Ch.196196. The End.

The formal name of this smoke, which controls countless nano-sized miniature biological monsters as psychic entities, is Powder-66.

It represents the pinnacle of nanotechnology that humanity desperately tried to erase using various methods, and among my researchers, it bears the unfunny nickname “the touch of the Hive Mind” as a weapon.

Normally, it’s well-compressed and stored in sphere form within capsules that never break under normal circumstances. When you want to use it, simply lower the capsule’s durability and drop it from the air.

While its usage, storage, and transportation are extremely convenient and easy, its destructive power is terrifyingly powerful despite its appearance.

Like wind blowing freely in all directions, one capsule’s worth of Powder-66 clumps together according to its volume and floats freely until it detects a living organism, at which point it charges toward it.

Of course, Powder-66 particles are so incredibly small that they pass through molecular structures, penetrating any terrain or living being, but that’s not the important part.

If it passes through something that isn’t alive, it simply moves through. However, if what it passes through is a living organism—especially a human—the nanomachines that make up Powder-66 reconstruct the body during this process.

The subject doesn’t even feel pain, but regardless, their body is literally disassembled and molecularly reconstructed in an instant—at most within 10 seconds.

Bones transform from simple calcium into robust composite materials, and parts like muscles and blood vessels similarly change to a state unimaginable in the original flesh, reaching a level of physical ability comparable to full-body cybernetic enhancements.

Additionally, during this reconstruction process, excess flesh is broken down to create various auxiliary organs—notably regeneration hormone-secreting glands or rapid-coagulating blood. In biological classification terms…

They become what could roughly be called a subspecies of human.

However, the changes experienced in this process weren’t limited to just the physical body.

As Powder-66 passes through, the psychic entity controlling it from within also passes through the soul, binding it to the Hive Mind to which it belongs.

Therefore, if exposed to Powder-66 for just 10 seconds, that being is reborn as a monster with absolute loyalty to me, despite retaining all their memories from life while only maintaining a human form.

The question of whether they’re still truly themselves… well, that depends on perspective, so let’s leave it at that.

Anyway, since things have progressed this way, the performance of the Powder-66 I specially brought out was quite remarkable.

Spreading in all directions at about 80km/h, Powder-66 instantly permeated from the surface to the depths of planets, transforming all humans it contacted into monsters.

It’s been only about 30 minutes since I first deployed Powder-66 on a planet, but if the 100 quintillionth (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) human has just been assimilated into the Hive Mind as a monster, no further explanation is needed.

If all humans were transformed into monsters and assimilated, the psychic potential change I’ve accelerated in humanity would exceed expectations, bringing us quite close to my goal of “growth to the next stage.”

《Oh, hmm…》

Compared to before, achieving about 40% growth in just 30 minutes says it all.

Looking back at the planets where Powder-66 was deployed, unsurprisingly, unimaginable chaos was unfolding.

Beyond simple matters of life and death, since it penetrates through the molecular structure of metals forming walls no matter how areas are isolated or blocked off, there was no conventional way to stop it.

Some powerful psychic users were managing to block Powder-66’s invasion by meticulously deploying psychic barriers with absolutely no gaps, even at the smallest unit level, but this was merely a stopgap measure.

Even the most powerful psychic users or advanced psychic barriers can only maintain them for about 3 days before concentration fails or psychic energy depletes, and when that happens, they’ll be done for.

Moreover, while such barriers might defend against Powder-66 itself, the psychic entities controlling it can easily break through them, making resistance impossible.

Well, occasionally there are extremely rare strong individuals—high-intermediate or advanced-level psychic users—against whom it probably wouldn’t work.

At that level, they’re protected by unconsciously maintained psychic barriers and filters, and since the psychic entities are only around intermediate level, they could simply destroy them.

So these special strong ones require special treatment.

《Time to go to work, Chesher.》

For this purpose, I decided to dispatch my final and greatest masterpiece, one of the five named monsters with zero elimination records against humanity.

The one also known as ‘Ghost,’ our cute Chesher.

※ ※ ※

Chesher. Named after the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s children’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” this monster appeared outwardly as just a cute cat-eared girl.

With a somewhat feisty and haughty expression inherited from feline characteristics, she had the appearance of a 15-year-old girl but was definitely a monster.

Unlike her current school uniform-like attire, during operations she conceals her identity by wearing a bizarre mask and full bodysuit, but that’s not what’s important.

Despite being a monster who doesn’t need a name to communicate thanks to the Hive Mind, this small cat girl possesses a special quality that made me give her a separate name.

To summarize simply, she exists in a state of superposition throughout the entire universe.

Thanks to her ability of “superposition,” inspired by quantum mechanics and Schrödinger’s cat, she both exists and doesn’t exist throughout the universe, making her simultaneously a real-world living being and a psychic entity.

The true essence of her superposition ability is, as mentioned earlier, that she exists simultaneously as a real monster and as a psychic entity, allowing her to exist in both the psychic dimension and reality at the same time.

This uncertainty also exists within the same world, meaning she exists simultaneously throughout the entire universe, enabling truly remarkable applications of her abilities.

Even if space is blocked or isolated, as long as that space exists, she can appear or disappear anywhere. This allows her to not only move instantly no matter the distance but even transcend timelines.

This ability can be used in combat as well, beyond simple mobility—she can avoid attacks by using superposition to become non-existent, or instantly kill by inserting her hand into someone’s brain.

Thanks to her unique spatial perception that allows her to recognize entire spaces, her reflexes are beyond imagination, and even if killed, she can instantly resurrect due to the superposition of life and death.

While Chesher appears virtually invincible at first glance, she does have unavoidable fatal weaknesses.

First, she can only exist as one being per timeline—meaning she can only exist as a single entity in the entire universe.

This is a restriction I imposed because a mistake could cause divergence points that would tear this world into countless parallel worlds.

But while this weakness is merely preventing something possible due to its dangers, her other weakness is a true vulnerability.

Since her very origin exists between existence and non-existence, if I don’t directly observe her with my current level of perception to prove her existence, her existential stability becomes uncertain, and she could disappear at any time.

For this reason, I normally kept her stored in a special facility called “the Box” at headquarters except in the most dire situations, but given the current circumstances, I had no choice.

《Now, Chesher. Fly, fly away. Fly far and attack everyone. Understand?》

“…………….(nods).”

With Chesher fixed under my gaze, she began moving in all directions and initiating a massacre as soon as my order was given. Now I could be certain.

Of humanity’s territory, what they call the “Outer Regions” had completely fallen into my hands.