Ch.120Night Hunt (4)

“Mo, monster!”

“Kill it!”

The pirates scream in terror as I reveal myself in the middle of their fortified camp.

Then, merciless beams of light rain down.

The firepower is truly overwhelming—over a hundred pirates, dozens of walkers, and defense towers installed throughout the camp all firing simultaneously.

If I hadn’t evolved to a Subadult, I would have suffered irreparable damage from this attack.

‘But not anymore.’

I hear the sound of bullets showering down on my carapace like rain on a car hood. Their attacks are useless against my exoskeleton, which functions like living armor.

I should teach these bullet-wasting fools a lesson in conservation.

I charge through their line of fire and leap into their midst.

Six combat arms extend simultaneously, targeting the armed pirates.

Since becoming a Subadult, my body has grown to over 20 meters, and my arms and claws have grown proportionally larger.

Whenever my claws graze a pirate’s body, they split apart. When struck by my combat arms, they fly far away, crashing into the fortification walls.

“Aaaagh! Insane!”

“Aaaah! Die!”

When the bone axe at the end of my combat arm decapitates someone, my assimilation tentacles catch the head before it hits the ground and devour it.

Some pirates, in a last desperate act, draw Sonic Blades from their waists and charge at me.

The ultra-vibrating blades that can easily cut through thick wood and solid metal come flying.

“Huh?”

Those blades that once gave me moments of crisis now break surprisingly easily.

The pirates stare with stupid expressions, unable to believe what just happened before their eyes. Losing focus during combat is fatal.

They pay the price as their useless heads separate from their bodies.

“Damn it! Just blast it!”

“Fuck!”

The Heavy Walkers fire Storm Guns and Plasma Launchers mounted on both arms at me as I slaughter their comrades in close quarters.

The barrage of massive depleted uranium rounds and destructive plasma beams turns my position into a wasteland. Pirates who were having their limbs torn off by me are instantly shredded by friendly fire.

‘What a waste.’

As I think about the wasted genetic essence, a plasma energy blast far more powerful than a gauss rifle strikes my head.

“Grrrr”

An attack that would have sent me flying backward as a Juvenile…

Now merely tilts my head slightly.

“I-insane!”

“Even plasma launchers don’t work!”

I hear the horrified cries of the Heavy Walker pilots.

To be honest, I’m not completely unharmed. The part of my exoskeleton hit by the heat ray is glowing red from the intense heat, and I do feel pain.

But it’s at a level I can easily endure.

‘I should return what I’ve received.’

My jaw splits in two, and two organs inside my body rapidly activate.

The Acidic Fungal Gland—a fusion trait created from my original Acidic Blood trait.

The Decay Fungus Organ—an organ that produces spores filled with decay mold.

These demonic organs busily prepare to inflict terrible pain on my enemies.

Then, greenish liquid and black spores pass through my throat and are expelled from my mouth.

The contaminants, lethal to both machines and humans, fly toward the Heavy Walkers and the pirates around them.

The acidic fungus easily melts through alloys, dissolving the Walker’s armor, while decay mold that harms human flesh seeps through the gaps.

The pilots scream, unable to escape as they’re covered in mold.

“Aaaagh! P-please spare me!”

“Gaaack!”

“W-watch out… Aaack!”

The thick armor of the Walkers, normally protecting pilots from threatening environmental elements, now becomes a prison trapping them.

The Walkers, mentally linked to their pilots, stop firing and begin thrashing about wildly. Pirates using the Walkers as cover are crushed to pulp under the metal giants’ feet.

“W-we can’t win!”

“Boss! We need the boss!”

As I destroy both regular pirates and Walkers indiscriminately, the remaining pirates lose their will to fight and flee.

There’s no need to chase them.

The fog surrounding this fortress and the nest crawling up from below will take care of them.

“Kack, kaack?!”

“The fog is poisonous… Guack!”

After just a few steps, they realize something is wrong with their respiratory systems. The pirates collapse and vomit blood mixed with chunks of flesh.

All pirates in the fortress were wearing reinforcement suits. Their helmets had anti-gas effects, but these were inadequate against the toxic fog emitted by the Smoke Tower, strengthened by the merger of ten nests.

‘Even if they could block it, they wouldn’t last long.’

The toxic fog, enhanced tenfold, has toxicity just slightly less potent than the fog in the swamps of Saintopia02 continent.

The protective effects built into their reinforcement suits would last a few minutes at most.

Even pirates less affected by the poisonous fog weren’t safe.

“Ughk! G-ghost! It’s a ghost!”

“He-hehehe… The flowers are so beautiful…”

Hallucination bugs that hatched from the nest’s spores and sundews that seemed to have grown on pirate blood were targeting them. These too were enhanced tenfold, making them nearly impossible for the pirates to avoid.

The pirates thought this fortified camp was the safest place, but they were wrong.

They should have left this planet, even if it meant defying Muriel’s orders.

‘You chose the wrong option.’

My assimilation tentacles continued harvesting the heads of dying pirates on the ground, even during combat. Like picking fallen fruit from a tree.

“All Walkers retreat to the central plaza!”

“Fall back!”

The surviving Walkers ceased their attack and quickly pulled back. I know what they’re expecting.

In the central plaza waits the most powerful being in this camp.

Muriel, the boss of the Humanity Cartel and the 20th-ranked player.

She’s waiting for me.

I pressed my upper body to the ground and crawled after the Walkers.

Heavy Walkers specialize in maintaining formation and pouring firepower on enemies, not in mobile warfare. They move much faster than humans, but they’re no match for me, who moves like a train.

Whenever I got close to a Walker, I pounced on it from behind. With the thick toxic fog outside, the pilots couldn’t even think of leaving their cockpits and could only wait for death.

When the remaining Walkers were reduced to fewer than five, we reached the central plaza.

“…”

There stood a Cult with antlers, holding a brilliantly shining golden spear.

She wore a halo headband in the shape of a cross with a faint purple glow, and a full-body reinforcement suit.

Muriel, fully prepared for battle, was looking at me with an electronic cigarette in her mouth.

I pounced on a fleeing Walker and pulled out the pilot. Then, in front of her, I grabbed all four limbs and pulled.

“B-boss! Help me… Aaaaargh!”

The strength of my combat arms can tear through a ship’s hull with bare hands. Even with a reinforcement suit, no ordinary person could withstand such force. The pirate who called desperately for his boss died as his upper and lower body separated.

Seeing this, Muriel frowned.

“Tsk, how barbaric.”

“Sur·pris·ing.”

“Surprising? Ptui, that’s my line. Who would have thought you’d become a Subadult.”

Muriel spat and spoke irritably.

She didn’t seem particularly shocked or frightened by the fact that I had evolved to a Subadult.

Muriel’s attitude right now was that of someone who believed they had a clear advantage.

“I·didn’t·ex·pect·you·to·stay.”

Hearing my words, she smirked as if she’d heard an amusing joke.

“Run? Me? You seem to misunderstand something…”

Saying this, Muriel raised the lighter in her left hand. She pressed a switch on the terminal disguised as a lighter.

Suddenly, eight small spider-like machines sprang from the ground around me and attached themselves to my body. They moved so quickly that I couldn’t avoid them, even with my auxiliary organs’ detection.

When the machines lit up red, my body began to feel as heavy as a water-soaked sponge. It felt like my life force was being drained by the machines.

‘Blood Reaver!’

The name of the machines attached to my body is Blood Reaver.

It’s one of the unique-grade war weapons used by the Star Union.

This weapon attaches to victims at very high speed and rapidly drains their life force. Its durability is so high that it’s nearly impossible to destroy the machine once it’s attached.

Moreover, as I just experienced by failing to detect it with my auxiliary organs, it’s undetectable and has an incredibly fast ambush speed.

Due to these characteristics, Blood Reaver was one of the deadliest weapons against biological players or enemies in the game.

I couldn’t resist at all and crashed my head into the ground. Even though I wanted to raise my body somehow, I couldn’t move a finger.

“Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for fighting a monster like you?”

Muriel walked toward me with a triumphant smile.

As she raised her spear high…

I struck her side with my combat arm.

“Kuh?!”

She barely avoided my attack, with my sharp claws leaving a thin wound on her waist.

As she quickly retreated, my assimilation tentacles lashed out.

She quickly deflected the attacks coming from six directions with her spear. While she was busy fending off the tentacles, I drew a bone axe while still prone and aimed for her ankle.

“Not there!”

Her body glowed purple as she leaped into the air. While my bone axe swept across the ground, she landed lightly at a considerable distance.

Her suit writhed and healed the wound on her side. In a few seconds, her body returned to its pre-battle state.

In contrast, her face seemed to have lost much of its composure compared to before.

“How can you move with Blood Reavers attached?”

“You·mean·these?”

Instead of answering, I rose to my feet and removed the Blood Reavers attached to various parts of my body.

The black spider-like machines were covered with silvery moss.

‘That could have been dangerous if I hadn’t known in advance.’

Just one Blood Reaver has an effect greater than the neural toxin I inject into biological enemies. Victims have their life force stolen while simultaneously being paralyzed, making defense impossible.

‘No wonder it’s a unique-grade weapon.’

Sky Mother said Muriel possessed two Blood Reavers. That’s because Muriel used two Blood Reavers when fighting her.

As a Volf who relies heavily on physical performance in combat, she must have fought Muriel in a severely weakened state.

‘And she uses eight on me?’

Contrary to Sky Mother’s words, Muriel had eight. And she used all eight on me.

Even in the game, no player ever used eight on me simultaneously. Being unique-grade weapons, they weren’t easy to obtain in the first place.

‘If I were still a Juvenile, I would have died from this.’

Even as a Subadult, I couldn’t move a finger when all eight attached at once. As a Juvenile, I would have died instantly from life force depletion.

‘She did think it through, but…’

Before fighting her, I had already activated Gremlin Moss. To prepare for unexpected ambushes.

The silver moss was ready to emerge through the pores on my exoskeleton and carapace at any time, allowing me to brilliantly counter the enemy’s secret attack.

‘Once infected with Gremlin Moss, Blood Reavers are useless for 20 minutes.’

By the way, I don’t need to worry about the life force stolen by the Blood Reavers. Thanks to the Human Sacrifice effect, all corpses that die on the soil of this camp—my nest—are essentially my energy.

Even now, my tail in contact with the ground is absorbing energy sent from the nest.

I removed the last spider machine attached to my head and threw it at her feet.

“Did·you·think·I·wouldn’t·pre·pare·for·fight·ing·a·mon·ster·like·you?”

When I threw her own words back at her, Muriel’s face hardened.

“…What an annoying bastard. I want to cut open your belly and see your insides.”

“In·ter·est·ing·thought. I’ll·take·note.”

Muriel takes a combat stance with her spear.

I don’t know what she’s thinking or what plans she has made. Although my auxiliary organs can estimate an opponent’s psychology through heartbeat or physical reactions, it’s not completely accurate.

But it doesn’t matter.

She may not know about me, but I’ve obtained useful information about her.

‘The outcome of a battle comes from differences in information.’

Before attacking the camp, I created nests to prepare terrain advantageous to me.

And I gathered as much information as possible about my prey to build a strategy for how to deal with them.

Having gained the upper hand in both terrain and information, only one thing remains.

Victory.