Ch.120Extinction Device (5)

# Chapter 120: Extinction Device (5)

Of course, in this sci-fi era, Levia didn’t communicate purely through onomatopoeia.

After all, if only ‘information’ needed to be conveyed, why bother tiring one’s mouth with endless talking?

“…Still, I didn’t expect something like this.”

“What did you say, Minister?”

But I never imagined it would involve restraining someone and shoving them into knowledge injection equipment.

“Urgh, aaaaargh!!”

“You’re not even inside yet. Why are you being so dramatic?”

And beside me was Riel, who had already finished receiving the information transfer in an instant and was now mocking me.

‘What a wicked, hateful AI.’

Taking pleasure in watching humans suffer—the imperial ancestors were right after all.

Of course, the fact that Riel was a humanoid was known only to me and Artraia in the entire empire.

So even though she had received information from Levia, she still had to pretend to enter the knowledge injection equipment like Minister Vermut and me.

But there was a profound difference between ‘pretending’ and actually doing it.

“We’ll begin immediately. Although you might feel like your brain is being fried during the information injection process…”

“What?”

“Once the injection is complete, your brain’s information arrangement will normalize right away, so don’t worry and just lie down.”

As the impassive Levia explained, injecting memories directly into one’s head was quite problematic.

“Wait… come to think of it, do I really need to receive an injection?”

“It was you, Minister, who said it would be a waste of time for us to explain everything individually.”

With no way to escape anymore, I finally decided to quietly lie down inside the injection device to avoid further embarrassment.

——————————-

A moment later.

“Hmm…?”

While experiencing the unpleasant sensation unique to memory injection devices, I suddenly realized my entire body was floating in some kind of void.

“What is this… ah, could it be that I’ve fainted?”

Of course, anyone would naturally be confused about what was happening here…

There’s no way I could have been suddenly thrown into outer space naked when I was quietly lying inside Leviathan.

Naturally, my current situation could be described as my consciousness partially awakening in some unconscious space, whether I had fainted or whatever.

“Hmm, but what happens now? Will I return to normal when the memory injection is complete?”

The problem was that I had absolutely no way of knowing how long this state would last.

Moreover, since I didn’t know how to escape this situation, I spent a moment in contemplation…

“Well, come to think of it, there’s no need to worry about it right now.”

Realizing that my worrying was meaningless, I decided to just kill time while floating aimlessly in the void.

But perhaps heaven had no intention of letting me idle away like that.

Barely a few seconds after I started spacing out, I could see something approaching me.

“What is that?”

At first glance, it looked like a slime covered in colorful hues.

The colors kept shifting and sparkling in a rainbow of colors, reminiscent of melted liquid jewels.

But before long, I realized it wasn’t just a beautifully glowing slime-like thing…

“Oh shit.”

I was shocked to discover it was literally a ‘flood of memories,’ with each glowing color containing various images, situations, and information.

“Is this what memory injection is like?”

I thought it would be something like shoving a hose in my mouth and forcing it in.

But to put such a flood of memories into my head?

Seeing the enormous amount of memories, I frantically tried to move my body to escape, but…

‘Wait, I can’t move.’

To my surprise, I realized my body, which I thought was floating, was actually firmly fixed in the void.

I was swept away by the incoming flood of memories, but…

“…?”

Once inside these memories, my body wasn’t affected by the flowing memories at all.

I remained fixed in place in the void.

Thanks to this, I was able to regain my composure after the initial panic and examine the flowing memories with a more relaxed attitude.

———————————-

After continuing to observe the memories…

I finally understood what information Levia was trying to convey.

“So… the extinction device, including the nano-machines themselves, are revenge weapons created by an ancient civilization?”

That the extinction device and nano-machines were weapons created by an ancient civilization that had been destroyed by the Pioneer Empire.

Moreover, I learned that according to the ancient civilization’s original plan, revenge using nano-machines wasn’t supposed to work the way it does now.

“The nano-machines disguised themselves as miraculous new materials, spreading widely and taking root in the foundation of hostile civilizations… and once they reached a certain level, the extinction device would activate, decomposing and infiltrating everything made with nano-machines to launch large-scale surprise attacks and cause chaos…?”

‘Insane.’

From the perspective of those being attacked, it would be like enemy fleets suddenly appearing in every region of their country without any distinction between battle lines.

And these fleets would be made by grinding up all their planetary infrastructure and citizens.

For the opponent, it meant not only an overwhelming difference in military power but also the deletion of infrastructure and population, making additional power supply impossible…

When I realized that with this method, dozens or hundreds of nano-machine flagships on par with Ash, who had served as the ultimate weapon in the war against the Warlord, could emerge…

I felt a chill down my spine, yet continued reading the memories as if entranced.

And before long, I could understand why the Pioneers had such an openly terrified reaction to nano-machines.

“Ah, so they were once victims themselves.”

Based on what I could see in the flowing memories, my conclusion was as follows:

“The Pioneer Empire, which destroyed the ancient civilization, discovered these nano-machines in this universe… and judged them to be new materials they wanted to use according to the plan above.”

But the Pioneer Empire, though unintentionally, made the best decision that could save themselves and the galaxy:

“The Pioneer Empire also tried to develop and use them… but decided to test them in this universe first.”

They decided to use the nano-machines, this new material, exclusively in this universe to restore it after it had been devastated by the Great War.

Of course, the Pioneer Empire didn’t do this with some grand purpose; they were simply focusing on post-war recovery in their home galaxy.

With no resources to support the area where the ancient civilization had been, when this miraculous new material—nano-machines that could do anything—appeared, they used it extensively.

The problem was that no matter how many planetary systems existed…

When the nano-machines, which were calibrated for galactic spread, reached a concentration in this much smaller universe equivalent to what would be considered sufficient for a galaxy…

The extinction device, hiding inside an abandoned planet to avoid detection by the Pioneer Empire, activated based solely on the amplified signal count from the nano-machines.

This led to the very ironic result that the places that completed their post-war recovery fastest were the first to be destroyed.

And the Pioneer Empire, already struggling with post-war recovery…

Lost dozens of planetary systems they had painstakingly restored, along with their fleets and populations, in one fell swoop to the nano-machine fleet.

They managed to stop the nano-machine rampage, but their national power was already depleted beyond recovery.

As a result, the Pioneer Empire chose to block the only gate leading to the nano-machine universe and bury it on the surface of an abandoned planet to prevent other species from tampering with it…

And just as I reached this point…

“Ugh?!”

I felt my consciousness suddenly cutting off as my vision went dark.

——————————-

Not long after, when I opened my eyes again…

My vision was filled with a familiar ceiling, or rather, familiar equipment, and Riel poking her head in. I pushed her forehead away with my hand and said:

“…How long has it been?”

“Since you were just observing, it’s been only 5 minutes since you went in and came out, Minister?”

“5 minutes, huh…”

Unlike time stopping, it seems like time was accelerated for the information transfer.

For some reason, I felt drained of energy and wanted to continue lying limply where I was.

Seeing me like this, Riel made a strange snickering sound and said:

“Kufuhuhu, as expected of a weak human, you can’t even handle that much without wilting. Why don’t you change your body while you’re at it?”

The moment I heard Riel’s words…

I felt energy coursing through my previously limp body and, at the speed of light, pulled out the etiquette injection rod from my pocket and brought it down on Riel’s head.

-Clang!

“Pigyak!”