My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 164

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟔𝟒: 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 (5)

“Is it time to bring this up?”

Kreion asked, pondering.

“Would you be willing to cooperate with our species?”

The Believer seemed to stare at Kreion. Although it had no face, its egg-shaped body gave off the impression of an otherworldly gaze trying to see inside him.

“That’s not possible.”

“Why not?”

“It’s too early for me to work with you.”

“When you say ‘too early’, does that mean you’ll work with us later?”

“Of course, when the conditions are right and the time is right, we will abandon this business transaction and properly cooperate with you. However, I don’t think that’s possible right now.”

It’s possible later on, but not now?

“Can I ask what the conditions are that make it impossible now?”

“When I look at you, I have a hunch. A hunch that your limitations might be higher than we know.”

“I will determine my limitations myself.”

“Considering your past actions and thoughts, I think you can definitely do it. Perhaps one day, we Believers will also transcend dimensions.”

“Lopez said something similar to me. He said he couldn’t transcend dimensions because he had already seen his limitations, but I could. He put his hopes on me. Are you guys looking at me from a similar perspective?”

“I can’t say that our thinking is much different from his. We’ve been watching, observing, and advising you, and somewhere along the way, we started to hope that you would do well. However, we don’t really know why we think of you that way.”

“I guess it’s a similar feeling to how you looked at Le-orantarum Owron and his ancestors.”

“. . . Could be. However, when I look at you, I feel something deeper. It’s a feeling that we also find hard to understand and difficult to explain.”

“In that case, I guess we’ll find out later. I look forward to the moment when the Chimeraz and the Believer cooperate.”

“I hope you’ll understand that we have no choice but to remain neutral for now. Kreion.”

The Believer remains neutral from the perspective of a strict observer. The Believer usually interacts with other races when it feels sorry for ordinary mortals.

Therefore, if we try to guess as accurately as possible what the Believers want, it’s not that they want ‘peace’ but rather that they want to alleviate the ‘suffering’ of mortals like themselves.

“. . .”

From their perspective, who knows how much time could have passed since they entered the black hole. In any case, given their sense of time, all races are mortals who meet briefly and look back, but even so, they have the desire to alleviate suffering as much as possible.

Perhaps the Believers, just like Kreion is thinking now, see the existences of the Local Group of Galaxies as neighbors who will move forward together.

‘How pitiful they must have thought, watching the races fight so fiercely.’

“. . . Kreion.”

The Believer is slowly disintegrating in the form of light.

It feels completely different from usual.

The movement of light is not the usual beautifully flowing form.

‘Why is it. . . . . .’

Is it because it feels rough and violent, like waves meeting angry waves?

“Kreion.”

Kreion is also seeing the Believer’s unusual reaction for the first time. What could make them react like this?

“Why are you moving so fast?”

Kreion’s heart skipped a beat when the Believer immediately said:

“We encountered. . . .”

Kreion had a hunch.

He suddenly recalled what Lopez had said.

➖Our world has always been expanding.

It seemed to ring in his head. Those words flowed through his nervous system like an electric current, hitting his heart and exploding in his brain.

➖Then new threats will come to our world. That will be the day when the majority of our world despairs.

➖It’s a much more realistic sense of crisis than the end of the universe that the Believers talk about. It’s a story of a much nearer future.

➖You’ve been consumed by the anxiety you’re holding onto. You’re always tormented because you believe that there are things that threaten humanity in this universe, and you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not mathematically impossible.

“Encountered. . . . . .?”

We came to the conclusion that it’s not mathematically impossible.

Because it’s not mathematically impossible.

Because it’s not impossible.

Because it could happen at any time, at any moment, in any form, without warning. However, because it’s mathematically and logically expected to happen after hundreds, millions, or even tens of millions of years,

‘Voyager. . . !’

Does that mean the device we prepared to prepare for such an event has become a new variable?

➖What kind of despair awaits me that you still see me as hope?

Please,

I hope it’s not despair.

“What was it?! What did you see?!”

“. . . . . . the Ycloquasar.”

The Believer’s reaction when they said its name was definitely not hopeful.

🔷🔷🔷

A void explorer created by the Chimeraz.

The asteroid-sized lifeforms called Voyagers were moving through an area close to extreme vacuum.

How many planets are in a single star system?

How many stars are in a single galaxy?

How many galaxies are in a single galaxy cluster?

There were dozens of galaxies in the Local Group of Galaxies where the Voyagers had departed together.

The world where humans, the Chimeraz, the Ririm, the Parahtoria, the Hive Alliance, the United Civilization of New Cosmos, and the black holes of the Believers were located was another vast world.

Virgo Supercluster.

The Local Group of Galaxies belonged to the Virgo Supercluster. The Virgo Supercluster binds other galaxy groups and clusters, including the Local Group of Galaxies, and this Virgo Supercluster also belongs to the Laniakea Supercluster, which contains more than 100,000 galaxies.

It’s hard to visualize it in my head because my brain capacity is insufficient. However, even such a vast world is said to be an extremely, extremely small part of the size and mass of the universe.

The Voyagers thought as they moved through the void.

If that’s the case, how many races are there in this universe?

How many intelligent beings have been born over countless eons in the vastness of space with its immeasurable mass?

And how many civilizations have risen and fallen? What forms of physical bodies do they have, and what forms of war and peace do they experience repeatedly?

One of the Voyagers headed towards the ‘Great Attractor’, the gravitational center of the Laniakea Supercluster.

The Great Attractor exerts gravity over an incredibly large range, pulling in superclusters, but ironically, the superclusters are moving away from each other because the space of the universe itself is expanding faster and faster.

Nevertheless, Kreion ordered the exploration, speculating that there might be an ultra-dense galaxy cluster or dark matter in the Great Attractor.

Although the possibility of the Voyager reaching there was slim because the Great Attractor was also moving faster and faster due to the expansion of the universe, he thought that they might encounter an intelligent group with the same exploration purpose along the way. He thought that such beings would have a considerably high mental level.

And according to Kreion’s experience, those with truly high mental levels, like the Believer, would have strong rational aspects.

He thought that the probability of a barbaric invader who would attack without thinking or suddenly invade the Local Group of Galaxies after extracting information from the Voyager was extremely low. Therefore, he thought that if they encountered the Voyager, they would at least not be barbaric invaders. He thought that would be the case.

At that time, one Voyager was just about to leave the area defined as the Local Group of Galaxies.

➖Your means of communication. The wave that understands space.

A planet-sized sphere appeared before the Voyager.

It was an early encounter with the unknown.

Its surface was so smooth that it felt heterogeneous as a material, and it had a glossy sheen even in the faint light.

It was very pale. It was a sphere of pure achromaticity, without any other colors mixed in. It had no propulsion organs or anything like that, and it was a perfect sphere, so it was impossible to know by what principle it existed in the void.

It was mysterious.

➖. . . Voyager. Is that your name?

It (or they) spoke to the Voyager, imitating the Chimeraz’s waves.

The one who tried to match the communication method of the other party was the Voyager, but instead, the other party used the Chimeraz’s method of communication.

➖It’s amazing to meet you in this vast space. Nice to meet you.

It was an entity capable of dialogue. So, the Voyager sent more simple information to the entity it had encountered.

➖A void explorer of the Chimeraz. I see. Thank you for kindly letting me know.

➖Is the Local Group of Galaxies under the control of the Chimeraz?

The other party also showed curiosity, so that was a very good start.

The Voyager transmitted all the information that Kreion had selectively put into its brain in the form of waves.

➖The Hive Alliance and the United Civilization of New Cosmos. . . . It seems that despite the large number of races in the Local Group of Galaxies, you’ve managed to maintain peace. It seems that the Chimeraz race has remarkable abilities.

➖Then, what does the Chimeraz race aspire to? Is it a race that aims to exist and survive in the form of living beings, just like your physical structure?

The Voyager couldn’t answer that. Kreion hadn’t put that level of information into the Voyager’s mindless brain.

It just told the other party that the Local Group of Galaxies was maintaining peace because the Hive Alliance of the Chimeraz and the United Civilization of New Cosmos of humans had achieved a balance of power. And that dozens of races were participating in that peace, and that it was a stable galaxy cluster.

That was all the information the Voyager had.

The unknown entity, which had received all the information, started talking again.

➖I’m sorry for the late introduction. Our community is called ‘the Ycloquasar’. If we were to use the Local Group of Galaxies’ method of classifying civilizations, we could say that we’re also a single race.

➖But you see. . . .

➖What have humans been doing for 390,000 years? Not even properly unifying a single Local Group of Galaxies.

It was an unconventional question. The Voyager instinctively sensed danger. That was the moment.

➖I thought it was strange somehow.

A meteorite-sized Believer suddenly appeared between the Voyager and the the Ycloquasar.

➖You said the Ycloquasar?

➖Who are you? Are you humans. . .?

➖What’s your purpose?

➖What purpose?

➖Don’t try to hide it.

The encounter between the the Ycloquasar and the Believer caused incredibly tense nerves. The mysterious moment full of curiosity had turned into a nerve-racking situation. A sense of danger arose in the pitch-black darkness where there was no one except the the Ycloquasar, the Voyager, and the Believers.

➖You just encountered the Voyager that had just left the Local Group of Galaxies? Can we consider this a coincidence?

➖What do you think it is if it’s not a coincidence?

➖You said it was amazing and nice to meet us as if it were a coincidence to meet in this vast space, but you were waiting in this area. Judging from the fact that you’re so casually uttering such lies, you must have some ulterior motive.

➖You heard us.

➖And how do you know that humans have existed for 390,000 years? Is it a normal question to ask in this situation what humans have been doing during that time?

➖From what you’re saying, you’re not humans. What are you? Judging from your structural form and material superiority, you don’t seem to be the Chimeraz.

Then, the Believers suddenly attacked the Voyager.

Ziiiiiiing!

They fired something like light at once, disintegrating the Voyager into particles. And just before the Voyager died, it instinctively transmitted all its experiences to the wave network of the Local Group of Galaxies. And the information left behind by the Believer was also uploaded to that wave, and it quickly returned to the Local Group of Galaxies.

Now, only the Believers and the the Ycloquasar remained.

➖If you don’t tell us honestly, we won’t allow you to visit the Local Group of Galaxies.

➖Actually, we were waiting.

➖So, what are you wai. . .

➖For an intelligent being to come out into the outer regions. It’s a bit disappointing that it’s not a human, but it can’t be helped.

It was hard to follow the conversation.

It was hard to keep up with the sudden change in situation.

➖It seems that the Voyager you just killed with your binding structure sent information to its home planet just before it died. Did you kill it because you thought we would trace the communication network connected to the Voyager?

As soon as he heard that, the Believer distorted space. It created a gravity center on the white, planet-sized sphere called the Ycloquasar and executed an attack on a space unit.

The light emitted by the Believer curved dramatically as if it were being sucked into a black hole, centered on the the Ycloquasar.

➖If you’re going to use gravity as a weapon, we’ll have to respond with the same gravity.

The space that had been distorted like a black hole expanded in reverse. As if the universe was expanding, as if a balloon was inflating, the Believer’s light also bent strangely in the opposite direction.

Zzzzzzht!

And then, a fierce roar erupted right next to it, like a neutron star spinning.

The space itself was rotating.

The the Ycloquasar was intact, but only the surrounding space was rotating, so the Believers were dragged around the the Ycloquasar like a ring of light.

Then, it was torn apart.

It wasn’t that the Believer’s smooth surface was torn apart. The Believers, who had originally changed their physical forms into light in order to withstand the rotational force of that space, were torn apart into units smaller than light and were losing their brightness.

And when the rotation stopped, the few surviving Believers must have felt ‘fear’.

The few Believers judged that they couldn’t win. So, they tried to escape before the light by distorting space. But then, the white sphere of the the Ycloquasar and the light of the few torn Believers appeared in front of them instead.

➖You’ll come back even if you run away because of the curvature.

It was already a closed space.

The Believers were like fish swimming in a rounded wave.

➖What’s your purpose. . .?

➖It’s unfair to die without knowing what our curiosity is. Then, the most appropriate word in your language. . . .

The the Ycloquasar tore apart the surviving Believers. While doing so, it kindly told them its purpose.

Who would have known?

➖We will ‘harvest’ the Local Group of Galaxies.

There will be demons at the terminal station of destiny.