Ch.162162. Ambush

After hearing the research director’s opinion, the mercenary captain postponed his decision and retreated to his room, where he clutched his head in both hands and began to agonize over what to do.

If he were to judge purely based on reason, he should follow the research director’s opinion and eliminate that entity.

But, but even so, that thing… no, she, the girl is still just a child.

To kill such a child simply because she might become a risk factor in the future?

And not even because she herself would directly become dangerous,

but merely because she ‘could’ provide an excuse for danger?

This seems wrong somehow. At least, if he as a civilized person agreed to this, he felt he might lose his mind.

As the mercenary captain was thinking this… suddenly, amid his feelings of sympathy for the girl, he noticed a question arising.

That ‘girl’ might be pitiful.

But why was he feeling only sympathy for a girl who could become a threat?

He had executed his most beloved lieutenant when they began mutating into a monster due to an ancient virus, all for the sake of the mercenary group.

He had given the order to fire knowing friendly casualties would occur during an engagement with a medium-sized (cruiser-class Hive Ship) monster vessel.

He had even personally ended the life of a 3-year-old baby that had been turned into a monster by the Hive Cult.

Yet here he was, deeply empathizing with something that wasn’t even human?

Something was strange about this.

And once triggered, this doubt refused to subside and instead grew stronger,

causing him to view everything that had happened until now with suspicion.

The conflict he had been experiencing, the inexplicable desire to continue watching over that child, and then…

‘…No, that’s not right.’

Anyway, prompted by this suspicion, the mercenary captain sat down to meditate,

diving into his inner self to check if there was something wrong with his mental state.

And—he found it.

‘How, how is this possible…!!!’

A psychic suggestion so cunningly placed in his mind that even he hadn’t noticed it.

If one were to compare the form of this psychic suggestion to something material, it would be quite similar to layers of pastry stacked upon each other.

Each suggestion was so thin that the victim couldn’t even perceive it,

which is why despite being layered deeply enough to influence even a high-level psychic user like himself, he hadn’t noticed.

But surprisingly, this psychic suggestion didn’t appear to be intentional.

According to the emotions he read using psychometry (the ability to read sensations from objects) on the psychic energy as he peeled away the suggestion,

this wasn’t a deliberately used psychic ability.

This suggestion seemed to be a kind of self-defensive reflex action,

placing a subtle suggestion on nearby intelligent beings to make them feel friendly toward it, presumably to increase its chances of survival.

If there had been malicious intent,

a superior psychic user would have been able to hide the emotions readable from such psychic energy, after all.

But… this wasn’t a problem that could be solved simply because there was no malice.

No, perhaps it was even more dangerous precisely because there was no malice.

Without malice, emotional detection through psychic means was difficult,

and considering that not once had any psychic energy been detected by instruments until he had reached this state,

the danger level was extremely high.

Moreover, if those unconsciously placed suggestions were left unchecked,

they could potentially permanently dominate nearby researchers or crew members…

‘Should I… eliminate it?’

He was seriously contemplating whether to eliminate it.

Apart from personal feelings or such trivial matters,

‘that thing’ had a high probability of secretly creating allies within the ship without even knowing it.

Whether intentional or not, it could create an internal faction,

and might even become a terrible catastrophe for the entire galaxy if left alive?

‘…I have no choice.’

Thanks to this incident, he had made up his mind to deal with that ancient monster in the form of a girl, even if he had to act alone,

and was about to move to issue the order when—

“Hmm, so that’s what you were thinking?”

“—Who’s there?!!”

Had it not been for the provocative young voice suddenly coming from behind him.

As he hastily turned his head and spoke,

the being who had addressed him from behind, an unidentified white girl, came into his view.

His first thought upon seeing the girl was that she was completely white.

Except for her pupils and parts of her clothing, she seemed drained of all color,

and bore a striking resemblance to the being in the isolation room that he knew well.

However, her height was not much different from that of an ordinary early teenage girl, her attire had something of a crew member feel to it,

and decisively, her expression was provocative rather than innocent.

‘…What is that?’

As he was trying to make sense of this suddenly appeared being,

the girl, with her lips curled up unnaturally, addressed the mercenary captain in a voice filled with mockery and contempt.

“Oh my, what’s this? As expected, you’re so incompetent you can’t even assess the situation properly?”

‘This thing, reading my thoughts—’

“Of course I am, who do you think I am? Penetrating your flimsy mental barrier is nothing to me, you know?”

Seeing how it blatantly revealed that it was reading the mercenary captain’s thoughts,

he decided further dialogue was unnecessary and drew his weapon to engage.

Click.

Shing…

Being in light armor close to civilian clothes, the only weapons he currently had equipped were a plasma pistol and a ceremonial psychic sword.

Moreover, his attire was merely a neat uniform similar to a dress uniform with some lightweight, easily portable powered suit components worn over it.

Because of this, the mercenary captain was certain he couldn’t demonstrate his full abilities,

but regardless, he was currently estimating his chances of victory quite highly.

‘Energy level 3… lower tier of level 2, no weapons. High stealth capability, but the possibility of sensory evasion—’

“Hey, aren’t you underestimating me too much?”

Ignoring its words, the mercenary captain continued his objective assessment internally.

Based on his senses and psychic wavelengths, its pure combat power was around the lower tier of level 2,

and even considering various special abilities like mind reading and stealth actions, it barely fell short of level 1.

On the other hand, he could confidently say he was among the top ten level 1 mercenaries in the Mercenary Guild,

or to put it more extremely, he was nothing short of the pinnacle of superhumans who could conquer an entire planet alone.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure you think so.”

Therefore, while he judged that he had sufficient chances of victory,

he had no intention of letting his guard down as he emptied his mind and fired his plasma pistol at the white being—

Woong…! Woong…! Woong…!

“But! …It’s this easy to dodge!”

Dodging the three plasma explosions that flew by moving left and right, the white being

mocked the mercenary captain in a provocative tone and shot a strange-colored beam from its eyes.

“Eye beam!!!”

Unlike its playful and mocking words,

the beam that poured from its pupils was by no means a joke to be taken lightly like its behavior.

—Writhe.

The beam itself ended with hitting the floor as the mercenary captain dodged it,

but instead, tentacles suddenly grew from the floor where the beam had hit, accompanied by psychic energy, and attacked him.

Slash!

‘Tentacles…?!!’

Their inherent strength was just at the level of mutated metal, so the tentacles themselves weren’t much.

The problem was that these tentacles, formed from material that had mutated after being hit by the beam, were growing in real-time and—

“Hup.”

—Taaaang!!!!

Both the tentacles from the floor and those emitted by the white being’s main body attacked him simultaneously.

Slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash—!!!

Though he cut down the attacking tentacles with almost divine perfect technique,

the mercenary captain noticed the difference in cutting the tentacles used by the main body and raised his guard even further.

The mercenary captain instinctively felt that the more he touched the tentacles, the more his sword was gradually disintegrating, and the cause of this disintegration was…

How, how is such skill possible!

The overwhelming skill of the white being, which somehow managed to penetrate even the thick psychic energy covering his sword with mere technique, was incomprehensible.