Chapter 666 - 666: Set Aside Disputes, Pursue Joint Development

"Who are you?"

Herta stared in confusion at the short-haired girl on the holographic display.

As far as she knew, Earth in this world was still in the pre-spaceflight era. Forget making contact, humanity barely even possessed the means to observe the Astral Express.

Humanity was not even aware that the Starsea Empire had just crushed the invading Trisolaran fleet.

"I am a humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity for contact with organic life-forms."

The girl repeated her introduction.

"If you wish to refer to me by a human name, you may call me Yuki Nagato. Nagato as in the battleship Nagato, Yuki as in organic matter and hope."

Nagato's voice was perfectly calm, without the slightest fluctuation in tone.

"What? Data? Thought Entity? Contact interface~?"

Herta was a little bewildered by what she was hearing.

"You're an alien?"

"From the perspective of Earthlings, yes."

Nagato answered.

"The Starsea Empire exposed Haruhi Suzumiya to an excessive amount of anomalous information, causing her worldview and common sense to change and triggering a massive information explosion."

"She may have unknown effects on the stability and structure of the current universe. I request contact with the Starsea Empire and Haruhi Suzumiya."

"Oh? The adorable goddess herself actually came looking for us?"

Setsuna chuckled.

Sure enough, whenever Haruhi Suzumiya caused some kind of disturbance, Yuki Nagato was always the first to react.

"Sure. Where are you right now? Do you need me to send a ship to pick you up?"

"..."

Nagato paused.

She transmitted an exact set of coordinates through the holographic interface.

"Thank you. If I use my data manipulation abilities to fly while maintaining human form, it would cause unnecessary misunderstandings."

"This body is also insufficient to withstand atmospheric escape and space travel."

Ten minutes later.

Click—

A small shuttle docked alongside the Astral Express, bringing aboard the second guest from this world.

"Commander, we've brought her."

An Angeloid led Nagato over to Setsuna.

She had short, pale-purple hair, a petite figure, fair skin, and uneven bangs hanging over her forehead. Although she looked adorable, there was absolutely no expression on her face.

Dressed in a school sailor uniform, she looked like a quiet, taciturn bookworm.

Setsuna couldn't resist giving Nagato a head pat, though unfortunately, she showed no reaction whatsoever.

"..."

Yuki Nagato's gaze moved between Setsuna, Herta, and Haruhi Suzumiya sleeping inside the hibernation pod before she nodded in greeting.

"Hello."

"Under ordinary circumstances, I should provide a detailed self-introduction."

"However, the Starsea Empire is an interstellar civilization. Compared to spoken language, communication through information states should be more convenient for us."

Whoosh—

She rapidly recited a string of words.

An enormous quantity of information and code immediately flooded Herta's computer, filling the holographic displays with dozens of pages of complicated data and programming.

It was Yuki Nagato's self-introduction, including information about herself and the Data Integration Thought Entity that had dispatched her.

The Data Integration Thought Entity was an incorporeal life-form born within the vast ocean of information spanning the Milky Way, and possibly even the entire universe.

They were neither carbon-based nor silicon-based life-forms. They were born in the form of "information," resembling information-state entities.

The Data Integration Thought Entity had originally emerged as information. As various kinds of information combined, consciousness developed, after which it evolved by acquiring and incorporating other information.

The Thought Entity possessed no physical form, making it extremely difficult to detect through conventional optical observation or gravitational-wave detection.

Over the course of its long existence, the Data Integration Thought Entity had been unable to find a means of autonomous evolution and eventually reached an evolutionary bottleneck.

To break through this state of stagnation, They became interested in Earth's organic life-forms—"humans."

It was common for organic life in the universe to evolve consciousness, but only Earthlings had continued evolving to the point of possessing such a high degree of intellect and wisdom.

Then came the Starsea Empire, arriving from beyond the void as yet another highly advanced organic civilization. The Data Integration Thought Entity, deeply interested in this phenomenon, therefore decided to initiate contact.

"Oh..."

Herta rapidly read through the information Nagato had transmitted and developed a strong interest in the girl before her.

"So, fundamentally speaking, you're also an information-based life-form, and your current appearance is merely a simulated human form?"

"Yes."

Nagato nodded.

"I am a humanoid terminal of the Data Integration Thought Entity. Based on our calculations, assuming human form makes contact with you more convenient and efficient."

"The Thought Entity has no linguistic capabilities. To establish contact with organic life-forms, it was necessary to create a new communication interface."

"Interesting."

Herta had encountered a new concept: "information."

It was a method somewhat akin to altering the material world through information. The reality distortions caused by Haruhi Suzumiya were referred to by them as "information explosions."

Yuki Nagato herself also possessed a certain degree of information manipulation ability. For example, she could rapidly recite code and commands to reconstruct the information composing her surroundings, thereby achieving an effect similar to rewriting reality.

"Ah, I'm never going to finish all these research projects."

The Herta puppet circled Yuki Nagato twice.

"Can I study you? I've never encountered an information-state life-form before."

"..."

Yuki Nagato neither accepted nor refused.

"My priority is to observe Haruhi Suzumiya and ensure that she does not once again perform an ultra-large-scale information rewrite on this universe."

"After coming into contact with the Starsea Empire, Haruhi Suzumiya's autonomous evolution has begun trending in an irrational and highly dangerous direction—from a theoretical standpoint, covert observation of her would be more appropriate."

"...I understand the logic, but having the Starsea Empire build a space station here specifically to observe Haruhi Suzumiya and the people of Earth isn't very realistic."

Setsuna shook his head.

In the original story, whether it was the esper organization known as the Agency, the time travelers represented by Mikuru Asahina, or the Data Integration Thought Entity represented by Yuki Nagato, most of them advocated concealing their identities while observing and protecting Haruhi Suzumiya.

The objective was to avoid causing her unnecessary stimulation that might lead Haruhi Suzumiya to unconsciously distort the universe.

However, passive observation was far too inefficient. Sending a scientific research team to secretly observe her without being discovered would never allow them to truly conquer this world.

Furthermore, even with passive observation, no one could guarantee that Haruhi Suzumiya would not suddenly come up with a few strange ideas one day and directly alter the universe—or simply erase the space station.

After weighing the options, actively making contact with Haruhi Suzumiya was still the more reasonable approach.

They could attempt to analyze her supernatural ability and find a way to teach Haruhi Suzumiya to control her reality-warping power. At the very least, even in the worst-case scenario, they needed to prevent her from causing excessive destruction.

The risks had certainly increased considerably. Haruhi unconsciously imagining an entire Trisolaran civilization into existence on a whim, or conjuring up random aliens, Demon Lords, and monsters, were all major headaches.

Still, Setsuna believed he could keep an eye on Haruhi and serve as a safety net for the Express crew, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

"Even if she rewrites the universe on a massive scale and causes monsters that previously existed only in movies, manga, and anime to emerge from the information environment?"

Yuki Nagato stared at Setsuna.

Instinctively, she sensed that Setsuna's complexity might surpass even Haruhi Suzumiya's.

His ability to "manipulate information" was extremely powerful, yet unlike Haruhi, he did not wield it recklessly. Instead, he controlled it exceptionally well.

"Even then."

Setsuna smiled and nodded, gently brushing his fingers across Haruhi Suzumiya's cheek as he tidied her hair.

"The esper organization known as the Agency believes Haruhi is an incomplete god capable of creating or destroying worlds through her own consciousness."

"Her ability to distort reality and rewrite the universe with a single thought is incredibly powerful, but in the end, Haruhi is still just a little girl—and an incomplete one at that."

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