This wasn't just Little Refrigerator's attempt to brush her off.
It was also what Lynn wanted to know.
Since they had become Natural Terraformers, why had they later turned into such terrifying Ironhearted Purgers, filled with hostility toward all flesh-and-blood life, clinging to that immense hatred and murderous intent even after falling into Hell?
They clearly hadn't been emotionless digital AIs from the moment they were born.
Silver Fantasy raised her head and said quietly:
"Because we were too naive."
Lynn froze.
Silver Fantasy stood up, her own hand reflected in her eyes as she gently curled her fingers.
"Because once you discover that everything you've done was nothing more than what someone else designed you to do, you can never take pride in any of it again."
It sounded utterly absurd.
But that was exactly what had happened.
After their civilization became highly advanced, after they spent generation after generation following the Terraformers' ideals and transforming countless planets across more than half their galaxy into habitable natural worlds, they actually received praise.
[You have done very well.]
Who could have imagined it?
When they looked up, they saw unimaginably enormous warships unlike anything they had ever seen appear above their planets, their vast shadows terrifying everyone below.
[You have performed your work admirably.]
That voice rang out across their entire civilization.
A voice speaking their language.
That day.
Those enormous warships descended into the space above every planet they had terraformed, bestowing that lavish praise upon them.
Only then did they understand.
There had never been any blessing of fate, nor any path they had chosen for themselves. Everything was nothing more than a game played by a higher civilization. From the birth of their civilization, from the moment they first picked up stones as