Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 125



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 125

–

Space Survival was a game with a particularly ambiguous genre classification among the VR games released at the time.

Even though the motto is survival, competition, and evolution, the methods for carrying out these goals are extremely different for each player.

For some it was a grand strategy simulation game, and for others it was a sci-fi horror game.

This complexity and ambiguity was also reflected in the ranking system.

Space Survival’s ranking system is a points system.

Simply put, the higher the ranking, the higher the player’s score.

However, the factors that make up the score are complex and there are so many variables that it is not easy for individual players to calculate.

How much influence the player has in the universe, how far they have progressed in achieving unique goals related to their race, how much skill the player has as an individual, etc.

Everything a player experiences since starting the game contributes to their score.

Then, a question may arise:

Doesn’t the ranking simply refer to the rank of players who have enjoyed the game for a long time?

In fact, this statement wasn’t entirely wrong, as the players ranked up to 40th place were like fossils who had been playing the game since its early days.

However, from 20th place onwards, a completely different world unfolds compared to the rankers below.

The highest score you can get in a single action in Space Survival is by completing each race’s final objective and receiving their unique ending.

The difficulty level right before the ending is extremely difficult regardless of race, so much so that it is not given the highest score for nothing.

In order to see the ending, you must inevitably defeat rankers of your own race or rival races multiple times, and defeat raid bosses with incredible power.

Even for players who have enjoyed the game for a long time, the challenge was never easy, and even fewer managed to overcome the difficulty and see the ending.

That’s why the rankers from 1st to 20th are bound to be special.

Because all of these people have seen the ending of Space Survival.

There may not be much of a difference between 20th and 40th place in terms of playing time alone, but there is an insurmountable gap in experience.

They are the ones who have seen the end of this world.

At the same time, it is a living legend of space survival.

Of course, since Space Survival is an online game, the game doesn’t end even if you see the ending.

After that, a new goal called ‘Galaxy Conqueror’ awaits as a sort of epilogue, and here the rankings are divided again.

Galactic Conqueror boasts an insane difficulty level beyond the ending, so few people have achieved all of it.

The members of Jason’s group were all players who had seen the ending, that is, those ranked within the top 20. One of them had even achieved more than half of the difficult goal of conquering the galaxy.

Transcendent beings of that level of greatness.

Jason’s head started hurting at the thought of her whining about dying over just one Aimov.

“Think about it carefully. If we leave it like this and the 5th place grows, then you know there really won’t be an answer, right?”

“That’s true, but it’s hard without inspiration.”

“I don’t know what stage of evolution it is, but it’s at least a semi-adult or higher. And we also have to consider the variable of special privileges.”

“… That’s right. You forgot the special privilege.”

What the middle-aged man said was true.

Every single player Jason has met so far has possessed special abilities that do not exist in the game, so-called perks.

Both Jason and the beings beyond the stone monuments who communicated with him possessed several powerful perks.

“How about this? Leaking information to the Outspacers. They really hate 5th place too.”

The race of the leader of the group currently hostile to them is Outspacer.

He was ranked 4th and was evaluated as having skills as good as those of the Aimov rankers.

“I disagree. The risks are too great.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Fucking cunt! Whoever wins will just eat all the essence the other person has collected. Do you have no brains? And what if Outspacer wins? You want me to get fucked?”

“Ugh.”

At Jason’s violent reaction, a licking sound was heard from the girl’s side of the tombstone.

Among the Outspacer’s ultimate goals is the fall of the Cult’s homeworld.

According to the setting, Outspacer’s goal is to gather massive psychic power and then defeat Vortex One.

Because of the Vortex One’s ban on psychic powers for the entire race, they instead sacrifice countless cult members to compensate for this.

So, as the Outspacer Ranker gets stronger, the cult Jason will be at a disadvantage.

“Then what do you want me to do? I’m busy too. If you have nothing to say, I’ll leave.”

“Look at you, you’re acting so indifferent about this.”

“Wait a minute. I think I have an idea.”

When Jason and the girl tried to fight again, a middle-aged man stopped them.

“…I heard that Megacorp recently completed a purification weapon.”

“Huh? Hey, I told you not to send a spy!”

“Anyway, everyone knows this, so what’s a spy? A commie… Ahem, Jubaka. Are you saying let’s blow up the planet?”

In response to Jason’s question, a middle-aged man named Jubakara agreed.

“Yes. Megacorp and the Cult have planetary purification weapons, so how about using them?”

“… … .”

“… … .”

The other stone statues and Jason were silenced by Jubaka’s radical opinion.

Planet PH-101, where Aimov resides, is a protected planet designated as a sacred star by the cult.

Even if they have absolute power, wiping out such a place is not an easy task. No matter how scary the Aimoff Rankers are, burning a planet would cause enormous political burden.

While everyone was silent, the girl was the first to speak.

“This side is impossible. I can’t just leave because of the civil war, and isn’t that planet designated as a holy place? If I shoot, the Cult and Megacorp will go to war?”

“That’s true. Jason? Wouldn’t that work for you?”

“I think it would be okay to send an imperial carrier, but the atmosphere these days is….”

“Well, if I send you here, not only the reformists but also the old farts from the providence faction will cause a fuss. What the hell are you talking about, it’s a holy place?”

Jason was a high-ranking cultist with great power within the cult society, but as such, he was in a difficult position to purify PH-101, which was designated as a sacred star.

“Let me take care of that part.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll spread false information to the moderates. They say the planet is polluted and needs to be purified. You, the Providence faction, are in control, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’ll take care of the reformists. If they say they’ll support Nova Metal, they’ll destroy their ancestors’ graves, right?”

“…Fuck, the Cult Council is also a total sham. Big, whatever. Then let’s go with the Imperial Carrier.”

At this point, players had each established their own faction. There were no longer any large-scale tectonic shifts like the wars and other events that had occurred in the past.

Instead, it ended up being a fight between individual players.

As this mechanical peace continued for a long time, many players, including Jason, began to feel bored.

There are those who aim for the ending in order to escape this, but it has already been proven through numerous failures that this is nothing more than a vain delusion.

Some people were fixated on impossible goals, while others stayed put and indulged in false pleasures.

In such a situation, with the appearance of a new stimulus called Aimov Ranker, Jason’s group became lively for the first time in a long time.

“But it will take some time to mobilize the Imperial Carrier. Even if it passes the parliament, it has to be reviewed by the Senate. It will take three weeks at the earliest.”

“I’ll send a surveillance satellite first. You might escape in the meantime.”

“Send it secretly. It’ll be a headache if it becomes a diplomatic problem.”

“If that part is double-disturbed from this side….”

The plan to subdue Aimov continued late into the night.

–

When we arrived at Muriel’s camp, the Heavenly Mother was there.

She returned to her human form and was gathering the clothes that the young wolves had worn. There were no corpses left, as I had absorbed them all through human sacrifice.

“… … .”

She had an eagle’s head, so her expression was not rich. However, the emotions in her eyes were by no means small.

It was the deep sorrow felt by a mother who has lost a child.

‘You said you married the father of the earth?’

As far as I know, the father of the earth was a named Wolf who appeared regularly on the continent of Saintopia 02.

As he is an NPC associated with the Temple of the Forgotten Lands, as time passes, another Father of the Lands will appear somewhere on this continent.

‘Of course, that might not be the same husband she loved.’

She too will know that the one she loved will never return.

‘That’s why you’re reacting like that.’

Even during the interrogation, Muriel seemed to be mocking the Heavenly Mother for falling in love with an NPC, but I could understand the Heavenly Mother.

I also care about No. 26 and Adhai. If those two die or get seriously injured, I’ll definitely lose my mind.

‘I think it will take some more time to ask.’

I left the grieving griffon behind and went to the weapons storage in the camp.

This campsite was visited quite often by Muriel, as there were many makeshift structures instead of tents.

The largest and most durable of these buildings was the weapons depot.

‘There are a lot.’

Entering the warehouse, I saw a variety of weapons. There was everything from long-range weapons like plasma launchers, storm guns, and purple spray guns to explosives like pulse grenades and compressed plasma grenades.

Among the numerous weapons, the one that stands out the most is the ‘Brain God’ located in the center of the warehouse.

The brain is a complex mandala-shaped mechanical device measuring 10 meters in diameter. Like a mandala, it changes color depending on the direction in which light shines on it, and this is because it is made of Novametal, an extremely rare metal.

Novametal is a metal that can only be mined in areas with high concentrations of psychic power, such as dragon’s nests. When psychic power is infused into equipment made from this metal, it changes into the form specified by the equipment’s creator.

‘You could call it a cult version of shape memory alloy.’

The brain god that is immediately visible is surprisingly small for a satellite weapon, but it is a different story when psychic power is injected into it. This is because when the brain god absorbs psychic power, it transforms into an orbital weapon with a diameter of several hundred meters or more.

It is also set to automatically return to its owner, so it will return on its own once it has completed its mission.

‘It was a very annoying piece of equipment in the game.’

The Brain God has the great advantage of being able to reduce its size while being an orbital weapon, making it easy to conceal. I’ve been dealt a real blow by the Brain God more than once.

‘The brain god decided to take a look again later.’

With my mind distracted by the brain god, I grabbed the plasma launcher that was rolling nearby.

‘If I eat this, I can use the power of the plasma launcher?’

I activated the Marauder’s Irregular Polyhedron trait while holding the launcher.

“Grrr”

When I activated metal absorption, I didn’t feel any different, but not now. It felt similar to when I was slightly hungry.

‘It seems activated, so let’s try it.’

I opened my jaws and put the launcher in my mouth. As soon as I put it in my mouth and chewed, I could taste the bitter and fishy taste of the alloy.

‘It’s not tasty.’

It can’t be helped because it’s metal.

The moment I forced myself to swallow the launcher pieces, something changed in my body and the translucent text box.

“Proof of a Strong Enemy*: The Marauder’s Irregular Polyhedron (Plasma Glands)”

Suddenly, I felt a strong heat in my chest. It was like when I swallowed strong alcohol, and I felt a warm and slightly tingling sensation from my throat to my esophagus, chest, and stomach.

There was also a faint green glow to the skin around the rib cage.

‘I think it worked?’

I felt like exhaling all the heat inside my body, like when you take a sip of hot soup in the middle of winter and exhale deeply.

I came out of the warehouse and raised my head high toward the sky.

‘Then let’s go.’

I opened my jaw wide and focused my senses on my chest, and something hot rose up.

Green light flashed in sequence from my stomach, chest, esophagus, and throat, and soon a strong energy was emitted from my mouth.

A green pillar, much thicker and more vivid than the launcher, tore through the toxic fog and rose into the blue sky. With its thickness and length, it could probably be seen from dozens of kilometers away.

After pouring out all that energy, I felt like all the heat and energy inside my body was drained away. I shut my mouth when I realized that I had no more energy left.

‘It seems like the basic functions of the launcher have been inherited.’

There was just one slight difference.

The output itself is far superior to the launcher, but the energy recharge time is longer. It feels like you’ll have to wait about 10 minutes after firing once before firing again.

‘I think it’s because my body doesn’t have a separate energy source.’

I thought it might be to replace the energy spread throughout the body with plasma energy.

‘It is impossible for even the most unique equipment to receive all of its unique abilities.’

We’ll have to try it to find out, but it seems inevitable that it will be applied in a different way from the original ability.

Of course, it doesn’t only have disadvantages.

The plasma heat ray I’m using now has much more firepower than the launcher. In the case of the launcher, the firepower is limited due to overheating problems and other stability issues, but I don’t need that.

‘The unique abilities of the one-of-a-kind equipment will also be different from the original depending on my body.’

Some parts become stronger, some parts become weaker.

After that, I experimented with other popular equipment.

‘You can only get the same abilities from the same equipment.’

And things that consume energy or bullets have a cooldown after using the trait once. The plasma launcher was between 10 and 20 minutes, and the storm gun was between 30 and 40 minutes.

‘After the equipment’s abilities are specialized, the body parts that change are also different.’

When eating the launcher, it unconditionally shot a heat ray with its mouth, and a barrel similar to a storm gun sprouted from its left arm, which was located at the bottom of its combat arms.

For reference, all of the Storm Gun’s depleted uranium bullets have been replaced with bone fragments.

‘The experiment has come to this point… .’

I lined up the unique equipment I obtained from the continent of Saintopia 02.

The Coordinator, the Golden Spear, the Brain God, and even the small spider-shaped Blood Reaver I picked up outside earlier.

‘What should I eat first?’

Since they are all one-of-a-kind equipment, it is not usually difficult to obtain this equipment. So, you should specialize carefully.

‘Golden Spear is excluded for now.’

The Golden Spear of the Priest can only be obtained from the Temple of the Forgotten Earth, and one of the prerequisites for entering the temple is to subdue the Earth Father.

That is, you cannot obtain the Golden Spear until the Father of the Earth is reborn somewhere on this continent.

‘The chance of obtaining the Golden Spear is slim…’

The rest of the weapons are a different story.

The Coordinator is a piece of equipment that can be obtained through quests by any cultist, while the Brain God and Blood Reaver can be crafted.

Even if the coordinator is like that, there must be more than one or two weapons, the Brain God and the Blood River.

‘I’m not sure because the production cost is astronomical, but…’

In any case, the weapons that exist in multiple forms can be further specialized through predation later.

So, it is better to prioritize eating one of the remaining weapons except for the priest’s golden spear.

‘What should I do?’

As I was wondering what to eat, I looked again at the three weapons lined up on the floor.

Now that I’ve listed it like this, I can see for sure.

It was a problem that had a predetermined answer from the beginning.

‘There’s nothing to worry about.’

Having decided what to choose, I reached out for the equipment.