The Foreigner on the Periphery

"What the hell do they look like? Show me."

Naturally, the material world—this universe—is absurdly vast. Even at this very moment, it is constantly expanding.

If only a single intelligent species lived in such a vast universe, it would be a terrible waste of space. However, because every extraterrestrial civilization their kind had discovered so far was extremely primitive, they chose to keep themselves hidden. They agreed that carelessly reaching out could be an act of violence in itself. They could not deprive them of their own opportunities.

Because those civilizations deserved to reach this point under their own power.

Furthermore, an excessive gap in advancement could lead to exploitation rather than coexistence. Even if there was no such intent now, there was no telling what might happen later. Overwhelming superiority can evoke pity for an inferior counterpart, but sometimes it does the exact opposite, dulling that compassion entirely.

And if that numbness dragged on, they would ruthlessly reign over them instead of achieving harmony—like oil refusing to mix with water, simply smothering it from above.

After a string of similar discoveries, they eventually concluded there was no other species like themselves. If there were, that species would have long since begun its own exploration, and they would have met halfway, hoping for peaceful cultural exchange instead of barbaric wars of invasion. Exploring the fringes of the universe was halted; continuously discovering mediocre intelligent life was simply a waste of time.

But even now, they sometimes encountered new species in unexpected ways like this. Species they had never paid attention to because there had been no need.

"Hmm, that is..."

"No matter how I look at it, they're intelligent."

The creatures invading the subjects' planet were a massive species, just as he had heard.

Only three individuals had swum through space, but their presence was overwhelming. Instead of sticking together, they kept their distance and roamed the planet as if observing it. Following their paths, shadows stretching to the horizon covered everything below.

And wherever they went...

---!

Mammals of barbaric appearance gathered and let out convulsive cries.

The descendants of the subjects released onto this planet.

There were quite a lot of them. It seemed they hadn't gone extinct and had somehow managed to multiply. Surreal flying objects reflected in their fear-stained eyes.

The things descending from the sky looked like flying islands. Their coastlines, facing empty air instead of the sea, were packed with sharp fjords. Their outlines stretched far in all directions before sharply retreating inward again. Their bodies, resembling abstract simplifications of scattering light, constantly writhed and swayed.

Tentacles, each strand comparable to a mountain range.

From the central mass of their bodies, pitch-black eyes looked down upon the earth.

The subjects who made eye contact with the giant monsters trembled violently. Then, they finally fell to their knees and prostrated themselves. Their intent was clear. Faced with incomprehensible terror, they resorted to worshiping it instead of trying to understand it.

"Ooh! Ooh-ooh!"

Their songs continued, praising the majestic gods descended from the world of stars. Similar scenes unfolded in the lands each of the three tentacled monsters reached.

The reaction of the invading species watching this was...

"Look there. That looks like writing no matter how you look at it, right?"

The tentacled creatures were too far apart to see one another visually. It seemed they had a means of communication for such times. Complex signals crossed the planet. Carrying clear meaning, they traveled between the monsters, exchanging information.

A sort of remote discussion.

"Ooh! Ooh-ooh!"

Meanwhile, the subjects on the ground were already lighting fires, performing rituals, and even building makeshift temple-like structures. Each group paid its respects in the best way it knew how. To the great beings descended from the sea of stars.

The massive creatures that hovered, crushing the clouds, silently looked down at the commotion before...

Whoosh!

"Ah, those bastards?!"

It seemed they had reached a conclusion.

It started with the monster residing on the northern continent. The beast raised one of its twenty-odd soft-tissue strands. It looked like a mountain range rising to stretch itself. Having stood a part of its body tall, the monster firmly slammed it down.

The earth tore open.

It was a movement that ignored the laws of physics. It was a marvel for such a massive body to even maintain its shape, let alone swing a limb. There should have been tremendous atmospheric resistance. But instead of bursting in midair, the tentacle sharply gouged the ground.

The cradle of this primitive civilization convulsed. The subjects' settlements were swept away by waves of dirt and sand. As if flesh were splitting and spewing blood, the earth vomited up hundreds of years of sedimentary layers held within its crust. Amidst it all, the subjects were swept up like dust and died helplessly. The deaths of those tiny creatures looked like a trivial byproduct of a natural disaster.

Watching the recorded footage, the woman explained.

"Because the mass difference is so extreme, its speed is actually on the slower side."

With a size difference of six thousand times, it was no different from a mammal facing a water flea.

Gruesome massacres occurred all over the planet, but the subjects hadn't gone extinct yet. The tentacle's movement was somewhat slow, but to those on the receiving end, it was still a terrifying speed. With such a massive size difference, ordinary animals would be hard to see with the naked eye, but it seemed the tentacle monsters could see them perfectly well.

"What's their goal? It doesn't look like they're trying to eat them."

"I tried deciphering the signals they're exchanging... The time was short so I couldn't grasp it perfectly, but I believe it's an expression of disgust."

He felt a headache coming on.

Roughly translated, the words those monsters exchanged carried a nuance like this:

—Are they over there too? They're swarming here. There are too many.

—Just looking at them ruins my mood. It makes me sick. Should I just kill them as I see them?

—Ugh, disgusting. Just how many of them are on this planet?

A species didn't necessarily need an epic narrative or logical reasoning to despise another species.

Sometimes they hated simply because the other was repulsive.

An instinctive repulsion toward the unfamiliar.

"Are they species that have never seen mammals before?"

"Yes. Perhaps because they had never encountered them in their own environment, they seemed to feel extreme repulsion just from their appearance."

"So what's the current situation?"

The woman beyond the screen fast-forwarded the video.

"Because so many died, the subjects eventually realized that those tentacles weren't transcendent beings representing the mysteries of the universe, but horrific disasters. So they began to fight back."

Could a water flea fight back against a bear?

At first glance, it sounded absurd. But the woman spoke seriously, and he didn't express any doubt.

The subsequent footage revealed the reason.

"Ooh! Ooh-ooh!"

Instead of yielding to the catastrophic death looming before them, the subjects climbed over the corpses of their kin to attack.

Their method was simple. The moment the bronze chunks of flesh touched the earth, they climbed up them. Astonishingly fast. At that, the tentacle strands twisted together to brush off their own skin, and each time, the subjects burst and were crushed, turning into red stains on a blue canvas.

But the survivors advanced, and after advancing further, they bit into the beast's corneas. Then, a bizarre thing happened. With every tear, wounds several or dozens of times larger than the subjects themselves appeared. At this rate, even the monster would feel a sting.

Despite being the size of water fleas, they displayed the relative attack power of ants.

But he didn't marvel. Rather, he clicked his tongue and muttered that they had severely degenerated. Was it only natural, since defective goods designed so long ago had been left unattended without any management?

Anyway.

'What should I do?'

He pondered.

The ancestors of those subjects were deemed unusable the moment they were created in the culture fluid. The accident of souls residing in them had decided their fate. It was obvious, since they now possessed a core. Even the durability of their shells was a mess.

Yet ironically, they weren't discarded for that very reason. 'How can you kill organisms that are biologically close to intelligent life forms, especially when they harbor souls?! I'll refer this to the Ethics Committee!' The owner running that cultivation-type farm at the time had no choice but to release the subjects onto a remote planet.

It was no surprise that the farm owner, who was incompetent enough to produce such defective goods, was demoted. After the farm went bankrupt and was dismantled, the remaining assets passed through several hands to his master before eventually being inherited by him.

An inheritance whose existence he had completely forgotten. Since they had never undergone intelligent species screening, they were legally still his property.

It was easy to forget. It is impossible to distinguish and remember every grain of sand on a beach.

Moreover, their objective property value was zero.

'If I leave them like that, they'll go extinct, right?'

Both the attackers and the attacked were still primitive civilizations. The tentacled monsters seemed slightly more advanced, but from his perspective, they were about the same. Therefore, it was right not to interfere.

...However.

'Damn it, why did they have to make such defective goods?'

The civilization of the tentacled monsters ravaging the subjects seemed focused on physical enhancement rather than tool development. Considering they had bodies capable of swimming through space, it made sense. As a result, the task—whether to call it hunting, slaughtering, or extermination—relied entirely on their tentacle strands. That made it look even more cruel.

Screams. Desperate screams.

Beyond the screen, he stared at the subjects who refused to give up, their will to survive burning bright.

Those engrossed in an unwinnable resistance.

"..."

It went without saying, but they were too similar.

Defective durability and abilities aside, their outward appearance, at least.

They looked human.

'If I just dressed them properly, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.'

It was true. Those subjects looked no different from humans. Creatures that perfectly resembled his own kind were being brutally ground up, torn apart, and burst open.

How souls came to be hadn't been identified yet, and the true nature of the souls flowing into those subjects was also a mystery.

But one thing was clear: they might be intelligent beings, but they were not human. There was only one human species in the universe. That was why they were simply called 'humans,' without any need to invent another term.

'Damn it.'

He naturally thought of her face.

'What would Adkiel have done in a time like this?'

The answer seemed obvious.

His gaze hardened.

"I will intervene."

In principle, it was forbidden, but who would dare disobey what he decided?

The woman looked surprised.

"What? Then... I will prepare a spaceship immediately!"

Her surprise soon turned to joy. Her ulterior motives were transparent. She was brimming with anticipation that, after countless eons, he was finally stepping outside this star.

And perhaps, if the chance arose, he might drop by their home planet.

Keep dreaming.

"No, I'm staying here."

"...?!"

There didn't seem to be a need to actually travel.

As long as it looked like he did, that would be enough.

He recalled the scenery in the video from a moment ago. The sight of the subjects kneeling and worshiping before the tentacles. The phenomenon of worshiping a being beyond one's scope of comprehension.

A good idea came to mind.

   *

I loved you, and so I came in your likeness.

   *

"...Agent?"

At the voice calling him, the sinner opened his eyes.

Every time he moved his eyelids, faint vision and darkness alternated. He waited for the drowsiness to fade completely. A brief moment would suffice.

Through the seething darkness, he saw a dragon looking at him. The room had ceilings high enough for a dragon nearly four meters tall to comfortably lay its body down. The dragon, possessed by the ghost, was watching him with a complicated expression. Fear, worry, anxiety, tension...

Minjun soon remembered. This place, this moment.

"A-Are you awake?"

He had fallen asleep for a moment.

While looking at Ha Eun-seong in Kyoto, he had thought of Adkiel, and that train of thought continued until he seemingly dreamed of a guiding dragon.

At least, the beginning of the dream was like that. A golden dragon sleeping at his feet with its belly exposed. It was vivid.

"...Yeah. I'm awake."

He had returned here right before dawn. Raymond Wong's residence, which they were using as a hideout. When this luxury mansion, which had once been half-destroyed, was repaired, Minjun had a say in it, and it was designed with a unique structure perfectly suited for its current use. Aside from the Ancient Dragon, no one in the house knew they were hiding here.

After returning home, he had sat on the sofa for a while before closing his eyes without resisting the surging wave of sleep. Sleep and dreams were deeply important to him right now. Even without Yumtus's sleep induction anymore, fragments of memories naturally visited him. Starting from very distant, ancient memories... in chronological order.

The sensations he had felt in the dream ebbed away like the tide. Sensations far more free and capable than what he perceived with his current body. He felt a twinge of regret over it, but he had to be satisfied that the recovered memories didn't vanish again.

"Grrr...!"

The stench of blood. Groans.

Turning his gaze, he saw Yumtus collapsed on the floor. He must have poured fresh blood from the third eye on his forehead, as the carpet was a sea of blood. Clicking his tongue, he snapped his fingers. The bloodstains vanished like a lie.

"Um... Agent?"

The dragon spoke hesitantly through the lingering darkness.

"If you're awake, please, this..."

Wait, darkness?

The black aura remained like stains everywhere even after his vision returned.

Only then did Minjun realize the problem.

"Enough. Come back."

It wasn't directed at Ha Eun-seong.

Sssss!

He commanded the shadows that had stealthily slipped out of his body and were encroaching around the sofa.

Telling them to return.

------!

The radius they could move while he was submerged in his subconscious was barely a meter. Furthermore, their manifestation in the material world was only a half-measure, leaving them utterly incapable of exerting any physical influence on their surroundings.

They could only be seen.

This was the reason why the dragon had been cowering in the corner, trembling in fear and not daring to approach.

"Hurry."

He spoke in a forceful tone. At that, the shadows writhing like dark clouds swirled bizarrely. They seemed to say:

'You committed an irreversible sin.'

Instead of making excuses or protesting, he shoved every last drop of the seeping shadows back into his body. Only then did the dragon let out a sigh of relief.

Just then.

Knock, knock.

A knock. Minjun, who had already sensed the approach, spoke.

"Come in."

The dragon, who had Polymorphed into a middle-aged Asian man, entered and offered a bow. On the surface, his complexion seemed perfectly fine, but to Minjun's eyes, his life force appeared perilously close to depletion.

The Ancient Dragon, Raymond Wong, reported to Minjun.

"I just received a call from Jenkinson. I had already delegated my voting rights long ago, but it seems several of the dragons who had been casting dissenting votes until now have been swayed by his 'sincere persuasion.'"

"So?"

"An extraordinary Balaur Council meeting is scheduled to take place today. Here, in Hong Kong."

The time had come.

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