, still warm from his body heat, and put it on his right wrist.

"The bracelet’s recharging mechanism is very simple—it begins absorbing surrounding cosmic rays when exposed to a space environment. On Earth’s surface, the charging rate is nearly zero; even if it absorbs some energy, it dissipates naturally. Suppose in near-Earth orbit, the charging rate is one."

Captain Harumizu wrote a complex formula on the whiteboard behind him.

"Then, if this bracelet is in the universe three million light-years from Earth, it would only need to stay for twenty minutes to fully charge, but in near-Earth orbit it would take 1,140 years."

Yuxing silently memorized these numbers, then nodded, "An exponential increase... So the farther from Earth, the stronger the cosmic ray energy."

And the increase was staggering.

In other words, the closer one is to Earth, the cosmic ray energy drops off a cliff, until it's so weak that the atmosphere—a barrier made of mixed gases—can block all the energy.

So, is Earth the chosen sphere in this universe, naturally endowed with an anti-magic field?

Yuxing suddenly recalled that the so-called "Cosmic Power" in the Taiga universe worldview was probably... just another term for "cosmic rays."

This information was provided by a mage in the series, who understood this energy from her own system of knowledge, and so naturally regarded it as magical energy.

This energy was abundant in the past, but at some point, it began to weaken, and mages living on Earth could no longer use magic.

Thus, Earth became a planet that was both habitable and uninhabitable.

For species reliant on high energy, this planet and those nearby were deserts unsuitable for life, yet for species with low energy requirements, this planet was a natural safe haven.