Chapter 142: An Arrow Piercing the Clouds

“Lost contact?”
“Yeah, that probe project was a joint effort among several research institutions. Losing it is a huge blow, so naturally they want to investigate exactly what happened.”

Zero pulled up an image and handed the PAD to Yukiyuki, who reached out to take a look.

“Then the Astronomical Agency sent back photos, likely from the star region near the incident site, but they found no debris resembling rocket fragments.”

Staring at the photo in her hands, Yukiyuki felt nothing but frustration—it was pitch black, clearly showing nothing.

Pega leaned over to see, and seemed slightly surprised. Yukiyuki passed the screen to Pega and Xiao Lu for a closer look. Pega squinted intensely at the image, then reached out and circled an area on the screen.
“There seems to be a shadow here?”

Zero swiped left on the screen, switching from the nearly pure black photo to a vibrant astronomical image. The area circled by Pega indeed contained a gray mass resembling a dark cloud, starkly contrasting the brilliant starry backdrop.

“This photo has undergone special processing,” Zero explained. “It colorizes light waves ranging from 200 to 6000 nanometers—essentially, it’s like applying a filter. That’s how we got this image.”

Xiao Lu zoomed in, gradually sharpening the details of the dark cloud.

It wasn’t a cloud… rather, it resembled a portion of the concept art Yukiyuki had seen of Azathoth. It looked like a shapeless mass of flesh, a dough ball soaking up water, or a Pharaoh’s serpent undergoing a violent thermal decomposition reaction of mercuric thiocyanate. From within, irregular tentacle-like structures seemed to grow out, each tentacle ranging from several kilometers to dozens of kilometers in length at this scale.

“It’s Baronga.”

Yukiyuki recognized it immediately. That sanity-shattering form was the cosmic spore—balloon monster Baronga, a creature that appeared in Ultra Q.

Wait—Baronga?

Yukiyuki suddenly looked up, her entire body tense. “Wait, if Baronga destroyed the rocket, then according to its nature…”

Zero nodded. “It would follow the rocket’s flight path, consuming the rocket’s exhaust residue all the way…”

And then it would eat its way down to Earth!

“This incident originally had a very limited impact since it occurred near Pluto. Only the related research institutes were investigating the cause. With just these rendered photos, they couldn’t figure out what it really was—probably thinking it was cosmic dust. But the captain seemed to understand something and immediately contacted them. That’s when we learned the situation was serious. After receiving this data, we confirmed what happened. The captain then sent me and Titas to intercept along the route. Since Fuma was injured, he stayed on Earth and stood by.”

Good—so it was you and Titas sent out, but the ones who returned were you and the Kujo couple. That means Titas must have gone with them as buddies.

Yukiyuki wasn’t in a hurry to confront them. On one hand, those two were still very weak and needed rest; on the other, the Taiga Light Key wasn’t with her, so even if she unlocked a new skill slot, she couldn’t operate it.

“How did the captain find out about this?”

Zero looked at Yukiyuki. “Remember the former planetary cannon governor, Rebeje, you asked us to bring back? I guess that person told the captain. She wanted to defect and seek asylum, so she had to provide some proof of loyalty.”

Yukiyuki nodded halfway, then stopped.

That person had been ousted from Earth-related affairs by the high command of the Interstellar Alliance some time ago. Was her information still valid?

Could it be…

“…the incident where the research institute’s celebratory rocket nearly collided with the space station—was that the real truth behind it?”

She had guessed right.

From what Yukiyuki observed at the time, the president’s—or rather the mastermind’s—only goal seemed to be “launching the rocket.” What happened afterward didn’t matter. Yukiyuki could only speculate that the rocket itself was a “piercing arrow,” fired to summon a massive force.

Now it could be corrected: it was a piercing arrow, summoning a mass of Baronga.

In the original series, the rocket accidentally collided with the space station and exploded, preventing Baronga from being drawn to Earth for a feast.

“So did you manage to deal with that Baronga?” Xiao Lu asked.

Judging by their battered appearance upon return, there must have been a fierce battle. It seemed Titas took a serious hit, while Zero looked unharmed.

“Yes, it’s been dealt with. Baronga is quite special; Titas struggled to handle it, probably due to incompatibility. Luckily, I went along.”

“That creature basically doesn’t respond to physical attacks. If the light attacks aren’t strong enough, it absorbs them instead. So the solution is to use an ultra-powerful energy beam attack—too fast for it to absorb, breaking down its body with energy light. One force subdues ten.”

Zero shrugged, feeling there was no real technical skill involved—just overpower such a flashy monster with overwhelming force.

Xiao Lu shuddered inwardly, thankful Zero went along, or else things might have gone badly. Then he couldn’t help but wonder: could he handle such a monster on his own?

Seeing the tactical briefing come to a close, Yukiyuki noticed Xiao Lu’s contemplative expression and guessed he was questioning whether his strength was enough to protect everyone. But such doubts couldn’t be resolved by thinking alone—only growing fears and feelings of inadequacy.

So Yukiyuki quickly changed the subject to divert his attention.

“Actually, a long time ago, Baronga once descended on Earth.”

Yukiyuki slowly recounted a polished narrative of Ultra Q’s plot:
“In the end, with no other choice, after understanding Baronga’s habits, humanity launched a nuclear reactor into space, leading Baronga to chase it away. At the time, there was no way to truly defeat it. To protect Earth, they had to lure it elsewhere.”

What happened to the reactor or Baronga afterward remained unknown.

In any case, Earth wasn’t completely devoured, and everyone survived.

“Though it wasn’t the best solution and didn’t truly solve the problem, at least humanity back then did all they could to survive. They couldn’t just sit and wait for death.”

Hearing this, Xiao Lu lowered his head with a smile. Indeed, there’s always a way. Zero had his approach, and he would have his own solutions. If the time came, he could face it too.

Yukiyuki thought the same. This was a gentle, idealistic world—if one firmly believes they can accomplish something, then they will.