Ch.70The Underground Beast (4)

The sight unfolding before Bickers’ eyes was unbelievable.

Signals appearing one after another on the screen.

It was chaos itself.

‘What the hell is going on!’

Though it was clear an abnormal situation had occurred, Bickers didn’t immediately dispatch Team 4.

‘…Situation assessment comes first.’

Bickers called for the Crisis Management Deputy Director and Human Resource Management Director who were at the scene with him.

A well-built man and a neatly dressed woman entered the camp looking for Bickers.

“Look at this.”

“What is this?”

“Hmm…”

Both sighed as they looked at the management screen. They hadn’t anticipated this situation either.

Bickers asked the deputy director.

“Could this be happening due to radio transmission errors?”

“Recent EMP countermeasures have been causing transmission instability throughout the city, but they wouldn’t cause problems like this.”

“Then are you saying these are all escapees?”

“The possibility is slim, but perhaps…”

The deputy director’s voice trailed off. Bickers turned to look at the Human Resource Management Director.

The director shook her head as if it were absolutely impossible.

“Impossible. They all have obedience devices implanted in their heads. They know they’ll die if they try to escape.”

“Then can we identify the escapees right now using the obedience device signals?”

“You mean comparing the two signals?”

“That’s right.”

“Let me check.”

The director manipulated her terminal pad and connected it to the signal manager. After tapping on the pad for a while, two types of signals appeared on the screen.

The two types of signals overlapped with each other.

“This can’t be right. But it seems they’ve all escaped.”

“Is this even possible?”

“I don’t know. This is my first time seeing something like this too.”

The director tapped on her pad a few more times with an incredulous expression, but the results remained the same.

Numerous signals running wild on the screen. All of them disobeying orders and escaping.

‘They’re all from Team 3.’

Were there particularly many dissidents in Team 3?

Sensing Bickers’ doubt, the director added an explanation.

“Our T&C Special Trade Center always operates on the principle of providing only the highest quality products to our customers. Products found with defects through strict inspections are not delivered but immediately discarded.”

“Hmm.”

Bickers thought she wasn’t wrong. If this kind of incident occurred frequently, the Special Trade Center couldn’t possibly operate.

“Deputy Commander. Looking at the signals, something seems strange.”

At that moment, the deputy director who had been staring intently at the screen offered his opinion.

“If you look at these escaped signals, they’re unnaturally clustered together.”

“Aren’t they moving as a group?”

“Even assuming that, they’re too close together. It’s as if one or two people are carrying multiple devices and chips.”

“I don’t know about the chips, but it’s impossible for an individual to remove the device. It’s deeply embedded in the brain and can’t be extracted without special equipment.”

Listening to their words, a thought flashed through Bickers’ mind.

‘It’s a trap.’

The monster they were chasing was a very cunning being. He didn’t know what trick it was playing, but he couldn’t overlook the possibility that this situation was also a trap set by the creature.

‘It has various special abilities. It might even have the ability to control humans.’

Egerton’s Silver Lion Knights had collected various genes to be used for Hulk Mutants.

That meant they had experienced numerous battles with extremely dangerous wild creatures.

Bickers had survived a few fierce battles where more than half of his comrades had died. That’s why he never underestimated the enemy.

“Human Resource Management Director.”

“Yes?”

“I think the enemy has set a trap. So I ask you. Can you activate the obedience devices from here?”

“……”

When the obedience device is activated, it emits electromagnetic waves extremely harmful to the human body.

The power of the electromagnetic waves is so strong that it turns the brain into something like an egg in a microwave.

Needless to say, no one survives with a melted brain.

‘If the signals continue to move even after the obedience devices are activated, the monster must be where those signals are.’

Bickers judged that the monster had the signal transmitters.

Whether it was controlling the escapees through unknown methods, or had eaten the escapees and now carried the transmitters inside its body, whatever the case, it was clear that the monster was among those signals.

The deputy director nodded at Bickers’ suggestion, but the director didn’t seem pleased.

She frowned her well-groomed eyebrows and spoke.

“Since these are resources already promised for rental, it’s not my place to say, but are you planning to waste valuable resources?”

“Not at all. I’m not just throwing them away. The creature we’re chasing is a highly intelligent dangerous organism. With its intelligence, it’s entirely possible it’s using escapees to disrupt our signals.”

“Is that true? Deputy Director?”

“I agree with the Deputy Commander’s opinion. The creature has already escaped the investigation net of androids and police several times in the port district and residential district. Using bait to reveal its strategy would actually be beneficial.”

“When the obedience devices are activated, most of these wild signals will stop. If there’s a signal that keeps moving, that will be the signal sent by the creature.”

The director countered their arguments.

“We always maintain the output of obedience devices at maximum to prepare for unexpected situations. When electromagnetic waves are generated, won’t the transmitters stop working too?”

“That’s not a problem. They’re made for military use and can withstand strong electromagnetic waves or impacts.”

At the deputy director’s answer, the director let out a short sigh.

“…I hope it’s not a waste. I’ll activate the obedience devices.”

She manipulated her terminal pad. After a moment, a message asking to confirm the activation of obedience devices appeared on the screen.

As she lightly touched the pad, the various signals on the screen stopped in place as if time had frozen.

Those who had entered the sewers dreaming of the vain dream of freedom.

They died in that filth.

‘Where is it? Where is it?’

All three watched the screen intently, holding their breath.

Beep

‘There it is!’

At that moment, one signal on the screen started moving again.

Bickers quickly picked up his communicator.

“Team 1, Bickers here! Alerting Teams 2 and 3! The moving signal from the transmitter is the creature! Send the standby units to chase it!”

“Team 2, Jacob, I will obey the order.”

“Under, stood.”

During the communication, Bickers secretly pressed a button on a small mechanical device in his pocket, hidden from the directors. This would have sent a signal to Yanek who was waiting on the ground.

‘You! I won’t let you escape!’

Operation Ghost Hunt.

Bickers believed without a doubt that the operation would end successfully.

‘Human psychology is quite peculiar.’

Once you start doubting, there’s no end to it, but conversely, once you start believing in something, you easily overlook slight ‘oddities’.

Just like now.

In front of me, a silver helmet was hanging on a makeshift structure built from bones.

If you ask where the owner of the helmet went, I could answer that half went into my stomach, and half was chopped up and held in my combat arm.

‘Things are going well.’

The enemies still don’t know what’s happening here.

I took a bite of the knight’s leg I was holding.

Like eating a boiled crab, sweet flesh and juice flowed from inside the hard armor.

One good thing about AMorph is that our teeth are strong enough to eat boiled crab without tools.

‘The employees were honestly not that great, but fortunately.’

I’ve eaten about dozens of humans except those I implanted parasites in, but they all tasted terrible.

Not only did they taste bad, but the predation effect only activated once.

‘Still, I got a good trait, so I should take comfort in that.’

The trait I gained from eating the employee is called ‘Dexterity’.

As the name suggests, it’s a trait that enhances hand function enough to enable crafting activities.

With Dexterity applied, my small arms on my chest became capable of more diverse activities than before.

For instance, this bone structure in front of me.

It’s the result of collecting the bones and flesh of employees and crafting them with my small arms.

The bone structure, fixed on a shallow hole in the sewer floor, has enough durability to not collapse unless there’s a strong impact from outside.

As long as I don’t cause big waves, there’s little chance of the bone structure collapsing.

Thanks to this, I could comfortably place the knight’s helmet on it and enjoy my meal.

‘Indeed, modified humans taste better.’

It’s like a taste threshold. After eating tasteless things for so long, suddenly eating something delicious makes me feel so good that I can’t help but hum.

After devouring the remaining parts of the knight, I picked up the communicator and got up.

‘By now, they must have noticed that something’s happened underground.’

Among the employees who entered the sewers, I first attacked 5 teams and implanted parasites in just 1 person from each team, leaving the rest.

Then I waited until they completed their designated routes.

‘After completing the designated points, they switch routes with each other.’

After completing their routes, all teams from Team 3 gather in one place. The place where they first started, which is the cavity where I was until just now.

Waiting for them when they returned was not the knight, but me.

After hunting everyone except those 5 people, I distributed the chips and devices obtained from the dead to the 5 people.

Some of them protested that they couldn’t carry them because they were naked, but my solution was simple.

‘Just swallow them.’

There’s no need to carry the devices and chips by hand.

When I growled, all 5 followed my instructions obediently.

After having them store the devices and chips in their bodies, I released all but one of them. I told them they could go out of the sewer if they wanted.

‘Escape is impossible anyway.’

Although the future was predetermined, they didn’t let go of the thread of hope. Believing they could survive if they somehow got out of this place, they left the cavity.

‘It’s about time, so I should take this too.’

I caught a corpse catfish swimming in the water. The corpse catfish struggled and resisted me, but it soon became docile when I slightly tightened my grip.

Holding the live corpse catfish, I went to find the only employee I didn’t release.

Just then, I could see the back of someone’s head in the distance, trudging through the sewage.

It was Brody, the survivor from Team 15, which I attacked first. Just in case, I had ordered him to move according to the originally planned route.

As I approached, he handed over the devices and chips to me, trembling.

“If, if I do this, you’ll let me go, right? Right?”

Since it was a question that didn’t need an answer, I didn’t bother to respond.

Those here will die even if the obedience device isn’t activated. They would have been infected by the space bacteria from my body.

“Pl, please! Please spare me…ugh?!”

Brody, who was pleading with me, stopped in that very posture. Then he grabbed his head with both hands.

“Ah, aaagh! Agh! It hurts so much! Aaaagh!”

Brody started screaming madly as if he had forgotten I was in front of him.

Smoke rose from his ears, and the back of his hands clutching his head turned bright red.

‘It’s started.’

They’ve activated the obedience devices after discovering escapees on their side.

Seeing that even Brody, who was moving according to the route, was in pain, it seems they intend to kill all the employees in Team 3.

Then, I felt strong waves and heat from the obedience device in my hand.

The electromagnetic waves from the obedience device are quite powerful. So powerful that even just holding it causes enormous damage to an ordinary person’s body.

‘That’s what they were made for in the first place.’

I looked at the obedience device emitting deadly electromagnetic waves in my hand.

Since my body is not that of an ordinary person but an AMorph, it doesn’t affect me at all.

AMorph skin has good effects like high fire resistance, radiation immunity, etc., even without special traits. It’s even possible to survive in space for a certain period.

It’s just that in this world of Space Survival, where plasma energy, psychic power, and numerous transcendent attack weapons run rampant, it pales in comparison.

Anyway, Brody, who didn’t have a brain as tough as AMorph’s outer skin, couldn’t block the electromagnetic waves from the obedience device. With his brain completely cooked, he collapsed.

I discarded the now-stopped obedience device and fed the signal chip to the corpse catfish. Then I wounded the catfish’s skin enough to draw blood.

‘Originally, I would use parasites.’

All 5 parasites I could currently use were dead.

Since that obedience device is equipment that melts the brain, the parasites attached to the brain to control the employees had no chance of survival.

Even if I use up all the parasites, they will be replenished, but I can’t use them right now.

So I need to monitor the catfish’s movements with its blood.

‘It’s bait.’

After confirming that blood was flowing, I released the catfish. It fled in terror into the darkness of the sewer.

I dived to detect the smell of blood.

The auxiliary organ under my jaw easily picked up the traces of blood flowing in the water.

‘They will think the catfish is the monster they’re chasing.’

The signal chip and obedience device are inside one person’s body, and when the obedience device operates, the person dies.

Yet if the signal chip keeps moving, there’s only one conclusion they can draw.

That must be the monster.

‘They’ll think I’m moving after eating people.’

Now they will chase the catfish with all their might.

Just as the enemies didn’t gather in one place but split the underground exploration team into several, it’s likely that the personnel waiting above ground will do the same.

‘Since the catfish is fast, they’ll surely hurry as much as possible.’

It’s unlikely that the ground team will gather at some point underground and then slowly chase the catfish. If they lose it, they would have to restart the exploration operation from the beginning.

I need to target the moment when they try to chase the catfish while still not gathered together.

‘Divide and conquer.’

After devouring Brody’s corpse without leaving anything, I chased after the catfish.

While the enemies are split up tracking the catfish, I will follow behind them.

When the enemies reach the wrong target and cheer, that moment will be the timing for me to pounce on them.

Just as the enemies set a trap for me, I did the same.

Just as the enemies threw bait at me, I also threw bait.

This sewer will become the grave of the arrogant enemies, the silver knights.