Ch.63Hospital (5)

“Damn it! Peter! Charlie!”

The vice-commander Vickers of the Silver Lion Knights kept trying to make contact.

But all he could hear from the communicator was ominous static.

The last communication Peter left him.

Peter had said that his colleagues Milburn and Pyfield were already taken down. After that, neither Peter nor Charlie responded to any communication.

This pointed to only one fact.

They had all been wiped out.

‘This won’t do. I need to dispatch knights and report to His Lordship.’

Vickers quickly summoned the knights on standby.

Excluding the forces needed to escort Danver Egerton and the members dispatched for security investigation, the total number of troops he could immediately deploy was 20.

Armed knights promptly entered the spacious guest room provided to the vice-commander.

Since it was their free time, they all had their helmets removed.

A white woman with red-gold hair, an Asian man with black hair, a black man with a shaved head—they were a mix of all races and genders, but they had something in common.

They were all exceptionally beautiful men and women, boasting heights about 1.5 times that of average adult males.

The Silver Lion Knights maintained their outstanding beauty and height because they had all undergone genetic modification under Danver’s orders. The public commented that this was typical of Danver’s image-conscious nature, but Vickers knew the truth.

That they were merely byproducts of the Hulk Mutant Project.

“Vice-Commander, you called for us.”

The black man with the shaved head at the front bowed respectfully before Vickers. Snapping out of his thoughts, Vickers explained the situation to them.

“The situation is serious. We’ve lost contact with those sent to protect the police.”

“What?”

“No one has responded since Peter’s last contact five minutes ago. Everyone sent to the hospital—Charlie, Milburn, Pyfield—all of them.”

“……”

Everyone present knew exactly how powerful the Silver Lion Knights were. For four of them to be taken down was no ordinary matter.

“So I’ll report to His Lordship immediately. The rest of you head to the hospital. Jacob will take command.”

“We’ll do our best.”

After sending the knights to the hospital, Vickers hurried toward the ballroom.

‘His Lordship wants Sadam Chamberlain to become CEO, and now this happens.’

As Danver’s closest aide, Vickers knew exactly what he was aiming for.

Before coming to this city, Danver had already met with Sadam to discuss how to proceed with the board meeting. During their discussion, Sadam had expressed great expectations for his daughter Lila, and Danver had read Sadam’s intentions.

Though he wasn’t sure how Lila felt about it, Danver had no ill feelings toward her. So before coming here, he had made many preparations to help her.

With all preparations complete, all that remained was for the board meeting to proceed smoothly, but now this major incident had occurred.

‘While it’s important to know who killed the knights at the hospital, the bigger problem is…’

The fact that Prime Capital’s escorts were killed in Noble Capital’s territory.

Sadam’s competitors wouldn’t let such a juicy opportunity slip by. If they just let this slide, rumors would certainly spread.

That T&C and Egerton were colluding ahead of the CEO election.

While it was true that all sorts of conspiracies and secret agreements were rampant in the CEO voting process, such issues had never surfaced publicly.

Officially, Megacorp was an organization that elected its CEO through democratic procedures, and there should be no corruption in that process.

If this got out, Sadam would not only be excluded from the CEO candidacy, but in the worst case, there might even be calls to revoke T&C family’s Noble Capital qualification.

‘But it would also be problematic if His Lordship takes a hard stance.’

It would also be an issue if Danver deliberately pretended to criticize T&C.

Most of the elders in House Egerton were unaware of the collusion between T&C and Egerton.

Those who knew nothing would obviously choose to abandon T&C, which couldn’t even manage security properly, and select another candidate.

If that happened, financial support from T&C would be out of the question.

‘How should I handle this…’

Almost running, he could see the doors of the ballroom in the distance. A woman was being checked by security before entering.

She was Lila’s secretary. Vickers knew her well.

Up close, her complexion was deathly pale.

She must have come here for the same reason as him.

‘Is the Lady also here for this issue?’

‘Is the Vice-Commander here for the same reason?’

Though they only exchanged glances, they immediately understood what each other was thinking.

It seemed tonight’s ball would be a long one.

–

The being that had been bothering me was dead.

I had spared him because I judged him to be capable, but in the end, the gains and losses balanced out.

‘To think he would risk his life even in reality. I’ll have to be more careful in the future.’

Perhaps I had underestimated human will too much. I should be cautious in my operations until I obtain the infection enhancement type.

‘Let’s destroy the central AI computer before leaving.’

The remaining time is getting tight, but this is necessary. I carried his body, split in two, down to the basement.

As I descended the emergency stairs, I first tasted his upper body.

‘Maybe I should have eaten earlier?’

Perhaps because he had suffered at my hands, the taste was quite poor. It was like good quality meat that had been improperly stored in the refrigerator and gone slightly bad.

While eating, the parasite hurriedly escaped through the corpse’s nostrils as if begging not to be eaten. It crawled up my arm and returned to its home.

By the time I had one leg left, I arrived at the server room where the main computer was located. I put down the leg I was eating and rammed the door with the horns on my head.

Even a 10cm thick alloy door was powerless against an AMorph’s monstrous strength. The central AI detected my intrusion and wailed loudly.

“Warning! Warning! Unidentified organism approaching!”

I swung my tail to destroy the speakers attached to the ceiling corners. With the noisy warning gone, only the regular hum of the cooling system remained in the server room.

‘First, destroy the cooling system computer.’

There were numerous computers in the server room, but this wasn’t my first hospital raid. Getting in here was difficult, but once inside, the rest was easy.

I smashed each computer lined up on the right side with the arms on my back. Sparks flew and the red lights on each computer faded.

Shortly after, all internal ventilation fans stopped, and the internal temperature began to rise rapidly. The sensitive electronic devices inside screamed as the temperature rose to sauna-like levels.

‘This isn’t the end.’

I used all available arms to systematically destroy the data server devices.

I either tore computers to shreds with my combat arms or swung my tail to turn data storage devices into irreparable waste.

Thanks to my increased size, it didn’t take long to destroy the electronic equipment in the spacious server room.

Having destroyed the important devices, I decided to finish off the rest by other means. I bit my arm to create a wound and sprayed acidic blood everywhere.

The effect of the acidic blood seemed greatly enhanced due to my complete organism form, as electronic devices melted without a trace where blood droplets landed. Then, as if a short circuit occurred in the broken computer wires, flames suddenly erupted.

‘This should be enough here.’

These flames couldn’t damage my doubly reinforced outer skin. I calmly walked through the fire into the inner part of the server room.

Inside was a cylindrical computer encased in reinforced glass. That was the main computer housing the central AI. Numbers in green constantly appeared and disappeared on the black, matte surface.

That cylindrical computer had Megacorp’s unique design, similar to the AI computers on ships.

“Warning! Warning! Threat to central AI!”

The AI made a final warning in an electronic voice as if it didn’t want to die, but it was meaningless. I fired spine bones at the reinforced glass, shattering it.

The spine bones pierced through both the glass wall and the main computer, but I couldn’t be complacent. I needed to completely destroy it to prevent enemies from retrieving data.

‘I made a mistake once before and paid for it.’

Once in the game, I had to infiltrate a hospital in a space city to eat someone. At that time, I was a subadult with six types, so it was very easy to assassinate the target without getting caught by anyone.

But perhaps because it was too easy?

I became careless, and as a result, my use of abilities was fully exposed to the central AI.

The enemy clan member I killed easily obtained information about me through the central AI. They took revenge by spreading the strategies I used in the hospital throughout the community.

‘I had to come up with completely new strategies after that, which was tough.’

Of course, I paid them back double later, but I don’t want to repeat that experience. I completely melted the main computer by spraying acidic blood.

‘That wraps things up nicely.’

Leaving the blazing server room, I finished eating William’s remaining leg.

Another text box related to the predation effect appeared, and I was about to dismiss it when I paused.

‘Wait? This is?’

I quickly checked the text box.

“Predation effect activated! Successfully acquired ‘Insight’ gene essence.”

“Stole biological trait ‘Insight’ from ‘Human’.”

“Apply ‘Insight’?”

‘Wow?’

Insight.

I know this trait.

When you activate the ‘Insight’ trait and look at an organism or object with the naked eye, you can see the target’s unique characteristics, traits, skills, etc.

You can’t know everything, with a daily limit of 5 times, and the information you can learn each time is randomly determined.

For example, if you use Insight on someone wearing reinforced armor, you might get information about the armor, or you might learn about the user’s traits or skills.

And after using Insight more than 5 times a day, it becomes unavailable.

‘I was curious what William might have, and it turned out to be this.’

I thought he was an unusual character, and if he possessed Insight, it makes sense. Thanks to his latent trait, he could have had sharper intuition than others.

‘His quick understanding of my weaknesses must have been thanks to Insight.’

Come to think of it, William was the first in this city to corner me. Unlike Siheyon Yujin or the Hulk Mutant who had high combat power, he targeted my weakness with just his intuition.

Though I infected him with a parasite, he didn’t give up and continued to trouble me until the end.

‘To think someone like that would leave me a gift at the end.’

Though we were enemies in the past, I feel like I can forgive him now.

As the effect shows, Insight is a trait advantageous in PvP fights between players. It’s not a trait I immediately need.

Yet I’m happy for one reason.

‘Insight is a psychic ability trait.’

Including Insight, I now have a total of 6 psychic ability traits. This means I’ve fulfilled all the conditions for the psychic enhancement type.

The traits I acquired from eating the knights and patients are still pending until their cancellation time expires, but this Insight I just ate is different.

‘This is a chance to acquire a type, I can’t miss it.’

I immediately accepted the Insight acquisition.

As the trait was applied, I could feel my eye structure changing. It felt like the inside of my eyeballs was dry, like when tired, and my eye muscles twitched. My eyes felt itchy, but since it was a natural change due to trait application, I remained still.

Perhaps because the application area wasn’t large, the change ended quickly. I activated Insight to look around.

‘Huh?’

Nothing changed after acquisition. Random information about objects should appear, but nothing was visible.

‘Right. I can’t see with my eyes right now.’

Insight is a trait that only works when checking with the naked eye.

Currently, my eyes are covered due to the Hunter’s Emblem effect. Naturally, I can’t see anything.

‘It doesn’t matter since what’s important is something else.’

Deciding to check the effect of Insight later, I brought up the text box I had been waiting for.

“1 ‘Type’ available for specialization.”

“Unlock ‘Psychic Enhancement Type’?”

After acquiring my first type, a second type is now waiting for me.