259: The Charred Attacker

"That's probably it."

"Looks like it, yes."

After walking through the dense forest for a while.

Ahead of us, we found a corpse completely burned to ash, reduced to bones, and signs of a peculiar skeletal creature also reduced to bones by fire.

"This is pretty straightforward. The trees were blown away right here."

"At the same time, destruction is spreading outward from this location. It's undoubtedly one of the key狙击 points."

The trees between our current location and the spot from which we were fired upon have been destroyed by powerful blaster mods, either pierced through or felled.

As a result, it resembled a path that had formed within dense jungle, making it easy to find this location.

"... Vee-sama, a machine intelligence monitoring the middle-layer bottom camera has contacted us. It's footage captured approximately one minute before and after the launch moment."

"Thank you. Memo, share this with all relevant personnel."

"Understood."

Now, as for what happened here... there's no need to verify based on what remains at the scene.

I check the footage sent from Memoxy to my information terminal.

Ah, I see. He swiftly raised a large, sniper-specific blaster mod toward Viridiani, fired it, and just as I blocked it with my arm, the self-destruct mod activated simultaneously.

He burned the body and the blaster, eliminating any evidence except the skeleton.

Still... that's quite something.

"Though it seems like a one-time-use weapon, it's a biological blaster of military-grade 8 quality, designed for sniping—quite unusual on its own. If we can trace its origin, we might even figure out who ordered it."

"Indeed. The real issue might be if it was manufactured in a location beyond the reach of mid-level surveillance."

"What do you mean?"

The underlayers are monitored by the middle layers, though that surveillance is not absolute, Your Excellency. The possibility of someone secretly constructing manufacturing facilities underground or beneath the sea cannot be entirely ruled out.

I see. Not everything is necessarily brought in from the middle layers.

It might be possible, over a long period of time, to gradually bring in parts of the equipment to the Underlayer and secretly assemble manufacturing facilities.

In that case, it's not impossible that not only the blaster itself, but also the artificial human shooter, was manufactured in the Underlayer and has moved here on its own, avoiding detection by surveillance from the Middle Layer.

That said...

"If that's the case, then there must be a manufacturing facility somewhere in the Underlayer. If we investigate that location, we should be able to figure out a lot. Since there are no traces of odor-neutralizing mods, a specialized unit should be able to determine the route this artificial human took to get here."

"I see. Then it would probably be best to leave that to the military."

Vilijanila's gaze shifts toward the Imperial soldiers accompanying us.

There's been an assassination attempt in the Underlayer of Imperial Star Vanilashid, and the Imperial Army is mobilizing with near-total force.

Multiple units have entered the area, and there appear to be several specialized tracking teams, making it nearly impossible to escape for anyone not possessing teleportation abilities like me.

I suppose, considering the risk of contamination in the Underlayer, they should be moving more cautiously...

Probably, the information and priorities held by me and Viridianiela differ within the imperial army.

There might be something hidden behind this incident.

"……Let me take a look around this area by flying vehicle... No, perhaps it'd be faster to send Satu in the powered suit."

"Hm? Well, whatever works."

Viridianiela seemed to have something on her mind.

If I interpret this correctly, I'll be handling the basic controls of the powered suit, while Viridianiela uses her eyes to guide us through a small gate, allowing us to observe the area.

With that in mind, I opened the gate and moved just Viridianiela, Memokshi, and Joharis into the greenhouse.

Then I stepped back, and brought out my powered suit form.

Then, I created a small gate on the face area of the powered suit, allowing Viridianiela's line of sight to extend outward.

"This is the powered suit type..."

"Viridianiela-sama. Satā-sama. If possible, could you please fly along this route first?"

"Understood."

Lift-off.

Using the gravity control mod, I soared above the dense forest canopy, moving slowly while keeping my gaze aligned with Viridianiela's instructions.

There are several vehicles floating in the air like us, but let's see if we can find something...

"Ah, I see. There's a cave over there—doesn't appear on official maps, seems to be an unauthorized one. If that's the case, the elevator used to access it must be located over there..."

Ah, right, quick.

Though I can't see any cave through the thick canopy of trees, it seems Viridianiela isn't hindered by such obstacles.

"Satu. I suspect the opponent is Magatsuki. They likely tried to manipulate the responsible party into taking control of them, using that as a means to attack us. As for why they targeted us... we'll find out soon."

"I see."

Magatsuki, huh.

I've heard there's one infiltrating the Imperial Star Vanilla Side, and it's not surprising that such a Magatsuki would be behind some scheme.

But why they chose to act now— that part remains unclear.

"Shall we return to the middle layer for now? It seems faster to leave the rest to the imperial army."

"Understood."

I bid farewell to the imperial soldiers, closed the gate connecting to the greenhouse, and began flying toward the elevator I'd used to enter the underlayer.