Ch.61Hospital (3)

In the world of Space Survival, there exist thousands of different traits.

Among them are traits powerful enough to completely turn the tide of battle, and others that make you wonder how they ever passed review.

With traits offering all kinds of effects, it’s only natural that body transformation traits exist as well.

For example, the Volf I ate before.

They are like werewolves of the space age, each possessing the unique ability to transform into a beast form for short periods. When playing as a Volf, reclaiming their true form becomes the main objective.

Perhaps they’re similar to AMorph in their pursuit of becoming better beings, seeking evolution.

The reason I mention this is because the changes in my body now resembled a Volf’s transformation. I was already a monster’s body, but my newly transformed appearance was closer to a beast than a monster.

The outer skin covering my head had grown rapidly, enough to cover my eyes, and my horns had become long and massive like spears.

My originally 3m tall body had grown much larger, making it impossible to stand upright in the room.

Thanks to the complete organism effect, my combat arms—already muscular and thick—were further enhanced and changed in form. The outer skin covering my wrists had grown disproportionately, taking the shape of small shields.

The shield-like outer skin was covered with small spikes, suggesting it could be used not just for defense but actively for offense as well.

The spike bone launcher on my left forearm had also changed significantly, transforming from its previous rifle form to something closer to a mortar.

‘Plus, it has three barrels?’

This meant I could fire three shots simultaneously or in rapid succession. My ranged firepower would no longer be lacking.

As shocking as these changes were, there was an even bigger transformation. My back.

‘My arms increased?’

Two additional arms had been added to my back.

Unlike my other arms, these had four joints each, and instead of hands, they ended in crescent-shaped bone blades. They were arms designed purely for combat and slaughter.

‘Is this why wings were forbidden?’

Given that the sensation of moving them was almost identical to wings, these back arms were clearly organs that substituted for wings.

I swung my back arms a few times. The bone blades at their tips were extraordinarily sharp, making threatening sounds of cutting air with each swing.

This transformation certainly lived up to the name “Embodiment of the Hunt.”

‘And to think I can perceive everything so vividly even though I can’t see.’

Though my vision was completely lost, the auxiliary organs’ functions had improved more than threefold, so I didn’t miss it at all.

Thanks to these auxiliary organs, I could not only sense the changes in my body but also read the movements and appearances of everyone in the entire building. I could even hear the heartbeats of four people completely wrapped in power armor.

‘Powerful traits come with a price—this level of transformation must have tremendous backlash.’

A trait causing this degree of change must have an insanely high energy consumption rate. If I’m not careful, I might starve to death as soon as the effect ends.

‘First, I need to get out…’

“Over here!”

At that moment, one of the knights outside aimed a plasma bolter at the room where I was. The plasma fuel inside the bolter converted to energy and fired out of the barrel.

Pure destructive plasma energy, reducing the wall to dust, lunged at me.

And then…

“What?!”

A voice modulated by mechanical sounds. The only emotion in it was bewilderment.

Despite taking the plasma energy head-on, my outer skin was fine except for being slightly scorched.

‘I’m okay?’

It wasn’t completely painless, but the pain was extremely minimal. Like the slight sting when drinking coffee that’s a bit too hot.

I brushed off the soot on my outer skin with my combat arm, then crawled out of the room.

Due to my size, I couldn’t straighten my back, so I moved in a half-crawling position with all my combat arms on the floor. Even so, my body was so large that it filled the entire corridor.

Unlike before, the enemy seemed overwhelmed by my enlarged form and retreated hesitantly.

“Grrrr”

“The plasma bolter doesn’t work!”

“Everyone fall back!”

The enemies began to retreat as I growled at them.

This situation was getting quite interesting.

I put strength into my tail and swung it forcefully. My tail, smashing through the corridor wall, struck one of the knights. The power armor that could easily destroy concrete walls was instantly crushed.

“Kuk!”

The knight’s waist bent in an unnatural way after being hit by my tail. It should have been a fatal injury, but he didn’t die—perhaps he had a life support system as an option.

“Pyfield!”

“Damn, it’s too late! We need to fall back and regroup!”

“Damn it!”

Instead of chasing the other knights, I approached the injured knight called Pyfield.

‘My jaw has been strengthened, so I should be able to eat him without problems.’

If I activated the metal absorption effect while eating, my defense would double, but considering my return to the nest, I needed to keep the current stealth function active.

I grabbed the knight with my combat arm.

The high-grade power armor he wore was close to an armor suit. It made him nearly 3m tall, but since I was even bigger, he had to look up at me.

“Cough, we, the Silver Lion Knights, kuk, will…”

Though his voice was modulated by mechanical processing, he couldn’t hide his coughing. The scent of blood vibrated from inside his armor, suggesting he was coughing up blood.

I paused my attack momentarily.

Not to spare his life, but because one word in his speech caught my attention.

‘Knights, huh.’

In Megacorp, the only faction that would use the term “knights” would be Egerton.

‘So the head of the family has come here.’

When playing as the Egerton family, you get a special perk when you become the head—mercenaries called the family’s knights. In the game, they’re given random names, but in this reality, they seem to be called the Silver Lion Knights.

‘Well, they did say it was a board meeting, so all seven major Megacorp families would come.’

It’s likely that others from different families would also bring numerous guards like these.

‘I know some families have fixed system guards too.’

Just as Egerton has knights, some families have mercenaries that are always provided. However, not all families have this, so I’ll need to confirm that part myself.

Anyway, there was nothing more to hear from this prey. I struck his head with my back arm.

The sharp and solid bone blade pierced through the high-grade power armor’s visor helmet and into his crown. As the blade was pulled out, it splattered blood and brain matter, and the power armor stopped functioning with its owner’s death.

Inside the destroyed helmet was the face of a young, handsome white man. He might have been quite popular when alive, but now he was just a corpse leaking brain matter from the hole in his crown.

I opened my mouth wide and bit the knight’s corpse. Thanks to my enlarged body and flexibly opening jaw, I could fit his chest into my mouth at once.

When I applied pressure with my jaw, the high-grade power armor shattered helplessly. The flesh, blood, and organs inside spilled out of the armor and flowed into my body.

It was similar to the sensation of biting into a hard candy filled with sweet jam.

‘This one must be a modified human too.’

Which meant his taste was exquisite.

Although the power armor was like a chunk of metal and a negative factor, it was still quite edible if I thought of it as an interesting texture.

The armored knight became my nutrients in less than a few minutes. With my increased size, I could quickly devour even a 3m prey.

After finishing, a semi-transparent text box appeared, but I ignored it.

‘It’s still hunting time.’

Before the Embodiment of the Hunt ends, I need to diligently catch the fleeing lambs.

–

“Your Majesty, Lady Lila Chamberlain, the General Manager, is holding a soirée for you.”

“Huh, when did she prepare that?”

“As you know, she is the daughter of the famous Sadam Chamberlain. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to arrange something like this.”

“Tsk, Sadam is a fortunate man.”

Danver clicked his tongue at the competence of Lila Chamberlain, who had just reached adulthood.

Currently, he was staying in a luxury suite located in Monument, a skyscraper in the administrative district. That in itself wasn’t special, but the state of the room was extraordinary.

All facilities and decorations in the suite matched Danver’s office exactly. Not just in appearance, but in the materials and age of the furniture as well.

‘Indeed, she is Sadam’s bloodline. I don’t need to worry.’

Though not publicly known, Prime Capital Egerton and Noble Capital T&C have been in a secret alliance since Danver became the head of the family. T&C has been providing massive funding for Danver’s secret project, the development of new Hulk Mutants, which requires enormous capital.

In return for the money, Egerton votes for T&C’s Sadam Chamberlain at the board meetings. Lila might not know, but Danver had already finished his discussions with Sadam before coming here.

‘I was thinking of calling William again after seeing him after so long, but to think such a thing would happen.’

Danver was quite surprised to see his former subordinate attempt suicide right in front of him. The William in his memory wasn’t the type to consider suicide.

‘Please…’

Danver pondered the last words William had left.

What exactly had his former subordinate asked of him? When the first project ended due to unfortunate circumstances, Danver had provided the project team members with considerable compensation.

‘It can’t be about credits.’

Even if he urgently needed credits, would it be more urgent than his life? It didn’t seem like his self-harm stemmed from such a trivial reason.

‘A problem he couldn’t solve himself. And a very urgent matter.’

Unfortunately, Danver doesn’t know much about the situation at the T&C Special Trade Center. While he’s very familiar with political issues, it’s difficult to know what problem would make a regular police officer risk his life asking for help.

‘I should gather information about William.’

After organizing his thoughts, Danver asked his vice-captain.

“What happened to the man who attempted suicide?”

“He is currently in a hospital in the commercial district. The surgery ended successfully, and he’s now in a recovery capsule.”

“Hmm. He’s an old friend of mine, so treat him well.”

“We’ve assigned four Silver Lion Knights to him. They’re all veterans, so you needn’t worry.”

“If the vice-captain says so, I can rest assured.”

It was a clean handling of the matter, as expected of the vice-captain he acknowledged. Danver nodded and gave additional instructions to the vice-captain.

“And by the way. Investigate the recent security issues in this city and report to me.”

“Security issues, sir?”

“Yes. I’m curious about something.”

“Understood. I’ll investigate and report back by tomorrow.”

As Danver now needed to prepare for the soirée, the vice-captain left.

He couldn’t understand why Danver was concerned about a mere police officer who had ruined the welcome ceremony, but he didn’t question it. Danver’s capricious instructions were nothing new.

Like the Silver Lion Knights, he too was merely the sword of His Majesty. A sword does not question the one who wields it.

Returning to his quarters, the vice-captain called another knight. It was to carry out Danver’s orders.

“I will investigate with the unit members.”

“I’m counting on you.”

After sending his subordinates, the vice-captain took out an elegantly decorated communicator.

“I should check this once more.”

The Silver Lion Knights are one of Egerton’s finest special forces, composed of veteran warriors with a perfect record. Since they were all human weapons armed with high-grade power armor and various deadly weapons, the vice-captain wasn’t particularly worried.

He was simply checking if they were performing their mission well, as usual.

But today’s operation didn’t go as he thought.

“Aaaagh!”

“Damn it! Milburn is down!”

“Vice-Captain Vickers! We need support! Pyfield and Milburn are already—*static*”

Hell was unfolding on the other side of the communicator.