Ch.125125. One Who Saw What Should Not Be Seen

Thus, the Human Federation has once again gained another enemy, but in reality, from the Federation’s perspective, the Nec-Rocists are not only insignificant but also have a lower eradication priority than even the Hive Cult.

This isn’t because the Nec-Rocists are weak, but simply due to their persistence and tenacity—and their troublesome characteristic of infiltrating and eroding from within.

And among the groups with a higher eradication priority than the Nec-Rocists are the “Green Revolutionaries,” commonly referred to by the derogatory term “bandits.”

These individuals, believed to have their headquarters somewhere on Earth—humanity’s most important stronghold and top core management planet—are characterized by their cell-based operational structure and their persistence in reappearing after supposed eradication.

Their publicly stated motivation is essentially a civilization regression theory close to eco-fascism or primitivism, and true to this ideology, these people operate without using any elements of civilization.

So how do such seemingly pathetic groups come to be considered more dangerous than the Nec-Rocists? Because they use their distinctive plant-based psychic abilities.

These carriers of the infamous cosmic plant-transformation virus, which converts matter into plant life, wield half-transformed plant bodies while simultaneously using various bizarre psychic powers.

They spray dissolution fluid resembling honey from flowers, fire psychic beams that transform whatever they touch into plants, and can instantly teleport between planets as long as there are virus-created plants at both the departure and destination points.

They also plant seeds in people’s heads, growing roots into the brain to control intelligent life forms at will, and often lead invasions of planets with plant-based monsters like monstrous trees or mushroom-humans.

Therefore, the wealthier planets with well-developed and preserved natural environments similar to Earth are more likely to harbor these individuals hiding within nature, though they aren’t limited to just these high-end planets.

A prime example is the restricted zone of Kupan Space Station—the lowest levels of residence-specialized planets are virtual hells where all sorts of pollutants and strange life forms settle, and even in such demonic environments, plants created by the cosmic plant-transformation virus naturally exist.

Of course, since these “plants” are mostly biological bombs that purify various pollutants, store energy, and eventually collapse the layered structures built above the planet, humans have developed appropriate countermeasures.

Residence-specialized planets with proper governance systems periodically dispatch pollution cleaners to burn the underground areas completely, and even without such measures, the lower-level residents often take action themselves.

Particularly in the poorly managed lower levels of residence-specialized planets, which are mostly lawless zones governed by survival of the fittest, there are many powerful illegal alien gangs who, under the name of vigilantes, at least clean up the lowest levels.

Anyway, these rampaging “Green Revolutionaries,” despite their cell-based structure, have a leader whom everyone acknowledges.

This mysterious female leader, nicknamed the “Green Cloak” for always wearing a green cape woven from leaves despite changing her other attire, is famous for covering entire planets with the cosmic plant-transformation virus wherever she appears.

And the identity of this female leader is, of course—

‘(I)(descend)(joy)!’

‘It’s been a while for me too, Teio.’

It was Teio, who had moved her main body deep into Hive Mind territory and usually walked around in the avatar form of a woman.

‘Wow… What’s with that outfit?’

When I grimaced and muttered at her decadent appearance that looked like something from a red-light district, Teio tilted her head before changing into clothing with relatively less exposure.

Well, since Teio herself is fundamentally a plant, she wouldn’t feel shame, and given her mental structure where such emotions can’t exist, she probably didn’t think much of it.

Anyway, having arrived in Teio’s domain within my sub-dimension located in the psychic dimension, I brought up the matter that required me to visit her.

‘Teio, I need you to kill someone and make it look like an accident.’

‘(affirmative)(question)(as usual)(one-sided)(transmission)(not possible)?’

‘About that… the bastard has noticed the secrets of nano-tech.’

‘(hypothesis)(perhaps)(there)?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

When I revealed that a journalist who had discovered “that place” of nano-tech—something that absolutely must never be discovered by outsiders under any circumstances—was now fleeing on an infiltration spacecraft, Teio seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

‘At least the small high-speed vessel the journalist is on is fast, but it has no communication capabilities.’

‘(affirmative)(location)(information)?’

‘I’ll tell you directly, so spread the virus in that direction. I’ll supply the energy.’

‘(confirm)(immediate)(execution).’

And so, we moved quickly.

If that journalist were to escape… in the worst case, we might lose our grip on the Human Federation.

※ ※ ※

“Hurry, hurry, HURRY—!!!”

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Cassy McKinley, a journalist for HAB (Humanity Alliance Broadcast) aboard an ultra-small high-speed vessel with spatial movement capabilities, was fidgeting anxiously inside the vessel as it flew at maximum speed.

Though normally she was just another typical vulture-like journalist who would pounce on any issue, even she retained some conscience and human emotion—and those feelings were greatly amplified the moment she discovered “that” in the restricted area of nano-tech where she had secretly infiltrated.

For the sake of humanity, and even all sentient beings in this universe, the fact that nano-tech was secretly doing such things had to be revealed to the entire universe.

‘Why would nano-tech… do something like that…?’

Though such questions occasionally crossed her mind, one thing was certain.

Nano-tech was, without a doubt, an enemy of humanity.

Those who would do such things couldn’t be anything but enemies of humanity.

In the secret laboratory established underground on Mars, they were conducting various experiments on the bodies of countless heroes from the past, and the fact that most of them still showed life signs was criminal even by this era’s standards.

Galaxy Federation’s first president Seri Choi, the founder of the galaxy-scale mercenary system Theresia, and other heroes of the Human Federation trapped in test tubes and treated as mere experimental subjects… it was truly horrific.

Even in this era where artificial human technology, clone soldiers, and designer babies are used, what was happening in nano-tech’s secret laboratory was comparable to a major corporation taking Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s body for cloning experiments.

Moreover, considering that nano-tech is the largest corporation in the Human Federation, such atrocities wouldn’t simply end after a few decades.

Digging deeper would surely reveal even more horrific and cruel activities, which is why this had to be exposed.

Had she not possessed psychic abilities, specifically a very unusual space-specialized teleportation psychic power, this would have been forgotten forever.

The ability to move a small high-speed vessel on a planetary scale with minimal energy, and a unique teleportation mechanism utilizing a virtual dimension similar to the psychic dimension.

These two powers had contributed to making her one of the top exposé journalists at HAB, while also enabling her to enter nano-tech’s secret laboratory that had been hidden through spatial distortion.

Therefore, as she was about to use this power to move to a nearby civilized planet to transmit the information, at that very moment…

‘Wait, what is that…?’

As Cassy was navigating through space via the psychic dimension, her eyes caught sight of a massive green mist.

A collective of countless green particles pulsating as if alive.

“Why is something like that—”

The massive vortex created by the cosmic plant-transformation virus originating from somewhere in space, mixed with a psychic storm, completely engulfed her and her spacecraft.

The psychic storm decomposed the spacecraft, while the virus infiltrated and transformed the decomposed particles that were once the spacecraft into plant matter, repeating this process.

Cassy was no exception, and she unleashed psychic-infused soul screams in response to the strange sensation and pain of her body being simultaneously decomposed and reassembled with new material.

And just before losing consciousness, the last scene she saw was—

‘Huh…?’

Her own body falling from the sky above a planet covered entirely in green.