Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 121



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 121

Darkness and fog.

Screams and explosions can be heard from far away throughout the area.

Everything is a result of me and my nest.

Despite the commotion, Muriel and I were observing each other without the slightest disturbance.

When to hit and how to get out.

How to destroy the enemy’s numbers, and how to recover if you fail.

She and I are enemies, but we think the same thing.

Just before I attacked the camp, I received information about the enemy from the Heavenly Mother.

‘I’m the type that fights while strengthening myself.’

From what I’ve heard, Muriel was a type with a significantly different fighting style than the average cultist.

Space Survival is a game that guarantees a high degree of freedom, but that doesn’t mean it can completely deviate from the play style suggested by the game company.

For example, if you are a Mega Corp player and you eat people to collect essence like Aimorph, or pursue vegetarian Aimorph, it will make it impossible to progress in the game.

That’s why, once you reach rank, you can generally guess what tactics and strategies your opponents will use depending on their race and power.

If the opponent is a Star Union cyborg, there is a high possibility that they will fight by strengthening themselves with various modules or preparing various traps, and if it is a cult, they will often pressure you with psychic power techniques that have various utilities.

It’s not that there are no exceptions, but it’s safe to say that it doesn’t deviate from the big picture.

So if you’ve pulled the ultimate card, the Staghorn Cult, then your best bet would be to go with “cult-y” tactics, namely, using dozens or even hundreds of psychic power skills to fool your enemies.

‘That’s how it should be, though.’

The Heavenly Mother said that Muriel was better at hand-to-hand combat than at handling psychic power techniques.

According to the setting, the cult is a race with supernatural powers but sub-human physical abilities.

Since this is reality, even if you somehow manage to increase your physical abilities, it is nearly impossible for the cult to win a close combat against Wolf, who has learned deification.

But Muriel was outside of this common sense.

‘The style of fighting by strengthening oneself is a method often adopted by cyborgs.’

For example, the navy blue full-body suit she is wearing.

The appearance was very similar to when the Nano Spartan module was activated.

The Nano Spartan Module, as the name suggests, is an auxiliary device that drastically increases physical abilities by putting a nano-enhanced suit on the entire body. It is mainly used by cyborg rankers when engaging in close combat, as it enhances them to a level slightly lower than that of Amorph or Wolf.

‘That’s a cyborg-only module, how did you use it?’

For some reason, Muriel was wearing equipment that no other race, including the cult, could use.

‘Even if I check with insight, nothing comes out.’

“Name: Muriel (real name ■■■)

Race: Contains information that cannot be verified.

Status: Contains information that cannot be verified.

Equipment worn: Priest’s Golden Spear (Unique), and many others

Technology held: Contains information that cannot be verified.」

I tried to use insight just in case, but all that came out was the golden spear she was holding, the ‘Priest’s Golden Spear’.

‘Is this a new technology that nullifies insight, or…?’

It is currently unknown whether this is because Muriel is a player.

‘I have a lot to ask.’

After a few seconds of brief contemplation, I pulled the erosion tentacle out of the hole in my back.

Just as I felt when I saw Muriel, she also frowned at my ability, which she had never seen before in the game.

Muriel moves slowly to the side. She seems to have decided where to aim from.

Now there is only one thing left.

A signal flare to mark the end of the exploration battle.

“Hot!”

Muriel took the initiative. She let out a short moan and kicked the ground.

The moment she lifted her feet from the ground, my erosion tentacles all shot at her.

Muriel lifts her spear and wards off the tentacles.

Then, will it be possible to stop my giant tail?

I pressed my upper body against the floor and swung my tail upward.

She must have thought that this was too hard to block, because she rolled her feet in the air. She was jumping around on the air as if it were the ground, completely ignoring the laws of physics, and she extended her left hand towards me.

My movements slowed down significantly as her hand began to glow purple. This was the effect of ‘Distortion Field’, one of the advanced psychic power techniques.

The distortion field drastically slows down the movement of enemies within a certain space, and makes the caster’s movement very fast. It’s supposed to slow me down and strengthen me at the same time, but there’s something she overlooked.

‘I have super reflective gloves.’

“It’s annoying!”

Her impression floating in the air is crumpled. 30% of the negative effects of the distortion field will be reflected and applied to her.

Still, it is true that he can move much faster than me.

She dodged my slowed tail and countered with a single spear. She must have consumed a lot of blood because the priest’s golden spear easily pierced my tail shell.

Muriel succeeds in making a small hole in the tail and stabs it with a single spear in succession.

‘I have to get out.’

Wounds on the body will heal quickly thanks to the nest’s effects, but that doesn’t mean you can take any attack.

I turned my body sharply and tried to hit her with the horn on my head while pulling my tail back. She also swung her spear sideways sharply to cut off my head along with her horn.

The moment the horn and spear met, a metallic sound similar to that of a blacksmith striking a sword with a hammer echoed through the air.

“What?!”

Muriel’s eyes widen at the unexpected result.

My horns are made of the same structure as my skull, the hardest part of my body. So when they collide with the priest’s golden spear, they only get scratched, not cut.

‘Of course, if we hit it a few more times it will get cut.’

She’ll know that too, so she’ll hit him with the window again.

To prevent that, my erosion tentacles swoop down on her from all sides.

“… Tch!”

Even within the distortion field, Muriel judged that it would be impossible to avoid the tentacles approaching in six directions and the horns on my head, so she kicked the air and stepped back.

Meanwhile, I too quickly crawled on the floor and escaped the distortion field.

“Where!”

Muriel tried to resume the chase. I swept the floor hard with my tail.

She was able to move freely in the air and easily avoided my tail, but my intention just now was not to hit her.

As the thick dust of sand created by the tail sweeping the ground between us obscured my path, I dug the ground with my fighting arm.

In an instant, the pit was completed, and I quickly crawled inside.

Muriel aimed for my butt, as if she had some means of seeing me even when my vision was obscured.

A single spear rushes forward, cutting through the dust. The thorn launcher at the end of my tail shoots out thorns to stop her.

“Tsk.”

I was completely buried in the ground as she flicked away the thorns flying in through the dust.

“It’s annoying!”

Muriel’s annoyed grumbling can be heard from the ground.

Since you have detection technology, you can know my location, but since I’m underground, it’ll be difficult to set up a distortion field.

‘Because it can only be placed in places where your eyes can see.’

Muriel followed me and began to stab the ground with her spear. The spear pierced the ground as easily as a tomb, and struck my back and tail.

Fortunately, her detection skills were not perfect and she was unable to inflict fatal injuries on me.

‘If it’s like this, you’ll recover quickly.’

I ignored Muriel’s warning and crossed the underground of the central plaza at a furious speed.

As I move quickly while digging the ground, I see tunnels leading to the nests I had previously laid down. These will be useful at a crucial moment later.

‘This comes first before that right now.’

The tooth fairy nests near my lower back burst one by one. The reinforced man-eating fleas rose above the ground, digging into the dirt with their sharp teeth.

By simultaneously sending out the tooth fairies, the acid fungal glands are activated, so that the fungi are kept in the mouth instead of being launched.

‘This is enough.’

After preparing in just a few short minutes, I broke the surface and jumped out.

My movement, which can reach 20 meters in size, causes the ground to buckle, and waves of sand, stone, and dirt wash over Muriel.

As her vision was briefly obscured by a tidal wave of dirt, I brought my bone axe down on her head.

It was a lightning-quick speed, but she didn’t panic and unleashed her distortion field.

As I approach her head, my body slows down dramatically.

She easily dodged my axe by leaning back.

The golden spear in her hand pierces my side at the will of its master. Black blood gushes from my wound and a smile appears on her face.

But the one who really wants to laugh is me.

‘Got it!’

My fighting arms grab the spear stuck in my side so she can’t pull it out.

Muriel’s expression, which had been smiling, froze. And the tooth fairies that had been summoned from the ground earlier clung to her face and upper body.

“What a trick…!”

Muriel lets out an annoyed scream as the Tooth Fairies block her view. As she says, it’s just a trick. The distortion field doesn’t cancel out just because the view is blocked.

‘That’s not what I was aiming for.’

My jaw opened wide on both sides, and the acidic fungus waiting inside shot out like a stream.

Distortion fields only slow down the movement of creatures within the area, and cannot distort other laws of physics.

“!”

Perhaps sensing something ominous, Muriel turned her head sharply even though she couldn’t see. As a result, most of the fungus missed, and only a small portion splashed on one side of her face.

But the fear of acid fungi is not just in their strong acidity.

Even just a single drop of fungal liquid can spread in an instant.

“Gyaaaah!”

Muriel screamed as the fungus spread, melting away one side of her face and her horns. The tooth fairies that had been blocking her vision were also brutally burned by the fungus.

‘It’s an opportunity!’

The effect of the distortion field is weakened because the mind is disturbed.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and swung my tail hard.

“Huh!”

She was hit by my tail and flew away. She landed right on the messy square floor.

‘It was shallow.’

Despite the pain that made her face melt, Muriel used multiple defensive measures simultaneously to block my attacks.

From the psychic power technique Ghost Skin, which allows you to take 50% more supernatural damage instead of just 10% physical damage, to the circular shield that pops up momentarily from the wrist of the suit.

My attack hit, but it probably didn’t cause any fatal damage to her.

‘If it was a cult, it would have been knocked down by the attack now… .’

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck!”

As I expected, she quickly got up, covered in dirt. The suit that covered her body except for her head was stretching out like a spider web to her face, healing her wounds.

‘…also.’

In her quickly recovering face, things that are not seen in normal creatures were visible.

Inside her half-melted skin, instead of white bones, was an ivory alloy skeleton, and tiny mechanical devices and chips wedged between the red muscles.

It was questionable from the beginning.

From what I remember, Muriel in the game was a cyborg belonging to Spacedog.

Additionally, while wearing equipment that only cyborgs can use, they were able to freely use the cult’s specialty, psychic power technology.

I thought it was strange that they preferred close combat even while fighting, which is not typical of a cult, but now all my doubts have been resolved.

‘A fusion of a cult and a cyborg.’

Standing before me is a combination that every cyborg player in the game desperately wants, but which is absolutely impossible for balance reasons.

The cyborg, who had recovered and had his horns melted away, glared at me.

“How can that be?”

Aside from balance, cults with weak bodies are not supposed to be able to withstand cyborg modifications. None of the cultists I’ve met so far have tried to resist the parasites because they simply can’t stand the pain.

Considering that, it’s unlikely that Muriel started out as a cult member and was converted into a cyborg.

‘It’s the opposite.’

They may have started out as cyborgs and then converted the base race into a cult through ‘some means’.

‘It’s similar to the transcendence system I have.’

Transformation abilities similar to Wolf’s, ability to take over ships with only Outspacer, etc.

I am transcending the limits of Aimorph with the Transcendence System.

Muriel has surpassed the limits of a cyborg and has acquired psychic powers.

It felt similar somehow.

“… Okay. This is the 5th place ranking, right?”

Instead of answering my question, Muriel pressed her free left hand against her neck. Where her fingers passed, something like a translucent button appeared and disappeared.

Soon, the effect of the button she pressed appeared.

The muscles in her body swelled greatly, and her eyes shone with a strong purple light. Her left arm, which was not holding the priest’s golden spear, fused with her suit and transformed into a mechanical arm.

‘I absorbed the cyonium.’

Just as Amorph can use the next stage of evolution ability when consuming Psionium, the same goes for Cults and Cyborgs. Cults can use psychic power techniques that can only be unlocked through specific quests, and Cyborgs can have the number of modules they can equip at once removed.

‘Which race was upgraded?’

Human-based cyborgs can be seen as having module restrictions lifted due to the psionium effect since the race is treated as a cyborg, but Muriel is a more complex being than that.

Since the race is an extraordinary combination of cult cyborgs, it is difficult to determine which side has been strengthened.

‘Maybe both had an influence.’

Her transformation ended with the headband she was wearing transforming into a purple halo that rose behind her head.

“Because of you, I used up my cyonium and my precious equipment. I’ll make sure you pay dearly for that later.”

As she spoke, she arrived in front of me in an instant. She was moving so fast that even Aimov, who had supernatural senses, could barely sense her.

‘danger!’

As soon as I instinctively turned my head, a menacing sound ripping through the air followed. It was the sound of the spear she had stabbed.

If I hadn’t been able to dodge, the attack would have pierced my forehead and I would have been in danger.

‘My physical abilities have increased to an absurd level.’

Realizing that fact, I swung my tail.

She, who had been avoiding my tail until just a moment ago, did not move this time. Instead, she grabbed my tail with her mechanical arm. And she began to exert strength in the hand holding my tail.

“Pain relief activated!”

Not only was it breaking the thick shell of the tail, it was also breaking the bones inside the tail. With this much strength, I could probably tear off my tail with my left hand.

I pulled out my bone axe with my fighting arm and struck her down.

One, she easily blocked my attack with a single spear. The single spear’s attack power was the same, but the force was so strong that my arm, which had attacked, felt numb in return.

“I don’t get tired of it. Do you think this method will work for me?”

“What about that?”

“what?”

She asks back with a sadistic smile.

‘I already know you’re a fucking idiot.’

She’s not the only one with a hidden card.

And I was holding her back to write that card.

I held her with my fighting arms and erosion tentacles to keep her from escaping.

The parasite I had planted before is sending me signals from under our feet.

The host is coming up now.

“no way?!”

As soon as Muriel shouted, the ground we were standing on exploded.

“Murieeeeel!”

What came up through the ground was a lion’s huge forepaw.

With a roar like lightning striking from the sky, the lion’s forelegs fly towards Muriel’s two legs.

“shit!”

When her calf was cut off in half, her body glowed purple and disappeared from my hands.

And then she appeared from a distance, looking fine.

“You fucking morph-bag! What kind of Eimorph are you!”

“What are you talking about?”

“What kind of companion does Aimov have with him?!

“Ah, that’s the story.”

“profit!”

While I was calmly answering the angry Muriel, the Heavenly Mother crawled up from under the ground.

“Choi Seo-ah, this fucking retard won’t even die…!”

“Until I finish avenging my family, until I finish chewing up each bit of your flesh, I can’t die even if I want to.”

Muriel, wearing the cyonium, the Heavenly Mother who swears revenge while shedding tears of blood.

And even I became a semi-adult.

Now that all the main characters have gathered, it’s time for round two.