305: Dealing with Reproduction

"Vee. The countermeasure mod solution is complete. Just mix it into any sauce or dish, and anyone who eats it will be free from Funaka's influence."

"Thank you, Sata. I've also concluded negotiations with Dragstarque-sama. I believe it can be mixed into tonight's dinner."

I pull out the ink and specifications I prepared in my main body—modified specifically to counter Funaka—and hand them to the Imperial soldiers present in the room.

The Imperial soldiers who received it immediately carried it off somewhere.

Also, that ink contains an abundance of umami components, and includes plants from the Ether Space region other than Hekyo Moruly, so any chef should be able to use it without issue.

Of course, they should be warned that consuming it will temporarily disable their Blaster mod, so that's something to keep in mind.

"……"

An hour passed, then two hours...

The threat has passed. At least, the fleet no longer faces immediate destruction.

"Phew..."

Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief upon Vilijanila's declaration.

It seems the ink has finally reached the imperial soldiers who have safely multiplied.

The immediate threat has now been dealt with.

Incidentally, I've been producing more ink over the past two hours just in case it's needed again, so even if several hundred more appear, we'll be fine.

It's probably being used somewhere even now.

"……Vee-sama. We've received a report that the fake Vilijanila A has transformed into a cosmic monster and started rampaging."

"「「「Huh?」」」"

"It seems we simply refused intake due to how selfish it appeared. There's no need for us to intervene—under Dragsstarck-sama's care, the 'Taimamazekawa' shouldn't fall at all."

At this point, information came in from Mebokushi.

It appears one of the fake Vilijanilas has gone berserk.

We were shown an image of it—it looked like a massive mass of hands and arms, with no trace of its original form remaining.

But... yeah, it seems we don't actually need to get involved.

A large number of soldiers have already been deployed and are thoroughly overwhelming it.

From the feel of its OS, it's not an actual alien monster, but more like a fake version—so slightly different from a vanilla OS that... honestly, among all the Funakawa-related incidents we've dealt with so far, this one might be the weakest we've ever encountered.

"What we should really be concerned about is the one causing the soldiers to multiply. If the attention is drawn to my fake's rampage, they're likely to exploit the situation to increase their own forces. Note that, Joharis."

"Please wait a moment. I've confirmed the soldier multiplication."

"Hmm... reaction detected elsewhere. This is... inside the 'Taima Mazedekawa' vessel."

It seems something has started moving.

If the soldiers multiplied and the 'Hisonkyō' reacted accordingly, then the suspicious location would be where the reaction occurred.

That being the case.

"Let's apply Satā's ink to the multiplied soldiers. We don't have time to distinguish them, so mark both."

"Vee. What about us?"

"We're heading to the location where the reaction was detected."

"Got it."

With that, movement began.

Heading toward the location where the 'Hisonkyō' had reacted.

Incidentally, though this is a side note, the fleet including 'Tamaizemekawa' reportedly has several 'I Sui Kyō' devices, though their precision isn't on par with those used by Memokushi and Joharis.

This is because the target is not an enemy disguised among people, but rather space monsters like the Black Foul Shark that attack at superluminal speeds, or space monsters large enough to warrant engagement by battleships—precisely the kind of targets these systems are designed to detect.

That's why, during past soldier proliferation events, they apparently failed to notice the reaction.

"Ah, this is it."

"This is... the infirmary, right?"

"Yes. Though it seems to be a secondary infirmary, even within a secondary one."

As they were thinking this, they arrived at one of the several infirmaries located aboard the 'Taima Mazed Kawa' ship.

"Then, breach."

"!?!"

At Vilijanira's command, the imperial soldiers entered the infirmary.

The doctor and nurse inside, startled by the sudden movement, quickly complied with their instructions and remained calm.

And moving toward the back of the room... what came into view was a medical pod.

"Satā"

"Wait a moment..."

While Memokushi and the others were explaining things to the doctors, I began examining the medical pod.

Well, pods like this usually come loaded with medical mods, and if set up properly, though it takes time, they can generally handle most injuries.

The method involves entering the pod and being submerged in a specialized fluid.

With these capabilities, it should be possible to produce artificial humans.

After all, being medical-grade, it should excel at creating copies indistinguishable from the original, even when compared directly.

Still, what's more concerning is how they manage to transfer the original without being detected...

"———!"

"Oops."

"……"

"“““!?””"

Something weird, like a bug, suddenly darted out from between the pods... I instinctively crushed it.

"Satā. Explain."

"Yeah, uh. I think that was a cosmic monster related to the transfer zone. It kinda had an OS like that."

"I see. That makes sense."

Apparently, there was a specialist cosmic monster around.

Wait, though—why was it even here?

Now this just adds another mystery...

Caterpillar-type Cosmic Monster: "By the way, I'm not an insect."