One day later.
"Here. They're yours to deal with."
"I was originally planning to kill them outright, but this contraption of yours is rather imaginative, isn't it?"
Wakaba Hiiro tossed a group of half-dead dragons to the Angeloids.
There were so many of them that they formed a small mountain on the ground. Before the world's administrator, the so-called dragons were no more formidable than common livestock.
Clack, slam—
The Angeloids stuffed the captured dragons into life-support pods one by one to generate electricity, while also constructing several larger chambers.
Hum—
Fueled by the immense power of the dragons and Spirits, the bioreactors erupted with dazzling radiance.
"This planet won't lack energy for the next several centuries."
"...You certainly work fast."
Setsuna watched with fascination.
As expected, whether Evil God D arranged for people to reincarnate or created the System, she had done it purely for amusement.
She could solve every problem in this world with the mere twitch of a finger.
"Mm-hm."
Wakaba Hiiro neither confirmed nor denied it. She glanced down, then burst out laughing.
"Huh? What's this? You modified my System?"
"Why have the Hero and all the reincarnators become farmers and miners?!"
"Leaving their talents unused would be a waste. I merely put their remaining value to use."
Setsuna yawned.
"Oh—"
Wakaba Hiiro examined the reincarnators' talents one by one and found Setsuna's creativity utterly admirable.
"Why don't we find another world someday and make a System for the natives there? Then we can sit back and watch them perform."
"I think you're very imaginative. You could definitely come up with plenty of interesting things."
"???"
Himeko, Shiro, and the others listened in horror.
They suddenly realized that these two gods already possessed the power to use an entire world for their amusement.
The lives and fates of mortals could be decided by a single thought from a god.
"You mean treating the world like a game board and rolling dice, like the gods in the Goblin Slayer world?"
Setsuna shook his head.
"My tastes aren't that twisted."
"Tsk—"
Wakaba Hiiro looked somewhat disappointed.
"Whatever. Perhaps you'll change your mind someday."
"Just move a finger, make ordinary people believe they're chosen by the gods and blessed with a System, then watch them scramble around. It's genuinely entertaining."
"Oh! It would be even more amusing if you suddenly modified the System halfway through, just like you did here."
"Imagine someone who believes himself to be the Hero and protagonist, confidently standing on the verge of reaching the pinnacle of the world, only for the System to suddenly cast him down into the abyss."
"Tsk, genius. You really are the God of Joy, aren't you?"
Wakaba Hiiro spoke with growing enthusiasm, while everyone else listened with dark expressions.
Her mentality felt somewhat similar to Aha's, though Evil God D's personality was slightly more stable.
"Rather than wasting time playing with ordinary people and slacking off, why don't you go back and do some more work?"
Suddenly, accompanied by a cool voice, an unfamiliar woman in a maid outfit appeared beside her.
She placed one hand on Wakaba Hiiro's shoulder, her expression indifferent.
"Eek—"
Setsuna could clearly feel Wakaba Hiiro shudder.
"W-W-Wait! Everything in this world has already been settled!"
"I'm planning to go somewhere else and have some fun. Are you going to interfere with that too?!"
"?!"
Sensing the newcomer's presence, everyone else was startled as well.
"Commander, who is this?..."
"Meido, a god of the same rank as Wakaba Hiiro."
Setsuna greeted her.
In terms of both strength and authority, she was Wakaba Hiiro's equal. She was specifically responsible for dragging Evil God D back to work, forcing Wakaba Hiiro to resort to tricks such as using a spider substitute.
"We're preparing to continue trailblazing through the next world. Are you coming with us, or returning to the Starsea Empire's homeland?"
"One of you governs Hell while the other governs the Underworld. Once you return, you can spend time with Ereshkigal. The Starsea Empire happens to have an underworld of its own as well."
Setsuna asked directly.
"Oh..."
Meido rested her chin on one hand and considered it. As Wakaba Hiiro's colleague, she was also fully aware of everything happening in this world.
She then stared at Wakaba Hiiro for several seconds.
"I'll come with you. I cannot allow you to run wild."
"Eh?!—"
Meido dragged Wakaba Hiiro into the carriage behind them, drawing curious looks from everyone.
Whoosh—
Setsuna opened a holographic interface, checked the personnel roster, then confirmed the planet's status once more.
"With that, the conquest of this world is complete. Sophon and the Angeloids will handle the remaining aftermath."
"After a short rest, we'll depart again."
All the girls who needed to be brought back had been gathered. Although a considerable number of them were still physically infants, that was irrelevant to the Starsea Empire.
Their minds were no different from those of ordinary people, and there were many ways to reconstruct their bodies.
Hum—
Setsuna placed a teleportation anchor in this world.
From this point onward, the Starsea Empire's homeland and this universe were connected.
"Ohhh—"
The train crew erupted into excited chatter.
"Master, Master, how did I do this time?"
Jibril slammed her chest against Setsuna as she pounced into his arms, rubbing against him like a puppy seeking praise.
"Very well."
Setsuna rubbed her head.
She had probably spent too long confined to the capital. Now that she finally had the chance to travel somewhere distant, Jibril was exceptionally excited.
"Ehehehe..."
Her pair of wings instinctively wrapped around him.
"Master, do I get a reward?"
"What do you want?"
Setsuna laughed in amusement.
"I... I want Master to spend more time with me!"
"All right. I'll make time for you tonight."
Setsuna pinched her cheek.
He pulled Jibril into his arms and enjoyed the voluptuous body of the Flügel girl for a moment.
After receiving upgrades from the Life Sciences Department, her figure seemed to have improved even further. She felt pleasantly heavy in his hands.
"Master... There are too many people here..."
Jibril complained coyly.
"Hiss—"
Several other members of the train crew cast envious looks their way.
Huh? Are they going to do it in broad daylight?! So the Commander really does have ulterior motives for bringing so many girls with him?!
Come to think of it, the Commander gave me a human body. Could he have had some other intention besides taking pity on me?!...
Spider's mind filled with all manner of bizarre thoughts.
"Ahem—"
Himeko cleared her throat.
"Commander, what are our next arrangements?"
"Are we continuing to trailblaze through other worlds, or?..."
"Hm..."
Setsuna considered it for a moment.
He was leading Train Crew No. 1, which had conquered its world extremely quickly. He had no idea how the other Astral Express crews were progressing.
"Let's check on them first. Contact the other Trailblaze teams."
Beep—
A holographic interface opened and connected to the Astral Fleet's internal channel.
Bzzzt...
After a brief burst of white noise, the portraits of the navigators from the other five train crews appeared one after another.
"Commander!"
"Commander! Have you already finished conquering a world?"
"Commander, do you want to come over and play with us?"
Everyone greeted him at once.
Elysia even leaned through the holographic interface to look at Shiro and Ariel, then used her projection to stroke Vampy, who was being held by an Angeloid.
"Is this another girl you tricked into coming back from this world? Isn't she a little too young? She doesn't even qualify as a little girl yet."
"She looks like she was only born recently. She's quite cute, though~..."
"What, what, what?!"
Gudako and the little gray-haired girl's heads also squeezed into the projection.
"Whoa, did the Commander find a new lover here and have a baby with her?!"
"Cecilia, you've been cheated on again!... Huh, why did I say again?"
"???"
"Waaah—"
Vampy had never seen anything like this before. Surrounded by projections of older girls petting her from every direction, she burst into tears.
"Commander, d-don't let them bully me..."
After fooling around for a while, everyone finally settled down.
"Report your situations."
Setsuna sat in his designated seat, took a sip of coffee, and spoke concisely.
"Yes!"
"Report. This is Train Crew No. 2. We previously returned to Tohru's homeland and found Ilulu."
"We've just arrived in the world of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and are currently clearing out the zombies."
The dragon girl Elma was the first to report.
Beside her were a short, pink-haired dragon girl, the Konosuba party, and a group of young Crimson Demons, all rampaging through the zombie horde.
"Oh, blackness shrouded in light, frenzied blaze clad in night..."
"In the name of the crimson demons, let the collapse of thine origin manifest. Summon before me the root of thy power hidden within the lands of the kingdom of demise!!"
"Explosion!"
Following Megumin's passionate incantation, a world-shattering blast erupted. A mushroom cloud slowly rose from a nearby station.
Countless zombies were reduced to ash by the intense heat.
"Hiss—"
Nearby, Ayame Yomogawa, Mumei, and a group of ordinary people trembled in fear. They appeared to have suffered quite a fright.
A certain idiotic goddess with aqua-blue hair was also tirelessly preaching to the crowd.
"Would you like to join the Axis Cult? Would you like to join the Axis Cult? As long as you worship the Axis Cult, the great Goddess Aqua will help you eliminate the threat of the Kabane!"
Aqua probably could not compete with Eris for followers in the Starsea Empire's homeland, so she had decided to join the expedition and expand into new territory.
"Ohhh—"
The uninformed natives knelt before Aqua and offered all kinds of tribute.
"Behold the power of a goddess!"
Crash!—
A flood descended from the sky, sweeping both the Kabane and the station into complete disarray.
"Ahhh! The flood is pouring into the city, Lady Goddess!!—"
"Glug, glug, glug..."
"..."
Setsuna felt that the world of Kabaneri posed no difficulty whatsoever for Elma and Train Crew No. 2. Their strength far surpassed anything in that world, so there was no need to worry.
Provided the Konosuba party and Aqua managed to exercise a normal level of intelligence.
"All right. Handle it however you like."
"Elma, keep an eye on Aqua. Don't let her turn the Kabaneri world into an ocean planet."
"Understood~"
Next.
The projections of Jingwei and Senti appeared.
"Train Crew No. 3 reporting from Love Live. This world contains only a pre-space-age human civilization, with neither magic nor gods. The Angeloids have already taken control of the world."
"Uh, as for anything unusual... There are an especially large number of pretty girls and idols here?"