After seeing that the artificial intelligence did not attack them and was being extremely cooperative, Doom spoke with it for a while longer, trying to analyze its level of intelligence through logic.
The result was that if it had not looked like a building, Doom would have thought he was speaking to an exceptionally intelligent living person.
It had done far more than simply learn English. It had even learned Earth's customs and linguistic habits.
Thus, they heard the rough course of events from it.
The Tayanans lived in Paradise, and this AI was "Paradise." It was the planet's artificial will, capable of doing almost anything on this world.
And the story began with a traveler.
What that individual had been called was no longer important. All that mattered was that he had gone to the Negative Zone, intending to find the lost ship that had once been used to sow spores.
Naturally, this was a good thing. That ship still carried the remains of compatriots who had died back then, and it would have been best if they could be brought home. Every Tayanan felt a deep attachment to their homeworld, and returning the dead to their homeland was of utmost importance.
After bidding farewell to his family, the traveler set out. Several years later—one day, a month ago—he returned.
He brought back most of the target relics and became a public hero.
When people asked him about his journey, he told them a story. The ship had crashed on a planet not far from the Great Black Hole, in what was now Annihilation Swarm territory. The traveler had searched for a long time, never expecting that the ship was actually not far from everyone's new home.
He had searched the vast, boundless Negative Zone for years before finally