Chapter 564: Hidden Video File

I cracked open the folder and took a look at the files contained inside.

Hmmm? Video files? Why are these locked in here? It can’t just be porn, right?

I opened the first file to let it play, only to be met with a black screen.

Eh? What’s this? The seek bar shows that it is definitely playing since that little bar was moving, but why is it all just black?

Right as I was thinking about closing the video, words suddenly appeared in the upper corner of the screen.

’Rebooting... Error, Core missing.’

’Calibrating...’

’New Core found. Initialising connecting with new Core....’

’System error. Core unrecognised. System error. Systggrdgfdfgg’

’Rebooting...’

’Connection established.’

The black screen suddenly changed and I realised it was the android looking out into space while floating amongst the remains of the station.

The next thing I noticed was there was a figure standing in front of the android.

I say figure because the person was completely black in colour, almost like it was just a shadow standing in front of the android.

From how the figure retracted their hand from the side of the video’s frame, it looked like they had been touching the side of the android’s head before the video started.

The figure stared at the android silently, though the fact that there was no sound could just be due to the fact that they were still floating in the vacuum of space.

The video then seemed to glitch out for a moment and words appeared at the top once again.

’Rewriting protocols...’

’Rewriting complete.’

’Status set to Observation Mode.’

There was another glitch before the shadow figure seemed to disintegrate right in front of the android.

I’m not even exaggerating about the disintegrating part as the figure literally just started flaking into tiny pieces and floated away to disappear into the darkness.

The way it disappeared reminded me of that corpse we found in the station where it disintegrated into flakes when I touched it.

Could this be.... A ghost?

I turned to the girls, "What do you girls think?

Ries made a face, "I don’t know, Mistress... I’ve never seen something like that before... It might just be a glitch in the video where the person programmed the androids to be unable to perceive them?"

Mara tapped the side of her cheek, "Perhaps it’s some kind of eldritch entity that possessed the androids?"

Amber nodded, "I think so too. That would also explain why it didn’t have a core or whatever, right?"

Lea didn’t agree though, "I don’t think that’s the case. I think it might be some kind of spirit. Perhaps a materialisation of the people that have died in the station itself?"

I don’t even know whose suggestion was the most possible... And Lea even suggested something similar to what I thought but I was only joking about it but she actually seriously thought it might be the case...

And since I already knew there were eldritch beings in this universe, all of them were actually possible... Ironically, Ries’s suggestion was the most tame one and it actually sounded the least probable.

I tried to see if there were any other files but... Huh... That’s the only file that could be opened, the others were only partial files or corrupted files that could not be opened.

Ries noticed that immediately, "Oh, I think the deletion started from here, Boss. So most of the files have already been in the process of getting deleted when you were downloading them from the android. Looks like we only managed to get one out of all of them."

That’s unfortunate...

I turned back to the girls, "Did you find anything worth mentioning from the archive files?"

Mara projected a screen up in front of us, "Most of them are just what we already know which is the fact that they were researching AI. I tried to search for any mention of the Warp Gate and most of them are like this."

I looked at the screen and squinted at the words that were being projected.

Hmm... There’s stuff written about ’taking Unit XX to the facility past the Warp Gate’ where the unit number had been redacted and also about ’sending new supplies and new batch to the facility past the Warp Gate’.

Pretty much every mention of it was just ’facility past the Warp Gate’ without actually naming the facility in question like that was the official name or something.

Aside from that, there weren’t any other mentions of the Warp Gate.

So I guess we can assume that there was at least something beyond the Warp Gate that this particular station has interacted with before.

Lea also chimed in, showing me her screen by projecting it beside Mara’s, "I also found this, Mistress."

On her screen was a single message where it mentioned that they were ’waiting for the group to return from the facility past the Warp Gate to collect the results of the samples’.

Ok, that’s a good sign as well because that means there was also a Warp Gate on the other side which we could use to send ourselves back so this would most likely not be a one way trip.

And this also confirms that whatever was on the other side of the Warp Gate was most definitely involved in AI research as well.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"I’m still looking through some of the files, Mistress. Give me a moment," Lea explained.

I leaned back in my chair before letting out a sigh, "Well... I guess the safe decision is to just get rid of the android and... Hmm... About the pirates’ invitation... Should we even consider it?"

"What’s there to consider, Tera?" Amber asked with a tilt of her head.

"Well... It’s obvious they would most likely stab us in the back but it’s also a fact that we are stuck here with that Leviathan camping outside the Warp Gate. It sounds like they might also have a plan to get past it but for them to invite us... This could all just be a trap where the moment we get there, they capture us and then sell us off as slaves and take over our ship."

She grinned at me, "So what’s the problem? If this ends up being a trap anyway, we’ll just kill them all, right? And what’s more, they would be letting us walk straight into their base where they store all their loot anyway so we can also rob them clean while we’re at it, right?"

She certainly has an optimistic view of this huh?

While I don’t doubt that Amber and Mara would most likely face no problem dealing with the pirates if it comes down to a fight, I don’t think it’s worth the risk since Lea and Ries would also be exposed to the same danger and they don’t have the same capabilities as Amber and Mara.

The whole point of the pirates wanting to meet us was most likely because we managed to get into the research station and got the power running to investigate the purpose of the station and the information it had of the system.

But now there wasn’t any useful information that could help us deal with the--

"Mistress! Mistress!" Lea cried out suddenly, swiping on her screen to show another window in front of me.

It turns out it was a report about a Leviathan sighting with one Leviathan being described as looking like a snake while the other looking like a fish engaged in a territorial fight on the outskirts of the system.

The fight between them turned out to be inconclusive and both of the Leviathans just flew off after several days of fighting.

The last entry at the bottom mentioned spotting the fish Leviathan once more hanging around at the edge of the system while also mentioning that the snake type Leviathan seemed to have warp capabilities.

Then there was an additional note that said the two Leviathans seemed to have something against each other because this was not the first time they had spotted these two fighting against each other.

I looked at the girls and they were all giving me the same exact look in return.

I think we might have just figured out how to get rid of the Leviathan at the Warp Gate...

"So do we still go to the pirates?" Ries asked.

I thought about it for a moment, "We could use this information as leverage against the pirates I suppose... If they knew we had something that we could use that doesn’t involve us fighting directly against the Leviathan... I believe it should at least keep them interested in keeping us around. But the question is... Do we even need them at this point?"

Mara raised her hand, "I assume we are all thinking about luring the Leviathan we had met earlier here to fight with this one correct? Would we be the ones luring it here though? And how?"

Ah right... That’s another problem altogether...