The Monkey Hunt

"Boom!"

A violent explosion rang out, accompanied by a strong vibration. Perhaps the opponent's concealment was too excellent, or perhaps it simply wasn't strong enough to trigger Feng Xue's sense of crisis. In any case, Feng Xue only realized she had been locked on just before the attack actually hit her.

On the monitor built into the Kamen Rider Armor, a slightly distorted image began to appear, and Feng Xue finally caught a glimpse of the attacker.

It was a rather strange-looking 'submarine'. Its shape, rather than the conventional teardrop shape, resembled a weaving shuttle, except it had a tail fin for balance at the stern, and a ram at the bow—something a normal submarine would never have... making it look like a pointed torpedo. Well, it did look like a pointed torpedo. The reason Feng Xue didn't think it was a torpedo was because it had two long Mechanical Arm, and two more torpedo-like objects were mounted on its underside—

Okay, maybe three, because one of them already exploded.

"This thing... don't tell me it's a shrimp soldier?"

Looking at the submarine that resembled a shrimp somewhat, Feng Xue unconsciously produced a bag of salt in her hand. However, under the immense pressure of the deep sea, the large bag of salt immediately shrank into a small ball.

"Tsk." Feng Xue sighed softly and threw the salt ball at the "shrimp soldier" with all her might. However, under the pressure of the deep sea, even though Feng Xue was enhanced by multiple Kamen Rider Armor and could hook a 300-stone bow with her little finger, the salt ball quickly lost its momentum after leaving her hand and could not even touch the submarine.

However, his ineffective attack seemed to trigger some mechanism. Suddenly, a large amount of incomprehensible noise was emitted from the shrimp soldiers on the display screen, and then the sound acquisition device immediately collected a large amount of propeller sound.

"Grass!"

Feng Xue grinned, reached out and pressed down on the Transformation Belt lever. With a conscious choice, a deep sound echoed across the seabed—

"Deep-sea submersible mode!"

As the sound rang out, a phantom of an orca immediately appeared behind him. Although the light and shadow effects of the Omni-Press Drive had no actual destructive power, Feng Xue's Kamen Rider Weird Tale and Companion Phantom still gave him enough idealistic special effects.

Riding on the phantom of the orca, Feng Xue flew forward with a standard Knight Kick, shattering the shrimp-type submarine that had initially attacked him. Hearing the muffled explosion in the sea, Feng Xue continued to surge forward, while the 3D model in front of him was being built simultaneously on his monitor.

The roar of numerous propellers was chasing him from behind, but after activating stealth mode, his speed had clearly surpassed that of the shrimp soldiers. However, this speed advantage didn't last long, as his sonar detected a new enemy—

A large crab.

To be precise, it is a crab-shaped robot equipped with heavy torpedoes, depth charges, and two working arms fitted with thick saw blades.

"The case is solved! This must be the Crab General! What about the Sea Patrol Yaksha? The Dragon Prince? The Turtle Prime Minister? I can't wait any longer, bring them all here!"

While complaining, Feng Xue continued to surge forward in deep-sea submersible mode. With each salt ball he tossed out, if one possessed deep-sea vision, they would undoubtedly witness an utterly bizarre sight—

Although it sounds a bit eerie, the image resembles a ghostly orca continuously defecating white, spherical droppings...

Fortunately, this Meme art style didn't last long. As it continued to advance, the original 3D modeling was finally replaced by light. When the distance was brought to a point of near-instantaneous closeness (metaphorically speaking), a luminous object shrouded in a bowl-shaped hemispherical barrier appeared on the monitor.

Only...

"This thing doesn't look like a palace at all!"

How should one describe the building in front of Feng Xue?

If we had to put it in a nutshell, calling it an architecture would be an understatement.

The shape of this thing looks exactly like a mechanized termite mound. The chimney-like columnar structures are completely devoid of any aesthetic appeal, rising and falling like tombstones on the seabed within the translucent barrier, emitting a pale blue glow.

In those passages of varying sizes, all sorts of robots would emerge from time to time. Feng Xue could see two clam-shaped robots with semi-circular structures, constantly performing what appeared to be assembly or disassembly; a turtle-shaped robot with a platform on its back, carrying various modular structures; and Sea Cucumber cucumber-shaped robot that looked like a mechanical cucumber, constantly swallowing and spitting out a white, soft substance to clean its mechanical exterior...

Various mimicking marine creature robots perform their respective duties, but the complex organizational structure manages something that doesn't conform to human aesthetics at all. If there's anything symmetrical about it, it's the two "Sky Piercing Horn" that almost extend out of the barrier at the very top of this "Dragon Palace".

"Is this part of the Dragon Palace, or is it an underwater arsenal under the Dragon Palace?"

Feng Xue composed herself, but the sound of propellers came from behind her again. With the help of the light shining from inside the barrier, Feng Xue finally saw the group of Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals surrounding her. However, it seemed that because she was backed by the barrier, these things did not seem to have any intention of attacking her. They just kept flashing their red Electronic Eye, as if there was a bug in their system.

However, soon, a voice different from that of the shrimp-type submarine and the crab-type robot came from not far away. Feng Xue turned her head and saw a dark blue-black humanoid robot about twelve or thirteen meters tall emerging from the boundary between the barrier and the seabed.

"Warning: You have entered the restricted area of the East Sea Dragon Gate. Please show your access permissions, otherwise it will be considered an intrusion."

"This thing... is the Sea Patrol Yaksha?" Feng Xue tossed out another ball of salt, took a deep breath, and regretted not having created a hacker-themed Weird Tale in the Cyberpunk World.

But that doesn't matter, because--

"Plunder!" "Item Master!" "Make the Best Use of Everything!"

Feng Xue suddenly accelerated, grabbing the outer shell of the Sea Patrol Yaksha before it could react. With her three powers activated, the Sea Patrol Yaksha was Temporary Phantom, and Feng Xue was able to use the Kamen Rider's external device to send a signal to the Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals to pass through, thanks to the Sea Patrol Yaksha.

"This thing's permissions are beyond my imagination! Or rather, it's my [Make the Best Use of Everything] ability that's really powerful [beep--]?"

Feng Xue sat behind the Sea Patrol Yaksha, gently touching her chin which was covered by the Kamen Rider helmet, and couldn't help but be a little lost in thought.