Ch.26Double Helix (2)

The medical team leader couldn’t blink.

Was this what the beast arena operated by Star Union looked like?

Two monsters were facing off while the stars watched.

His new master, Elchen Dvarah, looked like a hellish machine forged by a demon. Abnormally long and massive arms, fiercely fluttering red mane, alloy armor caked with dried blood and flesh. Every element was terrifying.

Who was the monster daring to stand against this hellish machine? His gaze turned to the opposite side.

There stood a ghost.

Dark brown skin that gleamed almost black, armor covering the head and chest, tentacles hanging like hair, four arms that looked like human bones covered in armor, and a tail that seemed twice the length of its body.

The medical team leader knew exactly how many souls that black ghost had devoured. The dying words of soldiers perishing before his eyes still rang clearly in his ears.

A demon’s machine and a slaughterer’s ghost.

The massive, heavy monster and the agile, solid monster lunged at each other.

–

The ship’s corridor vibrated with each step the creature took. The boss, now within arm’s reach, swung his arm wide.

The bone shield wrapping his arm flew toward my head, aiming to crush it.

Since getting hit would do me no good, I ducked to avoid it and shot my tail at him.

As my flexible tail tried to penetrate between his gaps to stab his chest, I hesitated.

‘A bomb!’

Hesitation is forbidden in battle. The boss didn’t miss my opening. His fist, capable of pulverizing even alloy plates, exploded against my head.

A thunderous boom accompanied a shockwave. The residual energy that my head’s thick skin couldn’t absorb traveled through my body and spread throughout the corridor. The ceiling lights, unable to withstand the shockwave, shattered one after another.

“What?!”

He misjudged just as I had. The toughest parts of my body are my chest and head. If his attack had been aimed at my arms or legs, it would have been effective.

He seemed confused that I was still standing unharmed. Not missing that opportunity, I crouched low to the floor. Using all four arms and two legs, I crawled between his legs and escaped.

He spat out a curse in a voice that mixed bestial growls with metallic sounds.

“Grrrr, damn bug!”

His heavy foot, reminiscent of an elephant’s, struck the ground.

But I had already moved away.

Having created distance, I shook my head lightly. I felt slightly dizzy, suggesting I hadn’t completely absorbed the impact.

‘So that was the plan.’

I wondered why he mentioned bombs, but now I see what he was aiming for. If my head hadn’t been so hard, I would have died from that single blow.

‘Dirty play, isn’t it?’

Though I often do the same, it’s still annoying when it happens to me.

Since the bomb’s detonator is connected to the boss’s heart, targeting his chest area is dangerous. I have no intention of accidentally triggering his heart and ending this with an explosion.

‘Then I need to target other areas.’

“Grr, your attacks are useless. Bug.”

The boss laughed triumphantly. He seems to firmly believe he has no weaknesses.

In the current situation, he’s not wrong. With chest attacks impossible, there aren’t many areas I can target.

The bone armor covering his arms and legs is harder than even my enhanced body. Without plasma weapons, penetrating it is impossible. Even if I try to target unprotected areas, he’ll do everything to defend them.

‘But.’

There are two things he doesn’t know.

One is that I have the “Neurotoxin Gland” trait. If I succeed in stabbing any part of his body, the fight ends.

‘Though he seems to suspect it.’

The boss is particularly wary of my tail. When I targeted him with my tail earlier, he chose to dodge rather than block. Whether it’s wild instinct or information from the control room, he seems to know my tail is dangerous.

‘But what about this?’

He doesn’t know that I can also extract poison from my teeth and claws. If I break through his skin and attack, I win.

So how do I penetrate the boss’s tough exterior that he trusts so much?

He’s focused on my four arms and tail, but I actually have one more weapon.

The thin rod that my small arms on my chest are tightly gripping—the sonic blade. I grabbed it from the fitness room just in case, never expecting to use it so soon.

The sonic blade excels only in cutting power. It will break the moment it strikes the bone armor, but that’s fine. If I can just make a wound in the armor, the rest is no problem.

Even the thickest, largest dam can collapse from a single small crack.

The moment a crack forms in his iron fortress is when the goddess of victory smiles upon me.

“Graaaaaaah!”

He leaped. His massive body, jumping to an unbelievable height thanks to enhanced leg strength, came down on me.

I quickly moved away using all six of my arms and legs. The spot where I had been was shattered, and the corridor shook.

‘Fast and strong.’

Being a mix of various genes, his movements are incredibly fast. Even using all my limbs except my small arms to dodge, it’s barely enough. Usually, if something is fast, it should at least be weak, but he lacks neither strength nor speed.

‘Of course, nothing in this world is perfect.’

Hulk mutants have a chronic weakness. I need to hold out until that weakness surfaces.

As we ran through the ship’s interior, wreaking havoc, we entered a vast space.

A jungle of containers and the musty smell of rusty metal greeted us.

The cargo hold—the first world I encountered when I opened my eyes.

All six of my legs tensed as my body soared high. As I leaped over containers, I heard a shout from below.

“Arrogant!”

As if to say such obstacles couldn’t stop him, he rammed straight into the containers.

Rectangular metal blocks weighing several tons toppled like dominoes. The grating metal plates on the floor danced in the air along with them.

Bugs that had been hiding everywhere scurried out, fleeing the sudden apocalypse. I caught a fleeing cockroach, popped it into my mouth, and hid behind a container.

A direct confrontation against such monstrous strength is difficult. The only option I have here is:

‘To wait.’

So far, I haven’t just been running away. Hulk mutants consume energy rapidly and have short “rest periods.” If I can induce him to use his strength recklessly, his body will forcibly halt his attacks whether he wants to or not.

‘Not much longer.’

My auxiliary organ reads the chemical reactions and energy regulation mechanisms occurring in his body from close proximity. This will help me strike at the optimal moment.

The auxiliary organ tells me that the two hearts in his body are properly regulating their output.

‘Come to think of it, he has two hearts.’

Where is the detonator connected? The main heart of a Hulk mutant is on the left, so it’s likely on the left side, but he’s a cunning monster. I can’t be certain which side it’s on.

While I was momentarily distracted thinking about his heart, he spotted me and charged.

“Buuuuuuuuuuug!”

‘Oh no.’

A fist carrying enough force to toss a 10-ton container like a toy grazed my shoulder.

A throbbing pain surged, but it wasn’t unbearable, so I immediately counterattacked.

My tail thrust like a spear wielded by a master, aiming for the joint between his bones, a part not covered by bone.

“You bug!”

He quickly bent his arm, causing my attack to fail.

Before he could charge again, I hastily retreated. A container crashed down right where I had been.

“Graaaah! Coward who only runs away!”

‘That was a mistake. Don’t fixate on the heart.’

I shouldn’t fall for his trap. Having escaped his sight, I focused all my senses on my auxiliary organ.

He was breathing heavily like an enraged bear. At first glance, he seemed to be functioning normally.

But I could tell. The components making up his body were demanding rest due to overload.

Carefully climbing onto a container, I saw him smashing everything in sight.

“G-grrrr…”

Steam rose from between the muscle fibers exposed on his skin. This was a result of his body cooling down its internal heat.

Normally, he should have stopped all activity for a rest period, but he didn’t cease moving. Though he had slowed down compared to before, his monstrous strength remained unchanged.

‘So the improved Hulk mutant has reduced its weakness.’

Still, he couldn’t eliminate the rest period entirely. Not missing the opportunity, I kicked the container with all my might.

My body became an arrow, tearing through the air. Perhaps due to the dimness of the cargo hold and my skin color blending in, he noticed me a moment too late.

“Die!”

Standing in place, he tore up the grating floor with both hands.

Projectiles heavier than manhole covers flew at me. My AMorph’s keen sense and auxiliary organ calculated the trajectories of these threatening obstacles.

My feet stepped on the crumpled and torn alloy plates. Jumping from one metal step to another created in mid-air, I rapidly closed the distance between us.

“Groooo?! How dare you!”

Though startled by my near-magical agility, he didn’t lose his momentum. The moment I landed in front of him, he raised both arms high. He was trying to crush me with his enormous hands, like elephant feet.

My auxiliary organ warned me that his strength was not to be underestimated. I already knew. He could toss 10-ton containers like toys. The power in his hands was certainly extraordinary.

In that split-second moment, I made my choice.

‘Breakthrough.’

If I dodge now, I don’t know when the next opportunity will come. He’s a cunning enemy. Having exposed a weakness once, he’ll try to hide it next time.

So the opportunity is only now. I have to trust my head, which can withstand even plasma weapons twice.

His two fists and my head collided. In that instant, a tremendous energy combining weight, speed, and strength pressed down on my body. My feet broke through the floor, and parts of my leg’s exterior were torn due to the energy my head couldn’t disperse.

‘Ugh.’

Even though I blocked with the thickest part of my body, it was still an immense force. Dizzying pain and shock shook me.

‘…But it’s not unbearable.’

His posture was compromised as he used both hands to strike my head. Seizing the opportunity I’d been waiting for, my small arms activated the sonic blade. A thin sword-like blade emerged from the rod.

What I needed to cut was right in front of me.

My small arms swung the blade, cutting his forearm. The weapon, which created a thin diagonal line as if cutting through paper, completed its mission and broke.

While my small arms fulfilled their duty, my combat arms weren’t idle. All four arms firmly gripped his wrists.

“Ugh?! W-what!”

He shouted, asking what I was doing. Since he asked, I should answer.

With my mouth.

“Krrk!”

My shark-like teeth sank into the wound on his forearm. Since the bone covering his forearm was so hard, my teeth barely scratched the surface, but it didn’t matter. The saliva from my mouth had seeped into that thin wound.

“Gaaah!”

He shook his arm violently, throwing me off. My body, beyond my will and control, crashed into a pile of containers.

“You dare bite me? You damn buuuuuuug…huh?”

His voice trailed off as if drunk. His gaze turned to the wound on his arm, then immediately to my face.

He flinched upon seeing the saliva dripping from my mouth.

“P-poiiiisooon?”

He struck the wounded area hard with his other arm. He seemed to be trying to cut off his arm, but the bone armor covering his body was too hard for that.

The wall that had protected him now became a prison constraining him. Having failed to destroy his armor, he screamed.

“I-I, I aaaah!”

His face turned deathly pale—a fresh sight for a Hulk mutant.

He tried to flee, taking steps backward, but didn’t get far. The neurotoxin was rapidly consuming his body.

His massive body, now over 3 meters tall due to transformation, collapsed onto the cold metal floor. The way he looked at me was animalistic, for better or worse.

The look of fear in the eyes of prey that has encountered a stronger predator.

“P-please spare meeeee…”

Being not fully human, the paralyzing effect is weaker on him. By now, the poison should have spread throughout his body.

I approached him and stabbed him a few more times with my tail’s venomous sting. After reducing him to a state where he could barely breathe, I tore off the metal covering his chest. The detonator was attached to the right side of his chest. Looking at it, I saw it wasn’t synchronized but rather a timer that activated upon receiving a strong impact.

‘I thought so.’

Being cunning, I suspected something like this.

If the opponent knew something about Hulk mutants, they would have tried to destroy the right heart first. This is because Hulk mutants become very weak when their auxiliary heart is destroyed. Since it’s the part that controls side effects from genetic manipulation, losing the auxiliary heart can sometimes cause the body to collapse.

‘If you’ve lost your auxiliary heart, you’ve already lost the game.’

He probably intended to die together, or perhaps he wanted to make the opponent aware of the time limit and cause them to panic. Since he installed the bomb himself, he could quickly end the fight and deactivate it himself.

Well, his plans no longer matter. I can deactivate the detonator with my small hands, though it might take some time. After that, all that remains is to savor the genetic samples contained within the Hulk mutant’s body.

“Baby!”

I turned around to see who was calling—it was No. 26.

[Zzzzz (I told you to hide)]

“Baby, something terrible happened!”

[Zz (What?)]

No. 26’s reaction seems strange. He appears restless and frightened.

As I was about to ask what was wrong again, my predator sense suddenly activated.

“A wind blade cut No. 26.”

“A wind blade flew at me at an unavoidable speed.”

“I died.”

‘Damn!’

I quickly rushed to No. 26, embraced him, and rolled on the floor. Simultaneously, a lightning-like beam sliced through where No. 26 had been.

“Oh? You dodged?”

If not for my predator sense, both No. 26 and I would have died.

Looking up, I saw someone standing at the cargo hold entrance. Judging by the slender build and long black hair, the opponent was female.

‘That’s a female?’

My auxiliary organ and AMorph’s unique sense were frantically sounding alarms.

Warning me not to confront this “organism.”

‘…Siheyon Yujin.’

The mysterious being who boarded this ship with the pirates. The enemy I had thought to face last came looking for me directly.

“Future prediction, huh? Which gene is that? I’d like to know too.”

She entered the cargo hold, speaking nonchalantly. Despite her casual tone, her body was ready to cut me down at any moment.

On her hand, or rather the back of her hand, a white blade had emerged.

The appearance was similar to the boss’s bone armor, but I knew which gene that blade originated from.

‘She mixed White Gallergorn genes with other superior creature genes.’

It’s a gene so difficult to acquire that I’d have to consider whether I could obtain it even as a subadult. And that’s not the only genetic feature visible right now.

Not only are there many traits, but they’re all filled with rare and useful characteristics. Even in the game, only players who were about to enter the ranks of top players had such extensive modifications.

‘An opponent I cannot defeat now.’

I need to retreat immediately, regroup, and prepare a strategy.

But she wouldn’t let me buy time.

“You, g-garlic…?”

“Good job so far.”

“Kuk!”

She approached the incapacitated boss and pierced the detonator with her blade. With his heart also stabbed, he coughed up a large amount of blood and went limp.

‘Damn.’

“I can’t let you escape. Right?”

The bomb timer must already be active. I don’t know how much time is left, but it can’t be much.

My intention to retreat, buy time, and prepare a strategy was thwarted.

‘What should I do?’

But blindly confronting her would be suicide. Fighting without information about the enemy’s combat sense and strategy would only lead to defeat.

As I cautiously circled, observing her, she smiled.

“I have a proposition.”

‘A proposition?’

Siheyon took her time, maintaining a relaxed attitude. It’s an attitude I really dislike, but my current position is one of absolute inferiority. Considering how to approach her takes priority over irritation.

‘Are her eyes from an Outspacer observer? No. There’s a possibility of Terror Devil…’

“You seem similar to me, so I’ll spare you.”

‘What?’

“If you serve me, that is. Simply put, you become my pet.”

It seemed like nonsense, but her expression was serious, unlike before. Even when I peeked at the reactions in her body with my auxiliary organ, she didn’t seem to be lying.

‘…She doesn’t need to lie anyway.’

Just as I perceive her as strong, she must know that I am weaker than her. That’s why she’s approaching with such a relaxed attitude.

“You’re also a creature that manipulates genes. I can be a suitable master for you.”

‘…’

“So come to me.”

The overwhelming powerhouse, Siheyon Yujin, was speaking to me.

Telling me to serve her. To become her slave.

“Baby.”

Honestly, obeying Siheyon’s words is a rational choice. The blade on her wrist is a Gallergorn’s claw. Its destructive power exceeds that of plasma weapons, so even my enhanced exterior can’t block it.

Besides that, her body was teeming with weapons that could easily kill me.

I approached her.

Using all six arms and legs instead of just two legs, crawling like a pet dog before its owner.

“Yes. The right decision.”

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

But there’s something Siheyon overlooks about me.

Why I like AMorph.

Why I immerse myself in this useless character to the point of being called “Morph-obsessed” in the community.

She doesn’t know.

The reason I like AMorph is simple.

‘Freedom of choice.’

I love AMorph because it’s a being that can become infinitely stronger through my “choices,” freely.

Therefore, my choice is inevitable.

[Zzz (It’s okay)]

“Baby?”

When the distance had narrowed enough that I could see Siheyon’s satisfied face in detail.

I kicked up toward her face.

“!”

She quickly dodged my foot, but that wasn’t my aim. The acidic blood flowing from my torn exterior splashed into her eyes.

“Kut?!”

A momentary gap is all I need. The acidic blood probably won’t harm even a hair on her body.

[Zz (Hold tight)]

“Okay!”

While she was momentarily confused, I ran with my small arms holding No. 26. Using all six legs to escape, I heard the sound of the cargo hold being destroyed behind me.

“Alright, fine! You want to play with me! Hahaha!”

Siheyon laughed like a madwoman with her eyes closed. She pulled out Gallergorn claws from both hands and sliced through containers as if cutting tofu.

‘Play with me?’

Siheyon Yujin is much stronger than me.

She’s certainly the most formidable opponent I’ve faced since becoming an AMorph.

But I’ll show her that battles aren’t always determined by strength alone.