Ch.312Monster Hunt (3)

In the dark underground labyrinth, numerous Cult members moved slowly.

Most wore suit-type reinforced armor, but some were clad in enormous plate armor. These individuals, towering at least two heads taller than the surrounding Cult members, were fully armed priests of the Eye of Revelation. The reinforced armor they wore was specially designed to fight against the Sect of Voltex One.

Even the most psychically adept Cult member would struggle to maintain sanity when exposed to Voltex One’s power. Even warriors with decades of training frequently went mad in an instant while fighting sectarians.

To prevent this, the priesthood provided protection for their most important warriors. The name of this reinforced armor issued to elite priests was “Heretic Inquisition Armor.” Made from Novametal processed with dark matter, it provided resistance against various energy-based attacks.

Moreover, its physical defense was exceptional, able to withstand battleship bombardments. In terms of defensive capability, it surpassed its competitor, the Dragon Scale Armor of the Temple Guardian Order.

Its drawbacks were that its unique resistance effect prevented the wearer from receiving assistance from combat-enhancing psychic techniques, and its extreme weight significantly slowed movement.

Additionally, some walking with the priests carried large, heavy weapons. The warriors in the middle of the group were walking while supporting a single weapon between two people.

The name of this weapon, which resembled a spear that might be wielded by giants or mythical beings, was “Slayer.” It was a heavy weapon modified from the Temple Guardian Order’s main weapon, the “Demolisher.”

True to its purpose as a heavy weapon, it demonstrated firepower far superior to the Demolisher. As a result, it was primarily used when fighting Outspacers with hard carapaces.

Warriors carrying heavy weapons, priests wearing heavy equipment, and the deployment of an encirclement to predict enemy movements.

It took a full day for all preparations to be completed.

But no one complained about this.

Their opponent was a monster with powerful strength, high intelligence, and shapeshifting abilities. Without this level of equipment, anyone who encountered it would likely die a miserable death.

In fact, when the creature attacked the subjugation team, the damage was minimal. Conversely, the team succeeded in wounding it.

About three hours ago, as they were moving toward a fork in the path, the creature suddenly appeared before them.

From its hideous maw poured highly acidic liquid and corrosive fungal masses.

Though two types of attacks came at them, this time the subjugation team was properly prepared. With heavily armed priests at the front, they easily defended against the attacks. While the priests blocked the attacks with the defensive effects of the Heretic Inquisition Armor, warriors wielding Slayers opened fire.

Even the creature’s hard carapace couldn’t withstand the Slayer’s matter-decomposition rounds. Two of the horns on its eyeless head were hit and destroyed. The creature fled immediately after its horns were damaged.

The subjugation team was greatly encouraged by their first success since entering the underground. If they could wound it, killing it should be possible.

After that, the creature no longer showed itself properly. Instead, it only used its unique voice mimicry ability to deceive the subjugation team.

However, from the team’s perspective, this was not disappointing.

The longer this game of hide-and-seek continued, the more advantageous it became for the subjugation team, not the creature. The Cult owned this planet. The team could receive unlimited support, but the creature could not.

And in a few hours, reinforcements from the Temple Guardian Order would arrive. Once these monster hunting specialists joined, the tide would definitely turn in favor of the subjugation team.

“Movement detected within 500m ahead.”

“Good. Share this with the priests at other points as well.”

“Yes.”

The deputy leader of the Eye of Revelation priesthood, who was serving as the temporary commander of the subjugation team, nodded at his subordinate’s words.

Warriors holding Slayers prepared to fire at any moment, while priests in Heretic Inquisition Armor tightened their grip on their weapons.

The sounds of breathing and footsteps made by the moving Cult members settled on the soil.

As the distance between the point where movement was detected and the subjugation team gradually narrowed, a sound was heard.

“Everyone halt.”

At the deputy leader’s command, everyone stopped moving. In the silence where not even breathing could be heard, the sound came again.

“Help me!”

Someone was calling for help from the still-unilluminated darkness. However, the deputy leader did not move hastily.

“Are there any support teams in this area?”

“There’s one.”

“Contact?”

The subordinate who quickly made contact shook his head. The deputy leader immediately issued orders.

“Everyone be careful. It’s nearby.”

“Yes.”

“Open fire immediately if you see anything moving. That’s an order.”

Until now, the creature had been deceiving them by mimicking voices. The likelihood that the voice belonged to an ally was low.

The subjugation team, following the deputy leader’s orders, slowly walked toward the source of the voice.

“Heeeelp! Heeeelp!”

“Pay no attention. Focus on your duties. I’ll take responsibility for everything.”

“Heeeeeeeelp!”

As they drew closer, the screams became increasingly desperate. Each time the voice was heard, the deputy leader reassured the team members to prevent them from wavering.

Then suddenly, the voice stopped. The corridor, which should have been filled with silence, began to vibrate. Seeing something beyond the shaking darkness, the deputy leader shouted loudly.

“Open fire!”

Slayers and various weapons spewed fire, brightly illuminating the black cave. The explosive sounds, more intense than the light, mercilessly struck the corridor walls. Between the flashes of light, a massive creature could be seen thrashing its body.

The subjugation team’s indiscriminate barrage ended only after the creature’s movements stopped. The soil-covered floor was now soaked with the creature’s blood.

No creature could survive after losing so much blood, but the deputy leader remained vigilant.

“Check it.”

A priest cautiously approached the creature.

“D-Deputy Leader!”

“What is it? Is it still alive?”

“That’s not it! Come see this!”

The emotion in the subordinate’s voice who had checked the corpse was clearly one of bewilderment.

Only after checking the corpse himself did the deputy leader understand why he was so confused.

The corpse before him.

The identity of the creature that had hidden half its body in the soil was not the three-headed demon.

It was a Red Worm, a creature that played an important role in the planet’s ecosystem.

‘…Damn it.’

The dead Red Worm was not yet a fully grown specimen. Judging by its size, it was similar to the three-headed demon they were pursuing.

This meant that the creature could pretend to be a Red Worm to evade the subjugation team’s attention. Or perhaps it had already left this area.

This was a blind spot created by tracking based solely on the size and vibrations of creatures.

“Contact the surface immediately. Tell them the creature is mixing among the Red Worms.”

“Yes. I underst…”

Just then, the quiet corridor vibrated. The deputy leader knew what this vibration meant.

“Another Red Worm is coming! Everyone prepare for battle!”

The three-headed demon hadn’t simply been running away.

A massive trap it had prepared was now targeting them.

‘They took the bait.’

Vibrations that could be felt even without placing auxiliary organs on the ground.

It was a signal that the Red Worms were moving.

They probably thought they had successfully surrounded me, but that wasn’t the case at all. On the contrary, I had led them to a specific location.

Namely, into Red Worm territory.

The tunnels where the subjugation team now stood weren’t made by me. All I did was create slight detours in the burrows where Red Worms passed through.

I also made sure to let the enemies hear my voice while guiding them to the Red Worm territory. Thanks to this, they made the critical mistake of assuming I was the only being beneath the red desert capable of mimicking others’ voices.

‘Even a Ranker would realize what they did wrong…’

But it was too late to turn back now.

There were two ways for the Ranker to catch me here.

Either come down personally to chase me, or kill all the moving Red Worms.

‘They’ll probably choose the latter.’

If my opponent was reasonably intelligent, they would have figured out that this situation was orchestrated by me. With their guard up, the likelihood of them entering the underground personally was low.

But it wouldn’t be easy to deploy an Imperial Mothership after coming this far. Destroying Beryan02 was a completely different matter from bombarding a holy site.

Even if they somehow managed to destroy it, what if I didn’t die? Could the opponent really afford the risk of having to fight me without any support in the empty void of space?

Therefore, the only method available to the enemy Ranker was to kill the Red Worms to facilitate tracking me.

‘The problem is, that’s exactly what I intended.’

I’ve encountered over 80 Red Worms. How long would it take to track and kill so many Red Worms one by one? It would take at least a week, even if they moved quickly.

While they pursued the wrong target, I could wait until I was able to transform.

‘Of course, I’ll need to add some spice in between.’

To prevent the enemies from deviating from my plan, I needed to reveal myself at appropriate times. Only then would they continue to pursue Red Worms with false hope.

And as a bonus, they would continue to mistakenly believe I was in a “weakened state.”

‘Now to move again…oh wait.’

Just as I was about to go find those who hadn’t yet encountered Red Worms, I remembered something I’d forgotten.

I raised my combat arm and grabbed the two horns attached to my left head. Then I exerted all my strength to break the horns.

No. 26, seeing me break perfectly good horns, poked me with its tentacles.

“Big baby, what are you doing?”

[I’m pretending I haven’t healed]

“Pretending? I know pretending! Imitating bad guys is also pretending!”

[Exactly]

“I’m good at pretending too! Look!”

Saying that, it brought out its “mutation tentacle.” The ordinary tentacle wriggled and transformed into a shape identical to my left head with broken horns. The only difference was its pink color; otherwise, it looked exactly like my head now.

[You’re good at it]

“I am good!”

[When we meet the bad guys, do what you’ve been doing]

“Okay. Pretending.”

After returning its tentacle to normal, it climbed onto my head.

Afterward, we traveled together, toying with the enemies. Even after Adhigh joined us, the plan remained unchanged.

As expected, the enemies chose to reduce the number of Red Worms. However, far more personnel were deployed underground than I had anticipated.

‘To think they would even mobilize the Temple Guardian Order.’

The Temple Guardian Order served as the Shaman’s bodyguards and were experts in monster hunting. They normally didn’t station on Beryan02. They must have been urgently summoned from another planet.

‘They must really want to catch me…’

But their method was flawed.

Numerous personnel wasted time killing Red Worms, mistaking them for me.

Two days passed like that.

‘One more hour.’

In approximately one hour, the cooldown for “Organic Evolution” would end. After that, I could escape from this place in my transformed state.

Long ago, Sky Mother and PS-111 had completed preparations to help me escape. They would be waiting for me at the rendezvous point outside.

‘Should I drive the enemy far away one last time before leaving?’

[I have something to do, so go ahead]

“Okay.”

“Hurry” “Come” “I’ll wait”

After patting No. 26 and Adhigh, who had worked hard until now, I sent them ahead.

I headed toward where the Cult group was gathered, leaving them behind.

‘Huh?’

When I was not far from them, my auxiliary organs detected a strange energy.

The Cult members who came to this underground never traveled in small numbers. But the presence I sensed now wasn’t numerous.

‘And this familiarity, I’m sure I’ve felt it somewhere before.’

The entity approaching made extremely faint footsteps. It was definitely the movement of someone I had encountered before, but I couldn’t remember when.

‘Just in case.’

I prepared an acid breath toward the direction from which they were coming. The moment the owner of the suspicious presence emerged from beyond the cave, I fired the breath.

A cannon of viscous green liquid traversed the corridor and hit the target.

“…Acidic mucus. You haven’t changed.”

‘Oh?’

The opponent’s voice was heard from the corridor filled with acidic smoke. Then an invisible blade of wind flew through the fog and cut off one of the horns on my central head.

‘Could it be?’

“Do you remember me?”

I was more surprised by the identity of my opponent than by the fact that the tip of my horn had been cut off.

Long black hair, a slender figure, and eyes that conveyed a cool yet subtle madness.

Among those I’ve met, only one person had these characteristics.

The first formidable opponent I encountered after falling into this world.

The genetically modified human who was defeated by me after a life-or-death battle.

‘Siheyon Yujin?’

She, who had died once, revealed herself in this dark underground world.