Chapter 153
“Curses! Big D took a hit! Conzay too!”
“Now’s not the time to worry about that! Keep running!”
Five heavy walkers thundered through the corridor, creating a cacophony of noise. The hole behind them had disappeared long ago, and instead of relief, the realization seemed to drive them to madness.
The fear of losing power in this place gripped them suddenly.
“Right? Left? Where do we go?!”
[Where did everyone go? Where to…zzzzz…zz…zzzz ?]
“Don’t scatter! Stick together, everyone!”
Countless intersections appeared suddenly, which weren’t there just moments ago. One of the walkers trailing behind got left behind.
“This can’t go on like this!”
The walker they were on, the ‘Sentinel,’ was suitable for combat but not ideal for survival in isolation. Its high power consumption made it difficult to operate for an extended period.
“The cargo ship is done for, and the carrier we came on must be in a similar state. How much longer do we have to stay in this monstrous vessel?”
“Everyone stop!”
MacF called the remaining three walkers to a halt.
“Check the energy levels! If the walkers stop, we’re as good as dead.”
The cyborgs quickly checked the remaining energy of the walkers upon hearing this.
“The remaining energy is fine, but… darn it!”
“What’s the use of all this! We’re going to die here anyway!”
“There’s nowhere to run!”
The situation, as their colleagues had described, was far from favorable. In reality, they were essentially inside the belly of a giant beast.
Still, MacF had one thing he believed in.
“The Mechanical Assembly will send a rescue team. We just need to hold on until then.”
A month ago, the Mechanical Assembly, the highest authority in Star Union, issued a notice to all departments and private spacecraft. It instructed them to register any encounters with unknown life forms or substances in the Starlink database. Moreover, every ship had to mandatory attach a special signal chip made by the Mechanical Assembly.
Reporting encounters with the diverse life forms in space was nearly impossible, let alone having a signal chip. But for Star Union, it was feasible. The Mechanical Assembly could issue mandatory orders to all androids and drones produced by Star Union.
This was why MacF and the cyborgs on the cargo ship had signal chips. Once the ship was destroyed, in an hour or two, Star Union would be informed of their situation.
“Just endure for one day. The Population Management Department’s rescue team will come. We’ll wait until then.”
“What? How do they know where we are?”
“Don’t worry about that. Our news will reach StarUnion in a few hours.”
The information about the ship’s exterior, location, and internal structure had already been transmitted to the Starlink database. So, the only thing the survivors had to do was one.
“We need to buy time until the rescue fleet arrives.”
“Time?”
“This monster can probably achieve superluminal navigation. If it moves to another star system, the search time for the rescue fleet will be longer.”
The cyborgs nodded in agreement.
JP-99 Star System, despite being a frontier, was under the control of the Cult. If such a colossal monster had roamed without superluminal navigation, it would have been detected earlier.
“We must hinder it so it can’t escape.”
“What? That’s absurd!”
“It’s impossible! As we saw earlier, attacking this ship is useless. It recovers quickly.”
“I know that. Shooting randomly will only waste ammunition. We need to choose our targets.”
“Targets?”
Before MacF could respond, he shared a combined file of maps transmitted by reconnaissance drones with everyone.
“Take a look at this.”
“?”
“Even though everything else has changed, there are a few identical parts.”
“So, what’s the point?”
“Whether this is a ship or a monster, if it’s a living organism, it must have vital organs, right?”
“…Are you saying these identical parts indicate a space where its heart or something similar might be?”
“Yes. If we go there and destroy the organs, we might disrupt its superluminal navigation.”
Upon hearing MacF’s opinion, the cyborgs fell silent.
His argument had many flaws. If they followed his words and it turned out to be a trap, they would be in grave danger. The problem was, they had no better alternatives.
With lives at stake, they were caught in contemplation. But the harsh reality did not wait for them.
“The corridor is moving!”
“Damn! Everyone, run!”
While the four walkers were running, the corridor twisted significantly. The narrow space morphed into a massive room.
“Is this reality I’m seeing?”
“Sh*t, I think I’m losing my mind.”
The height of the medium-sized walker, the Sentinel, was about 8 meters. Compared to such a walker, the suddenly spacious area was at least three times higher.
Even MacF found it difficult to maintain composure in the face of this unbelievable reality.
“Everyone, pull yourselves together!”
MacF encouraged his colleagues while activating the weapon systems. As he made a vow to shoot anyone in sight, a strange sound reached his ears.
“What was that?”
The sound was almost unheard of in space.
“The sound of wind?”
From somewhere above their heads, where nothing was visible, a peculiar sound echoed.
Whatever it was, MacF aimed his gun at the ceiling to shoot it, and at that moment, ‘it’ attacked them.
“Ah!”
Thud
A short scream followed by a thunderous noise. When MacF turned the camera to check, one of the walkers had fallen.
The walker, the Sentinel, had internal shields designed for spacecraft and a durable exoskeleton. Yet, a large hole, approximately 2 meters in size, pierced through the cockpit protected by shields and thick armor. The meticulously destroyed traces, as if cut by a plasma cutter, glowed with a faint purple color.
There was no sign of the pilot inside the walker that had been penetrated from front to back. Instead, droplets of blood falling between the broken machine parts indicated the fate of the pilot.
“What… what just happened?!”
Now, there were only three walkers left, including MacF.
Then, the sound of wind was heard again. Realizing that it was a precursor to an attack, MacF shouted urgently.
“It’s coming…!”
“Huh?”
Thud
But before his words could finish, another walker fell. Similar to before, a 2-meter hole, a faint purple glow in the penetrated area, and only bloodstains and flesh remained of the pilot.
“Darn it!”
Not even a few minutes had passed since they entered this space, and they had already lost two walkers. Now, only MacF and one more colleague remained.
“Watch out for the sound of wind!”
“Holy… What kind of wind is there in space…”
Trembling with fear, MacF quickly examined the traces of destruction while keeping an eye on his wary colleagues. In the process, he noticed bloodstains on the floor. The cameras on MacF’s synchronized walkers followed the bloodstains, which led to their fallen comrade.
“Heek?!”
“….”
Although they found their missing comrade, there was a problem. MacF wondered, ‘Where is the other one?’ The cameras on the two walkers moved upward, revealing ‘it’ near the corners of the wall and ceiling.
It was a green demon with tentacles, impaling the cyborg’s face and sucking out its bodily fluids.
“Kkuk?!”
The tentacles, like straws, swelled every time they plunged into the holes on the face – eyes, nose, mouth, ears. The trapped cyborg emitted eerie moans and trembled.
Seeing this, MacF thought,
‘I have to run.’
“Ugh!”
Just then, his comrade fired at the monster. In the blink of an eye, the monster disappeared.
Seizing the opportunity while the panicked comrade distracted it, MacF ran. His sole focus was the door in front of him. Opening that door was the only way to escape this nightmare.
“Kkuk?!”
Thud
Behind him, a short whimper and the sound of the walker falling again were heard. MacF’s walker’s hand touched the shield door.
The demon’s thrashing sounds were absent. He opened the shield door and stepped outside. Thud.
“Whew….”
Only after closing the door, he could finally exhale. There was no sound from beyond the door.
Just as he began to relax, a voice came from behind.
“Looks like the prey walked right in?”
This horrific space and the flat tone of the voice did not match at all. Hearing the sound, MacF realized the truth. He thought he had escaped the nightmarish space, but it wasn’t the case.
“You’ve done well.”
The walker that had fled here to escape Adhai’s attack trembled upon seeing me. Fusing with the reactor, I wielded numerous erosion tentacles like hands.
Even the cyborg, who seemed to shiver at the sight of the cute Adhai, would find me much more terrifying. The walker, initially shocked to see me, attempted to shoot me with a storm gun but failed. The erosion tentacles entwined around its arms and legs.
“But it seems there are more of them now.”
Perhaps thanks to the teachings of the Heavenly Mother. Adhai skillfully used the ‘Hyperspeed’ ability even in relatively confined spaces.
While Superacceleration was the unique ability of the Galingallagon, primarily used for movement or evasion, using it aggressively in such a narrow space was unheard of.
‘If it were like before, She would have suffered severe injuries.’
Adhai covered her entire body with purple lightning, using the tactic of melting enemies with psychic power at the moment of collision.
In simpler terms, it could be described as charging into enemies while covered in the psychic flame of the purple spray gun.
‘Come to think of it, that’s a technique many cult players used.’
Using psychic power to create a shield around the weapon before striking the enemy, or, like Adhai did, enveloping the body in psychic flames and charging forward, and so on. Thanks to these newly learned methods, Adhai could minimize damage upon collision. Considering she was a mutant with lesser physical abilities compared to other Gallagons, this technique suited her well.
Of course, this method is not flawless. The psychic power of the Green Gallagon is not particularly strong. Even if the body is enveloped in psychic flames due to psychic power, complete protection is impossible in a state where the output itself is insufficient.
While he can now be more aggressive, she still needs to be cautious until he becomes a White Gallagon.
‘Let’s find a way to evolve Adhai when we get to the Gallagon’s Nest.’
I must have filled up my energy sufficiently; I should prepare this cyborg and depart immediately. In my current state, merged with the reactor, I used erosion tentacles to break down the walker. As I dismantled the walker as if peeling an onion, a cyborg with cables attached inside fell out.
My erosion tentacles wrapped around the trembling male cyborg, who was pitifully less resistant.
‘Shall I experiment with this guy once?’
In the case of harvesting jawbones for consumption on the ship, the materials could not be used for the genetic characteristics of the Incarnate. Even though I experimented with hundreds of people earlier, only the predatory effect appeared, and genetic information was not retained.
‘Is it because it’s in a state of fusion with the ship?’
In a state of fusion with the ship, only some of the physical traits related to the body can be utilized. Among them, the Incarnate trait may be unusable.
So, although I devoured hundreds of people until a while ago, the attached Incarnates still seemed to be based on cult principles.
‘It works as a decoy organ, though.’
I have no idea how this massive ship can camouflage itself. I tried to test it, but it didn’t apply properly, seemingly requiring certain conditions.
‘That’s done for now.’
My tentacles opened wide to swallow the entire cyborg. Seeing this, the cyborg laughed as if resigned.
“Kuk, kuk! I may die here, but you will die soon too.”
Usually, I would hear pleas for mercy or admissions of wrongdoing, but this time, it was quite a different last word. Of course, that didn’t mean I would spare him.
Ignoring him and about to devour him, a sentence from his mouth stopped me.
“Soon, the Star Union Fleet will come! You can’t escape!”
“The Star Union Fleet?”
While they are an essential supply line for resources, from the perspective of the Star Union, they are a necessary evil. They maintain the community, but admitting this fact is an embarrassing element. Why would they come to seek such a presence, especially considering this is the territory of the cult?
‘Wait a minute.’
Suddenly, a ominous thought crossed my mind, prompting me to search through the wreckage of the walker. Among them was a computer integrated into the walker. I activated the partially dismantled computer using small tentacles.
There, communication records sent to Starlink, the central database of the Star Union, were still present.
