Ch.28Double Helix (4)

When she first opened her eyes, the world was cold and heavy.

Pressure constricting her delicate skin, temperature so low it felt like knives against her body.

A place some sentient beings defined as the ocean floor. That was her homeland.

Though the environment was harsh, she didn’t think her home was all that bad.

Because there were beings there who protected her.

The pink spherical beings like herself were the weakest creatures in that dark world. So they chose a different survival method from other creatures in the dark blue world.

Forming groups. And having adults care for the young and weak offspring.

They naturally formed social structures that sentient beings might classify as “family.”

Of course, as long as dangerous creatures that preyed on her kind were everywhere, they always had to live with the threat to their lives.

That would have been the case, normally.

As she grew, she realized she was different from the other pink spheres.

She was special.

Intelligence rivaling sentient beings, and a thin tentacle growing from her body. Things none of her kind possessed.

When she pointed her tentacle—which she usually kept inside her body—at dangerous creatures, they would move away.

She protected her kind using mysterious powers.

As time passed, despite her young age, she became the leader of the group.

Everyone regarded her as the mother of the group, but her life didn’t change much from before.

Her greatest happiness was eating with her kind and sleeping pressed against each other at night.

But that happiness didn’t last long.

Beings that came down from above tried to take her kind away.

Beings with skin harder and colder than any creature she had seen. They grabbed her kind roughly with claws that seemed incapable of bleeding.

When she heard the agonized screams of her kind, she desperately hoped.

That she could fulfill her duty as leader.

That she could protect those precious to her.

Perhaps the tentacle heard her prayer. Massive purple energy erupted from the tip of her tentacle, grabbing and crushing the hard being.

She thought she had succeeded in protecting everyone, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

More companions with cold skin kept coming down from above. Those from above captured the pink spheres indiscriminately.

She hoped for another miracle, but instead of a miracle, what came to her was an unbearable exhaustion.

And so she lost consciousness.

The leader who failed to fulfill her duty woke up in a prison of foul-smelling liquid.

From there, she watched. Watched as children who should have been protected by adults died miserably.

When the white being holding a strange furry animal called her No. 26, there were no more of her kind left in the prison.

From the bottom of hell, she prayed.

For anyone to help her.

If they did.

She vowed to dedicate herself to protecting the children she couldn’t protect before.

That was her oath.

–

In the world of Space Survival, there were two enemies I found most troublesome.

One was the AMorph tribal war, and the other was Megacorp users who had completed genetic modifications.

What they had in common was that it was impossible to predict what characteristics they possessed. With no information about the enemy, small mistakes often led to fatal consequences.

Because of this, I had focused only on what characteristics Siheyon Yujin possessed, and hadn’t paid attention to how she “specifically” differed from players.

‘In the game, there are no restrictions on using genetic technology.’

I thought she would naturally be the same.

Since she had player-level specs, I unconsciously approached the battle as if fighting a player. That was my misjudgment.

Looking back, Siheyon had been fighting using only one ability at a time from the beginning. I thought it was bluffing, but it wasn’t.

Fundamentally different from players, she had critical limitations in using genetic abilities.

“You’re really becoming annoying? Almost enough to make me want to kill you.”

Siheyon’s tone was colder than before. She was probably trying to threaten me, but I heard it differently. Like she was deliberately doing this to hide her inexperience.

‘I need to know how much delay there is each time she changes abilities.’

No matter how quickly she changes, there must be a gap between switching abilities. A gap where she becomes a defenseless ordinary person.

If so, I needed to change my strategy.

‘Attack relentlessly.’

The Psyonium effect wouldn’t last much longer. Two minutes at most.

To win within two minutes, I couldn’t hold back. As long as it wasn’t a fatal wound like losing limbs, I should trust my regenerative characteristics.

My legs, as sturdy as a rhinoceros’s hind legs, stomped the ground forcefully. While sprinting down the corridor, I carefully observed her hair changing.

“You really don’t get tired of this, do you?”

The tips of her hair turned red.

While running, I aimed at her with my left arm. For a human, aiming while running would be difficult, but the AMorph’s excellent senses made it possible.

Bone spikes launched from my arm. Bone fragments reinforced with chitin cut through the air, flying to tear apart her abdomen.

“!”

She stiffened her expression and canceled her hallucination ability. Almost simultaneously as her hair returned to black, white blades emerged from the back of her hand, cutting through flesh.

‘There is indeed a gap.’

It was less than a second, but thanks to my auxiliary organs, I confirmed she had a vulnerability. She defended against my bone spikes with Gallergorn’s claws, but I had already reached her.

“Such petty tricks!”

Though she was irritated, I could read the anxiety creeping into her eyes. My tail struck at her with the precision of a fencing thrust.

But contrary to my intentions, her response remained fierce. She calmly deflected my tail with her claws. Not stopping there, she counterattacked and cut off the poisonous stinger at the end of my tail.

‘Ugh!’

I had somewhat expected it, but experiencing it directly was no small pain. It’s natural since a part equivalent to a limb was cut off.

But I couldn’t hesitate here. I swung my severed tail wildly like shaking off water from hands. Acidic blood and neurotoxin from the tail wound and venom gland mixed and splattered everywhere.

“Tch!”

Siheyon clicked her tongue and switched abilities. Gallergorn’s claws retracted and parts of her body turned silver. Skin as hard as the ship’s alloy protected its owner from acidic blood and neurotoxin.

‘I expected defensive abilities, but super-alloy skin?’

“Super-alloy skin” is a genetic trait of Wolfram Goblins, an advanced species of Metallic Gremlins. This ability makes defense as sturdy as top-tier custom armor, but in exchange, the body becomes extremely heavy.

As I expected, her movements slowed down. I clawed at the parts that hadn’t yet turned silver.

“Kuk!”

For the first time, I wounded her body. Despite being a monstrous Siheyon, her blood was the same red as humans.

“Ill-mannered dog needs some education!”

With a contorted expression, she kicked my chest plate with her heavier foot. Since I needed to fight at close range, I didn’t dodge.

The impact spread throughout my body like being hit by a battering ram. If I were human, I would probably have vomited blood and organ fragments. Even though the chest plate is one of the hardest parts of my body along with the head, the pain was far from insignificant.

‘You think I’ll lose to just this?’

Shouting inwardly, I grabbed her foot embedded in my chest. Using all the strength in my four arms, I lifted her up.

“Wh-what!”

‘She’s incredibly heavy.’

The weight was enough to make me curse involuntarily. What would I do after lifting an enemy? This is what I had in mind.

Holding her leg, I swung her like a baseball bat.

My target was the corridor wall. More precisely, the wall half-melted by acidic blood.

With a thunderous sound, the entire corridor shook as if an earthquake had struck. Cracks formed around the impact point, splitting the wall.

Her face left an imprint on the alloy wall, and her expression was one of extreme anger. She seemed to feel humiliated by my action of throwing her.

She pulled out Gallergorn’s claws and crossed her arms in an X. A large amount of psychic energy gathered on the white blades, purple clearly visible.

This is dangerous. Too close to dodge.

‘I have to block it!’

I quickly protected my head and chest with my four arms. As she unfolded her crossed arms in a swing, an enormous energy blade I had never seen before cut through my body.

My relatively thin horns broke, and my arms and legs didn’t escape unscathed. More than half of my upper right arm was cut off, and my thigh was severely injured with bone exposed.

‘Just a little more!’

With my last strength, I charged at her again. Despite the close distance, she avoided my charge with surprisingly agile movements. My head rammed straight into the wall.

“Where are you looking?”

She mocked me for missing my attack.

Quickly scanning my body, she smiled. The injuries on my body were too severe to even pretend they were fine, so she seemed confident she had gained the upper hand.

Well, is that really the case?

‘Sorry, but I didn’t miss.’

As I pulled my head from the wall, it finally collapsed. Having been melted by acidic blood and subjected to repeated strong impacts, even alloy construction couldn’t withstand it.

‘My intention was never you, Siheyon Yujin.’

Beyond the broken wall was what I had been waiting for.

Countless stars and endless darkness awaited us.

“Oh no…!”

The pressure in the entire corridor dropped sharply as the black hole-like space sucked us in along with the oxygen. The ship’s environmental maintenance system wailed loudly, warning of serious internal damage.

Even Siheyon, who had been smiling with confidence in victory, hadn’t anticipated this situation, and her face filled with dismay. She was holding on by embedding Gallergorn’s claws into the corridor to avoid being blown out.

I had been waiting for this moment.

I raised my injured left arm toward her.

The barrel was aimed at her head.

The distance between us wasn’t far.

Specifically, it was close enough for the bone spike to penetrate her forehead and destroy her brain before she could cover her head with super-alloy skin.

Her complexion turned pale as she realized my intention.

“Kraaah! You think I’ll die in a place like this!”

Had she surpassed her limits in the face of death?

She was trying to manifest two abilities simultaneously, blood flowing from her eyes and nose. The silver characteristic of super-alloy skin began creeping from the tips of her black hair to protect her head.

I fired the bone spike before it was too late.

The ice pick-like bone spike left the end of my arm.

In an age where all manner of extraordinary weapons like lasers and plasma run rampant, this primitive form of projectile raced through the air targeting her head.

By then, super-alloy skin had already covered more than half of her head.

When the bone spike was less than 5cm from reaching her forehead.

She suddenly stopped moving. The super-alloy skin also froze in its partially deployed state.

She opened her eyes wide in disbelief. Her gaze was directed behind me.

｢Don’t bully the baby!｣

‘No. 26?’

Even without turning my head, I could see it. Purple energy streams erupting from No. 26’s body, tightly binding her head.

“This fu—”

The time No. 26 held her was just a moment, but it was enough for the bone spike to reach its target.

The bone spike pierced through Siheyon Yujin.

Her body, having lost its command center, went limp.