Ch.96Nightmare Beyond the Horizon (1)

T&C Special Trade Center had become a city of death, but Yugin’s flagship barely escaped into space.

Anyone who knew Akira Yujin well would not have believed that he had stayed in such a dangerous place for so long, but there was a good reason.

He needed to retrieve something important from the Special Trade Center.

“Have all the Shadows’ equipment been collected?”

“Yes. Both Black Shroud and Red Queen have been recovered. However, the damage is quite severe…”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if only minute parts remain, I have ways to restore them.”

After the servant left, Akira Yujin sat at his desk, drumming his fingers.

Behind him, Code Blue stood guard silently.

“I expected to gain much more, but my predictions were wrong this time. I’ve lost a useful tool.”

“……”

“Tools can be replaced, but I am curious. Who defeated Code Black?”

The moment he expressed his doubt, the sound of someone collapsing came from outside his office.

Soon after, the door opened and a woman entered.

A woman with a long horn protruding only from her left forehead, wearing a white bodysuit.

She was Siheyon Yujin, once known as Code White.

Seeing Siheyon, Akira’s lips curled into a strange smile.

“Well, well, Code White. So it was your doing?”

“……”

Siheyon couldn’t understand Akira’s words, but she didn’t care much.

After all, Akira Yujin would die by her hand on this spaceship today.

“Hmm, as soon as one question is answered, another arises. You were clearly dead, so how did you come back to life?”

Instead of answering, she drew a sword from the back of her hand.

The white bodysuit she wore was called White Maiden.

White Maiden was equipment that could manifest various tools according to the user’s imagination.

Just like now, when she imagined a sharp sword, a keen blade emerged from the armor, and if she imagined flight, wings would appear on her back.

“Oho.”

White Maiden was something Akira had personally bestowed upon Siheyon when she received her code.

Seeing the equipment he thought had been lost when she died reappear, he smiled faintly.

“That was something I needed, and you’ve brought it back. A useful tool indeed.”

“You seem relaxed, old man.”

“Hehehe, of course I’m relaxed.”

As Akira snapped his fingers, Code Blue who had been standing behind him stepped forward.

Code Blue drew two daggers from his waist.

“While you were wandering somewhere in space, the Shadows have been continuously improved.”

Despite Akira’s unconcerned words, Siheyon didn’t even raise an eyebrow. Rather, her response was beyond Akira’s expectations.

“I know.”

“Huh?”

At Siheyon’s signal, Blue turned around and slit Akira’s throat.

“Guh, gurgle…”

With his throat half-cut, Akira slumped forward onto his desk.

“…It’s over.”

For the death of someone who had completely destroyed not only Siheyon Yujin’s bloodline but also her life, it was too pitiful.

Though she should have been happy about her successful revenge, she couldn’t feel any joy.

‘If I were truly Siheyon Yujin…’

Would she have laughed loudly over her enemy’s corpse? Or would she have cried?

She didn’t know.

“I’ve fulfilled my part as promised.”

“Yes.”

“Please keep your promise to let me meet my family.”

As Siheyon was about to nod at Blue’s words, her eyes widened.

Because Akira was rising behind him.

“Watch out!”

“?”

Siheyon shouted a warning, but Akira was faster. His hand transformed into large hook-like claws and instantly tore Blue apart.

“やあ、これはかなり驚いた。(Ah, this is quite surprising.) 彼も包摂したとは知らなかった。(I didn’t know you had recruited him too.)”

Akira muttered incomprehensible words.

The wound on his neck had already disappeared without a trace.

The hook-like claws that had killed Blue shrank and returned to being an old man’s wrinkled hands.

“手前の復活も恐らくくそ虎の仕業だろ。(Your revival must also be that damn tiger’s doing.)”

“How…?”

Siheyon knew that Akira had undergone genetic modification.

But that was merely for life extension. Recovering from a severed throat like that should be impossible.

Among the Shadows, only Code Black wearing the Black Shroud could perform such a miracle.

“Hmm? Ah, I apologize. I slipped into a language I used to speak.”

“…Are you really Akira Yujin?”

“Hehehe, of course. Well, to be precise, I’m a half-and-half mix.”

Akira laughed like an ordinary villager, but Siheyon remained extremely tense.

Before coming to the space city, she had undergone as much genetic modification as possible. Partly for the mission, but also because she might face the mysterious monster that had killed her.

Thanks to that, though not as good as before, she was close to being in perfect condition.

However, even she saw no chance of winning against the Akira smiling before her.

“Hehehehe, you’re planning for the future, I see.”

“!”

“Yes. You never gave up. Perhaps that’s why Kusotora, no, Bumho chose you.”

“……”

“I am merciful, so I’ll allow you three attacks. Do as you please.”

Given three chances by Akira.

Without hesitation, she drew the plasma pistol from her waist.

The pistol spat fire, and a green energy mass grazed past Akira’s ear.

“Hehehe, even the great Siheyon Yujin feels fear.”

She didn’t react and fired once more. Again, it missed Akira by a wide margin.

Akira frowned.

“Oh dear. That was your last chance. I gave you three opportunities, yet you wasted them.”

Watching him speak with apparent regret, Siheyon smiled despite her cold sweat.

“I learned something recently.”

“What?”

A long, thick tentacle generated from her left arm and struck the wall behind Akira.

The moment the tentacle hit the wall—already weakened by the pistol shots at the same spot—it shattered completely.

“What…?!”

The office air rapidly flowed into space, and riding that momentum, Siheyon instantly escaped outside.

Even as she exited, she extended a tentacle to grab the dagger Blue had dropped.

“Oh no!”

Akira, who hadn’t expected Siheyon to act this way, looked toward where she had flown.

Having transformed White Maiden into a spacesuit, Siheyon flew away into the black void of space.

–

“Mmm.”

Jaesung, who had fallen asleep as soon as he boarded, opened his eyes.

“Yaaawn, huh?”

Stretching his arms in the chair, he looked around.

Strangely, the passengers who had filled the cabin before he fell asleep were nowhere to be seen.

“What’s this? Did everyone go to eat?”

Since this spaceship was a luxury vessel catering to VIPs, it had a separate dining car that served lavish course meals.

Thinking everyone must have gone there, he closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

‘Wait. There are no crew members either?’

While passengers might have gone to eat, it was strange that not a single crew member was visible.

“What’s going on?”

Rising with an inexplicable sense of unease, Jaesung headed toward the dining car.

On his way, he caught a strange yet familiar smell.

A strong, fishy odor like holding a piece of metal under your nose.

‘Where have I smelled this before?’

Thinking he had a similar experience when he used to work, he opened the door to the dining car.

And he immediately remembered where he had smelled that odor.

It was the smell of blood.

Instead of delicious food and quality alcohol, the dining car was filled with flesh, bone fragments, and blood.

Monsters that seemed to belong in nightmares were enjoying a feast in this hell in the middle of space.

In the center of the lounge, a monster with dark green scales and large wings was sucking blood from a person.

The person being drained was someone Jaesung knew.

It was the medical team leader who had been yelling at a crew member before Jaesung fell asleep. Whether dead or alive, his legs trembled each time blood was drawn from him.

At the bar table in one corner of the dining car, a pink monster was using numerous tentacles to hold the human resources manager and slowly devour her.

Her condition was even more miserable than the medical team leader’s. Dozens of thin tentacles had penetrated every orifice in her face, sucking out her brain.

“Our product! Heurk! Always safe! Heurk! We do our best for you! Heurk! Hick! Thank you! Heurk! Thank you! Heurk!”

The woman who had always appeared intellectual was now babbling incomprehensibly with a face like an idiot.

“Hiiik?!”

When he let out a short scream, the monsters looked at him.

Unable to withstand their gaze, Jaesung closed the door and quickly fled.

‘The, the pilot! I need to tell the pilot!’

He ran through the passenger seats faster than he had ever run in his life.

Reaching the cockpit, he frantically pounded on the door.

“Open up! Monsters have appeared! There are monsters!”

After pounding for some time.

“O-pen-ing.”

From inside the door came a human voice along with the sound of the lock being released.

‘Thank goodness! The pilot is alive!’

Thinking that a lifeline had finally been thrown to him, Jaesung flung the door wide open.

The pilot he had been expecting was there.

“Huh?”

However, he looked quite different from what Jaesung had expected.

Because all Jaesung could see were the man’s ankles.

The “thing” that was swallowing the pilot whole tilted its head and consumed the ankles completely.

“We’ve-been-wait-ing-for-you.”

Seeing “it” speak while revealing blood-stained teeth, Jaesung smiled weakly.

‘It’s a dream.’

He closed his eyes, praying to wake quickly from this nightmare.

–

‘The ship has been secured.’

All living prey on the escape vessel had gone into the stomachs of the three of us.

Having feasted on delicious prey after a long time, Adhigh and No. 26 were sleeping with their bloated bellies.

I spread blankets from the passenger seats over them and returned to the cockpit.

‘What should I do now?’

With various ingredients and calorie bars stored in the cargo and dining areas, food wouldn’t be a concern during the journey.

Piloting wasn’t as complicated as the patrol ship, so I could manage it alone with the navigation AI’s assistance.

‘But there’s a problem.’

This ship had been set to travel to a nearby Megacorp space fortress before departure, so it didn’t have much fuel. After a few faster-than-light jumps, we’d quickly run out.

‘This area isn’t suitable for us.’

The space fortress is obviously out of the question, and there’s not enough fuel to reach the planet I was originally aiming for.

Stopping at nearby planets on the way wasn’t easy either.

All planets in the vicinity had much stronger defenses than the Special Trade Center, making it difficult to enter undetected.

‘There is one option, though…’

Hijacking another ship.

It was a method I often used when playing the game.

‘There’s a place we can reach with FTL travel from here.’

There’s an area managed by Space Dog.

It doesn’t have good planets for resource extraction or human farms, nor is it geographically important enough to build a space city like the Special Trade Center.

Additionally, there’s a rare event where groups of Metallic Gremlins pass through that area. Even a steel space fortress couldn’t withstand them for long.

Because it’s such a useless area, neither Megacorp nor Star Union paid attention to it. This allowed Space Dog to move in.

‘If we go there, we’re unlikely to encounter Megacorp or Star Union.’

Since we won’t stay long and are only targeting one pirate ship, it’s not a bad option.

However, this method also has a problem.

‘We don’t know when Space Dog will find us.’

Space Dog cartels move constantly for piracy, so if we’re unlucky, they might not return to that area for months.

That’s why in the game, I usually employed this method after securing the Space Flight trait.

‘With Space Flight, I could search for pirate ships myself.’

But if I did that with this ship, we’d quickly run out of fuel.

‘I need some kind of breakthrough…’

Speaking of breakthroughs, a thought occurred to me.

‘The new transcendence trait.’

I brought up the translucent text window.

“‘Transcendence’ Material List (New!): Wings, Endurance, Space Flight, Giant Creature, Hijacking”

Currently, I’ve collected all the materials for the new transcendence trait.

Since Space Flight and Giant Creature traits were obtained as samples, they’re only filled to 0.5, making direct use impossible, but they can be used as materials.

‘Come to think of it, the previous unique trait wasn’t completely unrelated to its materials.’

The materials for Complete Organism were all traits related to my physical body.

Even if the unique trait obtained through transcendence is completely new and doesn’t exist previously, it can’t be said to be entirely unrelated to the nature of the materials.

‘Judging by the materials, it seems deeply related to free movement in space.’

Although Complete Organism is the only unique trait I’ve obtained, thanks to this trait, I’ve been able to safely overcome many dangerous obstacles.

‘If my prediction is correct, the second unique trait is likely to show extraordinary effects as well.’

It might even instantly solve the difficulties I’m currently facing.

‘But the prohibition is a problem.’

It’s difficult to choose carelessly because I don’t know what kind of prohibition will be placed on what trait.

A new unique trait, or maintaining the status quo.

While contemplating, a phrase in the text box caught my eye.

‘There is no end to evolution.’

After much deliberation, I made my decision.