141 - Alien

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Yeonwoo immediately asked, "The alien. Is it safe?"

It would've been a lie to say he wasn't interested. It was an alien after all, and not just any alien, but the last survivor of an alien civilization.

However, that was one thing when viewing it through a phone screen as a video or image. The idea of coming face to face with it was another matter entirely.

'They even said it's the last survivor.'

Clammy sweat formed on Yeonwoo's palms. His wariness spiked.

How harmless could a being that survived the destruction of an entire civilization, an entire planet, really be? Was this quiet observatory equipped to handle such an entity?

The researcher seemed oblivious, but he still noticed Yeonwoo's tension. He let out a deep sigh.

"It's alright. Really. It's like someone on life support. If anything, it's a pitiful existence. Truly..."

The words were filled with deep empathy for the alien, as if he'd already interacted with it several times. His voice carried profound sympathy, respect, sadness, and awe. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Yeonwoo's mind raced.

'Is this mind control?'

He discreetly reached for his pocket. To buy time to escape if he sensed trouble, he gripped the time-buying bills.

The researcher turned around.

"You'll understand when you see it yourself."

Yeonwoo watched his retreating back before abruptly asking, "Do I have to see it?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to. But it'll help you better understand what it means to pierce through Pluto's anomalous veil. Personally, I'd like more people to know their story."

The researcher stopped walking. In front of him were stairs leading up and stairs leading down to the basement.

The researcher turned his head to look at Yeonwoo, as if asking what he wanted to do. Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes.

'...If I assume the alien is on the same level as my future self, it's already too late. I've entered its domain.'

Yeonwoo assumed the worst-case scenario. His future self. The alien was comparable to that being, the last survivor of a world destroyed by climate anomalies.

If that was the case, it was too late to make a fuss now. He needed to keep a cool head and find a way to survive.

Yeonwoo took a step.

"Let's take a look."

They went down to the basement. Down the stairs, steadily descending one step at a time.

The researcher spoke, tidying his clothes and disheveled hair with a solemn attitude.

"To be honest, we still don't know where they came from. Their origin is a meteorite from far away, but even reading their memories, we can't figure out where that meteorite started."

"What kind of alien is it? From Pluto?"

"Pluto was just where they landed after leaving their home. Most of them that flew into the solar system fell onto Pluto."

It was a question meant to gather information, but Yeonwoo still didn't understand.

He asked more directly.

"What powers does the alien have?"

"Robust vitality. But even this is a product of their civilization. They..."

The researcher trailed off. Yeonwoo perked up his ears. The researcher continued, his voice filled with complex emotions.

"They possessed technology to accelerate contamination by anomalies and guide that contamination in desired directions. Technology that could produce results from A to Z even if contaminated by A."

Yeonwoo stumbled for a moment. He realized the omnipotence of this technology.

'So even if infected by an anomaly in the form of a plague, it could be used to create superhumans instead of spreading disease. No, it means they could transform into any imaginable anomalous entity.'

It was omnipotence in the truest sense of the word.

Anomalous entities that build houses, expand space, control time, create food - they could create anything needed, regardless of whether it was organic or inorganic, time or space.

'Controlled contamination isn't contamination at all. It's the power of a god.'

Yeonwoo's wariness intensified. He gripped his bag tightly, his senses on high alert.

The researcher smiled bitterly.

"They built a brilliant civilization with that technology, and that same technology led to their downfall. But they... Ah, we're here."

They set foot in the basement. A lone iron door waited for them.

Beep beep-

The researcher entered the password with practiced ease, authenticated with his employee ID, turned the lock with a click, and opened the door.

The thick iron door slid open with a heavy noise. A chill seeped through the gap. Yeonwoo shivered. White breath poured from his mouth.

It was as cold as opening a freezer.

"Let's go in."

The researcher spoke, wrapping his clothes tightly around himself. Yeonwoo eyed the iron door with tense eyes.

The researcher walked through the wide-open door. Yeonwoo didn't enter immediately, instead leaning forward to look inside. He blinked.

"Where's the alien?"

"This is it, right here."

"This?"

The researcher nodded. He approached a transparent glass box and placed his hand on the cold glass wall.

"This is the alien. It's in a frozen, suspended, and sealed state."

Yeonwoo stared blankly at the glass box, dumbfounded.

Inside the glass box was just a single meteorite. A meteorite made of rock with a dark, dull texture. It was heavily cracked and broken, showing no signs of life whatsoever.

Although various devices like EEG machines were attached to it, Yeonwoo couldn't sense any danger from it, let alone any signs of life.

'It feels safe? A bit unsettling, but it feels like a normal anomalous entity. Is this even alive in the first place?'

He felt his tension dissipating.

At that moment, the researcher manipulated the machinery outside the glass box. He pressed a button and pulled out a helmet.

The researcher held out the helmet to Yeonwoo.

"This is a device that lets you view memories. If you look at the alien's memories, you can glimpse the anomalous veil you need to pierce. You'll also learn their story."

Yeonwoo hesitated for a moment before taking the helmet. As soon as he put it on, the world turned black, and someone's memories began to play.

The memories of an alien living in an alien civilization.

---

---

It was a brilliant and great civilization.

Yeonwoo watched the playing memories with his mouth open, as if watching a movie.

A world that surpassed what people imagined as a future civilization. A world that seemed to have reached the endpoint of fantasy and science fiction had achieved infinite prosperity.

- ....

- ....

Something made of pure white light floated around. They communicated with connected minds, but Yeonwoo couldn't understand their mental waves.



He could only vaguely sense that they were transcendent beings. Immortals. Anomalous entities that were incomprehensible even to the eye, with no concept of lifespan or death.

Yeonwoo turned his head to look at their civilization.

'Is this even possible?'

Perhaps this was what it looked like to hold infinity in one's hands. The ultimate civilization achievable through anomalies was there.

Space had no end. They had expanded it. By contaminating space with anomalies.

There was no shortage of resources. They had created anomalous entities that produced resources.

Space, time, resources, technology, life - nothing had limits. If they needed something, they could simply create an anomalous entity to make it.

'Ah.'

Yeonwoo saw the transcendent beings made of white light creating anomalous entities as a hobby. They created life too. They decorated space, and they created anomalous entities that provided pleasure, indulging in it.

When a transcendent being felt bored with eternal life, they created an anomalous entity to erase boredom, maintaining the vitality of life forever.

It was technology that could realize imagination.

An anomalous civilization that depended on anomalies for everything.

Yeonwoo suddenly thought. A chill ran down his spine.

'Why did a civilization like this fall?'

And then, the perspective changed. Time passed.

A mist settled over the brilliant and great world. A mist made of anomalies.

This mist appeared everywhere in their world, eroding the anomalous entities they had created.

In the mist, anomalous entities twisted, scattered, and mutated with contamination as they pleased.

The civilization made entirely of anomalous entities began to run amok towards something terribly dangerous. As the uncontrolled contamination grew stronger, the mist that engulfed the civilization grew thicker.

- ...!

- ......!

The transcendent beings moved through space busily. They burst powerful mental waves as if screaming, created walls to block the mist, isolated spaces, and...

But it was only for a moment.

The mist slowly eroded the walls and spaces. The anomalous entities for protection lost their original functions. The anomalous entities that had been used as tools regained their original anomalous nature.

The essence of anomalies, logically incomprehensible and extremely dangerous.

A thick mist settled over the once-brilliant civilization. The future they believed would be eternal closed off.

The mist not only eroded. It shrouded space and time.

The transcendent beings met their limits. Their civilization collapsed. They could neither foresee the future, nor return to the past, nor freely traverse space.

Yeonwoo glared at the mist with widely dilated pupils.

'What is this? Anomalous contamination?'

It wasn't just simple mist. It was the extreme of anomalous contamination, born in a civilization that controlled anomalous contamination.

Something that made contamination run wild uncontrollably and caused anomalous entities to mutate explosively.

Yeonwoo indirectly saw what Earth would be like if anomalous contamination arrived.

- ....

Those who had evolved themselves into transcendent beings mutated. They lost their self-awareness and became monsters. Factories that produced resources became factories that churned out monsters.

The expanded space mutated into something like a two-dimensional world. Time, which had been like a playground, became a prison.

Even natural objects that weren't anomalies changed.

At this point, the perspective changed.

The transcendent beings depended on anomalous entities for everything, but they hadn't lost their intelligence. They knew that unavoidable extinction had come.

The surviving transcendent beings gathered to talk.

- ....

- ....

The forms of those facing the end of their civilization shone. They saw the extinction they had brought upon themselves, looked at the universe, and saw life.

Somehow, Yeonwoo felt he could understand their conversation. Perhaps the transcendent beings had regressed themselves to avoid contamination, making their words comprehensible.

- This mist will be the doom of all life.

- Let's finish this with our own hands.

- Let's detonate the star. Immortality doesn't exist in the face of the universe.

Self-destruction to erase the mist.

And then.

- Let's leave our trace in the universe. Even if we perish, may the life born from us shine in the dark universe.

They, made of pure white light, turned black. The immortal transcendent beings transformed into solid meteorites.

Their intelligence and consciousness dimmed, but they became sturdy stones that could resist the mist for a short time and carry microorganisms with the potential for evolution, capable of seeding life.

Strong enough to cross the universe propelled by the force of their star's explosion, even if their star exploded.

———!

Finally, the star exploded.

The runaway anomalous civilization vanished in a flash of light, and the mist evaporated.

But the meteorites carrying their hope scattered into space, using the star's explosion as propulsion, and Yeonwoo saw the meteorites flying across the universe to reach the solar system.

'Pluto.'

A group of meteorites fell onto Pluto. But one meteorite fell to Earth and...

The memory stopped there.

"..."

Yeonwoo digested the memory for a while before taking off the helmet. He moved his lips.

"Is that mist the reason Pluto disappeared from observation?"

"Yes. Pluto, where they fell, was covered by that mist. That mist blocks observation."

The researcher spoke, his voice filled with complex emotions. As if unsure whether to resent them for bringing calamity to the solar system or admire their resolve and hope.

Yeonwoo raised his head to look at the sterile ceiling. As if looking at the sky beyond the ceiling, the universe beyond the sky.

Even in the infinite universe, anomalies exist. Unknown civilizations and life forms exist, as well as unimaginable anomalous entities.

Right now, there was a mist of contamination on Pluto.

'There's no place safer than Earth. We have the company and other groups here. I need to live well here.'

Yeonwoo's eyes flashed. Suddenly, something like a sense of mission ignited within him.

'Pluto is too close. We don't know what effect it could have on Earth.'

Yeonwoo spoke.

"I'll do my best to help with that observation."

He believed that if they obtained information, the company would somehow deal with it. The researcher smiled brightly.

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