Master of Kaidan
Chapter 246: Masked Rider Really Exists!

Chapter 246: Chapter 246: Masked Rider Really Exists!

Feng Xue, who never imagined he could kill this massive creature, was in a state of confusion. However, the explosion sounds from afar still brought him back to reality. Whether it was old Li making a commotion or the Hundred Tales playing a diversionary tactic with other cadres, it no longer had much to do with him.

Scanning with Golden Finger’s identification panel, Feng Xue saw a string of text. At once, he reached out and scooped up a staff that seemed entirely made of coral from the water.

Name: Phantom Object·Sea Master’s Coral Staff

Elements: [Ocean], [Weapon], [Spell], [Reproduction], [Adaptation]

Description: A weapon owned by the demon called Sea Master. In essence, it is a piece of living coral with the feature of changing size according to its owner’s will. Countless coral polyps can cooperate with the owner to cast spells, amplify spell power, or perform multiple spells at once.

Note: This is a living magic wand, please do not let it stay out of the water for extended periods.

...

"It seems quite useful, but it doesn’t seem that useful either..." Feng Xue filled a water bottle from his bag with some seawater and stuffed the shrunken coral staff into it. Only then did he stand up and head towards Chinatown.

Although continuing to wear armor would waste some dressing time, considering the continuous flow of [Identity] and the increasingly powerful [Tags], Feng Xue thought it was worth it.

Glancing left and right, Feng Xue spotted a motorcycle that had been washed to the roadside by the tsunami. Smiling slightly, he activated the Orca Power, and the motorcycle instantly transformed into an orca Itasha with a pronounced Masked Rider style.

With the roar of the engine, amidst the chants of many children clamoring "Masked Rider really exists," the pressure came to lie heavily on Ultraman’s side.

Yet, what Feng Xue didn’t know was that the influence brought by the Masked Rider far exceeded this...

...

At the CSA Headquarters in Columbia, the events occurring in Pradamia were being projected onto the large screen in their entirety. A man wearing square-framed glasses, looking like a clerical worker, was summarizing the incident.

"When the Sea Master caused a tsunami to draw attention, our ’Gatekeeper’ squad was attacked, and all two hundred members, including the doorkeeper, met their demise. Based on traces at the scene, it is conjectured to be an abnormality known as the ’Weasel’."

"Currently, the gate has been forcibly closed. Although we have a certain number of soldiers inside the gate, with communication cut off, we cannot ensure the plan’s successful execution, nor if the next gate will appear in Plandamia."

"Additionally, on the southern coastline of Pradamia, the Sea Master was suspected to have been defeated by an abnormality resembling a ’Masked Rider’, its life or death unknown. According to witnesses, this ’Masked Rider’ left toward City West after vanquishing the Sea Master, an area controlled by the Triad. We cannot yet ascertain if they are related to Yan Country."

"What are your thoughts, everyone?" Sitting at the head, the bald man who had once discussed the Trojan Horse Plan with William furrowed his brow, and his subordinates fell silent for a moment.

After several tens of seconds of awkward silence, a relatively young man raised his hand and said,

"Masked Rider... I remember it being a Tokusatsu series from the Eastern Country. Does anyone have knowledge in this area?"

The man who initially gave the briefing seemed somewhat prepared for this and immediately switched the projection screen to introduce,

"Masked Rider is a traditional Tokusatsu series from the Eastern Country. Initially, it centered on transformed people undergoing transformation via special transformation devices to combat evil organizations. Post-2000, the Heisei-generation Masked Rider content began to change, including but not restricted to antagonists not just from evil organizations, with more than just transformed people able to become Masked Riders, while maintaining the premise of a shared origin between friends and foes..."

"Hold on!" Suddenly, a man interrupted the explanation of the setting, asking,

"Could you specifically explain the shared origin?"

"The shared origin means, as stated, that the power source of Masked Riders and the opposing forces is the same." The explainer provided no subjective commentary, but many attendees almost simultaneously displayed thoughtful expressions.

The person who interrupted earlier was even more assertive,

"That’s it, the Masked Rider team must have members from an Eastern Country resistance organization. They’re subtly informing the world on how to combat abnormality! No, they’re crafting weapons for humans to combat abnormality! Who is the author? Where are they! We must protect them! Moreover, we need to acquire Masked Rider’s technology!"

"Er, Mr. Keane, I’m regretfully telling you that the original author of the Masked Rider series has passed away," the explainer reminded with an awkward yet polite tone, but the man addressed as Keane was undisturbed, instead solemnly stating,

"He must have been killed by the Hundred Tales! We need revenge for this honorable predecessor, and his legacy must be emphasized! I propose our journey to the Eastern Country this year should increase the ratio of elite agents, focusing mainly on Masked Rider’s publishing company... Additionally, ancillary industries need investigation too..."

...

"Who on earth leaked the ’Masked Rider’ plan?" Inside the meeting hall of a Kaidan resistance organization in the Eastern Country, a stern-faced man pointed at the low-resolution images from the internet, angrily growling in a low voice.

"Lord Tsuchimikado, this isn’t our Masked Rider System development; its completion rate is clearly much higher than ours." A scholarly-looking man pointed to the unclear Squeezing Driver in the footage, offering an explanation,

"The opponent’s mechanism involves pushing material from a bottle into the transformation device by squeezing. Though the exact principle is unknown, it could be roughly speculated that the bottle contains high-concentration Kaidan Factors temporarily solidified by some form of information compilation, which, however, leads to a massive waste of Kaidan Factors..."

"I don’t care how it’s achieved. I only want to know when we can finally produce our own Masked Rider System product," the man referred to as Tsuchimikado interrupted the theoretical exposition, to which the scholarly man, possibly a researcher, shook his head and responded,

"Unlike other countries, we are the weaker side, and collecting and compiling Kaidan Factors is extremely difficult. To avoid waste, we couldn’t possibly adopt such a method to fill our system..."

"This isn’t the time to debate waste or not. The Masked Rider has already appeared, meaning those monsters might act against Tokusatsu. We no longer have time for slow research! Only by securing enough power can we acquire more Kaidan Factors! If you can’t complete your system in the next few months, then produce a temporary one! We must develop a Masked Rider System ready for practical combat before the arrival of Shiwasu!"

...

"I’m just a passing Masked Rider, remember!" At the Kaidan Countermeasure Bureau Headquarters in Yan Country, a video that didn’t appear in any other national monitoring systems or online footage was being played, showing the words left by a Masked Rider when getting inquired about their identity by someone codenamed "Old Huang" while entering Chinatown.

"Though the other party speaks in Chinese, this Masked Rider Transformation System bears a striking resemblance to the system previously leaked from the Eastern Country," the archives group’s head narrowed his eyes while pulling out a file, and Qian An from the research group nodded,

"It does seem similar, but this system should have been an abandoned proposal from the Eastern Country’s resistance organization. We previously tested it, even investing in shooting the ’Armored Warriors’ series. However, the weapon’s power generated merely through the condensation and solidification of Kaidan Factors didn’t justify its cost."

"But now it seems it indeed works. Of course, it could merely be a Kaidan evolving toward a Masked Rider direction. Judging from the current sample, once a related Kaidan is generated, corresponding by-products should indeed become easier to produce," the archives group’s leader concisely analyzed the present situation. Pondering for a moment, Qian An nodded,

"It’s worth a try, though pure Masked Riders are somewhat outdated. We need some experts to serve as suit actors, combining martial arts with Tokusatsu..."