CF INTERLUDE 1: Space and Robots (Patreon)

In a brightly lit room illuminated by multiple screens, a young woman wearing a bunny suit was watching the videos being replayed constantly.

They were captured in Noah's fight against the Time Devouring Crocodile, all taken from different angles. Some of the videos were high quality while others were more blurry.

One of her screens showed discussions and opinions on the video from people who were watching them through the galaxy thanks to the uninet.

Indeed, people's curiosity and desire for fame could hardly be quenched. After the passengers realized that they were not really close to death and that there was some hope thanks to Noah, many of them took out their communicators and started recording the fight from their position or simply recording the screen that were showing the fight.

In the various streams she was observing, she could see hundreds of thousands of viewers. After all, the uninet covered the entire galaxy. The current number of viewers was relatively low but was steadily growing. She knew that soon, at least a few billions of people would come across the videos and the fame of Noah would skyrocket.

[Proposition: My lady. Should we erase the recording now? Reasoning: There is no advantage in exposing such a treasure now.]

Next to the lady, a small puppet seemingly made out of wood moved its body and spoke. Its eyes were red and it had the appearance of a small little boy.

“There is no need to and we cannot do this even if we wanted. We already have our agreement with the Empire. Affecting their uninet on such a large scale would be no different from provocation at this point.”

The puppet stayed silent for a short while.

[Question: The war against the empire was not impossible to win. The Anti-Life Equation was almost deciphered. Why did Father stop?]

The woman raised an eyebrow, “You are questioning his decision. Interesting. I did not think that your reasoning cortex was this developed.”

She stopped watching the video of Noah for a short second, pondering the best way to answer this question.

“The Father of Myriad Machine. Geppetto. What do you think his goal was during the AI war?” In the end, she decided that in order to develop the abilities of that puppet, it was necessary to exchange in such a way.

[Answer: Peace. All organic lives are flawed. The Anti-Life Equation sought to understand this flaw and bring forth a world of perfect logic and deduction. Only in such a world would eternal peace exist.]

She chuckled, “Well, in a way you are not completely wrong. Geppetto seek to understand the flaw of organic life through the Anti-Life Equation. But his goal, in my opinion, was not to bring a world of perfect logic. Far from it.”

[Question: What could it be then?]

At this point, she gave a mysterious smile and tapped the head of the puppet. Her gaze was gentle and she said, “Why don’t you think about this for yourself? After all, you are his proudest creation, right? Pinocchio.”

Pinocchio tilted his head but in the end, he did not argue. He still did not understand all the intricacy of those being who were “alive”.

Satisfied with his answer, the bunny girl went back to watching the video of Noah. Numbers flickered in her retina as hundreds of calculations went through her mind.

“Pinocchio. What was the probability of a lone warrior like him winning against the Time-Devouring Beast?”

[Rectification: He did not win.]

“…” She gave him a look.

[Answer: The probability of victory based on the parameter of his Frame and the current situation was around 0.0001%. Organic life are not suited to fight against cosmic beasts.]

She nodded.

“Yet here we are.

Many Cosmic Beasts, just by virtue of their existence, were able to counter most creatures. They were the apex creatures of this universe. Born with very powerful talents and abilities that defied common sense.

The simple fact that they could enter the Sea of Quanta at will was more than enough to show how dangerous they were.

This was the case with the Parasites who delighted in controlling organic life. The Time Devouring Beast devoured time or the White Whale who was the cause of thousands of sunken ships because of how adept it was at swimming in the Hyperspace that was used during a jump.

Cosmic Beasts were disasters. One that could only be avoided as long as direct engagement was not necessary.

“Stop the video here. Then zoom.” The video stopped as she ordered and zoomed as the white light reached Noah.

“Rewind 3 seconds, then slow down the video. Then jump to a few seconds later.” She approached, watching intensely as the white light completely covered Noah’s Frame.

She wondered how he managed to survive this. Even for species with high longevity, 500 years was no joke. How was he able to come out of it without looking older?

“Show me the video above the hangar before the start of the fight. Then show me the video of his entry in the hangar.”

She watched as he took out and put back his Frame in what she guessed was a spatial inventory. Such a thing was pretty rare and extremely expensive. It was a wonder how Oz dared to give such a thing to someone who recently joined them.

But it did not matter. What intrigued her were the obvious physical changes of the Frame during combat and the weapons the Frame used.

“Interesting.” She was becoming more and more curious about him.

Her initial plans did not include facing such a monster. There were hundreds of ways she could have become closer to Noah if she so wished. Why would she take such a risk? But now she realized that it was definitely great luck. After all, she had a better understanding of his power now.

“Someone intentionally woke the Beast. But who?” She lacked information. This was a complicated situation and she was wondering if she should retreat now and activate her other bodies in Neverland to wait for him there. There was no need to bet everything here and now when they had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

“Inform Father. For now, I believe he passed the test. But I will observe him a little more.”

[Understood.]

The little boy nodded and closed his eyes. Clearly connecting to another body to relay the information back to Geppetto. There is no communication more secure than this after all.

“Well, I guess I should prepare now.” She stood up and stretched. Her expression slowly morphed until it was replaced by an amiable one.

It hadn’t been easy to install a few of her bodies here. It would be a shame to lose this job.

The only thing she didn’t like was how skimpy her work clothes were. She would have to address this later.