Ch.424Star of Terror (3)

When playing as AMorph, it’s rare to completely overwhelm your opponent.

Due to the racial characteristic that makes cooperation impossible, to subdue an opponent, you must become that much stronger yourself. To become stronger, you must prey on enemies stronger than yourself.

It might seem unreasonable at first glance, but there’s no need to worry. AMorph has many ways to defeat powerful enemies.

Using a nest is one such method.

An underground kingdom built of black slime. While crouching there, reports flew in from various places.

Hiveformers, pirates implanted with parasites, and everything else in the nest moves according to my commands.

My orders are simple.

Weaken the enemies who have come to AG-01.

‘Things are going smoothly so far.’

When pirates controlled by parasites lured their former comrades underground, the hiveformers and the nest ambushed them. Though they arrived only a day ago, our numbers are growing rapidly.

Once I determine they’ve been seasoned enough, I plan to strike the ranker.

‘Thanks to an unexpected variable, I have some breathing room now.’

Previously, while hunting a Returnist ranker, I fought a cartel named Sinoroku. At the time, suspecting they might be related to the ranker, I implanted a parasite in their boss and let him go.

‘I had completely forgotten about it until now.’

Perhaps because the ranker called in pirates belonging to the group, the Sinoroku boss also came to this planet. Thanks to that, I was able to contact the parasite after a long time.

As it happens, he’s in charge of repairing the terraforming facility, so it seems I can buy about one more day. During that time, it would be good to recruit additional bosses and high-ranking officials to gather information about the ranker.

‘The more information, the better.’

Just then, I detected a change from an auxiliary organ connected to the nest. Something had been caught in a distant nest.

‘What is it?’

I concentrated my consciousness. My loosely spread senses quickly gathered at one point. Waves of sensation and consciousness headed toward the location where the anomaly was detected.

I found an unconscious pirate trapped inside a living wall. And nearby were beings familiar to me: the Sky Mother and the Volfs under her care.

‘Seems they’ve caught an important person?’

If it’s a boss-level figure, I need to implant a parasite, so I should go there myself. I broke the link and got up.

“If the group contacts you, tell them the repairs aren’t finished yet.”

“Understood.”

Leaving behind the Sinoroku boss who once again served me, I crawled into the underground pit.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been diligently traveling around the planet making paths. This was so I could respond no matter which city the pirates landed in.

And I filled those tunnels with liquefied slime. Except for areas near the surface or zones meant for luring, everything else is submerged in slime.

This provides two advantages.

One is that the detection range widens when linked with the nest. Even in places the nest doesn’t reach, I can observe by sending slime.

Planting nests only in strategically important locations and using organically flowing slime to monitor the rest—I’ve conquered planets this way several times in the game.

Another advantage is that the flowing slime can be used as a kind of waterway. If I want to move without being seen by enemies, I can swim.

‘It’s good to use when I can’t fly, like now.’

For this reason, I deliberately acquired traits related to swimming.

Looking at my combat arms and bifurcated tail now, elongated fins have grown all over them. Thanks to the membrane of my wing-arms and these fins, my swimming speed is almost as fast as flying.

Thanks to this, I quickly reached the area that sent the signal. I folded my fins and wings and climbed onto the hardened nest.

Not long after I started walking on the hard floor, a familiar quadrupedal beast and a Volf came into view.

“You’re here.”

The Sky Mother, transformed into a griffon, acknowledged me.

[Zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz(Seems you caught an important pirate?)]

“Yes. The boss of the Sinoni Cartel.”

[Zzzzz(Sinoni?)]

“Ventris told me the boss’s whereabouts. After hearing that, Tane lured him here.”

I looked at the Volf girl with a jackal head standing beside her. Feeling my gaze, the child bowed her head respectfully.

“Judging by the boss’s reaction, he seemed to know Tane. I think he was there when they attacked the Volf natives.”

[Zz(Really?)]

According to the surviving Volfs, the ranker is presumed to have directly participated in the massacre of the natives. If the boss was there, he should know something about the ranker.

I briefly linked with the nest and pulled the boss out from the wall.

[Zzzzzz(It’s a human?)]

I was surprised—I thought he would be a cyborg since he was riding a walker when killing the Volfs.

“Not just any human. He seems to have undergone genetic modification.”

[Zzzzz(Indeed)]

This nest continuously emits air toxic to living beings. Ordinary people cannot walk around without protective equipment.

‘A pirate who’s also a genetically modified human.’

From what I heard from Ventris, the Sinoni boss has considerable influence within the group. He actually participated in the Volf massacre operation led by the ranker.

If so, there might be safety devices implanted in his head by the ranker. At least, that’s what I would have done. It’s simple to secretly insert an obedience device during surgery.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a concern. There are many ways to extract what we need from his head. I prefer parasites because they’re most useful, but I can use other methods just as well.

‘Let’s wake him up and check first.’

I lightly pressed the pirate’s leg with my wing-arm.

“Aaaaargh!”

With a cracking sound of breaking bones, he woke up.

“You son of a… huk?!”

“Are you the boss of Sinoni?”

The pirate who was about to curse swallowed his breath when he saw me.

“I’ll ask again. Are you the boss of Sinoni?”

“Yes, yes!”

“You’ve been to the planet where the Volfs live, right? Who commanded you there?”

“Huh? W-why do you… gaaah! S-Sutherland! The boss of Sinoichi was the commander!”

Since he seemed to still be getting his bearings, I made his arm match his leg. He gritted his teeth and answered.

“This pirate Sutherland, did he use a blade-type weapon while riding a walker?”

“B-blade-type weapon? I don’t quite understand…”

“A blade wrapped in special energy, or a rotating saw blade. Other weapons that can be used at close range.”

The pirate rolled his eyes around and then shook his head vigorously.

“Um, as I remember, Sutherland’s walker was armed with a pair of plasma launchers.”

“What about among the other pirates?”

“There were none.”

The stories from Tane and the Sinoni boss differ slightly.

I looked at Tane. The small Volf girl was glaring at the pirate with eyes full of anger. Then, feeling my gaze, she bowed her head again.

‘It’s unlikely that Tane is lying.’

Being a primitive tribe that hasn’t interacted with other civilizations, her explanation might be inadequate. But she has no reason to deliberately lie and deceive us.

‘Then this guy is the problem.’

The pirate under my wing-arm. Judging by how he was rolling his eyes, despite being scared, he was clearly thinking of something else.

“You lied.”

“What? Lying… guk?! W-wait!”

Since he’s an enhanced human, he won’t die easily even with serious injuries. As I was about to tear off one of his legs, he desperately shouted.

“I-I have a signal chip implanted in my body from the boss! If I die or suffer fatal injuries, a signal will go to him!”

It was surprising that he knew about the chip.

‘There must be a monitoring device in his head, warning him not to harbor other thoughts.’

It seems he deliberately told me because betrayal is commonplace among Space Dogs.

“So I shouldn’t kill you?”

“If you spare me, I’ll tell you the truth!”

“Are you proposing a deal?”

“I know many things! If you want information, you won’t be disappointed!”

Well, that changes things.

I relaxed the force in my wing-arm. Released from the pressure crushing his entire body, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hehe, if you’re sparing me, first let me treat my injuries…”

“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

“What?”

I never intended to kill him from the beginning. That would be too wasteful.

“You won’t be able to die even if you want to.”

Not until you’ve revealed everything you know.

I used the psychic-related trait “Ultra Control” that I gained after fighting Akira Yujin.

Like when using Psychic Breath or Colors of the Deep, enormous energy gathered in my head.

At the same time, my intertwined horns spread out, forming a shape similar to tree branches. This was because “Fragrant Horn of Form,” a trait that enhances mental disruption, reacted to Ultra Control.

Eventually, the energies transformed into small threads and began to creep toward the target.

“What? What are you doing?!”

The boss’s face, which had been wearing a forced smile, froze.

Since he’s not a Cult, he can’t detect psychic power. He must have instinctively realized things were going wrong.

“S-stop! Stop, gaaaah!”

The energy threads mercilessly penetrated every orifice in the boss’s face. He screamed and trembled all over. The blood vessels throughout his body became extremely prominent, and red blood flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears.

The trembling stopped only after all the threads had penetrated. With his eyeballs completely turned purple, he looked up at me.

“I serve AMorph.”

The mental domination was successful.

AMorph’s Ultra Control is a degraded version compared to the original, so it has many drawbacks. Still, it’s quite useful when parasites can’t be used, like now.

[Zzzzz zzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz(Tell me the most important information you know)]

The former pirate boss opened his mouth at my command.

“My most important task is to safeguard what the boss brought.”

[Zzzzz zz zzzz zzzz zzzzzzz(What the boss brought? Is it a weapon?)]

“No. It’s a special warp finder secretly developed by the Star Union. The Sinoni Cartel must protect it.”

A secret warp finder made by the Star Union.

Hearing those words, something suddenly came to mind.

“That warp finder. Could it be what I’m thinking of?”

The Sky Mother sent a thought wave, having the same idea as me.

The Star Union has an extremely powerful device. A weapon so powerful that if you ask rankers what the best war weapon is, it always ranks in the top three.

[Zzzzzzzzz zzzz zzzzz(Is Prometheus here?)]

“I don’t know the name because the boss didn’t tell me.”

The giant warp particle manipulator, “Prometheus.”

A super weapon with detection and control capabilities for faster-than-light navigation.

“…Was that something that could be moved?”

As she said, in the game, Prometheus couldn’t be moved after completion.

Of course, this is reality, not a game. The cyborgs of the Star Union might have devised a way to move that weapon. Or it could be a new type of warp finder I don’t know about.

‘I need to check right away.’

[Zzzz zzzz zzzz(Where is it now?)]

“Deputy boss Ventris is managing it. Should I contact him?”

[Zzzz(No)]

Ventris is already under my control, so there’s no need.

‘If Prometheus is really here…’

That weapon, which exerts absolute power in space warfare—I must get my hands on it.