Chapter 178: Altera: I Will Work Hard
The universe is dark and profound.
The domain of the Starship is even darker than the cosmos that still holds starlight. Within such a Starship, Altera continuously resisted Velber's erosion, feeling her consciousness gradually blur.
Was there truly any hope?
No...
Just like when she saw the beings in those civilizations—in the moment their eyes met, perhaps they thought the same.
But she knew her fundamental purpose was destruction. Even if communication were possible, she could not engage with them.
It was right for them to hate her.
It was right for them to harbor hostility toward her.
Because that was the nature of their relationship.
How many civilizations had she devoured...? Altera herself could no longer remember.
Hope must still exist in this world, she thought—just like the Holy Sword wielder who had once pierced her with the Holy Sword, leaving a faint ache that still lingered within her. She who appeared alongside the light must represent hope.
So...
It wasn't that hope was absent—only that she had long stood on the opposite side of hope.
Even now, she had no right to cry for help.
And no one would come to save her.
They would applaud her death, for that was what they should do from their standpoint.
And she... had long been alone.
As a weapon, she possessed emotions a weapon should not have.
As a weapon, she held a will to live that defied her directives.
How utterly unqualified.
Whether as a weapon or... as a being.
She truly was a failure.
Altera's consciousness was gradually surrendering to resistance.
Because she increasingly realized that resistance was futile, meaningless.
But...
Just as she was about to give up, she sensed within her consciousness space—besides herself hugging her knees and the flowing darkness representing Velber around her—a light had appeared here!
Instinctively, she looked toward the source of the light, and then she saw a crack forming in the darkness where the light emerged.
The crack grew larger and larger.
Finally, the entire darkness shattered, and the light enveloped her completely.
"It seems you're still alright, Titan... or should I call you Altera?"
Within the light, Altera heard such a voice, and then she opened her eyes.
Now she was inside the Starship, and everything before her eyes was the interior of the Starship, utterly familiar to her—but in this space she knew so well, there now stood a figure she did not recognize at all.
She did not know this person, nor had she ever heard their voice before, yet for some reason, Altera felt that the person before her was trustworthy—perhaps they were the source of that earlier light.
Was he the hope she had longed for?
Altera pondered this question.
Meanwhile, Velber was quite surprised to find a stranger suddenly appearing within the Starship, and instinctively, it sought to manipulate the ship's tendrils to tear this intruder apart.
But just as it intended to do so, it discovered that the Starship was no longer under its control!
"Velber, as expected, seeing you still brings a sense of reassurance...?"
Velber was absolutely certain that it had never met this fellow before, but for some reason, it felt as if the other was looking at it like an old friend!
No!
Velber suddenly realized.
The Starship wouldn't just break free from its control without reason, and it couldn't have been Vanguard No. 2 who snatched control of the Starship from its grasp!
That meant the one who took control of the Starship could only be this guy!
Without a doubt, he was a Core just like itself!
And he seemed to recognize it!
Could he be here to purge me?
At this thought, Velber knew that in its current state—having lost its main body and nearly all of its Starships—it would be absolutely impossible to resist another Core.
So, at this moment, the idea of fleeing arose in its mind.
Velber wasn't confident about much else, but it did have some confidence in running away.
Because long ago, it had discovered certain things in this galaxy. Originally, it had no idea why it was born or where it came from, but after finding those things, it felt as if it and those things originated from the same civilization.
However, it had no records of that civilization and didn't know where it was located.
Faced with this situation, compared to wanting to return home, Velber was more afraid of what purpose the civilization that created it had and whether it would come looking for it to carry out a purge.
Under such circumstances, it had developed quite a few escape tricks on top of its original capabilities.
For example, splitting itself, going invisible, or hiding its consciousness data in tiny, insignificant places.
These preparations allowed its consciousness to escape when its main body was destroyed.
And now, it was certain it could escape again!
In this situation, Velber first performed a split, separating important data like its database and leaving it behind. Then, it performed a second split, leaving behind what appeared to be consciousness data. Finally, it quietly turned the consciousness data hidden in the tiny data invisible!
It believed its escape methods were flawless and absolutely foolproof.
But...
Just as it was about to leave with its consciousness data in an invisible state, it realized it had been locked onto.
Moreover, it seemed as if the other party had known from the very beginning where it had hidden its consciousness data. From the start, it had locked onto all of Velber's tiny data, and just as Velber was about to escape, the other party directly seized its consciousness data!
For Velber, even if other data were deleted, it wouldn't be a big problem.
But consciousness data was the data used to store its consciousness—if such data were deleted, it would be equivalent to the existence known as Velber dying!
It never expected the other party to understand it so well, nor did it expect to be caught so directly.
The more it thought about the details, the more terrified it became.
"Are... are you a Core sent by the civilization to purge us?!"
"The civilization even knows everything about the things we developed on our own—what exactly is its purpose?!"
Velber was saying this, but Noah was quite straightforward—he didn't even bother to respond, directly deleting Velber's consciousness data!
He understood all too well what kind of hidden dangers keeping this entity around would entail.
Thus, he would extract everything from its database—all the knowledge it possessed—but as for Velber itself, it was better to just delete it.
Having easily accomplished this—deleting Velber while preserving its database—Noah then turned his gaze toward Altera, who had awakened earlier and had been silently observing everything.
"...Hmm..."
During the simulation, Noah hadn't had an intuitive understanding, but when he actually saw her, the visual impact was immense.
The current Altera was in her initial state.
Her height was nearly twenty meters!
Ten times the size of an Earthling!
However, for Noah, the larger size only gave him a momentary visual shock at first. He quickly returned to normal.
"Altera, right?"
Noah posed the question, and Altera, having just witnessed Noah directly delete Velber, still held some expectations toward him but couldn't help feeling a trace of fear now...
"Yes, may I ask who you are?"
Altera had just heard Velber mention the Core...
So, she spoke with extra caution.
Seeing Altera like this, Noah smiled and extended his hand toward her.
"If I were to introduce myself to you, perhaps I should say I am the Umbral Star Core, Noah. But in reality, you can simply think of me as the ruler of the civilization that survived on that starship over there."
"Altera, now that Velber is gone, I have taken over control of you and the Starship. So, compared to your previous work of destruction, would you like to try doing something new with me?"
Altera looked at Noah like this.
She knew very well that she had no right to refuse. If Noah directly issued a command, she would have no choice but to obey.
Yet Noah was still asking for her opinion.
Even if it might only be a formality...
But asking for the opinion of a weapon like her, who had gained a sense of self...
This reminded Altera of the light she had seen in her most desperate moment.
Indeed... compared to Velber, he was like light.
If it was someone like him, then...
Unconsciously, Altera realized her hand had already reached out. She couldn't shake hands with him, but her fingers cautiously touched his.
—I will do my best.