Late at night, in a secluded detached house in Eastsea City.
"Finally, finally got it all fixed."
Looking at the newly restored walls before him, Zhou Yang's face streamed with tears.
"I'm never playing around with large-scale transformations or randomly summoning bizarre offshoot creatures at home again."
Fortunately, classes at the elementary academy weren't like school in his previous life, running from six in the morning to nine at night. School let out at two or three in the afternoon, so he could come home early to repair the walls.
Luckily, Zhou Yang had had a little side business in his previous life, and his superb skills had restored all these walls.
Just as Zhou Yang was about to wash up and go to bed, a peculiar buzzing reached his ears.
Bzz-
At some point, the Kabuto Zecter had flown inside and begun circling him, as though it wanted to say something.
"What? There are Worms here too?" Zhou Yang couldn't help quipping.
But the Zecter didn't respond. Instead, it circled Zhou Yang, nudging him from time to time and tilting toward a particular direction, as though urging him on.
"All right, all right, I'll go."
With a helpless expression, Zhou Yang changed his clothes and headed straight out.
He was just about to complain when he caught sight of a presence that astonished him beyond measure.
"Holy shit, am I losing it?"
Zhou Yang instinctively rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn't hallucinating.
Standing before him was none other than Kabuto. Unlike the normal Kabuto, however, he had an extra silver-white Zecter at his waist, and his armor was dazzling and magnificent-clearly an upgraded version of Kabuto.
Just as shock spread across Zhou Yang's face, the Kabuto Zecter rushed toward him.
Feeling its call, Zhou Yang raised his hand to catch it without the slightest hesitation.
The instant Zhou Yang caught the Kabuto Zecter firmly, a peculiar silver belt appeared around his waist, fitting snugly against his body.
"Henshin (Transform)."
As he gave a low cry in a clear voice, golden light enveloped Zhou Yang's body, and his height kept increasing until he stood around 1.9 meters tall.
The Zecter slid into the driver, and layer upon layer of heavy, chrysalis-like armor assembled over Zhou Yang like countless nanomolecules, extending and spreading outward from the center toward his limbs until it covered his entire body.
The armor was predominantly silver-gray, accented by striking red at its core. Segmented plates resembling an insect's shell covered both arms, heavy and sharp-edged, brimming with a sense of power. The vivid red breastplate echoed the blue compound eyes of the mask.
Its magnificent, substantial technological aesthetic far surpassed the current era. Even Battle Armor couldn't have such a perfect design, could it?
Once Zhou Yang finished transforming, Hyper Kabuto had somehow already walked up beside him. He grabbed Zhou Yang's shoulder, and distorted green light sprang up around him, shining over them both.
The next moment, Zhou Yang appeared in an isolated, empty clearing.
Zhou Yang was still somewhat puzzled by the scene before him, until he saw Hyper Kabuto drawing closer and closer.
"Hey, wait..."
A trace of cold sweat trickled from Zhou Yang's forehead. Sensing something was wrong, his body seemed to perceive a threat as well and tensed up.
But Hyper Kabuto offered no further words. He swung a punch-
"Motherf-"
Ever since this red "beetle monster" appeared, Zhou Yang had been living a completely different life.
Apart from the day they first met, Hyper Kabuto appeared beside his bed every morning with impeccable punctuality, elbowed him awake, then dragged him away for training by force.
Of course, he knew perfectly well who this was, but that didn't stop him from harboring a bellyful of resentment.
Whenever he stayed in bed in the morning, the delightful little audio cue for a finishing move, [ALLZECTERCOMBINE], would ring beside his ears.
Was this human behavior?
Although he was deeply frustrated that his slacker lifestyle had been shattered and had a bellyful of pent-up frustration, Zhou Yang still threw himself wholeheartedly into training.
After all, if he wanted to show off and look cool, he at least needed the strength to back it up.
Just as doing bad things to screw over their buddies gave people extraordinary patience, men were creatures who would put everything on the line for a few seconds of looking cool.
Looking at that handsome suit of Hyper armor, Zhou Yang practically cried with longing.
But right now, he could sense that although he had unlocked the corresponding Ridewatch's history, he had yet to unlock the final form, as though something was missing.
That question was answered when he broke through rank ten.
Although he had been born with full innate soul power at rank ten, Zhou Yang hadn't rushed to break through, since he didn't need to obtain a Spirit Soul. Instead, he waited patiently.
Finally, one day, the right moment arrived. The Power of Ohma stirred of its own accord, forming a Soul Ring around him and making him a Soul Master.
At the same time, a streak of light leaped into his hand and turned into a new Ridewatch.
"Kuuga?"
The Ridewatch that appeared with his breakthrough immediately made Zhou Yang understand his situation.
Breaking through could awaken new Ridewatches, so he wouldn't have to rack his brains trying to find them.
At the same time, Zhou Yang discovered that he seemed to have drawn another step closer to his final form. That was the answer given by the response from within himself.
He gained a clearer understanding of his own path.
Once he collected the remaining sixteen Ridewatches, he would probably be able to unlock his final form.
With his path clear, all that remained was how to walk it.
That red, horned, ten-times-faster presence wasn't merely training him in combat.
He could be said to have put him through the wringer in every respect. It was practically like sending him to Dragon Ball to study under Master Roshi, to the Hawaii of Japanese anime to learn strange skills, and to Todai and Lanxiang, where they could teach anything...
"Brutal training nearly killed me."
At last, Zhou Yang understood Leon.
Of course, it wasn't without its benefits. After several months of training under Hyper Kabuto, Zhou Yang was no longer the same as before.
After finishing his classes that day, Zhou Yang sat leisurely in front of his soul-guidance computer and launched Soul Guidance Biochemical Gunfight, beginning his relaxation time for the day.
His superb marksmanship kept the notifications coming in the upper-right corner, one piece of good news after another, while his score on the player list climbed rapidly.
However, ammunition was ultimately limited, and this balanced game mode had no boosted, pay-to-win heroic-tier weapons.
Under the ghosts' relentless, life-spending assaults, one finally slipped inside.
Seeing things going wrong, Zhou Yang greased his soles and fled, ushering all his teammates out to the perimeter and leaving a flashbang behind him.
As the first person in the stronghold was infected, he took just 0.01 seconds to turn around and tear frantically into his former teammates.
Tragedy struck amid the blinding flashes.
"Heehee, go die, you guys!"
"What the hell, who threw that flash?"
"I saw it! It was Sun!"
"Holy shit, Sun, you bastard!"
"It's the apocalypse! What can you do?"
"Fucking animal!"
Once his teammates had all been caught and the number of survivors had finally dropped to three, Zhou Yang decisively activated his transformation and threw himself into battle.
"For the dream in my heart, I fight bathed in blood like a raging gale~"
"The night will unleash the light!"
"Genius player Sun has surpassed Shen La."
With the final ghost killed, Zhou Yang completed the team wipe. The name "Genius player Sun" stood out brilliantly, undoubtedly making him the center of attention in the match.
Accordingly, in the next round, a small window popped up below the center of the screen, opening a vote.
[Forced removal in progress: agree/disagree]
In less than five seconds, it changed to: [Agree 15/Disagree 1]
Even Zhou Yang couldn't hold back his laughter.
Bzz-
A familiar buzzing rang beside his ears.
Turning his head, he saw the Kabuto Zecter circling beside him, as though something was up.
Zhou Yang was a little puzzled, but after his gaze flicked back and forth between the game and the Kabuto Zecter, he quickly made his choice.
"Time to skedaddle."
He watched everyone on-screen vote [F11 Agree] to kick him out of the match.
Zhou Yang smiled in acceptance, giving them no chance. Within seconds, he had flooded the on-screen chat while getting up and jumping in front of the ghosts, instantly attracting a whole crowd of them.
Limited by his character's capabilities, there was naturally no room for maneuver once he was completely surrounded by the zombie horde.
But just as all the ghosts piled in to infect him, the character on-screen vanished into thin air.
"Oh my, this gun sure is a gun."
After offering a few remarks on the firearms in his personal inventory, Zhou Yang got up without lingering and followed the Kabuto Zecter out.
As for whether the people in the match were seething, Zhou Yang had no idea.