Ch.265Incarnations of Nightmare (3)

As expected, the underboss of the Martio Cartel knew a lot.

The defensive facilities inside the fortress, the number of pirates, the specs of ships brought by guests. He spilled all the information that would help with conquering the fortress.

‘This might be more doable than I thought?’

The defensive facilities to be cautious of weren’t different from my memory, but there were woefully few people who could utilize them.

Kesha Arma is a space fortress built by Cults. All facilities are designed for easy use by Cults.

‘But the core of the Martio Cartel is human.’

There isn’t a single Cult among their members. Because of that, most of the fortress’s weapons are neglected. Apparently, only the super-large turrets mounted on the command buildings are the only properly functioning facilities.

‘Instead, there may be many pirates, but they’re all a ragtag bunch.’

Mere pirates can’t defeat us. Even if there are many, it just means more food for us.

‘However….’

There was one concerning piece of information.

A Cult guest staying on the 100th floor of the Second Command Center. An important client invited by Boss Martio half a year ago, said to be quite powerful. Strong enough to make Kadun lose his fighting spirit.

‘Just from hearing about it, it sounds like the Temple Guardian Corps, or maybe the Priests of the Eye of Revelation.’

It’s probably not a priest of the “Eye of Revelation.” They ride around on “special beasts” that are difficult to tame. According to Kadun, she only brought a few attendants.

But it’s also hard to see her as a Temple Guardian. Their role is to hunt down evil beings for the security of the Empire. They’re not the type to be holed up in a pirate den.

‘I should be careful.’

Whoever it is, they’re definitely an enemy with strong power.

Keeping this mysterious Cult firmly in mind, I got up.

I already heard where the auction items were. I extracted all other useful information too.

‘Now what’s left is….’

I looked at the Sky Mother.

Any other time I would have eaten her, but not today. Kadun’s heart is destined to be the sacrifice needed for her growth.

However, I can’t extract the heart right here. Because the ascension to Voltex One’s Incarnate stage consumes time similar to AMorph’s growth. During the ascension to the Incarnate stage, one becomes extremely vulnerable to external attacks.

[Zzzzzzz zzzzzzz (This place won’t work, right?)]

“Yeah. Last time I raised my Incarnate stage, I couldn’t move for 2 hours.”

[Zzzzz zzzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzz (2 hours? Wasn’t it 30 minutes originally?)]

“It seems different from the game.”

[Zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz (We need to return to the ship)]

It should be safe there even after several hours. Since we manipulated documents using security guards controlled by parasites as soon as we arrived at Kesha Arma, there’s no worry about being searched.

‘The problem is thieves.’

Since arriving, there have been three break-ins. It was good then because slaves to be used as parasites came to us on their own, but now the situation is slightly different.

‘I need someone to protect the Sky Mother.’

I can’t protect her because I’m going to raid the smuggled creatures. PS-111, who is skilled with machines, also needs to come with me.

Either No. 26 or Adhigh Orr needs to stay on the ship to protect her.

Just then, Adhigh tapped my back.

“Ugly friend” “Hurt?”

[Zzzz zzzzzzzz zzzz (No. She’s trying to grow)]

“Grow?” “Like big one?”

[Zz (Yes)]

After thinking for a moment, he sent another psychic wave.

“I” “Ugly friend” “Will help”

[Zzzz (You?)]

“Friend” “Me” “Many times” “Helped” “Will repay” “Favor”

Unexpectedly, Adhigh volunteered to protect the Sky Mother. As he said, they’ve been together a lot, so it seemed he was doing it deliberately.

‘That should be fine.’

“What’s this about? You’re offering to help me.”

“Ugly friend” “Helped” “Want to repay”

“If that’s the case, maybe you should change what you call me first? Repeat after me. ‘Pretty friend’.”

“Lie” “Friend” “Good” “But” “Looks” “Not good”

“…Hah. I really want to hit you.”

“Violence” “Doesn’t hurt” “I” “Star power” “Use” “Can block”

“Want to test if it really hurts or not?”

While the two played nicely together, I separated the communicator from Kadun’s power suit. Then I handed the communicator to him.

There’s one last thing I need to do before taking out his heart. Arranging a ship to carry the Sky Mother and Adhigh.

“One patrol ship. Requesting support.”

“Understood!”

“I need troops too.”

“Huh? Oh, yes!”

And of course, new minions to replenish.

After 30 minutes of luring another victim, a patrol ship flew toward our location.

It wasn’t difficult to deal with those who came here knowing nothing.

“I’ll be going then.”

The Sky Mother and Adhigh boarded the patrol ship. My new minions loaded the battered Kadun onto the ship.

‘The Incarnate issue is resolved for now.’

Next is time to gather things for me to eat.

‘The underground storage near the naval port, right?’

Kesha Arma is a space fortress built to protect mining and trading ships. Therefore, facilities for storing extracted resources are placed inside the fortress. The underground storage is one of these facilities.

‘In the game, it was something like an underground bunker.’

Currently, it’s under heavy guard by numerous pirates and mercenaries hired by the owners of the goods. The pirates’ armaments are similar to those we’ve already eaten.

‘The mercenaries probably won’t be much of a threat either.’

Unless they’re elite defense teams from Earth’s Megacorps or Cult Empire’s Temple Guardians, there’s no need to worry.

‘Originally I was going to get the list first and then go…’

Ironically, the place where the list is kept has better security than the underground storage. The list is kept in the Third Command Center. Since the command center is protected by defense facilities, the storage is easier to breach.

‘Shall I go check what’s there myself?’

I moved toward the underground storage with No. 26 riding on my head. PS-111 also stuck close and followed me.

“Where we going?”

“Sub-controller ‘AMorph’ is going to obtain nutrients necessary for growth.”

“Big baby growing?”

[Zz (Yes)]

“Lucky. I want to grow tall too.”

No. 26 spoke as if envious. It seemed he didn’t like being the only one staying the same while everything around him changed.

‘That’s not exactly true.’

No. 26 is only unchanged in appearance, but he’s constantly growing.

His true strength is intelligence rather than combat power.

He always adapts new and useful things in his own way. Like adapting the “binding” technique to create a psychic drill, or spreading psychic power to machines to create an EMP-like effect. His adaptability is arguably better than the players’.

‘I’ve received a lot of help thanks to him.’

Without him, I would never have made it this far.

“I want to grow bigger like big baby too.”

“Correct. That would create better balance.”

[Zzzz (Balance?)]

I asked again because I didn’t understand well, but PS-111 didn’t answer.

No. 26 was also quiet, but he clearly looked disappointed. I thought he didn’t care much, but I guess I was wrong.

‘Maybe I should look for more ways to help him grow.’

There wasn’t much change even after feeding him the Black Gallergorn. Except for connecting the memories between Adhigh and his mother Ham Oort.

He also consumed flesh from the Gorgon Swarm afterward, but there was no remarkable change. If I had to point something out, maybe No. 26’s tentacles and fins became harder than before? It’s hard to say his combat power increased significantly.

‘I should look for something he can eat in the underground storage.’

The rare animal auction held at Kesha Arma is so large in scale that even pirates in distant star systems know about it. There’s a good chance there will be creatures that could help him. That’s why I came to the fortress in the first place.

If I feed various things to No. 26, he’ll surely get satisfactory results.

[Zzzz zzzzzz zzzz zzzzzzzz (If we eat together, we’ll grow together)]

“Really? Will I grow tall like the other babies too?”

[Zz zzzzzz (Yes. Probably)]

I couldn’t be completely confident so I answered lukewarmly, but that alone seemed to make No. 26 happy. He extended his tentacles and tapped my head.

“I’m excited! Let’s go quickly!”

[Zzzz (Okay)]

I activated my mimicry organs and walked toward our destination near the naval port.

Behind us, the abandoned city continued to burn.

–

“Yaaawn, smack. Boring as hell.”

“See anything unusual?”

“Not at all.”

Security Room A inside the underground storage.

Five pirates were yawning repeatedly in the security room connected to dozens of cameras.

“That’s why I said we should bring some drugs.”

“Shut up. What if Kadun catches us?”

“Everyone else does it.”

“Those ‘everyone else’ would all die together. Idiot.”

The skinny pirate grumbled at his colleague’s rebuke and picked up the radio.

“This is fucking A security room. Everything normal elsewhere?”

“B security room. All normal.”

“C security room. All nor…stop right there. Are you dealing from the bottom? Where are you selling dru…”

“D security room. All normal. Calls are being recorded, so please restrain yourselves.”

“E security room. All normal here. Everything okay outside?”

The underground storage is divided into five zones, with security rooms placed between them. The security rooms in each zone monitor the area and seal off zones when anomalies occur. Additionally, androids deployed in each zone continuously patrol inside, and the security rooms manage these androids as well.

Among the five security rooms, Security Room A oversees Zone A and the observation posts located at the underground storage entrance.

“Nothing unusual…huh?”

The skinny pirate who was about to answer the radio with a bored expression stopped when he saw the camera. The pirate next to him also tilted his head at the surveillance camera.

“Fog?”

“Hey. Contact the observation post.”

“Yeah. This is Security Room A. We’re seeing fog on the cameras. Please confirm.”

“This is observation po-, *static*, nothing unusu-, *static*, visible, *static*, huh? *static*, person, *static*, *click*”

“Observation post? Respond. Observation post. This is Security Room A.”

Another pirate tried to make contact via radio, but all that came back was unpleasant noise. The pirates’ gazes shifted to the screen showing the inside of the observation post.

They could see a guard in the post tapping his communication device. Other guards were all standing as if they had discovered something.

Shortly after, all monitors connected to the entrance area went dark.

“What the hell?”

“Hey, contact the other zones right now.”

“This is Security Room A. We have a problem with entrance cameras in our jurisdiction.”

“*static*”

“This is Security Room A. This is…what’s wrong with this thing?”

“Huh?”

“Mine’s not working either.”

“What? Everyone check your radios.”

Four pirates took out their radios to check the communication status. At that moment, the pirate who had been staring at the monitor shouted.

“Hey, hey. Everyone look at this!”

“This isn’t the time to…huh?”

The four who looked back at the monitor fell silent.

The monitors connected to the cameras were turning off one by one, in real time.