Pacific Rim?

Luckily, Raleigh had packed a spare set of clothes, or Natsuki would have been in for some serious embarrassment.

Braving the wind and snow, the two walked along the road leading to the "Wall of Life," their boots crunching through the snow.

"The Space Garrison's records contain quite a bit of information about Earth, but this is my first time visiting. Are you familiar with things here?" Natsuki asked the world-weary Raleigh as they walked.

Several of his old friends in the Space Garrison had carried out missions on an Earth in another universe, but he had never been to Earth himself. Over the years, his assignments had taken him elsewhere in the cosmos.

"Familiar with things on Earth?"

"What do you mean? If you're talking about international affairs, economics, or trade, I don't know much. That stuff isn't my thing. But... if you mean monsters, I know a little about them. This planet is being plagued by monster disasters right now, after all," Raleigh told Natsuki after thinking for a few seconds.

This alien sure had a strange way of talking, not to mention all the terms Raleigh couldn't understand. Since the guy wasn't going to talk seriously, Raleigh figured he might as well spin a few far-fetched tales himself.

"Fair enough. International affairs, economics, and trade really are a headache for ordinary people. I put in plenty of hard work studying other species' cultures, too." Hearing that, Natsuki couldn't help recalling his own days as a student.

In the Land of Light, every citizen had to receive a certain level of education. Anyone who wanted to join the Space Garrison needed to master even more knowledge and pass numerous extremely difficult examinations.

Natsuki had been an excellent student in his youth and had later earned considerable merit in the Space Garrison. Only some unusual circumstances had brought him to his current state, on the verge of retirement.

"...Wait, monsters?" Halfway through speaking, Natsuki suddenly realized that Raleigh seemed to have used the word "monsters." He raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"There are monsters on this universe's Earth, too?"

Raleigh froze for a moment.

Then he nodded. "You actually didn't know there were monsters on this planet?"

"Now I'm starting to believe you really came from outer space."

As they walked, he noticed Natsuki's curious expression, which seemed to be asking him to elaborate.

So he could only explain patiently, "In 2013, the first monster, codenamed Trespasser, emerged from the Pacific Ocean and made landfall in San Francisco, on America's West Coast. Humanity suffered devastating casualties before anyone even had time to react. In the end, it took a nuclear bomb to kill the monster."

"The monster was destroyed, but humanity paid a terrible price, too."

"But that was only the beginning."

"From 2013 to now, 2025, there have been dozens of monster incursions across different countries. This world... has already been torn apart by their existence..."

As he spoke, he pointed to the enormous, unfinished wall ahead of them and explained, "That wall is called the 'Wall of Life.' It's being built to stop monsters from coming ashore from the ocean."

"The place we live in now isn't called Earth anymore. It's... the apocalypse."

Just as Raleigh had said, this world faced the threat of alien monsters. Its people had received help from nowhere. There was no Ultraman. They relied solely on humanity's own strength to fight the monsters.

The outcome was plain to see. As time passed, the attacking monsters grew stronger, humanity's habitable territory shrank, and the humans on this planet edged toward extinction.

That "Wall of Life" was a joke in Raleigh's eyes, too. He didn't believe for a second that it could hold back the monsters.

Honestly, because of certain events in his past, Raleigh deeply distrusted and even loathed aliens. Yet, for some reason, his instincts told him Natsuki was someone he could trust.

That was a trait of the Ultra race.

"That sounds a little troublesome..." After listening, Natsuki frowned slightly and rubbed his chin.

He hadn't expected to encounter monsters even on an assignment in such a remote universe.

"How strong are the monsters here?" he asked.

"I could lend you a hand if a crisis comes up."

Protecting a planet's native inhabitants from invasion by other civilizations was one of a Space Garrison member's duties.

Although he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about his work, a spark of justice still remained in his heart.

"You?"

Raleigh actually laughed at that. Looking at Natsuki's tall, thin frame, he couldn't see him as a fighter at all.

"Oh, come on. You have no idea how terrifying monsters really are."

"With those scrawny arms and legs, you wouldn't even be enough to get stuck between a monster's teeth."

He pointed at the unfinished Wall of Life again.

"This wall will be a hundred meters tall when it's finished. Do you understand? It takes a wall that high to stop a monster."

"Every monster is over sixty meters tall. Some Category III monsters can even reach ninety meters. They're much bigger than you imagine. When you see one for yourself, you'll understand how terrifying they are. You'll piss your pants."

Perhaps realizing that his tone had grown too harsh, Raleigh took another deep breath and added more gently, "Anyway... don't even think about getting close to a monster."

"Otherwise, you'll definitely lose your life."

"I don't know whether you're crazy or really an alien, but either way, you'd better stay away from monsters."

Hearing that, Natsuki realized that the monsters here might genuinely be powerful.

With his strength, Natsuki could handle ordinary monsters such as Twin Tail or Gudon. Taking his combat experience into account, he could even put up a fight against a monster like Gomora.

As far as Natsuki knew, bigger monsters were stronger monsters.

Among monsters of Gomora's strength, weaker individuals stood only forty meters tall, while stronger ones were only around sixty meters.

Natsuki could still handle a weaker Gomora.

An enhanced Gomora, though, was genuinely beyond Natsuki.

Faced with a giant monster over ninety meters tall, Natsuki instinctively assumed it had to be even stronger than an enhanced Gomora.

"How frightening. I never imagined such terrifying monsters were hiding in a universe this remote," Natsuki remarked warily, his breath drifting through the freezing air in white wisps.

"It's not too late to learn that now."

"Come work with me. That's how you can earn something to eat."

"If you don't have a source of food in a winter this cold, you won't last long, no matter how well you can withstand the cold." Raleigh wasn't surprised by Natsuki's reaction and took the opportunity to invite him along.

Everyone living in this world knew how terrifying monsters were. They were beings that could absolutely be called nightmares.

But.

The two still didn't have the same information.

Raleigh had never seen what it looked like when a real Ultraman fought.

And Natsuki didn't know that the ninety-meter-plus monster Raleigh spoke of weighed a mere 2,700 tonnes.

If that was hard to grasp, another comparison might help.

An ordinary Gomora stood forty meters tall and weighed 20,000 tonnes!

Take Natsuki himself, for example.

After transforming, he stood fifty-two meters tall and weighed a full 42,000 tonnes!

The humans of this universe had no idea what kind of being Ultraman would be if one appeared in reality.

The monsters of the Pacific Rim world weighed only a fraction of an Ultraman. Their bodily densities weren't even on the same scale.

When Natsuki landed a punch on a monster's head, he might finally understand what it meant to shatter at a touch!