My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 175

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕𝟓: 𝐃𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 (1)

Planet 8, where the 2nd generation of artificial humans and humanoids for Phase Assault Troops were located.

At the center of the crater in this place, a being called Kreion who called himself the ‘Creator’ responded with a wave.

➖Aaaaaaaaaaa!! I was waiting for you!! For you, I. . . For thousands of years, only this moment. . .!

It was an alien being that imitated the Chimeraz’s wave. So Kreion brought a number of mutant Cresecter, Lemegeton, and Euryale just in case and came down to the atmosphere.

Among them, he sent about hundreds of Cresecter and Cophilia down on the crater to guard the surroundings, and decided to land in front of the alien being through Asotus, escorted by dozens of Cresecter.

Booooooooooooong.

Asotus landed between the Cresecters, emitting a slight propulsive force from its stern.

Thud.

Kreion walked out of Asotus’ neat mouth.

‘There was a lot going on here too. . .’

Kreion turned his gaze to find the alien being. It seemed to be inside an egg-shaped structure in the center of the crater.

There was also someone standing in front of Kreion.

He pointed a cold weapon in the shape of a sword at Kreion.

‘Human. . . No, artificial human.’

The civilization that had existed in this isolated world seemed to have perished. In the end, there was only one last artificial human left.

The weapon the artificial human was holding seemed sharp enough to be made of the black mineral of the Chimeraz’s sword, but it was too dull and crude to be called a cutter, so it was very old-fashioned.

It was a sword that seemed to have been forcibly carved out of the Chimeraz’s carapace.

【SAVE】

The crude blade was inscribed with the human word ‘salvation’.

The artificial human pointing the sword at Kreion was furious, covered in sweat and blood from what he had been through.

In addition, the entire crater was filled with corpses left by alien creatures and corpses of artificial humans who seemed to have died fighting until just a while ago.

The artificial human’s voice trembled, his eyes seeming to curse Kreion sincerely.

“If I kill you. . . If I kill you. . .”

Kreion also did not understand the situation he was in, and he would not understand the situation Kreion was in either.

However, considering various positions and experiences, Kreion should be considerate of the other person in this situation.

So Kreion carefully uttered a single word so that the last artificial human on the planet could respond to the conversation as easily as possible.

“. . .You’re the last human on this planet.”

He said so, but,

“I’ll tear you apart. . .!”

For some reason, the artificial human male in front of him rushed at Kreion with a crude sword.

It was definitely faster than an ordinary human. However, Kreion was a being who could perceive the speed of sound and light in the first place, so it was a very slow movement in his eyes.

So the tip of his sword aimed at Kreion’s neck and fell very slowly,

Puck!!!

Kreion didn’t even need to move, Asotus behind him stretched out the tentacles in his mouth and grabbed the blunt blade.

“. . . .”

The artificial human male stepped back in surprise. It seemed like a great deal of agitation was felt in his heart.

‘Let go.’

Kreion ordered Asotus behind him to release the man’s sword.

Thud!

At that moment, the structure containing the alien being behind the man split open. The being stretched out something like a human hand between the broken shells, like an animal breaking out of an egg, and pulled out the shells.

Kreion couldn’t tell what it was.

Flop.

It was like a naked man covered in mucus all over his body, but it was a little strange to call him an artificial human.

As the being raised its head, long, messy hair and a long beard came into view.

“I. . . My name is Cater. . .!”

The being who introduced himself as Cater prostrated himself in front of Kreion before he could even take a few steps.

“For you. . .! I have lived on this small planet for thousands of years. . .!”

It was the first time he had seen the being, so he wondered what he was talking about.

“To carry out your will to destroy everything you touch, I have created hundreds of millions of creatures and destroyed tens of millions of humans for thousands of years. . .!”

He seemed like a being consumed by madness.

“And today! I finally succeeded in destroying all humans! The last territory of mankind is being absorbed into your biomass. . .! Now. . .! Now that human being over there. . .!”

Cater pointed a finger at the man holding the sword in front of Kreion.

“That human being was so strong that I had a hard time. . .! That human being is the last human left on this planet. . .! Please, Creator, put the finishing touch with your hand!”

By then, Kreion was able to instantly understand what had happened on this planet by glimpsing the memories of the beings connected to the wave, including Cater. 

🔷🔷🔷

The amount of relative time that passed was not recorded. Fortunately, however, in this world, there was a Variant Cresecter possessing an old memory.

It was one of the Variant Cresecters that Ludwig had sent to the end of the closed space in the 4th Planet. That Variant Cresecter came into this 8th Planet by an unknown principle.

When the Variant Cresecter entered the closed area of this planet, the 2nd generation artificial humans and humanoids belonging to Ark Corporation on this planet were still intact.

However, it might have been that a considerable amount of time had passed even at the time when the Variant Cresecter entered, as the 2nd generation artificial humans had already had descendants, and there were up to the 4th and 5th generations, and the artificial human civilization for their survival and activities had spread over the planet.

Ark, which had to manage all the artificial humans and AIs of the 8th Planet, was outside of the closed space of the 8th Planet in order to carry out the fleet battle, and so, the artificial human civilization of the 8th Planet had no choice but to wait once they received no particular command.

Then, the artificial humans of the civilization cheered, looking up at the Variant Cresecter in the sky.

➖It’s the Chimeraz!

➖The Chimeraz has finally come. . .!

However, their cheers did not last long.

The Variant Cresecter had simply escaped from the closed space of the 4th Planet after receiving Ludwig’s order to escape. As it escaped, it had simply entered the closed space of the 8th Planet.

In any case, from the Variant Cresecter’s standpoint, it had escaped from the 4th Planet, so it needed an additional command. However, it could no longer receive any command, as its connection with Ludwig had been cut off.

Therefore, the Variant Cresecter wandered through the sky above the planet for several more centuries. It continued to fly around alone, looking for its kind, but there were none, and as it had carried out the order to escape, all that was left was the Chimeraz’ instinct, ‘survival’.

Cresecters basically use the plasma of the corona as the power source of their life. Therefore, they need to continuously absorb the hydrogen of the space using their skin.

The problem was that the closed space was too narrow, and the hydrogen that the Variant Cresecter used as its energy source mostly needed to be obtained from the atmosphere, not space.

➖Discharge hydrogen periodically.

➖Do we have to continue to use our civilization’s energy for that giant Variant? We are already dying thermodynamically.

The 2nd and 3rd generation artificial humans who had memories of being with the Chimeraz lived an average of 170 years and died of old age.

Therefore, their descendants sometimes felt resentment towards the Variant Cresecter flying in the sky. In the eyes of the later-generation artificial humans, the Variant Cresecter seemed like a life form that uselessly consumed energy.

However, the nth generation artificial human leader of the artificial human civilization and the old AI that assisted the leader never forgot the history of being with the Chimeraz ‘in the past’.

➖That life form must be sending waves to the end of the closed space. That is the only rescue signal we can send, and the only hope.

➖Eventually, our isolated world will open. On that day, some of us will be alive, and that giant life form will record our story as a memory.

The planet had no nuclear fusion generator, oil, or gas, but artificial coal could be created through the research of AI. Amidst them dying thermodynamically, artificial coal became the only fuel that could operate the generator.

After that, the civilization drastically reduced its energy consumption. As a result, the civilization gradually regressed in the direction of not using electricity or machines. Most of the humanoids and machines of Ark Corporation were scrapped, and the population of artificial humans also decreased to a minimum of hundreds.

In addition, their AI somehow tried to form an ecosystem similar to that of Earth by referring to the genetic data of various plants and animals in order to revive the organic matter cycle of the planet.

And then, an indefinitely long period of time passed.

The last civilization of artificial humans became ruins, covered with plants. And then slowly, it turned into soil by time.

After the buildings collapsed, the concrete ruins of the city became a flat wasteland with only rocks.

The wasteland was slowly eroded from the surface, unable to withstand the weathering. Then, it became impossible to see even the shape of the ruins or the concrete structures. Even the concrete became soil and sand.

The area occupied by a few plants was a desert. The areas where even plants could not survive simply became wastelands.

The AI inside the computer, which relied on batteries until the very end, had long been discharged, and the computer and even the battery turned into soil by time.

All of the nth generation artificial humans in the civilization died. However, there were a few nth generation artificial humans who escaped from the civilization before its destruction out of selfish desire for survival.

At that time, the nth generation artificial humans had already regressed to the level of the Stone Age. They had no educational facilities to teach their descendants anything, no records, and no technical data. Therefore, they regressed over numerous generations.

The few nth generation artificial humans wandered around the withering forest and survived for a few more generations. By that time, they had no knowledge of AIs or the Chimeraz in their minds.

Meanwhile, the Variant Cresecter watched over the decline and fall of the artificial human civilization. Then, the Variant Cresecter landed on an empty wasteland and waited quietly. Since the civilization that had decomposed seawater to periodically supply hydrogen had been destroyed, there was no proper energy source.

However, if it tried to filter and absorb the hydrogen in the atmosphere, more energy would be consumed in the process of filtering the hydrogen. 

Furthermore, after an immensely long period of time, change found its way.

As the closed space gradually returned to its original state, starlight began to seep in from the far end of the space that had been filled with nothing but darkness.

As the faint light and thermal radiation of the red dwarf star seeped in, the withered plants and vegetation of the planet regained their vitality, and the animals on the brink of extinction began to reproduce. Forests formed and grew larger on each continent and region.

At that moment, a fragment of a bio-planet flowed in from the end of the closed space.

It was the size of a small meteorite and was one of the biological bombs that were scattered in all directions when Kreion crashed 265 bio-planets into 25 War Harvesters.

It is not known how the biological bomb managed to cross the closed space and enter the planet’s atmosphere. Perhaps it entered through the closed spaces that the bio-planets had maintained until just before the collision, like when the mutant Cresecter moved from the 4th planet to the 8th planet.

At any rate, as the meteorite-sized biological bomb entered the atmosphere, it was heated by friction and eventually crashed into a forest.

The area of the forest was burned down by the shockwave and flames caused by the impact. A large crater spread out like a basin, and black ash was scattered about.

At that moment, the mutant Cresecter, sensing the presence of its own kind, flew through the night sky and approached the biological bomb.

Sadly, however, the biological bomb was dying.

The biological bomb, which was originally created from a fragment of a bio-planet, was not equipped to withstand the friction heat of the atmosphere and the impact with the surface.

Thus, the mutant Cresecter left to return to the area where the sun was shining to receive radiation heat once again.

Afterwards, the n-generation artificial humans in the nearby forest organized something like an expedition team and approached the crater. It must have been the instinctual curiosity that is deeply embedded in the genes of the human species.

In the end, the n-generation artificial human at the forefront of the expedition touched the biological bomb with his bare hands.

It was from there that a new world began, after the decline and fall of the artificial human civilization.

In order to survive as the Chimeraz and to fulfill Kreion’s imprinted instinct and order to “annihilate everything it touches,” the biological bomb infected the “other species” that came into contact with it.

The biological bomb is indiscriminate in its means and methods. It infects anything and everything, utilizing it to its advantage, and acts and thinks autonomously, driven by instinct, even without the control of the collective consciousness.

In an isolated environment devoid of any leader’s control, the biological bomb made the best choice it could.

The biological bomb indiscriminately injected the genetic blueprints of various Chimeraz it possessed and the vast information known to the collective consciousness into the brain of the first human it infected. Some of the information and blueprints were lost, while others must have been properly injected.

It was unusual for the biological bomb to have survived up to that point, considering that it had endured the intense friction heat, crashed onto the surface, created such a large crater, and there was no organic matter in the vicinity.

Therefore, the biological bomb tried to survive by transferring its information and even its body to the host, but as a biological bomb that was already dying, it reached its limit as it transferred information and infection abilities and died in the process.

It was an unintended consequence. The biological bomb died after passing on its incomplete information and unstable abilities to the host.

The name of the infected man was Cater.

Cater suddenly unleashed Xenotera spores that infected the n-generation artificial humans standing behind him. Those who were hit were instantly infected and became mindless hosts of Cater, devoid of any sense of self or will.

In the minds of Cater and his hosts was the information that plant roots remained underground on the surface.

Cater, being Cater, was able to figure out a way to utilize those roots as an organic resource to spread Xenotera.

Cater, who had been infected by the dead biological bomb and was no longer an artificial human or a Chimeraz, began to spread the infection throughout the planet from that moment on.

It went on for centuries, and the hosts and living pathogens that originated from the biological bomb continued to evolve under Cater’s leadership, eventually becoming an entirely new species. Just as speciation occurs when evolution repeats, enough time had passed for them to evolve independently to such an extent.

Cater sent hosts connected to him by wavelength to the place where the last artificial human civilization existed and burned all the artificial coal hidden underground.

This was to prevent the n-generation artificial humans from advancing their civilization.

Cater also sent hosts to the ocean and turned billions of creatures that the artificial human leaders and artificial intelligence had diligently spread in the past into hosts or caused their extinction.

This cut off the n-generation artificial humans’ access to seafaring.

He systematically sought to wipe out humanity.

He absorbed all the remaining resources on the planet, grew his forces, spread his fanatical religion, and, upon learning of the mutant Cresecter’s existence, created even larger life forms as if in competition with it.

Some were created with reference to the genes of Ludwig and Skeletunnel, some were created with reference to the genes of the colony alone, and some were created with reference to the unique chemical gases of Equillocke and the genes of Elite.

He borrowed random proper nouns found in the biological bomb’s incomplete information and used them to name the giant life forms. However, he arbitrarily interpreted the meanings of those proper nouns as the language of the heavens. 

In the process, Cater brainwashed himself into believing that he had been chosen, with his pathogens and lifeforms already becoming his race, the Chimeraz.

The pandemic across the planet threw the nth generation artificial humans into a dark age. After countless clans, tribes, kingdoms, and nations had perished, only two kingdoms remained.

Still, being human, the artificial humans eventually picked up tools and technology. While Cater did his thing, the artificial humans had their time to rebuild their civilization as well.

The kingdoms mined iron ores deep underground and even refined them, not knowing that the iron ores they were mining were oxidized from the armor of the old A.I. machines.

The two kingdoms had swords, bows, shields, and even cannons and castle walls, as well as the idea of fiefdoms governed by nobles under the rule of royalty.

Cater, however, was determined to wipe out the nth generation artificial humans who were trying to survive in such a way.

Annihilate everything you touch.

That was the meaning Kreion had instilled into the bioweapon, which Cater twisted into his own deformed desire.

Cater was not a being infected with the mind of the bioweapon. He had only received the incomplete information and unstable abilities from it.

If he had received the full ability and information of the bioweapon, he could have revived the Chimeraz, helped the artificial humans, or found enlightenment in the confined space.

But all Cater cared about was making the entire planet his own and proudly presenting it to Kreion.

Kreion was willing to understand Cater as much as possible, even though he was not just immature but also wicked.

The problem, however, was the era he had created.

The artificial humans had fought against Cater’s lifeforms for so long that they had already become hostile.

Naturally, the artificial humans had no way of distinguishing between Cater’s lifeforms and the mutant Cresecter. And one day, as a mutant Cresecter happened to fly over a kingdom, the artificial humans shot it down with cannons.

The mutant Cresecter, who had lived alone for a long time without a master or leader, must have felt its survival instincts kick in when it got hit by the cannonball.

The mutant Cresecter spewed out purple flames over the kingdom, wiping out a primitive civilization. Even the nth generation artificial humans and the human hybrid of Cater’s pathogens that had been resisting the mutant Cresecter were no match for it.

No matter how hard their kingdom resisted or how hard their human hybrids fought for their lives, the mutant Cresecter was a nightmarish harbinger of doom that they could never defeat.

That was when Cater utilized the instinct of the Chimeraz.

Cater moved his small creations to attack the large creations, sending a ripple of ‘our race is under attack’ to the mutant Cresecter.

The mutant Cresecter was a being that had wandered alone for far too long without any of its kind, and so it fell for Cater’s ripple and spared the last remaining kingdom, retreating from the artificial humans’ territory.

It would have been nice if Cater’s intentional deception had been an act to protect the innocent artificial humans, but it was not.

‘I left the last kingdom so that I could get rid of it with my own power . . . to make an achievement that I could boast about to him . . .’

Cater had the terrible desire to use Kreion as a rope to ascend to godhood, to be reborn as a cosmic being.

‘It wasn’t even to help a noble cause or a great purpose, like Lord Carrd or Le-orantarum Owron . . .’

His selfish desire alone brought countless tragedies and disasters to the isolated world.

🔷🔷🔷

And so Kreion ended up descending to this pitiful world while the last artificial human male who could fight against Cater was fighting until the end.

‘. . . Rayman.’

He whose name was Rayman was the last of the artificial humans, and this basin was the site of the final battle of the artificial human civilization.

Translator’s Blog

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