Vacation!
Even the mere mention of the word was enough to ignite boundless excitement!
And naturally, the most crucial part of a vacation was deciding exactly how to relax.
Just like that one precious day off after six straight days of grueling work, one always wanted to do every single thing that was normally off-limits.
But back then, the so-called "everything" mostly meant just sleeping in.
After all, sleeping in during the workweek was an impossible luxury.
Yet now, in this place, no job could hold him back anymore.
So for this vacation, crafting a flawless itinerary became Sora's highest priority.
Precisely because of this, Sora began diligently searching for information about his destination.
This place was personally recommended by Robin. No matter how you looked at it, surely it couldn't be that bad.
The "Soul Springs," huh? Just hearing the name promised a place perfect for shedding stress and tension!
Filled with such anticipation, Sora searched the galactic network for info on Tartaro.
But the search results turned out to be a rather unsettling mix of glowing praise and ominous warnings.
[Those days I spent in Tartaro were the most comfortable days of my life. You don't have to worry about anything at all!]
[A paradise to clear your soul, the absolute best place to ease mental burdens!]
[My heart aches whenever I remember having to leave that place!]
Such comments were, of course, overwhelmingly positive.
But right alongside them came warnings that made Sora's blood run cold:
[Tartaro is nothing but a scam! That place destroyed my family!]
[This place poisons the mind! It's highly addictive and makes you never want to leave!]
[Right, compared to Tartaro, the addictiveness of Penacony—the so-called "Planet of Festivities"—is utterly insignificant!]
The negative reviews especially left Sora shaken.
Just what kind of reviews were these?
To be compared directly with Penacony—the legendary "Planet of Festivities" itself—that was seriously alarming.
Penacony was famous for manipulating dreams, letting visitors experience absolutely anything impossible in the waking world.
Because of that, countless people never wanted to wake up again.
Who wouldn't prefer endless sweet dreams over the harsh reality of daily life?
Thus, Penacony's addictive nature was considered the pinnacle of galactic danger.
Yet Tartaro apparently matched even that? This was certainly not good news.
"Am I gonna end up tangled in some weird trouble with this planet too…?"
He paused for a moment, recalling the planets he'd interacted with so far.
First was his landing on Promia, and then Promia blew up.
Then he moved to Zieltworth for medical reasons, and the famous medical planet caught on fire.
And next was the spaceport he'd just departed, which ended up attracting the Galactic Pirate Spider…
Aside from that brief, peaceful stop at Straton, every single planet connected with him had plunged into inexplicable disasters.
"It won't happen again this time, right…?" Sora felt his instincts screaming danger.
Once or twice might've been coincidence, but counting the spaceport, he was at three out of four!
Such an absurdly high probability meant he had no choice but to stay wary.
With that thought, he quickly went to consult the others about Tartaro.
"Huh? You're just overthinking it, aren't you?" Mitsutake reassured him. "We've looked into that planet before. There's nothing special about it."
The reason Zieltworth ended up like that was because Serus wanted Titania and triggered a chain reaction of disasters. Tartaro, however, was merely a planet formed entirely from Memoria—memory and emotional fragments—nothing more.
Although no one knew exactly why Tartaro exhibited such peculiar traits, the galaxy was vast enough that strange phenomena were simply respected without much question.
"The planet's security is handled by the IPC. It's not a colonial planet; there are no native conflicts, nor any record of crises…"
Mitsutake methodically analyzed all potential threats they might face, but none seemed relevant to this particular planet.
Most importantly…
"Tartaro itself has an ace up its sleeve. The likelihood of troublemaking there is essentially zero."
"What kind of ace?" Sora asked, intrigued.
"The planet itself, of course," Mitsutake explained patiently. "Whenever negative emotions arise, Tartaro's enormous quantity of Memoria will immediately dilute them."
Unless a person's negative feelings could overwhelm an entire planet, Tartaro would swiftly neutralize any emotional outbursts.
"That's why people call this place a paradise for mental relaxation."
Once you arrived, the planet itself shouldered all your mental strain.
It was like a gentle breeze blowing past a normal person, doing nothing more serious than gently rustling their hair.
"So it basically forces you to become laid-back and carefree."
"You could say that. And apparently, there are some special services too—but I don't know the details."
If people were forced into a relaxed state, the spirit of competition naturally wouldn't exist.
Therefore, incidents of conflict on Tartaro were practically nonexistent.
Rumor had it even the IPC personnel stationed there had little to do all day.
At this, Sora finally relaxed, relieved of his worries.
It seemed like internal strife wasn't something he needed to worry about here.
As for external threats, encountering even one was already extremely unlikely for a normal person.
After all, in a galaxy so vast, there's no way bad luck always finds me, right?
Feeling reassured, Sora gazed into the depths of space, sighing with heartfelt relief, "What a peaceful day."
At his words, the spaceship's interior music switched to a gentle, relaxing melody.
...
Elsewhere, at Spider's wreckage recovery site.
One by one, spaceships quietly collected and assembled the debris drifting in space.
Floating among these fragments was a huge body, its form pierced by a glaringly obvious hole—a lethal injury that led directly to Spider's demise.
"Confirming main wreckage identity: Code Name 'Spider.'"
With a quick preliminary analysis, Spider's identity was easily confirmed. After all, spider-like bodies floating around space weren't exactly common.
And never mind Spider's distinct half-mechanical, half-organic appearance.
Even though most of its mechanical parts had shattered into countless floating shards, the flesh-and-metal connections remained clearly visible.
Such unmistakable features meant even an amateur could instantly identify Spider.
"To think Spider, who terrorized the galaxy for decades, ended up like this…" someone murmured in awe through the comm channel.
"Yeah. Don't know who did it, but they did a damn good job killing this guy."
Spider's downfall sent a chilling warning throughout galactic pirate circles, considerably reducing pirate activities. Interstellar travel suddenly felt significantly safer.
Wreckage recovery work was tedious, so chatting casually during the job became routine.
"Speaking of… who exactly was that person who kicked straight through Spider's body?"
"I remember in those viral videos, they called him 'Kamen Rider.'"
"A rider? Like someone from the Knights of Beauty?"
"Not sure. But this guy got really popular fast. Just nobody knows who he really is."
Everyone on comm channels chattered about the mysterious figure who'd become an overnight sensation.
After all, his explosive appearance rapidly topped galactic network video charts.
Plus, the music accompanying his entry was unforgettable—an entrance theme that stuck instantly.
"That song really is good. I must've looped it dozens of times already."
"I heard rumors that the latter half of the song was performed by Robin herself."
"Nonsense! That doesn't match Robin's style at all."
"You sure about that?"
"Of course! I'm a ten-year Robin veteran. Nobody knows Robin better than me!"
But Robin's debut wasn't even ten years ago… How could you be a ten-year veteran?
Just then, someone suddenly made an astonishing discovery:
"Hey! Look at this… doesn't this symbol look familiar?"
They'd found an extremely subtle marking hidden deep within Spider's wreckage!
Magnified countless times, three distinct gear-shaped symbols appeared.
This unexpected revelation instantly grabbed everyone's attention.
"Could this be a clue left behind by whoever modified Spider?"
Spider was originally a Moltler Giant Spider native to space, but someone had secretly turned it into a weaponized nightmare.
For decades, people had wanted to discover Spider's creator, yet no one ever came close to finding the truth.
But now, this strange symbol raised the incident's priority considerably.
"These symbols… don't they resemble three gear-shaped nebulae?" someone muttered, voice trembling slightly.
The mere mention of it brought a certain infamous galactic force to everyone's mind.
Could it possibly be…?
Yet before they could report their suspicions, the spaceship's alarms suddenly blared in unison:
[Warning! Ship locked onto! Warning! Ship locked onto!]
Red warning lights flashed frantically across every recovery vessel, panic instantly gripping everyone present.
"Locked onto?! Wait—what the hell's going—"
But before the sentence could even finish, countless beams pierced mercilessly through the ships, perfectly synchronized.
Boom!!
Violent explosions erupted throughout space, fresh debris mingling silently with Spider's remains.
Then, a colossal spaceship appeared from stealth, calmly approaching the wreckage.
[All obstacles eliminated. Initiating data core retrieval sequence.]