Ch.318Side Story: The Monster’s Dream

–

Living as a Space Dog, a scavenger in the harsh universe.

This pirate group, composed of orphans, escaped slaves, war criminals, and mercenaries, has no family, property, or residence. They simply live day by day on the goods they plunder.

However, some groups did think about the concept of “future.” Pirates who survived for a long time used their accumulated wealth from plundering to make long-term plans to maintain their cartel.

The path they chose was to integrate into the order created by the three superpowers: Megacorp, Star Union, and Cult Empire.

At the current point where the powers of these superpowers have solidified, pirates who capture slaves or rare creatures without caring about territory are truly beings that scratch an itchy back. The gray area between legal and illegal became the new stage for Space Dogs.

For instance, selling prisoners captured from plundered ships as slaves or experimental guinea pigs was one of the cartel’s sources of income.

Among the pirates who made human trafficking their main business, the two most notorious groups were:

The Humanity Cartel and the Satua Cartel.

They didn’t just stop at plundering and kidnapping; they even occupied entire planets and sold off all the natives. The reason a mere pirate group could do this was because the Cult Empire protected them.

Both were equally evil, but the Satua Cartel was more notorious. Humanity was a relatively new cartel, so their evil deeds were less known.

In contrast, the Satua Cartel was a well-established cartel that had been active for over 40 years. They surpassed other cartels in both ships and personnel.

Moreover, they even targeted fellow pirates for human trafficking. That’s why Satua was an object of hatred even among Space Dogs. It’s just that they couldn’t touch them because Satua Cartel was too strong.

A tumor of the universe protected by the superpowers. The infamy of Satua seemed like it would continue forever.

That is, if “they” hadn’t appeared at Satua’s base.

–

‘Damn, damn, damn, damn!’

The deputy leader of the Satua Cartel, hiding in the mud, kept cursing inwardly.

He doesn’t know when or where this disaster started.

Was it because the ships coming to visit the slave market lost contact?

Was it because communication with the forest camps was cut off?

Was it because the return of colleagues who left to restore communications was delayed?

The unidentified epidemic that suddenly spread is also suspicious.

No, maybe it’s all of the above.

Anyway, that’s not important.

What’s clear is that the Satua Cartel, boasting a 40-year history, is finished.

“Gigigigigik!”

“Uaaaagh!”

“Kkuagagagak!”

Screams from afar, roars of unknown beings, and gunshots mixed chaotically overhead.

Sounds that would never be heard until yesterday. They’re coming from the cartel’s main camp. His colleagues are being brutally slaughtered by mysterious beings.

‘What the hell did we do wrong to deserve this?’

The deputy leader had committed numerous acts of plunder and crime. He had heard the cries of victims to the point of boredom.

But he never thought he had done anything wrong.

Isn’t that how the world works? The strong preying on the weak is the law of nature. He had simply followed that law faithfully.

While he was blaming the culprit who caused this situation, the noise from afar gradually subsided.

“……”

After a long time of silence, he cautiously raised his head.

The forest, which had been sunlit when he fled, was now gradually darkening.

From afar, he heard a “tong, tong” sound like an animal’s cry. The deputy leader moved very slowly, like when he was about to snipe.

Tong, tong. The sound of a beast’s chirping mixed with the sound of wings. Ignoring the sound penetrating his ears, he crawled diligently on the ground. There was a fighter inside the forest. Getting out of here on that was his top priority.

Tong, tong. The cry that had been faint was getting louder. Was it because he was moving without making a sound? That particular sound started to bother him.

‘Which fucking bastard…’

While cursing inwardly, he suddenly realized that the sound wasn’t unfamiliar.

Because it’s an animal that inhabits this forest? No. He had heard that sound recently.

Specifically, right before the camp turned to ashes.

Tung, tung.

As soon as he thought that, the sound got closer. The deputy leader quickly got up.

The distance between him and “it” was less than 10 meters. He tried to run to where the fighter was in one breath.

“!”

With a pain in his ankle, his body lurched forward. Having fallen forward again right after getting up, he looked down at his ankle.

“Hee, heek?!”

A pink tentacle that had sprung out from the bushes was tightly binding his leg. And the owner of the tentacle appeared before him, bouncing with a “tung, tung” sound.

“W-wait…!”

His words couldn’t continue to the end.

The pink ball-like “thing” swelled up and pounced on him.

–

“I” “was trying to catch” “small adult” “stole it”

“No! I was targeting it first!”

“I” “saw” “ugly dwarf” “running away”

“You didn’t know where it went. I knew. That’s why I caught it first!”

No. 26’s point was correct.

Adhigh had lost sight of the ugly dwarf because he got distracted by another fugitive. On the other hand, the small adult, No. 26, continued to track the initial target.

Thanks to that, the fleeing pirate deputy leader was smashed beyond recognition.

“Adult” “giving up” “important” “small adult” “greedy”

“Big baby said whoever catches it gets to eat it.”

“That” “acknowledged”

In the end, when Big baby was mentioned, Adhigh gave up.

The male she loved had fallen asleep in a safe place. As he had done several times before, he had entered a long sleep to grow his body.

After finishing growth, the big adult always looked for food. Adhigh’s actions stemmed from her desire that her loved one not go hungry.

And this was the same for No. 26’s heart.

“When” “big adult” “finishes” “want to” “gift food”

“If you catch other prey, take it.”

“Really?”

“Let’s eat this and go find more together.”

“Agreed”

The two, who had agreed for the first time in a while, decided to chase after other fugitives. No. 26 extended her tentacles to digest the prey she had captured in one bite.

“Huh?”

While sweeping the meat fragments into her body, No. 26 felt a strange sensation. It was because there was an unfamiliar object inside the corpse.

“What is this?”

“Small adult” “if you’re done eating” “let’s go”

“Okay.”

Though she didn’t know what it was, it looked interesting, so No. 26 kept the object.

Afterwards, short screams echoed through the forest several times. The culprits behind the screams, Gallergorn and Sea Demon, returned to the burning camp only when night fell.

“You’ve arrived?”

PS-111, who was collecting necessary genes and biological data from the corpses piled in the center of the camp, greeted them.

“Where” “should I put” “this?”

“You can put it in that building over there.”

“Where did middle baby go?”

“She’s inside, protecting the ‘AMorph’. Why do you ask?”

“I have something to ask.”

“Small adult” “found” “strange object”

“Strange object?”

No. 26 took out the object she had been wrapping with her tentacles. PS-111 extended a leg with a hook-like claw and carefully received the object.

“Do you know what it is?”

“It’s a type of Cult-style pad terminal. However, judging from the fact that it looks different from existing models and that traces of psychic power are detected, it appears to be a model modified for a special purpose.”

“That” “means you don’t know?”

“It’s different from the stored information, but I never said I don’t know.”

“Everyone worked hard.”

“It’s middle baby!”

While everyone was talking about the object No. 26 had brought, a griffon humanoid came out from a large warehouse inside the camp.

“Hmm? What’s that?”

“It’s a pad terminal brought by the main controller.”

“I got it after punishing humans.”

“Small adult” “successfully” “hunted” “ugly dwarf” “collected” “spoils”

“By ugly dwarf, you mean Volf the deputy leader? Looks like an object taken from him. Can I see it for a moment?”

Sky Mother received the terminal, her amber eyes glowing. She too was slightly taken aback by the terminal’s appearance.

“It looks a bit unusual?”

“It’s presumed to be a model modified for a special purpose.”

“A special purpose, huh.”

After examining the pad thoroughly, she called No. 26.

“Can you infuse a bit of power into this? Just a tiny bit, not too much.”

“Okay. I’ll try.”

No. 26’s tentacle touched the pad that Sky Mother was holding. The moment the tentacle took on a slight purple hue, the pad activated.

“As expected.”

Seeing the pad working, the griffon Volf let out a brief exclamation.

“What is that?”

“It’s a tool for teaching non-Cult species how to use psychic power. To use an analogy, it’s like a braille book read with psychic power.”

“Does such a thing exist?”

“I’ve only heard about it in settings… ahem, I mean, I’ve only heard about it, I didn’t know it actually existed.”

After almost mentioning game settings, Sky Mother cleared her throat and then operated the pad.

Everyone present reacted. Suddenly, psychic power was constructing large images before their eyes.

“What is this?” “What is this?” “It’s strange!”

“A small amount of psychic power is distorting my sensory organs.”

“What is this? I feel something! This is amazing!”

No. 26 and Adhigh, the best psychic power users, showed the most extreme reactions. Sky Mother and PS-111, who had relatively weaker psychic abilities than the two, just trembled slightly.

“When activated, it projects videos implemented with psychic power according to a predetermined theme. This one seems like… hmm, a Cult-style fairy tale?”

As she said, anyone with potential for psychic power can perceive the images created by the pad. The more sensitive one is to psychic power, the more detailed aspects they can experience beyond just seeing.

Right now, they were not in the middle of a collapsed pirate camp but inside a luxuriously decorated palace.

“Comparing with stored information, it’s 55% identical to the interior structure of the auxiliary palace mainly used by the Cult Emperor.”

“Auxiliary palace?”

“The record stored in this pad seems to be ‘The Legend of the Pirate King Who Assassinated the Tyrant’. It’s a story about a brave pirate king and heroes punishing the emperor when he was engulfed in madness and wielded tyranny.”

“Hmm, so there was such a fairy tale. It’s my first time hearing… huh?”

While appreciating the fantasy and listening to PS-111’s explanation, Sky Mother hesitated when she saw a group that suddenly appeared.

The newly appeared characters were a mixed group of humans, Volfs, Cults, cyborgs, and all sorts of species. That was fine, but the problem was their gender and attire.

“W-what is this?!”

“Wow! New humans!”

“Dwarf” “types” “many”

“While the species are diverse, they all appear to be of the same gender.”

“I know that too!”

The attire of the newly revealed women was far from fitting the palace background. They were wearing provocative clothes that even those at the bottom of the pleasure district wouldn’t wear.

‘Damn! This is porn!’

Only when the women, dressed in things that were embarrassing to call clothes, climbed onto a bed did Sky Mother realize the nature of the content in the pad.

It was a kind of adult material set against the backdrop of the tyrant legend. Virtual reality adult material implemented with psychic power.

She couldn’t help but know, as her homeland was also very conservative about sexual elements. Even the virtual reality game she enjoyed couldn’t pass the review because of it.

“Wow! Humans are exchanging food with tentacles!”

“Food?” “I don’t see it”

“Look, they’re putting it into their bodies with tentacles. They’re feeding through there!”

“That” “not” “tentacle”

“That is identified as a body part with a special purpose. However, putting that part against that part is inefficient.”

Hearing the conversation between the three monsters, Sky Mother snapped to her senses.

For her, with weak ability to handle psychic power, it was simply a visual image, but not for them. Gallergorn and Sea Demon, being psychic creatures, could not only see but feel as if they were actually in that space.

So she immediately turned off the pad.

“What? The feeling suddenly disappeared.”

“Middle adult” “broke” “object”

“…It’s not broken, but it’s too early for you.”

“?” “I” “leader” “of group” “sufficiently” “adult”

“I’m an adult too. I want to see more.”

She inadvertently said they were too young, but it didn’t work. When No. 26 and Adhigh rebelled, Sky Mother hid the pad behind her back.

“Uh, well… even adults shouldn’t see it.”

“It’s my thing. Since it’s mine, I’ll do what I want with it!”

“Agree” “object” “belongs to” “small adult”

“I agree. It’s biologically interesting material. I request reactivation of the pad.”

“……”

With PS-111 joining in, she was at a loss for words.

In fact, given that they are different species, the possibility of problems arising from knowing the contents of the pad is low. She is aware of this fact.

Yet the reason she’s acting this way is because the creatures before her are far from ordinary wild animals. These beings with intelligence beyond humans will quickly realize what kind of knowledge this pad provides.

And also what can be done with this “knowledge.”

‘…It’s not my business anyway.’

It’s clear who they want to form relationships with. They want to form a deeper relationship with AMorph, who is preparing for a new evolution.

It’s up to AMorph to decide how to handle relationships with No. 26 and Adhigh. There’s no reason for her, a third party, to interfere. In fact, when something similar happened before, that’s what she thought.

But now, is she acting this way because she sees them as her children? Or is it because of some other emotion she herself doesn’t recognize?

‘Whatever the reason, such distorted images are not good!’

Though she couldn’t clearly state the reason herself, she couldn’t back down. She had to somehow prevent it, not knowing what effect “hardcore adult material involving multiple participants” would have on intelligent beasts.

She finally pulled out the universal answer.

“Uh, well, big baby won’t like it either.”

“Big adult?” “Why?”

“Why? It’s fun.”

“Big baby doesn’t like this kind of thing. So, PS-111.”

Before the kids could ask more, she handed the terminal to PS-111.

“Extract all the important data from this and dispose of the rest. Do you remember what AMorph said we need to find?”

“Information about the pirates’ auction? Understood.”

Thanks to Sky Mother’s unusually stern attitude, the matter of the pad was buried.

Adhigh, who had shown quite an interest when viewing the content, seemed to lose interest soon and went to the building where the food was stored. Sky Mother, perhaps feeling awkward to stay there, had also left the place.

PS-111, who had been asked by AMorph and Sky Mother, began analyzing the contents of the pad. As he was trying to check by connecting a cable to the pad, No. 26 approached.

“Friend.”

“Yes.”

“I want to see what’s inside.”

“‘Middle baby’ said ‘AMorph’ wouldn’t like it. Are you okay with receiving AMorph’s resentment?”

“I don’t want big baby to be angry! What I want is something else.”

“Something else?”

“Yes. If I study what big baby dislikes, wouldn’t it be helpful later?”

PS-111 hesitated at No. 26’s wavelength.

“Big baby is the strongest because he’s the head, but if stronger bad guys appear, I need to help.”

“That’s certainly a reasonable point.”

“So I need to study. Even what big baby dislikes.”

PS-111 nodded at the pink jellyfish speaking coherently.

“Main controller’s opinion received. I will copy the contents of the terminal so you can check it.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“It means I’ll grant your request.”

“Wow! Thank you!”

“But I’m also interested in the contents. I’ll study together with you.”

“That’ll be fun!”

That was a very different outcome from what Sky Mother had expected, but she wouldn’t know.

However, the outcome she was worried about would never happen either.

Until coming to this planet, No. 26’s dream had never changed.

Her dream was to lead her kind and family to greater happiness and prosperity.

And the scope of that family includes everyone she loves.

For the sake of sharing happiness with her family, she will learn anything.