Ch.22Ghost Ship of C-08 (3)

“…….”

What would normally be a time for gleefully chattering while enjoying the plunder. But no one was opening their mouth.

It was because of Elchen, who was snorting like an angry bull behind them.

Having lost his precious battleship in an instant, Elchen was trying his best to swallow his anger and regain his composure. A subordinate approached him hesitantly.

“B-Boss.”

“What?”

“The bio-scanner detected someone. They say he’s in the captain’s quarters.”

“So?”

“The, the door is blocked, so I think we need to break through.”

“You fucking idiot, do you ask for my permission when you take a piss too?”

“N-No, sir!”

He meant to handle it themselves. The subordinate prepared to break through the door with his colleagues.

The demolition specialist unpacked and assembled the plasma cutter he had been carrying on his back. He fixed the assembled plasma cutter to the door and operated the terminal connected to the machine.

The cutter activated and began firing green beams. The highly condensed energy mass created a hole in the heavy door that was over 50cm thick.

By the time thick smoke filled the corridor, the captain’s quarters’ door had been breached. One pirate poked his head in to check inside, but bullets flew from within.

“Gack!”

“Shit! Everyone take cover!”

Starting with the pirate who fell with a hole in his head, bullets poured out from the captain’s quarters like rain.

The pirates took cover behind walls and drew their weapons. As they were about to counterattack, Elchen stepped forward.

“Move aside, you worthless pieces of shit.”

Thanks to genetic modification, his skin had become so tough that it wouldn’t get a single scratch unless hit directly by a plasma launcher. In the rain of bullets, Elchen walked leisurely as if out for a stroll.

He grabbed the hole in the melted door and applied force, causing the 50cm thick steel door to bend like flour dough. After demonstrating his terrifying strength, he entered the captain’s quarters and began the slaughter.

“Aaaagh!”

“M-Monster!”

Every time Elchen’s fist cut through the air, crew members turned into lumps of meat. His subordinates provided covering fire toward the enemy while their boss went on a rampage.

The crew members in the captain’s quarters became corpses in the blink of an eye, with only one person remaining. As Elchen approached to finish him off, the man shouted.

“W-Wait! I-I surrender!”

“Surrender? Our Dvarah Cartel doesn’t accept such things.”

“I’m the medical team leader of this ship! I can definitely be of help!”

At those words, Elchen relaxed his fist.

“A doctor?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Where’s the captain, and why is a doctor in the captain’s quarters?”

Come to think of it, the captain wasn’t among the people he had pulverized.

“That damn dog… ahem, the captain went to board an escape vessel.”

“Escape vessel? He abandoned the crew and ran away?”

“I don’t know if he got out safely, but that’s what happened.”

The medical team leader seemed quite betrayed, trembling but not hiding his anger. As things got complicated, Elchen’s irritation rose.

The battleship was damaged, and the person who would know the whereabouts of the corpse had gone to board an escape vessel. Elchen considered killing the medical team leader but changed his mind.

“Hey. Smart guy.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Since you’re a doctor, you must know where the corpse is, right?”

“Uh, y-yes.”

“They said that Noble Capital corpse is here somewhere. Where is it?”

“……”

The medical team leader didn’t know where Kisaragi Yujin’s corpse was.

But feeling he wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sun if he answered honestly, he lied.

“The m-monster has it!”

“That bastard again? Why would a monster be carrying a corpse?”

“It eats people.”

That meant Elchen didn’t have much time left. He clicked his tongue and gathered his subordinates.

“Hey. The good doctor here says the monster has the corpse. We don’t have time to search everywhere together, so spread out and look. Got it?”

“Yes!”

“That bastard is no ordinary opponent, so move in groups of at least six. And report immediately via communicator if there’s a problem. Anyone who disobeys, I’ll crack their skull myself.”

“Yes, boss!”

“You there. You’re coming with me.”

“Yes.”

The subordinates answered energetically and dispersed.

The medical team leader watched them run off, wondering if he should speak up now, but he was too afraid of Elchen to open his mouth.

“Hey, doctor.”

“Yes?”

“You said you wanted to become a pirate, right? Good timing. We’ve been short on doctors.”

“Ah, y-yes.”

“By any chance, are you also versed in genetic modification?”

“What? O-Of course! Leave it to me!”

With Elchen continuing to talk, the medical team leader lost his chance to speak. As a result, the information that the monster could mimic human voices was buried.

–

‘That’s disappointing.’

I thought the crew would hold out longer, but it ended more easily than expected. Then again, considering the boss is a Hulk Mutant, it might be the natural outcome.

Hulk Mutants are deployed to destroy tanks or bipedal war machines in ground combat. It would be fortunate if ordinary crew members could even scratch such a monster.

The boss killed everyone except for one crew member. Though I couldn’t see who it was, I could guess who survived.

‘Must be the doctor.’

Space Dogs are a group with a high mortality rate. Criminals, war orphans, the poor, retired soldiers, mercenaries—all sorts of people constantly flow in and out, dying frequently. In such a high-turnover group, professions like doctors receive special treatment.

Anyway, whether the medical team leader becomes a pirate or not doesn’t matter to me. I don’t plan to leave any survivors on this ship anyway.

The battle in the captain’s quarters ended faster than expected, but that’s fine. Everything after that moved according to my predictions.

‘As expected, they’re spreading out.’

Except for the boss and one subordinate, the rest formed groups of six and went out to search.

Since the pirates’ armaments aren’t uniform, I’m not sure what they’re all carrying. One thing is clear though—their movements are not ordinary.

‘Their movements are almost at the level of regular military.’

Even when I was eating the Insect Man on the ship, they resisted until the end. They’re at least better than the soldiers on the research vessel.

‘They seem to have spread out enough, should I start moving?’

As I was about to leave the nest, No. 26 followed me.

“Baby, come with me.”

[Zzzz (Stay inside)]

“No.”

[Zzzz (Why?)]

“I want to help too.”

No. 26 was acting like a child wanting to help their father. I picked him up and placed him on top of the nest, but he wouldn’t give up and followed me.

Seeing that No. 26 would absolutely not give up, I recalculated the enemy’s strength.

‘It shouldn’t be difficult except for the boss and that suspicious guy.’

I’ve fought pirates to the point of being sick of them. I don’t know exactly what the enemies are armed with, but I can respond adequately to whatever they bring.

Also, if I’m going to travel with No. 26 from now on, he needs combat experience. There might come a time when I can’t protect him.

‘No. 26 needs to experience combat too. Even if he can’t help directly, I can’t let him be a hindrance.’

Having made my decision, I allowed him to accompany me.

[Zzzz z zzzzzz (Enemy scary so be careful)]

“Yes! Baby be careful too!”

He jumped up and landed on my shoulder. He’s an impossible-to-hate creature.

‘Where should I go first?’

There are a total of 4 groups. Their destinations are the armory, cafeteria, cargo hold, and laboratory. True to those who live by plundering, their objectives are clearly visible from their destinations.

‘Let’s clear out the armory group first.’

Most of the weapons in the armory are broken due to the stems coming from my nest, but some are still intact. It would be troublesome if they took them.

I headed toward the armory with No. 26.

As I approached the armory, they entered my sensory range. Six pirates were busily moving to enter the armory.

“What kind of plant grows all the way up to the door?”

“Hey, we need to get rid of all of these to install the plasma cutter.”

Everyone except the demolition specialist drew their machetes.

If these had been ordinary plants, their judgment wouldn’t have been bad.

‘The problem is that they’re not ordinary plants.’

When you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you should think and judge more carefully. Because they didn’t, they were walking into a pit of destruction on their own.

“Hah!”

A crew member swung his machete wide, cutting through the spores. As the spores burst, the mucus inside splattered outward.

“Shit?! What is this?”

“Kekeke, looks like cum.”

“You got it on you too, idiot.”

The man covered in mucus cursed, and his colleague next to him snickered with vulgar words. They had no idea how dangerous a situation they were in.

It didn’t take long for the laughter to turn into screams and wails.

“Ugh, uuuuuugh?!”

“My, my face! Aaaagh!”

“Wh-What’s happening?”

The pirate with acidic mucus on his face had his skin and muscles melt away until his jawbone fell off, and his colleague who got neurotoxic mucus on his fingers collapsed with his entire body paralyzed.

They’ve given me a good opportunity, so I’ll gratefully accept it.

I charged toward them with my massive body.

“Huh? It’s the monster!”

“The monster has appeared!”

“Sh-Shit? It looks different from what we saw!”

Of course. The video they saw in the control room was taken before I acquired the physical enhancement type.

I did go to the control room once more to eat the people barricaded there, but I sprayed smoke to hide my appearance.

In other words, the enemies don’t know about me. And entering combat with insufficient information carries a huge risk.

I rammed into a pirate standing nearby.

“Kuhak!”

He vomited blood mixed with pieces of internal organs. Even without looking inside his stomach, it was easy to tell his insides were a mess. I finished him off by swinging my tail to send his half-dead body flying.

Meanwhile, the pirates who had regained their senses drew their weapons and fired at me. True to their abundant combat experience, they acted quickly. If they had been soldiers from the research vessel, they would have been too stunned by the surprise to do anything.

Red energy masses formed a fire net, pounding my chitinous outer shell.

‘This would have been dangerous before I acquired the type.’

Currently, my outer shell is incomparably harder and thicker than before. The dark brown, almost black, gleaming exoskeleton protects not only my head and chest but also my limbs.

It’s like a full plate armor knight reborn in the space age—that’s my appearance. Just as a knight’s lance charge was called the tank of the medieval era, the same applies to me.

I ran, ignoring their attacks. With a thunderous sound, the pirate standing in front of me turned into a lump of blood.

Not stopping there, I pulled out tentacles from my upper arms. The saw-toothed tentacles extended like venomous snakes and wrapped around their waists.

“Keak?!”

“Agyagak!”

Their waists were torn as if sawed, and their intestines spilled out.

“D-Die!”

Seeing his colleagues die miserably, one pirate lost his mind and charged at me.

His species was Insect Man. With physical abilities superior to humans, he probably thought he could handle close combat. However, as with most things in life, what he expected didn’t happen.

The machete he swung was pathetically broken in two by my tail. I was about to finish him off when No. 26, who was on my shoulder, jumped at him.

“Grrrrrr!”

As a pinkish, translucent bubble-like thing suddenly stuck to his face, the Insect Man was bewildered. But he could only writhe in the tremendous pain that followed.

That’s because No. 26 had melted his antennae.

He tried to tear at No. 26 with the sharp claws unique to Insect Men.

‘I can’t allow that.’

I have no intention of letting No. 26 get hurt while he’s hunting. I lightly stabbed him with my tail, injecting neurotoxin. He froze stiffly as if someone had stopped time, unable to move.

I’ll leave the Insect Man to No. 26 and deal with the remaining one. The demolition specialist, instead of charging at me, was requesting support through his communicator.

“Th-The monster has appeared here!”

I approached him from behind and firmly grabbed his body with my four arms.

“Hee, heek?! Qu-Quickly send support… kuk”

Before he could finish speaking, I opened my jaw wide and bit off his head. The terrifying bite force unique to AMorphs crushed the hard skull and turned its contents into mush.

“What? Where are you?”

I quickly swallowed the demolition specialist’s brain and activated the special organ in the back of my throat.

“Gruk, ahem, it’s nothing.”

“What?”

“It was my mistake. Nothing’s happening here.”

“What the hell is wrong with you? There’s a time and place for mistakes, but you’re playing pranks on the communicator?”

“Sorry.”

I answered appropriately and turned off the communicator. With this, the armory group was cleared.

‘I should keep the communicator.’

It would be good for disruption tactics. Surely pirates wouldn’t require formal identification.

I picked up the communicator and approached No. 26. He was still eating. As when he fought me, the Insect Man’s strong vitality seemed to be more of a disadvantage than an advantage. Seeing him trembling and twitching, unable to die, made me feel sorry for him.

‘Not that I’m planning to spare him though.’

I should deal with the other corpses while No. 26 finishes him off. As I processed the corpses one by one, I found that one of them was from Star Union. He was one of those whose waist I had cut with my tentacles.

“Kk, kkuk, s-save me…”

True to being a cyborg, he was still alive despite having his upper and lower body separated. He was desperately begging for mercy.

Star Union is a cyborg group with the belief that the weak human flesh should be replaced with machines. They have a mindset opposite to Megacorp, which tries to become better beings by improving genes in the human state.

‘Both are equally bad guys though.’

Star Union is a group that wants to share the “grace” they received with other species besides themselves. In other words, they modify captives from other species into machines. Regardless of the captives’ will.

The pirate in front of me, being a modified human, had machine parts mixed among his intestines.

I crushed his head as he whimpered for mercy. His artificial brain was smashed, and sparks flew.

‘It’s a machine, but I should be able to eat it?’

Just to be safe, I removed the visible parts separately, leaving only the flesh, and put it in my mouth. As if to prove he was half machine, his taste had a sparking sour sensation and the greasy taste of oil.

‘…Well, it’s a unique taste.’

It was edible despite its appearance. I finished eating the cyborg’s corpse.

As I was shaking off my hands, uncomfortable with the petroleum on my fingers, a translucent text box appeared.

“‘Morphlet->Juvenile’ evolution condition partially fulfilled.

First Sentient Being 10/10 (Achieved) Second Sentient Being 1/10 (Not Achieved)”

‘Oh?’

It was welcome news I hadn’t expected. I thought it might be the case, but cyborgs were treated as a separate species, just like in the game.

‘There were 12 of them on this ship, right?’

If I eat all the cyborgs on the research vessel, I can evolve to the next stage right away.

I never thought the path to evolving into a juvenile would open so quickly. It was an unexpected gift.

“Baby, what are you so happy about?”

[Zzzzzz zzzz (There’s something)]

No. 26, having finished his meal, approached me. I gently stroked him and placed him on my shoulder.

Space Dogs, whom some call the disaster of space.

Such a fearsome existence was beginning to look like Santa Claus bringing me lots of gifts.