A few minutes later, in the recovery room of the spaceship.
Unaware of the terrible events that had transpired, the high-ranking officials assigned to the recovery room were continuing with the maintenance and management of the empty recovery devices.
The monsters in the intensive care unit were slowly finishing their recovery and vacating the beds.
The number of monsters remaining in the intensive care unit had dwindled to fewer than eight.
Once, the working environment of the recovery room had been so overwhelming that they were on the verge of collapsing under the workload.
No one aboard the spaceship had ever imagined that such a poor environment could become this prosperous.
Amidst this leisurely time, the high-ranking official Medik Tenkl was absent, allowing the monsters in the recovery room to engage in casual conversation.
“Life’s really good these days.”
“Isn’t it? If I had known it would be this comfortable, I should have suggested it much earlier.”
The monster, taking the current situation into account, was speaking leisurely.
Another monster sitting nearby gazed at the firmly closed intensive care unit and hinted at the grim atmosphere of the past.
“Hey, don’t say that too lightly… Tenkl almost ended up in there, you know.”
“Well, that’s more of a hindsight perspective.”
Medik Tenkl was the highest-ranking official in the recovery room.
He was currently on leave due to his significant contributions to improving the working environment of the recovery room and to the spaceship.
What could be said is that the accomplishment of negotiating with the spaceship’s greatest loss factor, Magical Girl Sun, was recognized even by low-ranking combatants and high-ranking officials from other ships.
“When did he say he would be back? Was it in 0.5 Setre?”
“Oh, I’m really jealous.”
After a round of chatter, they began to manipulate the panels or devices floating in the air as usual for their duties.
Since it was related to life and death, the two monsters showed a starkly different attitude when chatting and when focusing on work.
Amidst the mechanical noises, they skillfully found the work for the day and created a checklist.
“Let’s see, how many are scheduled to return to the recovery room today?”
“The number transmitted is 42, including the Black Zone….”
“Go and count the activated recovery devices.”
“Okay.”
Responding to a colleague’s request, the monster sitting down rose.
The Earth accent had gradually seeped deeply into the spaceship’s recovery room.
Some older monsters proposed adding a rule to prohibit the use of Earth languages, calling it “serious language destruction” to the high-ranking officials.
However, most of the monsters didn’t seem to care much, treating it as just a sign of the times.
“1, 2, 3, 4….”
One monster walked around the recovery room, counting the activated recovery devices with the tips of its limbs.
Since the number sent to Earth was 42, it followed that the count of activated recovery devices should end at 41.
The reason was naturally that each monster heading to the Black Zone was assigned one reverse transmission device.
They wouldn’t be transmitted to the recovery device when injured; it was predetermined that they would return to the transmission room without any injuries using the reverse transmission device.
“…39, 40, 41…42?”
A question attached to the last number.
The counting monster tilted its head.
‘Did I miscount?’
Assuming it was an error, it retraced from the last recovery device and started counting again from zero.
One, two, three, four….
Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two.
Once again, the number stopped there, and the monster realized it was not an illusion.
Feeling a sense of foreboding wash over it, it tried to stay calm and returned to its seat.
“Is the number correct?”
Ignoring its colleague’s response, who had gone silent after counting, the monster absently asked if the number matched.
The cold sweat that had betrayed its feelings apparently went unnoticed by its colleague.
As it dripped with cold sweat, it blankly stated the number it had counted.
“42.”
“Oh, yeah, 41.”
The number spoken by the colleague, whose pronunciation was similar.
Assuming it to be 41 without any doubt, the colleague repeated the number without question.
Correcting the number, the monster spoke again.
“Not 1, but 2.”
“…Oh?”
Realizing the gravity of the situation for the first time, the bewildered monster made a soft sound of confusion.
Its astonished gaze naturally turned toward the line of recovery devices.
Faced with an unprecedented emergency, both monsters found their minds going blank.
Five seconds—a short yet seemingly long silence.
Feeling the agitation as loudly as it was, one of them suddenly stood up.
“F-Find the transmission device quickly!”
The anxious monster stammered, wanting to assuage its unease, and started searching for the recovery device with its colleague.
Pressing the red button would send anyone back to the spaceship’s transmission room.
Designed to be simple and easy for anyone to use, the reverse transmission device.
Anyone, simple, easy. That convenience had turned into a deadly poison.
Would it fall into the hands of Magical Girl Sun—the calamity of even the monsters?
Out of curiosity, just once, the moment someone pressed the button, the spaceship would undoubtedly plunge into a realm of terror.
Enveloped in such anxieties, the recovery room monsters began inspecting one by one the monsters lying in the activated recovery devices.
However, no matter how thoroughly they searched, none of the creatures in the recovery devices could be found with a transmission device.
That convenient device was already in the hands of Magical Girl Sun.
The two monsters who realized something they should never have realized stood in the recovery room, lost and unclear about what to do, while their mouths kept moving.
“What should we do?”
“What do you mean, we need to report to the executives first.”
At first glance, it seemed as though the monsters in the recovery room were conversing calmly.
In truth, they were engulfed in an indescribable fear that could chill the blood, making the phrase “action has ceased” more fitting.
Among them, one monster insisted on the logical course of reporting first.
However, that colleague was already thinking about things outside the spaceship, rather than internal matters.
“No, not that… Should we just run away now?”
“….”
An opinion to run away first, disregarding duty reports.
In that moment of brief silence, one monster almost swayed toward the colleague’s suggestion.
After all, looking back at the past replica Sun incident, hadn’t the spaceship almost been obliterated?
If it wasn’t merely a replica, and the real one had come, it was evident what kind of tragic events would unfold.
Nevertheless, since it hadn’t happened yet, the monster tried to speak as calmly as possible.
“First of all, if we run away, we have to run together. Let’s report first.”
As soon as the report reached the high-ranking officials, the spaceship was instantly turned on its head.
Medik Tenkl, who had planned to return to the spaceship in 0.5 Setre, was now facing an urgent situation so severe that he burst into the recovery room in casual clothes.
An emergency had reached the spaceship, informing other high-ranking officials, causing everyone to gear up for battle.
Monsters that had been resting comfortably were suddenly armed, watching each other warily.
If humans existed, they would have exchanged glances akin to saying, ‘Is a real war about to break out?’.
Most notably, the monsters who believed that ‘the spaceship was at least’ a safe zone were showing distinctly tense faces.
The cause of the unprecedented large-scale alert, Magical Girl Sun.
To the monsters, she was the fierce beast that would attack as soon as she learned the location of the spaceship.
However, contrary to that expectation, Magical Girl Sun was being a bit cautious.
Instead of pressing the intriguing red button, Mary was casually leaving the device in an empty space on the bookshelf.
Although presumed, she had noted that the device was the likely cause of the recent disappearances of monsters before her eyes, and thus saw no reason to hastily press the large, beautiful red button.
“Well then, this button must be the one to return to the spaceship, right?”
“Well, judging by the looks of it, yeah…”
Pang pang, Gomtaengi responded nonchalantly as it folded laundry.
The little creature seemed unable to stray far from that device.
Half-joking, while folding laundry, it asked, as if nostalgic for its home planet being a monster.
“Why? Do you want to go back?”
“Of course not, I’m just….”
“Do you guys have combat rations? What are they?”
Gomtaengi immediately brought up combat rations when asked if it wanted to go back and voiced its distaste.
Combat rations for space monsters intrigued me, so I asked it about them.
Gomtaengi crossed its arms, looking uneasy, seemingly pondering whether it should even call it food.
“Should I call it food? I don’t know… It’s just something like a pill, you just swallow it and you won’t be hungry that day.”
It struggled to articulate the ambiguous details about the combat rations.
They are pills that prevent hunger for a day, which seemed like a common theme in educational comic books reflecting the future.
“Wow, cutting-edge future food.”
“If that’s what Earth’s future food is like, I’d choose death.”
After neatly folding the laundry it had walked on from the drying rack, it headed toward the closet with the stack of folded clothes in its arms.
“By the way, you don’t plan on using that to invade the spaceship, do you?”
Gomtaengi followed closely as it flew, still curious, and threw out a casual question.
Having anticipated that question to some extent, I responded without changing my expression and pointed out the ‘if’.
“Well, I’m not sure if the transformed body would hold up in outer space….”
To be honest, if I said I had never thought about pressing the button after obtaining the device, it would be a lie.
But then, ‘if,’ let’s assume it’s actually possible for me to go and destroy the monsters with my own hands.
That next step would become a problem.
Touching the tips of my thumb and index finger together, creating a circle visible to the little creature, I continued.
“Then my meal ticket gets cut, you know.”
“Ah.”
