Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 160



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 159

‘The engines were just disabled, and the communications interception was just completed. It’s a good start.’

The broken communications equipment in front of me stopped working with a final spark. I threw the bundle of cables and wires I was holding onto the floor.

Thanks to asking No. 26, who was hiding in the garbage disposal, I was able to easily disable the security of the communication room. I sneaked in while the security androids were temporarily suspended due to the EMP effect.

‘No. 26 can maintain its power, though.’

The reason why he has to run around like this is because there is a possibility that enemies will track the traces of the psychic power he uses. In addition to the function of blocking psychic power, APD also has a tracking function as an auxiliary function.

Even a hideout will eventually be discovered, but it’s not good to be discovered already.

Having broken all the machines, I opened the door to the communications room and came out.

The androids, who had not yet returned to normal due to the EMP effect, stood with their heads hanging down.

The psychic power fired by No. 26 is not a real EMP, but rather an EMP-like effect. It will return to normal after a few minutes.

Of course, by then I would no longer be there. I moved on to my next goal.

Originally, after destroying the engine, I planned to attack the drone management center instead of the communications room. This facility is unique to Star Union, and is not found on ships from other races such as Megacorp or Cult.

‘Because Star Union uses a lot of machines.’

The longest cylindrical spike near the top or bottom center of the Star Union ship, which looks like a rectangular box with spikes sticking out, is the Drone Management Center. As the name suggests, it can be seen as a control center for managing drones and androids.

Destroying that facility won’t stop all the drones and androids. They’re all managed by the ship’s central computer.

However, it can interfere with the actions of drones and androids. In other words, if the drone management center is gone, it will be easier to take over the ship.

So we were going to target the engine next, but things changed drastically.

While I was going to the drone management office while hanging upside down on the ceiling, I sensed that the movements of the drone and android had changed. It seemed like the machines outside the ship were coming in one after another.

There is only one reason why drones that should be busy repairing while a battle is in full swing would return.

The battle is over. After the fight is over, you have to enter superluminal speed mode to return to where you came from, so you must have collected all the drones.

‘It ended unexpectedly early.’

As soon as I realized that, I quickly turned toward the communications room and crawled, sending a signal to No. 26 along the way to tell him to disable the ship’s machinery.

‘It was the right timing.’

Before I messed with the communications equipment, I checked the communications logs once, and the last record was a contact with the flagship, probably reporting that the hypersonic engine had failed.

‘If the communication blockade had been delayed even a little bit, I would have definitely requested assistance.’

The constant vibration felt through my hands and feet, and the heat that was much more intense than before, told me that the propulsion system on this ship was working furiously.

It was clear that they had chosen to move to the safest constellation possible and perform self-repair.

‘That was the captain’s biggest mistake.’

Instead of asking for repairs or reinforcements, she decided to repair it herself. That choice determined the fate of the ship.

‘Communication with the outside world is cut off, and transportation is limited.’

It’s a great environment for me to run around and play.

–

“Can you see? This is not damage caused by a collision.”

“Captain, it seems like there’s someone else on this ship besides us.”

“… … .”

Keynes Q groaned as he received the video via cable and checked it.

‘Following the engine, the communication equipment, and even the drone management center were disabled.’

He knows what that fact indicates.

Ship 98 is under attack by an unknown entity, not from outside but from inside the ship.

“Can’t it be recovered somehow?”

“That’s it, the circuit is completely melted by the acid solution? It will take at least 6 hours, and up to 12 hours for the drone management center to return to normal.”

“What about the communication facilities?”

“It’s similar here.”

If you’re unlucky, you’ll have to stay in a foolish state for 12 hours. Fortunately, the propulsion system was not damaged, so there was no problem in moving to another constellation, but you can’t rest easy.

I don’t know what the purpose of the being on this ship is, but it seems clear that it harbors hostility towards them.

‘Damn, I was so complacent.’

I can guess where that being came from. It’s the bioship that brought the Nemean fleet, to which ship number 98 belongs, to the JP-99 system. When it collided with that, an uninvited guest must have boarded his ship.

“First, send the available repair drones and androids to them.”

“thank you.”

“And is there anyone caught in the surveillance system?”

“What’s really strange is that there’s nothing on camera in either the communications room or the drone management office.”

Star Union is officially atheistic, since the afterlife has no meaning to androids who are made of metal parts and muscle fiber modules instead of flesh and muscle.

Even though Keynes Q, a cyborg, doesn’t believe in ghosts or superstitions like that, at this very moment, he really thought it might be the work of a ghost.

“Number 98. Did you confirm where the EMP was fired from?”

“There is too little trace and information to confirm. It can only be confirmed that it occurred internally.”

“That means it’s somewhere on this ship. Let’s arrange for a guard duty with a mix of cyborgs, androids, and drones.”

“There is a shortage of cyborg personnel on board.”

“…Tsk, I’ll fill in the missing parts with Screamer.”

“check.”

Just hold out for 12 hours, Keynes Q thought.

It was three hours later that I realized that was a miscalculation.

All the cameras and lights in the corridors inside the ship were turned off.

“Damn it! The cameras and lights are the only ones that went out? Surely the ship’s reactor wasn’t attacked?”

“There is nothing wrong with the reactor. There was an error in the wiring equipment. It is assumed to be due to external factors.”

“And yet it wasn’t caught on camera at all? Does that make sense?”

I couldn’t understand.

There are hundreds of cameras on this ship. They are high-performance cameras equipped with various vision functions, including heat detection, in addition to general surveillance functions.

Among them, special care was taken to avoid blind spots in the cameras placed near important facilities.

However, it is absolutely impossible to not get caught.

He was trying to make sense of this incomprehensible situation, but the real disaster was just beginning.

“Cyborgs 31 to 35 deployed in the wire installation area, contact lost. No bio-signal response.”

“what?”

He quickly brought up the cyborgs’ bio-signal information. What Computer 98 said was true.

Five of the cyborgs had black lights on their signals.

The intruder had begun a full-scale attack.

–

“All guards, prepare for an attack! Use whatever weapons you have, and kill him somehow!”

“What the hell!”

“View transition complete.”

“Defense ready.”

As soon as the order was given, six combat-type androids responded immediately.

Compared to Megacorp’s androids, they looked much more mechanical and their performance was also quite good.

Unlike Megacorp, which had fears about robot development due to the machine rebellion, Star Union had no such restrictions and continued to make improvements.

Such as a model that walks on four legs, or a model with five arms and two heads, etc.

They activated their weapons, which were equipped with models optimized for combat, breaking away from their human forms. They were commonly equipped with equipment called Heavy Launchers, which explosively increased the firepower and rate of fire of the Storm Gun.

The Heavy Launcher, which resembles a multiple rocket launcher, is a weapon that can unleash a tremendous amount of firepower at once through its multiple barrels, but has the disadvantage of low accuracy. It is difficult to control for cyborgs that have not been modified to a certain extent, so the Heavy Launcher is mainly used by Star Union androids.

However, in a battlefield with a one-way structure with only hallways like the current one, it is ambiguous to say that the low accuracy rate is a disadvantage.

“If you see him, shoot him!”

“check.”

Two cyborgs, each placed on either side of the corridor, controlled the drone control terminals. Normally, they would have joined the battle, but in this situation, there was a problem with the drone management center, so that was impossible.

To control the drone precisely, it had to be operated by checking it with a terminal like now.

As the cyborgs took control of the terminal, spherical drones with three gun barrels on their bodies rose into the air.

This is a support drone from Star Union. It can be used to detect invisible enemies or to assist the android’s vision.

Finally, they adjusted their own eyes, which had been replaced with special cameras, to switch to thermal vision, since the hallway was completely dark and there was no way to see anything.

With all preparations completed, the two cyborgs looked ahead and behind them nervously.

There wasn’t a single ant in sight in the grayish hallway that was characteristic of the thermal vision. The hallway was so quiet that it was hard to believe that anyone was targeting them.

The only sounds were the faint metallic noises and faint noises coming from the hull. Maybe it was because of this atmosphere, but somehow the sound felt unfamiliar.

‘Wait, noise?’

The cyborg who was on guard at the rear wanted to focus on the guard, but an unknown noise kept bothering him. A warning was flying to him from somewhere in his modified brain, as if he couldn’t miss it.

Eventually, he slightly tuned the system responsible for hearing.

Thanks to that, the sound is louder than before. It’s like something soft hitting a solid metal plate.

‘What is this?’

He recalled the sound he had made when he walked barefoot on the floor before he had his legs remodeled. As he was about to turn his gaze toward the sound, his colleague in front of him suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

“what?”

“fizzle.”

The colleague extended his finger and pointed to the other side of the hallway. A hallway where there should be nothing to see but darkness. At the end of it, a faint emanation of heat from a creature was coming out.

Soon, dozens of small hot blobs began to rapidly approach us.

“Damn it! Open fire!”

“Heavy launcher activated.”

A massive amount of bullets poured out from six androids with bizarre appearances. Each of them was a terrifying weapon that fired hundreds of powerful depleted uranium bullets per second, trampling on the enemies.

“Beep, enemy evading bypass detected.”

“Response complete.”

The bastards, no, they moved while sticking to the walls and ceilings and avoiding bullets.

However, drones were deployed to prevent this. The support drones floating in the air simultaneously fired shots and relayed the androids’ movements in real time.

The battle was over quickly. After confirming that the enemy had been annihilated, the androids stopped firing, and the two cyborgs stepped forward.

“I was trying to see what kind of guy he was, and this is what happened.”

“I know.”

The Heavy Launcher is a weapon that can make the head and upper body disappear when aimed at the head of a person. None of those hit by this weapon left a trace.

The largest part of the body was the upper body of one of them.

“What a fucking bug.”

“For an insect, its teeth are overdeveloped. Look at those teeth. They’re not even human teeth.”

“Nimi, I’m afraid you’ll appear in my dreams.”

The two who examined the body fragments were horrified by its hideous appearance.

“There might be more of these fucking guys. Let me report to you first… .”

The cyborg, who was about to report to the captain, stopped talking.

Because he heard the noise again in his ears. His gaze turned to the ceiling where the noise was coming from.

‘There’s no drone?’

The three drones that had been there a moment ago were nowhere to be seen.

He quickly turned his head to inform his colleague of the fact.

The moment he turned his head, something warm and liquid splashed on his face.

“Coolook?”

And then he heard his colleague coughing. His colleague, visible through his thermal vision, slowly rose into the air and was cut into three pieces.

“I, I kill that guy!”

At that sight, the cyborg was terrified and retreated behind the androids.

But the androids showed no response at all to his orders. They looked so docile that it was hard to believe they were the killing machines that had been indiscriminately firing their firepower just a moment ago.

“Shoot! Shoot him and kill him!”

“No enemy found.”

“Shooting fire… Gaaaaaaah.”

Then the androids met the same fate as their comrades. Something invisible to them tore them apart mercilessly.

The five-armed android’s arms were torn off, causing synthetic oil to spill onto the floor, while the quadruped android’s upper and lower bodies were severed and slammed into the wall and ceiling.

The wide hallway that had only smelled of metal was instantly filled with the smell of blood and oil. The pungent smell woke up the cyborg in panic.

‘Oh, I have to run away!’

He ran down the hallway, trying to get as far away from the guy as possible. As he ran, he heard a faint sound from a distance.

It’s the sound of a gun.

Something similar to this must be happening elsewhere.

‘Su, you have to hide!’

His eyes caught sight of a door on one side of the hallway. It was a food storage facility where combat rations for cyborgs were stored. He quickly opened the door and went inside, hiding in a corner.

‘Hey, it’ll be okay here!’

The combat rations for cyborgs have a distinct tire-like taste and a very unpleasant smell. This smell won’t catch him.

As I crouched and held my breath, I felt like I could hear the sounds coming from outside even more clearly. The gunshots that I had heard before I came in still hadn’t stopped.

It probably means that the situation there is not favorable either. He swallowed hard.

‘Please, someone come!’

Did Grand Master Jubaka hear his prayer? He heard the door of the food storehouse open. His eyes turned to the doorway, but there was nothing to see.

‘Why on earth can’t I see it… Wait a minute.’

Suddenly, an ominous thought struck him. He carefully turned off his thermal vision. Instead, he switched to a mode where he could see objects by vibration, linking his hearing and sight.

As his vision changed, a new world opened up before his eyes.

The combat rations spilled out as he hurried in. The boxes were neatly stacked. And the tail was forked in two.

‘tail?’

His eyes moved up to the tail where the pincers were attached.

Four sturdy legs are visible, supporting the ground along with the tail. Like the tail, they are all covered in a hard-looking shell and fur.

The thick body and four arms visible above. The arms, made of a hard shell and solid muscles, had four sharp claws at the end. As expected from arms that had torn apart androids and cyborgs, they were weapons in and of themselves.

And on top of it there was a head.

“It”, with its long snout resembling Coldblood’s, a huge skull shell extending behind its back, and six massive horns, was glaring at him.

“Indeed. I guess you can’t hide from vibration.”

Even though an ordinary woman’s voice flowed out of its mouth, he could not feel at ease.

The “thing” he sees now.

Because I was coming closer to him with my mouth wide open, split into two.

–

After eating the cyborg in one go in the food storage, I picked up the combat rations that had fallen to the floor.

‘Cyborg tastes not so good.’

The meat itself is okay, but because there are so many machine parts, it feels rough every time you chew. It’s like eating ribs with only bones and no meat.

‘How about this?’

I put the combat rations in my mouth without even opening the bag.

‘Eeeeeeeee. It’s subtle.’

The Star Union combat rations tasted rougher and stronger than the 100% cacao flavor I had before. The taste itself was better than Megacorp’s calorie bar, but the texture was worse.

‘I’ll have to eat this after I take control of the ship.’

Ship control will be achieved by implanting parasites into the captain and some useful-looking cyborgs.

There are two reasons for making this a hassle. First, it is to prepare for the possibility that a cyborg from another ship might contact this ship. Since this ship broke down and left, there is a possibility that the flagship might contact us in the middle of the journey.

‘It’s more that I can’t use the erosion tentacles.’

In fact, this is the biggest reason. Since I couldn’t use the erosion tentacles, I couldn’t erode the ship with the Nightmare Horizon.

‘It’s not even clear whether it’s a target for erosion.’

In order to control the ship, you must first release the ‘Smart Weak’ state and then control it with the Erosion Tentacles. The transformation ability ‘Organic Evolution’ has a cooldown of one month, so it is definitely not short. So I plan to control it by minimizing the risk factors that may occur on the ship as much as possible.

‘Should I go out and clean up the other side too?’

I left the food storage and walked down the hallway. From a distance, I could hear the sounds of No. 26, Adhai, and Heavenly Mother running wild.

‘I guess everyone was bored.’

Once the hallway area is cleared, it might be a good idea to gather them together and occupy the important facilities.

As I was moving with that thought, I felt something moving in front of the hallway. Soon, it appeared with heavy breathing.

“Kuuu” “Kuuu”

‘Screamer.’

Because of the previous battle, I could tell that the androids and drones couldn’t detect me. However, the cyborg that I consumed at the end was aware of me even before the battle.

‘You can’t hide sound or vibration.’

‘The fur of an alien creature’ has the property of causing the movement of the fur to disturb observation equipment, preventing it from being detected. It does not hide vibrations or sounds.

Although it moves as quietly as possible by utilizing its reinforced suction characteristics, it is impossible for it to hide the sound itself as it is a living thing.

‘What would happen if it was a screamer…?’

“Kuuu.” “Enemy detected. Eliminate.” “Kuuu.”

‘ah.’

Contrary to my expectations, the Screamer stared at me with bloodshot eyes.

A monster that was half human, half machine rushed at me, moving its six metal legs quickly.