mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 85 The Trap of Happiness – Life Endures
Chapter 85 The Trap of Happiness – Life Endures
Before the shock of "The Heirs of Shadow" had subsided, Gu Nan's "Ultraman Tiga" production team once again launched the 45th episode with thunderous force.
This time, the title sounds philosophical—"Life Endures."
In the night in Jinghai City, countless loyal fans waited on time in the Bilibili live broadcast room and in front of the screen.
After Daigo's existential question in the previous episode about "what a person can do," everyone has higher expectations for the depth of the plot.
"Life goes on forever? That sounds like the title of the finale."
"Are we about to reveal the secrets of an ancient civilization again?"
"No matter what they say, just don't torture Daigo anymore. He was beaten too badly in the last episode."
As the familiar opening theme ended, the main feature began.
This time, the opening was unusually serene, even with a touch of eerie beauty.
At dawn, a mysterious spaceship emitting a soft glow silently landed on the plain.
The spaceship then vanished without a trace, but around its landing site, countless colorful and strangely shaped flowers were quietly blooming.
The scene shifts to TPC headquarters detecting an unusual energy response in the area.
Daigo, Rena, and Shinjo piloted the Victory Flying Swallow II to conduct an investigation.
When the three landed in the sea of flowers, the sight before them amazed them.
"What beautiful flowers!" Lina couldn't help but exclaim.
However, the moment Daigo saw the flowers, the camera gave a close-up shot.
Here, Gu Nan deliberately used subjective shots and flashback editing techniques in a montage style.
Those were memories carried by Daigo's ancient genes.
Daigo's eyes instantly became glazed and pained; it wasn't just a physical headache, but a despair etched into his very being.
Countless fragmented images flashed through his mind—the collapse of magnificent buildings, the earth burning in flames, the crowds with eerie smiles on their faces, and the bewitching yellow flowers blooming everywhere.
The entire recollection carries a sense of historical vicissitude...
When memories travel through thirty million years, they awaken not only the truth, but also the sweet poison that once destroyed a civilization...
That was... a memory?
[Daigo's DNA has been activated! This flower is definitely related to an ancient civilization!]
The audience immediately became alert.
Daigo covered his head...
He realized something.
This flower also bloomed when the ancient civilization perished...
In order to find out the truth, the three continued their investigation.
According to the signal detector, Daigo arrived deep in the forest.
At that moment, a little girl slowly approached Daigo.
She looked innocent and naive, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands, tilting her head to look at Daigo.
"Strange, why don't you come to the dream world with me?" The girl's voice was ethereal and innocent.
Daigo asked warily, "Who are you? What are these flowers?"
"This is Zigela."
The girl smiled and said, "The pollen of Zigela can give you a beautiful dream, a dream without pain, only happiness."
"Look at your friends, how happy they are."
Only then did Daigo realize what was happening.
My teammates are still behind me!
The art style changes abruptly as the perspective shifts.
Everyone saw that Xincheng, who had been serious and vigilant, suddenly became like a drunkard, with a silly smile on his face, swaying his body, and even starting to dance wildly.
"Haha, I'm so happy... I'm an astronaut..."
Lina also became delirious, her eyes glazed over, as if she were in heaven.
"What beautiful flowers..."
Daigo, however, stood amidst the pollen without reacting at all.
The camera lingered on this scene for a few seconds: around them were two teammates caught up in ecstatic revelry, and in the middle stood a sober and lonely Daigo.
This is like a microcosm—in a world where everyone is intoxicated by illusory happiness, sobriety itself has become an out-of-place "outlier".
What happened? Why is Daigo alright?
[Because Daigo is the Successor of Light? Or has a special constitution?]
[Holy crap, is this pollen poisonous? Xincheng's expression is hilarious, but that laughter is kind of creepy.]
[666, did you see little people after eating poisonous mushrooms?]
Just as Daigo was anxiously trying to wake his teammates, he discovered that the two of them couldn't hear him at all...
Daigo looked at his teammates, who had completely lost their minds and were immersed in hallucinations, and felt a chill he had never felt before.
It wasn't the fear of facing a monster, but the shudder at how fragile humanity is in the face of temptation.
He tried to call headquarters via communicator, but found that the communication was being interfered with.
Left with no other choice, Daigo forcibly dragged his two teammates back to the Flying Swallow and brought the mysterious girl named "Dina" back to TPC headquarters.
Upon returning to base, Horii immediately analyzed Zigela.
"These are not plants that exist on Earth today."
Horii looked at the sample under the microscope, his brow furrowed.
Dina sat in the chair, swinging her legs, completely unaware that she was being imprisoned and interrogated.
She looked at Horii and said calmly, "That's not true. The Zigela bloomed on Earth as early as 30 million years ago."
"This flower will bloom when humanity is on the verge of extinction."
Upon hearing this, viewers in front of the screen immediately felt a chill run down their spines.
[The Flower of Doomsday?]
[This concept is pretty intriguing; it blooms on the eve of humanity's extinction, like an invitation from the Grim Reaper.]
Dina continued, "Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes, my father told me that 30 million years ago, a group of people abandoned their homeland to search for other lands because they didn't want to perish. My father was one of them."
In an instant, Daigo recalled Yuren's words from before...
This line directly echoes the foreshadowing that Yuzare mentioned earlier about "some people leaving," making the logical loop of the plot even more tight.
However, the real horror has only just begun.
Captain Hui's expression was solemn.
"If Chijera continues to spread pollen like this..."
What will happen to humanity...?
"It would be so joyful...a death without pain."
Ye Rui reported in alarm, "Commander! Something terrible has happened! That strange plasma energy reaction is spreading rapidly! And... Vice Captain Munakata is missing too!"
At this moment, the scene cuts to the room of Deputy Captain Zongfang.
The vice-captain, who is usually serious and composed, like a tough guy, is now wearing a sports vest and working out, grinning foolishly at a pot of blooming Qijiela flowers.
"Hahaha... Milk... I want to drink milk..."
This comical scene did not make the audience laugh; instead, it instilled a deep sense of fear in them.
This is not just a collapse of image; it is a complete defeat of reason.
……
Then, the camera zooms out.
Paris, Moscow, Washington...
Not just in TPC, but all over the world, from bustling cities to remote villages, the Zijjala flower is growing wildly.
Pollen drifts with the wind to every corner of the world.
Director Sawai, Chief Yoshioka, and even the most rational staff members were all sprawled on the sofa, wearing strange yet blissful smiles, lost in an inescapable dream.
The entire TPC headquarters, humanity's most fortified stronghold, was not breached by monsters or destroyed by aliens, but was completely dismantled overnight by "happiness".
As Daigo ran through the massive base, every staff member and guard he saw seemed like a soulless walking corpse.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Daigo shook them desperately, but no one responded.
They were so engrossed in their dreams that they didn't want to wake up.
Because in dreams there are deceased loved ones, unfulfilled dreams, and everything that can be obtained without effort.
A fake is still a fake!
But once the brain is immersed in pleasure, it's not so easy to break free!
When reality is filled with hardship and pressure, escape becomes the sweetest trap. In this trap, no one wants to be saved.
"What would happen to humanity if we didn't stop Zigera from spreading pollen?"
Daigo angrily questioned Dina.
Dina blinked and answered matter-of-factly, "It will be very fun."
"and then?"
"Death without pain."
These seven words struck the hearts of all the viewers like a heavy hammer blow.
Euthanasia?!
[A painless death...that's even more terrifying than outright slaughter.]
Is this the ultimate form of "bread and butter" entertainment? Dying in bliss, without even realizing death is approaching.
Just as Daigo was feeling utterly powerless, a middle-aged man in a blue long robe burst into the command room.
He is Dina's father, Luke.
Lu Ke looked at Daigo with a mixture of pity and mockery in his eyes, as if he were looking at an ant trying to stop a flood.
In order to make Daigo understand the truth, Luke did something that made everyone's sanity drop drastically.
He walked behind Dina and reached out—he actually flipped the back of Dina's head open!
Holy crap!!!
[High-energy warning!!]
What the hell is this thing?!
The barrage of comments exploded instantly.
What Dina's head revealed was not bone and brain matter, but a sophisticated mechanical structure connected to a brain by a series of glowing tubes!
"We transformed ourselves into cyborgs, using Zigera's essence to keep our brain cells active forever."
Luke explained calmly, as if it were something commonplace, "This is the secret to how we've wandered the universe for thirty million years."
"This...this is what they call immortal life?"
Daigo was so shocked he couldn't speak.
This so-called "immortality" is nothing more than turning oneself into a living dead, a machine that relies on drugs to maintain pleasure.
Luke closed Dina's head and continued, "Zijera not only gives people beautiful dreams, but also grants them eternal pleasure. Thirty million years ago, the ancient humans were so addicted to Zijera's dreams that they believed Earth had become paradise."
"They no longer need the Giant of Light."
"The giants, having lost their reason for being, left Earth, leaving behind their bodies, which turned into stone statues."
Finally, darkness descended and destroyed everything.
As Luke narrates, flashbacks from 30 million years ago are interspersed throughout the footage.
It was a highly advanced civilization, but everyone lay in the sea of Qijiela flowers, with foolish smiles on their faces, until the flames of destruction engulfed them. They did not wake up from their dream, and even when they died, they were smiling.
The destruction of a civilization is often not due to the strength of external enemies, but rather to the depletion of its internal spirit.
When everyone chooses to wallow in illusions, light loses its meaning...
"This is the choice of humankind."
Luke looked out the window and saw that the giant Zigela flower had emerged from the ground, reaching a height of hundreds of meters, like a magic tree, waving its vines and spraying enough pollen to cover the entire globe into the sky.
This is different from the original character, who was 53 meters tall and was a "beggar's version" of Zigela, modified from the suit of Little Marus from episode 24.
Now, with ample funding, Zigela is more than just a costume monster.
Instead, it was a truly enormous "plant," a "living plant" that Gu Nan and his prop team had painstakingly created.
The enormous vines are intertwined, and the flower buds of the main vein resemble a giant dragon's head, making the overall image even more ferocious and domineering.
Resembling Godzilla, the giant plant-manipulated monster Biollanti...
And Zigela's height is twice that of Ultraman Tiga...
Luke then told Daigo that Zigela is, after all, a plant and can only spread its pollen during the day.
As the sun sets, Zigela will fall into hibernation, and humanity will awaken from its sweet dreams.
Da Gu had a sudden inspiration and said.
"Then why don't we just work together to uproot Zigela tonight?"
But Luke's smile was subtle.
"There were also some pathetic creatures in ancient times who tried to do the same thing."
"But it's no use, Ultraman Tiga..."
Lu Ke sneered, his smile carrying a desolate weariness that seemed to have seen through the ways of the world.
"Human desires run deeper than the roots of Zigera."
[Oh my god! This line...]
Human desires are like a boulder rolling down a mountain; once they start, they can never be stopped.
I wanted to say something, but I found myself speechless...
Alas, this is humanity's original sin...
Night falls.
As the sun sets, the flowers of the Zigera close, and the pollen concentration decreases.
People are awakened from their sweet dreams.
People who should have felt fortunate were now exhibiting extreme agitation and pain.
"A dream... my dream..."
"Let me go back! I want that dream!"
"Reality is too painful! I don't want to face reality! Give me Zigela!"
On the streets, countless people were frantically searching for Qijiela flowers, as if they were experiencing drug withdrawal.
They were no longer passively inhaling pollen, but actively craving that illusory pleasure.
Mortgage payments, jobs, stress, and setbacks in reality all turned into unbearable torture at this moment, and Zijra became the only lifeline.
In the Victory Team's command room, the awakened team members were in a completely off state.
Daigo initially dismissed Luke's words, but he came to the base intending to rally everyone.
"It's just a bud now. When it blooms into a giant Zigela flower, humanity will never be able to stand up again..."
"We call on the whole world to destroy Zijra tonight!"
Xincheng clutched his head, his face contorted in pain. He had been so happy in his dream, but he had been woken up. This withdrawal reaction...
"I want to do that too, I know... I know Zigela is no good..."
"Once someone has been tempted by Zigela pollen, it's not so easy to quit..."
Lina's eyes were vacant: "Perhaps, Zigela is a gift from Earth to us, so why destroy it?"
Daigo remained steadfast in his beliefs.
"We don't need this! Let's all shout in unison to the Earth, 'We are suffering!'"
"But even if it's painful, we must achieve a dream even better than Chigara's!"
But even the most rational Hori looked at Daigo and asked that extremely sharp philosophical question, one that could be said to have run through the entirety of human history:
"But... what if humanity chooses Zigela?"
"Daigo, if humanity were truly facing extinction, do you have a way to save all of humanity?"
Daigo was stunned.
Hori continued, each word like a nail driven into Daigo's heart: "For someone about to die, there's no need for pain. Isn't it a better choice to die comfortably, having a beautiful dream, than to wait in fear?"
This sentence directly pushed the plot's conflict to its climax.
Looking at his former comrades, at the citizens outside the window fighting over a single Cigella plant, and at this utterly insane world, Daigo felt an unprecedented loneliness.
Is this what humans are like?
Faced with the choice between painful reality and the destruction of pleasure, would humanity really choose the latter without hesitation?
If humanity has chosen its own demise, then what reason does Ultraman, as "light," have to interfere?
At this point, online discussions exploded.
[This plot... isn't it just the current "lying down" and "involution" mentality? If there's really no hope, I also want to choose Zigela.]
Since we're all going to die anyway, isn't it better to live comfortably?
[I get it! This is a veiled reference to counterfeit goods!]
[Wake up, upstairs! That's drugs! That's opium! Gu Nan is using the past to satirize the present!]
[That question about digging well was so insightful. If death is inevitable, why can't it be euthanasia? How would Daigo answer that?]
This is the "trap of happiness"—once you fall in, even the will to resist is taken away.
Daigo walked aimlessly through the streets.
When did everyone become so hesitant...?
Are humans really that weak?
Faced with the impending extinction of humanity, former partners, girlfriends, and bosses...
They all stood against him...
Only Daigo shouldered the responsibility of saving the world alone.
The crowd around him passed by like zombies, muttering "Zijera".
No monsters destroyed the city, no aliens invaded, but this sense of despair, rotting from within, was more terrifying than any monster.
He listened to the surrounding noise, yet felt the world was deathly silent. He looked at the living crowd, yet felt as if he were in a giant tomb.
At this moment, he was alone...
Just as Master Jinglong, whom I once met, once said.
He said that warriors are often lonely...
Can you tolerate it...?
Yes, ultimately, one must endure loneliness...
Disappointed, he walked alone on the street, watching humans fight each other over the pollen of the Zigera flower, not knowing what to do.
"What should I believe now?"
In a daze, he suddenly recalled his conversation with Yu Lian...
"Since you have so many giants, can't they protect you?"
"Those Ultramen won't interfere with human choices... because they are all light..."
"But you're different, Daigo..."
"Because you are both light and humanity..."
I am light...
But I'm human too!
At this moment, Daigo finally understood that what he had to fight was not the monster, but the human heart that wanted to escape.
At this moment, a Hitchcock-esque zoom shot pulls back the shimmering river surface behind them, magnifying Daigo's solemn face.
"Dagu."
"Do what you believe is right."
This monologue, like a bolt of lightning, cleaved through the fog in Daigo's heart.
The camera slowly zooms in, focusing on Daigo's chest and the hand tightly gripping the Spark Lens.
The hand was trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the weight of the decision.
Daigo muttered to himself, his eyes gradually shifting from confusion to determination.
If it were pure light, it might respect humanity's choice to perish and depart as an observer.
But because I am human, I cannot stand by and watch my fellow human beings rot in happiness.
Even if I am misunderstood, even if I am hated, I will wake up this world that is pretending to be asleep.
He raised his magic wand.
This time, there's no exciting background music, and no flashy transformation effects.
In the dead silence, a flash of light appeared...
Ultraman Tiga stands tall beneath the night sky.
……
[This camera work is truly amazing]
Do what you believe is right!
The current Tiga is both light and human; he will ultimately fight as a human.
This line truly runs throughout the entire series! Daigo is absolutely the best male lead ever!
You are the light of humanity! Fight on behalf of humanity!
Ultraman Tiga!!!
Meanwhile, Gu Nan, who was monitoring the data in the studio's backstage, watched the ever-increasing viewership ratings and the heated debate in the comments section about the "meaning of life," and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
He knew that the reason this episode was considered a masterpiece in the original world, becoming a masterpiece among masterpieces, was not just because it told a good story.
More importantly, it has exposed a wound in modern society.
Perhaps, the University of Tokyo doesn't have D-grade drugs.
However, when those who are addicted to short videos, cheap entertainment, and illusory pleasure and escape from reality see Zijella, do they see a mirror in the mirror?
The reflection in the mirror is that of someone who doesn't want to wake up.