Ch.157157. Engineers of Mars

While such changes in the directorship were taking place…

At the headquarters research lab of Nano-Tech, humanity’s largest corporation located on Mars, tens of thousands of researchers were currently analyzing the monster corpse and weapons sent from the Order.

“…Amazing.”

XPH-83732, the head of these researchers and a leader of the Marsroids, Mars’ indigenous species, couldn’t help but genuinely admire the technological prowess of the new species of monsters.

Marsroids.

These psychic beings, naturally occurring in the special underground environment of Mars, possessed an extremely unique biological structure throughout the entire universe.

With silicon-based skin tissue, nitrogen compound-based muscles, hydrocarbon bones similar to plastic, and semiconductor-like brain components, their overall appearance closely resembled those white androids commonly used as internet bait images.

Furthermore, rather than consuming food, they absorbed psychic energy produced by silicon-based plants in the Martian underground ecosystem. While they did have mouths, these were merely vestigial organs that also served as vocalization tools.

As a result, Marsroids possessed numerous unique characteristics that seemed to combine mechanical and psychic properties. They also exhibited a rare trait in terms of population growth across the entire galaxy.

Specifically, Marsroids didn’t reproduce—they naturally came into existence in caves called “cradles” among their kind, or in similar environments created elsewhere on Mars.

In any case, these beings, whom humanity encountered in the very early stages of space exploration, had excellent temperaments and complementary attributes to humans, forming an alliance almost at the level of a unified power. Even now, after at least 7,000 years, they still maintain deep relations.

This is why the director of this research institute, where the Federation’s most crucial technologies were being studied, could be the leader of an alien species. However, at the moment, he wasn’t concerned about such matters at all, focusing entirely on admiring the analysis results of the new monster species.

The skeleton was artificial… that is, mythril presumably synthesized using monster technology. The output of the small energy-producing organ—the bio-core possessed by intermediate and higher-level monsters—exceeded that of native monsters in this galaxy by 1.5 times.

Not only the bio-core, but various organs were also positioned for combat support purposes, with efficiency ranging from 1.5 to even 3 times that of existing monsters.

Even the monster’s shell or exoskeleton was made of orichalcum and mythril. Moreover, it appeared to utilize nanotechnology, which was supposedly lost long ago due to an AI rebellion.

While this led many researchers and others who encountered these analysis results to hope for the restoration of nanotechnology, XPH-83732 viewed it pessimistically.

‘Nanomachines… it’s merely speculation based on extracted sample analysis, so why is everyone getting so excited?’

As he thought, nanomachines hadn’t actually been definitively detected. Besides, even the most basic information about nanomachine principles had been lost, meaning that even if nanomachines were present, they couldn’t be understood.

Therefore, higher-ranking members of the research team argued that rather than searching for potentially existing nanomachines in the monster corpse, they should focus on researching the new monster’s personal weapon that was delivered alongside it.

This personal weapon, shaped roughly like a tuna that one could insert their arm into, drew psychic energy from within the monster’s body, transformed it to have special properties—specifically, the ability to break down materials at the particle level—and then fired it in the form of a beam.

Generally, such specialized psychic weapons weren’t commonly used because they could be defended against using higher psychic energy output, but the new monster species’ weapon was different.

Despite being damaged to the point where its output had dropped to about 15% of its original capacity, the particle-disintegrating beam fired from this weapon could penetrate psychic shields commonly used in fortresses by breaking down the psychic energy that composed them.

Since this was a weapon that could allow a single infantry soldier to kill tanks or mid-level mercenaries, they concluded that they should try to create at least a minor copy of this weapon.

Thus, dozens of human and Marsroid scholars began the replication process—and after three months…

“WHAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!”

“I can do it I can do it I can do it I am a mushroom I am a mushroom I am a mushroom…”

“Whack-yahoo!!! Whack-yahoo!!! Whack-yahoo!!! Whack-yahoo!!! Whack-yahoo!!! Whack-yahoo!!!”

“Kirik, kirik, kihyooot!”

…As you can see, most researchers in the laboratory were engulfed in madness, shocked by their inability to replicate even a simple infantry personal weapon.

Of course, there was more than just this reason for their seemingly insane behavior.

What they first felt after dismantling the personal weapon was an endless rising fear of the new monster species from outside the galaxy.

‘How, how can such a precise mechanical device work with just a structure made of synthesized mythril without any special materials, and even without psychic circuits?’

To draw an analogy, it was like witnessing a plasma blob shooting out after pulling the trigger of a perfectly shaped pistol made of paper cups and wooden chopsticks.

Frankly speaking, they could perfectly replicate the structure right now with 100% accuracy, but while the original worked, the replica was just a lump of mythril.

Even when they checked to see if the unique structure of the mythril synthesized with monster technology had any influence, there was no significant difference, and imitating that structure and material yielded the same results.

They even conducted operational experiments in a disassembled state, prepared for the weapon to explode or be destroyed, but it still wouldn’t work. Yet when reassembled, it functioned perfectly.

So even in a research institute that prided itself on accepting the world through reason and rationality, people were screaming like madmen, unable to comprehend the situation.

Well, in reality, this pretend madness for stress relief was almost an everyday occurrence at Nano-Tech’s research institute.

※ ※ ※

And while the human and Marsroid researchers continued their work, screaming to relieve stress…

The war between the new monster species and this galaxy’s monsters reached a turning point.

Until now, the original monster species had been one-sidedly pushed back by the overwhelming forces of the new monsters. However, at some point—from the moment they finally managed to replicate the particle-disintegrating weapons used by the new monsters—the war situation became completely balanced.

Objectively speaking, the performance was still inferior to that of the new species, but the original monsters had the advantage of overwhelming resources from their vast territories and easier troop replenishment due to proximity to their home base.

Until now, they had been one-sidedly pushed back despite these overwhelming advantages because the new monsters’ technology was like using bolt-action rifles while everyone else used crossbows. But once they had a means to counter, progress was swift.

Although they might have recreated the firepower and mechanism, limitations in miniaturization technology meant they could only reduce it to the size of a main gun for monster-type creatures that functioned as biological tanks. Nevertheless, the merits of the particle beam were sufficient.

They quickly turned the tide from complete inferiority to slight superiority, reconquering several planets and reorganizing them as monster planets.

Seriously considering that they couldn’t exterminate the original monsters with their current fleet-scale production methods, the new monster species also began fortifying planets, entering a prolonged war.

Thus, as both the new monster species and the monsters from the Human Federation’s side entered a long-term conflict, the Human Federation was relieved from immediate concerns about monster invasions.

But they absolutely could not and should not let their guard down.

Given the nature of monsters, it was anticipated that eventually one side would devour the other and become even stronger before attacking the Human Federation. Therefore, the Federation ultimately made a decision.

Even at the risk of allowing both sides to rapidly grow stronger through their fighting, they needed to perpetuate this state of conflict.

This decision might someday lead to terrible consequences… but the Federation had no luxury to consider that.