Ch.152Dragon’s Nest (3)

“Entry complete.”

“Good. The ship’s defense systems are still inactive.”

“ConJ? Can you see? I’ve never seen a ship using this kind of biometal.”

Six cyborgs synchronized with Walkers set foot inside the mysterious ship. They hadn’t noticed when breaching the door, but once inside, they could tell this vessel was far from ordinary.

Except for the fact that both the exterior and interior walls were pitch black, it didn’t seem much different from a standard Cult escort ship. However, examining it with the biosignal detection module attached to the Walker revealed completely different results.

The faint life signatures detected throughout the ship, warmth reminiscent of living tissue, air that was unusually humid for a spacecraft… These were far from the characteristics of a normal vessel.

“To think the Cult developed such metal. How strange.”

“Did they get it from Outspacers?”

“We have plenty of time, so let’s examine it carefully.”

Although the ship’s interior was different from what they expected, the cyborgs weren’t worried.

The Walkers they piloted were heavily armored combat walking machines, “Sentinel” models. Equipped with reinforcement shields typically found on ships, these Walkers were powerful enough to fight Cult warrior units.

Since these weren’t weapons meant for a mere cargo ship, all the Walkers were provided by the Star Union’s Population Management Department to ensure smooth cargo transport.

Plus, they had small drones and various weapons to support combat. While they might not achieve complete victory against Cult warrior units, they certainly wouldn’t lose.

The well-armed cyborgs, led by McKay, deployed exploration drones. Small spherical flying objects disappeared down the ship’s corridors.

According to V’s analysis, this ship carried over 700 cargo units. Considering that Cult escort ships of similar class typically had 200 crew members, this meant more than triple the personnel were aboard.

With so many people, they should find them quickly.

Just then, the exploration drones began sending back footage of the hull from all directions. Looking at the gradually completing map of the ship’s interior, they moved deeper inside.

“Hey, McKay. Look at this.”

“What is this?”

“Looks like some kind of plant species.”

It was all so black that they hadn’t noticed at first. Only after a fellow cyborg pointed it out did McKay realize that vine-like or stem-like structures covered the corridor.

“V compared it with the Starlink database, but there’s no matching biological information.”

“Not even Outspacer? What is all this?”

“I’ll collect a sample.”

The cyborg controlled the Walker’s work arm to tear off a stem attached to the corridor. Black mucus dripped from the torn stem.

“…Good thing we’re in sealed Walkers. If we were in Light Walkers, I might have thrown up.”

“Didn’t you get all your internal organs modified?”

“I’d probably just vomit oil.”

“Stop the useless talk. If you’ve collected it, let’s move quickly.”

“Yeah, just registering it in the database.”

They continued moving while collecting information. The corridor gradually narrowed, with the Walker’s edge almost touching the ceiling.

Yet there was still no sign of any Cult members. The only living things they had seen were the vines everywhere and spores that expelled unsanitary-looking mucus.

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

“Next, we turn right… huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“There should be a fork in the road here?”

“What are you talking about? This is a straight line.”

“The map seems off. Everyone, check yours.”

At McKay’s words, they each checked the maps created by their exploration drones. They were shocked by what they saw in the virtually rendered maps.

“The maps are all different!”

If a ship’s structure changed in real-time, would it look like this? None of the six maps created by the drones matched.

“Is there a problem with the drones? Maybe they’re being jammed.”

“If that were the case, they’d malfunction, not produce results like this.”

“ConJ, did you see? The situation doesn’t look good.”

“Damn… Let’s return to the ship first—”

Just as the cyborgs were about to retreat after hearing ConJ’s words, the ship shook violently.

“What’s that?”

“Hey, ConJ. What’s happening?”

“The ship is mov—*static*—caution—*static*”

“ConJ? Con—ugh!”

“Gah?!”

When a powerful noise blared from the linked Walker’s receiver, the cyborgs quickly cut the communication. McKay rebooted the communication system to contact ConJ, but only static came through.

“Damn, the communication system seems to be broken.”

The communication between Walkers was fine, but they couldn’t contact the cargo ship specifically.

Communication with the cargo ship cut off, a ship with a bizarre structure, corridors full of strange spores and stems but no people.

Emotions locked somewhere in the cyborgs’ minds began to creep out.

The emotion called fear.

“Everyone stay calm. Let’s return to the carrier.”

The cyborgs began to retrace their steps. McKay took the lead to calm his anxious comrades.

The heavy thudding of the Walkers echoed throughout the corridor. Each time their footsteps shook the metal walls, those black stems sprawling across the hull writhed as if alive.

Of course, that couldn’t be real, but looking at them, McKay somehow thought the ship resembled a living creature.

The innards of a massive monster. The cyborgs here were already eaten and being digested.

‘What nonsensical thoughts.’

McKay actively denied the idea that came to mind. At times like this, he needed to keep his wits about him.

But cruel reality mercilessly trampled his efforts.

“F-fuck, what is this!”

“…”

Instead of the straight corridor they had entered through, a fork in the road awaited them. One of the cyborgs, falling into panic, screamed with profanity.

Even McKay disconnected from his synchronized Walker to check if he was seeing things wrong. Despite his hopes, the fork was still there before them.

“Damn, what do we do?”

“Let’s use the exploration drones again…”

“Shit, even if we do, it’ll just change again!”

“Calm down! Instead of that, how about we just break through the walls?”

“Break through the walls?”

“Thanks to the Sentinel’s oxygen supply function, we can survive in space. We’ll go outside and walk to the carrier.”

It wasn’t a bad method, though risky. At least it would be better than wandering through a constantly changing ship.

The muzzle of the Stormgun mounted on the Walker aimed at the corridor wall. Then, terrifying firepower poured onto the alloy wall.

By the time the spores and branches attached to the wall turned to black ash, a large hole was created. A new corridor awaited them inside the hole, but the cyborgs didn’t waver.

‘Fuck, let’s see who wins, you or us.’

After destroying several walls, they finally reached the ship’s outer hull.

“Once we get out of here, we’re free!”

“Great!”

The depleted uranium rounds in their magazines, carrying the cyborgs’ hopes, embedded into the wall.

They fired until their Stormguns overheated and forcibly stopped, finally able to get outside.

However, the scene beyond the outer hull was different from what they had imagined.

“Huh?”

The first thing they saw was the hull of a ship. A familiar form, a long rectangular shape glowing ashen—it was the cargo ship they had arrived on.

That cargo ship was now split in two. A massive pincer was swimming through space, chopping the cargo ship into pieces.

Numerous containers from inside the cargo ship spilled into space. Snake-like elongated tentacles harvested the floating debris.

Witnessing this scene, all the cyborgs thought the same thing.

The cargo ship they had arrived on was now…

Being eaten by this ship that had turned into a monster.

–

‘As expected, there are definitely pros and cons.’

Debris from the half-destroyed ship floated before me.

The personnel supply ship, several times larger than the escort ship I had taken over, was completely shattered by giant pincers over dozens of meters long.

‘The destructive power is far superior to normal state, but…’

There’s a significant drawback.

When I create pincers, Essence Harvester jaws, tails, etc. on the ship’s outer hull, the movement speed decreases. And the movement of the manifested body parts is quite slow.

If that ship had been a combat warship rather than a regular vessel, or if they had reacted even a little faster to my approach, it wouldn’t have been so easy to tear them apart like this.

‘No. 26’s increased strength is helpful in times like this.’

No. 26’s psychic power, having absorbed the Sea Demon’s power, had become incomparably stronger than before. Moreover, the Cult escort ship I had taken over was made of moonsilver alloy, which enhanced the effects of psychic power.

Thanks to these two conditions, No. 26 was able to demonstrate a new power.

‘An EMP created with psychic power.’

No. 26 created a field that neutralized electronic equipment by strongly concentrating psychic power at specific points. EMP technology existed in the game too, but none could distinguish between friend and foe.

In other words, No. 26’s technique that only neutralized the personnel supply ship can be considered his original skill.

‘It only lasts a few minutes at most.’

But that was enough time for me to approach the personnel supply ship.

They tried to distance themselves when they saw giant mouths and pincers forming on the escort ship I had taken over, but by then it was too late. The personnel supply ship was caught by my pincers while retreating and its hull was split apart.

‘This fighting style would be good during fleet battles too.’

If facing a small number of opponents, this method could easily resolve things.

Of course, when fighting against fleets of dozens of ships, resolving it with psychic vortexes would be impossible, so I’d need to devise other methods.

‘Still, it’s convenient for eating.’

The massive jaw that sprouted from the front of the escort ship swallowed all the cargo containers spilling from the destroyed ship. The “Essence Harvester’s Jaw,” created from moonsilver alloy and biological tissue, crushed the containers and absorbed their contents.

In an instant, the genetic essence of hundreds of people seeped into my body, and multiple text boxes appeared notifying me of the feeding effect. Those who entered the freezing capsules in an anesthetized state wouldn’t have felt any fear of death or pain.

‘Though not all of them.’

There were those desperately trying to escape from me, and those opposing me. They would find it difficult to meet death peacefully.

Several carrier aircraft and numerous combat drones emerged from the exploding ship. Combat drones equipped with lightweight Stormguns poured fire at me.

Meanwhile, carrier aircraft tried to escape. They were likely using the drones as decoys to slip away.

‘I can’t let them escape.’

Dozens of Corruption Tentacles shot out from my body, synchronized with the hull. Like the mythical snake with hundreds of heads, numerous tentacles chased after the carrier aircraft.

The aircraft desperately tried to escape. But there were too many tentacles surrounding them.

In the end, not a single aircraft managed to escape my grasp.

Long, thin Corruption Tentacles wrapped around the aircraft and shattered the alloy glass covering the cockpit. Then they tore out the cyborgs whose bodies were connected to the aircraft.

A small female cyborg, as tiny as distant stars, wailed. Being in space, I couldn’t hear any sound, but I could guess what she was shouting.

Probably begging to be saved or saying she was sorry.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.’

They targeted me first. If I had been weak, they would have tried to kill me.

They made the wrong choice in the wrong place.

And so, the cyborgs aboard the carrier aircraft became nourishment for the Corruption Tentacles one by one.

‘Hmm?’

Just then, I felt a gaze from somewhere.

I diverted my attention from the debris of the personnel supply ship to check what was happening inside and outside the ship.

‘When did these guys come out?’

Six Walkers that had entered my body were now watching the results of my creation after tearing through my side. Though their heavily armored Walkers concealed their faces, they must have been quite shocked.

‘Should I clean them up too?’

I ordered the Corruption Tentacles near them to capture all the Walkers.

“[Unintelligible]! [Unintelligible]!”

“[Unintelligible]!”

Seeing the approaching Corruption Tentacles, the Walkers screamed and crawled back into my body. Only one Walker at the back failed to avoid my tentacles and was caught.

“[Unintelligible]! [Unintelligible]!”

The Walker struggled in the grip of the tentacles. It tried to cut my Corruption Tentacles with the Stormgun mounted on its arm, but it was a meaningless resistance. There were plenty more Corruption Tentacles.

The resisting Walker was eventually torn apart and destroyed by the tentacles.

‘Five remain.’

I could change the ship’s structure and crush them all, but I decided not to.

‘One or two could be used as human-faced beasts.’

I had received enough information from the Cult members. It wouldn’t be bad to introduce new friends to them.

‘Besides, Adhigh seems bored.’

Apart from occasionally helping with route settings, Adhigh spent his time playing with No. 26 or training hunting with the Sky Mother.

Especially thanks to the Sky Mother’s teachings, he became much more proficient with his “Hyper Acceleration” and “Purple Lightning.”

‘This time, I’ll leave it to Adhigh.’

I sent a wave containing my will to him, then focused back on feeding.

Even as the personnel supply ship emptied, space remained silent without a sound.