CH 208

[6 people remaining]

Red is dead. That fact shocked all remaining members of Zermalt 13 to the core.

“A…”

“Oh my god…”

It was only natural. Red, the captain of the astronauts, was a spiritual pillar who kept everyone together in this perilous situation when they were being hunted by a murderer on top of being stuck between 2 gigantic stars without any means to escape.

“No, that’s absurd.”

“Didn’t the captain say he wouldn’t be killed even if he didn’t hide his identity?”

“The captain is a first-class special combat agent… Was the captain, who was a general in the Alien Counter Force, really murdered?”

“This, this… this, I… I…”

Everyone was in a state of panic. The barely standing house, which the last pillar had just gone now, began to truly crumble.

“Please calm down. Probably this is what the murderer was aiming for by killing Red. If we are not vigilant, we will all be in danger.”

As I said that, a soldier in a blue spacesuit grabbed me by the collar. “Hey! Who are you! What do you, an outsider, know! damn it! Unhelpful uninvited guests!”

“That’s right! No, wait, you guys are the murderers, right? You must’ve snuck in this ship before we departed! That’s right!”

“Certainly! Get those bastards out! Let’s throw them into the blue star!”

The atmosphere changes dramatically. The astronauts glared at me menacingly. Looks like they were really trying to kill me and Aracelli.

This development…

‘Isn’t this the situation the protagonist, that is, the murderer, wants?’ Maybe it’s too far-fetched, but perhaps our existence, from the killer’s point of view, was a hindrance to his goal. Let’s think about it. The route all astronauts took when they did their mission was fixed. Which means, they must go through a set route to perform a mission and pass through a set place. Red was the only one who knew the most about the crew’s movements. The murderer should also be aware of all that fact, and it must have been difficult for him to move if we intervened. That’s why I thought the culprit was Red. Because he knows all the routes taken by the astronauts. And that theory enhanced the reason why Red—who was the only one who revealed his identity—was not killed.

However, now that Red is dead, my theory was proven to be wrong. Even though I suspected him as the culprit, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the crew because they trusted Red a lot. Probably, it didn’t sit well with the murderer’s plan. So, he killed Red and changed his target to me and Aracelli.

In other words, the true culprit must blame someone else for the crime he commited…

But why?

Even if he kept doing what he’d been doing, he wouldn’t be discovered. Since he’s disguised as an astronaut, even if he takes off his helmet, no one would suspect them since he’s part of the crew. However, it seems like the murderer thinks he couldn’t continue to do so.

Why?

At that moment I recalled the <Summary> of this world. With the ability to kill only one person per day, he kills every day and will finally kill everyone and go unnoticed, but if something goes wrong, and the crew finds 

a decisive hint about his identity, he would be the one who would be killed.

“Please calm down for a moment.” When I spoke, the astronauts went silent. Though the atmosphere was still prickly, they would undoubtedly kill me if I made a wrong excuse here.

But I had no excuses.

“I was keeping it a secret from all of you, but I am actually a space detective. This friend here is my assistant.”

What I have instead, is a lie.

“Sp-space detective, you say?”

“A guy like you? Space detective? Bullshit!”

“That’s right. You really don’t value your lives. To think you are impersonating a space detective who solves all the mysteries of the universe!!”

“If you are a space detective, show us the evidence. Wouldn’t you carry a space detective badge with you?”

Oh, it seems that there was actually a job called space detective. Besides, it seems like it was a very reliable job. I didn’t know that. It doesn’t matter, though.

“My badge sank with my ship, but I can show you other evidence.” I spoke. Extremely advanced science is similar to magic. Therefore, for them now, all kinds of magic such as hyperspace warp, the theory of everything, the secrets of black holes, how to deal with the dark matter which was the origin of the universe, and such, which would turn the modern time Earth upside down, was not surprising at all.

However, what if Vivienda Empire’s magic technology was used here? What if we could apply all that magic without the help of machinery but using one’s body?

I spread my palms out, and created both fire and ice on top of each.

“I am not actually from the race of light, but a special detective android Y-SD No. 1 designed to explore and investigate the mysteries of the universe. I have ultra-precise mechanical devices built into my body that allow me to perform special functions.”

“A-android?!”

“Impossible! You would have been banned for reasons related to human rights…”

“In the end, human rights issues can be solved with the money of those who are ranked high enough and possess money.”

“Th-that… indeed makes sense…”

Then the astronauts glanced at Aracelli and nodded their heads. “I’m not sure if it’s male android like you, but if I can make an android as pretty as that girl, I can give up anything.”

“Me too!!”

These guys, are they crazy?

Aracelli pouted her lips, but it seems that it didn’t bother her to pretend to be an android.

“But now it makes sense how you’re safe even after direct exposure from the light of both stars which has a mixture of ultra-high heat and ultra-low temperature. And to work without a spacesuit in this environment… You look really human. May I take a little look at your assistant?”

“That is not possible. Even if she looks like that, she’s still a terrifying weapon of mass-destruction.” It’s done. I was able to deceive them to some extent.

‘Professor, what are your next plans?’ Aracelli asked me with her twinkling eyes alone. To be honest, I have no plans after this. I still have no idea who the murderer was.

If it was an ordinary ‘mystery’, after revealing the murderer’s movement and evidence of murder on this spaceship, decisive evidence would also be revealed, making it impossible for the murderer to escape. Unfortunately, I am neither a protagonist nor a detective. Thus, such highly strategic methods cannot be used.

For that reason, I had to change the method. It was to take advantage of the 1% information that I currently know. “I have spent two days on this spaceship, using state-of-the-art Alio-Olio searching methods to track down the killer.”

“…were there any results?”

“There is. With the Toowoomba reasoning system, I found some very conclusive evidence. Stupid killer, you left a deadly evidence unattended. Well, there must have been no way to get rid of it.”

That’s all I know currently. In other words,

‘The murderer has left a decisive hint, so it’s a very urgent situation.’

I haven’t found anything other than this, but from the killer’s point of view? He might be sweating right now as a space detective android, who just conjured out fire and ice from thin air, had got his hand on decisive evidence.

At this crucial moment… It would be great if I could really present evidence…

“Next time.”

“Yes?”

“Unfortunately, the evidence was not properly verified yet due to the emergency call.”

For now, I don’t know anything, so I’ll leave it for tomorrow.

“But tomorrow, I’ll check it properly and submit the evidence.”

As I said this, the murderer’s gaze will naturally turn to me.

* * *

Because of the cliché of this world, the murderer could only kill one person per day. Of course, it wasn’t a confirmed fact, but at least I was certain of it. Otherwise, the story with the ‘mafia game’ concept would not have been established at all. Actions that can only occur once per night, killers, mysteries, and the collapse of the ship. Because those keywords were the protagonist’s cliché, I had to wait until night to face him.

“It is night. Everyone, are you aware of your respective duties?”

“Originally, Red will change it every night, but for now, let’s carry out the missions we’ve been doing before.”

“What about Red’s mission?”

“The two of us will do it.”

“Red’s mission would require quite a bit of expertise…”

“It doesn’t matter because we are androids.” In fact, I had no intention of carrying out the mission. I just want to look around. But of course, I couldn’t say it.

“Then, let’s disperse.”

“Alright.”

“I will trust only the space detective.”

Aracelli and I separated from the crew and slowly went to our destination.

‘Professor, do you have any plans?’ Aracelli asked using telepathy. Plan? Of course, there is one. However, that plan involved taunting the murderer and luring him to me. If the murderer ignores my taunt and goes to kill another crew member, I will be damned. After all, to find the evidence, I had to have a certain ‘cliché’ with me, but I don’t have any.

For that reason, the first place we checked was the captain’s room.

“…”

“…is nothing wrong?”

“Let’s go to the next place.”

Second, the energy fusion room.

“It’s hot…”

“Next.”

Third, sector 7.

“There’s a leftover potato chip.”

“Next.”

Fourth, the broken warp station.

“Wow. Isn’t that a magic circle?”

“It’s a wire circuit.”

“It’s very similar to the magic circle.”

“…”

Up till now, nothing has happened. There were no interruptions from the murderer, such as an alarm from the gravity chamber or power generator breaking down. Slowly, I began to feel suspicious of my own actions.

‘Is this method working?’

However, when we went to our 5th destination which was the medical room, we met a particular man with his spacesuit off.

“As expected! The first room you visit is the medical room! You’ve found evidence to catch me, space detective!”

It wasn’t the first room, though, but the fifth. but I didn’t tell him that.

I tapped Aracelli on the side. ‘Who is he?’

‘It looks like Red from his word, doesn’t it? He has a dialect mixed with a strong malegreton accent and he has a habit of elongating the end of the sentence.’ 

Right.

“You are Red, aren’t you?”

“…you noticed that I was Red too! Splendid! Androids are truly scary. How long have you known?”

I kept my mouth shut because I came to know just now.

Then Red laughed. “Yeah, you will arrest me like a space detective, right? They never talk to criminals and kill them unconditionally. It suits the way of the Space Allies!”

I took the Winchester out of my inventory. So far, everything was as planned. I don’t know why Red was still alive. But it didn’t matter. He most likely disguised himself as another astronaut after putting the victim’s body in his spacesuit. In the end, he ate my bait and appeared before me, and now there was only one thing left to do. It was to fight.

His ‘murder by cliché’ doesn’t work for me. I don’t know how he could kill a person, disguise himself as that person, and blend in without leaving any vital signs…

‘No, wait a minute.’

Something is strange. Things worked out too easily. In the first place, was Red stupid enough to be lured this easily? The murderer who commited murder without leaving any evidence behind?

<Seodam. There’s no ‘Protagonist’ tag above his head.>

‘…!!!’

Which means, Red was not the protagonist. He was also not the murderer.

If so, why did he pretend to be the murderer?

‘Wait a minute…’ Suddenly, I remember that the concept of this world was ‘mafia game’. The mafia could kill citizens, but only with the consent of the ‘moderator’. If so… where is the moderator? If there is a moderator, who is it?

Suddenly, I turned my head and looked at the scanner that checked the vital signs. There, the vital signs of the six remaining crew members and even our biometric information as uninvited guests were explicitly revealed. Not even any microbes on the spacecraft could escape that scanner. That’s why the astronauts trusted the scanner and thought the killer was one of them.

But, what if the spaceship itself was the one who was hostile to us?

I looked at Red again.

“I am the culprit. So, arrest me.” He spoke to me as he raised both of his hands in surrender. 

It was at that moment the realization dawned upon me. A fairly cheap cliché of the sci-fi genre came to mind.

“…have you planted anything into the artificial intelligence of this spaceship, Red?”

“What?”

I tried to throw a shot in the dark and spit out even the most absurd things that came in my mind.

“I never said you were the culprit. So, why did you confess and insist on being arrested?”

“That…”

“The reason I came to the medical room first was to check whether the crew was safe or not. Perhaps, this spaceship needed humans for fuel every day. Am I right?”

Science fiction stories about spaceships using humans as fuel is not common, but it does exist if you look for it. Though, never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that it would be mixed with the mystery ‘mafia game’ stuff.

“But you have enough fuel for now. So, you have to get rid of me and my assistant in order not to get caught.”

Why did the ‘murderer’ try to frame someone else and expel him?

The reason why Red, who seemed most likely to be the murderer, was not the murderer was because he was killing for the sake of his beloved ‘Zermalt 13’, the protagonist of this world.