The Carbonation Extremists.
It reminded me of the Bloody Cola Incident from my past life.
That was during the summer of, I think, my second year of college.
I was working part-time at a café with a coworker.
That summer, a seismic shock hit.
The release of Bloody Cola.
It was a new product launched by a major company as a twist on cola.
A cola that was the color of actual blood, and slightly thick.
The taste was an unbelievable combination of extreme carbonation and fiery spice.
The carbonation strength was the most intense ever recorded. And on top of that — extreme spice.
A staggering number of people drank it and either gagged or sprayed it everywhere, turning it into a massive scandal.
The massive scandal led to Bloody Cola being pulled from shelves within a week of its release.
But that wasn't the real incident. What came next was the actual event.
Just one month later, the now-infamous Bloody Cola was rereleased with the spice dialed down.
Keeping that same insane level of carbonation but reducing the spice — the result was an explosive bestseller.
It didn't just sell well. It spawned a wave of addicts, and every major beverage company started putting out similar products.
The world had truly entered the age of extreme carbonation.
And from that, the Carbonation Extremists were born.
It was those Carbonation Extremists who sparked the great craft cola and specialty drink boom.
Most drinks had become carbonated, and people who weren't good with carbonation felt increasingly unwelcome.
My junior had thrown himself into the boom wholeheartedly and become a full-blown Carbonation Extremist, huh.
Still, it was bad for your health, so the enthusiasm faded fast and a health craze started heating up instead.
—Hmm... why... that... kind of... talk...?
—Actually—
I summarized and gave the gist of it.
I'd been doing a lot of explaining like this lately, so I was getting used to it.
—Hmm... sounds really... interesting...
—But I had no idea what to do with carbonation.
Unfortunately, my past life memories didn't include anything about beverages.
Riv, expressionless as always, made a thinking gesture.
Very wyrm-like.
—...carbonation... potential... lab...
—From Haiyarn?
—Hmm... the residential district's... vending machines...
—The residential district...?
—...vending machines... should still be there...
—Vending machines...? But even if they were there, wouldn't the expiration dates have passed ages ago? Labs existed back in the Haiyarn era. At least several thousand years have gone by.
No way, absolutely no way.
—Hmm... permanent... operation... a few thousand years... easy... drinkable...
It wasn't impossible. Or rather.
"Permanent...?"
"If... you check... you'll know..."
"Understood."
I'd go check it out for starters. Riv offered to come along with me.
Actually, it seemed like I couldn't even get into the residential area without Riv.
When we got back to the house, I remembered something.
The rabbit was still dead, so I gave it an elixir.
"Hah... hah... I thought... I was a goner..."
"Heyarn. I'm heading to the lab's residential area now."
"...Residential area?"
Heyarn tilted her head slightly.
"Mm... residential area... vending machine... get soda..."
"Hold on. You're entering a section other than the lab!?"
"Yeah. Come to think of it, have you never explored outside the lab sections?"
"Everything outside the lab section is sealed behind shutters. Even with the technology of that era, there was no way to get in. Can you actually get in?"
"Mm... easy..."
Riv puffed up with pride, humming smugly.
Heyarn said something with an unusually serious look on her face.
"In that case, I would like to join you as well. Is that alright?"
"I don't mind, though."
"...Riv... doesn't... mind either..."
"Oh, there's no danger or anything?"
I said, as if just remembering.
It was an unknown place, so naturally, it was something I should have thought about.
"Hmm... ah... the security... let me check at the lab... then... we'll go."
"You can check from the lab?"
"Of course... the main system... security... code... using... I can check the connection..."
"Heyarn. You didn't know that?"
"It's not like I know everything."
The rabbit gets a little pouty. I oughta roast her.
We headed to the lab right away.
Passing through the gate from my home, we walked down the now-familiar corridor.
At the end of the sterile, zero-fantasy corridor lay the lab.
The corridor was like that, but the lab too had an interior similar to the dimensional transfer ship Étranger that I'd obtained.
My guess was that they were probably the same type.
Riv operated the lab's touch panel with practiced ease.
A different screen than usual appeared, and Heyarn watched with interest.
"Hmm... security... no problems... the residential area is also safe..."
"So there's no danger if we go in?"
"...Okay... I can open the shutter too..."
"Oh, so that veil is finally being lifted?"
Heyarn began to get excited.
Before long, the sound of metal scraping came from outside the lab.
The shutter opened.
It opened on the right side of the lab.
There, instead of stairs, was an elliptical hatch set slightly back with a small gap around it.
This... could it be an elevator?
Riv placed her hand on the white pedestal with a slanted surface design beside it.
And then the elevator doors slid open smoothly.
"V-It still works?"
"Mm... permanent..."
"What kind of technology is this?"
Hesitantly, Heyarn and I stepped inside.
The doors closed, and I felt us slowly begin to descend.
"Riv, do you know where this lab is? What it is?"
I asked, mustering my courage.
"Mm... at the bottom..."
"Then I'd like to know too. Where is the lab?"
"...In the laboratory section... in the ship..."
"A ship?"
"A... ship, you say?"
"...mm... a really, really big... ship... also... where it is... but... it's on the moon's satellite... right..."
"Huh? A satellite?"
"Eh..."
A satellite?
Of the moon?
Hey-n.
Haiarn stopped for a bit but rebooted.
"W-wait, a satellite? The moon's... the girls'...!?"
Haiarn was visibly shaken.
I was also too stunned and remained silent for a moment.
"...mm... yes..."
"It's up in the sky. Back then, even with that era's technology, they couldn't penetrate 'the Wall' to reach it."
"The Wall?"
What was that about?
"You don't know? The Wall of the sky."
"No, no, I don't. What is that? The wall you're talking about?"
There's no way there's a wall in the sky.
None of the worlds I remembered from my past life had anything like that.
"Mm... Wof... there... is a wall... in the sky..."
"There is?"
"An invisible, transparent wall exists beyond the edge of the clouds, enveloping the entire world."
Mesosphere? Or thermosphere?
I had no idea. I never knew we were covered by something like a wall.
Does the witch know about this?
"So you're saying we're outside the wall...?"
"Mm... well... that's right..."
"What! That's surprising! No wait, way too surprising! I can't believe there was a lab in a place like that. And you mentioned a ship — what kind of ship? You said it was a pretty big ship...?"
"...Wof... do you know... what kind of ship...?"
"Huh? A warship... no, an immigrant ship?"
That was about the best I could come up with.
"Immigrants?"
"Mm... exactly right..."
"...Could it be like a residential zone?"
That was when it happened.
Light suddenly poured in, and an unbelievable sight flooded our eyes.
A city.
Countless high-rise buildings stood stacked like mountains, with elevated roads and residential areas visible everywhere.
And the sky was blue — clouds even drifted across it.
Our elevator descended, as if surveying all of them from above.
The elevator was traveling through something like a tube, and when I looked around, there were countless others just like it.
— "A city... you say?"
— "Mm... Residential District No. 1."
— "No, no, that's a city, isn't it? It's got to be the size of a royal capital."
— "That's what I'm saying... Residential District No. 1..."
The scale was completely different.
— "Wait, wait, wait. You said ship, right?"
Hyarne shot out his question, bewildered but unable to hold back.
— "Mm... ship."
— "A city that big, inside a ship? How enormous is this thing?"
— "Mm... really... huge..."
— "Really..."
— "Wait... did you say 'first'?"
I caught that.
— "...Yes."
— "So there are second and third cities too?"
— "Mm... I think... there are up to the third..."
— "No way. More cities of that scale..."
— "...The third one is even... bigger... you know."
No, no, just how huge is this ship?
Still smaller than a satellite, though.
"So then the lab I used wasn't actually all that impressive...?"
Yeah, I can see how you'd think that.
Riv didn't say anything.
I kept quiet too. There were more pressing things on my mind.
"Is there really no one left on this ship?"
"Mm... confirmed... unmanned... nothing..."
"Then where did the settlers go?"
"............somewhere..."
Somewhere. Riv narrowed her eyes slightly and blinked.
"Mm... I really... don't know..."
Her expression looked somehow sad.
For just a moment, I wondered if they might have been our ancestors.
But then again, that would mean elves, beastmen, Fawn, and dwarves.
And fairials and Edda.
Not to mention gods, and Relics, and dungeons.
The whole system of soul vessels, the sea of souls, and reincarnation cycling through life and death.
There's still the mystery of how all that fits in.
Saying it's all just super-chemistry from space-faring settlers somehow doesn't feel right.
No, that can't be right.
Before long, the elevator came to a stop.