After destroying the colossal machine, Kain finally had the time to properly sort through his thoughts.
That was why he had dropped that kind of information straight at 2B.
Yes. He knew who 2B was. How could he not? She was far too famous—one of the protagonists of the NieR series, from the era of NieR:Automata.
And since she believed he was human and wanted to bring him back for protection, he refused.
If it were someone else—any other player who knew the game—swapping places with him, they would probably accept the invitation with excitement.
After all, androids practically treated humans like gods. They were loyal to an almost irrational degree.
Even after humanity went extinct, they never forgot the duty humanity had given them, continuing the war against the machine lifeforms for thousands of years.
That alone showed how faithful the androids were to humanity, how reverent they were—treating humanity as something like a god.
In a certain sense, humans could indeed be called "gods" to them.
After all, humanity was their creator.
So if a "human" were invited into the androids' base, of course it would be thrilling. You would become the only "god" the androids still had.
Androids would obey. People would get so excited they could barely breathe.
But was it really that simple?
After digging into the YoRHa plan, Kain did not believe android loyalty toward living humans would remain as absolute as it seemed.
Or rather—humans were still sacred in the androids' hearts, but only as the past, only as history.
If a human existed in the present?
Then, sorry. That might not be allowed.
Because androids had likely developed their own ideas. They would not want another human suddenly appearing above them.
Of course, that would mainly be the thinking of the upper echelon. The lower ranks were genuinely dutiful and sincerely loyal.
The reason the leadership did not publicly announce that the Council of Humanity had long since become a hollow shell was also simple.
Once declared, it would trigger enormous instability among the androids.
Most androids believed the meaning of their existence was to live for humanity and fight for humanity.
If they learned humanity had already perished, they would conclude their existence was meaningless—chaos would erupt.
So the leadership fabricated the idea that the Council of Humanity still existed on the Moon, giving the uninformed androids a spiritual anchor to cling to.
However, the lie that "humans still exist" would eventually be exposed.
And now, it had already reached a dangerous stage—hence the existence of YoRHa.
YoRHa was meant to inject the androids with a new dose of resolve, to preserve the belief that humanity still lived, and to give renewed drive to androids who were gradually losing purpose.
Afterward, the androids' central government would slowly begin "correcting" the rank-and-file—reshaping their cognition.
Yes. The very establishment of an android central government already proved the nature of everything had changed.
Android survival would no longer be "for humans," but for themselves.
If humans truly still existed, then—later on—androids might even repeat what the machine lifeforms did: eliminating their own creator.
That was why Kain believed he might become a target.
Commander White might give an order that ended with 2B killing him.
No—she would not issue that kind of order, because 2B was an uninformed android. She would never kill a human.
But Commander White could very well issue an order to "politely" bring him back.
After that, what the Commander would do to him was anyone's guess.
Of course, that assumed they could truly take him back in the first place.
How could he not resist?
And if it came to it, he could always choose to leave this world.
So the reason he said those things was to shake 2B's foundations—expose YoRHa's true purpose—and bring 2B over to his side.
At the same time, he had bluntly stated that he was not of this world because he also wanted to cooperate with the leadership represented by Commander White.
Wasn't the purpose of Project YoRHa to administer a morale booster to the androids?
To raise fighting spirit, to make them believe their "human faith" still lived on the Moon?
If Kain appeared, then he could play the role of "human" openly and directly.
No need for such a high-cost fabrication.
No need to detour through so many layers just to make androids believe.
He could simply stand on the stage, let androids confirm he was human, praise them, affirm their mission, and validate their sacrifices.
Wouldn't that be far simpler?
But cooperation was cooperation. It would never mean full trust.
They might discard him the moment they crossed the river.
Or they might never intend to cooperate at all.
Whether he was a human from this world or a human from another world, they might still choose to erase him completely.
That was why 2B—and YoRHa as a whole—were targets for recruitment.
Because YoRHa itself was a faction destined to be sacrificed.
YoRHa was different from other androids. If ordinary androids ever learned what made YoRHa different, they might start to hate YoRHa, refuse to acknowledge them as androids, refuse to acknowledge them as comrades.
Of course, all of this was Kain's speculation—premised on the most malicious possible reading of the situation.
It was entirely possible that androids truly still worshiped humanity, leadership included.
A living human's appearance might genuinely complete the void in their hearts, letting him become an android "god" with ease.
But if something sounded that good, it belonged in the lowest-probability pile.
You could not afford to drop your guard.
Right now, his neural processing felt sluggish, so he stayed closer to A2.
If he failed to react in time, he wanted her to send him back immediately.
And the reason his mind felt sluggish was because he had just used something like psionic power.
No—more accurately, a power similar to psionics.
The power he drew was not from the Warp.
Besides, he didn't even know whether this world had a Warp at all.
The power he drew was in the material world itself, drifting everywhere like air.
Yet it also did not feel "material," not something an ordinary microscope could observe.
It was probably what fantasy novels called mana—mana elements.
And this world was indeed somewhat fantastical. It contained something called magical particles, capable of producing supernatural effects.
Calling it "magic" would not be wrong.
What he had urgently mobilized earlier was exactly that—gathering those forces into a barrier, not "casting a spell," but compressing mana into a shield by brute control.
That overload had placed a burden on him.
"Who are you?"
That voice came from the support unit beside 2B—likely Commander White.
From earlier, he had already noticed something abnormal about that support unit and suspected the Commander had been monitoring through it.
"When you ask who someone is, shouldn't you show yourself first? That would be more polite."
"Fair point. Then please wait about ten minutes. I'll arrive."
So Kain looked up at the sky and saw the sun.
From the moment he entered this world until now, the sun's angle had not shifted at all. The region remained locked in dusk, the light unusually gentle.
If he remembered correctly, this was due to tidal locking, leaving one face of the Earth permanently oriented toward the sun.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
Before Commander White arrived, he needed to further shake 2B and 9S.
He would tell them how humanity disappeared.
(End of Chapter)
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