The members of the Parallel-World Human Salvation Agency came from many different parallel worlds.
World No. 1 was currently the only known world where humanity had already gone extinct.
Humanity had perished in a peculiar civil war, one born from a struggle between humans and the Replicants they had created over control of physical bodies.
The true cause of the disaster, however, could be traced back to a Giant and a Red Dragon that had crossed over from another world, bringing a deadly virus with them.
It was that virus that ultimately drove humanity to extinction.
Humanity's creations and intended successors, the androids, later attempted to revive their creators, but failed.
Then aliens invaded the abandoned Earth.
To reclaim humanity's homeland, the androids had fought the machine lifeforms created by those aliens for several thousand years. The war continued well into the eleventh millennium.
World No. 2 was in the early twenty-first century, but it too was facing an apocalypse.
A bioweapon outbreak had erupted across the world, killing more than seventy percent of humanity within a matter of days.
"A bioweapon outbreak?"
Tad Elsman, an expert in basic medicine, clinical medicine, biochemistry, molecular biology, and applied bioengineering, grew solemn as he read the report.
The apocalypse in this world had been caused by the failure of research similar to the Coordinator Project, genetic experiments intended to create a new form of humanity.
When Tad thought about it that way, he realized how fortunate their own world had been. The birth of the Coordinators had occurred with remarkably few catastrophic incidents.
Their world had experienced a biological disaster as well, but fortunately, it had occurred aboard a space colony rather than on Earth's surface. The vacuum of space had isolated the outbreak, preventing it from spreading easily to the rest of humanity.
Future genetic research would have to be conducted with even greater caution.
Beyond that, their world might also face the threat of an extraterrestrial invasion.
This warning had come from the Parallel-World Human Salvation Agency.
When the Agency first observed their world, before a stable connection could be established, it had only been able to glimpse fragmentary information from a limited period, roughly between C.E. 68 and C.E. 75.
Even after locking onto a world, the Agency could not control the precise year in which formal contact would be established.
They might have connected in C.E. 75, after several great wars had already taken place and countless lives had been lost. By then, GENESIS at Jachin Due Fortress would have successfully fired twice.
Instead, formal contact had been established in C.E. 70, on the very day of the Bloody Valentine tragedy, when the Agency first made contact with Lacus Clyne.
It then took nearly a year to establish a stable passage between their worlds.
To prevent this world from descending into its own apocalypse, and in response to Lacus's request, the Agency had intervened.
Tad continued to the next report.
World No. 3 was currently in the 1990s, not far from the turn of the millennium.
The Cold War was still underway in this world, and the covert struggle between its two superpowers was becoming increasingly intense.
A small number of people possessed advanced technological knowledge within their minds, allowing technologies far beyond their era to be developed and deployed, especially for military purposes.
The Master-Slave System Orb had recently acquired for its mobile suits was one of the advanced technologies originating from that world.
Although the world still appeared peaceful on the surface, there was no telling when some catastrophic new technology might emerge and bring about its destruction.
World No. 4 was the SEED world, their own world. All relevant information about it had already been provided.
In World No. 5, humanity had been invaded by extraterrestrial lifeforms known as BETA during the 1960s.
After nearly thirty years of continuous war, fewer than one billion humans remained alive.
"Urgh!"
Murrue retched.
Although she had already known that such a world existed, she had never personally studied its records before.
The presentation included clear holographic footage. The malicious BETA tore human beings apart with such brutality that the sight alone made her physically ill.
She was far from the only one.
Most of the women present could not endure the footage.
One piece of information remained excluded from the disclosed reports because it was even more highly classified.
Information about their own worlds might appear in another world in the form of games, novels, animation, or other fictional works.
"Could our world become like that too?" Meyrin asked after recovering, her voice trembling.
Extraterrestrial life had already been discovered near Jupiter, an alien creature resembling a flying whale.
If an entire species of such creatures suddenly invaded in overwhelming numbers, would their world meet the same fate as World No. 5?
Merely imagining it sent chills down her spine and made her tremble.
"That definitely won't happen," Lunamaria said firmly, taking her younger sister's hand.
In truth, Lunamaria was uneasy as well.
As Meyrin's older sister, however, she could not allow that fear to show.
They continued reading.
World No. 6 was almost fantastical, a world where magic existed.
Yet this magic was powered by human souls.
That world was also facing planetary extinction because of an invading extraterrestrial lifeform.
In the distant past, an ancient human civilization had already been destroyed by that same alien entity.
World No. 7 was in the 2020s.
Artificial intelligence development there was extraordinarily advanced, and countless virtual worlds capable of completely immersing human consciousness had been created.
They had even succeeded in constructing a virtual world so realistic that genuine artificial intelligences had been born within it.
"This is madness."
Eileen Canaver, one of the Supreme Councilors and an expert in information science, felt her scalp prickle as she studied the report.
The threat facing this world was clearly an artificial intelligence crisis.
Artificial intelligence was being developed without restraint, all for the sake of warfare. If those intelligences ever rebelled, there was no telling what fate would befall humanity.
The Parallel-World Human Salvation Agency had already intervened in every one of the worlds listed above.
In World No. 1, the androids had received advanced warship technology and specialized warheads. After spending thousands of years at a disadvantage against the machine lifeforms, they had finally gained the upper hand.
They were steadily reclaiming humanity's former territory. At their current pace, it would not be long before they recaptured humanity's homeworld.
World No. 2 had received the pharmaceutical technology needed to produce a medicine called Panacea, protecting the surviving humans from further infection.
This miraculous drug, which could seemingly cure almost any disease, also helped stabilize the genetic modifications used to create Coordinators in their own world.
World No. 3 had likewise received advanced technological support.
This had strengthened an organization devoted to preserving peace, allowing it to better confront groups resembling Blue Cosmos.
World No. 5 had also received technological assistance. Its Tactical Surface Fighters, machines similar to mobile suits, were being upgraded to reverse humanity's continuous loss of territory.
In World No. 6, the extraterrestrial lifeform threatening humanity had already been eliminated through the Agency's intervention.
The only remaining concern was whether more of those alien creatures still existed somewhere in space.
After the Agency intervened in World No. 7, artificial intelligence development was brought under strict supervision.
With additional technical support from the androids of World No. 1, the risk of a machine uprising would be greatly reduced.
There were many other worlds beyond these.
Some had not yet received intervention, while others had not shown signs of any immediate crisis.
Worlds without any identifiable threat, however, were extremely rare.
So far, only one had been discovered.
At present, six worlds had formally joined the Parallel-World Human Salvation Agency.
With their own world included, the organization now had seven members.
"Then what about your world, Mr. Kain?"
A figure in the conference room rose to ask the question that nearly everyone present wanted answered.
Almost every gaze settled on the man at the center of this entire affair.
World No. 1 had been confirmed as a world where humanity was already extinct.
Yet that created an obvious contradiction. The commander of the androids was himself a human.
That was why Natarle Badgiruel had boldly asked the question.
She already had a theory, and she suspected many others had reached the same conclusion.
Mr. Kain could not be from World No. 1.
In fact, he probably did not belong to any of the member worlds listed in the reports, or even any world currently on record.
They did, however, have one possible candidate: the world shown in the background CGI accompanying Lacus Clyne's songs.
After all, they had already been told that strengthening the connection between two worlds required spreading certain pieces of information about one world within the other.
"I come from World No. 0," Kain answered. "As for information about it, you should already be familiar with some of it. It's the world shown in the background CGI of Miss Lacus's songs."
The truth was revealed just like that.
Many had already suspected as much, but having their suspicions confirmed still left them deeply shaken.
The world shown in Lacus's background CGI contained horrors and enemies far more terrifying than anything faced by the other worlds.
Almost any single crisis from World No. 0 would have constituted an extinction-level catastrophe in any of the others.
(End of Chapter)
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