NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: 023
"Oops!"
One pirate's head was pulled out by my hands.
Brown blood flows from its head, which even has part of its spine sticking out.
Its race is Rock Walker. They are an intelligent race that lives on a planet full of rocks, eating stones and metals.
When looking at the setting, it looks like a silicon-based creature, which stimulated the curiosity of SF enthusiasts, but in the actual game, it is not much different from a regular humanoid creature.
Except that their skin is rough and hard like a stone, the blood flowing inside them is the same as that of an ordinary living creature.
I hit the head of the cyborg next to me with Rockwalker's head, which was dripping blood. Its head became unrecognizable, like a watermelon that had been hit by a watermelon-breaking game.
'This is the second team.'
The target this time was the group headed to the laboratory.
Like the guys who went to the armory, they also entered the laboratory caught off guard. As a result, when I arrived, there were only three people left.
The other three people were already dead after being dissolved in acidic mucus.
'Tsk. 'I lost two.'
Looking at the cyborgs with only their lower bodies remaining, I whetted my appetite. I took off one leg and ate it just in case, but it didn't count as an evolution condition. It seemed that the text box only acknowledged the target I had killed.
Likewise, the predation effect did not appear. The probability of the predation effect occurring on corpses that I did not kill is very low. It's almost the same level as the sample, so I guess it's unlikely to show up.
I spat out the chewed steel bone in my mouth.
In the game, Amorph can chew through machines, but in reality, he can't adapt. It feels like chewing a chicken leg down to the bone.
"Crack, crack, crack…"
Number 26 is killing a cyborg next to him.
The guy must have gotten the hang of it and succeeded in hunting skillfully without my help. Cyborg tried his best to tear it off, but No. 26 remained motionless, digging into its esophagus, causing its prey to suffocate.
Even if it is a cyborg, its base is still human. If you can't breathe, you die.
I destroyed the cyborg's heart with my tail before it expired. As I killed my prey, No. 26 escaped from the esophagus and fired a wave at me.
｢Baby, are you hungry?｣
[Zuzzuzuzu zuzuzu (I have to kill kids that look like this)]
｢Yes.｣
[Zuzuzuz (eat that instead)]
｢Okay. Enjoy it.'
I'm sorry to No. 26, but I have to kill and eat the cyborg to count. Instead of a pheasant, I gave the rock walker to No. 26 and picked up the cyborg corpse.
Just as I was about to open my mouth, the communicator I was holding with my fighting arm rang.
"Breathing babies. Report."
"This is the company situation room." Ah, I'm still working on it!"
"It's a cargo area, and these guys seem to be so fucking rich. " There are so many things to take."
"Boss, this restaurant is completely screwed up, isn't it?" "There is nothing edible."
"We are searching the armory."
"Don't the bastards who went to the lab answer?" I
answered by imitating the voice of the person in the armory and quickly took a bite of the cyborg's body. The structure of a small organ in the throat mutated to produce a new voice.
After completing my transformation in a short period of time, I answered into the communicator placed next to the corpse.
"There is nothing wrong with the lab."
"huh? You're not in charge of communications. "Why are you holding it?"
"Oh, the communications department is preparing to take it down right now."
"…okay? okay. "Snap."
The leader ended the communication in a suspicious voice.
He's quite clever, just in case someone is the boss. I can't believe you're systematically punishing pirates like this. Usually, Hulk mutants are less intelligent as a side effect of genetic modification, but this leader seems to be different.
'It may have been modified using technology I don't know about.'
A smart Hulk mutant. It's something I've never seen in a game.
'Well, I wonder where the original will go. 'Let's be careful just in case.'
An intelligent Hulk mutant with 'predator senses'. The differences from the games I know are increasing. I feel nervous, but also interested.
'Now that I think about it, there is also No. 26.'
That pink bubble amoeba eagerly eating Rock Walker's intestines is also very different from the game. Although they are the same as mascots, they are not that smart in games.
'I can't believe I go around with a bubble amoeba. The community will be amazed.'
Amorph itself is a being that specializes in solo playing, but I myself do not have a very friendly personality. Be it reality or a game.
While thinking about random things like that, I finished destroying the cyborg corpses.
The meat of the newly killed cyborgs tasted like lemons.
–
'It looks suspicious.'
Elchen held up the communicator and tilted his head.
Before becoming the Hulk Mutant, he was a soldier.
To be precise, a defeated soldier. He was punished by becoming a Hulk mutant because he lost the battle.
If the Edgerton family had not taken him in, he would have ended up wandering the battlefield as a mindless monster.
Anyway, as a former soldier, he paid attention to the reporting system. There were occasional subordinates who did not follow his orders, but they all became dust in the universe. After doing this a few times, the reporting system did not falter.
Of course, the possibility that it was a mistake cannot be ruled out, but Elchen felt uneasy for some reason. Is it because of the blood of wild animals mixed with his genes? The wild sense that had helped him survive dozens of times in cruel battlefields was warning him.
The communication just now was not a mistake, but a trap.
After making up his mind, Elchen picked up the communicator again. It was a communication sent to the gang members who had gone to the restaurant and cargo bay, excluding the group in the armory who responded that they were searching.
"He's the boss. The guys who went to the lab are suspicious of something. "Get everyone ready and go to the lab."
"yes? I understand."
"Yes. "Boss."
After ending the communication, Elchen called the medical team leader.
"Doctor, where is the escape ship and engine room on this ship?"
"You can follow me."
Elchen was a cautious person. There was no way his men would lose to a monster or something, but they still didn't know. As he did on the battlefield, he first looked for a way to retreat.
'I can't just leave the bastard who dared to mess with my battleship.'
Securing an escape route was not the end. Elchen was planning to plant a bomb in the engine room so he could kill him. Since most ships are powered by nuclear fusion engines, even a small bomb could cause an enormous explosion.
After Elchen escapes safely, if he detonates the bomb using remote control, the monster will die. Of course, all of the men remaining on the ship will die, but pirates are always full of applicants. All you have to do is get a new subordinate.
'All I have to do is take Garlic and the doctor.'
The subordinate, who had never dreamed that his leader would be thinking about Tosagu Feng, was diligently keeping an eye on the medical team leader.
While the three were on their way to the escape ship, Elchen called the medical team leader.
"Mr. doctor."
"yes?"
"You know because you've fought monsters, right? "Does he have any weaknesses?"
"doesn't exist."
Elchen frowned at the immediate response from the medical team leader. The leader's reaction was not good, so the medical team leader didn't know what to do, but the words had already been spoken.
'A coward who is afraid of me reacts like this?'
The medical team leader didn't know, but Elchen knew that he was afraid of her. Nevertheless, without a moment of hesitation, he gave an answer that Elchen disliked.
What this means is that from the perspective of the medical team leader, the monster is more frightening than Elchen.
Elchen's spirit sank like ice. He changed the question and asked again.
"Then what are its strengths and characteristics?"
When Elchen did not get angry, the medical team leader took out the thoughts he had been carefully keeping.
"No guy is like a ghost."
"Ghost?"
"yes. Even under bright lights, they eat people and leave no corpses behind. "We just realized too late that someone was missing."
"Where are the ghosts on the spaceship? "Isn't it because you guys are stupid?"
"This ship has various security facilities. It's so complicated that even we can't understand it all, but we don't know how he knew, so he went around and killed people. "If that's not a ghost, what is?"
At those words, Elchen was silent. Judging by the tone of the medical team leader's speech, he was only telling the truth.
'A ghost. 'What kind of bullshit are you talking about?'
So does that mean this ship is some kind of ghost ship? A ghost ship in the space age. It wasn't a funny joke.
Elchen thought for a moment and took out the communicator again. It was something that hurt his pride, but he felt like he had to gather all his subordinates and take action.
When he turned on his communicator to change the strategy.
By then it was too late.
The unidentified enemy has already launched an offensive.
–
'Smart guy.'
It was an imitation that even high-ranking people were fooled by, but Elchen was not fooled.
Could it be that he is a Hulk mutant who is more like a smart beast than an intelligent being? I guess I sensed it was a trap with my sense of the wild.
'It's late anyway.'
We had left the laboratory and returned to our nest in the cooling room.
Currently, my auxiliary organs are observing my area on the ship. The pirates can clearly be seen grumbling and moving towards the laboratory.
This time, I plan to attack the enemies in a new way.
I lay down on my stomach in the nest and closed my eyes. As the auxiliary organ touched the nest, the senses that were limited to the physical body gradually expanded.
Just as blood flows through the veins, my cognitive area expands through the branches. The flow of sensation that started in the cooling room spreads through the other rooms of the hallway through the current of consciousness.
It is often said that people who have taken drugs feel something transcendent beyond the realm of the physical body. Isn't that what you feel right now?
Every time I breathed, the branches also trembled as if they were breathing. The coldness I felt from the metal plate surrounding the branches gave me a chill without realizing it.
Finally, the auxiliary agency completed the connection.
It's as if the enemies are roaming around inside my stomach. I ordered the neurotoxin-powered spores on their way to the lab.
Activate it.
Just as the brain gives commands to the nerves in the body, the auxiliary organ relayed my commands to the branches.
The spores obeyed the command and spewed out mucus all at once.
Anywhere there is a branch, from the ceiling to the wall to the room to the hallway to the floor, doesn't matter. A poison that paralyzes living things poured down throughout the ship.
I can feel the pirates being taken aback by the completely unexpected attack.
They destroyed the spores and cut down the branches to somehow escape, but it didn't last long. Their bodies betrayed their master's will and fell into pieces of wood. The quick-witted ones knew that spores were a problem and quickly avoided them, but most of them made foolish choices.
'It's a success.'
I thought I would fail. The ability to link to and control the nest can only be used smoothly after it becomes a subadult.
'In games, of course.'
Since it was real, I tried it to see if it was possible, and it succeeded.
Of course, I didn't gamble blindly. I tried it because there were enough factors for success, such as the fact that the nest was still small, that I was familiar with places I had already been to, and that the number of spores was low. And my predictions came true wonderfully.
'A total of 5 people escaped.'
More than half of the population was attacked by spores. The seven people who couldn't escape are lying on the floor, unable to move, just waiting to die.
I got up from the nest. As the thin tentacle under my chin fell from its nest, I felt a moment of helplessness.
Just as the soul that freely walks in that infinite space is bound again to the prison called the body.
The feeling of exhaustion did not last long, but the energy lost from controlling the nest did not return. For the first time in a long time, strong hunger stimulated my appetite.
[Zuzuzuzzuzu (I'm hungry, let's go eat)]
"Yes."
I put No. 26 on my shoulder and headed to the lab.
On the way, I saw pirates lying down. It was just like a pirate to mercilessly abandon a comrade who seemed hopeless.
It's good for me because I don't have to fight when I'm hungry.
I greedily bit down on the fallen pirates. I could feel their bodies flinching every time my teeth sank into them. The movement was full of life, like a freshly caught fish jumping.
Do they know? The more I resist, the more saliva flows from my mouth. My teeth ruthlessly ripped off the flesh of my enemies, and my four arms broke their bones and pulled out their internal organs.
Perhaps because I was so hungry, I didn't feel uncomfortable when mechanical parts passed down my throat. The silent banquet held in the hallway ended successfully.
'Now there are two left.'
Five out of seven people were cyborgs. So far, 8 cyborgs have been eaten, so the number of people needed to evolve is 2. Evolution into subadults is not far away.
Using one of the cyborg's finger bones as a toothpick, he picked his teeth and followed the traces of the fleeing pirates.
They were hiding somewhere other than the lab. It was a fitness room frequently used by flight attendants.
'Even if I had to run away, I ended up running away here.'
Since the physical training room is a large space, they probably chose this location because they thought it would provide a good shooting angle.
The problem is that the already dead crew members also acted like that. The place where I used to build friendships with my comrades has long been turned into a slaughterhouse by me.
Pheromones and the breath of frightened people flow out from inside the broken door. As soon as he entered, he was obviously shocked to see the walls and floor covered in blood.
There are more than 20 people who died there. Adding 5 more people won't change anything.
I handed the finger bone I was holding to No. 26, who was on my shoulder, and stepped inside the training room.