Ch.93Escape (1)

I grabbed the fallen Danver with my combat arm.

‘His surname was Egerton, right?’

Judging by his distinctive armor and the Egerton surname, this man’s status didn’t seem particularly low.

‘Let’s experiment.’

I had just bitten Danver’s neck to paralyze him. During that process, I absorbed the genetic information in his blood, allowing me to mimic his voice.

‘Even though my mimicry organs are sealed, I can still imitate voices to a limited extent.’

I shut down the power to Danver’s exosuit, then pulled out the communicator attached to his waist.

“He-lp… me.”

“Your Highness!”

When I used my small chest arm to hold the communicator and imitated Danver’s voice, the knights all froze in place.

“His Highness has been captured!”

“Damn that monster!”

I could hear the knights’ furious voices through the communicator.

Though they spoke as if they wanted to tear me apart, no one dared to rush at me.

‘Oh?’

I called the kids while holding Danver. When No. 26 and Adhigh Orr approached me, the knights flinched.

Seeing their reaction confirmed it.

This man, Danver Egerton, was someone of considerable rank.

‘Come to think of it, he tried to negotiate with me.’

Perhaps he held an important position within his house.

Or maybe…

‘Could he be the head of the house?’

I thought it unlikely he could be the head of House Egerton since he was captured so easily, but judging by their overreaction, he must indeed be the head.

If Danver is truly the head of the house, my options become much broader.

‘Should I push this further?’

Even if we defeat these knights, it’s nearly impossible to sneak out of the city undetected now that we’ve been discovered.

‘We might win the battle, but we’re still at a disadvantage in the war.’

If they give up on retrieving my corpse and open fire with their ship’s cannons, the kids and I will die instantly.

Even if we somehow escape and hide in a spaceship, we’re finished if a warship pursues us.

‘However.’

That was before I captured Danver.

Now that I’m certain Danver is a valuable hostage, I can afford to take more risks.

“…Is that monster using His Highness as a hostage?”

“I heard it was intelligent, but to think it would go this far.”

“His Highness is being held hostage, so everyone stay calm.”

I could hear the knights’ conversation through the communicator.

Obviously, they don’t know that I can understand human language.

‘Come to think of it, Danver said that.’

As soon as he saw me, he judged me to be a Hulk Mutant.

If they don’t know about AMorphs, it’s not an incorrect assessment. They would have already realized during our fight that my body contains genes from various creatures. So it’s natural they would assume I’m a similar being—a Hulk Mutant.

Of course, besides Hulk Mutants, there are Outspacers who evolve through gene absorption, but they communicate through unique wavelengths shared only among their kind, similar to No. 26.

‘Originally, Hulk Mutants can’t speak as well as I can.’

But that’s just in games.

Haven’t I already met Hulk Mutants who not only speak but also engage in piracy without any issues?

‘If they think I’m a Hulk Mutant…’

How should I deceive them?

‘According to the setting, Hulk Mutants require genetic manipulation technology that can fuse genes without side effects.’

Naturally, this requires massive capital and laboratories equipped with cutting-edge devices to fuse genes.

In other words, not just anyone can create them.

‘Let me use that aspect.’

After a brief moment of consideration, I used my small arm to manipulate the communicator’s channel.

‘I could communicate with the warship too… Ah, here it is.’

After switching to the public channel, I broke Danver’s right arm with my combat arm. He’s completely paralyzed so he wouldn’t feel pain, but those knights wouldn’t know that.

“Your Highness!”

“You fiend!”

“Gr-everyone… grrrk… listen.”

“Your Highness? Why are you on this channel…?”

“His Highness has been taken hostage!”

The communicator was filled with the confused voices of knights here and subordinates waiting on the warship.

Ignoring their reactions, I continued speaking.

“He… is… grrrk… not… ordinary… Hulk… Mutant… grrrr.”

“Your Highness! Your injuries are severe! You don’t need to speak anymore…!”

“This… creature… made… by… T&C… attack… T&C.”

“Impossible!”

“Th-that can’t be true!”

My words provoked intense reactions from both the knights and the warship.

Some insisted they should attack T&C immediately, while others claimed Danver was delirious from his injuries.

However, none of them suspected me.

‘Of course they wouldn’t suspect me.’

Danver’s height reaches nearly 2.5 meters thanks to his exosuit.

Since I’m just over 3 meters tall when standing on two feet, they can’t tell whether I’m secretly using the communicator unless they approach closely to check.

Moreover, who would dare imagine that an unknown monster could imitate the voice of a living house head?

‘My voice sounds different, but I accounted for that too.’

Currently, due to the constraints of the Transcendence System, I can’t perfectly imitate voices. There’s static, like from a broken radio.

That’s why I deliberately injured Danver in front of them—to create the impression of someone who can’t speak properly due to pain.

‘Besides, T&C is a suitable target to divert their attention.’

Hulk Mutants require such advanced technology that even Prime Capital struggles with their development.

From their perspective, there’s only one entity capable of developing a Hulk Mutant like me.

That would be T&C, which has recently announced breakthrough achievements in genetic manipulation technology.

‘I need to drive the point home.’

“Earth… boundary… grrrr… has… device… controlling… this… creature… grrrk.”

“What do you mean?”

“Destroy… checkpoint… at… boundary.”

“W-wait! That would start a war with T&C!”

The warship’s response is correct.

After the armed conflict in the sewers, if they fire on the checkpoint, war is the only outcome.

However, with their house head in my grasp, they have no choice but to follow my orders.

‘Perhaps I need to be more convincing.’

Using my lower arms, I grabbed Danver’s leg and crushed it. Despite his body being paralyzed, this impact must have been quite shocking, as I heard a groan from inside his helmet.

If he’s this shocked, imagine how they must feel.

Explosive shouts erupted from the communicator.

Ignoring them, I opened my mouth and bit into Danver’s shoulder. The thick shoulder plate shattered, and my teeth sank into the dark shoulder beneath.

The knights howled in rage, but I couldn’t pay attention to that.

The stream of blood gushing from Danver’s shoulder was warming my throat.

‘Tastes good.’

I got a slight taste when I bit his neck, but drinking this much blood makes it much clearer.

Is this what fine aged wine tastes like? Sweet with a clean aftertaste.

‘He doesn’t seem to have undergone any genetic modification.’

Perhaps it’s because he’s well-fed and healthy. It had a different flavor profile than Siheyon Yujin, who had been the tastiest prey so far.

‘Not yet.’

This action was meant to shake them up, not to enjoy a feast.

I reluctantly pulled my teeth out of his shoulder.

‘That should be enough for them to understand.’

Unless they abandon their house head, they have only one option.

As I expected, a large warship docked at the distant port slowly began to rise.

‘Phew.’

Only then could I finally relax.

‘Honestly, I thought there was a high chance of failure.’

Taking the house head hostage was a risky gamble.

What if the person I captured wasn’t actually the house head?

Or what if those aboard the warship had made a rational decision and opened fire on me?

That would have been the end for me and the kids.

‘Fortunately, they acted with typical Megacorp thinking.’

Megacorp is a strange structure with rigid social hierarchies between Capitals while simultaneously allowing unlimited competition.

As a result, losing in competition can sometimes cause a Capital to drop several levels.

This phenomenon isn’t limited to lower Capitals but applies to the top seven houses as well.

‘If Danver dies, his subordinates will all be purged by whoever becomes the new house head.’

Not just the knights, but everyone aboard the warship must keep Danver alive to protect their own lives.

That’s why they’re following their master’s nonsensical orders.

While the warship flew toward its target, I used my auxiliary organs to look for a ship we could escape on.

The port was quite far, so I couldn’t see clearly, but I spotted several promising-looking spaceships.

‘When the warship fires on the checkpoint, that’s our time to move.’

When the defense fleet responds to Egerton’s warship, this place will instantly become chaotic. That’s when we’ll run to the port and secretly board a spaceship.

[Zzzzz zzzzz (Run when I signal)]

“Signal?”

The answer to No. 26’s question didn’t come from me.

A massive explosion erupted at Earth’s boundary, followed by thunderous sounds echoing throughout the port district.

[Zz (Now)]

I ran while holding Danver. No. 26 and Adhigh followed behind me.

‘No. 26 is faster than I thought.’

It moved by rapidly flapping its fin-like legs while pushing itself forward with its tentacles.

Though I was worried since it’s a deep-sea creature, its speed didn’t seem significantly reduced on land.

As we quickly distanced ourselves, the knights followed in confusion.

“Bad people are chasing us.”

[Zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz (We don’t need to catch them)]

“?”

No sooner had I finished speaking than the sky distorted and black lines appeared everywhere.

The holographic sky and artificial sun disappeared, revealing the metal dome enclosing the city.

Then shield doors installed on the inner wall of the dome opened, and steel ships poured out.

[Zzzzz zzzzz (They’ll handle it)]

“Wow!”

Battleships emerging from the shield doors near the port district fired plasma heat rays toward Egerton’s warship.

The sight of numerous steel ships simultaneously shooting green beams within the massive artificial structure was truly spectacular.

In response, blue light erupted from the front of Egerton’s warship. The plasma shield, said to be installed only on battleship-class vessels, had been activated.

The green heat rays couldn’t penetrate the shield protecting the warship and dissipated.

‘Usually they’re not that good—they must have used something special for the house head’s ship.’

Numerous gun turrets on the Egerton warship fired simultaneously. The heat rays fired from the warship were more than twice as thick as those from T&C’s side.

The battleships also activated their shields, but they couldn’t block the plasma heat rays fired by Egerton. The hit battleships fell like moths onto the city below.

As war broke out in the middle of the city, the atmosphere at the port changed dramatically. Ships preparing to depart hastened their launch preparations, and people’s screams could be heard from here.

“G-good heavens!”

“How could this happen…?”

The knights who had been chasing us seemed dumbfounded watching the battle between Egerton’s warship and the defense fleet.

They stood in place, forgetting about pursuing us, and stared up at the catastrophe. They seemed to finally realize what they had done.

Listening to their despondent conversations through the communicator, something occurred to me.

When I first arrived in this city, I suspected that Siheyon Yujin’s subordinates were trying to start a civil war on their own.

However, Yujin’s plot was thwarted when I spared Gallergorn Adhigh Orr, who had been at the center of the conspiracy.

‘That was definitely the case, but…’

“Wow! Bang bang! Amazing!”

No. 26 laughed cheerfully as it watched the spectacle of green and blue flashes in the sky.

Right before my eyes, Megacorp’s greatest event—civil war—had broken out.

By my hand, no less.