Ch.23Ghost Ship of C-08 (4)

“Krgak!”

A pirate’s neck was ripped out by my hand.

Brown blood drips from his head, which came out with part of the spine attached.

His species is a Rockwalker. They’re an intelligent species that lives on rocky planets, eating stones and metals.

Looking at the setting alone, they seemed like silicon-based lifeforms that would excite SF enthusiasts, but in the actual game, they’re not much different from ordinary humanoid creatures.

Except for their stone-like rough and hard skin, everything inside them, including flowing blood, is exactly the same as normal creatures.

I smashed the cyborg next to me with the dripping Rockwalker head. His head became unrecognizable, like a watermelon after a watermelon-smashing game.

‘That’s the second team.’

This target was the group heading to the laboratory.

Like those who went to the armory, they entered the lab carelessly. As a result, only three remained by the time I arrived.

The other three had already dissolved in acidic mucus and become deceased.

‘Tsk. Lost two of them.’

I clicked my tongue looking at the cyborgs with only their lower bodies remaining. Just to be sure, I tore off one leg and tried eating it, but it didn’t count toward evolution conditions. It seemed the text box only recognized targets I killed myself.

Similarly, no predation effect appeared. The probability of getting a predation effect from corpses I didn’t kill myself is extremely low. It’s almost at sample level, so I shouldn’t expect it.

I spat out the metal bones chewing in my mouth.

In the game, AMorph can eat machines too, but adapting to reality is difficult. It’s like chewing chicken legs down to the bone.

“Kurguk, kuk, kureoook…”

Beside me, No. 26 was killing a cyborg.

It seemed to have gotten the hang of it, hunting successfully without my help. Though the cyborg struggled desperately to tear it off, No. 26 didn’t budge, burrowing all the way into the esophagus to suffocate its prey.

Even cyborgs are fundamentally human. They die if they can’t breathe for extended periods.

I destroyed the cyborg’s heart with my tail before it stopped breathing. When I killed the prey, No. 26 emerged from the esophagus and sent me a wavelength.

“Are you hungry, baby?”

[Zzzz zzzz zzzz (I need to kill ones that look like this)]

“Yes.”

[Zzzzzzzz (Eat that instead)]

“Okay. Enjoy your meal.”

Sorry to No. 26, but I need to kill and eat the cyborgs myself for them to count. As a substitute, I gave No. 26 the Rockwalker and picked up the cyborg corpse.

Just as I was about to take a bite, the communicator I was holding with my combat arm rang.

“Breathing bastards. Report.”

“C-command center here. S-still working!”

“This is the cargo hold, and these bastards seem fucking rich. There’s a shit ton of stuff to take.”

“Boss, the cafeteria is completely fucked? There’s nothing edible here.”

“Searching the armory.”

“Aren’t the fuckers who went to the lab answering?”

After imitating the voice of someone from the armory, I quickly took a bite of the cyborg corpse. The small organ in my throat mutated to produce a new voice.

Having completed the mutation in a short time, I answered into the communicator placed next to the corpse.

“Lab all clear.”

“Huh? You’re not the communications officer. Why are you holding it?”

“Uh, the communications officer is preparing for demolition right now.”

“…Is that so? Alright. Click.”

The boss ended the communication with a suspicious voice.

He’s quite clever, befitting a boss. It’s impressive how systematically he manages his subordinates for a pirate. Usually, Hulk Mutants have reduced intelligence as a side effect of genetic modification, but this boss seems different.

‘He might have been modified with technology I don’t know about.’

A smart Hulk Mutant. Something I’ve never seen in the game.

‘Better be careful just in case.’

Following the “Predator Sense,” now an intelligent Hulk Mutant. The differences from the game I knew keep increasing. It’s tense but also intriguing.

‘Come to think of it, there’s also No. 26.’

That pink bubble amoeba eagerly eating the Rockwalker’s entrails is also quite different from the game. It’s the same in being a mascot, but it wasn’t this smart in the game.

‘Me traveling with a bubble amoeba. The community would be shocked.’

AMorph itself is specialized for solo play, but I’m not particularly sociable either. In reality or in games.

With such idle thoughts, I finished off the remaining cyborg corpses.

The meat of the newly killed cyborgs tasted like lemon.

–

‘Suspicious.’

Elchen Dvarah frowned while holding the communicator.

Before becoming a Hulk Mutant, he was a soldier.

To be precise, a defeated soldier. He was punished with Hulk Mutation for losing in battle.

If House Egerton hadn’t taken him, he would have wandered the battlefield as a mindless monster until his life ended.

Anyway, befitting his military background, he was meticulous about reporting systems. Some subordinates occasionally disobeyed his orders, but they all became cosmic dust. That’s why Dvarah Cartel’s reporting system was unusually rigorous for pirates.

Moreover, the wild animal instinct mixed in his genes was warning him.

That the recent communication wasn’t a mistake but a trap.

Having made up his mind, Elchen picked up the communicator again. It was a communication to the members who went to the cafeteria and cargo hold, excluding the group at the armory who had reported they were searching.

“This is the boss. Something’s suspicious about the guys who went to the lab. Everyone prepare and head to the lab.”

“Huh? Understood.”

“Yes, boss.”

After ending the communication, Elchen called the medical team leader.

“Doctor, where are the escape pods and engine room on this ship?”

“Just follow me.”

Elchen was cautious. Though his subordinates wouldn’t lose to some monster, it was still uncertain. As he did on the battlefield, he first secured an escape route.

‘I can’t just leave whoever messed with my battleship.’

Securing an escape route wasn’t the end. Elchen planned to plant bombs in the engine room to kill the intruder. A ship’s engine is a facility capable of massive output. Detonating a bomb there could cause an enormous explosion.

After safely escaping, he could remotely detonate the bomb, ending the monster. Of course, all subordinates remaining on the ship would die too, but pirates always had plenty of volunteers. Subordinates could always be replaced.

‘I just need to take Garlic and the doctor.’

The subordinate, unaware his boss was planning to abandon him, was diligently monitoring the medical team leader.

While the three were heading to the escape pods, Elchen called out to the medical team leader.

“Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“You’ve fought the monster, so you must know. Does it have any weaknesses?”

“No.”

At the medical team leader’s immediate response, Elchen frowned. Seeing the boss’s negative reaction, the medical team leader was at a loss, but the words were already spoken.

‘Is this how a coward reacts?’

The medical team leader might not know, but Elchen knew he feared him. Yet he unhesitatingly gave an answer Elchen disliked.

That meant, from the medical team leader’s perspective, the monster was more terrifying than Elchen.

Elchen’s mind became ice-cold. He changed his question and asked again.

“Then what are its strengths or characteristics?”

Seeing Elchen wasn’t angry, the medical team leader carefully shared his thoughts.

“I-it’s like a ghost.”

“A ghost?”

“Yes. Even under bright lights, it devours people without leaving corpses. We only belatedly realize someone has disappeared.”

“How can there be a ghost on a spaceship? Isn’t it because you fools are stupid?”

“T-this ship has various security systems. They’re so complex even we don’t fully understand them, yet somehow it knows how to avoid them while killing people. If that’s not a ghost, what is it?”

Elchen fell silent at those words. Judging by the medical team leader’s demeanor, he was only speaking the truth.

‘A ghost? What nonsense is this?’

Does that mean this ship is some kind of ghost ship? A ghost ship in the space age? It wasn’t a funny joke.

After brief consideration, Elchen took out his communicator again. It was humiliating for him, but it seemed necessary to gather all his subordinates to act together.

As he turned on the communicator to change his strategy.

By then, it was already too late.

The unidentified enemy had already begun its offensive.

–

‘Smart one.’

Elchen wasn’t fooled by my imitation that had deceived even high-ranking humans.

Perhaps it’s because he’s a Hulk Mutant, closer to an intelligent beast than a sentient being. He must have sensed the trap with his wild instincts.

‘Too late anyway.’

We had already left the lab and returned to our nest in the cooling room.

Currently, my auxiliary organs are observing my territory spread throughout the ship. I can clearly see the pirates grumbling as they move toward the lab.

This time, I plan to attack the enemies in a new way.

I lay down on my stomach in the nest and closed my eyes. As the auxiliary organs touched the nest, my senses, previously limited to my body, gradually expanded.

Like blood flowing through veins, my cognitive domain expands along branches. The sensory flow starting from the cooling room rides the current of consciousness, covering corridors and other rooms.

They say drug users often feel something transcendent beyond the realm of the body. Perhaps this is what they mean?

With each breath I take, the branches tremble as if breathing too. The coldness from the metal plates wrapped by the branches involuntarily sends chills through my body.

Finally, the auxiliary organs completed the connection.

The enemies are essentially walking inside my stomach. I commanded the spores with neurotoxic abilities on the way to the lab.

To activate.

Like the brain sending commands to nerves throughout the body, the auxiliary organs transmitted my orders to the branches.

The spores obeyed, collectively spewing mucus.

From the ceiling, walls, rooms, corridors, floor—anywhere with branches. Extreme poison that paralyzes living beings poured down throughout the ship.

I can sense the pirates panicking at this unexpected attack.

They tried to escape by destroying spores and cutting branches, but it didn’t last long. Their bodies betrayed their owners’ will and fell like wooden blocks. The perceptive ones realized the spores were the problem and quickly escaped, but most made foolish choices.

‘Success.’

I thought it would fail. The ability to link with the nest and control it smoothly is only usable after becoming a Juvenile.

‘In the game, that is.’

I tried it in reality to see if it might be possible, and it succeeded.

Of course, I didn’t recklessly gamble. I attempted it because there were sufficient factors for success: the nest was still small, I was familiar with places I’d already visited, and there weren’t many spores. My prediction was excellently accurate.

‘Five escaped.’

More than half fell victim to the spore attack. The seven who couldn’t escape are lying helplessly on the floor, just waiting to die.

I rose from the nest. As the thin tentacles under my chin detached from the nest, a momentary sense of powerlessness washed over me.

Like a soul freely wandering infinite space being confined again to the prison called the body.

The powerlessness didn’t last long, but the energy consumed controlling the nest didn’t return. For the first time in a while, strong hunger stimulated my appetite.

[Zzzzzzzz zzzz (Let’s go eat since we’re hungry)]

“Yes.”

I put No. 26 on my shoulder and headed to the lab.

On the way, I saw fallen pirates. It was typical pirate behavior to mercilessly abandon hopeless comrades.

I’m hungry, so it’s good I don’t have to fight.

I voraciously tore into the fallen pirates. I could feel their bodies twitch each time my teeth sank in. Those movements were as vivid as freshly caught fish flopping around.

Do they know? The more they resist, the more saliva flows in my mouth. My teeth mercilessly tore off chunks of enemy flesh, and my four arms crushed their bones and pulled out their entrails.

Perhaps because I was so hungry, I didn’t feel repulsed even as mechanical parts passed through my throat. The silent feast in the corridor concluded successfully.

‘Two left now.’

Five of the seven were cyborgs. Having eaten eight cyborgs so far, I need two more for evolution. The evolution to Juvenile isn’t far off.

Using a cyborg’s finger bone as a toothpick, I followed the traces of the escaped pirates.

They were hiding somewhere other than the lab. It was the fitness center frequently used by crew members.

‘Of all places, they fled here.’

They probably chose the fitness center thinking its spacious area would provide good firing angles.

The problem is that the dead crew members thought the same. The place where they once socialized with comrades has long been turned into a slaughterhouse by me.

From inside the broken door, I can smell the pheromones and breaths of terrified individuals. They must have been shocked seeing the blood-splattered walls and floor upon entering.

Over 20 people died in there. Adding five more won’t make a difference.

I handed the finger bone I was holding to No. 26 on my shoulder and stepped into the training room.