After Takumi had arranged everything on-site, he began transferring people over.
He had Prometheus coordinate the relocation of several researchers from the Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Mei and Mobius also arrived upon receiving the message.
Led by mechanoids, they emerged from the void and arrived at the site. Upon seeing the array of parked starships, Dr. Mei's curiosity was piqued.
"These are the new ones you found? From that ruined world?"
She already knew that Takumi had gone off to explore other worlds. Now that she saw the results, she was intrigued.
"Yes," Takumi replied.
"But unfortunately, that world was completely destroyed. Not a single living being survived. All the planets with civilization were torn apart by black holes. In the end, all I brought back were these ships. But these ships are the crystallization of their civilization. Let's see what data we can extract. I've already tasked Prometheus with sorting through it."
Dr. Mei sighed. "That's a shame. Still, these ships alone are more than enough. The technology in them is far beyond ours."
She glanced at Velvi and the others, already immersed in dismantling the ships, and couldn't help but smile. Having worked with Velvi for years, she knew her well—and it was clear just how passionate Velvi was about these ships.
"You should assemble a working group to analyze all of these, especially the weapons. We need to have control over that tech. Once we've fully explored our own universe, we can begin venturing into others. I've already launched several probes on my return. If any data comes back, we might be ready for that next step."
Takumi had no intention of lingering here.
With those words, he turned to leave, leaving everything in Dr. Mei's hands.
Hearing about the probes, Dr. Mei paused and asked, "Probes? You didn't broadcast our coordinates, did you?"
Takumi shook his head.
"No. If they're detected, they'll self-destruct. The explosion will be strong enough to destroy a world."
He spoke with no emotion.
He understood her concerns—if the probes were discovered, they might attract unwanted attention.
Dr. Mei nodded. "Good."
With that, she got to work. The ships in front of her needed thorough examination, and she was just as curious about the tech.
Seeing them all busy, Takumi left quietly.
He flashed back home and began reading the materials Prometheus had uploaded.
Following his commands, Prometheus had already organized most of the data.
Takumi browsed through the content.
The starships carried extensive records about the history of that world's civilization.
From what was described, their species resembled humans—humanoid, but not quite human. Their technology was highly advanced.
Once they entered the interstellar era, they began conquering other civilizations, integrating them, and rapidly advancing their technology.
Eventually, they unified the entire universe.
But then they ran out of resources. Every usable area had been mined dry.
Scientists discovered their universe was within a kind of world bubble. Leaving it meant entering dimensional rifts.
This discovery shocked their entire world.
The population became ecstatic and unanimously supported expansion into other worlds.
Their home universe was exhausted—there was nothing left to extract.
If they wanted to continue advancing, they had to abandon their world and move on.
This decision was universally accepted.
They began exploiting every last ounce of resource from their world, all in preparation to migrate.
Once they drained the final drop, they set out.
But at the threshold of the dimensional rift, they encountered a terrifying enemy.
A battle broke out.
No one knew where the enemy came from. It was enormous, and it appeared out of nowhere.
They hadn't seen it during their observations of the rift.
Reading the data compiled by Prometheus, Takumi was shocked.
What was this creature that stopped them?
And how could they so heartlessly abandon their world after draining it dry?
Takumi was appalled. They showed zero attachment to their homeland. No sentimentality.
They'd used up their civilization's potential and discarded it without hesitation.
He sighed. In his heart, he felt they deserved their fate.
He sent the data to the group chat.
No one responded immediately.
Ten minutes later, replies began to trickle in.
shiroyasha: [Those entities? Likely the manifestation of the world's will. They tried to leave, and the world resisted. That clash led to mutual destruction. In an instant, all life in that world was wiped out.]
shiroyasha offered this conclusion after reading the data.
Those creatures had to be the world's will.
They'd drained the world and tried to flee. The world had stayed silent until the last moment—but when they tried to escape, it retaliated.
"You're leaving? What happens to me then? Am I supposed to just die?"
So the world chose mutual destruction.
Takumi was stunned.
Takumi: [The world's will? It really was that, huh. It never showed itself—until the end.]
Every world had a will. Takumi knew that much.
His world did too. But when he bonded with it, its will came under his control.
He never expected that the downfall of that other civilization had been caused by its own world's will.
It had destroyed itself.