A few minutes later, in the ship’s recovery room.
Unaware of the terrible events that had unfolded, the monster staff responsible for the recovery room continued to maintain and manage the empty recovery devices.
The monsters in the intensive care unit were also wrapping up their recoveries one by one and vacating the beds.
There were now fewer than eight monsters remaining in the intensive care unit.
The working conditions of the recovery room, which had once been so strained due to constant work, were now unimaginable to anyone aboard the ship.
Amidst these leisurely times, the executive, Medic Tentacle, was absent, and the monsters in the recovery room were casually chatting away.
“Life is really good these days.”
“Who can argue? If I had known it would get this comfortable, I would have spoken up sooner.”
A monster, simply looking at the current situation and making relaxed comments.
Another monster sitting nearby glanced at the firmly closed intensive care unit and hinted at the desolate atmosphere they had just experienced.
“Hey, it’s not easy to say that… if it weren’t for chance, Tentacle-sama could have ended up in there too.”
“Well, that’s a hindsight story.”
Medic Tentacle, the highest-ranked official in the recovery room.
Currently, they were on leave, having made significant contributions to improving the working environment in the recovery room and for the ship.
What more could be said—the fact that they negotiated with the ship’s biggest loss factor, Magical Girl Sun, was a recognized achievement acknowledged from the lowest combatants to high-ranking officials of other ships.
“When did they say they would be back? Was it in 0.5 setrus?”
“Ah, I’m really jealous.”
After a round of small talk, they resumed their usual tasks, manipulating the floating panels and devices in front of them.
Given the life-and-death nature of their work, the two monsters had a completely different attitude when it came to casual conversation versus when they were on duty.
With the beeping mechanical sounds in the background, they skillfully located today’s tasks and created checklists.
“Let’s see, how many are scheduled to return to the recovery room today?”
“The number transmitted is 42, including black areas….”
“Go and count the activated recovery devices.”
“Okay.”
At their colleague’s request, a monster in the recovery room stood up from their seat.
The Earth-style accent had already deeply permeated the recovery room.
Some older monsters were speaking to the executives about adding a rule to ban the use of Earth language, claiming it was “serious language destruction.”
But even that seemed like a trend of the times, as most monsters did not care much about it.
“1, 2, 3, 4….”
A monster strolled through the recovery room, counting the activated recovery devices one by one with the tips of their bodily appendages.
Since the number sent to Earth was 42, the number of activated recovery devices should naturally end at 41.
The reason for that was obvious—each monster heading to the black areas was provided with one reverse transmission device.
They were not sent back injured to the recovery devices but were supposed to return to the transmission room unscathed thanks to the reverse transmission devices.
“…39, 40, 41…42?”
The last number raised a question.
The counting monster tilted its head.
‘Did I count wrong?’
Of course, it must be a mistake, so it retraced back to the last recovery device, starting the count over from zero.
One, two, three, four….
Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two.
As the tally stopped again, the monster realized it wasn’t an illusion.
A sense of foreboding swept over them, and they forced themselves to remain calm as they returned to their spot.
“Is the number right?”
Ignoring the response of their silent colleague, the monster apathetically asked if the count was accurate.
Their expressiveness betrayed by cold sweat was apparently not obvious to their partner.
Sweating profusely, they numbly repeated the number they had counted.
“42.”
“Ah yeah, 41.”
The number spoken by the colleague sitting behind them was similar in pronunciation.
Having assumed 41 was correct, their monster partner repeated the similar-sounding number without any doubt.
The counting monster corrected them and spoke again.
“Not 1, but 2.”
“…Huh?”
Only then did the monster let out a confused sound and grasp the seriousness of the situation.
Their bewildered gaze naturally shifted towards the line of recovery devices.
Facing their first-ever emergency, both monsters’ minds went blank.
Five seconds—short yet seeming long, a silence fell.
They stood up, feeling agitated, and spoke loudly.
“F-Find the transmission devices quickly!”
Wanting to quell their anxiety even a little, the monster stammered as they searched for the recovery devices alongside their colleague.
Pressing the red button would send anyone back to the ship’s transmission room.
The reverse transmission device, designed for anyone to use, was simple and convenient.
Anyone, simple, convenient. Yet, that convenience turned out to be a deadly poison.
What if it fell into the hands of Magical Girl Sun… even the disaster of monsters?
Just out of curiosity, once, just one time…
The moment they pressed the button, the ship would surely plunge into a pit of terror.
Gripped by such unease, the monsters in the recovery room scanned the monsters lying in the activated recovery devices one by one.
But no matter how hard they looked, none of the monsters in the recovery devices had a transmission device.
That convenient device was already in the hands of Magical Girl Sun.
The two monsters realized they had come upon an epiphany they should not have had, and they stood in the recovery room, at a loss for what to do while their mouths moved steadily.
“What should we do?”
“What do you mean, we should report it to the executives first.”
At first glance, it seemed like the monsters in the recovery room were calmly discussing.
In reality, they were engulfed in an unspeakable fear that chilled their blood, making it more appropriate to say they had frozen in their actions.
Among them, one monster asserted they should first report the situation, aiming to stay calm.
But their colleague was already thinking beyond the ship.
“No, not that… should we run away now?”
“….”
The suggestion to flee before even reporting.
In the brief silence that ensued, the first monster was almost swayed by their colleague’s question.
After all, during the past clone Sun incident, hadn’t the ship almost been destroyed?
If they were to encounter the actual Sun, the calamity that would ensue was all too clear.
Yet, since it hadn’t happened yet, the monster spoke cautiously.
“For now, if we escape, we all need to escape together. Let’s report first.”
Before the report could reach the executives, the ship was instantly turned upside down.
Medic Tentacle, who was supposed to return to the ship in 0.5 setrus, was now arriving in casual clothing, barging into the recovery room with a frightening urgency.
An emergency had befallen the ship, and this news spread quickly among the other executives, causing everyone to gear up in full combat readiness unexpectedly.
Even the monsters who had been resting comfortably were now armed and glancing nervously at one another.
If people were involved, they might think, “Is there really going to be a war?”
Most importantly, they had thought the ship was a “safe zone,” so the tension in the faces of the monsters became increasingly pronounced.
The unexpected massive alert was caused by Magical Girl Sun.
The image monsters held of her was that of a fearsome creature that would attack as soon as they knew the ship’s location.
But contrary to such expectations, Magical Girl Sun was being a bit cautious.
Instead of pressing the intriguing red button, Mari simply left the device in an empty space on the bookshelf.
Though it was just a guess… she had pointed to this device as the recent cause of the vanishing monsters before her, so there was no rush to press that big beautiful red button.
“Well then, this button must be the one that returns to the ship?”
“Well, it looks that way…”
Pang pang, she replied nonchalantly as she folded clothes in response to Gomteng’s question.
The little guy seemed to be lingering around the device as if he missed his home, jokingly asking him.
“Why, do you want to go back?”
“No way, the combat food is….”
“You guys have combat food? What is it?”
When asked if he wanted to go back, Gomteng immediately mentioned combat food as a reason to refuse.
I was secretly intrigued by the combat food of cosmic monsters, so I asked him about it.
Gomteng crossed his arms with a rather uneasy face, as if thinking, ‘Should I even call that food…?’
“Should it be called food or something else… it’s just like a pill; you swallow it, and you won’t be hungry that day.”
Struggling to articulately explain the vague topic of cosmic monsters’ combat food.
It was a pill that, if swallowed with water, would keep one from feeling hungry all day, something you would come across in a futuristic educational comic.
“Wow, that’s cutting-edge futuristic food.”
“If that’s Earth’s futuristic food, then I would choose death.”
As I neatly folded the laundry I had taken from the drying rack, I held the stacked clothes in my arms and headed to the wardrobe.
“But, you’re not planning on charging into the ship using that, are you?”
Gomteng hovered in the air, still curious, and asked the question.
Since I had somewhat anticipated his question, I mentioned the “if only” part without changing my expression.
“Well, first of all, I don’t know if a transformed body would function properly in space….”
To be honest, it would be a lie if I said I had never thought about pressing that button after obtaining the device.
But then again, ‘if’ I were to actually go and, with my own hands, massacre the monsters, that would be another problem.
Using my thumb and pointer finger, I formed a circle to show Gomteng as I continued speaking.
“That would mean cutting off my livelihood.”
“Ah.”
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