Chapter 203 – Space Federation
I once had a class looking at a world map in elementary school.
At that time, all the children in the class expressed their dissatisfaction.
‘Why are we so small? What a snot.’
‘Hey, you have to remove the top half of that too.’
‘Oh, that’s right. Except for North Korea, it’s tiny.’
No matter how much I thought about it, the land mass was too small.
Compared to neighboring countries such as Japan, China, and Russia, as well as Western and African countries that met at the World Cup, it is only a handful.
I remember being so young that I was upset for no reason.
Now I’m feeling those emotions again. When I look at the screen displayed in the central control room, I sigh.
“No, why are they all so big?”
“We are small.”
Artemis corrected me.
Information on alien civilizations handed over by Solaver.
The mother planets of each race were all larger than the Earth.
“Even the smallest planet is 1.85 times the size of Earth. Moreover, the total population of this civilization is less than 200 million. “It’s not strange since it’s a long-lived species.”
Unlike me, who is showing off childish anger unlike an adult, Artemis looks happy. Beautiful golden eyes were curved like a crescent moon.
Like a waterfall pouring down a dry desert, information about civilizations that satisfies her intellectual desires.
Not only that, but her storage device itself is also of great interest to her.
“I’ve already finished scanning, and I’ll have to start researching for reverse engineering soon. Look at this simple yet efficient algorithm. The memory revolution is not far away.”
Solaver’s gift was only a small device, but it had great value in terms of both information and technology. Maybe this isn’t the end.
At that moment, I felt someone coming from behind.
“Artemis, I have ordered the items you ordered.”
A thin and sweet voice. However, the body from which it came was huge.
The one who brought the sofa was the large, muscular woman I saw during the nymphs’ group physical fitness test.
She is easily carrying a sofa that looks heavy all by herself.
Like other nymphs, she was wearing a revealing outfit, but since she was so large, it seemed like she had even less covered up.
“Put it down here. “Next to Jinsu.”
“I follow orders.”
A luxurious sofa was placed next to the functional chair I sat on.
Her brick-like abs tightened even more as she carefully put it down without making a sound.
“You always look strange.”
One word suddenly came out.
“What?”
Artemis jumps onto the sofa! He said as he buried her body.
“Nothing.”
I feel sorry for saying things like, ‘You look so strong, but your voice is elegant and discreet like a family’s house in Kyushu.’
The muscular nymph collected the sandals that Artemis had casually taken off and placed them at her feet.
“Good job.”
As Artemis waved her hand, the large nymph greeted her with her hands neatly placed on her lower abdomen. Then, he walks away behind her.
She looks like an Amazoness queen, but her behavior is like that of a maid from a Japanese historical drama.
“Would you like to come here for a moment?”
“Yes.”
When I called her as she was about to leave, she hurriedly came to me.
When a large woman, taller than me, stands in front of her, she feels powerful. Beside her, Artemis is looking with a question mark on her face.
“From today onwards your name is Hippolyte.”
Her eyes widened.
“Are you going to give me a name?”
“He does a good job and is more memorable than the other kids, so I wanted to take care of something for him.”
Hippolyte had her hands clasped to her breast, her face half delirious.
“You don’t like it? If it’s not good, should I change it?”
“No! No!!! I’m so happy!”
Artemis was startled by the thunder-like response.
“Thank you… Manager… Thank you so much. I will cherish it.”
He knelt down and bowed to her as if she was collapsing. The reaction was so intense that I was rather embarrassed.
Tears are flowing from her trembling eyes.
Second-generation androids can shed bodily fluids like humans, but that is just part of their routine.
But the tears she is shedding now must be truly exhausting. Because they are newly born children who were given individuality by Artemis.
Despite her appearance, she has a heart as delicate as glasswork.
It took quite some time to calm down. Artemis didn’t look particularly uncomfortable, so she waited patiently.
“Hey, sorry, sorry. It took up too much of your time…”
Hippolyte, who had barely managed to get her mind together, stood up unsteadily.
I took out her handkerchief from her arms and wiped her eyes.
“Oh…”
Fortunately, her nasal structure was different from that of humans, so even though she cried, she didn’t sniffle her nose.
Hippolyte is in an awkward posture, unable to reject or accept my touch, as if she is grateful.
“Okay, thank you.”
“Stop now!”
“Yes, pop.”
Hippolyte answered meekly and turned her gaze to her handkerchief.
“I will wash it cleanly and return it to you.”
He placed the handkerchief on both of her politely spread hands. Maybe it’s because her hands are big, but the handkerchief looks tiny.
“No, it’s yours now. “Take it.”
“…!”
I just passed it on because I didn’t want to receive it again, but Hippolyte didn’t seem to take it that way.
With her trembling hands, he takes her handkerchief, places it on her chest, and cries endlessly.
How much pure, girlish sensitivity is contained within this large female warrior-like body.
I carefully wrapped my arms around her shoulders and comforted her.
Meanwhile, the volume of the triceps that fills the palm with your hand is simply admirable.
“Could you please leave now? “We have work to do.”
This small incident was concluded only after Artemis, who had waited long enough, issued an order to banish the guests.
“I’m kind of exhausted.”
They just gave me a name, wiped away my tears, and gave me a handkerchief, but it was such an amazing response.
“You have to get used to it, right? “It’s just the beginning”
“I guess Hippolyta is something special.”
“Well, what do you think?”
* * *
We each sat comfortably and looked at the screen.
The ‘Space Federation’ was created under the leadership of the editor. The information about its member races and motherhood is full of surprises.
First, let’s take the reptilian race ‘Atuba’ as an example.
The average height is about 2 meters. When walking, they walk on two legs, but when running, they move on quadrupeds.
The planet they live on is 47% desert and has no ocean.
Instead, there are densely distributed lakes and oases whose size is incomparable to that of the Earth.
“According to the data, they have approximately 3.5 times the strength of humans. In addition, we can communicate with our compatriots several kilometers away through ultrasonic waves.”
“I’m glad I don’t live on the same planet as these people.”
I was appalled by the profile Artemis read to me. Isn’t this a race with ridiculous specs?
Against these super lizards, humanity would have become slaves in an instant, like in Planet of the Apes.
“No, that’s not necessarily true, right?”
Artemis chuckled and explained their innate weaknesses.
Despite their long history, the Atuba people had a similar level of civilization to humans because they were cold-blooded animals.
Because we are so greatly affected by temperature, the areas we can advance into are very limited even though we live on a planet three times larger than Earth.
In addition, their planet’s temperature changes diametrically depending on the season in each region. Thanks to this, there was no time to grow into a settled civilization as they were always on the move as if chasing the seasons.
It is a race of death with nature.
Civilization was reset several times due to mass deaths due to the occasional Little Ice Age.
If the editor had not discovered and protected them in time, they would have become extinct a long time ago.
“Are pores a better option than I thought?”
I looked at my skin again.
“It’s messy.”
But Artemis was sick of seeing me like that.
No, not even excrement or skin oil, even sweat is unacceptable?
Now that I think about it, does Artemis sweat? I suddenly became curious.
“The next race is…”
Artemis printed a new civilization on the screen.
Aquatic races that often appear in science fiction movies have appeared. That’s three.
Their names are Kaluda, Crix, and Shanlong, respectively.
The first two had a lower level of civilization than Earth.
The Shanlong are slightly ahead of humanity, but considering their history is 20 million years earlier, their pace of development is absurdly slow.
The reason why the progress of these underwater civilizations was slow is simple.
“The text was the problem.”
“Yes.”
Artemis nodded at my words.
Living in the water, it took an enormous amount of time for them to even reach parchment or bamboo, let alone ink and paper.
“Even on the planet where Kaluda lives, 96% of the species, including themselves, are molluscs. It was not possible to use bone fragments such as the oracle bone. “The land does not exist at all.”
Knowledge is recorded in a form that overcomes time and space and is passed on to future generations.
Because this was so severely restricted, development was bound to be slow.
Fortunately, with the help of his editor, Shanlong was able to escape stagnant history and soar toward the stars after receiving the gift of floating city architecture and writing.
“The Kryx were the first to be wiped out after the infection spread.”
A video of their battle caught my eye.
Kryx is a large aquatic species similar to killer whales on Earth.
Although their population is only about 700,000, they possess literary intelligence that makes humans appear to be at the level of primitive people.
When the editors accept a new member of the Space Federation.
A warm welcome to newbies who are discouraged from facing numerous civilizations in an unfamiliar universe.
‘Welcome. And I love you. Our new family!’
Its writing has always been the responsibility of the Cricks.
Their physical specifications are also enormous, and unlike humans who were busy running away from wild beasts in primitive times, there are no natural enemies.
That is, until the infection spreads.
[Quooooong!]
In the video, numerous Crixes bravely rushed forward with a unique howl.
[Kwaang!]
Soon there was a loud noise and the screen turned white. When the light faded, most of the Crix had lost their breath and were falling to the bottom of the sea.
A huge shadow passes between them. It’s a monster the size of the Enterprise that I visited recently.
Its appearance is similar to that of an electric eel, and it has dozens of luminous tentacles similar to the lanterns of a lanternfish.
And red eyes burning with hatred toward Ji Seong-jong.
“Leviathan level.”
This is a population that Artemis and I commonly refer to as giant monsters.
As soon as I finished speaking, the luminous objects started sparking again.
And then boom again!
The remaining Crix also died in droves.
Huge corpses fall to the deep seafloor. One by one, those huge bodies are eaten and disappear into the darkness.
Although not a single drop of blood flowed, it was an indescribably terrible sight.
“Aren’t they only targeting inorganic ships?”
At least that was the case on Earth. Even as they tore apart numerous fleets, they did not touch any whales or sharks.
“I guess it depends on the planet. “Isn’t it natural that the environments are so different?”
Artemis crossed her arms as if there was nothing wrong.
The Vivos tribe, which evolved from herbivores and has eyes on both sides, cannot be left out.
Aside from Earthlings, they were the only civilization in the universe that attempted communism.
The difference with us is that there were no violent incidents.
When their society reached its golden age and stagnated because it could no longer develop, it naturally took a leap toward communism.
“When he sees them, Marx will jump out of his grave and cry. He said he was not wrong.”
“Well, in the end, I guess it’s right to be wrong.”
Artemis showed them the next page of their history.
“Oh, I see.”
After living under communism for about two centuries, non-bosses returned to their original society.
In their history book, it was briefly recorded as ‘I didn’t live well.’
The Akasha tribe, made up of insects, is the only race that the editor gave up on maps.
Similar to ants on Earth, they formed a society with one queen laying thousands of eggs, and similarly communicated and moved through pheromones.
Although their intelligence was slightly lower than that of humans, they were a civilized race with sufficient technology and culture.
However, no matter how much the editor advised them, they could not overcome the limitations of pheromones.
Each queen’s brood had different pheromones, and showed fierce hostility toward any pheromones that were even slightly different.
As a result, they were constantly divided, unable to escape from a tribal society of at least a few hundred or at most 10,000 people. It was never possible to form a nation.
There is also a giant race called ‘Hamar’.
It was huge, bigger than an elephant, and had great intelligence, so it quickly became the ruler of the planet.
However, because it was so large, it had great limitations in handling technologies such as metallurgy, weaving, herbalism, agriculture, and architecture.
This is because it was too large and its hands and senses were clunky to handle precise areas.
Therefore, they enslaved green dwarfs, about 150 cm tall, and entrusted them with the technology.
Just like ancient Sparta and Halo Tie.
However, as a long time passed, the level of technology and knowledge between masters and slaves began to widen significantly.
In the end, the moment weapon technology was developed enough to overcome physical differences, a large-scale rebellion broke out.
The Hamar giants were defeated by the dwarves who engaged in guerrilla warfare with powerful weapons on their planet where the entire land was a jungle.
The positions of master and slave were reversed.
“There are so many different things.”
Each and every feature of the various civilizations in the universe was full of wonder.
There were surprisingly few ordinary races like Earthlings that had no particular physical or functional strengths.
“Compared to them, we really have nothing special. “Everything is just fine.”
“That lack of character may have created an extreme obsession with weapons and combat techniques. “Because mixed breed dogs are more advantageous for survival in the wild than original breed dogs.”
“It’s a mixed breed dog.”
Be sure to compare.
“It’s not just that. I think size is also important.”
Artemis lined up planets inhabited by various races on the screen.
“Living on a world much larger than Earth, they have less need to fight over territory. There is plenty of empty land. There were even races where the concept of territorial disputes did not exist.”
I buried myself in the chair, clasping the back of my head.
“Blue jewel, beautiful Earth. “I’ve always been used to bringing up our world in this way.”
Praising the Earth is a cliché that appears tiresomely in videos dealing with astronomy.
“But if you compare it like this, the Earth is such a shitty place.”
After looking at Solaver’s data, I don’t think I can praise it anymore.
The enjoyable learning ended here.
“From now on, it’s information about infectious agents.”
With Artemis’ words, the screen, which had been bright in tone, turned dull.
The sea, the grasslands, and races full of vitality with various skin colors. All of that is gone.
In its place, twisted chunks of gray, brown, and dark red meat appeared. The only white things are the sharp teeth.
On the screen, a series of records containing the physical information of various infectious agents and the desperate struggle against them appeared.
“Then why didn’t the infectious agent itself be destroyed?”
It is the most fundamental question.
“If you’re not going to use it in the first place, burn it down. If that were the case, this division wouldn’t have occurred.”
“Just a moment.”
Artemis’ golden eyes blinked. This is to scan data from Solaver’s storage device.
The system is completely different from ours, so even with her transcendent intelligence, it takes time to find and read it.
“Even the editors didn’t think complete incineration was possible at the time. “We had no choice but to keep it sealed until we secured the technology.”
“The period from first creation to today must not have been short, so you failed to develop the technology?”
“It was such a powerful, masterpiece in a bad sense. Moreover, editors also had their own social turmoil and crises. We had to lead civilizations that were on the verge of extinction and needed to be saved, as well as civilizations that had deviated and needed to be saved.”
Artemis squatted down on the sofa and placed her cheek on her lap.
“As a result, we kept postponing the handling of issues that were sealed and were ‘no problem for now.’ It became inertia, and as time passed, it ended on its own by tying itself up as a taboo.”
Somewhat familiar monsters were appearing on the screen.
These are the words of the civilizations I saw with laughter and admiration just now.
Intelligent species that boasted their own unique, sometimes even majestic, ecology were reduced to infectious agents.
In an instant, it transforms into dull skin, a bent waist, and a distorted face. Unfocused eyes stare at us.
“…”
“…”
What that scene evokes is not discomfort. It was infinite sadness.
Artemis hugged his knees on the sofa.
“Jinsu.”
“Huh?”
“Come here.”
For the first time, fatigue appears on her face.
It’s different from me, where I have to go through each thing one by one. You must have already dug deep into that data and seen the abyss.
The flames of countless civilizations are extinguished, and tens of billions of lives that have existed for tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years are transformed into monsters.
“It’s cold.”
“…”
I stood up without a word.
She walked over to the sofa, which was too wide for her to sit on by herself.
