Ch.37Monster (5)

“Broker S. A cautious person.”

Seeing how he immediately called when things seemed ambiguous shows he’s a careful man. If our conversation had seemed even slightly suspicious, he would have canceled the deal right away, so it’s fortunate things went smoothly.

‘I suppose he has reason to be cautious.’

After checking the USB Lloyd gave me, I could roughly guess his identity.

‘He’s either a confiscated goods manager from the supplies storage team, or a security guard from the port security team.’

Only those two positions would be able to legally load confiscated creatures onto ships.

The supplies storage team manages all goods arriving at the port, so document forgery would be easy for them.

Port security guards can manipulate surveillance cameras. Of course, considering the current situation, completely manipulating everything would be difficult, so they’d probably just deactivate some cameras when moving creatures.

‘He might even be both.’

It’s possible someone from the supplies storage team has bribed a security guard.

Either way, he’s definitely not high-ranking but not at the bottom either—exactly a middle manager position. And smart enough not to get caught smuggling over a long period.

Simply put, he’s not someone I can easily kill.

If my opponent has influence, there’s one problem.

‘If I just eat him carelessly, things will get complicated.’

He’s different from people close to day laborers, like Lloyd or Ras. If S is a middle manager, he has many connections, so people would find it strange if he suddenly disappeared.

Moreover, there are already at least two teams he’s suspected of lobbying.

The smuggled animal management team and the port security team. There might be even more teams involved.

Criminals have tight relationships with each other, so if he disappears, they’ll try to find him somehow.

Even if I were to shapeshift into S and formally process a resignation, it wouldn’t be easy if he holds an important position within the team. It would be awkward to respond if they called me to the workplace.

‘But there’s also a limit to siphoning confiscated creatures through S.’

I told S I found a customer, but that was obviously a lie. The commission I can give him is limited. The credits from those I’ve eaten aren’t that much.

Most residents in this residential district are day laborers or people who spend their daily credits in the entertainment district. The man next door has some credits, but Ras is practically penniless.

‘He even calls when I mention changing the time. If he knew I had no money, he’d cut me off immediately.’

How can I use this guy long-term without issues?

Actually, there is a way. The problem is it requires a lot of luck.

‘Outspacer genetic essence.’

Among the Outspacer’s traits, there’s one that could solve this problem. If I can acquire that trait through predation, the Broker S issue could be easily resolved.

‘Once this deal is done, I can eat the Outspacer. I’ll decide what to do next after seeing the results.’

The deal with the broker is already half-completed. Unless something goes wrong when we meet, the Outspacer will be mine. With so many variables right now, it’s better to make plans after eating the Outspacer.

‘There’s a lot to do before leaving anyway.’

Besides broker-related matters, I still have things to do. I need to process Lloyd’s resignation like I did with Ras.

After killing Lloyd, I used his communication device to send a resignation email to the smuggled animal management team. Since everyone had gone home, there was no separate contact from the team leader.

After finishing Lloyd’s resignation process, I checked the time and saw it was already past midnight.

The appointment time was approaching.

I left the house, leaving No. 26 asleep.

Since this wasn’t the entertainment district, there weren’t many residents walking around. Only tired-looking police officers and androids were patrolling the streets.

I carefully slipped into the underground secret passage, avoiding their eyes.

‘The container loading dock, huh.’

There were numerous cameras along the way. They probably arranged for some cameras to be disabled due to the illegal transaction, but I still needed to avoid them as much as possible.

‘I can detect electromagnetic waves with my auxiliary organs.’

Emerging from the manhole, I focused my senses on my auxiliary organs. The two tentacles under my jaw, which had grown longer and thicker after evolution, writhed according to my will.

The dawn smell tinged with asphalt’s afterglow, the iron and aluminum scent flowing from the forest of containers. The subtle vibration of the subway felt from the ground, the pulsation of a massive city operating day and night.

The port district was still filled with things that stimulated all five senses.

My auxiliary organs filtered out the thin thread-like electromagnetic waves emitted by cameras from all the sensory stimuli coming from outside.

‘Three cameras ahead.’

As I passed between stacks of containers, I avoided areas with cameras. As I expected, some cameras were turned off.

‘So he does have connections with security guards.’

I simply passed by the disabled cameras since they didn’t need attention.

As I moved, I sensed the movement of living beings in the distance.

Ten people in total. Except for one, all were armed.

‘Hah.’

I thought he was unusually cautious, but I didn’t expect him to bring colleagues.

‘I thought this would be easy.’

I activated my mimicry organ and revealed myself to them.

All ten people standing under the red light attached to the container crane looked at me at once.

The bald, fat man in the middle, Broker S, greeted me.

“You’re here?”

“Who are they?”

“Ah. Don’t worry about them. They’re insurance.”

They all looked too menacing to ignore. They had laser guns pointed at me.

‘Show of force.’

Most were humans in enhancement suits or cyborgs, but there was one troublesome individual mixed in.

‘There’s a Volf.’

Volfs are humanoid sentient beings capable of transformation, a beast-folk race with animal heads as we commonly know them. Being half-human and half-beast, their physical abilities are far superior to humans, and their senses are keen.

The female Volf S brought was already wrinking her nose and glaring at me.

My mimicry organ works as a pheromone feature. Even a Volf can be deceived, but they would feel more discomfort compared to other races.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

Nothing good would come from staying around a Volf for too long. I immediately got to the point.

“Where’s the item?”

“The goods are in that refrigerated container over there. I’ll tell you the password once the payment is made.”

“Okay.”

“You know how this works, right? Enter the account here.”

He handed me a laptop. There was a program running on it. It seemed designed to automatically transfer credits to him once I entered a personal credit account.

I had no difficulty since I had checked the credit account on the neighbor’s personal PC.

‘The balance was honestly cutting it close.’

The deposit was processed successfully. S closed the laptop with a satisfied face.

“That’s one headache gone.”

“Headache?”

“The Outspacer, I mean. I don’t know what kind of weirdo you are, but buying such a dangerous creature. Cult is truly an incomprehensible bunch.”

“Indeed.”

I agreed with S as he gossiped about a fictional entity that didn’t exist.

I’m not sure about reality, but in the game, Cult and Outspacers are enemies. Both in the story and game design.

The ultimate goal of Outspacers is to return to their homeland destroyed by Voltex One.

For this, they need psychic power strong enough to cover the galaxy, so they eat Cult members to accumulate psychic power.

One might ask why not just obtain psychic power-related genetic essence and apply it to the colony, but Outspacers have restrictions on using certain types of traits.

‘Outspacers can’t use psychic power.’

Due to the setting that Voltex One stripped the entire race of their psychic power ability, Outspacers cannot use any traits related to psychic abilities. The only exception is their innate resistance to psychic attacks.

Thanks to this innate resistance, they can block weak psychic attacks, but they’re vulnerable to powerful psychic power techniques. In other words, Outspacers only have minimal psychic defense measures and struggle to respond to various types of psychic attacks.

‘That’s why Cult counters Outspacers.’

Cult are experts in psychic power. They’re the race that can utilize the most types of psychic techniques among playable races.

They have sufficient means to bypass Outspacers’ psychic resistance and attack them.

Cult, physically weak but capable of various psychic attacks, versus Outspacers, able to cultivate countless legions but vulnerable to psychic abilities. The community always had endless debates about which side had the advantage.

‘Judging by what he’s saying, they don’t seem to be enemies in reality.’

I might need to meet a Cult directly to know the details.

Anyway, my business with the broker is done, so I should withdraw now.

“The deal is done, so I’ll be going.”

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“The person who penetrated the Cult side is the team leader, right?”

“What? Oh, yes.”

“That person is quite something. Could you possibly teach me?”

“Teach you what?”

“Cult connections. I’ll take care of you whenever deals with them are made. Of course, this is only for you, L.”

Being an influential broker, he’s trying to negotiate with me too. This attitude isn’t very welcome to me, as it becomes harder to deceive the longer we talk.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline.”

“Tsk. That’s a shame.”

“Well then.”

After greeting him as he smacked his lips, I tried to leave, but another person stopped me.

“Wait. Stop right there.”

“Kate? What’s wrong?”

The one who stopped me was indeed the Volf. The wolf-headed Volf called Kate approached me and sniffed.

“This person is suspicious.”

“Suspicious? But I’ve dealt with L several times.”

“I’m not sure exactly, but they’re hiding something.”

“Hiding?”

S’s expression turned cold at those words.

“Hey. What does this mean?”

“What?”

“Kate’s sense of smell is better than other Volfs. The security team’s atmosphere has been strange lately. Are you a spy? Everyone, grab her!”

The guards protecting S pointed their guns at me and slowly approached.

‘So it comes to this.’

As far as I know, in the game, Volfs can’t completely detect the effects of the mimicry organ. I’m not sure if Kate is special or if Volfs’ senses have become more acute in reality.

‘I’ll think about that later. First, let’s kill everyone except S.’

I would have preferred to resolve this peacefully, but there’s no choice.

From here on, they brought this upon themselves. I stabbed Kate, who was beside me, with my tail.

“Kuhk!”

She collapsed with a hole in her thigh, letting out a strange scream befitting a wolf Volf.

She was wearing a low-grade enhancement suit, but that level of suit doesn’t have high defense. Unless it’s a high-grade enhancement suit with built-in shields, it’s difficult to block my attack.

“Kate!”

“You damn bitch!”

Leaving her immobilized by the neurotoxin, I charged at the guards.

A rain of lasers from eight gun barrels poured onto my body midway, but my body was enhanced with physical enhancement types and various traits. Naturally, there were no wounds.

I swung my combat arm at the human closest to me.

“Gak!”

‘Second one.’

After incapacitating the opponent by shattering his jaw, I fired a spine bone at another cyborg nearby.

The sharp bullet-like spine pierced through the cyborg’s head and even penetrated the head of another human behind him.

‘Four.’

“She’s using camouflage!”

“Get down!”

“Hee, heek!”

Before the two corpses fell, I kicked off the ground and leaped into the air. My target was the tallest cyborg among the enemies. His face turned pale instantly as I flew toward him.

“Kwaak!”

I pounced on him and knocked him down, then mauled him with my four combat arms. The thin enhancement suit was helplessly torn by my sharp claws.

“Aaaagh! Help me!”

“Damn it!”

To their eyes, I would appear to be swinging only two arms while their comrade was being torn apart by something invisible. Broker S made a choked chicken sound as he saw the mechanical parts and organs inside the cyborg scatter into the air.

“F-fuck! We can’t handle this!”

“I’ll hold her off! Get the VIP out of here!”

A human with a scar on his face ordered the other guards. Three guards took S and began to flee.

“Uaaaaaaah!”

He retreated while firing his laser rifle at me wildly. Red light bullets exploded on my body, but what he hoped for didn’t happen.

Currently, my body is no different from a living tank. Unless they bring plasma weapons or at least gauss weapons, it’s impossible to wound my body.

Realizing that laser attacks were meaningless, he soon stopped firing.

“Damn it…!”

He threw away his rifle and pulled out a small rod from his chest. It was the same model as the sonic blade used by the pirate who invaded the research ship last time.

‘Like the pirate last time, are they from the same organization?’

Many retired soldiers or mercenaries join the Space Dogs. Seeing their similar behavior and weapons, they might have been in the same organization before retiring and going their separate ways.

‘Both will die by my hand all the same.’

“Even if I die, you won’t get past here.”

Admirable professional spirit, but I have no intention of sparing him. I swung my tail widely, sweeping the ground.

The scarred man perceived my attack and jumped backward, but my attack didn’t end there.

A spine bone flew toward his abdomen. His pupils dilated, and he quickly raised his sonic blade to block the spine bone.

His reflexes were decent, but he faced the wrong opponent. With an irritating metallic sound, the sonic blade was cut in two.

“Damn!”

I charged briefly and headbutted his side. The thick horn protruding from my head pierced through the weak enhancement suit and tore through the man’s organs.

“M-monster…”

I shook my head violently, throwing him away as he was impaled on my horn. With half his side torn off, he died before hitting the ground.

“W-wooooo…”

Kate, left alone, was trembling while looking at me, completely paralyzed.

‘A Volf. Perfect timing.’

Volfs belong to the playable races capable of transformation. In other words, they count as evolution conditions.

I approached her.

‘I don’t need to transform into Lloyd anymore.’

I’ve already processed his resignation, and the future contact plan with the broker has fallen apart.

Whether I kill the broker or eat the Outspacer to gain traits and then use him, either way, Lloyd has served his purpose.

Since there’s no need to transform into Lloyd anymore, there shouldn’t be any problem consuming the Volf’s genes.

I deactivated my mimicry organ. The small holes in my outer skin were covered with membranes, and the pheromones that had spread around dissipated.

“W-wooooo!”

Kate’s eyes shook greatly as she saw me return to my monstrous form. She struggled to escape somehow, but it was a futile resistance. The neurotoxin had become a net binding her body.

I firmly grabbed her body with my four arms and opened my mouth wide.

“Uwoo, wooook!”

‘Well then, bon appétit.’

My mouth, opened wide like a snake’s, bit off her head whole. Her muscles trembled momentarily as if in a death throe, then went limp.

‘Hmm.’

The Volf’s head was better than I expected. Except for all that thick fur, it was actually quite delicious.

‘Tastes a bit like cat.’

Like eating a juicy hamburger. Compared to when I first ate a cat, either my threshold has risen or it doesn’t give me such surprising joy.

‘I’ll enjoy the rest later.’

Regrettably, S and the escaped guards remain. It would be better to eat after dealing with them.

I gathered the bodies scattered around and placed them where cameras couldn’t reach.

‘Good.’

My auxiliary organs are telling me something. They haven’t gone far yet.

The hunt is not over.