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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 327
Isabel was pouring her sorrow into her entire being.
As I watched the small Coldblood wailing pitifully, a sudden question crossed my mind.
‘How did she recognize it?’
It’s true that the original of PS-111 is a Coldblood, but if you look at the appearance alone, it’s completely different. There is not a single feature that resembles the original, except for part of the brain.
Moreover, MPS-05 is a lower terminal created from a mutant screamer made using the original PS-111’s image. There’s no way to tell who the original is just by looking at it.
‘Even with x-ray vision, there’s no way to recognize it.’
I had seen PS-111 myself, but I couldn’t identify which Coldblood it was made from. All that appeared was the model number and designation, and no other information came up.
‘Does she have some kind of detection technique I don’t know about?’
Thinking back, there had already been signs.
When I first met Isabel, she immediately recognized that I was an Amorph ranker. At the time, I didn’t find it strange, as I was the only one who could hide using a "mimicry organ".
But now that I think about it, it’s odd. There could be other possibilities, like cults using psychic techniques to hide themselves, or humans in disguise. But why would she pinpoint me specifically as an Amorph, unless she already knew through some means?
“Help. Help.”
MPS-05’s voice snapped me back to reality.
The small Coldblood that Isabel was holding was struggling. It didn’t have any combat-related traits. Even though it scratched Isabel’s scales with its metal claws, it only managed to make small cuts.
“......”
But it seemed to have worked, as Isabel’s reaction changed. Her pale scales slowly returned to their original blue. The movements of her heart and muscles also stabilized.
Calming herself down, Isabel set MPS-05 down. The small screamer quickly began fiddling with its metal legs and crawled onto my back, hiding in the thick fur.
“…That.”
The small Coldblood, who had been watching, finally spoke.
“Where is the original of my sister?”
“Original?”
“That’s a machine made by copying my sister.”
Upon hearing that, I was certain.
Isabel has detection capabilities far superior to regular detection techniques like x-ray vision. Thanks to this, she must have sensed what MPS-05 truly was.
「...Looks like this is going to be a long story.」
Just then, the Mother of the Sky interrupted the conversation.
「Let’s talk in the warehouse.」
As she said, this wasn’t the right place to have a lengthy discussion.
Isabel’s gaze lingered on the basket I was holding. After a moment, she nodded.
“Alright.”
Just like yesterday, we moved toward the warehouse where the Coldblood slaves were hiding.
Once we arrived at the warehouse’s basement, I handed food to the slaves who were praying.
“Thank you, savior who has bestowed grace upon us.”
As with yesterday, the slaves bowed in gratitude. Even though they had likely said such words many times before, Isabel still looked awkward, as if she wasn’t used to it.
After distributing the food to the slaves, we returned to the upper part of the warehouse. Once the cleanup was quickly finished, Isabel turned to look at me more precisely, at MPS-05 hidden within my fur and spoke.
“Now, tell me.”
Both Isabel and the Mother of the Sky turned their attention to me.
‘What should I do?’
It’s beyond doubt that PS-111 is of great importance to her. If I use this well, I can extract more information from her. Information about the rankers she knows, and things I don’t know about this world.
Furthermore, building a good relationship with her could be beneficial in the future. After all, if I gain her as an ally, I would have a ranker capable of reading information on my side.
‘As much as I’d love to have that ability myself...’
If Isabel's abilities are derived from a special trait, then it might be worth considering the option of consuming her. Of course, that would completely ruin my relationship with the Mother of the Sky, but even so, the ability to read information is incredibly attractive.
The problem is, if these abilities don’t come from a special trait, but from some other characteristic or skill, it would complicate things.
‘If I consume her while using ‘Symbol of the Hunt’, I’d almost certainly gain a trait, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be the one I want. If I end up gaining a useless trait, it would be a huge loss.’
‘In that case, it’s better to be on good terms for now.’
After a brief moment of reflection, I decided to explain to Isabel everything I knew about PS-111.
I told her when I met it, what kind of being it was, and who was responsible for turning it into a mutant screamer, summarizing everything I knew.
Isabel listened in silence from start to finish without saying a word.
“…I thought something was strange.”
Once the long story was over, Isabel spoke casually.
“There was this weird code number next to my sister’s name.”
“Code number?”
“PS-111 and MPS-05. It seems like the ‘P’ is the first letter of my sister’s name.”
“That means they’re the twins…”
“Right. The 22nd ranker and my twin sister, Penelope, who is ranked 18th. We’re the twins.”
At the mention of her true identity, the hidden MPS-05 carefully crawled out. The main body, which was likely in the mansion, must have been listening to our conversation as well.
“Sister, so PS-111 is listening too?”
“Yeah. It’s in a different place.”
“I see. By the way, do you know what happened to the real… the real sister, not the clone?”
Instead of answering, I extracted someone’s genetic material hidden within my body. A small cocoon on my back ripped open, and a human-faced insect, with the face of a male Cult, crawled out.
“You called?”
The human-faced insect, Jason, who I hadn’t summoned in a long time, appeared much more docile than before. The aggressive demeanor he once had was nowhere to be seen.
“That… could it be?”
“Jason, the 10th rank Cult ranker. He was one of those chasing you.”
“Hah.”
Isabel let out a hollow laugh. Of course, her mouth laughed, but her eyes were cold.
“The damn, glorified Jason is in this kind of state. Life is truly unpredictable.”
“Isabel?”
Isabel muttered with a calm tone but with swearing. It seemed she harbored a deep grudge, as she had only ever referred to me with insulting terms, but now, the curse came out immediately. The Mother of the Sky also seemed taken aback by Isabel's intense reaction.
“Weren’t there others too?”
“Other than Jason, the only one who’s dead is Cynthia. I haven’t met the others yet.”
“You killed Cynthia?”
“Yeah.”
When I said that, Jason’s antennae twitched. It seemed like the death of Cynthia had shocked him as much as Jason's. It made sense. From my experience fighting both of them, Cynthia had been a more difficult opponent than Jason.
‘Well, technically, I didn’t kill her.’
I didn’t mention anything about Number 26 and Adhai.
“…So that’s it.”
Isabel mumbled quietly, then turned her eyes back to me. It seemed she had figured out why I had summoned Jason.
The reason I called out Jason’s humanoid parasite was simple.
Jason had once hunted down other players in the past. During that time, he had fought Isabel’s allies.
Now, I wanted to confirm what had happened to the players he had hunted back then.
“You know about Isabel, right?”
“Yes. Seeing her face reminds me.”
“What did you do to her allies?”
“I killed them and took their traits.”
Jason’s statement made Isabel’s eyes squeeze shut. Her eyelids fluttered violently.
The Mother of the Sky, watching this, placed a hand on Isabel’s shoulder to comfort her. While she was being consoled, I retrieved Jason’s human-faced insect.
“In the end, all that’s left is my sister’s shadow.”
Isabel spoke in a trembling voice, barely loud enough to be heard. She had barely composed herself and gently pushed the Mother of the Sky’s hand away. Then she let out a sigh that seemed to carry a lot of meaning.
“There's gotta be a reason why this Amorph is acting so kindly. What do you want?”
I gave the Mother of the Sky a sideways glance, signaling her to begin.
"The plan to transport the Coldbloods underground needs to be modified."
"Modified?"
"I have my own reasons for not being able to increase the parasites."
Since the inability to use parasites could be seen as a weakness, I decided to keep that part hidden. As I had mentioned earlier, she slightly twisted the truth before passing it on.
"So, we need to make sure the Coldbloods can move on their own and leave. Or, if not, you’ll have to go with them."
"As I said before, that’s impossible..."
"I want you to lead them, those families, all the way through."
“Families...?”
At those words, Isabel's eyes widened.
"I don’t know why you’re staying here. But is it really more important than being with your family? They need you. No, you need them. To keep living here and moving forward."
Her advice came from a place of experience, having lost her family right before her eyes.
Perhaps because she had just heard about the death of her real sister at the hands of an enemy, Isabel didn’t immediately respond. Her antennae swayed, and her gaze wandered, showing signs that she was deep in thought. The Mother of the Sky, aware of her inner conflict, quietly waited for her to make a decision.
After a long pause, Isabel gave a small nod.
“I’ll do as Seoa says.”
After much deliberation, Isabel’s decision was to follow us.
"Really?"
“Yeah. But to go with your plan, I’ll need some time.”
"That’s fine. We need to prepare as well."
“And Amorph.”
‘Hmm?’
Isabel called out to me.
“Your clone, PS-111, is here on this planet, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Before we escape, can I meet her?”
At Isabel’s request, I couldn’t respond with an easy "yes". The reason I only brought MPS-05 and not PS-111 was because it would be difficult for PS-111 to roam the streets. To allow them to meet would require considerable preparation.
‘She probably knows that too.’
The subtle shift in her eyes told me that she understood this would be a challenging task. While she knew it wouldn’t be easy, the desire to meet her was clearly stronger.
‘It’s not impossible, though.’
Since she had decided to stay with us, there was no longer any reason to remain in the fortress for an extended period. It would be fine to use the warehouse I had rented in advance.
“It seems possible at a specific location.”
I gave her the location where they could meet. As the familiar name left my mouth, Isabel nodded immediately.
“That's where we can meet.”
“Good. Let’s meet there at this time tomorrow.”
It was a more satisfying result than I had expected. If things hadn’t gone as smoothly, I had considered using threats, but thankfully, it hadn’t come to that.
Before leaving, Isabel bowed to the Mother of the Sky and me. It was a completely different attitude compared to the silent departure yesterday.
"I’m glad things worked out."
"There’s still a long way to go. For both us and her."
“True.”
The Mother of the Sky seemed worried about Isabel, who looked so drained, and kept glancing back as she walked.
I checked on MPS-05, which had returned to my backpack.
“Are you okay?”
“No problems.”
Although Isabel reacted in the usual way, I could sense that she was intrigued by the situation. She was always someone who wanted to confirm the existence of her original self. I wondered if her main body in the mansion was thinking about what kind of conversation she would have with Isabel.
‘I should think about what to ask as well.’
Things about the illusion, the cult rankers on this planet, and so on.
In truth, I could ask these questions after leaving Verzan-02, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask whenever an opportunity arises and gather more information.
With these thoughts, we boarded the airship and returned to the mansion.
---
"So, nothing particularly special happened today?"
"Yes. There's a headache medication taken by the 'tool,' but it's not a major variable."
"Medication. Well, that's something that can't be stopped with medicine. Let it be."
"And besides that, there was an increase in brain activity during sleep and a rise in compatibility scores and their effects."
"I see?"
"Yes."
"Interesting information. I'll pass this on to 'them’."
As always, Isabel reported the day’s events to the entity beyond the stone.
"You're doing well. Keep monitoring, and report any issues if they arise."
"Yes."
"Then that’s all for today..."
"May I ask one question?"
"Hmm?"
Normally, Isabel would just report and end the conversation, but today was different. She had heard something earlier that could become a major turning point in her life.
Having heard that, even if her life was at risk, she had to confirm it.
"I would like to ask about Cynthia, who guided me on this plan. Is she doing well?"
"Cynthia? Why are you curious about her?"
The reaction was as if to say, Why are you asking about her? Isabel continued naturally.
"Thanks to her, I was able to avoid becoming addicted to this world. Everything I do in service of the plan is because of her."
"Hmm."
"She left midway to carry out the great plan, but still, I was worried about her, so I asked."
With these words, Isabel bowed her head before the stone.
From the silent stone, a distorted voice flowed out once more.
"Cynthia is working hard on executing the plan. There’s no need to worry."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, of course. She intentionally left to find your sister. Naturally, that had to be done."
"......"
"I will pass your feelings on to her. Then."
With that, the voice turned off. The deactivated stone fell with a dull thud in front of her head.
Even after the stone was turned off, Isabel remained in her position, still kneeling. She was hiding her emotions.
Right now, she was consumed by a rage she had never felt in her life.
The entity on the other side had lied to her.
Her sister, Penelope, had been dead for a long time, but they had kept up the lie all this time. Even after their own comrade had died, they kept it hidden from her.
Now, the path she needed to take was clear.
She had to shatter the so-called ‘great plan’ they spoke of.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
Join our Discord for release updates!
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
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