Not long after Meng Chuan left the Jade Lake, he saw Meng Qi making a racket in the group.
Meng Chuan: What happened to my delivery?
Meng Qi: Your delivery guy is about to bite the dust.
Meng Chuan: Oh.
Meng Chuan: What about my delivery, then?
Meng Qi: ???
Meng Qi: Are you even human?
Daigu Madoka: A new storm has already appeared.
Meng Qi: Daigu, you've even learned your own theme song?
Meng Chuan: Nice performance. You deserve a tip!
System notification: Administrator Meng Qi listed the Foundation Establishment, Qi Accumulation, Aperture Opening, and Outer Scenery volumes of the "Eight-Nine Mysterious Art." System notification: Administrator Meng Qi listed the Foundation Establishment volume of the "Chaotic Heaven Treasured Mirror"...
Meng Chuan: You're using my delivery to tip a singing streamer, and making the streamer pay to collect it?
Meng Chuan: What a fine trick, snagging a Tiga without spending a penny.
Zhang Sanfeng: Great Emperor's contempt.JPG
Ancient One: Great Emperor's contempt.JPG
System notification: Meng Chuan purchased the first four volumes of the "Eight-Nine Mysterious Art." System notification: Meng Chuan purchased...
Meng Chuan: True Person, it's been five hundred years, and you're only growing stronger with age.
Meng Chuan: Grandmaster, you're looking more radiant than ever, too. Wonderful, wonderful.
At Kamar-Taj, Ancient One had a cup of freshly brewed tea before her and was answering Mordo's questions. When she saw Meng Chuan's message, her face twitched.
"Mordo," Ancient One called.
"What is it, Grandmaster?" Mordo was puzzled. They had been discussing magic perfectly well. Why had she suddenly called his name?
"Am I radiant?"
Mordo: ???
"Grandmaster, you're quite shiny..." Mordo looked at Ancient One's head, then touched his own. In the end, he answered honestly.
Zhang Sanfeng: Five hundred years have already passed on your side, Great Emperor? How terrifying!
Daigu Madoka: How terrifying!
Ancient One: How terrifying!
Meng Qi: Give me five hundred years, and I'll be kicking Amitabha and punching the Golden Mother.
System notification: Administrator Meng Chuan muted Administrator Meng Qi. System notification: Administrator Zhang Sanfeng muted Administrator Meng Qi. System notification: Administrator Ancient One muted...
Daigu Madoka: Didn't Little Meng just say he needed help? Isn't muting him a little inappropriate?
Meng Chuan: It's fine. Most likely, he's been hauled off for secretly practicing supreme arts. At worst, he'll take a couple of slashes. No big deal.
Daigu Madoka: Oh.
System notification: Administrator Daigu Madoka muted Administrator Meng Qi.
Daigu laughed happily, prompting Lina, who sat opposite him, to glance at him several times.
"Daigu keeps laughing out of nowhere lately. Is he ill..." Lina was a little worried.
Meng Chuan: I never imagined you were this kind of Daigu!
Zhang Sanfeng: Daigu, I never imagined you were like this!
Ancient One: Daigu, like this you are, never imagined it!
Time did not run in sync across the administrators' worlds. Of the five of them, only Ancient One stayed online more or less consistently, while Meng Chuan spent years at a time in seclusion.
They chatted for a while longer, though Meng Chuan mostly just shot the breeze, listening to the other four share their experiences and how they had changed the plot with their foreknowledge of it.
Meanwhile, Meng Chuan and the others also learned something from Daigu: Captain Megumi had already set out for the ultra-ancient ruins of R'lyeh.
Zhang Sanfeng: Daigu, aren't you going to stop it beforehand?
Daigu Madoka: I can destroy the ultra-ancient ruins beforehand, but I can't destroy the endless desires in human hearts.
It was indeed as Daigu said. The desires in human hearts could never be curbed.
In fact, this latest trouble with the Dark Giants had indeed been stirred up by the TPC.
Two years after Ultraman Tiga defeated the evil god Gatanothor, protected world peace, dispelled the darkness for humanity, and won them the light, humanity remained unsatisfied. A new plan emerged within the international peacekeeping organization, the TPC.
In the two years since Ultraman Tiga's disappearance, the conflict between the TPC's peace faction and its war faction had become increasingly apparent. Even when facing monster crises, they sometimes undermined one another, let alone after world peace had been achieved.
To bolster its fighting strength and acquire mighty power under its own control, the TPC secretly launched the F Plan.
The plan was to use the fragments of the Ultraman statues left in the Land of Tiga—the other two statues in the Pyramid that Golza had destroyed—to research the power of the Ultramen, enabling humanity to wield it. They then claimed they would use this power to strike down all invaders from beyond. (Comical face)
The ultra-ancient ruins of R'lyeh had been the battlefield of Tiga's final showdown with Gatanothor, so the TPC selected them as a site for investigation and research under the F Plan.
Then the investigation team awakened three Dark Giants right there in R'lyeh: Tiga's old flame, Camearra, along with Darramb and Hudra. Thus began another disaster, this one instigated by humanity itself.
Meng Qi: I think you just want to see your old flame Camearra!
Daigu Madoka: She's Tiga's, not mine.
Daigu Madoka: What does Tiga's lover have to do with me, Daigu?
Meng Chuan: But you've already become one with Tiga. That First Light representing Tiga himself...
Meng Qi: Pah, you two-timing scumbag!
Zhang Sanfeng: Pah, you two-timing scumbag!
Ancient One: Mr. Daigu, you really should remain faithful. I've traveled through countless timelines and seen far too many powerful warriors die from...
Ancient One did not finish, but everyone understood what she meant.
Daigu Madoka: I haven't even done anything!
Meng Chuan: You want to do something, then?
Meng Qi: Unbelievable. Look what I've discovered!
Zhang Sanfeng: Great Emperor, Little Meng, I now believe you two were family before your transmigration.
Ancient One: I believe it too. You're far too alike.
Daigu Madoka: I said you were alike ages ago.
Meng Qi: Alike how? Equally handsome?
Meng Chuan: @Meng Qi, are you an idiot? Why would you walk into that?
Zhang Sanfeng: Swordsmanship perfected!
Meng Qi: True Person, with those thick brows and big, honest eyes, I never thought you'd pull fancy tricks too.
Meng Chuan: @Daigu Madoka, I'd rather like to watch a live version of the Final Sacred War!
Zhang Sanfeng: This old Taoist would also like to see the legendary Giant of Light.
Ancient One: I've never seen a giant like Mr. Daigu either.
Daigu Madoka: I'd like to invite you all to visit my world, too, but the Chat Group doesn't have a world-travel function.
By now, the five members of the Chat Group had more or less gotten to know one another, and knew they were all trustworthy people.
If possible, they really did want to arrange an offline meetup for their online friends...
Meng Qi: I asked the Chat Group when it would unlock new functions, and it told me to get lost.
Meng Chuan: It actually said that?
Meng Qi: Uh, it ignored me.
Hearing Meng Qi's words, Meng Chuan had a thought. Hadn't that gift pack of his included increased permissions? He wondered whether that would work here.
"Can you let us travel to Daigu's world, or let us see Daigu with our own eyes?" Meng Chuan asked the Chat Group, testing whether those increased permissions were actually useful.
In fact, although the Chat Group currently had only a handful of visible functions, it also had some hidden functions that were not openly displayed.
For instance, it offered certain protections to group members. When Meng Qi had watched his own Fate Instance earlier, he had tried requesting memory protection from the Chat Group, and had succeeded.
Clearly, the Chat Group did have some hidden functions to safeguard its members.
System notification: An administrator may spend ten thousand points to unlock the Group Livestream function ahead of time.
Meng Qi: Huh? The Chat Group answered me?
Meng Chuan: No, it only gave that system notification after I asked it again.
Meng Qi: How is that possible? Does it discriminate, too?
It's discriminating against you for being a Little Baldy, Meng Chuan thought.
Daigu Madoka: The Group Livestream function should mean you can watch what's happening around me directly. Should we unlock it early?
Zhang Sanfeng: @Meng Chuan, should we unlock it?
Meng Qi: @Meng Chuan, should we unlock it?
Ancient One: @Meng Chuan, the four of us have no money...
Meng Chuan: You're freeloading off me?
Thanks for the recommendation votes, handsome folks*()* My daily plea for votes and bookmarks.