Chapter 6: The Rider Spirit

Mo Xuan sat on the weight bench, gripping an iron dumbbell in his right hand and pumping his arm up and down. Sweat quickly beaded on his body, but he felt it was far from enough. As a Rider, of course, he had to be able to manhandle monsters in his human form. If you couldn't kick a few grunts to death without transforming, you couldn't even call yourself a Rider.

"That being said, I'm afraid two of me right now probably couldn't even beat one Zhu Yuan," Mo Xuan said to Stand-boo beside him as he trained. Although he had been training very hard, there was still a gap between people. This world had something called Aether Adaptability. The better a person's physique, the higher their adaptability score. If it was above 50 points, they could enter a Hollow without being eroded by the power inside and turned into an Ethereal. Conversely, if it was below 50, then after entering a Hollow, there was no need to wait for rescue. The Hollow would humanely give a person without adaptability enough time to write a last will and testament before they turned into an Ethereal.

To enter the Public Security Bureau, the primary requirement for Aether Adaptability was to be above 50 points. Mo Xuan, of course, had this score, but it was just average, not ridiculously high. Zhu Yuan, who had become the Best Public Security Officer at such a young age, was estimated to be at least 80 points. This was already quite different from Mo Xuan's concept of a human; calling her a Newtype would feel completely natural.

"ORA!" Stand-boo expressed its meaning with its fists. In a certain sense, Mo Xuan wasn't entirely human anyway. And didn't he have the Rider belts as his backup?

"You're right. As top-tier equipment in its own world, the Rider System can easily resist Aether erosion. Even if my adaptability isn't high, I can still walk sideways in a Hollow. It's a pity I haven't been inside one yet."

Mo Xuan nodded. He had been in this world for a while but had never once been to a Hollow. Although he had the Rider belts as a safety net, he wasn't reckless. The space within a Hollow was completely chaotic. The entrance was right there for anyone to see, but you couldn't be like a certain someone and repeatedly jump in and out of the entrance, taunting the Ethereals inside with 'Hit me! Hit me!'.

When a person walks into a Hollow, they might appear a hundred meters in the air, falling, or they might walk in standing up and suddenly find themselves lying on the ground. It was just that kind of bizarre place. Its entrances were all deceptive. After entering, unless you could find an exit in the chaotic space, the only outcome was to be trapped inside until death. Even with his Rider belts, Mo Xuan wouldn't take such a risk.

The technology to enter and exit Hollows was controlled by official organizations like the Public Security Bureau. This raised the value of joining them even more. It wasn't a loss even if you just used them as a GPS.

After finishing his daily fitness routine, Mo Xuan took a shower. He had planned to just rest until work tomorrow, but his beetle brother was not happy. It flew to the back of Mo Xuan's head and bumped his head with its horn, reminding him that it was time to go out for a walk.

"Are you a dog or something..." Mo Xuan complained, but he still grabbed his car keys and left the house. Stand-boo followed behind him, leaping onto his back and clinging to him with all four limbs, hanging there like a cartoon backpack.

The Kabuto Zecter was one of the more individualistic types of transformation devices. Almost all the transformation devices in the world of Kabuto had self-awareness. Then there were the transformation devices from the bat-themed series; those had even more personality and could even chat and joke with their master. However, Mo Xuan's luck was good, and he had yet to draw the one from the bat-themed series, thus avoiding being bitten and infected with something strange.

After leaving his house, Mo Xuan rode his motorcycle, first stopping at Master Tinman's coffee shop for a cup of coffee to freshen up, then he rode out of Sixth Street and headed towards the chaotic and disorderly old district.

New Eridu's predecessor, Eridu, was destroyed by the advent of a Hollow, but it was not completely wiped out. The Hollow had only swallowed most of the urban area, and some parts were still inhabited. That place was called the slum, a lawless zone filled with crime, villains, and gangs—a place where if you threw a brick, you were 100% guaranteed to hit a bad guy.

Arriving in an area no longer covered by surveillance, Mo Xuan pulled the motorcycle's throttle to the maximum. As he called for his Rider belt, a silver belt quickly appeared on his waist, firmly strapping itself on. The Kabuto Zecter approached at high speed and combined with the slot on its own, inserting into the bottom of the slot with a click.

"Henshin!"

Every time Mo Xuan shouted these two words, he felt a surge of excitement, as if a childhood dream had come true. Hexagonal armor plates covered his body. The Rider System's output was complete. The person on the motorcycle had transformed into the silver and red Kamen Rider Kabuto.

After Mo Xuan's transformation was complete, the motorcycle beneath him also changed. Its black shell turned bright red, a small red horn appeared on the front, and on the windshield was a small black horn unique to the beetle—it was Kabuto's exclusive Rider Machine.

Mo Xuan's abilities had some extensions added to the original Rider System. For example, if he transformed while riding, the motorcycle beneath him would be transformed along with the Rider System. This not only reduced the probability of his true identity being discovered but also gave him some combat power enhancement, like the Auto Vajin ridden by Kamen Rider 555.

A Rider without a motorcycle is incomplete. And after separating from the vehicle, they could still engage in a righteous two-on-one fight. The monsters would see it and cry foul.

After the motorcycle accelerated to two hundred kilometers per hour, the Kabuto Zecter was satisfied. Mo Xuan took a lap around the old district and then headed back. It wasn't that he didn't want to enter the old district, but that it was meaningless to do so. Whether a Kamen Rider should deal with humans has always been a controversial topic. Some humans indeed deserve to die, their hearts filthier than monsters, but that was not within a Kamen Rider's job scope. It was more appropriate to leave these villains to the police or to let them tear each other apart than for a Rider to intervene.

Mo Xuan had always been resisting the temptation of power with his strong willpower. Once he saw himself as a partner of justice and went to punish villains whenever he saw them, he would gradually get lost in this immense power. The standard for judging villains would also deviate. In the end, it was possible that anyone who opposed him would be labeled a villain, and he would be completely lost in the vortex of power until his self-destruction.

So, a Kamen Rider generally does not interfere in human internal affairs. A Rider eliminating monsters is justice. Similarly, in this world, only the Ethereals were the targets Mo Xuan needed to eliminate. Only eliminating the Ethereals was absolutely not wrong. Maintaining this original intention was the only way not to be seduced by power.

However, Mo Xuan was not so rigid that he couldn't be flexible. He had long had a plan in his heart on how to correctly use the power of a Kamen Rider.

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