Normally, you’d assume it was a clone.
The problem was, I couldn't see the intent.
There was no reason to show me the body.
If it was meant to stall for time, there wasn't a single trap.
I could think of several depraved methods, like blowing up the entire planet, but...
No... they couldn't do that.
Thinking it through, at this distance, it would've caught Planet Sanctuary in the blast.
Even if it wasn't destroyed outright, the rain of meteors would have made it impossible to stay.
This didn't feel like the type of Psychological Warfare that just tossed extra variables into the decision-making process.
I just didn't get it!
Ever since then, Melissa—who was part of the group that couldn't handle horror—had been resting.
Apparently, things she couldn't punch were her weakness.
A precious vanguard lost...
So, today I was consulting the experts.
Aoi-san, One-oh-one, and the rest of the Republic group.
"I do not know, sir!!!"
Well, someone's energetic today!
I'll give you some chocolate, kiddo!
"Thank you very much, sir!"
Good girl, good girl.
Now, the real person I was counting on was Aoi-san.
If anyone knew, she would!
"I do not know."
It was over...
"However... if Ayame is Mother, perhaps she's been swapping generations by creating clones."
"I don't understand the motive for showing us the remains, though..."
In the end, it still didn't make sense.
For the time being, we decided to recover Ayame's body.
This time, I joined the team.
There was talk that Jester's Ability might trigger something.
We went to the Altar.
The room housing the Altar only had a gap small enough for a spider-type drone to crawl through.
So, we smashed the wall with a hammer.
After breaking through the surprisingly brittle wall, we reached the room.
While the workers cheered, I picked up some of the debris.
No sign of rebar or anything.
...It looked like the room had been backfilled later.
What a mess.
Inside the room was a bizarre terminal with a design I'd never seen before.
It was made of flesh.
There was a hollow shaped like a hand.
If I put my hand there, it'd be a straight shot to a Bad End.
I was absolutely sure of it.
I'd let the other soldiers handle this one.
I wasn't touching it.
Cables dangled on the floor, leading to the Altar.
Was this really an Altar?
"Major, that is likely not an Altar."
A Correspondence Course came in from Aoi-san.
Aoi-san, who still had trouble walking, was back on the ship.
"This is likely an experimental site."
"An experiment for what?"
"Probably an experiment to create a new model. I have seen that Cultivation Pod over there before."
I could see a large, shattered, transparent cylinder.
The kind of thing where, in a horror game, an enemy would burst out and attack you.
And further back, there was a normal computer.
Now that, I understood.
"Please boot up that terminal. I'll try to infiltrate that strange Flesh Computer from here."
"Booting up the terminal!"
I spoke loudly so the other workers could hear.
I started up the terminal.
It was ancient!
The interface was so old!
A command-line interface for business use.
The one I'd messed with at Ren's Family Home was newer than this.
"Username... let's see..."
I hit a wall immediately.
"Don't give up! I'm in as administrator!"
The Fairy seemed to have worked her magic.
The operation wasn't that much different from the Empire's systems.
The commands were almost identical to an Imperial computer.
Looking through the help files, I confirmed it was just like the standard business models.
There was a lock on the documents folder...
"Unlocking it now."
A lock was meaningless before the Fairy.
Inside was a mountain of documents.
"I'll move everything to the battleship's sandbox."
"Yeah, sure. Gimme a summary."
"Hmm, it's shift schedules and golf appointments from several hundred years ago."
It was utterly pointless.
"Accessing the groupware... pulling data from the database..."
As she worked, the Fairy crossed her arms and tilted her head.
"What's up?"
If she were human, I'd have worried about her shoulders being stiff.
"Thinking normally, they wouldn't just leave such trivial files here, would they?"
"True enough."
Usually, there'd be at least some "Itchy. Tasty." style information.
"In any case, I need to find the manual for accessing the flesh... oh."
"What now?"
"Well, remember how we were talking about there being a god on the ship?"
"Suddenly, it's horror?!"
"Just listen! It seems the Zorks were trying to create a god."
"Are they crazy?"
A god isn't something you can just make because you feel like it.
What were they thinking?
"What are you talking about? Leo-kun, if you win this war, you'll be enshrined as a god after you die, too."
"What? Give me a break!"
I wanted nothing to do with being treated like a god.
Nothing good ever comes from that!
Besides.
The existence closest to a god in the Empire was the Fairy.
"Anyway, it's the Zorks—or rather, the Republic. They desired a god. But unlike the Empire, which is casual about religion with its shrines and temples, they wanted a single, absolute deity. In other words, that would be..."
"Mother?"
"That's the logical conclusion, right, Aoi-san?"
"The atmosphere wasn't quite that extreme back in my day, but..."
Well, neither One-oh-one nor Aoi-san knew the Marginal Republic.
I suppose this is what happens when survival of the fittest is pushed to the limit.
"So... the reason we can't negotiate with the Zorks in the first place is...?"
"Because the Zorks are operating from the perspective of a god. Because they don't see us as equals, their approach to the Empire is sloppy."
That was both the Zorks' strength and their weakness.
"They probably encountered a Higher Existence somewhere... maybe in outer space."
So they felt they needed a god...
Just what kind of thing did the Zorks run into?!
"For now, let's recover everything."
"Roger that."
We hauled it all away.
Even if we learned Zork technology, we couldn't actually use it.
But knowing the enemy was a necessity.
All the data was analyzed within the day.
Afterward, we held a meeting over dinner in the Dining Hall with the usual group.
This was separate from the meeting of the old guys.
By the way, we also found out that the other Despair—the one we'd been messaging—was on a planet that had been destroyed ages ago.
I'd sent him a message to let him know.
"Wifey. What's the plan?"
"For now, the fear of being backstabbed by the Zorks is gone. It is time for the Decisive Battle."
With this, the Recapture of All Territories could begin.
It had been so long... From here on, please enjoy my School Rom-com!
"We strike as soon as we are ready. Once the additional Expeditionary Force arrives, we will crush them all at once."
It was finally time for the Decisive Battle.
...It was, right?
There were some loose ends about gods encountered in outer space, but it's fine as long as we don't go out there, right?
Everything's settled, right?
I am not doing that!
I don't want to go on some Faraway Voyage; I just want to keep hunting mobs in the Starting Map forever!!!