Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 144



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 144

–

“Captain, the Cosmic Bolt has fully charged.”

“… … .”

“Captain?”

Situation room of ‘The Judge of Damos08’.

The crew reported that everything was ready, but the captain gave no orders.

Because there was complete loss of news from the warrior group that had gone down.

‘What’s going on? Why aren’t you answering my phone? Race!’

Race is his favorite warrior. The chances of him disregarding his captain’s orders without a reason are close to zero.

In addition, the other warriors who went down with the race were also out of contact.

That means something is seriously wrong down there.

‘… What should I do?’

He can choose one of two things: either fire the Cosmic Bolt as is, or send down a new search party.

However, the captain also knows that choosing the latter method is virtually impossible.

It is no exaggeration to say that the problem of contamination is the most dangerous factor to the security of the Cult Empire. While performing a purification task to prevent contamination, why waste time rescuing your subordinates? Let alone the subordinates sent by the captain himself to rescue slaves?

The ships here are not just Imperial Carriers. The ships belonging to the Carrier Flotilla dispatched to protect the Carrier will never stay still.

The moment you delay, the captain will be dismissed and another captain will lead the ship and fire the Cosmic Bolt.

“Captain? Please give your orders.”

“… Open fire in 10 minutes.”

“All right.”

In the end, the path the captain chose was to fire the Cosmic Bolt. It was only for a short 10 minutes, but he hoped that his men would return safely within that time.

–

“What happened?”

The Heavenly Mother asked me with serious eyes.

“Launch time has already passed.”

“What? But why?”

“I don’t know.”

Heavenly Mother knows well about my human-faced trait, so she left behind the corpse of one of the cultists on purpose. After receiving the corpse from her, I used my human-faced trait to read the memories of the cultist who came here, Hamine.

There were a lot of blank spaces in the middle of the memory, but I was able to confirm the important facts.

That this planet has been designated a polluted planet and has been ordered to be purified.

And the Cosmic Bolt was supposed to fire five minutes ago.

Neither Hamine nor I know why it hasn’t been launched yet.

It’s really fortunate that the launch has been postponed, but we can’t rest easy yet.

“… Tch, it won’t be long before it falls.”

The Heavenly Mother frowned and clicked her tongue.

As she said, the cult’s purification order is not easily canceled. Even if the captain of the imperial carrier has gone mad and refuses to carry out the mission, a substitute will step in and carry it out.

Within a few minutes, or at most an hour, the Cosmic Bolt will strike this continent.

‘It’s too late to run away.’

Cosmic Bolt is a type of condensed energy bullet that is created by mixing dark matter and psychic power. Its instantaneous firepower is almost as powerful as that of the sun, and when it hits a planet, it evaporates all of the atmosphere and water on the entire planet.

Even if you hide underground, it is nearly impossible to avoid the Cosmic Bolt that affects tens of kilometers below the Earth’s crust. Even if I somehow hold out, No. 26, Adhai, and Heavenly Mother cannot avoid death.

‘Not even a spaceship.’

The research base that the humans brought is quite far from here. Even if my body is stronger than before, it is impossible to get there within a few minutes to an hour.

Even if we were incredibly lucky and the Cosmic Bolt launched a few dozen hours later, there would still be a problem. As soon as we left the planet in our spaceship, the fleet escorting the Imperial Carrier would intercept us.

‘So let’s stop it here.’

If avoidance is impossible, we have no choice but to defend against the attacks of that imperial carrier somehow.

As soon as I thought about that, the first thing that came to my mind was the feature made with the ‘predator’s irregular polyhedron’.

The predator’s irregular polyhedron has the ability to prey on equipment and transform it into traits.

I used that ability to prey on the unique equipment Muriel possessed, and gained destructive power.

By preying on the cult’s orbital bombardment weapon, the ‘Brain God’.

‘No. That ability alone won’t be enough to defeat Cosmic Bolt.’

The ‘power’ I’ve newly acquired is slightly less powerful than the Brain God. When I ate the Plasma Launcher, my body’s power output exceeded the original, but the Brain God’s was the opposite.

Even the original Brain God’s output is far below the Cosmic Bolt’s, so there’s no point in me firing back with a reduced attack. At best, it’ll only buy a few minutes of time.

‘But it’s the most powerful weapon I have.’

So we have to find a way to increase the output somehow.

‘If it were a symbol of hunting, it would be possible to dramatically increase output… .’

The original hunting symbol cooldown is 24 hours.

As I passed the second stage of Transcendence, the cooldown for the symbol of hunting returned to normal, but for some reason, the cooldown was still running.

‘Crazy! You treated it as something I used when I evolved!’

It was clear that the remaining time for the Hunting Symbol was 18 hours. Likewise, the Nightmare Horizon cooldown was also marked as having 7 days left.

Thanks to the lifting of the ban, both have been separated into separate cooldowns, but both are still unusable in the current situation.

It was extremely frustrating, but there was nothing I could do about it.

‘shit!’

The trump card, the symbol of the hunt, cannot be used.

‘… New message window. I haven’t checked it yet.’

While I was wondering if there was a way, I checked the newly arrived message window with the intention of grabbing at straws.

｢New trait ‘Organic Evolution (Unique)’ trait will be provided as a reward for unlocking Transcendence Stage 2!｣

“Unlocked the new type ‘Space Monster (only)’.”

“The new system ‘Characteristic Enhancement’ has been unlocked.”

‘huh?’

I thought the rewards for the second stage of Transcendence would end with unlocking a new type and removing restrictions on the traits I had.

But that wasn’t the case.

‘I guess they added it together because unlocking the special ability requires a related trait.’

I read the descriptions in the text window as if I was possessed.

“Organic Evolution: It is not the strongest who survive, but the survivors who become strong. You can transform into one of two special states.

* King of Monsters: Grow and strengthen your body as a giant creature. The space required to use the trait is at least 100m in radius. Since it is a special state that consumes a huge amount of energy, the state will be lifted when all energy is consumed. The maximum duration is 10 minutes, and the cooldown is 30 days.

* Clever Underdog: Shrinks into a small creature and conserves internal energy. Shrinking does not exceed 5m. Instead of restricting the use of some characteristics, it provides special status-related perks. It can be removed at will by the user. The maximum duration is 7 days, and the cooldown is 30 days.

* Transformation cannot be canceled or changed during the transformation. The two special states share a cooldown.

* You can acquire new special statuses based on the acquired characteristics.

*P.S. Evolution and cycle. What awaits at the end? Maybe you can figure it out.

‘What is this?’

I was cursing the game company until just a moment ago, but now I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

‘Organic evolution. This could be useful.’

I’m not sure exactly how to change this, but there’s something that looks like it might be useful in navigating this predicament.

It is a special status called ‘King of Monsters’.

The description said it helps grow and strengthen the body.

‘This should be able to increase the output.’

It was a welcome change to have a similar card in hand in a situation where I couldn’t use the symbol of the hunt.

However, there were still some concerns that remained.

‘The key is how much this trait is strengthened.’

Looking at the cooldown and restrictions, it reminds me of the symbol of the hunt or the horizon of nightmare. It is easy to guess that the effect of this trait will be quite powerful.

‘Still, gambling is not good.’

If we’re not careful, we’ll all be wiped out here. We need to pull everything we can to stop that Cosmic Bolt.

‘Output, output, how to increase the output… .’

There is no way to know how much time is left until launch. It will take time to use that trait. I can’t keep worrying about it forever.

‘… Let’s think about it for one more minute.’

I racked my brain desperately to find another way.

“Little baby, are you in a lot of pain?”

“pain”

“Toy? Do you want to play with this?”

“It’s okay”

I saw No. 26 and Adhai. No. 26 had already brought his loot bag and was taking out the items in it one by one in front of Adhai.

It seemed as if the pitch-black light of the Cosmic Bolt would fall upon them at any moment. With the firepower of the Cosmic Bolt, they would all burn to death without feeling any pain.

A minute passed while I watched that scene. No new ideas came to mind.

‘I have no choice but to continue like this… Huh? Wait a minute.’

Looking at the bag that No. 26 was holding, an important fact suddenly came to mind.

This bag is where I put the equipment and items I got from killing Muriel. Things like the Priest’s Golden Spear and Blood Reaver, etc.

And among them was the potion she had used. I quickly approached No. 26.

“Huh? Why?”

[Zuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu (Can I have your bag for a sec?)]

“Do big babies need toys too?”

[Yeah]

After receiving the bag, I took out a small kit from inside. When I opened the kit, there was a purple ampoule inside.

‘Okay! There’s still one left!’

The identity of this potion is Scionium.

This is a potion that temporarily raises the status of the person drinking it by one level. If I drink Psyonium, I can immediately transform into an adult.

There are two tremendous benefits to becoming an adult.

The first is that its power has become incredibly stronger than before, to the point where it can stand up to Cosmic Bolt.

The second is that the number of heads increases to three.

‘Actually, I can’t say that hair growth is all that good.’

The original meaning of the increase in heads was to increase the utility of the Harvester’s jaws, since having three heads made it easier to collect enemy heads.

In reality, not in games, its meaning has faded a lot because of the erosion tentacles.

But at this very moment, it is very important that your head grows.

The name of the trait I created by eating the brain god is ‘God’s Whirlwind’.

It is the ability to shoot a ray of energy that is condensed from the lightning of the brain god.

If you ask where I shoot, it’s my mouth. Just like when I absorb the plasma launcher and shoot plasma heat rays, the heat rays only come out of my mouth. They don’t shoot from other parts, such as the erosion tentacles.

‘That is, if an adult has three heads… .’

This means that he can simultaneously emit energy rays equivalent to that of a brain god from three heads.

Traits gained by preying on the adult, king of monsters, and the brain god.

‘If only I had these three!’

It can stop the Cosmic Bolt, the cult’s ultimate weapon to purify the planet.