Chapter 426: 99 Things You Can Do as a Human (1)
Chapter 426: 99 Things You Can Do as a Human (1)
When the Librarian’s hypothesis reached the command center, it was thrown into absolute chaos.
In a situation like this, The Enemy gathering human corpses almost always pointed toward Human Sacrifice—and the results of such sacrifices were almost always catastrophic.
The debate ignited from that single point.
Was the Extermination Operation currently being carried out by the Defense Force actually aiding The Enemy?
Given that The Enemy was intentionally collecting that liquid, it was clear they intended to do something using humans. Looking at it from one perspective, the Management Bureau’s war of attrition could be seen as helping The Enemy convert human bodies into liquid.
But what if the infection itself was the benchmark, and the liquefaction didn't actually matter?
What if turning people into liquid was merely a way to use them as offerings even after death, but they were already considered sacrifices the moment they were infected?
If that were the case, the Extermination Operation could not be stopped. The more people who were infected, the more sacrifices The Enemy would have at their disposal.
While those two points were The Core of the argument, another debate was brewing beneath the surface.
Regardless of the operation's direction, what should be done about that liquid?
Was it right to blow up the rooms and scatter the collected liquid, or should they somehow transport it out of Detroit?
The prevailing theory was that The Enemy’s power reached only within Detroit and that the rooms—built to store the liquid in bulk—served as a support mechanism. However, a counter-argument emerged: seeing as every room was built to the exact same specifications, perhaps the rooms were only meant to measure the volume of the liquid, and the state of the liquid itself didn't matter. This theory quickly gained traction.
With no information and no clear answers, the debate dragged on endlessly.
This was a common occurrence in wars against enemies wielding Otherworldly Powers. Since their power and logic defied human common sense, it was impossible to understand their thought processes or the plans they were hatching.
Take the Messiah, my own Inverse Phase, for example. Could any human mind have deduced a plan to "feed" wishes to a seed to make the Messiah bloom as its fruit?
And what about the Curator, the Librarian’s adversary? He planned to turn all of humanity into machines, convert them into energy with their "consent," and then hop over to the next parallel world.
How was anyone supposed to infer such nonsensical plans?
Even if someone happened to think along the same lines as The Enemy and deduced their intent, they would likely be dismissed as a madman.
The problem was that the entity behind this phenomenon was, at least ostensibly, a human being.
Just how twisted were those Doctors to use a method that even the Management Bureau’s analytical equipment couldn't flag as suspicious? The Doctors claimed it was science, but in reality, it was a new technology that had evolved in a direction entirely different from the science we knew.
This is a headache.
Based on various pieces of information, I already knew what the Doctors were after: the establishment of a method to force human awakening.
Even after straying so far from humanity, they apparently couldn't abandon their dream. They still called me a "Successful Subject" and continued their experiments to manufacture humans with special abilities.
The fusion of the Doctors and the AO Director, which the Director had shown me, was likely another method to acquire new knowledge.
The real question was how that liquid related to their goal.
To deduce that...
"Alright, that’s everything I saw and heard. What do you all think?"
Having returned to the command center, I contacted the others. Naturally, I used the highest security clearance on the Bureau’s classified line.
The Librarian, Oxymoron, Macbeth, the Lord of Infinite Castles, the AO Director, and Ultimate.
Every S-Rank Hero and relevant party I could currently reach.
I excluded the Heavenly Sword because I didn't think he'd be helpful, and Prohibition’s location was unknown as usual. Calavera had yet to regain consciousness. Misha had been dispatched to another operation involving spirits.
"...An incident of this magnitude, yet no Public Enemy Designation has been issued," Macbeth was the first to speak into the silence.
"That’s because this isn't a 'Story,' you senile old fool. Are you going soft in the head already?" the Lord of Infinite Castles snapped back with his usual irritability.
Even though only his voice came through the speaker, I could vividly picture him fuming.
"The connection to the GM is..."
The Librarian ignored the two bickering old men and got straight to the point.
"Speaking as someone who has dissected both, they are biologically similar but distinct. However, given what those self-proclaimed Doctors said, we should keep a close eye on that side as well," Oxymoron replied immediately.
"The spirits are currently keeping a close watch on that area," Macbeth added, completely ignoring the Lord of Infinite Castles' provocation as he updated us on the situation at headquarters.
Ah, so that’s where Misha went.
"Forget the preparations. Has there been any useful prophecy?"
"None. The Future Foresight squad says the area around Detroit is blurred, as if obscured by noise. They can't get a clear reading."
Geez, you're useless today, Old Man Macbeth.
"I suspect that is because the Doctors stationed in Detroit are existences that have deviated from reality, much like myself," the AO Director suggested.
"Then shouldn't we just activate multi-world observation and Future Foresight simultaneously?"
"Not everyone is as gifted as you, Ultimate. There are no personnel capable of processing that much information, and even if there were, it’s impossible to see into the distant future with simultaneous activation," the AO Director, Ultimate, and Macbeth each chimed in.
"Instead of sitting around babbling like paupers, why don't we just blow Detroit off the map and see what crawls out of the crater?"
While everyone else was engaged in deep discussion, the Lord of Infinite Castles was ranting like a senile geezer, yet no one rebuked him. His actions were usually driven by emotion or instinct rather than logic, but in the end, he often hit the nail on the head.
Still, blowing everything up at this stage felt a bit too extreme for my taste.
"...I believe that might be a bit too radical."
"I agree with the Director! There are still many civilians left in Detroit!"
Perhaps unfamiliar with the Old Man's temperament, the AO Director and Ultimate both spoke up.
"Radical? What’s radical about it? Just wipe it clean. That brat Lee Ha-ram is already there. We’ve already dropped nukes. Let’s just take this chance to erase it from the map. Throw in all the black hole shells while we're at it."
The Lord of Infinite Castles, seemingly delighted that someone had finally responded to him, began to pour out his words with a shout.
"...Do you realize what might happen—" the AO Director started, undeterred by the shouting.
"You said yourself we don't know what will happen if we leave it alone. So just blow it up. If we erase the space itself, those 'learned' Doctors will die. Whatever happens will happen after those bastards are half-dead anyway, so the cleanup will be easier. Heh heh heh."
The Old Man began to chuckle.
A silence fell over those who knew his personality, while those overwhelmed by the presence of the mad Old Man remained mute. His laughter filled the void.
This was why it was best to just leave the Old Man alone.
"What do you think an Extermination Operation is? It means erasing everyone there. Civilians are already dying in droves, so what are you nitpicking for? Is this your first time? The scale is just different; this happens all the time."
The Old Man’s chuckling turned into a manic cackle.
"Or what? You, the smart Director, and you, the Yankee with the clean hands—if you have a better way to solve this, let’s hear it."
Silence followed.
Macbeth, who usually acted as a mediator, remained silent as well. It seemed it wasn't his time to step in yet.
For about twenty seconds, the only thing dominating the conversation was the dry laughter of the senile Old Man. Then...
"...I know the future they are painting," the AO Director finally spoke.
"Hmm? You had a vision? It would have been much easier if you’d shared that from the start."
The Lord of Infinite Castles stopped laughing, his attentiveness audible through the speaker.
"...I cannot speak of it. What I do is closer to observation than Future Foresight. Therefore, if I put the contents into words, there is a very high probability they will become fixed."
The AO Director repeated the same explanation she had given me.
"So it’s similar in nature to my prophecies," Macbeth added as a form of verification.
"Then it’s useless. You shouldn't have brought it up in the first place."
The Lord of Infinite Castles, his interest completely evaporated, spat out his annoyance.
"Hmm. No. If we use a double-blind method so the subject doesn't realize they've disclosed the information to others..."
"Can't we just make them talk while they're asleep?"
"...That is certainly not a double-blind study."
While the Librarian and Oxymoron were spouting nonsense about whatever piqued their interest, the AO Director spoke again.
"No. There is one person I have told the contents of the vision to."
The surroundings went quiet instantly.
"Hmm? Who?"
"The Hero, Crimson★Hammer. However, to prevent the event from being fixed, I informed him through metaphors."
The moment she finished, I felt invisible gazes converging on me. The collective will demanding I speak the contents radiated through the speaker.
Accepting that pressure, I began to search my memories.
Let’s see. Fleshy ground, a purple sky, and a shining star?
I only remembered about half of it clearly, but just as I was about to speak...
"To that, please add only the words 'white Pillar of Light' and 'proxy.'"
The AO Director’s words pierced my eardrums and sliced through my brain.
In an instant, a memory began to play in my mind.
It was not my memory.
A vision of countless stars in the night sky exploding, and a gargantuan monster filling the horizon opening its maw. Knowledge I couldn't possibly possess flooded in.
A transcendent sight of the Star-Eater, the flagship carrying the fate of a race, being crushed and devoured by an even larger Star-Eater Class Monster.
Entities transcending logic stepping out from a Pillar of Light blooming on a home planet.
The octopus-headed race—Al’shel’s people—watching that scene.
It bloomed in my mind like a flashback.
More warships than stars burning in space like mere kindling, lighting up the galaxy. A battlefield where even those possessing warp technology that leaped through time and space were ignored by an enemy for whom such concepts did not exist.
Only the "End" resided there.
A final memory announcing that once you faced them, there was no escape, even if you rewound time or crossed dimensions.
This was not my memory.
It was their memory, hidden deep within my mind.
...Those bastards...
They planted this in me?
I had heard Al’sophia describe this scene before, but it hadn't been anything this vivid back then. It seemed the octopuses had placed something in me, a trigger that would fire under certain conditions to bring these memories to the surface.
Why did they leave this memory with me?
Was it a plea for Earth not to end up like their home? Or was it a warning that this very scene was about to unfold in our world?
If so, I had to tell them. About the entities coming through the Pillar of Light, and what I presumed to be the Doctors' goal.
"First, what I'm about to say must absolutely not be leaked. It’s a deduction based on the AO Director’s information and what I know."
I slowly raised my voice. I felt a sense of relief that I could finally share what I had been carrying alone.
"I'm not saying this should be handled as a Bureau secret. This is information that can cause problems just by being known, so as few people as possible should know it."
No sound of gulping came from the speaker. It seemed no one was tense yet based on just the introduction.
The sound of swallowing I heard must have been my own.
"...There is an enemy called an Avatar, derived from a certain existence—"
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
My voice was drowned out by a sudden burst of noise. A piercing, thunderous screech erupted from the speaker.
Startled, I fell silent for a moment.
Beep.
A computer that had been functioning perfectly just moments ago emitted a beep.
【Warning 1】
【You know what I mean, right?】
White text appeared on the blackened monitor screen.
A sense of dread washed over me. My intuition screamed more violently than when I had faced any powerful enemy. My perception hammered the truth into me: those words were real.
"You know what I mean, right?"
I heard a voice. His, and her voice.
It was the first time I had felt direct contact. It dragged my consciousness down into an Infinite Abyss. In the pitch-black room where everything had turned dark, only the white letters remained, repeating eternally before my eyes.
"What’s going on? Is it a communication error?"
Someone spoke. Macbeth’s voice pulled me back to reality.
The lights in the room had never gone out. The monitor was normal. Nothing had happened.
Only the words remained in my head, along with the absolute truth that there was no lie in that sentence.
That thought showed me the "line"—exactly how much I was allowed to say.
And so, I opened my mouth, trying to drive away the fear clinging to my body.
"How far did I get?"
"You said it was a deduction you made, Ha-ram."
Macbeth’s answer confused me. My words had been cut off.
The anomaly had occurred after I had said a few more sentences, at the moment I directly mentioned the word "Avatar."
Yet, the answer I got was that I had never spoken those words. As if those, too, were words I was not permitted to utter.
...Those damn Voyeurs.
So, I chose my words carefully to inform my comrades.
"...It’s a ritual to summon a powerful enemy through a Pillar of Light. The Enemy being summoned is at least world-ending class."
For about a minute, I forced out the words I wanted to say. Those words contained most of what I needed to convey.
But they omitted the most important truth I had to share.
I was left to shoulder the mission of stopping this phenomenon alone.
Just like always.