Ch.50City in the Darkness (4)

I looked at the text again, but the semi-transparent text window glowing in midair didn’t disappear.

‘It really appeared. It’s a bit different from what I expected.’

I wanted a trait that would strengthen the teeth themselves, but having bite force isn’t particularly problematic.

An AMorph’s bite force isn’t particularly low. Since it can easily chew through a human skull, it’s actually superior compared to Earth’s animals.

However, in the world of Space Survival, where high-defense armor and equipment are abundant, that level of biting power isn’t considered special.

‘An AMorph’s oral structure is closer to a mix between a snake and a regular animal.’

The way it opens its mouth wide and secures prey firmly with its teeth is similar to a snake, but the way it chews food afterward resembles that of a regular carnivore.

‘With the bite force trait, biting itself can become a weapon.’

In the game, bite force was considered a decent trait. It’s the kind of trait that isn’t problematic if you don’t have it, but useful if you do—like a predator’s claws.

To use the transcendence system, I need 13 physical traits. Since I’m currently in desperate need of physical traits, having this kind of trait is much better than having nothing.

‘With bite force, that makes 12 in total. I just need one more.’

As I accepted, my head area began to change overall.

My jaw area stung slightly, then grew larger with the sound of bones colliding. My head grew larger to match. As my head and jaw enlarged, the auxiliary organs below my jaw also grew longer and thicker.

The changes didn’t end with just an increase in size. My teeth area also tingled as the structure of my teeth changed slightly from before.

Since it wasn’t a major mutation, it didn’t take long to complete. After finishing the mutation, I examined my face reflected in the subway’s reinforced glass.

Overall, my head had grown larger than before, slightly changing the impression of my skull. If my previous head gave a pointed viper-like impression, now it gave a thick, heavy anaconda-like feeling.

My teeth had also changed, with the teeth in the position equivalent to human canines growing longer than before. They were almost long enough to be considered fangs.

‘It was cute in the game…’

Is it because this is reality? I now had a much more intimidating appearance than before.

Not just scary-looking, but thanks to my jaw strengthened by bite force, I could easily chew through the alloys inside a spaceship.

‘I’d like to test it, but…’

Unfortunately, it’s time to get off.

In a few minutes, we’ll arrive at the next station, so I need to prepare to disembark. I picked up the bag the reporter had dropped.

‘So how should I get out?’

According to William, this train was the last one. Even though we’d arrive at the next station, there was a low chance of people being there, but there was one concern.

‘That man at the platform earlier.’

Judging by his demeanor when the train departed, he likely reported something.

When I was at the platform earlier, I had already activated my mimicry organ, so he would have seen me as a police officer. Fortunately, he didn’t see me as a monster, but the problem was that he saw me crawling up from the tracks to the platform.

‘I’ll have to open the door on the opposite side of the platform and get out.’

Shortly after, an announcement played that we would soon arrive at the station. I moved to a car as far away from the platform as possible.

The running train gradually slowed down, and a sharp friction sound echoed between the wheels and the tracks.

‘As expected.’

Keeping my body low, I looked out the window and saw subway security guards waiting for the train in the distance. I grabbed the door on the opposite side of the platform with my combat arm. Thanks to the AMorph’s powerful strength, the door opened easily.

Before reaching the platform, I jumped out of the slowly moving train. I could easily withstand this level of impact, though it might be different at high speeds.

Landing safely on the tracks without incident, I hurried to move before they boarded the train.

“What? Hey, there’s a door open here!”

“What are you talking about?”

Leaving the surprised security guards behind, I crawled into the darkness of the tracks.

When I returned to the nest, No. 26 and Adhigh Orr were awake. No. 26 was playing, tapping spores with its tentacles, while Adhigh was grooming its wings with its tentacles.

No. 26 saw me and welcomed me by emitting light from its body.

“You’re back?”

[Yes]

“Big baby looks different?”

No. 26 noticed I had changed and approached me. Curious, it extended its tentacles to stroke my face.

“Big baby grows so fast!”

[I’m at the age of growth]

“I’m proud.”

Adhigh also approached me, seemingly curious.

“Adult” “Changed”

[Yes]

“Mouth” “Tentacles” “Cool” “Dignity” “Great young one!”

Adhigh seemed particularly pleased with my thickened auxiliary organs. It emitted waves shouting “great young one” and lowered its body.

‘Gallergorn seems to be attracted to the shape of tentacles. That wasn’t in the settings.’

Gallergorn is an NPC creature and rare, so not much is known about its ecology. In my case, I only knew well about what its weaknesses were and what to be careful of. I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about their ecology.

‘Still, it’s good if they view me favorably.’

Unlike No. 26, Adhigh is bound to me by contract. It’s only beneficial for me if it has a good impression of me.

“Big baby is a baby, so eat a lot and grow fast.”

[Thank you]

“I want to grow fast too.”

The creature that had climbed onto my shoulder and was stroking my head suddenly shrank down. It seemed upset that I was growing quickly while it wasn’t.

‘Hmm.’

Thinking about the future, quickly growing No. 26 is also an important task.

Like when I fought the androids at the apartment last time, there are limits to fighting enemies alone. If I had enough traits, it might be different, but in my current situation, it’s not easy to hunt enemies comfortably.

If they hadn’t been there then, it would have been much harder for me. With bad luck, I might have been defeated fighting alone.

‘In games, dying is fine, but not in reality.’

In reality, suffering a fatal wound is much more disadvantageous than in a game. In games, you can just die and respawn, but reality isn’t like that. Fatal wounds increase the probability of defeat, and defeat leads to death.

‘To prevent that, I need to pay more attention to No. 26’s growth.’

However, it’s definitely a problem that I don’t know the growth conditions and process of a Seed Demon.

Seed Demons aren’t as rare as Gallergorn, but they’re not easy monsters for players to investigate their ecology, so not much is known about them.

‘Still, I can make inferences.’

Seed Demons are creatures that inhabit ocean planets, specifically the deep sea. If I feed No. 26 creatures with characteristics similar to deep-sea creatures, it might grow quickly.

Until now, I’ve mainly provided them with creatures I didn’t need, but I think I need to change my approach slightly. I should give No. 26 creatures that aren’t very helpful to me but would be beneficial for it.

Fortunately, there were a few creatures on the smuggling list that met those conditions, though they were rare.

[If you eat a lot, you’ll grow fast]

“Really?”

[Yes. Let’s check]

“Okay!”

“I” “Hungry”

[You too]

It seems I’ll need William’s help.

–

Residential District, Apartment Complex E.

A man was passing time watching a virtual TV. Like most people living in this residential district, he appeared to be immersed in stimulating virtual reality with a bored expression.

Just then, the communicator beside the man rang briefly. The man’s dull eyes instantly sharpened.

“…”

The man turned off the virtual TV and checked his communicator. A short message was displayed on the small screen.

“Operation ready”

“Finally here.”

The man, Jade Russell, muttered quietly.

A year ago, Jade Russell received an order from Siheyon Yujin.

The order was to smuggle a Gallergorn disguised as a Fairywing into the space city before the board meeting, and for Jade to infiltrate along with it.

At that time, the board meeting hadn’t been officially announced, but Siheyon Yujin was Akira Yujin’s shadow. It wasn’t difficult for him to obtain important information related to Noble Capital faster than others.

The reason for disguising the Gallergorn as a Fairywing was partly because they looked somewhat similar, but mainly because Fairywing smuggling rarely occurred. Both Siheyon and Jade knew that smuggling frequently occurred at the Special Trade Center, so this was to prevent any smuggling from happening.

After completing all preparations, Jade pretended to smuggle the Gallergorn disguised as a Fairywing at the Special Trade Center and deliberately got caught. After the Gallergorn was handed over to the smuggled animal management team, achieving his first objective, he secretly escaped from the detention center.

“Time to put this ability to good use again.”

Jade looked down at his hand holding the communicator. Suddenly, the battery died, and the communicator’s body slowly crumbled and began to be sucked into his palm.

After a few minutes, his communicator had completely disappeared, and all that remained on his palm was some metal powder and a mouth with sharp teeth.

The Russell family is a family composed of individuals directly raised by the Yujin family, or more precisely, by Siheyon Yujin.

Siheyon Yujin assigned roles to those who received the Russell name and provided what was necessary for those roles.

For example, Arnold Russell was provided with an expensive weapon called a plasma pistol, while Jade Russell was implanted with the genes of a difficult-to-obtain creature.

The original owner of his genes was the Metallic Gremlin.

Known as the predator of spaceships, it’s a notorious creature that no crew member doesn’t fear.

Metallic Gremlins look like hairless primates about 30-80cm in size, but the difference is that their skin is all metallic in color, they have no eyes on their face, and they have a large suction-cup-like mouth that fills half their face.

While their appearance itself is hideous, the reason Metallic Gremlins became a symbol of fear for crew members is because of their habits.

Metallic Gremlins gather in groups, float through space, and search for food. And their food is metal.

When they find a spaceship while drifting through space, they immediately attach to the outer wall and mercilessly tear off and eat the metal with their suction-cup-like mouths. They’re also incredibly fast—even a battleship hundreds of meters long can be reduced to just its skeleton in less than a day if caught by a group of Metallic Gremlins.

As threatening as they are, the bigger problem is that their small size makes them difficult to detect on ship radars. They’re hard to distinguish from space debris or small meteorites, even with advanced radar technology.

Also, even if detected early, they’re hard to kill because their metal bodies resist laser weapons. As a result, it’s not uncommon for creatures thought to be dead to attack again later.

Consequently, many ships still meet their end as food for Metallic Gremlins.

If it weren’t for the Yujin family, no one would have thought to extract and use the genes of such a threatening creature.

‘Thanks to this ability, escaping wasn’t difficult.’

After being imprisoned in the detention center, he escaped using the Metallic Gremlin’s ability, then received help from another colleague to complete plastic surgery and had been hiding until now.

‘I need to retrieve the Gallergorn.’

Jade rose from his seat.

It was time to prepare to successfully complete the order given by his master, Siheyon Yujin.

The container storing the Gallergorn had high-level encryption, but that didn’t matter. With his ability, he could easily bypass it.

Jade took out another communicator and contacted colleagues who had infiltrated with him. They needed to prepare to freeze the Gallergorn until Siheyon Yujin arrived.

‘Let’s go then.’

Everything is perfect. That’s what Jade thought.

That’s why he couldn’t imagine at all.

That the Blue Gallergorn, the most important part of his plan, was now wandering beneath his feet with strange monsters.