Ep. 28
–
The world she first opened her eyes to was a cold and heavy world.
The pressure that tightens the delicate skin and the low temperature as if a knife were worn all over the body.
A place that some intelligent beings define as the bottom of the sea. That was her hometown.
Although the environment was harsh, she thought her hometown wasn’t that bad.
Because there were beings there to protect her.
Pink sphere beings similar to her were the weakest creatures in the dark world. So they chose a different way of survival from other creatures in the dark and blue world.
Herding. And the adults take care of the young and weak cubs.
They naturally formed a social structure that the intellect could classify as a ‘family’.
Of course, since the earth was full of dangerous creatures that preyed on her people, they had to live with the feeling that their lives were always in danger.
In the beginning, that is.
As she grew up, she realized that she was different from the other pink orbs.
She was special.
It has intelligence comparable to that of a sentient being, and a single thin tentacle grows from its body. These are all things that my fellow countrymen do not have.
Normally, if you point at dangerous creatures with the tentacles they carry inside their bodies, they would run away.
She used unknown powers to protect her people.
As time passed, she became the head of the group despite her young age.
Everyone regarded her as the mother of the pack, but her life did not change much from before.
Her greatest happiness was eating with her people and sleeping next to each other at night.
But that happiness didn’t last long.
A being from above was trying to drag her people away.
A being with skin that was harder and colder than any living creature she had ever seen. Those beings grabbed their compatriots with claws that didn’t seem to shed a single drop of blood.
When she heard the screams of her people in pain, she desperately hoped.
He said he wanted to fulfill his duties as head of the household.
Please protect your precious ones.
Did the tentacles hear her prayers? A huge purple energy erupted from the tip of the tentacle, grabbing hold of the solid being and crushing it.
I thought I had succeeded in protecting everyone with that, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
Colleagues with cold skin continued to come down from above. Those from above grabbed as many pink spheres as they could.
She hoped that a miracle would happen again, but instead of a miracle, what came to her was an unbearable sense of helplessness.
So she lost her mind.
The head of the household, unable to fulfill his duties, opened his eyes to find himself in a prison filled with disgusting liquid.
From there she watched. Children who should be protected by the Eucharist are dying miserably.
There were none of her kind left in the prison when the pure white being holding a strange furry animal called her Number 26.
At the bottom of hell she prayed.
Anyone can help, so please help.
If you help me.
He said he would dedicate himself to protecting the children he could not protect back then.
I swore like that.
–
There were two enemies that bothered me the most in the world of space survival.
One was an Amorph peer war, and the other was a Megacorp user who had even completed genetic modification.
What the two have in common is that it is impossible to predict what characteristics they have. Since there is no information about the enemy, small mistakes often result in fatal results.
As a result, I only focused on what characteristics Sihyeon Eugene had and did not pay attention to how she was ‘specific’ different from the player.
‘Because there are no restrictions on using genetic technology in games.’
Of course she thought so too.
Because she had player-level specs, I unknowingly assumed that I was fighting a player and entered the battle. That was a misjudgment.
When I think back, Sihyeon was fighting using only one ability at a time from the beginning. I thought it was a bluff, but it wasn’t.
Fundamentally different from the player, she has fatal limitations in using her genetic abilities.
“Are you always bothering me? “To the point where I want to kill him.”
Sihyeon’s tone of voice is colder than before. He was probably trying to threaten me, but it sounded a little different to me. He said he was doing it on purpose to avoid being caught for his immaturity.
‘You need to know how much delay there is every time you change abilities.’
No matter how quickly you change, there will be gaps between abilities. This is the gap where she becomes a defenseless ordinary person.
If so, you need to change your strategy.
‘It’s crazy.’
The psionium effect is not far away. About 2 minutes at most.
To win within 2 minutes, you must not sacrifice yourself. Unless the injury is fatal enough to cut off a limb, trust its regenerative ability.
Two strong legs, like the hind feet of a rhinoceros, powerfully kick the ground. As I raced down the hallway, I kept a close eye on her hair as it changed.
“I really never get tired of it.”
The tips of her hair turn red.
As I ran, I aimed at her with my left arm. If it were a human, it would have been difficult to aim the gun while running, but Aimov’s excellent senses made it possible.
A spike was fired from the end of my arm. Chitin-enhanced bone fragments flew through the air to tear open her abdomen.
“!”
She stiffened her expression and canceled her hallucination ability. Almost as soon as her hair turned black again, a white blade emerged from the back of her hand, slicing through her flesh.
‘As expected, there is a gap.’
Although it was a short period of time, less than a second, it was confirmed that she had a gap thanks to the activities of the auxiliary organs. She defended my spine with Gallagon’s claws, but I was already in front of her.
“Take care of your talents!”
She looked irritated, but I could see the nervousness in her eyes. My tail stabbed her sharply, like a fencer extending his sword.
But contrary to her feelings, her response was still harsh. She calmly raked my tail with her claws. It didn’t end there, and it counterattacked further, cutting off the poisonous stinger at the end of its tail.
‘Ugh!’
Although I expected it to some extent, it was quite a pain to experience it myself. It would be natural since parts that were almost like limbs were cut off.
But you shouldn’t hesitate here. I shook my severed tail loudly, as if shaking my hand. Acidic blood and neurotoxin mixed from the wounds and poison glands on the tail and splattered everywhere.
“Tch!”
Sihyeon clicked his tongue and switched abilities. Gallagon’s claws retracted and parts of her body turned silver. The skin, which was stronger than the alloy that made up the ship, protected its owner from acidic blood and sacred poison.
‘I expected it to have defensive capabilities, but it’s superalloy skin.’
‘Superalloy skin’ is a genetic trait of Wolfram Goblin, a higher species of Metallic Gremlin. If you acquire that ability, your defense will be as strong as the highest level unique reinforced suit, but your body will become extremely heavy.
As I expected, her movements slowed down. I scratched the parts that had not yet turned silver with my fingernails.
“Tsk!”
For the first time, it hurt her body. It was an incredible, monstrous vision, but its blood was the same red as a human’s.
“Spoiled bastards need education!”
She frowned and kicked my breastplate with her heavy foot. I didn’t dodge because I had to fight by keeping the distance as short as possible.
A heavy shock spread throughout my body, as if I had been hit by a battering ram. If it were a human, it would probably have vomited blood and pieces of intestines. Even though the breastplate, along with my head, is a particularly hard part of my body, the pain was never minimal.
‘I guess I’ll just lose with this!’
I shouted that in my mind and grabbed her foot that was stuck in my chest. I put all my strength into my four arms and lifted her up.
“What!”
‘It’s very heavy.’
It’s so heavy that I swear without even realizing it. If I had to do something to raise the enemy, I would do it like this.
I grabbed her leg and swung it loudly like I was swinging a baseball bat.
The target is the hallway wall. To be precise, the target was a wall half-melted by acid blood.
There was a loud noise and the entire hallway shook violently as if there had been an earthquake. The wall around the impact point cracked and cracked.
She looked extremely angry as she left a mark on the alloy wall. It seemed like he felt insulted by my actions of throwing him away.
She pulled out Gallagon’s claws and brought her arms together into an X. A large amount of psychic energy was collected so that the purple color was clearly visible on the white blade.
This is dangerous. The distance is too close to avoid.
‘We have to stop it!’
I quickly protected my head and chest with four arms. As she spread her crossed arms and swung, a huge sword energy I had never seen before cut through my body.
The relatively thin horn was broken, and the arms and legs were not intact. More than half of his upper right arm was cut off, and the injuries to his thigh were so severe that the bone was visible.
‘little bit more!’
I summoned my last strength and lunged at her again. It was a close range, but she dodged my charge with surprising agility. My head hit the wall straight away.
“Where are you looking?”
She mocks me for missing her attack.
She quickly scans my body and smiles. It’s hard to say that my injuries are okay even with empty words, so she seems confident that she has won.
Well, is that really true?
‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t stray.’
When I pulled my head out of the wall, the wall finally collapsed. I suffered a series of strong shocks while being dissolved in acidic blood. Even if it is made of alloy, there is no way to withstand it.
‘My intention wasn’t for you, Sihyeon Eugene in the first place.’
Beyond the broken wall is what I am waiting for.
Near-infinite stars and infinitely deep darkness await us.
“this…!”
As the air pressure in the entire hallway dropped significantly, the black hole-like universe sucked us in along with the oxygen. The ship’s environmental maintenance device beeped loudly, warning of serious damage to the ship.
Si-Hyeon, who was smiling and confident of victory, also seemed to have not expected such a situation, and her face was colored with embarrassment. She stuck Gallagon’s claws into the hallway to keep it from flying out.
I waited for this moment.
I lifted my injured left arm and pointed it at her.
The muzzle is pointed at her head.
The distance from her is not that far.
That was exactly long enough for the spines to pierce her forehead and destroy her brain before her head was wrapped in superalloy skin.
Her complexion turns white as she realizes my intention.
“Kaaah! “I wonder if I’ll be punished in a place like this!”
Has the limit been exceeded in the face of death?
She was bleeding from her eyes and nose and was trying to use both of her powers. From the tip of the black hair, the silver color characteristic of superalloy skin began to creep to protect the head.
I fired the spine before it was too late.
A spine resembling an ice pick leaves the end of my arm.
In an age where all kinds of unusual weapons, such as lasers and plasma, run rampant, a primitive bullet races through the air, aiming for her head.
Meanwhile, the superalloy skin had already covered more than half of her head.
At that time, there were less than 5cm left until it reached the spine bone and her forehead.
She suddenly stopped moving. The superalloy skin also stopped as it unfolded.
Her eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe it. The place where the gaze was directed was behind me.
「Don’t bother the baby!」
‘No. 26?’
I could see it even without turning my head. A purple energy stream is rising from No. 26’s body and is tightly entangling her head.
“Holy shit…”
The time No. 26 held on to her was only a moment, but it was enough time for the spine bone to reach its goal.
A thorn bone passed through Sihyeon Eugene.
The body that lost its command lost strength and sagging.