Ch.6The Hunt (2)

‘Predator Sense?’

I double-checked the characteristics recorded in the text box.

｢Species: Unidentified Agressive Space Morph

Status: Hatchling

Objective: Survive.

Characteristics: Predator Sense(Fusion), Wings, Chitinous Exoskeleton, Robust Vitality, Paralyzing Stinger｣

I know that Space Survival has a characteristic fusion system. It’s a system that combines two or more related characteristics into a single enhanced characteristic.

Characteristics that aren’t particularly helpful often transform into powerful ones through fusion, so I used it actively too.

I used it so much that I had practically memorized all the characteristics in the game and their fusion combinations.

‘And there’s a characteristic I don’t know?’

No matter how many times I looked, it was a characteristic I’d never seen before.

‘So it detects threats in advance.’

Future prediction-related characteristics existed in the game too, but they were usually implemented as dodge rate increases.

To be honest, they were characteristics that sounded good but weren’t actually useful.

‘But this is reality. I wonder how it works?’

I focused my senses on my auxiliary organs, just like when using enhanced perception.

The tentacle-like auxiliary organs on my jaw wriggled, reading information floating in the air.

Thanks to the enhancement, the amount of information I could collect was incomparably higher than before.

I could even tell what insects were in the cargo hold and what forms the weapons in the containers took.

However, the future prediction effect I had expected didn’t activate. It seemed like it was because no threat was approaching me.

‘So it’s a passive type.’

Just because it was a passive type that activated automatically didn’t necessarily make it bad. Since threats can come unexpectedly, it could be considered beneficial.

‘By the way, eating mammals provides much more energy.’

Not only did I feel more vitality flowing through my body, but the sense of fullness was definitely superior. The exoskeleton covering my abdomen and back felt slightly stretched.

I returned to my nest with a pleasant feeling of satiation.

–

Historians say that Megacorp originated when seven corporations from Earth and Mars colluded to maximize their profits.

The government couldn’t stand by and watch mere merchants overstep their bounds, so they declared war on the seven corporations.

After countless people were sacrificed in bloodshed that turned the seas red, the seven corporations emerged as the final victors.

An era began where all planets in the solar system came under the control of a single massive corporate alliance, the Mega Corp.

Later, of the seven corporations that formed the foundation of Megacorp, the five with headquarters on Earth became the five houses of Noble Capital, while the two from Mars became the Martian aristocracy, Prime Capital.

Among the five houses of Noble Capital that ruled Earth, House Yugin surprisingly started as a small agricultural company.

Yugin’s ancestors recognized the potential of genetically modified foods early on and invested heavily in genetic engineering.

This family tradition continued even after the space age began. As a result, House Yugin possessed genetic engineering technology that was among the best in the galaxy.

It was thanks to this family background that Kisaragi Yujin was able to become an outstanding genetic engineer.

Having shown exceptional genius from childhood, the family invested heavily in her.

Because of this upbringing, she had never experienced the emotion of deprivation in her life. She always got what she wanted, and even things she couldn’t have immediately would soon be in her hands after a short wait.

Perhaps that’s why?

She found it difficult to accept the fact that she had lost a possession for the first time in her life.

“When can I see Caesar?”

“The soldiers are searching, so if you could just wait a little longer…”

“It’s been two hours already! Caesar never misses a meal time, so something must have happened!”

Anyone who knew Kisaragi would be shocked to see how different she looked from usual.

Her well-maintained straight black hair was disheveled, and her typically ice-cold expression was nowhere to be seen.

Right now, she was truly a madwoman.

Looking at her clearly unstable state, Captain Eusung Samuel sighed.

“This is a spaceship. Unless the cat operated an escape pod, it must be somewhere on board.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to find it right now!”

“What I mean is that if you wait, there will be good results.”

Eusung was from Titan, a Third Capital. While not a low class by any means, he was nothing compared to the Noble Capital standing before him. The gap between them was so great that if she told him to quit being captain, he would have to surrender his position immediately.

With someone who held his life in her hands half-crazed, Eusung felt like going mad himself.

‘What’s so special about a damn cat!’

Eusung barely suppressed the urge to shout about what he had done wrong to deserve such torment.

“What about the guards? What happened to them?”

“They’re all detained. The proper procedures will be followed after we reach our destination…”

“Execute them immediately.”

“Excuse me?”

Eusung thought he had misheard.

“As captain, you have summary execution authority, don’t you? Exercise that authority now.”

“If we execute them for something like this, the other soldiers will become agitated.”

“Something like this?”

Meeting her murderous gaze, Eusung cleared his throat and corrected himself.

“Ahem, what I mean is that it would be appropriate to discuss punishment after the search has made some progress. I meant nothing else.”

“Have you forgotten that this all happened because the soldiers didn’t do their jobs properly?”

Eusung knew that the soldiers on the ship were by no means friendly toward the cat.

Honestly, even he as the captain only ate real meat once a week and made do with cultured meat for the rest of his meals.

‘Meanwhile, that damn furball eats beef with every meal.’

If he hated the cat this much, how much more must the soldiers resent it?

It wouldn’t be surprising if many soldiers were pleased by the cat’s misfortune.

But knowing that saying this would direct Kisaragi’s anger toward him, Eusung kept his mouth shut.

“I am fully aware of the research team leader’s concerns. I will use this incident as an opportunity to firmly establish discipline among the soldiers.”

“…I’ll be back in two hours. If you haven’t made progress by then, it would be best for you to put down that hat.”

After warning Eusung, Kisaragi left the captain’s quarters.

‘Where on earth are you?’

While the soldiers were searching, she hadn’t been idle either.

She had created a tracking device using fur left on the cushion to determine where Caesar had gone.

The device worked successfully, but she became confused by the results it produced.

This was because her cat had gone somewhere that was impossible to reach by normal means.

Caesar had unscrewed the grate on a ventilation duct, gone to the cargo hold, and then disappeared.

Since it was clearly a case involving human intervention, Kisaragi summoned the cargo manager.

The manager had been drinking with colleagues in the cafeteria all day, so his alibi was solid. But since he had neglected his duties, Kisaragi tried to kill him.

If the captain hadn’t stopped her, the manager would have been doomed to drift eternally in the darkness of space.

Barely suppressing her murderous intent, she took the trembling manager and thoroughly searched the cargo hold.

Caesar’s trail ended near a container. And in its place were traces left by an unidentified creature. She collected the traces and put them in an analyzer, but all that came back was the message “Information Not Available.”

‘Genetic information not even in the Megacorp data archives.’

Even for someone like her, creating a machine to track a subject with no available information wasn’t easy. It wasn’t impossible, but it would take longer than usual.

Completing the machine would take at least a day, and if she wanted to increase the success rate with additional work, it would take two days.

Caesar wouldn’t die from starving for that long, but Kisaragi felt an inexplicable anxiety.

Something was definitely wrong.

Her intuition told her that something terrible had happened in the cargo hold.

That’s why she had been badgering the innocent captain to find Caesar as quickly as possible.

‘Whoever you are, if you’ve touched what’s mine, I’ll kill you when I find you.’

She unconsciously bit her fingernail. The droplet of blood from the tip of her nail vividly revealed her emotions.

–

‘Hmm?’

While lying in my nest leisurely digesting, I sensed a change in the ship.

The humans’ movements were more bustling than usual. They must have noticed that the cat was missing.

Thanks to my upgraded auxiliary organs, I could roughly recognize the appearance of moving humans. Judging by their bulky forms and powerful movements, all the humans searching were soldiers.

Soldiers rolling around looking for a pet they don’t even like, missing proper meals. Even in the space age, military injustice remained unchanged.

‘Everything is going according to plan.’

There are two main benefits I can gain from killing the cat.

First, clouding Kisaragi Yujin’s judgment.

Considering her behavior and the cat’s nutritional state, Kisaragi lavished much affection on her pet. She might be a devil incarnate to test subjects and researchers, but she was nothing short of an angel to the animal she raised.

It’s not uncommon for people to treat only what they care about humanely. Such people have another commonality.

‘They lose their minds when something they possess is taken away.’

She’s not worried about her pet dying or being in danger. She’s simply furious that something belonging to her was taken by a complete stranger. She would react similarly if the most trivial item she owned was stolen.

This is irrational possessiveness, or simply put, obsession.

And people caught in obsession find it difficult to maintain their sanity.

Second, driving a wedge between Kisaragi Yujin and the soldiers.

The biggest obstacle to my attacking her was the guards. The soldiers who followed her everywhere made a surprise attack nearly impossible.

Even if I somehow managed to eliminate her, if the soldiers discovered me, the losses would outweigh the gains.

So I created an opening.

I made her and the soldiers distance themselves from each other.

‘The guards didn’t like the cat.’

Of course normal people would be angry when meat they couldn’t even taste was being used as cat food.

In fact, the cat was just a pretext; the essence was closer to anger about class differences. She imposed unreasonable demands because she was Noble Capital, but the soldiers feared the consequences of complaining directly to Kisaragi Yujin.

‘The owner is scary, but the pet isn’t.’

Simply put, her cat served as a kind of scapegoat.

In such a situation, what if the sacrificial lamb disappears?

And on top of that, if they have to work unnecessarily hard to find something they despised?

Would the soldiers still be as dedicated to protecting her as before?

Not only that, but Kisaragi Yujin no longer trusts the soldiers either.

After all, the guards’ negligence was the main reason her precious possession disappeared.

‘Thank you, cat.’

I got up from my spot.

After sowing the seeds, it’s the way of the world to harvest them.

The time has come to take Kisaragi Yujin’s genetic essence.