62: Onslaught

Even Sata, renowned for their appetite, isn't eating much, are they?

Well, it's only natural. Since the main body is constantly on maximum alert, it's inevitable that we might become a bit lax here.

The time required for faster-than-light travel between the Grogrobeta and Flaretanbo star systems is 48 hours.

It'll take a full two days.

It has now been about forty hours.

If nothing happens from now on, it'll just end with us being lucky... but since we're dealing with Vilijania, we can't afford to let our guard down until we're completely clear of danger.

"Miss Vee. You're not eating much..."

"Sata usually eats at the same pace as usual."

Given the current situation, I'm eating various meals served on the *Dip Sauce* ship—each with its specially prepared dip—taking twice as long as usual, deliberately dragging out each bite, which is now my routine.

Honestly, it's like driving while constantly looking the other way, which is far from ideal... But the threat we're anticipating... a moment's lapse might be too risky to allow...

That's when I was caught in such a state of alert.

"!?"

I was the first to react.

I sensed the approach of an unknown, threatening OS—different from both the OS I was using and the 'Vanilla OS'—as a heavy pressure and a sense of discomfort.

"Nine o'clock, above!"

A moment later, Vilijaniira responded.

Though I couldn't tell how her hidden mod reacted, she made up for her slight delay by giving me the invaluable information of where it was coming from.

"Backup..."

Memoqsi finally began moving, significantly lagging behind the two of us.

She was preparing to send information to the backup system, in case of true emergencies.

At the same time, she seized control of the external cameras and pivoted them toward the direction where Viridianiila had reacted.

"…What?"

The crew members were frozen in place, unable to move and completely unable to comprehend what was happening.

Naturally.

After all, we hadn't said a word to stabilize Viridianiila's predictions.

And then, it appeared.

"Wha—?"

"Ah…?"

"Transmission complete."

The hyperspace, which was supposed to remain unchanged in size regardless of expansion, suddenly expanded to hundreds of times its original scale.

A massive circle—no, a hole beyond description—emerged, piercing through the supposedly inviolable boundary of the hyperspace.

The thing approaching was so enormous that the *Dipsores* ship seemed no larger than a mere fish.

It was... it was a shark, entirely covered in pitch-black shark skin.

That's all I could discern.

I could only glimpse its general shape and form with my own body's eyes.

I could tell it was over a hundred times larger than my own body, but the sheer size difference made contemplating the extent of its power advantage utterly foolish.

Anyway, there it was—a ridiculously oversized cosmic monster descending toward us, its rainbow-colored mouth glowing as if it were about to swallow the 'Dip Sauce' ship whole.

The size difference was so extreme that it was doubtful it even noticed us, let alone whether it was deliberately moving toward us at all.

But if the other side has an operating system so drastically different that it clearly causes discomfort, then being swallowed would undoubtedly result in all of us exploding due to event collapse.

"Sat!"

"I know!"

So, without hesitation, I moved.

"What?!"

"What's happening?!"

"It's... something's wrapping around the ship...!?"

"Yikes!?"

"I-it's... a monster...?"

Emerging within hyperspace from its main body, it swiftly wrapped its tentacles around the 'Dip Sauce' vessel.

"Gotcha!"

"Wha—!?"

"Ku…!"

"«««————!?»»»"

While trying to put as much distance as possible between itself and the shark, it forcibly and instantly teleported from hyperspace into real space.

It managed to escape its dire situation, despite the violent vibrations and deafening roar that groaned through the hull of the *Dipsores*, blaring alarms, and making the crew scream in terror—something I wouldn't want to experience again.

"Ugh... Sat. Any pursuit?"

"Probably fine. They've scattered ink with mods like decoy, smoke screen, and tracking interference. Even if not, I suspect that thing can only survive in hyperspace—some kind of cosmic monster."

"Is that so."

Carefully retracting the tentacle from the *Dipsores*, I let the main body cautiously scan the surroundings before returning to the ether space.

Yeah, even with eight eyes, even by sensing through the mod, I can't detect anything abnormal.

"Lord Sata. Could it be that the unexplained accidents during faster-than-light travel within the empire...?"

"Maybe about 1% of them were caused by that thing... No one would survive being swallowed by something like that."

"……I'll send them to Intelligence."

Still, that was a dangerous opponent.

A cosmic beast roughly the size of a small planet, freely roaming the hyperspace, capable of swallowing anyone who happens to encounter it and erasing them through event collapse—there was no way we could react in time once it became visible.

"Alright, Vee."

"Vee-sama."

"Yes, I understand. From here on, it's my job."

Well then, the threat posed by the cosmic beast has been overcome.

Now it's time to respond to the question from the captain of the 'Dipsose'—a remarkably sensible assessment, acknowledging that while they can't fully grasp the situation, they've likely figured something out from the developments so far.

But I'll leave this to Virijanila.

My limbs are trembling now, overcome by relief and fear, so I just want to calm my mind for a moment.

This is no illusion—it's a genuine, long-lived cosmic monster.