Ep. 110
–
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Dylan kept swearing. Other subordinates looked at him with anxious eyes.
‘I underestimated the enemy too much!’
After running away for a while, they took a short rest by hiding behind a rock. There were only six people present, including Dylan.
I don’t know what happened to the other subordinates.
However, seeing that the sound of gunfire from afar had completely stopped just a few minutes ago, it was easy to imagine what kind of end they would have met.
‘shit!’
32 people, including him and his assistant, brought 5 heavy walkers, but there were only 6 people left.
Even if he escapes safely, there is no way the boss will leave him alone after he has messed up this much.
‘…Let’s contact the cruiser.’
Nevertheless, the reason Dylan chose to contact the cruiser was because it was the option with the highest chance of his survival.
Dylan believed that it was better to survive even if he was tortured than to die.
Dylan pulled the wire from the terminal attached to his wrist and connected it to the terminal on the corner of the mask that resembled a death mask.
And when I pressed the button on the terminal, communication was immediately established with the cruiser. A short connection sound came from the terminal, and the signalman received his signal.
“It’s Dylan. “What about you, boss?”
“You left for the inner part of the continent this morning. The heavenly mother whom I caught a while ago? “You received information from that beast that there was treasure.”
“Really?”
Dylan breathed a sigh of relief at the signalman’s words.
The pirates who were listening with bated breath next to them also looked relieved.
If there is no leader, the top person in the humanity cartel is Dylan.
If you catch the monster with the cruiser’s troops and sacrifice it to them before the leader returns, the severity of their punishment will be weakened.
“There is a highest-level dangerous creature here. “I will transmit the information so you can record it in the ship’s database.”
“Oh, I understand!”
When Dylan operated the terminal, the video information about the monster recorded by his mask was directly transmitted to the cruiser’s computer.
「All information has been delivered.」
“Okay. Our lives are in danger, so immediately…”
「Chijijijik」
Dylan tried to call for assistance, but suddenly there was noise and the terminal stopped working.
“You bastard! “Get the cruiser and come this way right now!”
「Chijijijijijik」
“Fuck!”
As he was about to hit the terminal in anger, he heard the sound of trees breaking nearby.
The sound made when the huge beast moved was a very familiar sound to the pirates here.
“….”
Everyone trembled and covered their mouths.
It’s not like there aren’t any weapons they have that can harm him.
The purple spray gun and auto plasma gun held by Dylan, the grenade launcher separated from the walker.
The problem is that although it can cause damage to it, it is not enough to kill it.
Everyone knew what happened to the other pirates when the undead one counterattacked.
So they chose to hide and endure rather than fight.
Let’s hope he passes by without noticing they’re hiding.
Thump thump thump.
Every time its heavy feet move, the wet ground shakes and vibrates.
As the footsteps grew louder, Dylan became confused as to whether they were his footsteps or his own heartbeat.
The sound of footsteps that seemed to go on forever stopped. On the other hand, Dylan’s heart rate reached its peak.
「Grrrrrrr」
The guy growls.
I knew where it was because I could hear it coming very close.
He’s behind the rock where they’re hiding.
‘What the fuck should I do? What should I do? Should I fucking attack now? no. And what if something goes wrong? Damn it! ‘I don’t want to die!’
Dylan was in a state of extreme tension and felt like he was going crazy. The subordinates next to him seemed to be thinking the same thing, as their limbs were visibly shaking.
「Grrr」
The person who had made the pirates struggle in fear took steps again.
The ringing I felt at my toes gradually subsided.
Only then did the pirates sigh in relief. One pirate was so nervous that he took off his helmet and vomited on the spot.
A foul smell washed over him, but Dylan did not blame his subordinate.
As a cult member, he had limited physical ability, but he wanted to vomit, but could barely hold it in.
The pirates hiding behind the rock got up one by one and looked around. Dylan took a deep breath and also got up.
He must have already gone far away and was nowhere to be seen.
The moment I lifted my head up to stretch, thinking I was lucky.
“….”
Dylan realized what the expression “my heart was freezing” meant.
A purple mass was shining brightly on the old tree next to the rock.
“I found it.”
As soon as he realized that fact, Dylan felt a strong pain in his shoulder.
A thorn the size of a sword flew from its tail and lodged itself in his shoulder.
The auto plasma gun mounted on the shoulder also got stuck in a thorn and stopped working.
“100 million!”
“Tsk!”
The pirates next to him also let out a short scream as if he wasn’t the only one who got hit. And they fell back helplessly.
‘poison!’
“Uh…”
The guy tilts his head as if he wasn’t expecting this.
Dylan, who was not poisoned thanks to his indomitable mask, quickly ran in the opposite direction. The moment he ran away, thorns flew out from behind his back and stuck in the ground.
After receiving the strengthening medication in the training suit, Dylan ran with all his strength.
I had never used it because of the side effects, but now was not the time to think about side effects.
Never in his life had he witnessed such realized horror.
When I first met his leader, I wasn’t this scared even when he slaughtered countless people with a smile.
It would be a waste to even call him a monster.
It is the primal fear that all intelligent beings have.
“Huh huh huh huh huh…”
Dylan, who was running out of breath, felt that he could not hear any footsteps and glanced behind him.
There was no sign of him, but Dylan didn’t stop.
The sound of the wind could be heard in his ears as he ran like crazy. The sound of the air vibrating was too quiet to be that of an aircraft carrier, and the sound of flapping wings was not audible to be considered a pterosaur.
Turning his head to the side to determine the identity of the sound, Dylan was finally able to see its form.
It was gliding between the trees, with four arms, thick legs, and a tail that was much longer than its body.
This is done using a membrane connected between the arms and to the middle of the tail.
“You can fly too.”
Dylan gave up running.
The guy flew at him as he stood blankly and swore.
–
‘It was because of this.’
I looked at the mask in my hand. This is equipment obtained from a pirate leader who died with his back bent backwards.
A silver mask resembling a human death mask. I know what this mask is.
‘It’s a cult quest reward, how did I get it?’
The Indomitable Mask is a piece of equipment that gives the wearer immunity to poison and mental attacks and allows them to see hidden targets.
It’s not the only level, but it’s not a very common piece of equipment because it’s a reward that cultists get from clearing quests.
This is because the Indomitable Mask is equipment that can only be obtained by clearing a complex dungeon.
‘Are there other players besides me?’
As a player, you may naturally accept quests, but this is reality.
It was difficult to imagine that the pirate in front of me could fully understand the system called quests and obtain this equipment.
‘If there are other players besides me, how much did they get in?’
Until now, I thought I was the only one who had entered the world of space survival, but I never thought there would be other users.
And when that happens, a major problem arises.
‘How should I treat them?’
It’s not something I would say, having preyed on countless people, but if the target is a player, it’s a different matter.
They are people who grew up and lived in the same world as me.
To put it bluntly, they are closer to me than those in this world of space survival.
So, if they happen to turn against me, will I be willing to fight against them?
The reason I worry about this is because I am an Amorph.
If they are a player who has been playing the game for a long time, there is a high possibility that they will try to kill me, and I will inevitably be hostile to other players in order to ascend.
‘Because those are the conditions for ascension.’
Like Aimorph’s ascension, the ultimate goal of other races is the overthrow of races other than their own.
If other players are aiming for ascension, it is very unlikely that there will be a friendly atmosphere when encountering them.
‘…no. There is still too little information.’
It is too early to judge and decide what to do with other players.
It is much more productive to be fully informed and make up your own mind.
I guess I’ll have to ask the pirates I paralyzed earlier. Where and how did you get the Indomitable Mask? If there was any looting, who did you get it from, etc.
I took the mask and devoured every last bit of the cult leader’s corpse.
‘It’s other people.’
If there is a player somewhere in this world, I must meet him after I become as strong as possible. Even if I decide not to be against them, they may be against me.
If you encounter it in a weak state, you will become another player’s slave or prey.
I have no intention of becoming someone’s slave.
So right now I do what only Aimov can do.
Hunting, predation, and evolution.
‘You have to be more powerful than anyone else to be able to decide freely at the moment of choice.’
So I went back the way I came.
The paralyzed pirates are still anxiously waiting for me.
But it wasn’t pirates who were waiting for me.
“Krrrrrrr.”
When I saw them, I quickly crouched down. The protective color effect was activated, and the color of my body changed to a color similar to the red old tree next to me.
“Crung?”
A large theropod with horns on its head stops eating pirates and looks at me and tilts its head.
It was a Hond Gigant, a dangerous creature with a body length of 20 meters and a height of 9 meters to the pelvis.
Two creatures that were at the top of the food chain in this forest were chewing on the paralyzed pirates.
“Krrrrr?”
Even though he couldn’t see me, he recognized that there was something different about me.
However, the smell of the cult’s blood on my body was mixed with the blood of the pirates here, so it seemed difficult to clearly distinguish it.
While one was concentrating on finding me hiding, the other was trying to sneak away from the pirate.
“Krrrrr.”
“Kaaaa!”
“Crung…”
The one that was looking at me finally lost its attention and roared to tell the other one not to pass by.
They killed all five pirates around the rock and left leisurely.
‘this.’
After confirming that they had left, I got up.
‘I never thought Horned Gigant would come this far.’
I thought about confronting him once, but it would be difficult to deal with him at my current level.
‘You can kill just one, but…’
The Horned Gigant is a powerful predator in itself, but it has its own terrifying special abilities.
‘Madness mode is difficult.’
Two Horned Gigants always travel in pairs, and when one of their kind dies, the specs of the remaining one increase enormously.
The previously hard outer shell becomes even stronger, becoming so strong that I cannot hit it with my psychic breath, and my jaw strength becomes strong enough to split the carapace of my head in two.
Even if you fight and somehow win, it will actually be a loss if the injury becomes too severe. Because I still have enemies left.
‘When they get back, I’ll have to move again.’
In the first place, the habitat of Hond Gigant was far away from here. Perhaps they came because they became interested in the bomb I used while catching pirates.
When they are sufficiently full, they will return to their habitat.
‘Anyway, you really ate it all without leaving anything?’
Since the Horned Gigants have eaten all the pirates, there are no more people to ask about the source of the mask.
‘But there are dozens of campsites nearby.’
If you go around and catch pirates and ask them, you’ll get some information. If that’s not enough, you have no choice but to target cruisers.
‘Let’s get some rest before Hond Gigant leaves.’
I don’t know how much of a stake the pirates I killed have in the Humanity Cartel, but they have been wiped out right now.
It will be some time before my enemies come looking for me again.
I climbed up the tree and crouched down.
After confirming that the protective color was activated, I quietly closed my eyes.
As soon as I entered this continent, I separated from my children, hunted pirates with strange names, and heard information about an unexpected player.
The jumbled thoughts in my head gradually faded away and I began to feel drowsy…
‘Now that I think about it, it’s been a long time since I fell asleep alone.’
Number 26 has always been by his side, but for the first time in a long time, he is left alone and closes his eyes.
I slowly fell into sleep, feeling somewhat lonely.