Authentication Failed

I was walking down a long corridor, following two women, when the one with short black hair that suited her so well spoke up.

"Um... Administrator?"

"Uh— y-yes...?"

"Did you really lose your memory?"

"......Well..."

"It's true. I mean... it'd be a little strange to lie about something like this right now, wouldn't it?"

That was Soyeon answering, after a glance at her for cues. Somehow the short-haired woman didn't seem pleased that Soyeon was the one responding.

"Well. That is true. So, um, then..."

"...?"

"I, uh— I was actually pretty close with the Administrator..."

"...What?"

A slightly incredulous tone slipped out of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me. Just moments ago, hadn't this woman been ready to draw a gun at the first sign of trouble?

"What are you—"

"Soyeon knows too, of course?"

Soyeon, who had been about to speak, closed her mouth at that. Was it true? Even if it was, I didn't even know this woman's name. If her features had been just a little more masculine, I might have been confused about her gender entirely.

"So, um, I just... wondered if you might remember, so I thought I'd mention it."

"..."

This time Soyeon made a dissatisfied face, so I asked to confirm.

"Um, So...yeon? Is that right...?"

"......Yes. That's right."

A grinding sound of teeth locking together. The atmosphere turned frightening enough that I hurriedly looked away.

"Heh. You don't know my name, right? I'm Choi Dahyun. Heh. This is awkward..."

"Ah, yes..."

After that short exchange, we walked on in silence for a while, until I found myself standing in front of a door in a position that felt oddly protected. As I was fantasizing about whether some monster I'd never seen in my life might be waiting inside, Choi Dahyun pressed in a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠password and opened the door.

"Please come in..."

Soyeon, looking somewhat dejected, guided me inside—and soon a massive window filled my vision. Beyond it sat an enormous machine. Wire mesh was embedded in the glass; it looked like it wouldn't take a scratch from any ordinary impact.

Were they going to experiment on me with that thing? For all I knew, it could have been some giant experimental apparatus.

My steps gradually shortened until something soft pressed against the back of my head.

"..."

"...Kyaat...! S-sorry...!"

I clapped a hand over my mouth, startled that I'd let out a scream like that—but the people who'd already been in the room just kept staring intently at the machine as if nothing had happened.

"Um, Administrator? Looking at this—does anything come to mind?"

"Uh, what? W-well...?"

"Hmm. In that case, would you come over here?"

Soyeon guided me over. Seeing her point to a black touchpad set against one wall, then to my hand, I very carefully raised it. Hoping spikes wouldn't suddenly shoot out and draw blood—I was thinking of that game where they stick needles in your eyeballs—I set my hand down, and—

"...Wh-what... is this...?"

I asked. I genuinely had no idea. I didn't think they'd built a riddle out of sentences like these. Or was it a riddle?

I looked at the screen again, but I couldn't find any pattern at all.

"...Haa..."

At the same time, a sigh came from behind—from a woman I hadn't even spoken to yet. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd covered my mouth in mild surprise, but the other women who'd held their sounds in wore similar expressions.

"..."

I randomly pressed the blank spaces, inputting whatever buttons I could. If it was a riddle, I figured I should at least pretend to solve it. I also thought maybe I could lean on my subconscious for a lucky break. Muscle memory might remember something.

"Oh...!"

Maybe pressing the buttons without hesitation made it look like I knew something. This time a sound of rising expectation came out—but then—

—Beep.

The screen turned red, and only a message declaring authentication failure floated in the center. Immediately, lasers shot out, scraping across my wrist and iris in a scan before vanishing.

"Hik...!"

"Ah, as expected... Ha. What do we do?"

"If we just tough it out without washing starting today..."

"Even if we do that..."

As if I weren't even there—as if I were a discarded card—the women started murmuring among themselves. Every one of them had a pretty face, but the strange atmosphere was a little overwhelming, so the two carefully set hands on my shoulders and drew me along.

"Um, Administrator. It's okay. For now, um, shall we head back?"

"Ah, no— if I just try one more time... you never know..."

"No. We already tried once before you arrived. Now there's only one chance left."

"Is that... so...?"

"Yes. Three failures and it locks. The shielding walls come down completely, too..."

I bowed in greeting, but the women barely registered me. They just wore serious expressions, so I left the room as I was.

Was that all for today's tasks? The two seemed ready to head back, walking down the corridor we'd come from.

"Um..."

"Yes?"

"Is there, like, a password recovery thing or something...? Looking at it, it seemed like it also used biometric data, so maybe with that—"

"That'll be difficult."

I was too anxious to just go back like this.

It felt like the original owner of this body was screaming at me for suddenly hijacking it, so I tried saying that—but Dahyun shut me down immediately.

"Why..."

"Because it was designed with things like rebellions in mind. Honestly, fingerprints and irises can just be cut off a corpse and used..."

"......"

I closed my mouth.

Only after touring various places did we get a brief rest. It seemed less about worrying for my well-being and more about giving me time to try recalling my memories at leisure.

It was frustrating. How was I supposed to recover someone else's memories entirely? I was the type who believed a person's essence was the brain, and that everything was stored in physical form—so the current situation just made my head burn hotter.

Looking down, the torso I saw was clearly not mine. Once that thought hit, I shook my head left and right, afraid the thoughts I'd had when I first woke up in this place would come flooding back.

After we got our break, Soyeon explained various things to me. Like how hard it would be to explain finger movements to an alien without hands—the gap in our background knowledge was so extreme that most of it was a bit hard to understand.

Roughly summarized:

One. We were too far for any rescue team to reach.

Two. So the escape ship was equipped with most of the facilities, ensuring failure was impossible under any circumstances.

Three. In case of rebellion during the long voyage or colonization period, everything except the bare minimum for survival required approval from specific personnel.

That was about it.

"..."

So the problem was serious. Even the smart people who'd thought this far hadn't prepared for amnesia.

There was a Security Chip embedded in the brain in case of death, but that could only be removed if you died.

If life signals were maintained, even pulling it out wouldn't make it work without authorization—and if you died, that was simply the end. In that case succession supposedly kicked in, but...

"......Ha. Fuck."

I pounded the bed. It was a literally stifling situation. I wanted to express my emotions even that way, but it didn't have the same satisfying impact as when I'd been a man.

How had I even boarded this place in this body?

Really, thinking about it again, the level of admiration I was holding back was nine hundred ninety-nine. Fuck. How clever and thorough. Starting a rebellion here would be far harder than joining as some low-ranking soldier somewhere and staging a coup.

So I closed my eyes tightly. And just prayed inwardly.

A novel came to mind where some goddess or other had sent the protagonist somewhere like this.

Please just send me back to my original world.

......

...

.

—Knock knock.

"Nngyah."

I woke from the dream with a weird sound. I'd just gotten up in my familiar house and sat down in front of the computer...

"Unnieee. Are you sleeping?"

It was Soyeon's voice.

I didn't want to show her how comfortably I'd been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sleeping, so I cleared my throat quietly and headed for the door.

The moment it opened, Soyeon standing there was dressed much more casually than when I'd first seen her. At least the concept of comfortable clothes seemed similar here and there.

"Ah... I was just, um, resting..."

"Aha. Quite some time had passed and you still weren't coming out, so I brought something. Heh."

"..."

I just offered an awkward smile. Even though I was a complete stranger, the way she treated me so familiarly felt awkward. And even after I'd told her that, the fact that her attitude didn't change made me feel both sorry and grateful.

"Are you going to wash?"

Soyeon asked.

"...Huh?"

"Well, it's getting late, and we decided to rest today and start the meetings tomorrow."

"......Didn't you say there was no water...?"

"We have wet wipes, though. Heh."

Checking inside the basket she held, I saw two packs of wet wipes. Naturally, the brand was one I'd never seen before.

Looking at them made me suddenly feel depressed, and I was about to decline—when I remembered those survival series from my childhood, the bible of getting through every kind of disaster.

The most important thing when you're stranded is mindset, and that mindset can start from the smallest things.

And washing your body not only maintains hygiene but can also become a ritual for starting or ending the day... Which volume was it? Caves? Extreme weather?

"..."

Yeah. I should wash.

I organized my thoughts and reached out my hand—but Soyeon nimbly pulled hers back.

"...?"

Like people who confess with half-hearted feelings on April Fool's Day, Soyeon's expression held an emotion that didn't lean to either side.

Whether she had something to say, or was trying to gather courage—only after an awkwardly long stretch of time did Soyeon open her mumbling mouth.

"How about we wash together? No— how about it?"

she asked.

"...What?"

"Uh...... Ah, no, um, washing your back is inconvenient, and, um, we used to wash together before...? We did. Hehe... So, well, I also kind of, um, after the crash, um. Wanted to do things the way we used to? That kind of feeling? So even though we've been stranded, by doing the same things as before, you can turn your eyes away from reality only to a safe degree and gain mental and physical stabili—"

"Ah, okay, okay. Sure."

Soyeon started pouring out words in a fluster. The way she was making excuses seemed pretty cute.

More than anything, she was a beauty I wouldn't even have been able to talk to in my original world.

I'd fallen into this insane situation through no fault of my own—so looking at it that way, maybe it was okay to get this much compensation.

So I nodded. Since we were wiping down with wet wipes, there was no need to go to a bathroom, and I didn't even know where the bathroom was, so I gestured for her to come in. Soyeon smiled brightly.

Her face was quite red.

And then—

"KYAAAAAAAH!!!"

A high-pitched voice that felt like it was stripping away my masculinity burst out of me.

I couldn't hold it in.

It was loud enough that I wondered if it was even okay to scream like that, but even after time passed, nobody smashed through the door.

"......Why..."

Soyeon, who'd just taken off her pants and was surprised at the timing of being surprised, mumbled.

"Th-that, wh-what..."

"Huh? Ah, no, wait? Wh-what? My underwear? Is the color weird... or something?"

Soyeon looked down at her underwear. The black underwear had nothing wrong with it. The tight-fitting kind, like boxer briefs—drawers panties—weren't a problem at all.

"No, no, th-that, that—"

Looking at Soyeon, who was genuinely puzzled, I felt a dizzying emptiness like my mind was about to leave me.

That thing, inside Soyeon's underwear. That is— that.

I gave up on describing it. Literally a mind-breaking, enormous shock—more terrible than the fact that the space age had opened and I'd been stranded decades away from Earth—crashed over my mind.