Ch.439Ruins (3)

“Twisted Abomination: Your flesh is familiar with things beyond space. Some effects of unique traits are reconfigured. You cannot use some traits from the physical, special defense, and internal organ categories. Bio-plasma and psychic power are added to energy-based attacks.

* Transcendent Cognition: You can detect biological reactions and emotions through an intangible energy field emitted outside your body.

* Asymmetrical Existence: Your physical abilities deteriorate, but your energy manipulation abilities are enhanced.

* Postscript: This brings you one step closer to the boundary.”

The unique trait “Twisted Abomination,” created from the characteristics of Apex or equivalent creatures.

This trait was very different from the ones I had obtained before. It was a unique trait that changed the effects of other traits.

‘Trait reconfiguration, huh.’

In the game, there was no way to change the effects of traits except through fusion. The same applies here.

The previously obtained “Horizon of Nightmares” was the only case that changed trait effects. Even that didn’t change as much as this time. It was significant enough to generate a text box summarizing the modified parts.

“Would you like to check the changes made by ‘Twisted Abomination’?”

‘Check.’

After selecting confirm, numerous texts appeared.

“* Restricted traits

① Physical category: Pincers, Enhanced Hind Legs, Heat-emitting Dorsal Carapace, Fins, Webbed Feet, Bone Beast, Monster’s Enhanced Wings, Insectoid Host

④ Special defense category: Stealth Movement, Refractive Carapace

⑥ Internal organ category: Endoskeleton Enhancement, Bioelectric Discharge Duct, Berserker Synapse

* Reconfigured traits

Organic Evolution: ‘Clever Weakling’ is replaced with ‘Unknown Usurper’.

* Unknown Usurper: Transforms into a small creature specialized in body modification and disguise. The reduced state does not exceed 2m. Only some traits can be used in this state, but unique perks are provided instead. Maximum duration is 7 days, cooldown is 30 days.

-Skinwalker: Uses stored genetic information and specific organic matter to transform into the appearance of an intelligent being. Consumed genetic material cannot be recovered.

-House of Skin: During Skinwalker state, you can extend the duration by acquiring new specific organic matter. However, from then on, certain conditions must be met to maintain the state.

-Unusable traits: Nest, Environmental Adaptation, Multidimensional Being category traits, Unique traits, Strong Enemy’s Mark traits

Great Infector: The existing enhancement target categories divided into Infection and Nest are replaced with ‘Mental Contamination’. You can select up to 3 traits from the Infection and Nest categories to grant special effects.

Herald of Great Chaos: The trait’s effects are reflected in the user’s energy field. Hallucinations are applied more strongly to affected targets. ‘Madness Bomb’ can be designated arbitrarily.

Complex Spectral Body: The spectral body’s form changes to an octahedral shape that envelops the entire body, and absorbs some of the energy it cannot reflect.

Dragon’s Heart: You can use all the energy generated by the heart to cause a large-scale psychic storm. After the explosion, you will enter a dormant state for a certain period.”

‘Still a lot to take in.’

Looking at them in order, many traits in the physical category have been restricted. Some traits from the special defense and internal organ categories have also become unusable.

The restricted traits all have one thing in common – they’re closely related to activities using the body.

This means my close combat abilities have significantly decreased.

‘Close combat would certainly be difficult with this body.’

I looked down at my wing arms, which had shrunk considerably. The arms without their massive membranes no longer showed their former majesty.

It’s not just the wing arms. All arms – the combat arms that functioned as legs, and the small chest arms used for delicate work – had severely atrophied.

With these, it’s difficult to support my body, let alone scratch my back or head.

As the arms shrank in size, my broad carapace also narrowed. My body changed from a crab or spider-like form to a long, thin snake-like one.

However, the way I move is completely different from a snake.

Right now, I’m not lying on my belly like a snake but floating in the air. My long tail, split into two, hangs down with half of it touching the ground.

An invisible, intangible energy supports me. Like No. 26 flying with psychic power.

‘Otherwise, I’d have to use the infection tentacles as feet…’

As the carapace size decreased, the infection tentacles also protruded externally. The six tentacles, like my tail, are sprawled messily on the floor.

‘Not easy.’

It feels like using wing bones for walking. Very awkward.

It’s much more comfortable to float by controlling energy.

‘Fortunately, I got used to this quickly.’

The sensation itself is similar to when I linked with the nest. The difference is that here I have to control both my body and energy field simultaneously.

Still, it wasn’t that difficult in practice because my body had changed to accommodate this.

Unlike the atrophied body that makes walking difficult, my head and auxiliary organs below the jaw have developed more than before.

The central head has become very enlarged. Including the head carapace, it’s probably about 6 or 7 meters.

My current body, including the tail, is about 30 meters long. Proportionally, the head has grown quite large.

Inside the enlarged head carapace are new organs that assist the brain.

‘It’s not quite right to call them auxiliary brains, it’s hard to explain.’

There’s no exact term, but I call them “manipulation organs.”

In reality, these organs are responsible for controlling the energy field that protects me, and understanding and manipulating various wave patterns.

The manipulation organs are also connected to the bio-pipes that have moved to the head carapace. The short, stubby pipes protrude and continuously emit energy fields under the command of the manipulation organs.

Six horns, manipulation organs, bio-pipes. With all these things in the head, it naturally became heavier.

To support the weight, my snake-like long neck changed to a short, thick form.

‘But the heads on the sides haven’t changed much.’

Unlike the central head that underwent dramatic changes, the heads on both sides remained largely the same.

The only difference is the position where the necks sprout.

Looking at the back of the enlarged central head, there’s an empty space. It’s where the monster’s tentacles should have been, but the side heads moved there instead.

And the monster’s tentacles relocated to below the jaw and between joints, settling alongside the auxiliary organs. Even now, abundant tentacle bundles hang like beards under the jaw.

Both the auxiliary organs and monster’s tentacles only changed location, not appearance. However, their functionality has been greatly enhanced thanks to the newly created manipulation organs.

‘The psychic breath has also become extremely powerful.’

I looked up at the large scar left on the ceiling.

It’s a trace left by the psychic breath I fired at the Outspacer group.

It’s incredibly powerful even though I didn’t directly aim at it but just grazed it. This might rival the Cult’s orbital weapon “Lightning God.”

‘It would be perfect if I could reduce the power.’

Increasing energy output is easy, but the opposite is problematic. Lowering the power or manipulating the flow precisely is quite difficult. Even a month after obtaining Twisted Abomination, I still struggle with control.

And related to this, there was an unexpected side effect.

The humans who died after seeing me all died from the effects of the energy field.

To be precise, the cause was the unique trait “Herald of Great Chaos” reflected in the energy field.

Due to the effect of Twisted Abomination, Herald of Great Chaos became a permanently applied trait. Moreover, its power became so formidable that beings without resistance to psychic power would have their brains instantly melted.

The problem is that this energy field doesn’t distinguish between friend and foe. Everyone touched by the energy field receives the effect of Herald of Great Chaos.

This is also why I couldn’t bring the Sky Mother.

She has reached the upper level of Incarnate, so she has resistance to mental attacks. Even so, she couldn’t completely avoid the influence of the energy field.

She didn’t see hallucinations, but instead had nightmares during sleep. She said visions of her husband, Father Land’s death, kept appearing.

Seeing her becoming more haggard with each passing day, I had no choice but to move separately from her.

The good news is that the others don’t suffer from hallucinations.

I looked at No. 26 and Adhigh playing around, smashing a building.

Sea Demons and Red Gallergorn are immune to psychic power-based mental attacks. Sea Demons themselves have the ability to show hallucinations, and Red Gallergorn possess invincible defensive traits.

No. 26 actually liked me with my energy field. She said she liked that I resembled her. It makes sense since both our appearance and movement style are similar.

On the other hand, Adhigh didn’t seem to like my change.

From a Gallergorn’s perspective, my current appearance can hardly be considered handsome, so his reaction is understandable. Still, he commented that at least the energy field gives off a strong vibe, which he liked.

PS-111 and Isabelle also weren’t affected by the energy field thanks to a special method. When PS-111 created her and her sister’s bodies, he took measures in their brains.

‘Isabelle wasn’t very happy about that though.’

When she found out about this later, she got angry and they didn’t speak to each other for days. Of course, they’ve reconciled and are getting along well now.

“Supply completed. Please tell ‘little sister’ to prepare for departure.”

“…Tell my sister I haven’t found anything useful yet, so wait longer.”

“For your information, using MPS would be more efficient for gathering information.”

“Oh, is that so? If that’s the case, why don’t you do it all yourself instead of asking us? What do you think, AMorph?”

“I aim to achieve the most efficient results…”

I put down the communicator without answering.

“Grrrr?”

“Grrrr”

There’s still some lingering resentment, but it will be fine soon.

Anyway, after obtaining Twisted Abomination, the most noticeable changes are the creation of an energy field infused with unique trait effects, weakened physical abilities, and enhanced mental abilities.

To summarize briefly, it’s a high-risk, high-return change.

‘There are other impressive changes too, but…’

I’ll have to look at those later. There’s something I need to do first.

I dismissed the text box and looked around.

We came here for two main reasons.

One is to charge PS-111’s energy. Since fusing with Enhanced Prometheus and the High Commissioner’s brain, his energy consumption has increased dramatically.

Moreover, he’s been using more energy recently because I can no longer navigate at superluminal speeds.

Since the ‘Monster’s Enhanced Wings’ trait has been restricted, he’s been using Prometheus’s functions to transport me. This is difficult to sustain by consuming only small amounts of organic matter and minerals.

Eventually, we had to find another way to obtain large amounts of energy.

‘Like raiding a space city as we’re doing now.’

This place, the VA-04 system, is well-known in the game as a resource supply base. Since we could obtain the necessary energy and resources here, we set it as our target.

‘But I didn’t expect Outspacers to be here.’

Due to the unexpected appearance of Outspacers, this is the only place left in the system where we can obtain energy.

Finding out why they’re here has become our new objective.

‘They wouldn’t be here without reason.’

I know that the Outspacer group is controlled by the 4th ranker of the Return faction. The Megacorps are firmly in the grip of the Dominion faction.

We need to find out whether the 4th ranker has declared war on the Dominion faction, or if they attacked VA-04 for other reasons.

If it’s the former, we’ll frequently encounter Outspacers while traveling through Megacorp territory.

‘Then the probability of meeting the queen will also increase.’

For Outspacers, the queen is both the core of production and a field commander. Given the Outspacers’ characteristic of commanding an enormous number of soldiers, queens as middle commanders are essential.

And if the Dominion and Return factions are at war, there will be many queens deployed on the battlefield. If we’re lucky, we might secure another unique trait before capturing Akira.

To understand the Outspacers’ movements, Isabelle and I were collecting information by exploring the ruined city.

‘At this rate, it will be difficult to obtain information though.’

None of the city’s survivors who were affected by the energy field survived. After some time, they either went mad and died from self-harm, or their brains melted.

The mimicry organ isn’t restricted and is still effective, but there’s no point in disguising as a human in this situation.

‘Or maybe…’

I recalled all the information I had seen and encountered so far.

The status of this space station, the characteristics and behavior patterns of its owner House Egerton, the variable of Outspacers, and…

‘The newly acquired ability.’

If I combine all these? I can continue the investigation in the way I do best.

Having finished my deliberation, I sent waves to Isabelle and PS-111.

“Since the old days, whenever something important happens, you never say anything and handle it alone?”

“I cannot respond to criticism based on information not in my memory.”

“And whenever it’s disadvantageous like this, you say you don’t remember. Why do you always…”

[Zz zzzz zzzz zzzz zz zz zz(Both of you, wait. I think I need to use ‘Unknown Usurper’.)]

“AMorph speaks well too. Unknown… what?”

The wave I sent using enhanced monster tentacles reached the two far away. Upon checking the wave, they immediately stopped fighting.

“Are you thinking of using the transformation ability?”

[Z(Yes)]

“But that consumes genetic information each time you use it. Weren’t you saving it for truly important moments?”

That’s true, but there’s no better situation to use that ability than now. I explained to them how we would proceed.

“Adopting that method could save up to 40% of energy consumption according to my analysis.”

“Not a bad idea, but isn’t it dangerous?”

[Zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzzzz zzzzzz(I’ve tried similar operations several times. It’ll be fine)]

“Ah… I guess so.”

There were no objections.

‘Unknown Usurper’, the new transformation form that replaced ‘Clever Weakling’, one of the perks of ‘Organic Evolution’.

Now is the time to use that card.

–

“Approaching Egerton Resource Management Center.”

“Distress signal?”

“Still detected.”

In an ornate situation room that looked carved from marble.

The special rescue team leader dispatched from House Egerton nodded while seated in the captain’s chair.

A month after the major attack, battles are taking place throughout Megacorp territory. Egerton was not exempt from the Outspacer invasion.

With every ship being precious in this situation, the reason for sending a rescue team is simple: to understand the enemy’s specs and scale through survivors.

House Egerton specializes in spacecraft manufacturing. They are experts at researching enemy weaknesses and improving ships. Gathering as much information as possible will shorten the development time for anti-Outspacer warships.

“It’s confirmed that the Outspacers have withdrawn, but we still can’t be complacent. Report immediately if any uncertain biological responses are detected in VA-04.”

“Yes, sir!”

The advanced warship produced during the civil war era cautiously closed the distance to the target.

Soon, the external cameras captured the image of the ruined space city.

“Tsk. Devastating.”

The rescue team leader clicked his tongue at the sight of the massive crack in the wall surrounding the city. Just from that, one could easily guess how fiercely the administrators of the resource management center had fought.

However, the future of the personnel this ship would rescue was already determined.

Regardless of how fiercely they defended, the fact that they were defeated is clear. After divulging all the information they know, they will soon receive a bill – a damage compensation claim sent by the city’s owner, House Egerton.

Considering what happens after receiving the bill, it might be better to die.

“No abnormal signals in the system.”

“Good. Send the rescue ships.”

Of course, what happens to the rescue targets is not his concern. Following the team leader’s order, the rescue ships carried by the warship began to move.

“Rescue Team 1. Landing complete near Command Tower 1.”

“Rescue Team 2. Entry into the dome complete. Approaching Command Tower 4.”

“Gravity maintenance system is operational. Remaining oxygen in the area confirmed at 25%.”

“Rescue Team 1. Zone map synchronization complete. Beginning movement to the bunker.”

“Rescue Team 2. Landing complete near Command Tower 4.”

The rescue team, consisting of combat personnel in reinforced suits, Hulk Mutants equipped with plasma launchers, and combat androids, moved toward the bunker.

In the warship’s situation room, everyone watched the hologram map sent by the rescue team with tense eyes.

“Rescue Team 1. Time remaining until arrival at the bunker: 3 minutes 11 seconds. No other survivors detected.”

“Rescue Team 2. Moving to target location. No survivors detected eith—wait!”

As the operation was proceeding smoothly, a soldier moving toward the Command Tower 4 bunker suddenly shouted.

“Rescue Team 2! Survivors found! Survivors found!”

“What?”

The rescue team leader was startled by the report of finding survivors outside, not in the bunker.

In a space city, the circular dome protects the city and stabilizes the internal environment. If that facility has problems, the survival rate of residents drops dramatically.

Therefore, no one here expected to find survivors on the streets.

“Wait. Where exactly were they found?”

“In the Legal Team Office, an auxiliary building of the Command Tower. They claim to have hidden in a shelter and just come out.”

“The Legal Team Office, huh.”

The Legal Team Office is one of the important facilities, so it has a shelter inside. They must have survived by using the oxygen capsules in the shelter.

“How many personnel, and what’s their Capital?”

“A total of 10 survivors. Nine are Middle Capitals conscripted as soldiers, and one is a Third Capital who worked in the Legal Team.”

“Rescue Team 1. Rescued three people who sent signals from the bunker.”

“Have you confirmed their identities?”

“Temporary Food Management Team Leader, Fortress Cannon Management Team Leader, and Mineral Research Team Leader, these three. The General Manager is presumed to have died while on reconnaissance.”

“Rescue Team 2. What should we do?”

To his subordinate’s question, the rescue team leader replied nonchalantly.

“For now, secure all survivors whose identities have been confirmed. We can do detailed examinations on the ship.”

“Understood.”

About 30 minutes after the rescue operation began.

The rescue ships carrying a total of 17 survivors returned to the warship.