Ch.62Hospital (4)

William suddenly woke up from his sleep.

No one had deliberately awakened him.

He felt vibrations from something covering his body.

‘Where am I?’

When he opened his eyes, lukewarm liquid tickled them. After blinking a few times, his eyes gradually adjusted.

Currently, he was wearing a respirator and immersed in healing solution inside a recovery capsule.

‘So I’m not dead.’

When he had decided to harm himself, he had already prepared for death. It was because he had ruined the Noble Capital’s reception for Prime Capital.

Lila Chamberlain, the ruler of this city, was a reasonable person but not necessarily merciful.

Normally, William should not have been waking up in a recovery capsule like this, but rather should have had his brain extracted while still alive.

The fact that he was safely in a hospital was thanks to Danver’s protection.

That meant his plan had half succeeded.

‘I wonder if Your Majesty understood my intention…huh?’

Thud

Once again, the healing solution around him shook. It was because the entire healing capsule he was in was being shaken by something.

‘What is this?’

It couldn’t be an earthquake. There couldn’t be any tectonic activity in an artificial structure floating in zero-gravity space.

Thud

This was a vibration occurring inside the hospital. Something heavy was shaking the hospital.

‘Could it be?’

Thud

William felt his blood run cold. There was only one thing that could be moving around large enough to shake the hospital at this late hour.

‘It’ had come for him.

Thud

The vibrations were getting stronger. The creature was getting closer to him.

Just then, the ICU door opened and someone in silver armor rushed in.

Though his expression was hidden by the armor, his frantic scanning of the room made his state of mind clear.

The knight noticed William with his eyes open in the healing capsule and approached. He operated a terminal, and the healing solution drained through holes in the capsule.

“Are you conscious?”

William, now out of the capsule, nodded. The knight handed him a patient gown to cover his naked body.

“I don’t know what’s happening in this hospital, but we’re being attacked by an unidentified creature.”

“…”

William knew who the monster was chasing, but he couldn’t answer.

The parasite was still in his head. The parasite inflicted pain when he had disrespectful thoughts or actions toward ‘it.’ The more disrespectful, the more intense the pain.

If he were to tell the knight about the parasite’s existence, the pain would be far worse than anything he’d experienced so far. Fainting from parasite-induced pain would only worsen the situation.

Sadly, the only action he could take was to remain silent.

“…What happened to the people in the hospital?”

“All my comrades were killed by it. And probably everyone in this hospital…”

The knight trailed off. Even without finishing, the meaning was clear.

“The central AI must have detected the crisis and called the police. I’ve also requested backup. We need to hold out until they arrive.”

“…I see.”

William felt déjà vu. He’d been in a similar situation before.

The battle in the apartment. Back then, he and the android had thought they could win without much difficulty.

And the result? All his comrades dead, with only one police officer left as a puppet.

Thud

Just then, a loud noise came from beyond the door.

The creature had reached the door.

The silver knight stood in front of William and drew his weapon. In one hand he held a plasma bolter, and on the other he wore a blade claw.

As a former soldier, William knew exactly what a blade claw was.

The blade claw was an enhanced version of the sonic blade, with two ultrasonic saws attached to the back of the hand. Though much heavier than a sonic blade, it had superior durability and cutting power, typically used by soldiers in power armor or hulk mutants.

William wouldn’t worry if they were facing other creatures, but the problem was that the knight’s opponent was ‘it.’

‘Fighting that thing in close combat is suicide.’

Having fought the monster before, William was certain the knight couldn’t win.

‘If we just go outside, it won’t be able to rampage freely. It’s conscious of people watching.’

Having lived as the monster’s slave for a while, he knew what it feared.

The cunning monster knew it couldn’t win an all-out war against the city, so it operated in secret. It usually only ate what William offered, occasionally killing only those who attacked or pursued it.

Those terrible hunting expeditions only took place during times when people weren’t around, like dawn.

That’s why William was about to call the knight and suggest jumping out the window.

Many civilians would certainly get hurt, but that was better than losing his life. If William died, the information only he knew would be lost.

But there was something he didn’t know.

The current state of the monster.

With a thunderous sound, the steel door was flung away like paper in the wind. Half the wall collapsed too, raising dust from the spot.

“It’s here!”

William narrowed his eyes because of the dust. Standing on the collapsed debris was someone wearing the same silver armor as the knight.

‘What?’

More precisely, he appeared to be standing. The figure seemed to be dangling in mid-air, as if caught by something.

“Charlie!”

“R-run… AAAAARGH!”

The one called Charlie tried to say something but couldn’t finish. His body twisted grotesquely, and then there was a rupturing sound from his armor.

Charlie’s body, which had been screaming horribly, was eventually torn into three pieces. Bright red blood, entrails, and bone fragments mixed together and fell with a splat.

‘Good Lord…’

Some of the blood from the corpse flowed down along something invisible in the air to the floor. Only then did William understand why the knight hadn’t fled outside.

Whatever trick it was using, the creature was currently invisible.

And at a level that could only be achieved with highly advanced technology.

Even William, with his keen eye, could barely perceive it because of the blood. Going outside wouldn’t help—ordinary people wouldn’t be able to detect its presence.

“Watch out! Get down!”

“!”

The knight grabbed William’s head and pushed it down. Thanks to this, William was able to duck just in time. Something swept over his head by a hair’s breadth.

Whatever weapon it had swung must have been enormous, as it sliced through not only the healing capsules in the ICU but the entire wall.

The attack also cut in half the people in other healing capsules. The floor was filled with pink liquid from the mixture of blood and healing solution.

“Damn it! I’ll hold it off—try to survive until backup arrives! You must tell His Majesty!”

“I-I…”

“Please!”

The knight charged at the invisible monster without waiting for William’s answer.

‘Not bad.’

I had just swung my tail to kill William, but the knight interfered. Thanks to the detection equipment built into their power armor, the knights seemed to accurately recognize my movements.

“Run away, anywhere you can!”

“Ugh! Damn it!”

At the knight’s words, William dashed out through the collapsed wall. I had no intention of letting him escape. I swung my tail toward his legs.

“Not so fast!”

My attempt to tear off William’s limbs was thwarted by the plasma round fired by the knight.

Because he fired his bolter just as I swung my tail, the trajectory of my tail was diverted elsewhere.

The poisoned barb at the end of my tail struck the corridor wall instead of William’s side. William fled in terror, covering his head with both hands.

“HYAAAAH!”

I tried to finish him with a bone spike, but was interrupted again. The knight charged at me with a battle cry, putting his shoulder into it.

The weight of the power armor exceeding hundreds of kilograms, combined with the thrust generated by a power source comparable to a small spacecraft’s engine—the result was truly formidable. Enough to knock down my body, which weighed several times more than the power armor.

Due to the knight’s charge, I was pushed not only through the corridor but all the way to the patient room on the opposite side of the ICU.

When the room’s wall collapsed, the patients and on-duty doctors inside rushed out in panic.

“AAAAHH!”

“Help!”

I intended to leave as few survivors as possible. Even if my form was invisible, I couldn’t take chances. Bone spikes shot from the end of my lower left arm, impaling those who had turned their backs.

“Gah!”

“Argh!”

Unfortunately, I could only kill three people at once with my bone spikes. One survivor ran away at a speed that made me wonder how a patient could move so quickly.

‘Where did William go?’

While I was briefly distracted with the survivors, William had already moved far away from me. I saw his back disappearing beyond the emergency stairs. Confirming this, I turned back to face the knight.

The knight made no effort to protect the patients, apparently unconcerned. He even kicked aside the bodies on the floor as if they were in his way.

“To claim innocent victims. You vile monster!”

The knight’s actions completely contradicted his words, but this wasn’t particularly strange.

Egerton’s knights were a special force composed of Megacorp upper class, knights in name only.

The honor they spoke of was just for building a positive public image and had nothing to do with reality.

He probably knew the patients in this hospital were of lower rank, hence his disregard.

‘Still, that’s all food going to waste.’

As I watched the knight who seemed to have received no table manners education, I calculated my remaining time.

‘About 8 minutes until the effect ends.’

I had planned to kill William first since time was running out, but the knight kept getting in my way. The knight, sensing my gaze, activated the blade claw on his arm.

‘A blade claw.’

In normal situations, a plasma bolt would be the superior weapon, but in a restricted environment like this, a blade claw wasn’t a bad choice. Like the sonic blade, the blade claw specialized in destroying heavily armored enemies.

To wound my exoskeleton, one needed either a weapon with firepower equal to a plasma launcher or something with high cutting power like that blade claw.

“Die!”

The knight charged at me while firing covering shots with his bolter.

A plasma round flew toward the tentacles under my jaw.

Whether he aimed deliberately or not, my auxiliary organs weren’t reinforced. I crossed my upper combat arms to block the plasma round.

Meanwhile, the knight who had approached me swung his blade claw upward.

He wasn’t aiming for my head but my combat arms. The two saw blades cut through the air with a vicious sound.

I stepped back to create distance, and swung my arm as a shield against the two streaks of saw blades.

Sparks flew as the ultrasonic saw blades collided with my exoskeleton, which had durability beyond any alloy.

He showed no sign of surprise and calmly aimed his bolter at me from close range.

His composure was admirable, but his intention had no chance of success. I still had many weapons left.

My tail pierced through the darkness and dust, aiming for his waist.

“Ugh?!”

The knight twisted his waist to narrowly avoid it instead of firing his bolter.

Before he could back away, I quickly grabbed his hand holding the bolter with my combat arm.

“How dare you!”

Thinking I was trying to engage in a test of strength, he put force into the arm holding the bolter. With his strength enhanced by the power armor, his power was nearly equal to mine.

Our combined weight of over a ton pressed down on the hospital floor without moving.

As the concrete floor cracked under our struggle, he grabbed my arm with his other hand. He probably intended to push me away.

But he was mistaken about my intention. I wasn’t trying to engage in a trial of strength.

The arms on my back flew toward both his shoulders.

“Argh!”

The bone blades on my back arms pierced through the knight’s body.

The blades were at least 50cm long. With them buried so deep they couldn’t be seen, the knight’s insides must have been completely shredded.

I shook my back arms several times to worsen his wounds before pulling them out. The enemy no longer had the strength to stand and slumped to the floor.

“Y-Your Majesty will not forgive…”

I don’t have time to listen to his last words. I kicked the head of the kneeling knight.

Even with power armor covering the entire body in thick plating, it couldn’t cover areas like the neck and joints with alloy. With a sound like a rubber ball popping, the knight fell backward.

The corpse of the fallen knight had a neck twice as long as when he was alive.

‘I need to eat everything here before I go.’

To maximize the effect of the Hunter’s Mark, I need to consume all the genetic essences without leaving any behind.

‘With the parasite in him, William can’t escape anyway.’

The parasite is telling me that William hasn’t left this hospital.

While checking his movements, I diligently stuffed the corpses into my mouth. Some were tasty and some weren’t, but with limited time, it was difficult to enjoy the meal.

Text boxes kept appearing as I finished eating each one, but I ignored them. I plan to check them later since I don’t have time now.

‘I don’t need new traits right away anyway.’

It takes 10 minutes for trait acquisition to be automatically canceled if not selected. There’s still time before trait selection.

Fortunately, the civilian corpses went down smoothly, perhaps because they were only wearing patient gowns. Thanks to this, the meal ended earlier than expected.

‘Only took 2 minutes?’

The remaining time for metal absorption should be about 10 minutes at most. Plenty of time to catch and eat William before returning.

‘Let’s go then.’

The signal was coming from the upper floor. I moved my massive body in search of the traitor.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

William leaned against a cabinet, almost crashing into it, while gasping for breath. The impact caused cleaning tools inside to spill out.

William grabbed a high-pressure cleaner used by androids. It was a pathetically inadequate weapon against that monster, but he had no choice.

It was unclear whether he could even swing it at the monster. The parasite in his head was still very much alive.

“Damn it…”

William lamented.

All this time, he had been loyal to the Megacorp.

As such, he was closer to someone who caught people doing bad things rather than someone who did bad things himself.

Of course, Megacorp was a corrupt society that caused pain to many, a group far from justice.

Whether someone loyal to such an organization could be called just was questionable, but at least William believed his convictions were worth protecting.

But even his convictions were powerless in the face of a disaster beyond what an individual could handle.

He was a brave soldier who didn’t fear death, but that monster was different. Terrible fear gripped him and awakened the primal emotion sleeping in his heart.

The emotion called ‘fear.’

“…”

William steadied his trembling thighs.

Until just now, he had heard androids making a commotion outside, but now it was quiet.

He held his breath and put his ear to the door. He could hear a patient mumbling in the corridor.

Because of the door blocking the sound, the voice sounded broken, like from a damaged radio.

Seeing that there was a survivor, the monster must have gone to another floor. As evidence, he couldn’t hear the heavy footsteps of the creature.

‘Now’s my chance.’

William carefully opened the door.

What greeted him as he emerged from the utility room was a devastated corridor. All the ceiling lights had been destroyed, with some occasionally sparking.

The patient beds placed in the corridor had been either completely bent or broken, as if they had received a strong impact from something.

The only person in the corridor, which was so damaged that the clean image of the hospital was nowhere to be found, was him.

“Found…you…”

Then the voice was heard again.

Only then did he realize who the voice belonged to. He had thought the sound was muffled because of the door, but that wasn’t the case.

That was the actual voice.

A bizarre voice with static, like from a broken radio.

‘It’ had been waiting for him to come out.

William squeezed his eyes shut.

As soon as his eyes closed, his body was cut in two by something transparent.