Episode 269 – Harvest (3)
The passage was covered in blood, both walls and ceiling.
This is because the pirates were torn to pieces by the ‘destruction sound wave’ I shot.
“Measurement of risk above the enemy is not possible…”
The android, with only its head and part of its upper body remaining, let out a mechanical sound with its damaged vocal cords. I hit hard with my wing arm.
‘The advance team ended with this.’
Now, even those on the other side will realize that there is quite a bit of danger inside the fortress. The auction is right around the corner, but the underground storage room has been robbed? This is a completely different problem from the increase in the number of madmen in the city.
‘Everyone in the fortress and visitors to the city will join forces to kill me.’
Every living machine in this fortress is my enemy. Except for the kids I brought with me.
‘What should I do now?’
The first thing that comes to mind is running away from the fortress, but getting out of the fortress right now is not a good option.
The space fortress’s defense facilities are very powerful as they were built for battle with fleets. Naturally, there are more defensive turrets outside than inside. Somehow, the moment you leave the military port by boat, you will come under heavy fire from the fortress batteries.
‘There is no need to increase the damage for no reason.’
In order to neutralize the orbital residence of this extraluminal oil, it is much more effective to destroy it from the inside.
The problem is how to attack it.
You can go out like this and massacre people and move to the headquarters, or you can break through the outer wall surrounding the fortress and mess up the internal environment.
Even when I destroyed Kesha Arma three times in the game, I did it in a different way each time. Again, several ways to take down the fortress came to mind, but I decided to try a new method. A way to utilize characteristics that did not exist in the game, that is, unique characteristics created using the transcendence system.
‘Strictly speaking, it’s a method I tried once.’
With a semi-transparent text box displayed, I focused on the ‘Messenger of Chaos’ and the ‘Mutant Virus Host’ part of the special states of ‘Organic Evolution’.
When the pirate slave market was destroyed. This is my first time trying a combination of the two characteristics. Since they are both powerful crowd control machines, they work well together. It was especially effective when dealing with multiple enemies.
If the proper preparation and environment are provided, it will show explosive power enough to shake the steel fortress I am standing on.
‘The method has been decided.’
Next is the location, but there is no need to worry about this. I turned and crawled inside the storage room.
“Aren’t we going out?”
“The terrain here is not conducive to large-scale battles.”
[Zuzuzu zuzzuzu (There is a way. Follow me)]
Unit 26, who was in storage in Area A, expressed doubts about PS-111 upon my return. I took the guys and headed inside the storage room.
When I got halfway to the storage area in Area D, I stopped the kids. And then he put his head close to one side of the wall.
“What is the big baby doing?”
“It seems like it’s looking for something.”
I didn’t need to explain because I would find out soon anyway. I continued to trace the wall with the accessory under my chin.
‘It was definitely around here… I found it.’
Near a corner of a large common, I found what I was looking for. Just a slight vibration.
A very weak vibration was felt intermittently beyond the wall. Having conquered the city several times, I know what this vibration means.
‘Subway line.’
This space fortress is a space building as large as the T&C Special Trade Center. Several means of transportation are installed to effectively transport a large number of residents at once. Things like a hover bus flying in the air or a subway.
Also, there is a subway line about 50m away from Area D among the underground storage facilities.
Members of the Marcio Cartel, cartels from various star systems, and even mercenaries operated by guests from Megacorp or Star Union. Many enemies will be moving on the train.
‘I can’t see the subway moving yet, so we can’t all gather together.’
The troops deployed in each area of the fortress will be gathering at the headquarters to face the threat to the country.
Of course, they won’t reach their destination on time.
[Zuzzuzu (everyone step back)]
No. 26 and PS-111 heard my warning and moved away from me.
I opened my muzzle wide in front of the point where I felt the vibration. The upper and lower jaws opened as if torn apart, and the molars on both sides were bent outward.
My long throat throbbed, and then green liquid poured out like a waterfall from the inside of my mouth.
It sounded like cold water being poured into a hot frying pan, and a cloud of toxic gas rose up. The acid water cannon opened a hole about 10 meters in diameter in the thick alloy wall in front of me.
‘If it were a game, I wouldn’t have imagined this method.’
No matter how many different ways Amorph can strengthen its body, it is not easy to break through an alloy wall tens of meters thick at once. This is especially true if it is in a semi-adult state. If it weren’t for the ‘acidic fungal gland’ strengthened by the ‘great infectious agent’, other methods would have been sought.
The acid breath, which had been powerfully melting the wall, rapidly weakened after a few seconds. This is because the fungal fluid inside the fungal gland has fallen.
‘That’s enough.’
After stopping my acid breath, I lowered myself in front of the hole in the wall that was continuously melting. As I lowered my head in front of the hole, the two gun barrels on my back were pointed into the hole.
As I strained my back muscles, two orange lumps were fired from the end of the spore cannon.
Spores flew in quickly like shells fired from a cannon. Soon, a strong explosion was heard from inside, and hot heat rushed out. A spore containing explosive bodily fluid exploded.
‘It’s not over yet.’
Soon, explosive body fluids and acidic fungi will combine to create an intense chemical reaction.
After a while, the underground storage room we were in also shook violently, as if there had been an earthquake. Every time the wall vibrated, heat was released from inside the hole, strong enough to easily cook a person. Inside the wall surrounding the storage room, two types of chemicals caused a fatal chain reaction.
「Boom! “Exciting!”
“It’s an interesting chemical reaction.”
No. 26’s body glowed as if it was fun to hear the storage room pounding. PS-111 seemed to be interested in what I had done, and his eyes were fixed on the inside of the hole.
The explosions and vibrations continued for a while, then gradually subsided and finally stopped.
I grabbed both ends of the hole with my wing arms and pulled. The broken alloy plate trembled, held on, and then collapsed.
[Zuzu zuzu (let’s go now)]
I crawled inside the deep alloy wall with the kids. After passing through the uneven passage, a wide space welcomed us.
A huge space with a musty smell. In the middle, you can see a line with a magnetic field flowing through it.
‘good.’
The subway will pass by here again in a few minutes. We must prepare to welcome guests who are planning to come here.
It’s been a while since I activated organic evolution. In the middle of the basement of a fortress floating in space, my body began to twist.
There was a sound of skeletal distortion coming from the long fighting arms and wing arms. Things that were long like a spider’s legs started to collapse and then shrunk to the size of a single piece.
On the other hand, my body inflated greatly, like injecting air into a balloon. A thick shell covered the enlarged torso, as if all the shells surrounding the arms had gone to the body.
As my body expanded, my head grew as well. The head became heavy and the neck became thick enough to be indistinguishable from the body. Not long after the change began, my appearance became closer to that of a scarab beetle larva.
Of course, the transformation is not over yet. Holes were opened on the carapace covering the body, and hundreds of tentacles protruded from them.
The new tentacle looked different from the erosion tentacle I was carrying. Overall, it resembles the leg of a cephalopod such as an octopus, but the difference is that the end is split into three branches. The length is roughly between 5m and 10m. It was much shorter than the erosion tentacle.
The change didn’t last long. I felt my rapidly changing body stabilizing and opened the text box.
「Mutant virus host: Transforms into an organism containing a virus that triggers mutation. Flesh-related internal organ traits are disabled. The transformation state can be canceled by the user at will. The maximum duration is 3 days and the cooldown is 30 days.
-Mutant Virus: Triggers rapid genetic mutation in those who come in contact with the tentacles. The mutation effect is random, but in common, it causes extreme aggression.”
The mutation virus host is a special state that was previously unlocked when robbing Pyrrha Eleven’s support ship before leaving the Dragon’s Nest.
Unlike the ‘King of Monsters’, which rapidly increases combat power, and the ‘Clever Weak’, which specializes in infiltration and assassination, this special state specializes in infecting and mutating enemies.
As you can see from the body type, it is not very helpful in hand-to-hand combat. The speed is also very slow, making it disadvantageous in maneuver warfare. Since the body-related characteristics written in the tooltip are sealed, fighting a strong enemy one-on-one is close to suicidal.
However, there is only one reason why I chose this. It’s because of that ‘mutant virus’.
When hit by my tentacles, the genes of those infected with the virus are drastically altered. Normally, people would die the moment their genes are damaged, but this virus is not that easy. To prevent the host of the virus from dying, the body is manipulated into a new form according to the mutation.
‘It’s like a four-ro-X-pro.’
Creatures infected with the mutant virus are transformed into beings like the space undead that appear in classic science fiction games. Completely losing his sense of reason, he becomes absorbed in killing other living things until his body runs out of energy.
Since the ‘other creatures’ mentioned here include me, mutated enemies also attack me. The next card I take out here is Herald of Chaos.
The Herald of Chaos is a trait that distorts the senses of those around it. The senses of enemies infected with the mutant virus can be distorted and manipulated to target only specific targets.
‘Plus the madness bomb is a bonus.’
Mutated creatures constantly fight and die. Naturally, the contagion effect of the Madness Bomb also increases significantly.
The fatal drawback of the Mutant Virus Host Herald of Chaos combo is that its speed drops to the level of a slug. Originally, when Herald of Chaos was activated, there was a penalty of slowing down body movement, but this penalty was doubled.
However, there is no problem with this either. Because the friends around me will protect me.
“and! “My eldest baby has become similar to me again!”
“Congratulations.”
No. 26 seemed to like the way I had changed, circling around me and emitting light. He was very happy when I first transformed into this form at the slave market.
‘It wasn’t the other kids though.’
For your information, Aadhai said it’s okay if I become ugly, and the heavenly mother pretended that she felt like throwing up. PS-111 didn’t leave any comments other than being curious about the principles of various chemical reactions that occur in my body.
‘Not everyone can be satisfied.’
Personally, I really like the current form.
‘That’s enough for now.’
I felt a strong vibration from the track and closed the text box.
Trains carrying sacrifices are coming here.