The child is removed from the Room. Everyone around them tries to talk to them, but they can’t find it in them to talk. They are eventually injected and strapped to devices. When they wake up, they meet the captain and bombard her with questions. The captain reveals that they’re on a ship called the Odyssey which is a Research-Contact Diplomacy Scout of the Federated Cultural Republic. The captain then asks the child if they remember much, but all they remember is their one and only Room.

The captain says that there are multiple Rooms all throughout the universe, as well as other worlds beyond that of the child’s. The captain then goes over the history of the Rooms and their all-powerful creators, how they are powerful devices that can provide seemingly near unlimited amounts of energy to civilizations that harness them but at one cost—an individual must be held and tortured within it. According to the captain, the Rooms are nothing more than the cruel result of a thought experiment.

The child asks what will happen to them now that they’ve been taken from their Room. The captain says they can be resettled to any world they wish except their original one. Days later, they learn that their original world has been brought to ruin after the Room was liberated. However, they’re assured that they can resettle to the Federated Cultural Republic if they wish.

On the Odyssey, they try to become useful for the ship in the meantime. One day, they hang out with an engineer who shows them how the ship is powered: a Varuwult Drive powered by Schrodinger Gems. According to the engineer, the Schrodinger Gems are pieces of matter with interesting quantum properties. Later, when talking to an artificial intelligence in their room, the child inquires on the nature of the Schrodinger Gems and find out that, while no life is reported to be found in them, some factions believe that there’s more to them than meets the eye.

The child wakes up to blaring alarms. They run through the hallways of the Odyssey and try to find the captain. When they do, the captain tells them to go back to their room, but the child wants to stick around. The captain says that they’ve encountered a ship of the Branching Way, a civilization far ahead of them in technology. They briefly exchange messages. The Branching Way wants the Odyssey to leave, as the Branching Way will undertake the mission of liberating Rooms in a much less destructive way. They then ask for the child in return for sparing the Odyssey. They argue back and forth, but the child soon relinquishes themselves to the Branching Way. The captain goes to the other ship to deliver them.

In the Branching Way ship, there are purple trees, green flowers, and flying jellyfish. The child then meets a tentacled creature which hugs them and induces them into a euphoric dream. When they wake up, they feel enlightened. The tentacled creature then explains that they wish not to fight unless necessary, in the case of rescuing a captive like the child. It says that while the people on the Odyssey aren’t bad, they have an archaic way of thinking along binaries which are both limiting and exploitative, such as in the case of the Schrodinger Gems.

Both the child and the captain have been given a chemical that furthers their enlightenment, allowing them a greater perception beyond themselves. The child feels attuned to the nature around them, as if they’re no longer themselves but part of a greater whole. They see multiple versions of themselves. The child asks to see the captain. When the tentacled creature takes them to her, they see that she is just as euphoric.

The captain explains that the people on the Odyssey once feared the Branching Way because of Maxwell’s Demon, a sapient particle which the Branching Way which can control other particles. The Maxwell’s Demons are summoned out from the Branching Way ship and thus created for the sake of serving the Branching Way’s needs. The child says that must be akin to slavery, but the captain disagrees, saying that the Schrodinger’s Gems are a much more barbaric practice. The tentacled creature tries to say that the Maxwell’s Demon is guaranteed joy throughout its life, as opposed to earlier forms of creation where sorrow is a condition of existence.

The tentacled creature wishes to contest the child’s perspective, so the Branching Way severs them into two bodies with two personalities. One joins the Branching Way, while the other goes back to the Odyssey. Meanwhile, the captain is excused from her role and awaiting review. On the ship, they learn more about each other and continue to debate the matter of sapient particles. The child insists that the Maxwell’s Demons, who exist without freedom, have a worse existence than those who have choice but suffer within mortality.

One day, the Branching Way child returns and meets the Odyssey child on the ship. The Branching Way explains that they encountered a cosmic being who criticized the Branching Way ship for not turning all of their ship into Maxwell’s Demons; the cosmic being thus did it for them, destroying the Branching Way ship in whole. According to the Branching Way child, they are here on the Odyssey because they were transported away last-minute. Together, now, they ponder the nature of home—whether here or elsewhere.