"Any researcher who can't take responsibility for their own research has already strayed from the right path."
"Besides, civilization is something people yearn for. Why would anyone want to return to savagery?"
When Sora received the power, the other man hadn't said much to him.
It had seemed like nothing more than one researcher taking issue with another group of researchers.
Or perhaps they had reminded him of what had once happened to him.
He had sounded as though he were suppressing something when he spoke those words.
"Amazons have no need to remain in this world, so I won't hand everything over to you intact."
With that, their creator vanished completely from Sora's sight.
In the end, all he left Sora were temporary cells and a Driver.
[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE TEMPORARY ITEM]:
AMAZON CELLS.
(SPECIAL CELLS WITH AN EXTREME FONDNESS FOR PROTEIN THAT CAN ACCELERATE THE HEALING OF THEIR OWN INJURIES BY CONSUMING PROTEIN.)]
[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE DRIVER]:
AMAZONS DRIVER.
(CAPABLE OF INDUCING CELLULAR PROLIFERATION, BUT AT THE COST OF ONE'S SELF BEING CONSUMED BY SAVAGERY.)
It was fair to say that the Driver came with some fairly severe side effects.
But none of them amounted to much for Sora.
Under the effects of the Power of Light, the savagery was purged before it ever had a chance to manifest.
The only trait that remained was probably the cells' fondness for protein.
Still, just because the cells liked protein didn't mean Sora had to eat raw eggs.
The reason he had swallowed one raw was, of course, because he wanted to recreate that man's famous scene.
He just hadn't expected the fishy taste to be quite so hard to stomach.
"Savage creatures eat things raw, but eventually they evolve to eat cooked food."
As the cells continued to proliferate, a red figure wreathed in intense heat appeared before everyone.
"And yet now there are people trying to go back to the age of savagery. Looks like you've been eating too well."
A vicious, piranha-like face stared fixedly at the researchers before him.
"People like you should get to experience what it means to live on raw flesh and blood while still fully conscious."
Surely then they would understand that all this talk about primitive life somehow being better was nothing more than whining from people who had no real problems.
But that thought suddenly reminded Sora of something.
"Oh, right. You're already dead. You really got off cheap."
Sora found that rather regrettable, and his words infuriated the researchers before him who called themselves "more perfect organisms."
"An exoskeleton produced through mere cellular proliferation? That's technology we discarded long ago!"
Research Ape 10 immediately recognized the nature of Sora's transformation.
"You think you can oppose us with technology the biological world discarded centuries ago?!"
Dr. Primitive's research had long since demonstrated that this sort of exoskeletal evolution was the wrong path.
That was why his followers had never given the idea so much as a thought while cultivating their perfect organisms.
And yet this man actually intended to stand against them using exactly that method.
"How naive!"
"Naive? There was another man who thought the same thing. In the end, he chose to use himself to bury that mistaken form of evolution."
Sora tilted his head. "But that doesn't mean you get to keep running your mouths."
The instant the words left his lips, he vanished from where he stood.
His physique had already been extraordinarily powerful to begin with. After the Amazon Cells proliferated, his speed rose to an almost incomprehensible level.
At any rate, the cells Sora had proliferated from that template could probably put him somewhere near that lovable Showa-era Amazon in terms of sheer physical ability.
As for all the absurdly broken items that Showa-era Amazon possessed, Sora had no way to reproduce those.
Even so, Sora's own strength was absolutely beyond anything these self-proclaimed perfect beings could match.
Research Ape 10 instantly sensed the solidified psychic force around him being torn apart and sliced through, unable to impede the approaching figure for even an instant.
In the blink of an eye, Sora had already broken through and reached him!
That piranha-like face stared him down like a wild beast locking onto its next prey.
Sora turned his wrist, sending the razor-sharp Arm Cutter on his forearm straight toward Research Ape 10.
If that slash connected, judging by how easily it had just torn through his psychic force, the researcher would probably be cut cleanly in two.
That speed, that strength—how was this possible...?
Research Ape 10 froze.
He had never imagined things would happen this quickly.
Even more incomprehensible was how a biological exoskeleton—a method of evolution already proven to be a failure—could possibly accomplish something like this.
But the situation gave him no time to figure any of it out.
He could only use everything he had, unleashing his psychokinesis to force Sora's trajectory slightly off course.
The moment he exerted himself at full strength, many of the researchers below were instantly drained of their stamina and collapsed to the ground.
But it worked.
Sora's Arm Cutter shifted slightly away from his neck!
SHHK!
With the crisp sound of flesh being severed, Research Ape 10's right arm slipped away from the rest of his body.
With no heartbeat to drive it, blood did not spray from the wound. Instead, it flowed steadily through the air, thick and viscous.
Research Ape 10, who only moments ago had looked like a god among men, had lost an arm in a single exchange.
Silence fell over the surroundings.
"That speed! That strength!"
"Holy crap, did Bu Yi say this guy was this strong?"
The Rangers stared in amazement at the damage Sora had inflicted in their very first exchange.
Working together, they could certainly break through the opponent's psychic force and injure him as well.
But they could never have done it as effortlessly as Sora had.
Rappa, who had witnessed the whole thing too, immediately came up with a nickname for him.
"Then he shall be Lord Red Flash Ninja!"
"Rappa, how come his nickname is different from ours?"
Someone asked in confusion.
Rappa's names for everyone else followed a strict pattern: a short defining trait followed by a title.
Boothill's Silvergun Shura was proof enough of that.
So why did this guy suddenly get a defining trait twice as long?
"Because anything shorter is insufficient to describe his speed!"
Rappa answered with complete seriousness.
Compared with the Rangers' relaxed mood, Dr. Primitive's followers were remarkably quiet.
In the air, Research Ape 10 calmly used psychokinesis to stop his wound from bleeding.
The ordinary researchers on the ground were also climbing back to their feet.
"So this is what you call a 'more perfect organism'?"
Sora picked up the severed arm from the ground and asked in genuine puzzlement.
"Or is losing an arm considered beautiful by your standards too?"
Research Ape 10 was always calling himself the most perfect organism, yet Sora had broken through his defenses in a single move. That made everything he had just said sound rather ridiculous.
Worse still, he had been injured by an exoskeleton they looked down on and had classified as a failed evolutionary path.
That made them look even more absurd.
And yet they still hardened their expressions and replied arrogantly.
"You merely caught me off guard!"
The researcher descended from the sky and landed among the others, speaking solemnly to Sora.
"You didn't come away unscathed either. Don't think I failed to notice just because you heal too quickly."
His psychokinesis drew a black fragment from one of Sora's wounds.
"Your Arm Cutter broke as well. You were injured too."
It was simply that there had been far more of Research Ape 10's blood on the blade, concealing the damage Sora himself had suffered.
"But there is no need for concern. This is merely the setback your mistaken evolutionary path was destined to encounter."
He spoke calmly to Sora.
"As the saying goes, failure is the stepping stone to success. Through countless failures, we have gained the possibility of glimpsing a more perfect path."
"It is perfectly normal that someone like you cannot understand our aesthetic."
Sora fell silent after hearing him out.
He stared at the man for a long moment before finally speaking.
"What you're saying does sound kind of reasonable. After all, even an Ultimate Life Form that called itself perfect once failed."
Seeing Sora agree with him, a faint smile appeared on Research Ape 10's face.
But then Sora abruptly changed course.
"But do you know how that perfect organism ended up?"
"It became space junk, and it remains a failure to this day!"
"That's how he ended up, and that's exactly what you people are too..."
Sora took a deep breath and spat out two words.
"Dumb fucks!"
He had just realized something.
Apparently, talking to Dr. Primitive's followers was best done without engaging his brain.
With people whose intelligence was so obviously defective, simply cursing them out might actually be the best option.
That one sentence plunged the entire area into silence.
Then, almost immediately, everything exploded.
"Hahahahaha! Nice, nice! I like this kid!"
"Looks like he finally figured out the best way to deal with Dr. Primitive's followers."
"Hahahaha! That braindead idiot over there is green in the face! You don't see that every day!"
While the Rangers' mood grew increasingly cheerful, the researchers' side turned visibly grim.
Especially Research Ape 10.
His face had gone so dark with fury it was nearly black.
"What vulgar language! Only uncivilized, imperfect organisms like you could speak that way!"
"Very well! Then allow us to show you Rangers what true perfection means!"
Research Ape 10 roared back in fury.
No matter the language, insults were always among the phrases that spread the farthest.
And those two words in particular were so universally understood across the cosmos that practically everyone knew them.
How could Research Ape 10, who prided himself on having already taken a step toward perfection, possibly endure that?
To him, it was like being insulted by an idiot.
He wouldn't laugh it off.
He would only find it even more humiliating!
So he would make these people understand what they were dealing with.
Above all, he would make that red guy experience true despair!
"Let your deaths be our tribute to Dr. Primitive!"
Dr. Primitive had once dealt the Galaxy Rangers a devastating blow.
Today, Research Ape 10 would imitate him and reenact that feat.
That would be the most perfect tribute his followers could offer Dr. Primitive.
At his roar, the other researchers' eyes rolled upward.
Their bodies trembled uncontrollably as an inexplicable sense of menace gripped everyone.
Naturally, the Rangers had no intention of simply letting them charge up whatever they were preparing.
In an instant, they unleashed everything they had, trying to interrupt them.
"Unfortunately for you, your thoughts have already exposed everything you intend to do."
Research Ape 10 spoke almost casually as they attacked.
Then, to the Rangers' astonishment, their attacks came hurtling back at them at even greater speed.
It wasn't only physical attacks.
Even pure energy could no longer approach the researchers.
"But isn't the guy with the refractive field rolling his eyes right now?"
Then how was he still reflecting their attacks?
And why were the reflected attacks stronger than before, with a wider area of effect?
"Because the one in the middle has already brought all of their consciousnesses under his control."
Which meant he could also use all their special abilities.
Power transmission, kinetic blocking, mind reading, psychokinesis...
Every one of those abilities was now concentrated in a single person's hands.
"This is the concentrated embodiment of us—the perfect organisms!"
Research Ape 10 declared.
It was only the first version.
The research had barely been tested.
Yet even in its current state, it allowed ordinary people to contend with Pathstriders, while he himself could control multiple abilities at once.
To some extent, they had already begun to approach Dr. Primitive himself.
What they would do afterward was very simple.
They would repeat Dr. Primitive's deeds and spread their perfection throughout the cosmos through atavistic experiments.
But that was for later.
What Research Ape 10 needed to do now was...
"Let your deaths pave the way to our perfection!"
Any milestone called for celebration.
Aeons were accompanied by cosmic phenomena. Research was celebrated by spraying champagne.
And the celebration demanded by perfection was the death of these Rangers.
At the same time, they would consign this exoskeleton—already defined as a mistaken evolutionary path—to the cosmic garbage heap once and for all.
"Die!"
Psychic force gathered into an invisible giant hammer and smashed down from the sky.
Layered over that hammer were still more abilities.
Power transmission that could rebound attacks, gravitational guidance that could increase its force...
With so many effects stacked together, even though the psychic force itself was invisible, the distortion in the sky could still be seen.
"This isn't something we can joke around about."
Many of the Rangers felt genuine pressure.
If that strike landed, they would probably all be reduced to Ranger paste.
"Didn't that dumb frog say there was a way to deal with this? What was it?"
"How should I know? Didn't they say someone was bringing it over?"
The person who had brought it...
Everyone's eyes inevitably settled on Sora.
"Fudgin' hell, brother, this ain't the time to be holdin' back. Did that dumb frog tell you somethin'?"
"Of course."
The method for breaking the opponent's attack was actually extremely simple.
"Their research focuses on intelligent atavism. You could also call it data atavism."
Data was no ordinary thing.
In this universe, even Path energy could be converted into a special form of data.
That was exactly what they had done.
They reduced themselves to the zeroes and ones underlying all data, then performed calculations upon themselves.
By repeatedly iterating those calculations along a predetermined route, they could transform themselves into highly specialized data that continuously recalculated itself.
"You all know what happens when a computer processes data that's too complex. It overheats and shuts down."
Forcing the human body to carry out such complex data evolution would inevitably cause body temperature to rise, cells to lose viability, and eventually the person to die.
And for data to be useful, it needed a carrier.
A computer, for instance.
"And the carrier for the data produced through their self-evolution is, naturally, their own bodies."
Once separated from those bodies, their special form of evolution became meaningless.
"What's more, that data can be linked together into a server, connecting everyone's data around a single person."
That was the origin of their current state.
And the amount of heat produced by a human server was even more terrifying.
"You're right. But I should thank you."
Research Ape 10 spoke to Sora with complete sincerity.
"That is precisely why I must thank you."
He was thanking Sora for crashing his ship through the space station's wall and exposing the station to the cold vacuum beyond.
Only because of that could Research Ape 10 use this move.
"If you all die here, it will be entirely his fault! If you want to know why you had to die, then hate him for it!"
At Research Ape 10's roar, the enormous hammer in the sky came crashing down toward the Rangers.
Yet Sora remained completely unruffled.
"Did it ever occur to you that, knowing all of this, there might be a reason I still smashed through the station wall and let in the cold of the vacuum?"
Research Ape 10 suddenly had a bad feeling.
"That's right. Cosmic rays!"
There was no oxygen in outer space, and the vacuum was at absolute zero.
But space was not truly empty.
Aside from meteorites and planets, it was constantly filled with something carrying tremendous energy—cosmic rays.
That much was common knowledge.
"But triggering cosmic rays isn't easy."
If Sora thought he could use that to resolve the crisis, he was clearly joking.
By the time the energy rose high enough to trigger cosmic rays, everyone here would already be dead without even a speck of ash remaining.
"So I planted a primer inside you."
"Something that absolutely loves protein and multiplies at extraordinary speed after devouring it."
It was also the source of one man's lifelong suffering.
He had spent his entire life hunting those things, seeking to wipe out the source of countless disasters.
And without a suppressant, those things would generate enormous heat in an instant, causing temperatures to soar.
"With only a single host, the resulting heat would at most start a small fire and alter the host's appearance."
"But if the host had already transformed himself into a high-energy entity through constant self-evolution while still retaining a human foundation..."
Then the temperature would spike to an extreme level in an instant!
Sora walked step by step toward the massive hammer distorting the air.
But an instant before it could touch him, the hammer shattered into countless fragments and disappeared.
Because Research Ape 10, who had condensed that hammer, had become the brightest light in the entire area.
And it wasn't only him.
Every other researcher was the same.
Not a single researcher connected through the server could survive the self-destruction they themselves had brought about.
"So burning yourselves away until there isn't even ash left is what you call perfection. I've learned something today."
The cold of the vacuum had been brought in only to keep everyone else from being hurt by the burst of heat.
Faced with lower temperatures, the researchers would naturally continue moving closer to the cold.
Normal people like Sora, meanwhile, would sense the danger from the ship's prow that had smashed its way inside and instinctively back away.
After all, drifting out into the vacuum would be troublesome for them.
From the very moment the ship crashed through the wall, these researchers had already been caught in the trap.
"And this is why I said you're dumb fucks. You actually argued with me."
Sora shook his head helplessly.
CRRRSH—!
The charred remains suddenly collapsed, producing the researchers' final sound in this world.
No one knew whether that was supposed to be a rebuttal or something else.
Sora didn't care either way.
There was only one thing he cared about now.
Stepping over the charred remains, Sora pulled the Battler Grip from the Amazons Driver.
"So this is the place?"
If they could regulate the surrounding temperature with enough precision to keep everyone in their ideal state, then the computer controlling that temperature couldn't be very far away.
If transmission delays caused the temperature regulation to fail, these people could very well burn themselves to death on the spot.
So to maintain extremely fast response times, the computer handling the calculations would never be located too far from here.
On top of that, the machine's own heat dissipation would inevitably create a temperature difference between its location and the surrounding areas.
Normally, that difference would have been extremely slight.
But in his current state, Sora could detect it clearly.
Its source was behind the wall directly in front of him.
"Destroy the research data, and the mission's done."
But when Sora used his Arm Cutter to slice through it, what he found on the other side made him pause.
This was indeed the computer the space station used to store information and process data.
But the main body of the computer was far beyond what he had expected.
Countless data cables twisted together inside, forming something like a labyrinth.
And at the center of that labyrinth, at the endpoint of every data line...
An Intellitron sat there in silence, eyes shut, legs curled against her body.
When she sensed someone approaching, her eyelids trembled faintly, almost like a human's would.
Then she opened a pair of blue eyes.
Reflected in those blue eyes was a fierce-looking red figure.
And the instant she saw Sora, a smile appeared on her face.
The expression was so vivid that it was virtually indistinguishable from a real person's.
"You finally came to save me, my..."
She tore herself free from the data cables inserted all over her body and, without the slightest concern for the vicious appearance of the person before her, threw herself straight into his arms.
"Hero."
Even Sora froze.
Only after a long moment did he cry out in astonishment.
"Huh?!"
---
T/N: OMG!!! ITS THE AI!
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