CH 206

Sus Sus Sus Sus Sus Sus ;

Even though I said I don’t have any spaceship, my words didn’t make sense to these guys since I had successfully boarded this ship.

"Nonsense…"

“Then by what means did you get here?” The man in the red spacesuit asked. Although I couldn't see his face or discern his expression because of the helmet he wore, he was probably staring at me like he was going to kill me.

Even though I was quite taken aback that my background setting didn’t work, I quickly made up an excuse. “I rode a spaceship here, but it was destroyed mid-way. Fortunately, we crash-landed here.”

At first, I was going to tell them that I came here through warp magic, but because this world was a place with a Sci-Fi setting, I would’ve been treated like a madman. ;

“Oh my God…. That’s fine! We can fix it! Please tell me the location of your ship! Hurry!"

"Yes?"

"Red! Calm down! They came from Hangar 3! We can't go through there!"

“If it’s only for a moment, we’ll be okay!”

“Calm down! Do you want to die from ‘direct sunlight’ exposure?”

“Come to think of it… there is something strange about them. How did they come from Hangar 3? All the barriers around Hangar 3 had already been erected. On top of that, direct sunlight is irradiating all over that place.” At the astronaut’s words, all of them fell silent. Then, they simultaneously moved their heads towards me. ;

“Earlier, I had heard that there was something wrong with Hangar 3, but was there anything special other than the low pressure?”<br /> Thanks to the [Protagonist Hunter] skill, which allows me to adapt to any environment, I didn't feel anything special. But now that I think about it, Aracelli was particularly exhausted. No matter how weak her current strength was, it was strange that she—who could withstand the influx that came from moving between worlds—got weakened just because of low oxygen pressure. That means there must have been another reason.

“….”

Aracelli looked at me for a moment and then opened her mouth. Cold sweat was still dripping on her face. “We are not human, but of a different race. We often come in contact with light. Therefore, unlike humans, we can survive the direct sunlight from a star.”

Aracelli then created a swarm of lights on the tip of her finger. I also hurriedly formed a bubble of light on top of my hand with magic. At the spectacle, the astronauts quickly bowed their heads towards us.

“A-an alien species…….”

“An alien species who handles light. I've never heard of one like that…"

“It is not surprising that a strange alien was the one who picked up our distress signal. After all, we have not yet been able to fully understand which civilizations exist on which planet.” They muttered to each other, and then put down their weapons. Aracelli's excuse seems to have worked.

Red raised his wrist and pressed the button to try to communicate with someone, but he put his arm down again. "Damn it. I can't even tell the other crew members about this. It was a big mistake to let the communication officer die…"

Then he reached out to me and asked for a handshake.

“…Anyway, welcome aboard to Zermelt 13. As we are currently perhaps on our journey to the afterlife, I can’t say it was nice to have you here.”

With this, Aracelli and I were able to safely blend into ‘Zermelt 13’.

* * *

“We are currently in the Clyzenon 179A galaxy. Northeast of the B15 galaxy in the Chetnon-g5 nebula. About 18,000 light-years away from our hometown.”

I blinked at Red’s explanation. The address is… long.

“You’ve come a long way, huh?” I spoke. Though, I didn’t even know where this was except for the long address Red gave me. I don’t think they would even know about Earth if I told them about it. After all, even though they are humans, it doesn’t mean that they also come from Earth. On top of it, as this place was in a different dimension altogether from when the Earth I come from, there’s a high possibility that Earth didn’t exist here. ;

“It's not that far. If the interstellar warp device hadn't been broken, we could have returned to our hometown within half a year."

Then the man in the blue spacesuit, who was crouching in the corner, muttered to no one in particular. "In the first place, even if the warp device is still usable, would it be possible to get out of here?”

“That’s true…” Red added.

At that, I hurriedly asked again, fearing that the topic of conversation would change.

“What’s going on? Is there any reason why we can't get out even if the warp device is still usable?”

"You don’t know? Shouldn’t you have seen it if you came with a spaceship too?”

“My ship's scanner went out so I couldn't see it. As I said, it crash-landed.”

“Ah, that’s right. Let me explain. There are two main reasons why we can't go back. The first one is…” Red got up from his seat and operated the computer in the center of the room. Then a hologram appeared in the air. It was a huge red star that was dazzlingly beautiful. “PG1 M000.1Q-86.”

“…?”

“That is the name of that star. It is ten times larger than our home sun.”

"Crazy…" My mouth opened wide at the revelation. Then before the fact could properly sink in, the screen moved. This time, a blue sphere appeared on the screen.

“The nickname of this star is ‘The Blue Sun’. There is no official name for that star as of yet because we only discovered it when we arrived here.”

“Is that so?"

"Yes. If we had moved into the orbit of PG1 M000.1Q-86 as planned, we would have safely boarded the warp point and moved to the next planetary system. However, as there was another star that had not been observed at all in my hometown, our plan was disturbed.”

At his words, once again I felt baffled. In my head, the inability of a civilization capable of space travel to observe such a gigantic star was simply impossible. But then again, in a world where science was so developed, a ‘mystery' that even science failed to explain was a cliche and horror story of science fiction.

“But that star is strange. It's not hot… Rather, it is cold. Very very cold. The temperature of its outer layer is close to absolute zero, an average of -270 degrees Celsius. I could say that It is the coldest star in the whole universe."

"I-Is that true…?" I don't know about space science that well, but I'm well aware that it simply doesn't make sense. Aracelli also looked at me with her mouth wide open.

“Pro-professor. Could such a thing even exist?”

"Well. There's a world where bananas eat monkeys, and there's a crazy world where mint and chocolate are mixed. So, there’s nothing impossible.” I told Aracelli. As there are numerous worlds spanned in numerous dimensions, it was inevitable to have something which defies common sense. For example, the previous world made it possible to surround 3300 people with only 120 people. So even if a frozen star was unrealistic and our brain didn’t want to acknowledge it, we have no choice but to believe it.

“That’s not the only problem.” Red continued. The hologram shook, this time showing orange and blue spheres standing side by side. And, between two gigantic stars was a very small object which looked like a particle of dust compared to their size. It was completely fixed in place, unable to move anywhere.

"…is that perhaps this spaceship?"

“That’s right. We were nailed into the trajectories of the two stars. So, it's become impossible for us to move. We call this the ‘gravity noose'. A ship with a broken warp device like ours will never be able to get out of it.”

"I see…."

"However…" Red’s voice became an octave higher than earlier.“Our distress signal had already reached the headquarters, so if we hold on, rescue will definitely come. We just have to wait until then.”

“Then, isn’t that good?”

“Yes, it is. However, the second problem is the biggest reason for our headache.” He lowered his voice in anger.

“At night, the stellar winds will definitely damage the spaceship severely. But since all of the crew on board are excellent engineers, as long as they scatter and fix the broken parts, we can survive every night without any problems… But, someone started killing the crew members every night.”

"What?"

“On top of that, because the communication equipment is broken, communication with distant crew members is impossible, and a perfect ‘gap' was created for the murderer while we're busy repairing our respective places. As a soldier, we are ashamed, but we cannot win against the murderer. After all, how can we beat a monstrous murderer who devours the upper body of the victim and only leaves the lower body?” (P/N sus)

“…” ;

At his explanation, I instantly recalled the summary I got from the system about this world. When I read it first, I never imagined it would be like this. The summary goes like this: every night, the crew was scattered all over to repair the ship. Meanwhile, someone disguised as an astronaut to kill the others. Therefore, the number of people decreased by one every day, and currently, there were only eight people left. There was more than a week left until the rescue spaceship arrived. If things continue like this, after a week, there will be no survivors left except the murderer. And when the rescue spaceship arrives, the murderer will board there and repeat the same nightmare.

“Before everyone dies, we must find the killer,” I said. That was the core ‘story' here.

* * *

After a while, Red summoned all the crew of the ship. Just like Red, all astronauts were wearing colorful spacesuits so that they could be distinguished from each other. Also, except for Red, they changed colors every day to hide their identity from each other. Maybe it's because the situation would become even direr if the ‘engine manager' and ‘photon orbiter engineer' were killed. Even their voice was hidden by tampering. Red was the only one who revealed his identity as a leader.

‘Hmm… isn’t the murderer completely disguised as an astronaut?’ I looked around them slowly. The protagonist's name is ‘Haucolor', and when I asked Red, he said that there’s no astronaut with that name. In other words, I don't know who is who except for their color. On top of it, the ‘Protagonist Hashtag', which usually pops up above a protagonist's head, didn't float on anyone's head. However, to forcefully remove their helmet was also not the option since it was impossible to do so before the wearer was killed. So, if I try to do that, there’s a chance they would be suspicious towards me.

‘What is the possibility of killing them all by fighting?’

<At most, you can kill two or three people. But after that, you will be immediately overpowered by the ship's defense system.>

Unlike magic, science that has reached its limit does not go through the process of ‘thinking’. The moment the system recognizes someone or something as its enemy, it will kill them. Therefore, the maximum I could kill was 3 astronauts. Although I had no intention of killing innocent people, it was better to keep my eyes on every one of them to avoid the worst-case scenario where I spent all my killing count without being able to kill the protagonist. In other words, I would have to rely solely on my brain to find the murderer as well as the ‘protagonist’ hidden in the spaceship.

“I’m glad we got more hands on board. Can you guys help with the night mission too? I'll let you two get around together."

"Sure," I answered. Even if Red didn’t ask me to, I had always planned to do it.

Woiing-!! Woiing-!!

The alarm rang. It was a reminder of the incoming stellar wind which would damage the ship. Red gave us simple missions that even beginners could do, and the smart Aracelli stored what to do in her head right away.

‘The important thing is not the mission…' After all, if we successfully catch the culprit, the maintenance would naturally become uninterrupted until the rescue ship comes. Judging from the fact that the title of this world was ‘Who Will Be Killed In The Dark Night Sky?’, there’s no doubt that the protagonist was the murderer. There’s nothing particularly strange about the genre in which the culprit was the protagonist. Though, one thing I regret was the fact that this mission was leaning more towards the ‘mystery’ genre rather than towards the Sci-Fi genre.

But, isn't it much better than meeting a protagonist who could turn back time or the protagonist who creates his own world?

[The main episode 「It is night」 has been detected.]

The search for the protagonist starts now.

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