Ep. 148
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“No, old man? “I heard you’re not on Earth. What happened?”
Chloe was taken aback when she saw Akira Eugene suddenly appear.
As far as she knew, Akira was in another star system, far away from the solar system. This is because he was moving to participate in the meeting as CEO to mediate the civil war.
Akira answered her question indifferently.
“I brought a tombstone just in case.” Jason gave the summoning signal last time, but I missed it, didn’t I? It would be rude if I did that again.”
“…Okay.”
However, Chloe did not believe Akira’s words.
‘You planted a spy on me!’
Chloe immediately understood when she saw him barging in at the right time.
This convocation was requested by her. For this purpose, I applied for leave in advance, but the information may have been leaked there.
‘You damn old man.’
Akira regarded all of Noble Capital’s matriarchs as challengers who could take over the CEO position at any time. Thinking of everyone but yourself as competitors is a unique characteristic of Noble Capital, but Akira was particularly severe.
The massacres and crimes he committed to take control of the Eugene family were famous among players with a negative connotation.
‘…If I go out, I’ll have to sort out my entourage first.’
She was irritated at the fact that she had to expend effort on something useless, but she did not express it.
While she was silent, Jubaka briefly explained to Akira what the situation was.
Akira’s first reaction after quietly listening to the explanation was doubt.
“How could he be here…no, that doesn’t matter. indeed. Now I understand how T&C showed such research results at that time. Haha. “This is why I never get tired of it.”
He kept muttering something that no one could understand.
“Akira, what do you mean?”
“It’s nothing. By the way, it is the Eucharist. Cynthia. Please share the video first.”
“I understand.”
Jubaka asked back in response to an unknown response, but Akira changed his words.
After a while, light emanated from Cynthia’s tombstone and shot towards a certain point in the air. The light that was scattered randomly gathered in one place and turned into a hologram.
The video that appeared was of Aimorph Ranker appearing on a planet called PH-101 Cygil 08 in the cult language.
“For Saigil 08 Megacorp and Star Union, this is the last video shot from the Holy Land Management Satellite that monitors PH-101.” The
being that appeared in the video was a huge monster with three heads and other pipe organs. It resembles an adult Aimorph except that it is larger than expected.
It raised its three heads to the sky and was emitting intense light from its mouth.
The heat rays of light reminiscent of lightning and the darkness pouring down from the sky. Powerful energies were competing. The guy was fighting off the cosmic bolt fired by the ‘Judge of Damos 08’.
But along the way, he started using new powers. Purple energy gathered from the three heads and shot toward the sky.
After that, the video ended.
“Afterwards, because a magnetic field storm occurred within the planet, confirmation was not possible using the sacred site management satellite.
「Are there any videos taken from the ship?」
「The only ship that returned was also severely damaged. “We are restoring the video, but it seems difficult to expect good results.”
“Huh, this is really difficult.”
Even though everyone was nervous, Akira smiled carefree.
“Surprisingly. If that thing were an adult, Akira, you would be a target too, right?”
“That’s right. “If it really is a saint.”
“What do you mean?”
Chloe and Zubaka did not understand, but Akira reacted as if he did not understand their reactions.
“As everyone knows, the reason Amorphs become stronger as they grow is not because of evolution. ‘Obtaining characteristics to fill evolution conditions’. That is Aimorph’s true power.”
“We know that. Akira. “Get to the point first.”
“If it were the 5th rank I had experience with, it would have taken down the imperial carrier much more efficiently.”
Akira Eugene was the one who had fought the 5th rank Amorph the most out of all the people present. Although he has lost more times, there have been quite a few cases where he has won.
“He does not prefer to face his enemies directly and defeat them. That’s just a last resort that he uses when he’s finished or when he can’t defend himself.” Because he
had extensive experience fighting with Amorph Ranker, Akira knew very well what his style was.
Deceptive strategies using communications to the contrary, aerial combat using flight capabilities, biochemical terrorism using viruses and parasites, and tactics that use the enemy’s fear to cause self-destruction, etc.
According to Akira’s judgment, Amov Ranker is not a warrior.
This guy is either a hunter or a terrorist.
“Couldn’t it have been done on purpose? “To take advantage of our judgment.”
“Well, I think differently. There are two types of heating wires shown in the video. These are all abilities that do not appear in the game. Why would they use this ability when they could have stopped the Imperial Mothership by other means? Even more so when we knew for sure that the information would be leaked.”
“That’s a valid point.”
Chloe was finally able to understand what Akira was trying to say.
“…Are you saying that you used your secret weapon to defeat the imperial carrier?”
“It’s the last resort. “It means he’s still weak.”
“Okay. If it was truly an adult, it would have been finished off before the Imperial Carrier fired its cosmic bolts. It’s not like that.”
“Akira, you mean that Aimorph has not fully become an adult?” As soon as they heard
Cynthia’s words, a drug passed through Chloe and Jubaka’s minds.
And how he got that drug from that planet.
‘Muriel!’
“Everyone knows, right? What is a means to get a taste of it for a moment without having to meet the evolution conditions?”
“…Psionium.”
Chloe gritted her teeth as she realized that the Psionium she had developed was a great help to the enemy’s survival.
“My guess is that it must have already left the planet to fulfill the conditions for evolution. It’s impossible to evolve into an adult in PH-101.”
“…Tsk. It’s a pain in the ass. “We need to set up a response system right away.”
“I need to report this to the Society of Prophets. “I don’t know if you will listen to me.”
“Sure.” “I happen to know a place he might go, so I’ll stop by on the way.”
While Chloe was internally angry at the dead man.
The players began discussing how to deal with Eimoff.
–
“Kyaaaaa…Kek!”
‘This is the last one.’
Clearing out the cult survivors wasn’t very difficult.
Originally, all cults working on ships belonging to the mother battle group were elite soldiers.
As an elite military unit, it would have been normal for them to be very well armed, but they lost most of their weapons due to the ship crash.
Most of the crew members died from the impact of the crash, so there were very few survivors. There were 10 survivors near the boat we came to, 4 of whom were injured.
In the end, it ended so quickly that I couldn’t even exercise after eating.
“…I always find the characteristics of mimicry organs repulsive.”
“Really?”
Heavenly Mother was sick of seeing me speaking in the voice of a female cult.
With the second stage of transcendence, the ban on mimicry organs was completely lifted.
Now, like before, I can embody the appearance of the last person I ate with pheromones. The voice mimicking function of the mimicry organ is also operating normally.
‘The problem is that it has become too big.’
The effect of the mimicry organ is not to change my body into a human one. The key is to emit pheromones that deceive the senses of living things and make other living things think of me ‘like a human’.
As a result, as my size increases, the sense of difference other creatures feel increases, making it more difficult to deceive with pheromones alone.
‘Because in the game, subadults were not this large.’
‘Perfect organism’, ‘Nightmare Horizon’, and ‘Organic Evolution’, these three characteristics are applied together, making my body much larger than a typical semi-adult body.
Unless you use organic evolution to transform into a ‘clever weakling’ state, it will not be as easy as before to deceive the enemy using mimicry alone.
‘But my voice has returned to normal.’
Before, it sounded strange, like it was coming from a radio whose voice had been damaged by prohibition, but now it comes out just fine.
I thought it was a welcome thing that the characteristic function was restored, but Heavenly Mother seems to think differently.
“It’s bad taste to have a girl’s voice with that appearance…”
From what I experienced in the game, it worked better when it was disguised as a woman using a mimicry organ.
I feel sorry for Heavenly Mother, but I plan to use this voice for a while.
‘It’s unlikely, but the cults may come again in the future.’
I think it’s unlikely that the cult will send an Imperial Mothership to this planet for purification again. If this were another planet, it wouldn’t be obvious, but it is because it is a planet designated as a ‘holy land’.
‘Because the influence of providence in cult society is complex.’
To the cults, ‘Providence’ had the same status as a scripture and a rule of life, like the Koran of Islam in reality.
Most members of a cult society find it taboo to do anything that violates this providence. Of course, in reality, ordinary cults do not go to the extent of strictly observing providence, just as religious people often engage in actions that are far from their faith.
‘But it’s different in government institutions like Congress.’
Providence contains important prophecies regarding the future of the cult. Some lead to the rise of cult empires, while others relate to the decline of cult empires.
The problem is that it is not clearly written which path to take will lead to a good future.
In terms of setting, cults have often encountered catastrophe while misinterpreting providence or trying to avoid its prophecies.
To put it simply, it can be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy that often appears in Greek mythology. The story of a hero who tries to avoid an unfortunate future but ends up going down the wrong path.
To prevent this, cults defined the space where the future of providence occurs as a sacred place and established a rule not to touch it as much as possible.
‘It is important to the cult player whether to follow the providence or be persuaded to break it.’
The unique system of the cult race is a quest, but integrating the cult society is also one of the main tasks. The most important factor in uniting a cult society is providence.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, there are exceptions that inevitably violate providence.
For example, if there is an attack by Outspacers or an outbreak of the Vortex One cult, opinions are divided on whether to leave the sacred site alone or purify it.
A little while ago, I used the personality trait to investigate the memories of cult members. They came to this planet under the pretext of cleaning up the source of pollution.
‘However, we do not know exactly what source of pollution occurred.’
There are two pieces of information that can be found through this.
One is that the opposing player’s power is greater than I imagined.
‘He must be a fairly high-ranking member of the Deerhorn Cult.’
He would be a priest belonging to the council of elders or the head of a faction in the council. Additionally, he may have a connection with a prophet belonging to the Society of Prophets, or may hold both priest and prophet positions.
In order to carry out the purge order, you have to persuade the three power bodies of the cult, the Council of Elders and the Prophets, so that is enough.
‘I just think I pushed things too far.’
If you were going to manipulate it, you would have done it perfectly from start to finish, but the other person didn’t do that.
No, to be exact, I guess I didn’t do it.
‘If you want to catch me as quickly as possible, you’ll have no choice but to deal with it quickly.’
So he had the Imperial carrier dispatched without explaining exactly what the source of the contamination was.
Considering this, it is highly likely that the person who led this, that is, the high-ranking cult player, used his personal connections and power to forcefully persuade the cult members.
Honestly, his judgment isn’t bad.
‘If the purification operation was successful.’
If the purification operation was successful, I would have caused significant damage to the cult empire.
The providence had already been violated unreasonably, but a new risk arose.
Those who opposed the player’s opinion will naturally rebel, and those who followed the player’s opinion will also try to reinterpret the prophecy of providence.
Even if the player who led this was a person of great power, it would not be easy to withstand their political offensive. You must be in quite a bit of trouble by now.
‘Cults are conservative, so it will take some time to decide how to respond.’
Of course, it is true that the imperial carrier was destroyed, so the other player may argue that the level of surveillance on the sacred site should be increased. In extreme cases, they will send multiple satellites to search the interior of the planet.
‘The fortunate thing is that heaven helps me.’
Due to the confrontation between me and the Imperial Carrier, magnetic field storms are currently occurring intermittently on the planet. Due to the confrontation between the Cosmic Bolt and the Rod of God, the planet’s atmosphere became temporarily unstable, causing a storm to occur earlier than the original cycle.
Once the atmosphere is restored, that magnetic field storm will end, so we need to get out before then.
‘There are 5 days left until Nightmare Horizon can be used.’
Although there is no direct threat to my life right in front of me, I cannot feel at ease. It is in a precarious situation, like a house built on sand.
‘Let’s do what we can right away.’
I need to see if I can erode this half-buried warship in front of me.
“If you release me, I will tell you in detail everything from the operation of the ship to its repairs!”
“I know better! “I will solve it!”
“shit! “You are a medical officer, not a technician!”
“shut up!”
“This ship model is a new frigate built by the technicians of Jasville 02. It is made of an alloy containing moon silver and is equipped with a reflection function. If you spare my life, I will give you a detailed explanation….
The five faces embedded near the top of my back chatter loudly with each other. These are all cult faces created with the characteristics of the number of people.
‘It’s noisy.’
I forcibly silenced them and pulled the corrosive tentacles out of the holes in their backs. As six tentacles passed over the face, the human-faced beasts let out a silent scream.
‘Let me check.’
The tentacles followed my will and began investigating the buried ship.
The tentacles work diligently to provide me with the information I need about whether this ship can erode and how long it can sustain erosions.
After a while, as always, the erosion tentacles did not betray my wishes. After hearing a satisfactory report, I lifted control over the people.
“you. “You seem to know this ship well.”
“Yes yep! “Ask me anything!”
“I know it too! “Let me answer!”
This ship is a new model that I have never seen before in the game. Unlike the ships I have controlled so far, I have no idea about its size or armament specifications.
So, we need to utilize the collective intelligence of the cults that have become human figures.
“…It’s terrible.”
Heaven’s mother, who was watching me next to me, muttered quietly, but I ignored it.