Countless pale-blue info windows were the only thing that illuminated the unnatural space. The effect was similar to turning off the light in a room full of active monitors, but it was the entity observing the windows that truly made the scene surreal.
At a glance, this silent creature might look like an adult man, but closer examination would reveal the patches of draconic scales and beastly fur that covered his skin, as well as devilish horns growing from his head.
This gave him the overall appearance of a humanlike monster—but the glasses on his face just barely brought it back to “monstrous human.”
It... He was control AI No. 4, Jabberwock, and he was observing one of the countless windows in absolute silence. He wasn’t even breathing. His fingers, which usually moved without a moment’s rest, were now completely frozen in place.
This was caused by the scene reflected in the window, showing the battle between two monsters—or rather, the result of that battle.
A monster reminiscent of a giant isopod was in the process of devouring another monster that resembled a shellfish. On the surface this seemed like nothing more than the natural order of the food chain—but in this world, the act of one monster eating another was simply impossible.
Dead monsters always transformed into items. If killed by humanoids, a monster would transform into materials and equipment that reflected its nature. If it died of natural causes or by the fangs of other monsters, it was more likely to drop food.
Because of this, it was absurdly rare for monsters to physically consume the bodies of other monsters. It was possible if the prey dropped a “Complete Remains” item, but that was quite uncommon as well.
However, that rare exception didn’t even apply here in any case. Both the isopod and the shellfish were UBMs.
In battles between UBMs, the winner simply absorbed the Resources of the loser, taking in its power directly without any drops in between.
That made this scene impossible. A UBM simply could never consume another UBM.
And yet, that impossible circumstance was happening right now.
“Coincidences can be quite terrifying.” Jabberwock finally broke the silence and voiced his thoughts.
That was the best way to summarize it. This was a coincidence—an accident.
The unique powers these two monsters happened to possess had paved the way for an impossible event.
As the isopod consumed the shellfish, Jabberwock beheld an obvious change in the creature’s form.
“This coincidence is sure to create an Irregularity... I wonder what will become of this,” he muttered, sounding like both a scholar in the middle of an experiment and a prophet gazing into the future.
Jabberwock predicted that this unprecedented event would bring chaos upon the world...and he was completely right.
This chaos would be focused in an area called the South Sea.
Open Episode: “The Southern Cross”