Ch.170Frozen Planet (5)

Blood from the corpse spreads across the snow-covered ground.

A spider-like monster charges forward amid the eerie rustling of leaves.

Its target is me.

More specifically, around my neck. Somehow it knew to aim for my weak point right away.

Six corrosive tentacles simultaneously shot out from my back. Already sturdy but now much stronger thanks to the synthetic scales covering them, the tentacles spread their appendages wide to grab the creature.

The creature is about 4m in size. Slightly smaller than the Sky Mother. I don’t know how strong it is, but not enough to overcome the disadvantage of its size.

My six tentacles collided with the creature’s eight legs. The loud sound of metal being scraped echoed widely through the forest.

The creature, much smaller than my corrosive tentacles, twisted its legs to deflect their attack. Stained bright red against its black metal skeleton, it climbed onto my tentacles and crawled quickly toward me.

The spider monster reached my back in an instant. Its front legs aimed for the monster’s tentacle on my neck.

‘Not there!’

I shook my body violently with perfect timing. The three mechanical claws at the end of its metal leg slashed through empty air.

As its posture crumbled, I launched my counterattack.

I bent my tail upward and swung the pincers at its end with great force. The creature hastily raised two of its front legs to defend itself.

Unfortunately for it, my pincers are among the hardest parts of my body along with my head carapace. A heavy explosive sound rang out as if it had been hit by a massive hammer, and the creature’s body was launched into the air.

Then the Sky Mother leaped up along my combat arm. She put all her strength into her two front legs and struck the creature’s right legs.

“Tch!”

Even while being thrown by the pincer attack, the spider monster somehow managed to twist its body. Regrettably, her attack only managed to crush one of its legs.

She and the spider monster crossed paths and landed in separate places. Unlike the Sky Mother who gracefully stepped onto the snow, the spider monster half-buried itself in the ground, perhaps due to its damaged leg.

“…It’s tougher than I expected.”

[Zzz zzzzz (It seems so)]

Her strike is powerful enough to punch holes in a spaceship. Yet the creature’s leg wasn’t broken, merely dented.

‘This isn’t working.’

I had originally planned to eat its flesh to identify what it was, but the opponent is fighting better than expected. We don’t have much time. It wouldn’t be wise to drag this out any longer.

I activated my “Insight” perk that I had been saving.

“Name: S-422

Species: Mass-produced Mu■■ ■■■■

Status: Contains information that cannot be verified.

Equipped gear: Contains information that cannot be verified.”

‘What?’

The information I saw about the creature was unusual. Thinking I might have seen wrong, I used it again, but not much changed.

‘It’s not a player, so why?’

Information that cannot be verified has only appeared once before, with Muriel.

“Leg damage status ‘severe’. Recovery impossible. Main controller ‘Pyrrha Eleven’ not responding. Continuing combat.”

While I was motionless using Insight, the creature regained its posture and initiated another attack.

S-422 came charging, rapidly moving its seven legs.

I twisted my body and swung my tail toward the front. The snow piled on the ground scattered like a blizzard.

The creature lowered its body to avoid my attack while simultaneously bending its two front legs backward to claw at the underside of my tail. As scales and blunt claws were torn off, a stinging pain surged through me.

My corrosive tentacles rushed to defend their attacked owner, but the creature seemed to anticipate this and leaped upward to avoid the attack.

My tentacles plunged straight into the ground, and the Sky Mother’s attack flew toward the creature suspended in mid-air.

Her most powerful weapon, her beak, collided with the creature’s front leg. The sound was less like body part meeting metal and more like two real swords locked in a power struggle.

“Left leg #2 damaged.”

“Ugh!”

The creature’s metal leg was cut as if sliced by a blade. But the Sky Mother wasn’t unscathed either. The creature’s claws had slashed her side.

I crawled forward, catching her with my combat arm while opening my mouth wide toward the creature. The acidic fungal gland located near my esophagus activated, and green acidic fungus shot out from my mouth.

“Acidic substance hazard.”

Still airborne, the creature forcibly twisted its body to avoid the incoming liquid.

However, this time it couldn’t completely evade. The greedy fungi that touched its body began to eat away at the metal skeleton.

“External skeleton damage 88%.”

The creature landed and tried to rub its legs in the snow, but it was too late. Its legs were already beyond recovery.

It could no longer stand and collapsed onto the snow.

‘Is it over?’

Until now, its legs had been its main weapon. It seems the creature has no other weapons.

‘No. There might still be something else.’

Since I couldn’t see its equipped gear, it might have some hidden weapon. I approached it cautiously.

“Main controller ‘Pyrrha Eleven’ confirmed in communication failure state. Defeat recorded, database registration complete.”

With its head buried in the ground, the creature was muttering something without pause.

“Incineration, incineration protocol activated. 20, 19…”

‘Incineration protocol?’

“18, 17, 16…”

I was about to finish it with my combat arm when the creature suddenly started a countdown.

“15, 14, 13…”

‘Could it be?’

Seized by an ominous premonition, I quickly grabbed the Sky Mother. I crawled frantically to escape the clearing.

“W-why so suddenly?”

When I suddenly embraced her and started running, she projected a thought wave filled with confusion. She seemed not to understand why I was doing this, but there was no time for explanations.

Instead of explaining, I continued crawling forward, knocking down all the trees in my path.

After about 10 seconds, I felt an enormous amount of energy and heat generating behind me. Along with it came a deafening boom powerful enough to make my auxiliary organs vibrate.

The Sky Mother’s eyes widened as she looked behind us.

“Holy shit! Run faster!”

‘I know!’

I could already feel unusual heat on my back and tail. Just from that, I could tell the energy released from the creature’s body exceeded dozens of plasma launcher shots.

‘I probably won’t die, but…’

The Sky Mother in my combat arms wouldn’t be so lucky. I’m sturdy enough that I’d just lose my carapace, arms, and legs, but she would be incinerated without even leaving ashes.

Thanks to my frantic escape using three combat arms, blunt claws, and corrosive tentacles, we barely managed to get beyond the explosion’s range.

Looking at the forest burning in flames, the Sky Mother muttered.

“Were there creatures like that in the game?”

[Zz zzzz zzz zzz (Not in my memory)]

“Right?”

There were beings in the game that used self-destruction as a weapon. For Megacorps, it was standard practice to implant bombs in useless employees and send them on suicide charges, and there were wild creatures that inflicted damage by self-destructing.

However, there were no beings that caused explosions this powerful.

‘Could it be a Space Dog remnant?’

I suddenly recalled the hulking mutant who had troubled me by implanting a bomb in one of my two hearts. I remembered it well not only because I was weak then, but because it was unusually intelligent for a hulk mutant.

I shook my head.

‘No, it’s unlikely to be him. It would be too random for him to appear in a place like this.’

Rather, it’s more reasonable to connect it with the new type of Screamer I encountered on the Star Union warship before arriving here.

‘That’s way too overpowered for a Screamer.’

Plus, I saw something when I checked with Insight earlier.

The word “mass-produced” in the creature’s species name. This tells me two things.

First, that it was created by someone. And…

‘It’s not just one.’

There might be dozens or hundreds of these Screamer-like monsters somewhere on this planet.

‘…I’ll worry about that later.’

Right now, we need to get out of here. If flames this large rise on a planet full of snow and ice, Gallergorn will surely come flying.

Or the creature’s companions.

‘Hunting is off for today.’

We definitely can’t come near this forest anymore. The Gallergorn will keep circling around.

We’ll have to try approaching the mountain range from another direction, but only after we’re sure it’s safe.

As we escaped the burning forest, we faced a new problem.

“Crossing the snow field is dangerous.”

A black beacon is rising over a world filled with white. Everyone will be looking here, and crossing an ice plain with no cover is too risky.

‘With my scale color, I’ll stand out even more.’

I considered using “Organic Evolution” to transform into “Clever Weakling” and reduce my size, but the situation isn’t good for that.

We might have to fight unknown monsters and Gallergorn. If that happens, “King of Monsters,” one of the special states I can transform into with Organic Evolution, would be my trump card, so I need to save it.

‘We need to go underground.’

There’s a very large underground space beneath the ice.

Even my nest isn’t completely surrounded by walls but has openings on both sides. I don’t know if the underground space below connects all the way to my nest, but it’s safer than walking on the snow.

[Zzzz zzz zzz zzz zzz zzzz zzzz (I’m going to break through the floor. Keep watch for anyone coming)]

“Got it.”

After entrusting surveillance to the Sky Mother, I repeated what I had done yesterday. I heated my body with heat emission and broke the ice with my combat arms and tail.

“We need to hurry.”

[Zzzz (Is someone coming?)]

“Dozens of Gallergorn.”

With this bad news from above, I increased my speed. I frantically dug through the ice, employing my corrosive tentacles and even my bifurcated jaw.

Thanks to my desperate efforts, I was able to complete a tunnel leading to the underground space. I hurriedly crawled out and sent the Sky Mother down first.

The Gallergorn were now close enough for even me to see. Fortunately, they were focused on the burned forest. They picked up the corpses of burned creatures and flew away somewhere.

While the enemies were distracted, I quickly concealed the entrance to the newly made tunnel.

After finishing all the work, I crawled down into the ice tunnel. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

“We weren’t caught?”

[Zzzz (Probably not)]

Upon reaching the underground space, the Sky Mother and I hastily left the area.

‘Damn it.’

I never expected to be put in such a difficult situation because of some mass-produced monster of unknown origin.

‘Whoever it is…’

It’s been a long time since someone annoyed me this much. I’m as irritated as when Morph Hunters interfered with my evolution in the past.

‘Just wait until I find you.’

I have never forgiven those who hindered my evolution. In the game, I used every means at my disposal to retaliate against Morph Hunters.

Whoever created that ugly spider monster will meet the same fate as the Morph Hunters.

–

A massive underground cavity spanning hundreds of meters in radius.

‘It’ was enjoying the cozy darkness coiled up when it felt a vibration. Some fool was clearly causing trouble in its territory.

Such incidents had been particularly frequent lately.

Swarms of “small beasts” it had never seen in this area attacked it, and colorful flying snakes suddenly roamed its territory.

Having lived for countless ages, ‘it’ disliked moving much due to its lazy nature. It only responded by crushing or swallowing “small beasts” that dared to attack it.

However, today’s vibration was different from previous anomalies. The strong tremor shook even ‘it’s’ nest.

As these insolent creatures threatened even its home, ‘it’ thought:

If fools kept trampling its territory like this, wouldn’t even the sky snakes look down on it? They might think ‘it’ had become too weak to protect its own home.

‘It’ may be lazy, but it isn’t stupid. In this harsh world, death is the only future for the weak.

So the king of this underground must show its enemies that it is still strong.

Having decided to move just for today, ‘it’ tracked the enemies’ scent with its two long antennae. At the tips of its old but still sharp antennae, it caught two fragrant trails.

Intruders who entered its territory after the big vibration. The scent of two beasts reached its antennae.

Having found prey, all that remained was to find and punish them. ‘It’ uncoiled its body that had been filling the hundreds of meters of cavity.

It was time to hunt after a long while.