Ch.269Harvest (3)

The corridor was covered in blood, walls and ceiling alike.

It was because everyone had been shattered to pieces by the “Destructive Sound Wave” I fired.

“Enemy, dan, danger level, measur, measuring impo…”

An android with only its head and part of its upper body remaining spat out mechanical sounds from its damaged vocal cords. I struck it hard with my wing arm.

‘That takes care of the advance party.’

By now, they’ll realize that a significant threat has infiltrated the fortress. A vault robbery right before the auction? This is a problem on a completely different scale than just having more lunatics in the city.

‘Everyone in the fortress and all visitors to the city will join forces to kill me.’

Every living being and machine in this fortress is my enemy. Except for the ones I brought with me.

‘What should I do now?’

The first thing that comes to mind is to run away, but escaping the fortress right now isn’t a good option.

The defensive facilities here are extremely powerful, designed to withstand fleet battles. Naturally, there are more defensive turrets facing outward than inward. The moment I try to leave the military port, I’ll be met with concentrated fire.

‘No need to increase casualties unnecessarily.’

To neutralize this orbital habitat that’s strong outside but weak inside, it’s much more effective to eat away from within.

The question is how to approach it.

I could go out and slaughter people while moving toward the command center, or I could break through the outer walls surrounding the fortress and wreck the internal environment.

In the game, I used a different approach each time. I recalled methods I’d used before but decided to try something new. I’d use unique traits created through the transcendence system—traits that didn’t exist in the game.

‘More precisely, it’s an upgraded version of a method I’ve tried before.’

I brought up a semi-transparent text box and focused on the special status sections of “Herald of Chaos” and “Organic Evolution”—specifically the “Mutant Virus Host” part.

When I destroyed the pirate slave market, I tried combining these two traits for the first time. Both are powerful crowd control abilities that work well together, especially effective against multiple enemies.

With the right preparation and environment, they could show enough explosive power to shake this steel fortress where I stand.

‘The method is decided.’

Next is the location, but I don’t need to worry about that. I turned around and crawled deeper into the storage area.

“When are we leaving?”

“This terrain is not favorable for large-scale combat.”

[Bzz bzzbzz bzz bzzbzz (I have a plan. Follow me)]

No. 26 and PS-111, who had been in Storage Area A, expressed their doubts when I returned. I took them deeper into the storage area.

When we reached about halfway through Storage Area D, I stopped them. Then I pressed my head close against one part of the wall.

“What is Big One doing?”

“It seems to be searching for something.”

I didn’t bother explaining since they’d find out soon enough. I continued feeling the wall with the auxiliary organ under my chin.

‘It should be around here… Ah, found it.’

In a corner of the wide cavity, I found what I was looking for: a faint vibration.

I could feel very weak, intermittent vibrations from beyond the wall. Having conquered this city multiple times, I knew what these vibrations meant.

‘Subway line.’

This space fortress, a massive space structure as large as the T&C Special Trade Center, has several transportation systems installed to effectively move large numbers of residents at once. Things like hover buses flying through the air, or subways.

And about 50 meters away from Storage Area D in the underground vault is a subway line.

Members of the Montana Martio Cartel, cartel members from various star systems, and mercenaries employed by visitors from Megacorps or the Star Union would all be moving on those trains.

‘The subway is still running, which means they haven’t all gathered yet.’

Forces stationed in various sectors of the fortress are likely converging at the command center to counter the threat I pose.

Of course, they won’t reach their destination on time.

[Bzz bzz bzzbzz (Everyone stand back)]

After moving the two back, I opened my mouth wide in front of the spot where I felt the vibrations. My upper and lower jaws spread as if they would tear, and the molars on both sides folded outward.

My elongated neck convulsed, and soon green liquid poured like a waterfall from inside my mouth.

There was a sound like cold water being poured onto a hot frying pan, and toxic gas rose thickly. The acid water cannon created a hole about 10 meters in diameter in the thick alloy wall in front of me.

‘In the game, I couldn’t have imagined using this method.’

Even for an AMorph that can strengthen its body in various ways, breaking through an alloy wall dozens of meters thick in one go is never easy. Especially in a subadult state. Without the “Acidic Fungal Gland” enhanced by “Great Infector,” I would have had to find another way.

The acid breath that was vigorously melting the wall weakened dramatically after a few seconds. This was because the fungal liquid inside the gland had been depleted.

‘This should be enough.’

I stopped the acid breath and lowered my body in front of the hole in the still-melting wall. Lowering my head at the hole, the two barrels on my back pointed inside.

In that position, I tensed my back muscles, and two orange masses were fired from the ends of the spore cannons.

The spores flew inside quickly like shells fired from a cannon. Soon, a violent explosion was heard from inside, and hot air surged outward. The spores containing explosive fluid had burst.

‘It’s not over yet.’

Soon, that explosive fluid and acidic fungus will combine to create an intense chemical reaction.

A moment later, the underground storage area where we were shook violently as if an earthquake had struck. Each time the wall vibrated, heat strong enough to easily roast a person wafted out from inside the hole. Inside the walls surrounding the storage area, two types of chemicals had caused a deadly chain reaction.

“Boom boom! Fun!”

“An interesting chemical reaction.”

No. 26 emitted light, seemingly enjoying the booming sounds echoing through the storage area. PS-111 seemed interested in what I had done, keeping its gaze fixed on the inside of the hole.

The explosions and vibrations continued for a while, then gradually subsided before finally stopping.

I grabbed both sides of the hole with my wing arms and pulled. The damaged alloy plate trembled and resisted before finally crumpling.

[Bzz bzz (Let’s go now)]

I crawled into the deeply pierced alloy wall with the others. After passing through the unevenly drilled passage, a wide space greeted us.

A vast space with a musty smell. In the middle, I could see tracks with magnetic fields flowing through them.

‘Good.’

In a few minutes, a subway will pass through here. I need to prepare to welcome the guests who are planning to come here.

I activated Organic Evolution after a long time. My body began to twist in the underground center of the fortress floating in space.

Cracking sounds came from my long combat arms and wing arms as their skeletons twisted. The spider-like elongated limbs crumpled and shrank to stubby sizes.

In contrast, my body swelled up like a balloon being inflated. The carapaces that had covered my arms seemed to have all moved to my body, covering my enlarged torso with thick armor.

As my body expanded, my head grew with it. My head became heavier, and my neck thickened to the point where it was indistinguishable from my body. Not long after the transformation began, my appearance became similar to that of a beetle larva.

But the mutation wasn’t complete yet. Holes formed all over the carapace covering my body, and hundreds of tentacles sprouted from them.

The newly formed tentacles had a different appearance from the corrosive tentacles I already possessed. Overall, they resembled the legs of octopus-like cephalopods, but differed in that the ends were split into three parts. Their length ranged from about 5 to 10 meters—much shorter than the corrosive tentacles.

The transformation didn’t take long. As I felt my rapidly changing body stabilize, I brought up a text box.

“Mutant Virus Host: Transforms you into a creature harboring a virus that triggers mutations. Physical and internal organ-related traits are deactivated. The transformation state can be canceled at will by the user. Maximum duration is 3 days, cooldown is 30 days.

-Mutation Virus: Triggers rapid genetic mutations in targets touched by tentacles. Mutation effects are random but universally result in extreme aggression.”

“Mutant Virus Host” is a special status I unlocked before leaving the dragon’s nest, when I raided Pyrrha Eleven’s support ship.

Unlike “King of Monsters” which dramatically increases combat power, or “Clever Weakling” which specializes in infiltration and assassination, this special status specializes in infecting and mutating enemies.

As can be seen from the body shape, it’s not very helpful in close combat. Speed is also greatly reduced, making it disadvantageous for mobile warfare. Since physical traits are sealed as mentioned in the tooltip, fighting one-on-one against a strong enemy would be close to suicide.

Yet I chose this for one reason only: the “Mutation Virus.”

Enemies hit by my tentacles and infected with the virus undergo rapid genetic alteration. Normally, when genes are damaged, death follows, but this virus isn’t so simple. It manipulates the host’s body into a new form to prevent the host from dying during mutation.

‘It’s like becoming a NeX-roX-ph.’

Organisms infected with the mutation virus transform into space undead-like beings from classic SF games. Having completely lost their sanity, they focus solely on killing other organisms until the energy stored in their bodies is depleted.

Since “other organisms” includes me, the mutated enemies will also come after me. This is where my next card comes into play: Herald of Chaos.

Herald of Chaos is a trait that distorts the senses of surrounding targets. It can distort the senses of enemies infected with the mutation virus, manipulating them to target specific objectives.

‘And Madness Bomb is a bonus.’

The mutated creatures engage in endless fighting and death. Naturally, the contagious effect of Madness Bomb increases significantly.

The fatal drawback of the Mutant Virus Host and Herald of Chaos combo is that speed drops to a snail’s pace. The Herald of Chaos already has a penalty that slows body movement when activated, and this penalty is doubled.

But even this isn’t a problem. The friends by my side will protect me.

“Wow! Big One looks like me now!”

“Congratulations.”

No. 26 emitted light, apparently pleased with my transformed appearance. It had also been very happy when I first transformed into this form at the slave market.

‘The others weren’t though.’

For reference, Adhigh said it was fine even if I became ugly, while Sky Mother pretended to vomit. PS-111 didn’t make any particular comments other than being curious about the various chemical processes occurring in my body.

‘Not everyone can be satisfied.’

Personally, I quite like this form too.

‘Anyway, that’s enough of that.’

Feeling strong vibrations from the tracks, I closed the text box.

The trains carrying sacrifices are coming this way.