Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 165



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 164

–

The capital of Star Union, Sachs-01.

Characterized by densely packed factories, relentless smog, and constant acid rain, there is a peculiar structure there.

White and black spires with countless pipes, batteries, and machines of all sizes tangled around the outer walls. They gathered together to form an imposing pyramid of thorns.

The name of this strange and wonderful structure is Prime Head.

This is where the Machinery Committee, the highest authority of the Star Union, is located.

And at the top of the tallest of the many spires, Prime Head, is the office of the Great Leader, the father of all cyborgs.

It was always a space where silence and solemnity were maintained, but not today. Inside the tightly closed office, many voices could be heard one after another.

“You suffered a lot of damage, but you ultimately failed.”

“Yes.”

A white man with one eye replaced by a machine was talking to four diamond monuments in front of him.

He is the leader of the Star Union, Jubakka, with his impressive mechanical eyes, stylishly grown moustache, and solid muscular body.

“The special features that have been revealed so far are body-changing. And… .”

“It seems that he also has the ability to integrate his ship into his body.”

“I’m glad I checked this out. Hehe. Jubakka, you did a great job.”

“…Akira. What did you hear from me?”

The damage that Jubaka suffered because of that damned Morphbak was enormous. The Nemean fleet was almost destroyed, and the Arrow and Red Tail fleets that supported him also suffered significant damage.

‘That’s not all.’

Because of his slander, his relationship with the cult has become very bad. It is only natural that he would invade the cult territory without permission and even destroy the imperial carrier. Because of this, there has been frequent talk of war with the Star Union in the cult council.

In order to avoid a war that was not profitable, Jubaka had to send an envoy to the Cult Council to apologize. Megacorp’s Noble Capital and Chloe Garmelda also pressured the Cult’s reformers to support Jubaka.

Thanks to this, an all-out war between the Cult and the Star Union did not break out.

However, it is true that the dignity of the highest Star Union was greatly damaged by this incident. Jubakka, who had been screwed over because of one Aimov, could not hold back his irritation.

Akira responded calmly to his angry words.

“Then did you think you could catch him so easily? You still don’t know him well. You’re lucky that the entire fleet won’t be destroyed.”

“… Tsk.”

“Akira-sama, is the privilege of changing bodies a privilege you received from Muriel?”

“Well, I don’t know. We’ll have to be careful about that part. I think it has between two and three perks.”

“What’s the use of finding out about his special privileges now? The clues to finding him are completely gone.”

“Wasn’t the bio-sample recorded on Starlink? We could track it based on that.”

“I don’t know what happened, but the scanner can’t confirm anything anymore. It was fine until we chased after ship number 98.”

As soon as he heard that the Star Union supply ship had discovered a suspicious creature, Jubaka took action.

Synchronize the Amorph samples registered in the Starlink database, the unique information processing system of Star Union, with the bio-scanner, and additionally, the Warp Finder, a superluminal navigation tracking system.

Tracking down Aimov was not difficult, as the Grand Commander had made full use of all the means at his disposal. In fact, it was only a matter of distance and time before he found ship number 98, but he was quickly discovered.

The problem is that it was a trap.

“It’s probably because of the nest-related trait of the Unclean Mixture. It’s the ability to randomly change the nest’s components, making it impossible to track.”

“Fuck! If you knew that, you should have told me in advance!”

“Hehehe, don’t be angry. Thanks to you, didn’t we find out something new? That we can create an environment identical to a nest inside a bio-ship.”

“Then I guess I should assume that other abilities can be used as well.”

When Jubakka discovered the guy, he told the other members about it. At the time, Akira just laughed and didn’t say anything.

But judging from his tone now, it seemed like he had predicted this would happen. He must have used Jubakka as bait to see if his guess was true.

“Akira, this isn’t a situation where we can be so peaceful. We lost him. The next time we meet him, there’s no telling how much more dangerous it’ll be.”

As he said, the guy who left ship number 98 was nowhere to be found, as if he were a ghost. We searched the inside of the neutral constellation thoroughly, but no trace of him remained.

“Is it difficult to find it with Warp Finder?”

“The last known location of the 98th ship is a neutral system. Dozens of ships are in and out of the system at superluminal speeds every minute, making it impossible to find.”

“Well, it would be difficult if we don’t know the type of ship he’s on.”

Based on the information confirmed so far, Aimorph has the ability to control a ship after contaminating it. It seems that he can modify the ship, but he can’t change the hypersonic engine, so he can be tracked by warp finder.

The problem is, as Akira said, we don’t know what type of ship the guy just switched to.

“I checked to see if there was a ship that was attacked, but there was no information about the guy.”

“Could it be that the 5th place made a deal and bought the ship? Either for special effects or to bring a companion with them…?”

“That’s ridiculous! A person with a personality disorder like that is your colleague? Ha, I can’t even imagine.”

“Hehehehe, it’s been a while since Cynthia told a funny joke.”

Everyone here has fought the 5th at least once. They know his fear very well, but there are discrepancies in the information they know.

For example, Cynthia has only fought twice against the top 5 fighters, while Zubaka has fought them about 8 times. Akira, who is ranked higher than both of them, has fought them even more times.

As such, Cynthia knew relatively little about the fifth place.

“Hehe, even if he had companions, he’d probably carry them around as food. Or he’d rule them as parasites.”

“Huh. If it’s that Morphbak guy, then he’d be more than capable of doing that.”

“Then maybe we could use parasites to control cyborgs and buy ships?”

“Of course, we expected that and are checking it. The problem is that it takes a lot of time.”

High-powered androids are currently investigating all the transactions in the neutral constellation. They will find it in a month, but who knows, he might switch ships again in the meantime.

Then Akira opened his mouth.

“Hmm. Is there really no need to chase after him?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you know where he’s going, why don’t you prepare in advance?”

“That’s why I’m doing this, Akira. Don’t talk nonsense… .”

“Heh heh, he’s so impatient. Listen. Just like in the game, he’s the type of person who hates waste. If he becomes a semi-adult, he’ll want to become an adult as soon as possible.”

“…okay.”

“The fastest way for him to fulfill the evolution conditions is to catch a special creature called an Apex. If so, he’ll target a place where there are many Apex.”

“Are you talking about the dragon’s nest?”

Akira did not answer Cynthia’s question. Instead, a space map with multiple paths marked on it appeared from his tombstone.

“These are virtual routes that are estimated and calculated based on the direction and route the guy moved. Looking at these, it seems like he was moving in a certain direction and then suddenly changed course when he stopped by a neutral system in the middle.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I hadn’t been chased, I would have continued on this way.”

“Damn it! Get to the point. What are you trying to say?”

“If you keep going this way, there is a dragon’s nest at the end.”

“what?”

A red mark appeared near the outskirts of the space map.

“This is where the Eugene family obtains the Gallagon genes and where my ‘old subordinate’ is.”

“It’s not even on the map, so how did he know to go there?”

“I don’t know about that. But if it’s that guy, he’ll definitely be targeting this planet.”

Jubaka looked at the red mark. There was no information about that location, as it was not a recorded planet.

“He’s heading here….”

“Contact your old subordinate. The semi-adult Aimov is an opponent you can never win against.”

“Who on earth are you to be so sure?”

“Hehe, would an old Black Gallagon be the answer?”

“!”

Jubakka was surprised to hear that.

Black Gallagon is the second highest growth stage of Gallagons. Above it is Red Gallagon, but they are extremely rare and are not commonly seen.

In other words, it is no exaggeration to say that the Black Gallagon is the most powerful of the wild Gallagons.

‘If it’s Black Gallagon, even Aimorph Adult would have to risk his life to fight it.’

No matter how powerful the Morphbagi’s special abilities are, it has no chance of winning against a Black Gallagon as long as it is a semi-adult. Not only is the Black Gallagon itself strong, but it also has to deal with the flock in its nest.

“Akira-sama, would it be okay if I told Jason the coordinates of that place? He said he wanted to somehow salvage this situation.”

“Hehehe, then his death will become more certain. Go ahead.”

There’s even cult player Jason joining the fray.

Jason’s ranking is 10th. Although he is ranked lower than Akira and Jubaka, he is quite skilled as expected from a ranker.

With the Black Gallagon’s horde and the 10th ranked ranker, Morphbak’s fate was practically decided.

After a few more adjustments, the meeting ended. Jubakka confirmed that the monuments were deactivated and picked up the active communicator.

“Have you heard everything I said so far?”

“… That damn old man. He’s still taking advantage of others.”

After learning that Akira had a spy, Chloe made excuses and did not attend the stone meeting. Instead, she eavesdropped on the meeting with the help of Jubakka, just like now.

“Chloe. I have a favor to ask.”

“huh?”

“I’m thinking of sending Pira Eleven’s Screamer Unit.”

“what?”

“The pretext is that it is a clinical trial to examine the ability to carry out operations.”

“Wait a minute! Brother Jubakka! They’re still prototypes. They’re incomplete, so there’s no telling what errors might occur.”

“Anyway, to complete your ‘plan’, you’ll need the Aimorph gene, right? That wouldn’t be a bad condition, would it?”

“It would certainly help, but….”

“Besides, if that planet is where the Gallagon genes are collected, it’s even better. If the Gallagons ‘inevitably die while fighting Aimov,’ then they can strike at Akira as well.”

“Hmm, that’s a bit tempting?”

“Send me the newly updated Hulk mutant. I’ll send it right away after turning it into a Screamer.”

Jubaka has never in his life left anyone who attacked him alone, not in the real world, not in this dystopian world.

He had no intention of forgiving Akira for keeping a close eye on his comrades and the Morphbak who had properly screwed him over.

‘I will pay you back for everything.’

Jubaka’s mechanical eyes flashed menacingly as he spoke to Chloe.

–

[Zuzuzuzuzu (Is that place?)]

“Blue” “Star” “Ring” “Confirm” “Nest” “Right”

I almost cheered when I understood Aadhai’s thought waves coming from outside the spaceship.

‘It’s been a long time.’

After a month and ten days of nonstop travel in a narrow boat, they finally arrived at the planet where the dragon’s nest was located.

A sky-blue planet reminiscent of the ocean lies before us.

The planet had rings, like Saturn. Rock fragments were caught in the planet’s gravity and orbited the planet, forming rings.

The sight of the beautifully shining, sky-blue planet with pale rings floating around it reminded me of a well-appointed aquamarine decoration.

‘I’d like to see a little more, but.’

By that time, both me and the kids were hungry.

The food I thought was sufficient ran out two days ago. It had been a while since I had seen any other ships or creatures, so finding new food was impossible. In that situation, I had no choice but to continue on.

‘If Adhai had made even the slightest mistake, it could have been a disaster.’

If the guy had miscalculated the coordinates, we might have been wandering around this remote place and starving to death.

‘Eimov is Asarani.’

I almost experienced death in real life, something I’ve never experienced before, even in a game.

‘Let’s go down and fill our bellies first.’

I prepared to enter the nameless blue planet. After sending Adhai outside into the ship, I increased my movement speed.

As the distance from the planet decreases, the rings become more visible.

From ordinary rocks and pieces of ice to chunks of unidentified metal and pieces of spaceship debris flying in from no one knew where, countless things were flying together in one direction.

Any creature with normal skin would have been torn to shreds the moment they entered that ring, but I am not a normal creature.

The ship, a mixture of metal and organic tissue, easily took the debris pouring down on the outer wall. I passed through the ring without much difficulty and quickly approached the planet’s atmosphere.

Unlike Earth, which has a variety of colors, such as blue ocean, brown land, and white clouds, this planet is uniformly colored.

Sky blue and white. That was all there was to this planet.

‘It’s an ice planet.’

Even in the game, the areas where Gallagons live are as extreme as the planet in front of me. They are either infernos with constant volcanic activity or ice hells with temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero. The extreme environmental conditions are also one of the factors that make dealing with Gallagons difficult.

‘I don’t mind, but I’m not sure if the kids will be okay.’

Adhai said that the temperature in the rest of the area except for the dragon’s nest was very low. He said that he should have frozen to death not long after being abandoned by his own kind.

It looks like it’ll be quite a tough journey for the other two, except for number 26, who lives in the deep sea.

Even as I was thinking that, my body was rapidly passing through the atmosphere.

What caught my eye after breaking through the thick clouds.

It was a land of ice with no end in sight.