Ch.116Semi-Adult (4)

The cruiser’s situation room.

The pirate leader closed her mouth when she heard my voice.

Judging by the sound of her shallow breath, she seemed quite shocked.

“…5th ranked AMorph.”

She said with a slightly trembling voice.

The first thing the boss, no, the player said was unexpectedly about my identity.

She knows exactly who I am.

‘Well, after causing such a commotion.’

It’s not that I’m being self-conscious. There weren’t many AMorph players who conducted psychological warfare against enemies using skinned corpses.

If she’s a player who’s enjoyed the game for a long time, she must have heard about me at least once.

“You’ve got guts. Do you know who I am?”

“You-must-be-Humanity-rank-20.”

“You know well.”

After occupying the situation room, I was doing something else until the communication came in.

I was reviewing the information about the pirate leader stored in the computer.

The pirate leader, the woman talking to me through the communicator, was named Muriel.

She had the same name as the player who was ranked 20th Space Dog in the game.

‘Though I’ve never met her in person.’

I quit the game due to academic probation shortly after she became a ranker. So I never fought Muriel directly.

Of course, even without fighting her, I had collected some information about her. What race, what faction, what clan she belonged to, and so on.

‘She wasn’t Cult back then?’

As far as I knew, the 20th ranked Muriel was a cyborg race Space Dog. That’s why I didn’t think the pirate leader would be a ranker until I confirmed her name on the computer.

‘Of course, there were some Space Dogs from Cult, but…’

That Cult pirate ranker was a man, not a woman. I remember him because I fought him a few times before – an American ranker ranked 11th.

Anyway, looking at Muriel’s photo on the computer monitor, she’s definitely a female Cult. And not just any Cult, but one with deer antlers, which are said to be the symbol of Cult royalty.

‘I don’t know why a deer-antlered Cult is pirating.’

If she’s a ranker, she would know how much a deer-antlered Cult can do in Cult society.

She would have brought an Imperial Mothership, not just a cruiser like this.

‘I’ll have to find out step by step.’

Currently, I know very little about players. I don’t know if she and I are the only players in this world, or if there are others besides us.

So I need to extract enough information through conversation with her.

“That you outranked me was only in the game. Do you think you can beat me as a mere Juvenile?”

Unexpected. Despite losing her cruiser, she’s quite confident.

‘Does she have something up her sleeve?’

I know she’s been called a queen bee and other unflattering names.

But even so, she’s also a ranker in Space Survival.

If she’s not impersonating the 20th ranked player, she must be hiding some trump card.

‘Let’s talk a bit more.’

“You’re-quite-arrogant-for-someone-who-just-lost-a-cruiser.”

“Hmph. That ship is just a small part of the power we possess.”

“We?”

What does she mean by “we”?

She could be referring to the Humanity Cartel, but it didn’t sound like that. Thanks to AMorph’s unique hypersensitivity, I can somewhat grasp the emotions contained in the other person’s voice.

‘It feels like she’s referring to colleagues, not subordinates.’

That means players, or entities equivalent to players, are working together with her.

While I was thinking, she continued speaking.

“I’ll give you credit for finding this planet despite being just a Juvenile, but that’s it. If you had stayed quiet, I would have let you be.”

“Don’t-be-mistaken. You-shot-down-my-ship-first. You’re-not-in-a-position-to-talk.”

“How stupid. Did you think I would leave an unknown intruder alone? Besides, you’re just a weakling now. A weakling has no right to protest against me.”

Her words sounded childish, but they penetrated the core of this world.

The world of Space Survival was a dystopian world governed by the logic of survival of the fittest.

‘Further conversation is meaningless.’

Seeing her attitude, mentioning the weak, it’s clear that negotiation is out of the question.

It seems I’ll have to meet her in person and hear the details from her own mouth. I have many useful tools that help make people tell only the truth.

“You-seem-quite-immersed-in-this-world.”

“Ha. Anyone who stays here long enough becomes like this. You know what kind of world this is, don’t you?”

I was about to end the conversation, but she gave me an important clue.

‘She said “stays long enough”?’

I’ve been here for less than half a year.

Of course, it felt longer because I’ve been constantly doing something without rest. But it’s not long enough to describe as “staying long.”

‘Muriel and I arrived here at different times.’

She must have been in this world much longer than I have.

‘This is quite interesting.’

Another reason to capture Muriel somehow.

“And you know what? You probably think I’m just wasting time with this pointless conversation?”

“What-do-you-mean?”

“Do you think I’m that stupid? Do you think I didn’t prepare anything on the cruiser?”

She speaks as if she’s done something to the cruiser.

“Are-you-talking-about-the-bombs?”

“Huh?”

“You-Space-Dogs-really-love-your-bombs.”

Before I occupied the situation room, the tooth bugs I had spread throughout the ship reported a danger to me. They said bombs that could be remotely detonated were planted around the reactor.

They were installed very secretly, and there was no record in the ship’s computer, suggesting Muriel had planted them in anticipation of the ship being captured.

If I hadn’t fought Space Dogs on the previous research vessel, I might not have thought about bombs. It’s hard to imagine placing bombs on the reactor, the heart of the ship.

“…Ha. You’re really something. That’s definitely the 5th ranked player.”

The bombs had already been disabled with their wires cut.

Muriel let out an exclamation, perhaps confirming this fact.

But the emotion permeating her voice was different from what I expected.

It wasn’t surprise or shock, but relief.

“You’re smart, but did you think that’s all I prepared?”

“Unidentified energy flow detected in planetary orbit. Danger. Everyone evacuate.”

As soon as Muriel finished speaking, warning sounds echoed throughout the situation room.

‘Orbit? Could it be?’

“It’s a bit of a shame to lose the ship. But if it’s bait to catch a ranker, it’s worth it, right?”

I left the situation room without delay.

There’s only one thing the energy flow from orbit could indicate.

Orbital bombardment.

If it were orbital bombardment through a fleet, the cruiser’s AI would detect it. Since it said “unidentified energy flow,” what’s bombarding from orbit isn’t a spaceship.

‘Unique-grade weapon!’

Among the unique-grade weapons that only Cult can obtain, there’s a satellite weapon that helps strike specific areas from orbit.

Its name is “Lightning God.”

A satellite weapon that uses the owner’s psychic power as fuel, it drives an enormous lightning bolt down onto the target.

Though it sounds weak when called lightning, its destructive power exceeds that of a nuclear bomb. Once it hits the ground, everything in the area is destroyed.

It has the drawback of a 14-day cooldown after one shot, but it’s still very popular equipment in the game because it’s always advantageous to use it before fighting a powerful enemy.

‘An Adult might withstand it, but not now!’

Even as a Subadult, I would die instantly if hit by the Lightning God’s bolt.

I quickly crawled down to the ground through the hole I had dug under the cruiser.

‘This isn’t enough.’

The distance to the ground was well over a hundred meters, but I still couldn’t feel safe. Even after I entered the ground and the nest filled the hole I dug, it wasn’t enough.

I hurriedly dug deeper into the ground.

When I was several hundred meters away from the surface, the link connected to my tooth fairies was cut off.

Then I felt a strong vibration from above.

The lightning bolt thrown by the Lightning God had hit the ground.

–

“Whew, what a spectacle.”

The Lightning God’s bolt was so powerful that it was visible even from a considerable distance from the cruiser. The night sky cleared of all clouds due to the lightning that came from the planet’s orbit.

A massive nuclear cloud rose from the area where the lightning struck, caused by the explosion of the cruiser’s reactor.

Even a forest filled with redwoods over hundreds of meters tall couldn’t withstand this unprecedented disaster.

A giant fire demon devoured the forest and the creatures living in it.

Watching countless lives being extinguished, Muriel clapped as if enjoying it.

“As expected of Lightning God. Its performance is definitely reliable.”

“……”

Sky Mother gritted her teeth at the second activation of Lightning God she had witnessed.

This wasn’t the first time Lightning God had been activated on this planet. Muriel had used it when capturing Father Land and Sky Mother.

Father Land was a Volf Named with surprisingly high defense, but not enough to withstand Lightning God’s bolt.

Moreover, Father Land covered Sky Mother’s body to protect her, taking the lightning strike instead.

Thanks to that, he became critically injured with one hit and was beheaded and killed in the ensuing battle.

“Hmm, no matter if he’s the 5th ranked player, there’s no way he could survive that lightning, right? Even that, what was it, Father Land? He went down with one hit.”

“……”

“Well, safety first. I should see the corpse with my own eyes.”

Muriel called some of her subordinates.

“Boys, go check with Sky Mother here.”

“…Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I’ll listen to you?”

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious?”

Muriel unstrapped the short spear on her back and, with an indifferent expression, killed a young Volf boy with it.

“You bitch!”

“Will you abandon your ‘family’?”

“I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you apart somehow!”

“Oh my, how scary. But before you kill me, these cute children will die first.”

“Grr!”

“If you want to save your family, you’d better listen to me, 15th ranked player.”

“Damn it…”

Under Muriel’s threat, Sky Mother had no choice but to lower her head once again.

–

‘I thought I was going to die.’

I managed to avoid the range of Lightning God, but that didn’t mean I was completely safe.

The tremendous fire caused by the combination of the reactor explosion and the bomb penetrated into the tunnel I had dug.

Fortunately, thanks to evolving into a Subadult with hardened carapace, I was able to withstand that destructive energy flow.

And thanks to Lightning God’s bolt shaking the crust significantly, the tunnel I dug collapsed, preventing the heat that seemed about to engulf my entire body from continuing to chase me.

I waited underground until the aftermath of the explosion ended, then came up to the surface.

What was once densely packed with redwoods and grass had literally become a desolate field.

Where the cruiser had been, only sand remained, and the distant forest was still burning fiercely.

‘So this is how it turned out.’

So far, I’ve eaten countless lives. That included humans.

But somewhere in my mind, I had this thought.

That it was okay because they weren’t people from the same world as me.

That’s why I might have approached her, an actual person, with an ambiguous attitude.

Even though I knew Muriel was the very person who posed a great threat not only to me but also to No. 26 and Adhigh Orr.

That was definitely the case.

But now that thought has completely disappeared.

‘Killing someone who goes around striking lightning on other people’s heads would be self-defense, right?’

After crawling out of the ground, I quickly crawled toward the distant burning forest.

I couldn’t tell if the heat I felt on my body was due to the aftermath of the nuclear explosion or my anger.

Anyway, that’s not important.

‘Lightning God’s cooldown is 14 days.’

I don’t know if this is her trump card, or if she has more hidden.

But it doesn’t matter anymore.

‘I won’t kill her right away.’

Because there’s information I need to get from her.

Instead, I need to show her that there are things sometimes more terrifying than death.

Using all the strategies and means I have.

She’ll soon find out how terrifying an angry AMorph can be.