Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 148



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 148

–

“No, sir? I heard that you’re not on Earth. What happened?”

Chloe was taken aback when she saw Akira Eugene suddenly appear.

As far as she knew, Akira was in another star system, far away from our solar system, traveling to attend a meeting as CEO to mediate a civil war.

Akira answered her question nonchalantly.

“I brought the tombstone just in case. Jason sent the summons signal last time, but I missed it. I’d be rude if I did that again.”

“…okay.”

But Chloe didn’t believe Akira.

‘You planted a spy in me!’

Chloe understood immediately when she saw him barge in at just the right time.

This meeting was requested by her. She had applied for leave in advance for this, and the information must have leaked out there.

‘Damn mother-in-law.’

Akira regarded all the Noble Capital heads as challengers who could take over the CEO position at any time. It is a characteristic of Noble Capital to consider everyone else as a competitor, but Akira was particularly bad at it.

The massacres and crimes he committed to seize control of the Eugene family were notorious among players in a negative light.

‘… Tsk, I guess I’ll have to clean up my close associates before I go out.’

She was annoyed at having to expend effort on such a pointless task, but she didn’t express it.

While she was silent, Jubakka briefly explained the situation to Akira.

Akira’s first reaction after listening to the explanation in silence was one of doubt.

“How did he get here… No, that doesn’t matter. Indeed. Now I understand how TNC showed such research results back then. Ha, right. That’s why I don’t get tired of it.”

He kept mumbling something that no one could understand.

“Akira, what does that mean?”

“It’s nothing. By the way, it’s the Holy Spirit. Cynthia. Please share the video first.”

“All right.”

Jubakka asked back at the unknown reaction, but Akira changed the subject.

A moment later, light burst out from Cynthia’s tombstone and shot toward a point in the air. The scattered light gathered into one spot and transformed into a hologram.

The image that appeared like that was that of Aimov Ranker from the planet PH-101, or Cygil 08 in Cult language.

“Saigil08, Megacorp and Star Union, this is the last footage shot by the Holy Land Management Satellite monitoring PH-101.”

The entity that appeared in the video was a huge monster with three heads and a pipe organ on its back. It resembled an adult Aimorph, except that it was larger than expected.

The creature raised its three heads towards the sky and was emitting an intense light from its mouth.

The heat of the light reminiscent of lightning, and the darkness pouring down from the sky. Powerful energies were competing. He was facing the cosmic bolt fired by the ‘Judge of Damos 08’.

But then the bastard started using a new power. Purple energy gathered from his three heads and shot towards the sky.

After that, the video ended.

“After this, a magnetic storm occurred within the planet, so it was impossible to confirm with the Holy Land Management Satellite.

“Is there any footage taken from the ship?”

“The only ship that returned is badly damaged. We are currently restoring the footage, but it is unlikely to produce good results.”

“Haha, this is really difficult.”

Even though everyone was tense, Akira smiled calmly.

“That’s unexpected. If he’s an adult, Akira, you’ll be a target too, right?”

“That’s true. If he’s really an adult.”

“what do you mean?”

Chloe and Jubaka didn’t understand, but Akira reacted as if he didn’t understand their reactions.

“As you all know, the reason Aimorph gets stronger as he grows is not because of evolution. It’s ‘gaining characteristics to fulfill the evolution conditions.’ That’s Aimorph’s true power.”

“We know that too, Akira. Get to the point.”

“If it was the 5th place I experienced, I would have been able to subdue the Imperial Carrier much more efficiently.”

Akira Eugene was the one who had fought the most against the 5th ranked Aimov among those present. He had lost more often, but he had also won more often.

“He doesn’t prefer to confront his enemies directly and defeat them. That’s only a last resort when he’s finished, or when he can’t defend himself.”

Akira had extensive experience fighting Eimov Rankers, so he knew his style very well.

Deception strategies using communications, aerial warfare using flight capabilities, biochemical terrorism using viruses and parasites, tactics to use enemy fear to cause self-destruction, etc.

In Akira’s opinion, Aimov Ranker is not a warrior.

He’s either a hunter or a terrorist.

“Could it be that they did it on purpose? To take advantage of our judgment.”

“Well, I think differently. The two types of heat rays that are shown in the video now. Both are abilities that do not appear in the game. Why would they use this ability when they can stop the Imperial Carrier by other means? Especially when they know full well that the information will be leaked.”

“That’s a valid point.”

Chloe could now understand what Akira was trying to say.

“… Are you saying that you even resorted to extreme measures to defeat the Imperial Carrier?”

“It’s a last resort. It means he’s still weak.”

“Yeah. If he was truly an adult, he would have been finished off before the Imperial Carrier could fire its Cosmic Bolt. Not like that.”

“Does that mean that Akira-sama Eimov has not yet fully become an adult?”

As soon as they heard Cynthia’s words, an idea flashed through Chloe and Jubaka’s minds.

And how the hell did he get that drug from that planet?

‘Muriel!’

“Don’t you all know? There’s a way to get a taste of it for a little while without having to fulfill the evolution conditions.”

“… Psionium.”

Chloe gritted her teeth as she realized that the cyonium she had developed was of great help to the enemy’s survival.

“I guess it has already left the planet to fulfill the evolution conditions. It is impossible to evolve into an adult on PH-101.”

“…Tsk. This is a headache. I need to set up a response system right away.”

“I must report this to the Prophet’s Council. I don’t know if they will listen to me.”

“Yes, that’s right. I also know a place he might want to go. I’ll stop by on my way there.”

While Chloe was internally venting her anger at the dead man.

The players began discussing how to deal with Aimorph.

–

“Gyaaaah… Whew!”

‘This is the end.’

The task of clearing out the cult survivors wasn’t terribly difficult.

All cultists who originally served on ships belonging to the Mother Fleet were elite forces.

As an elite force, it would be normal for them to be well-armed, but they lost most of their weapons in the ship crash.

Most of the crew also died from the impact of the crash, so there were very few survivors. There were ten survivors near the ship we found, four of whom were injured.

In the end, it ended so quickly that I couldn’t even exercise after eating.

“… The characteristics of the mimetic organs are always disgusting to see.”

“okay?”

Mother Heaven shuddered as she watched me speak in the voice of a female cult.

As we reach the second stage of transcendence, the ban on the mimetic organs is completely lifted.

Now I can use pheromones to emulate the appearance of the last person I ate, just like before. The function of the mimic organ to imitate the voice is also functioning normally.

‘The problem is that it has grown too big.’

The effect of the mimetic organ is not to change my body to look like a human’s. The key is to emit pheromones that fool the senses of other creatures, making them think I’m ‘human’.

As a result, as my size increases, the sense of alienation felt by other creatures increases, making it difficult to deceive them with pheromones alone.

‘In the game, the semi-adults weren’t this big.’

The three characteristics of ‘perfect organism’, ‘nightmare horizon’, and ‘organic evolution’ all come together to make my body much larger than a typical semi-adult.

Unless you use organic evolution to transform into a ‘clever underdog’ state, it won’t be as easy to fool your enemies with just your mimicry organs as it used to be.

‘But my voice returned to normal.’

Before it sounded weird, like it was coming from a radio whose voice was ruined by the ban, but now it comes out just fine.

I thought it was a welcome thing that the special feature was restored, but it seems that Mother in Heaven thinks differently.

“A girl’s voice with that appearance is bad taste….”

In my experience in the game, it worked better when I pretended to be a woman with a costume.

I feel sorry for my mother in heaven, but I plan to use this voice for a while.

‘It’s unlikely, but the cults might come again later.’

Again, I think it’s unlikely that the cults would send an Imperial Carrier to this planet for purification. If this were any other planet, it wouldn’t matter, but since it’s a designated ‘holy ground’, it’s unlikely.

‘Because the influence of providence in a cult society is complex.’

For the cult, ‘Providence’ has the same status as the Koran in real Islam, a scripture and a code of conduct for life.

Most members of a cult society consider any action that goes against this providence taboo. Of course, in reality, religious people often engage in actions that are far from their faith, and ordinary cults do not strictly adhere to the providence.

‘But it’s different in government agencies like Congress.’

The providence contains important prophecies concerning the future of the cult. Some lead to the revival of the cult empire, while others relate to its decline.

The problem is that it is not clearly written which path to take to achieve a good future.

In terms of setting, the cult has often met with ruin by misinterpreting providence or trying to avoid providence’s prophecies.

To put it simply, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that often appears in Greek mythology. It is a story about a hero who tries to avoid an unfortunate future but ends up going down the wrong path.

To prevent this, the cults designated the space where the future of providence occurs as a holy place and established a rule to not touch it as much as possible.

‘It doesn’t matter to the cult players whether they should uphold providence or persuade others to break it.’

The cult race’s unique system is quests, but unifying the cult society is also one of the main tasks. The most important element that unites the cult society is providence.

Of course, as I said before, there are exceptions that cannot avoid violating providence.

For example, when there is an attack by Outspacers or an outbreak of the Vortex One cult, opinions are divided on whether to leave the Holy Land alone or to purify it.

A little while ago, I used the human-faced beast’s trait to examine the cult’s memories. They came to this planet under the pretext of purifying the source of contamination.

‘However, we do not know exactly what source of contamination occurred.’

There are two things we can learn from this.

One is that the power of the opposing player is greater than I imagined.

‘He must be a fairly high-ranking figure even among the Staghorn Cult.’

He will either be a priest belonging to the Council of Elders or the head of a faction of the Council. He may also have connections to a prophet belonging to the Council of Prophets, or he may be both a priest and a prophet.

To carry out the purification order, you will need to convince the cult’s three power structures: the Council, the Council of Elders, and the Council of Prophets, so that should be enough.

‘It just seems like I was pushing things too hard.’

If you’re going to manipulate, you should do it perfectly from start to finish, but the other person didn’t do that.

No, to be exact, I guess it wasn’t done.

‘If you want to catch me as quickly as possible, you’ll have to do it quickly.’

So he had the Imperial Carriers dispatched without explaining exactly what the source of the contamination was.

In light of this, it is highly likely that the person who led this, a high-ranking cult player, used his connections and power to forcefully persuade the cultists.

Frankly, his judgment is not bad.

‘If the purification operation was successful, that is.’

If the purge had been successful, I would not have caused any significant damage to the Cult Empire.

A situation where the providence was already violated in an unreasonable manner, and a new risk was created.

Those who opposed the player’s opinion will naturally rebel, and those who followed the player’s opinion will also try to reinterpret the prophecy of providence.

Even if the player leading this is a person of great power, it will not be easy to withstand their political offensive. They must be in considerable trouble by now.

‘Cults are conservative, so it’ll take a while to decide how to respond.’

Of course, since it is true that the Imperial Carrier has been destroyed, the other player might argue that they should increase the level of surveillance on the Holy Land. At worst, they might send in multiple satellites to thoroughly search the interior of the planet.

‘The good news is that heaven is helping me.’

Due to the confrontation between me and the Imperial Carrier, the planet is currently experiencing intermittent magnetic storms. The storms occurred earlier than usual due to the temporary destabilization of the planet’s atmosphere caused by the confrontation between the Cosmic Bolt and the Whirlwind of God.

That magnetic storm will end once the atmosphere is restored, so we need to get out before then.

‘There are 5 days left until I can write Nightmare Horizon.’

There is nothing directly threatening my life right in front of me, but I cannot feel at ease. It is a precarious situation, like a house built on sand.

‘Let’s start with what we can do right now.’

I’ll have to see if I can erode this warship in front of me, this half-buried warship.

“If you let me go, I will explain in detail everything from the operation of the ship to its repairs!”

“I, I know better! I will solve it!”

“Damn it! You’re a medical officer, not a technician!”

“shut up!”

“This ship model is a new type of frigate manufactured by the engineers of Jasville 02. It is made of an alloy containing moonsilver and is equipped with a reflection function. If you spare my life, I will give you a detailed explanation… .

Five faces embedded near the top of my back chatter noisily among themselves. They are all cult faces created with the characteristics of human faces.

‘It’s noisy.’

I silenced them forcibly, then pulled out the erosion tentacles from the holes in their backs. The human-faced beasts let out a silent scream as the six tentacles passed over their faces.

‘Let’s check.’

The tentacles began to investigate the buried ship, following my will.

The tentacles work diligently to provide me with the information I need, whether this ship can erode and for how long it can maintain erosion.

After a while, as always, the erosion tentacles did not betray my wishes. After hearing a satisfactory report, I released my control over the human-faced beasts.

“You. You seem to know a lot about this ship.”

“Yes, yes! Ask me anything!”

“I, I know that too! Let me answer!”

This ship is a new model that I have never seen before in the game. Unlike the ships I have controlled so far, I have no idea about its size, armament, or specifications.

So we need to utilize the collective intelligence of the cult members who have become human-faced beasts.

“… It’s terrible.”

My heavenly mother, who was watching me from the side, muttered softly, but I ignored her.