There was an outer god wandering aimlessly through the universe.

His only purpose was pleasure. After all, whether here or there, everything was destined to scatter as ashes—so why bother resisting?

Therefore, he enjoyed everything there was to enjoy and indulged in all there was to indulge in before the world's end, simply waiting for the final destruction.

The outer god lived lazily, true to his divine nature. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. He spent his days coveting newly born stars.

Ahhh!

When a mere main sequence star is crushed by a massive gravitational field, it contracts rapidly under heat and pressure. After suppressing the electron degeneracy pressure and neutron repulsion with external force, a small, adorable black hole is born.

He extended his formless hand and enveloped the star. Blowing protons into the empty cavity, radiation pressure flowed out, emitting higher-dimensional waves.

This was called a calamity born from the inner world—an Inner God.

"My lovely little one."

Like a hairworm sprouting death inside a host insect, the "Writhing Chaos" directly devoured stars and created empty holes.

Around the cavity, it placed higher-dimensional "chains" to bind celestial bodies. Almost like marking its territory.

"I'll come to harvest when the time is right. You must grow well until then."

The outer god mended the hole in the burst celestial body and headed to the next destination with one of the lower outer gods who served him like a monarch.

"It's almost time to harvest that galaxy."

"Time passes so quickly."

"It's been billions of years already."

"I wonder how well it has ripened. I'm concerned another legion might have taken it first."

"Then we'll just eat them instead."

The two outer gods set off on their journey at a leisurely pace.

After traveling a great distance, they arrived at a very small galaxy located on the periphery of a supercluster. However, to the spider-like, crimson-black eyes of the outer god, that narrow space was visible all at once.

Of course. Even in a crowd, a parent can clearly see their child's face as if marked.

"Master, it's over there."

Stars flowed like a river, trickling along. It was like a beautiful painting. The two outer gods admired the spectacle for a long while.

"Lights that hasten death."

"Yet moths still gather."

The Writhing Chaos pointed to the southern part of the galaxy.

"That belt-like area in the middle is the second most delicious place. There's a high possibility that intelligent life forms are flourishing there."

"Where's the first?"

"The nucleus."

The nucleus at the center of the celestial body.

As the place that maintains the galaxy's center of mass, its flesh is firm and its appearance appetizing.

"It has ripened well."

"Perfect for harvesting, Master."

"I'll give you the second most delicious part."

"Won't you give me the first?"

"My disciple is quite greedy. If there's any left after I eat, I'll share it with you."

"Thank you, Master."

At the Writhing Chaos's gesture, the disciple outer god bowed his head and slithered toward the southern part of the galaxy. He looked like a mass of black gas swimming through empty space.

The Writhing Chaos fixed his gaze on the nucleus.

Though his divine name seemed unremarkable, he was actually the highest-ranking outer god of the Descartes lineage.

Renatus.

He licked his lips thinking about the massive amounts of protons, coins, and enthalpy contained in the Sagittarius black hole.

***

["This isn't good."]

"What isn't?"

["Nothing. Just focus on your research."]

Something feels off about Cartesia's tone.

Could she be upset about what happened earlier?

["Do I seem that petty to you?"]

She definitely is upset.

[— Quest period adjusted: 3 months]

Now it's been reduced from four months to just three. At this point, she might as well declare me her slave.

I'd forgotten since I haven't taken quests for years, but outer gods are naturally like this. Toying with humans is their daily routine. And the quest content is unreasonable on top of that.

At least the reward is protons, coins, and crystals.

I've never heard of a Descartes lineage outer god having crystals, not even Darwin lineage ones. I'm curious about what functions they might have.

Establishing a method to design graviton bombs isn't an easy task. I'll probably need to consult with relevant technicians.

Above all, funding is the issue. To allocate a budget for graviton bombs, I need to experimentally prove that gravitons can act like bombs, but to do that, I need to secure a budget first—creating an ironic situation.

"I'm Ben Ecaron, Minister of Science and Technology."

"I'm Claire Lashminer, Minister of Finance. It's an honor to meet you in person, Dr. Rheinland."

I had moved from Callisto Academy to the Carnegie Astronomical Institute, the most famous research center in the East. There, I unexpectedly met two high-ranking government officials.

"What brings such distinguished individuals here?"

"We're also participating in the conference as external members. And we wanted to discuss something important with you as well."

"Something important?"

"Yes, about methods to apply graviton particles."

Surprisingly, the government approached me first. Since there was some time before the scheduled conference began, I decided to have a meal with them and talk.

After satisfying our hunger at the observatory's buffet restaurant, our serious conversation began.

"Last time when you were researching gravitons, a cult serving outer gods actively interfered. That gave me an impression. If we advance this research, we can definitely achieve significant economic benefits."

"Economic benefits, you say?"

"It's not complicated. If we can drive away the outer gods, that itself is an economic benefit."

Minister Lashminer was sending strong signals.

"Do you think it's possible, Doctor?"

"Of course."

I took out my research results from my bag and showed them to Minister Ecaron. As the Minister of Science and Technology, he nodded after skimming through the introduction and conclusion without needing further explanation.

"So this is about using graviton bombs to change the internal structure of black holes."

"What do you think?"

"I'm not specialized in this field so I don't understand the details, but if it's possible, it would be a groundbreaking invention in human history."

I looked at the Finance Minister and blinked my eyelashes.

"Minister Lashminer."

"Oh my."

She touched her cheek and smiled freshly.

"Are you flirting with me now?"

"Minister."

"I'm just joking. You're talking about the budget, right? To be honest, our economic situation isn't great. Still, I believe increasing the R&D budget for basic science is essential."

Minister Lashminer brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and continued.

"As you know, the final approval authority for budget execution lies with Congress. The representatives need to coordinate with citizens from each planet, so increasing the budget might not be as easy as we'd like. Also, since we operate a separate Budget Management Office as a direct agency under the Federal President, there's a lot of work involved in distribution even after execution."

Let me summarize.

The Treasury collects taxes and prepares the next year's budget. This is passed to Congress for review and approval. After that, when actual policies are drafted, the Budget Management Office handles the work.

Congress is one thing, but I also need to win over the Budget Office.

It's complicated enough to give me a headache.

"Still, we'll do what we can to help."

"Has there been any research showing increased black hole activity from all directions?"

At my words, the two ministers stared blankly at each other. The Science Minister sighed lightly and nodded.

"...Indeed, an expert's eye can't be deceived. That's correct. Strange waveforms are appearing not only from the east but also from the north. Reports indicate that outer gods' interest in the Federation is growing."

That makes sense. What government would openly spend lavishly when they need to be mindful of public opinion?

"Currently, the movement from the east is stronger and closer. Since we don't know what might happen soon, please strengthen your defenses and refrain from entering the frontier planetary systems in that direction for the time being."

The east, huh.

Since Shterm appeared from the west, the forces from the east this time are likely to be Renatus's legion.

Not much is known about Renatus. Just that he's the highest-ranking outer god in the Descartes lineage and a strange being immersed in hedonism.

That makes his movements hard to predict. Being impulsive, sometimes only his subordinate outer god Powehi appears while he doesn't show up at all.

And the north is where the Adelbein family is located. If I were to investigate why the Adelbeins collectively ended up in prison for whatever they were doing, it's likely that guy...

Just then, the table shook with a thud.

"Ugh."

The Science Minister collapsed, hitting his head on the table.

"Minister Ecaron? What's happening..."

The Finance Minister couldn't even scream. She slid down like melting ice cream, clutching the tablecloth before falling face-first onto the floor.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Starting with the two ministers, their aides, scientists, and others at different tables began collapsing one after another.

Soon, most people who had been eating lost consciousness and fell. All of them were foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolled back.

"Someone poisoned the food!"

It was strange. Sonia hadn't eaten, so that made sense, but Ireh and I who had eaten together were fine. There's no way the poison would only be in others' food and not ours.

That left only one possibility.

"...It's proton poisoning."

As Ireh muttered this, security personnel who had been standing by without eating sealed all exits.