Ch.102Into the Darkness (3)

The Calvin had entered the I-97 sector a day ago.

During that day, many things had happened to the Rusrak Cartel led by Milo Rusrak.

To be precise, many “unfortunate” things.

“Move faster! We need to build a defense line before that thing crosses into our sector!”

At the rear of the Calvin, the remaining pirates were busy setting up barricades.

This was their last stronghold, as the mysterious monster attacking the ship had taken control of all the forward sections.

‘Goddamn piece of shit!’

One of his subordinates had captured the creature’s identity on camera before being killed.

Milo couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the monster.

The creature slaughtering pirates throughout the ship was a monster that looked like a pink balloon.

It was unmistakably a Bubble Amoeba, except it was 5 meters in size with tentacles even larger than its body.

‘How the hell can a Bubble Amoeba kill people?!’

As far as Milo knew, Bubble Amoebas were harmless herbivores that fed on plankton and similar organisms in the sea.

But this one was different.

It killed by tearing things apart with strange powers.

Moreover, despite its sluggish appearance, it moved quite fast. Using its tentacles, it caught fleeing pirates without missing a single one, as if mocking them, and tore their limbs apart.

At any other time, Milo might have been interested in this strange Bubble Amoeba.

After all, a Bubble Amoeba that crushes people with tentacles or disintegrates them with psychic power isn’t common.

The problem was that this Bubble Amoeba had already taken out half of the pirates on board.

At this rate, they would all be eaten before they could capture it.

‘Fuck it all. Even that thing won’t be able to withstand this.’

In front of Milo, his subordinates were busy setting up a bag almost the size of an adult man.

Its official name was APDT (Automatic Point Defense Turret).

It’s equipment mainly used by the Star Union for security and local defense.

Other species call it the “Stormgun” because the way it pours fire resembles a storm.

It uses depleted uranium rounds as standard ammunition and can hold up to 1,000 rounds. If the user doesn’t control it through a terminal, a small AI takes over and fires automatically based on built-in motion detection sensors.

Depleted uranium rounds are cheaper than Megacorp’s tungsten rounds, but they’re not exactly inexpensive. With so many rounds, the credits spent each time weren’t insignificant.

And they weren’t easy to obtain either. If you weren’t affiliated with the Star Union, they were difficult to get.

‘Those crazy robot-loving bastards won’t even sell ammunition to other species.’

The Stormgun and ammunition owned by the Rusrak Cartel were items they had acquired when they hijacked a Star Union merchant vessel.

Since their ammunition was limited, they only used it when hunting creatures with very tough armor, like Mountain Crawlers.

‘Good thing we kept it in the second armory.’

The first armory, located at the front of the ship, had been wrecked by the monster’s attack. All the bombs and weapons inside were lost.

If they hadn’t established a second armory in case of such an event, they would have all become the monster’s food long ago.

“Captain! Stormgun installation complete!”

“Good. What about Beta team?”

“Stormgun installation complete! Returning to the situation room!”

After activating the Stormgun, Milo retreated to the rear section with his subordinates.

While engineers closed and welded the barrier doors in each section, other subordinates repeated the work they had been doing.

“Captain?”

“What?”

“The ship’s AI says it has something to report. It’s about changes in the surrounding environment.”

“I’m busy, I’ll check it later.”

Milo ended the communication from the situation room and moved the Stormgun with his subordinates.

‘Damn, to think that I, the captain, am doing this kind of work.’

Because of the mysterious monster, the ship was a mess, and they were about to lose all the credits they had earned because of the Stormgun.

On top of that, to be doing such menial labor despite being the captain.

With his mind so preoccupied, Milo quickly forgot about the communication from the situation room.

–

After dealing with the bombs without major issues, I immediately began the infiltration.

While proceeding with the infiltration, I asked No. 26 and Adhigh Orr to help defend against the pirates’ attack.

First, I assigned No. 26 the role of drawing the pirates’ attention.

Having been with me for a long time, the creature had become quite a skilled hunter and could subdue the pirates without much difficulty.

Of course, since No. 26 could be in danger, I also sent a group of tooth fairies along.

The tooth fairies are mentally connected to me.

If a danger that No. 26 fails to notice arises, I can warn it first.

It seemed to like not only helping me but also moving with the tooth fairy group it was fond of.

And I gave Adhigh Orr the role of protecting me while I proceeded with the infiltration.

‘Fighting indoors would be disadvantageous.’

While Adhigh would have an overwhelming advantage flying freely in outer space, its body isn’t well-suited for fighting inside the ship.

Unless it was in a spacious area like the cargo hold.

It seemed displeased that it couldn’t go hunting, but it appeared to feel better after I repeatedly asked it to protect me.

Even now, it was slowly flying around the cargo hold, monitoring for any intruders.

‘Going smoothly.’

Four hours had passed since I began the infiltration.

Just one more hour, and this ship would be mine.

I had already taken control of not only the cargo holds on the first and second floors but also the entire third floor.

For the fourth floor, I had taken the front of the ship, with only the center and rear remaining.

‘It seems they’re trying to hold out in the situation room over there.’

They had closed off the area around the situation room located at the rear of the fourth floor. Meanwhile, No. 26 was climbing the stairs to the fourth floor with several fins.

‘Hmm.’

Having removed all the bombs and devastated the armory, I thought there wouldn’t be any major threats, but you never know.

‘I can deal with the remaining ones myself.’

As long as they remain passive, there’s no need to push them. They’ll all die by my hand once the infiltration is complete anyway.

I sent a wave to No. 26.

[Zz-zz (Wait)]

“What’s wrong, big one?”

[Zz-zz zz-zz-zz (Come back now)]

“Are you okay?”

[Zz (Yes)]

After recalling No. 26 and the tooth fairy group, I focused on the infiltration again.

‘It’s been a while since things went this smoothly.’

When I was in the space city, I hardly had any rest. Ever since being discovered while trying to leisurely fulfill evolution conditions in the apartment complex, new enemies had been constantly showing up.

‘Thanks to that, I’ve collected a lot of genetic essence.’

I’ve acquired quite a few useful traits, but there’s a sense of imbalance.

‘I haven’t had much experience fighting wild animals.’

My current traits are focused on combat abilities, particularly close combat. I do have some ranged attack methods, but they’re limited, and I’m also lacking in utility-type traits.

‘After taking the ship, I’ll go hunting for wild creatures.’

Based on the smuggling planet information stored in the ship’s computer.

I should aim for a more diverse range of genetic essence there.

As I was organizing my thoughts about what to do next, the message I had been waiting for appeared.

“Infiltration complete.”

As soon as the message appeared, my consciousness seeped into the entire 300-meter-long massive structure.

Because the ship was so large, the feeling was quite different from when I took control of the escape vessel.

If I had to define this feeling simply, it would be “heaviness.” It feels not like I’ve entered an AMorph’s body, but like I’ve become one with a massive creature like a blue whale.

‘Though this is much larger than a whale.’

When I concentrate, I can hear the beating of the heart at the center.

The reactor originally developed by the Star Union now serves as the heart of this complex organism that has become one with me.

I drew energy from the reactor and sent it to the ship’s cannons on the exterior.

Plasma energy is forcibly concentrated in the cannons by my will.

And a powerful cannon with more destructive power than my psychic breath was fired.

Feeling the heat of the barrel that had become hot from the destructive energy, I smiled.

‘Good. Let’s begin then.’

This ship is now mine.

I’m not merciful enough to leave uninvited guests alone.

–

“……”

The situation room was more crowded than usual, but not a sound could be heard.

Forty pirates maintained their tension, ready to fight the monster that could burst in at any moment.

The monster, as if determined to wear the pirates down, had shown no movement so far.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Milo suddenly thought.

Perhaps holding out in the situation room was exactly what the creature had been aiming for.

‘No!’

He gritted his teeth, trying to shake off the ominous thought. As much as he wanted to scream, he couldn’t with all his subordinates already tense.

Milo looked at the wall, trying to think of something else.

His eyes fell on the black wall that seemed to absorb all light like a black hole.

‘Was it always like this?’

Since Star Union ships prefer black over white, unlike Megacorp, all the metal panels on the floor, walls, and ceiling were black.

But even considering that fact, the color of the situation room’s inner walls seemed darker than usual.

‘Why is it suddenly discolored….’

Just as he wondered, all power in the situation room went out.

“Aaaah! I-it’s the monster!”

“Calm down! The emergency lights will come on soon!”

Since the situation room is a critical facility, it has a separate backup power supply in addition to the power from the reactor.

As Milo said, red emergency lights soon came on in the situation room.

Under the red light, the pirates’ expressions were close to those of half-dead men.

Though Milo himself didn’t realize it, he too looked miserable, with the Volf’s characteristic fur soaked in sweat.

Milo called out to the ship’s AI computer, almost shouting.

“Calvin! Turn on the situation room computer too!”

“Impossible. Power from the reactor has been cut.”

“Damn it, just synchronize with the backup power supply!”

“Understood.”

Soon the computers in the situation room lit up, but Milo and the pirates couldn’t feel at ease at all.

That’s because they could hear thumping sounds from outside.

They knew what those sounds meant.

“C-Captain!”

“…Damn it.”

It was the sound of the Stormgun firing. The creature was coming toward them through the corridor.

“Don’t worry. The Stormgun is a weapon that can tear through even Mountain Crawlers. There’s no way it can withstand that.”

“Y-yeah, right?”

His subordinates forced hopeful expressions.

But it didn’t take long for hope to disappear from their faces.

‘The gunfire isn’t stopping?’

Milo hurriedly checked the terminal connected wirelessly to the Stormgun. On the small screen, the ammunition count was rapidly decreasing.

The Stormgun installed in the farthest section ran out of ammunition, and the signal was cut off. A few seconds later, the ammunition count of the Stormgun in the next section began to drop rapidly.

“C-Captain!”

“What the hell is this?!”

By this point, even Milo was struggling to maintain his composure.

Before entering the situation room, the pirates had installed Stormguns in each section and blocked all barrier doors.

No matter how powerful the monster was, it shouldn’t be able to move this quickly, consuming all the depleted uranium rounds of the Stormgun.

‘I need to check!’

He called the ship’s AI Calvin again.

“Calvin! Connect to the section cameras!”

“Impossible.”

“I’m ordering you again! Calvin! Connect to the cameras and display them on the monitor!”

“Kzzzzzt”

Though Milo gave the order again, Calvin’s response didn’t come. Instead, all he heard was irritating static.

“Calvin! Camera…”

“Kzzzzzt, Cal·vin·is, kzzzzzt”

Just as he was about to speak again, the situation room’s speaker activated. The voice that followed was completely different from Calvin, the female voice-based AI.

“Cal·vin·is·dead.”

“What?”

“You·will·all·die·too.”

After the crackling male voice pronounced this like a sentence, all lights in the situation room went out.

“Aaaah! Khuuuugh…”

“Aaaaaaah! Save me!”

“Kuuuuuuh!”

Screams and death throes echoed in the situation room plunged into complete darkness.

Energy rounds fired from laser rifles, the thunderous sounds of Hulk Mutant guards throwing punches. Both light and sound were signals that those in the situation room were still alive, but even that didn’t last long.

A terrible silence strangled Milo.

As Volfs are sensitive to smell, Milo couldn’t help but know.

That all his subordinates were dead without exception.

In the suffocating atmosphere, he trembled as he turned on his terminal.

The small light illuminated “it” in front of him.

Snake-like creatures with six starfish-like appendages and mouths were emerging from the floor, devouring the corpses.

‘Ha….’

The entity that had boarded this ship was far beyond his comprehension.

It was something that couldn’t possibly be understood through reason or common sense.

Having given up everything, Milo turned off the light of his terminal.

–

‘That was a good meal.’

I patted my stomach, feeling a pleasant sense of fullness.

An AMorph wouldn’t actually feel full no matter how much it ate, but somehow it felt like the right thing to do.

‘This hunt was smooth from start to finish.’

After clearing out all the pirates on the pirate ship Calvin, the time I could maintain the ship increased significantly to 50 days.

‘Eating the Hulk Mutants was effective.’

I was surprised that each Hulk Mutant I ate extended the time by 10 days. Plus, I acquired three new traits from eating both of them.

“Is big one not eating more?”

[Zz-zz (Full)]

“Agreed” “Food” “Very abundant”

Since 50 days was enough time to maintain the ship, I gave the rest of the food to No. 26 and Adhigh Orr. Thanks to that, they were able to enjoy a feast to their heart’s content after a long time.

‘Well then, let’s check the ship’s computer.’

I accessed the database stored in the ship. A vast amount of information flowed into my head through the tips of the infiltration tentacles.

The first thing that was conveyed to me was about an anomaly that had occurred in this area before I infiltrated the ship.

‘Is there an asteroid field nearby?’

I focused my senses on the ship’s outer hull, but I didn’t feel anything particular.

‘It’s probably nothing… Huh?’

I was about to dismiss it when I suddenly had a bad feeling.

‘Wait.’

I carefully read the anomaly report stored in the AI database again.

To summarize the report, a group of meteorites aggregated by a special magnetic field was moving in an abnormal orbit.

And this meteorite group was expected to enter this area within two hours.

‘No way?’

I know well what this means.

I urgently focused all my senses on the ship’s exterior. My consciousness spread not just within the ship but to the surrounding area.

The time reported by the ship’s AI was two hours ago from now.

My highly developed senses detected something in the seemingly empty space where nothing was visible or felt before.

At first, it looked like a star shining.

No, it wasn’t a star but a white cloud.

A white cloud approaching at a very fast speed.

‘This is insane!’

The identity of that cloud is a group of Metallic Gremlins.

The natural enemy of ships and the plunderers of space are now targeting us.