Ch.31Shell (2)

‘I’ve been here countless times in the game, and now I’m here in reality too.’

Currently, I’m in a dark alley in the port district. There are no cameras, and the path itself is blocked from light by buildings.

No. 26, nestled in my arms, sent a wave of discomfort.

「It’s stuffy.」

[Zzzzzz (Just bear with it a little longer)]

「Okay.」

After stroking it to calm it down, I looked outside the alley.

In the distance, under an artificially created night sky from a massive dome-shaped screen, lights from billboards chaotically flood the area. It might look glamorous on the surface, but I know the true nature of this city.

‘This is a sick place.’

Though not as bad as “Earth,” which serves as the capital of Megacorp, this place is still quite the hellscape. There are countless people who treat human lives like flies, and many who commit terrible crimes without hesitation, driven by their pursuit of pleasure.

Many enter for tourism or jobs, but many also leave in death. That’s the T&C Special Trade Center.

‘That’s partly why I chose this place. Now, where should I go first?’

This space city is divided into five districts: four districts and a central administrative district.

The port district to the east, residential district to the west, entertainment district to the south, commercial district to the north, and finally, the central administrative district that oversees all others.

Among these, two areas have the most unstable security: the entertainment district and the residential district.

The entertainment district houses establishments where Megacorp citizens fulfill their secret desires with “employed” slaves. Just like in reality where such entertainment areas receive less surveillance due to the circumstances of those in power, the same applies here. There are hardly any surveillance cameras, but combat androids patrol to catch criminals instead.

Androids are troublesome opponents, so I can’t go to the entertainment district right now. I need to head to a different district.

‘The residential district.’

It’s called the residential district, but it’s closer to a slum. It’s mainly inhabited by middle and lower Capitals within Megacorp and alien species with jobs in this city, but it can hardly be called safe even as a courtesy. As with any city, areas where the poor reside tend to have weaker security.

Moreover, residents of the residential district tend to blow all their daily earnings in the entertainment district. Since many live only for today, no one finds it strange if someone from next door disappears. As long as I’m careful of the police and androids patrolling for surveillance, there shouldn’t be major issues with my gradual growth.

‘Good. I’ve decided where to go. Next is…’

How to get there.

There’s a limit to moving only through secluded paths. Unlike the research ship, the space city has well-equipped security facilities and many patrolling androids.

A place where I can go anywhere in the city without being caught by human eyes. I know exactly two routes that meet this condition.

‘The sewers and the underground railway.’

Both are important facilities built alongside the space city, with a setting that they serve as essential elements of life: water and transportation, essentially acting as the city’s blood vessels.

‘If this were a game, I’d go through the sewers, but in reality, it might be difficult.’

Since water can’t be extracted in space, this place relies on two methods to supply water to its residents: recycling sewage through purification and regularly importing water from outside.

In the game, this is just background information, but here it’s reality. The sewers are likely managed at a much higher level than I know.

‘It’s unfortunate, but let’s go with the underground railway.’

I moved with No. 26. Sometimes walking through dark alleys, sometimes traversing building rooftops. There might be someone who could see me from the high-rise buildings in the central administrative district, but there are no tall buildings here in the port district. People on the streets didn’t notice anything passing above their heads.

‘Let’s see. The passage should be around here somewhere.’

Needless to say, I don’t plan to walk through the station entrance. With androids and surveillance cameras guarding it, walking in would immediately cause a big commotion.

I’ve infiltrated this place hundreds of times. Though I haven’t always used the same route, I have a secret passage I used most frequently. It was originally a kind of shortcut used by workers constructing the railway, but it was forgotten after the railway was completed.

‘No one knows about this place except me.’

I remember how players would argue with each other in frustration because I kept sneaking in despite their meticulous surveillance networks. Some clans even relocated their bases entirely because they couldn’t handle my attacks.

Chuckling inwardly, I picked up the rusty manhole cover in front of me with my four hands.

Located at the border of the port district, this is my own little passage.

–

Among Megacorp’s Noble Capital, House T&C had a particularly strong corporate character compared to other houses.

This is because House T&C originated from an insurance company in a city once called New York.

Perhaps that’s why.

The motto of Earth’s royal family, T&C, is as follows:

「To stay in one place, you must keep running.」

The Red Queen effect, often mentioned in business studies, was their survival philosophy. Just as House Yugin became the king of Earth through genetic research, T&C also had a field they focused on for their family’s prosperity.

That field was space colony development.

Instead of the old Earth and solar system, their goal was to pioneer a new continent. Rather than dividing the existing pie, they wanted to increase the size of the pie itself, investing enormous credits in artificial habitat construction and terraforming technology.

Starting with space stations within the solar system, they expanded to Mars terraforming and orbital habitat construction. One of the fruits of their labor is the space colony T&C Special Trade Center, established in outer space.

Planned as a trade hub connecting the solar system and outer space, the T&C Special Trade Center is a massive space habitat with a diameter of 60km. At the current point, it’s the oldest space colony, but due to its symbolism as the first space city, it still holds considerable influence.

Thanks to this, even today, numerous alien species visit to see this historic human-made structure.

The Smuggled Animal Monitoring Team office in the port district was noisy today with the sounds of smuggled animals.

“I’m leaving first.”

“What the hell, Las, you crazy bastard! We’re all going insane because of that Mountain Crawler, and you’re leaving early?”

“I don’t work overtime. Everyone, get back to work.”

“What a selfish bastard!”

Las responded to the cursing team leader behind him with a wave of his hand.

Above his head as he left the building was a dark night sky created by AI.

Artificial starlight, light from all kinds of billboards, and people wandering the streets like moths drawn to that light. Las willingly blended into those illusory lights.

‘Who should I play with tonight?’

After taking the subway to the entertainment district, Las pressed the digital order panel in front of a special entertainment establishment. A hologram appeared in mid-air, displaying the faces, profiles, and service details of the staff provided by the establishment.

This is a place where those officially “employed” by Megacorp provide special services. A place where they must obey whatever requests customers make. For some, it’s hell; for others, it’s paradise—that’s what a special entertainment establishment is.

‘This one looks good.’

Las chose a woman who resembled a colleague. He didn’t particularly feel guilty. After all, he knew well that his colleague was also a regular at this place.

Las entered the establishment, whistling.

Two hours later.

Las washed the blood off his hands in the establishment’s bathroom.

With his arm replaced by machinery, he occasionally enjoyed this kind of “oiling.”

Blood and oil from a living organism, that is.

Of course, blood dries and smells, and it also rusts, so he needed to clean it moderately.

‘Was I too harsh?’

Las glanced toward the bedroom. The white cloth on the bed was stained red.

He thought about cleaning up before leaving, but then shook his head. The scattered “debris” would be cleaned up by the establishment. That’s what he paid for, after all.

With a refreshed face, Las left the establishment and suddenly felt like having a drink.

‘Let’s have a drink before bed.’

Praising himself for not making a bad choice, he bought a few bottles of synthetic alcohol and headed to the residential district.

As soon as he exited the subway station, he was greeted by silence. Unlike the entertainment district, which felt noisy due to the neon sign festival, the residential district was quiet.

If he were an upper Capital, he would live in a building and luxury residence in the administrative district, but Las was a low Capital. It was better than non-Capitals who had to sleep in sleep capsules, but the residential district wasn’t particularly comfortable. His team members called the dingy, dirty apartment with poor security a “chicken coop.”

“Goddamn it! Someone broke them again.”

The street should have been bright with streetlights, but all the streetlights along the way were broken. They would be repaired in a few days, but the fact that he had to walk this dark path until then irritated Las.

Grumbling, Las took out a flashlight from his bag. White light burst from the end of the flashlight, illuminating his path.

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of stepping on glass shards broke the silence of the residential district. Though it was a familiar path, he felt something strange today.

‘What’s this smell?’

An unknown, unpleasant smell rose from the ground. Thinking a sewer might have burst, his eyes caught a manhole cover.

The cover, which was usually closed, was slightly open.

‘These idiots, if they’re going to do construction, they should close it properly.’

Las walked with his hand pinching his nose.

Though he was already far from the manhole, the smell didn’t dissipate. The entire path seemed filled with an ominous odor.

Something was wrong.

For some reason, Las felt that something bad was happening. Due to the smell and the eerie darkness, his pace unconsciously quickened.

As he was walking, almost running, to his home, he saw something standing in the middle of the path.

“Shit!”

Las screamed with a curse in shock. Hearing his scream, the figure in the darkness turned its head.

It was a young man.

‘S-shit, I thought I was going to die.’

He momentarily thought it was a monster, but it was a person. Slightly relieved, he examined the man again.

Judging by his work clothes, he seemed to be someone working in the port district. With an ordinary face, he had something like a reddish ball tucked at his side.

‘What’s this guy doing?’

Las found the other person unsettling for some reason. Until he arrived, this place was pitch black without a single point of light. Someone standing still with that strange ball-like object in such a place was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m on my way home.”

The man answered in a flat voice. Despite his behavior, his voice gave a very ordinary impression, which made Las slightly relieved.

“Ahem, be careful on your way. I’ll be going now.”

“Excuse me.”

“Hm?”

“It’s dark, so let’s go together.”

Las pondered the man’s words. He wasn’t thrilled about walking with that unpleasant man. But since the path was indeed dark, Las eventually accepted.

“…Follow me.”

“Thank you.”

With the man following behind, they set off again.

As they walked down the quiet street, the man behind him spoke.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“You’re a cyborg, right?”

“…What about it?”

“I see.”

With those words, the man fell silent.

‘What’s that about?’

Thinking the man might be discriminating against cyborgs in Megacorp, Las was about to say something. As he half-opened his mouth, a strange smell once again stung his nose.

A much stronger and more unpleasant smell than before. For some reason, it seemed to be flowing from behind Las.

“……”

Las, who was about to curse but stopped, slightly glanced behind him. The moment he saw the man, he felt his spine freeze.

The man following him wasn’t looking at the light. He was staring directly at Las without blinking an eye.

That alone was creepy, but Las saw it.

The red ball tucked in the man’s arm. It was wriggling.

‘Holy shit!’

He had heard from a colleague before. There were madmen among the upper Capitals who kept only human heads alive to play with.

Was it a coincidence? What the man was holding was exactly the size of a human head.

As that thought crossed his mind, Las couldn’t bear it any longer.

His home wasn’t far. Las started running, leaving the man behind.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

Looking back, the man was still standing in the darkness. Though it was hard to see even a step ahead in the thick darkness, Las could feel it.

The man was glaring at him with an expressionless face.

Fortunately, nothing happened until Las reached his home.

Whether from running or fear, his clothes were soaked with sweat.

The mood for drinking was long gone, but conversely, he was thirsty. Las opened the cap of the synthetic alcohol, which had cold droplets on it.

Gulping it down at once, a burning heat and tipsy feeling spread from his throat throughout his body.

“…Ugh, damn, I’ll report this first thing tomorrow.”

Perhaps due to the alcohol, the tension slowly eased. Finally realizing he had arrived at his sanctuary, he let out a sigh of relief.

“…Sigh, what a shitty neighborhood. When I save enough money, I should move somewhere else.”

Muttering an unattainable dream, he turned on the old virtual TV. The small room instantly became noisy, and he felt his fear subsiding.

Las approached the window and looked outside.

There was only darkness, with no sign of any person.

–

‘He ran away.’

The cyborg ran off in a hurry for some reason. I could roughly guess why.

‘A subtle sense of discomfort.’

He might not explicitly know I’m a monster, but he seemed to sense something was different. If he had sensitive perception, he might weakly feel the subtle chemical signals in my pheromones.

Still, the purpose of my mimicry organ is merely a means to facilitate ambushes. Since I won’t be interacting with humans, this level is sufficient.

「He was scared of me.」

[Zz zzzz (I wonder why?)]

「Don’t know.」

The cyborg seemed to find me unsettling too, but what affected his heartbeat the most was No. 26. When he looked at it, his heartbeat peaked.

‘What’s so scary about No. 26?’

It’s the first time I’ve seen someone afraid of a Bubble Amoeba, the epitome of healing and mascots. Although No. 26 is a mutant, it looks exactly like other Bubble Amoebas, so there’s nothing particularly frightening about it.

That this cute creature is scary? An incomprehensible cyborg.

‘Come to think of it, he said he was a cyborg?’

After the Psyonium effect ended, I’ve returned to my Morphlet state. To evolve into a Juvenile, I need to eat one more cyborg.

‘This is perfect timing.’

He doesn’t know it, but I’ve figured out exactly which house he entered.

The residual traces left by the fleeing prey are still lingering in the air.