Chapter 16

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Translator: Silver Dragon

Chapter: 16

Chapter Title: Chapter 16

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Translator: Silver Dragon

Chapter: 16

Chapter Title: Counter Cognitive Hazards with Physical Disasters (3)

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"UHAHAHAHA!!! Didn't you miss me?!!"

"GAAAAAH!!! I didn't want to see you!!!"

"What did we do to deserve this?!!!"

"No!!! Not our colony!!!"

I had no idea how many colonies I'd destroyed since then.

I stopped counting after about thirty.

One thing was certain, though—this method worked.

I rampaged like a mindless beast.

The moment I spotted them, I charged.

I sprayed bullets everywhere, smashing everything in sight.

I turned the surroundings into an inferno.

Any Star Flowers that survived the flames, I tore apart with my bare hands, one by one.

Occasionally, the Star Flowers would fire beams of light to erode my mind.

But I countered by immediately shutting my eyes and unloading my guns toward the direction of the light.

Repeating the same tactic over and over whittled down their numbers.

A huge chunk of the colonies were wiped out.

Even the key colonies blocking the main passages couldn't withstand my mad frenzy.

The destination was right in front of me now.

A little further, and I'd reach the bridge.

I hit recommend on the gallery user's analysis post and closed the gallery.

As the high-nick 'Detective Novel Buff' said, the bridge colony would be very different from the others.

The radar scan results alone proved it.

An overwhelming size incomparable to other regions' colonies.

On top of that, abnormally high ether readings were coming from the bridge.

'Based on what we've figured out so far, the center must be Mriya.'

If even Chiltoom fell to Mriya, it wasn't something I could overpower with brute force.

I'd have to uncover some rule or strategy and break it.

"Keuk!"

That's when I lost my balance and staggered.

"GRAAAAAH!!!"

The erosion was starting again.

I'd thought too intelligently.

"I'm a beast!!! I only know destruction!!!"

I had one colony saved just for times like this.

I slung my gun and bolted toward it.

"WAAAAAH!!! Newbie!!! Destroy!!!"

I howled as I charged the colony.

"The demon's here!!! The demon has come!!!"

"We were being quiet... we were being quiet... we were being quiet..."

"We'll grant any wish... just please leave our home..."

"Then die!!!"

I savored their screams as I burned them all.

Reducing one colony to ash cleared the erosion.

Of course, it was just a temporary fix.

Time would bring it back.

I had to find a solution before then.

'I've used up every colony around here. Time's really short now.'

Desperate, I started rummaging everywhere.

As a key facility, ammo was plentiful.

There was also plenty of important-looking data.

I collected the data and sent it to Suhariltoom via the data link system.

I was busy farming the area when...

Suhariltoom messaged me.

"What happened?"

"Another ship is approaching our vessel!"

"What?"

I immediately asked Orca for the situation.

"What's going on?"

"It's bad. Two Xeno ships are approaching under the guise of a science vessel."

"What? Two of them?"

The words "two ships" triggered something in my head.

"No way...?"

Ominous premonitions have a way of coming true.

This was exactly that case.

"One Chiltoom civilian ship and a Chiltoom warship are coming here!"

"Fuck!"

The worst imaginable scenario was unfolding.

The gallery descended into panic at the news of the Chiltoom warship's arrival.

If these fungal bastards got their hands on it...

The catastrophe that would follow was horrifying to imagine.

Orca said,

"Captain, emergency. You need to move right now!"

I didn't even reply—I just started running.

That's when Suhariltoom messaged again.

I'm already dying for time here.

How important could it be to message now?

"What?"

"I reviewed the info you've sent the last few days."

Then he continued.

"From that data, I succeeded in uncovering the truth Ehilaatoom hid from us."

The truth he spoke of was this.

"Ehilaatoom seems to have been eroded by Mriya much earlier than we thought."

Even if Mriya's power scales with the host's intelligence...

Eroding a higher species like Chiltoom isn't easy.

It was possible because there was an inside collaborator on the science ship.

"Ehilaatoom knew about Mriya's existence even before arriving in this system."

He had solid reasons for that certainty.

"Among the data you sent was Ehilaatoom's diary. Reading it made everything clear."

The truth he revealed was shocking.

Mriya wasn't just some seed or tree.

It was a device to summon the entity called the 'King of Illusions'.

A tiny chip with immense computational power.

The reason it seized and controlled other intelligences was to secure more computation.

The stolen souls were stored in that tiny prison.

Locked in that small world, the intelligences were forced to think only of the King of Illusions.

The King of Illusions has no physical form.

The device forcibly makes others think of him.

Its purpose is to summon the King into real space that way.

Ehilaatoom had known all this from the start.

"She knew everything and still brought you here? Why?"

"No time to explain that, human! The key point is, I found an effective way to delay the erosion in her diary."

"Delay the erosion?"

That was welcome news.

I asked immediately.

"How?"

"Simple! Introduce another type of cognitive hazard to overwrite it with new mental pollution."

"What...?"

In other words, fight poison with poison.

It didn't sit right, but there were no other options.

I'd already burned every nearby colony.

Above all, I had to end this event before the Chiltoom warship arrived.

"Fine. So how do I do it?"

"Ehilaatoom seems to have pulled cognitive hazard anomalies from the anomaly isolation room whenever needed."

Then, taking a breath, he said,

"The problem is, there's no time to get to the anomaly isolation room."

"Fuck, then why tell me?"

"Have you ever suffered from a cognitive hazard regularly, or experienced one? If so, just recalling it could suppress the erosion."

I'd barely been in this universe long enough for that.

No way.

"Like I'd have something like that."

"Nothing at all? Surely your Earth had at least one."

Cognitive hazards on Earth.

I'd browsed creepy internet stories before, but...

Nothing that could trigger actual erosion.

Right then.

'Wait, actually... there might be one.'

Something that makes you dumber the more you learn about it.

Sticks in your mind once seen, causing mental pollution.

Come to think of it, there was exactly one.

"Just thought of one."

"Really? What is it? Tell me."

"Not sure if even this would work."

"Anything's fine. We're desperate right now."

"Then hear it and judge for yourself."

I explained to Suhariltoom the info on 'those guys' that I knew.

He listened quietly at first.

But soon, he started retching in disgust and rage.

"GRAAAAH! Such repulsive bastards! Why the hell would something like that exist?!!!"

"Th-that bad? I've seen it so much it doesn't faze me anymore."

"Shut up, you disgusting human scum! How bored do you have to be to create a cognitive hazard like that yourselves?!!!"

Suhariltoom's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reaction suggested it would be even more effective than I'd hoped.

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