Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 241
Only Noblemtl
Ep. 240
When I opened my eyes in the nest, the first thing I saw was a pink jellyfish.
It was number 26, which had grown to be 10 meters tall. The guy was sleeping while leaning against me.
Next to No. 26, Adhai and Heavenly Mother were visible. Until recently, Heavenly Mother, who had transformed into a griffon, was much larger than Adhai, but not anymore.
After growing into White Gallagon, Adhai became similar to Heavenly Mother, and now that he has gained the power of Red Gallagon, his body length has grown even longer. With his wings, he is much larger than Heavenly Mother.
‘I guess you’ve calmed down a lot.’
I thought I’d be with the Blue Gallagons, but that’s unexpected. It seems like the comfort from No. 26 and Ham Ort was a big help.
Looking around with my eyes wide open, I see white and green islands submerged in a black swamp. Among the White and Green Gallagons, those whose injuries have not yet healed are resting here.
Fortunately, most of the scars on their bodies had healed. However, some of them had broken horns, which seemed to take longer to heal.
While checking the guys’ bodies, a light suddenly flashed in the passageway connected to the common area.
‘what?’
It turned off quickly, but I couldn’t just pass it by after seeing it.
I carefully got up.
If it had been the usual 26, it would have woken up with my movements, but it was so tired that it didn’t move at all. I was careful not to wake it up and got out of the swamp.
‘By the way, I don’t have PS-111.’
The guy was nowhere to be seen within the compound.
As we went out into the passage where the light flashed, PS-111 was there as expected.
The guy was syncing with the Screamer head. When I appeared, the guy stopped and looked back at me.
“Are you awake?”
Just as 26 follows the guy, PS-111 also acts according to 26’s life flow. When 26 falls asleep, it also turns off some of its systems, and when 26 eats, it also replenishes its energy.
It was rare for the guy to act on his own unless he was ordered to do so.
“Is there anything left to find?”
“Yes. There was something I needed to check among the memory information.”
“Is it about Pira Eleven?”
“No, I have some interesting memory information.”
He was always a blank-faced guy, but today he felt different for some reason. You could say he was emotional.
After a moment of silence, the man continued speaking.
“Most of my memory data was lost during the process of being digested by the ‘Ice Horror’. I cannot confirm what kind of memories my original body had or what kind of thoughts it had.”
“Were you trying to see if the others were similar?”
“yes.”
The guy was badly damaged by an Ice Horror attack for some reason. When 26 picked up PS-111, only his head remained.
The guy managed to survive by putting the bare minimum of life support functions into his small head. Over a series of processes, the organic part of the guy’s body and the AI in charge of behavior control formed a structure that complemented each other.
‘In return, it seems that the original’s memories and personality were lost.’
To be exact, it would be correct to say that the two have merged.
After receiving the energy of No. 26, the guy’s body was restored to a state where both machine and organism were in perfect balance. In other words, it can be seen as a new being that is a perfect combination of living tissue and machine.
‘I guess it’s a lot different from the original.’
In a way, the intellectual and mechanical parts of the Screamer that made up the previous guy are dead and gone, and the guy in front of me now could be seen as something completely different.
‘But that’s not what he wants.’
“So you got what you wanted?”
The guy shook his head and said.
“Analysis of the memory data of these individuals showed 89% similarity. They were pessimistic about their survival itself and hoped that the life support system would be turned off.”
‘It can’t be helped.’
The conditions that the guy and the regular screamer are in are completely different.
Cyborgs and sentient beings who are forced to become Screamers are forced to suffer in the machine device until they are pardoned by the Machine Committee. They cannot move their bodies as they wish, but they can feel pain and sensations.
You must charge even if you are hit by shells flying from the battlefield, and you must fight without resting even if your body is burned by energy bullets fired by the enemies.
It’s an environment that even the strongest of minds would not be able to endure. As the guy said, it would be difficult to find anything other than someone who wants to be killed right away.
“After analyzing the data, a new question arose. I cannot decide whether I was that kind of being or whether I was something else.”
Even though the newly developed mutant screamer is different from the old model, the basic structure is the same. Before it changed to what it is now, it was probably similar to other mutant screamers.
However, I couldn’t say exactly what I thought.
“Well, I guess you’re different from the other guys.”
“What is the basis for that judgment?”
“If you really wanted to die, you wouldn’t have modified your body to survive in the Ice Horror’s stomach. And even after No. 26 saved your life, you had the chance to die at any time. Isn’t that enough to make you different?”
The guy’s transformation is most likely the result of the AI’s desperate measure to somehow survive, but we can’t be 100% sure. Of all the individuals who participated in the mission with him, he was the only one who barely survived.
I added one word to the guy.
“You are a special individual. That’s for sure.”
What I am saying now is true.
Depending on where you look, you could say that he’s at a level of freedom that’s much more liberal than those guys.
The guy shut his mouth, blinking the camera that replaced his eyes. After a moment of silence, he spoke to me.
“I will keep that in mind.”
There was no more conversation after that. The guy fiddled with Screamer’s head and then quietly went into hibernation.
‘Memory.’
If you think about it, the players who came to this dystopian world are in a similar situation to that guy. They were all living on their own, but their minds were blown into this world.
I too am essentially a human, not an Aimorph. The burns I received as a child, the conflicts with my parents, the hobby that started out as an escape, etc. Although my body is an Aimorph, what constitutes ‘me’ itself is memories from my time as a human.
‘Come to think of it, what will happen to my memories here when I go back?’
If I remain as is, it seems like it would be quite difficult to adapt to reality. In my case, I was a being that ate people and then turned back into a human.
‘Isn’t this a problem we need to worry about yet?’
After that, I lay down next to him and thought about this and that, and before I knew it, I fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes, feeling movement around me, it was already morning. As soon as I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was number 26.
“Hello, big baby.”
I patted the guy who greeted me cheerfully. He sent out waves as if he was happy.
“The babies are all awake. Hurry up.”
[Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzu (Wait a minute)]
Instead of entering the cave, I stopped by the cave entrance for a moment. I grabbed what I needed near the entrance that wasn’t covered in mucus and returned to the cave.
As I entered the huge swampy space, the Gallagons and their children were waiting for me.
“Big man” “Ready” “Finished”
A strong sense of anger was felt from the Gallagons who had recovered from their injuries. Adhai was also burning with fighting spirit and vowing revenge.
‘good.’
Four White Gallagons and nine Green Gallagons barely survived while protecting their nest from Screamers. And if you add Ham Ort to them, there are a total of 14.
There are still a few more Green Gallagons left that avoided injury while guarding the nest, but I have no intention of taking them with me.
‘Pira Eleven is a similar type of enemy to me.’
It absorbs living creatures to gain energy. Bringing a large number of them is not necessarily good. Instead, I plan to bring a small group of 14 Gallagons and their children.
‘Before that….’
There are things to do before you leave.
What I brought from the entrance to the nest were none other than the corpses of the White Gallagons. The four corpses obtained from the victory over Odd Grad.
‘As seen in Aadhai’s case, in order for a White Gallagon to grow, it must eat other White Gallagons.’
I’m still not sure, so I’m going to experiment here. I wonder if I can evolve four White Gallagons with these corpses.
‘Who should I give it to?’
First of all, I definitely plan on giving Ham Ort and Nel Germa. They both have a lot of combat experience and excellent combat ability. If the experiment goes well and they both become Black Gallagons, they will be a great help in battle.
‘And Sha Belmag isn’t bad either.’
This skinny male Gallagon was the first to rebel against Odd Grad after he lost his ring. He seems smart, so he’s a good candidate for experimentation.
And while I was wondering who to make Namizer, I chose Gallagon because of its relatively large size.
‘Ham Ort, Nel Germa, Sha Belmag, and Jerkabcha.’
I presented before them the four White Gallagon corpses I had found the day before.
Nel Germa, with her loyal personality, stuck her tentacle bundle into the corpse without hesitation. After that, Sha Belmag and Jerkabcha began to absorb the remaining bodily fluids from the corpse in that order.
The last remaining Ham Ort looked somewhat hesitant.
[Drink]
The guy who was looking at the corpse I held out turned his head and looked at Adhai once.
“?”
Adhai tilted his head as he met the guy’s gaze. Seeing that, Ham Ort made up his mind and immediately stabbed his tentacle into the corpse.
‘I wonder what will happen.’
I wish they could all become Black Gallagons, but that might not work out so well.
‘I’d like to have at least one Black Gallagon.’
It’s been quite some time since they started experimenting and eating.
The corpses I was holding shriveled up one by one like dried mummies. Even though I had eaten most of them, they still showed no signs of change.
‘Surely it’s a failure… huh?’
At that moment, Ham Ort’s horn came into view. Black was spreading across the surface of the horn as if food had been spread across it.
Soon, a black wave swallowed the horn in an instant and stretched out to the head and neck. Realizing the change in its body, the creature spread its wings and wrapped them around itself. Beyond the thick wings, the sound of its body growing rapidly could be heard.
‘It’s similar to Adhai.’
I checked to see if the other guys were changing too.
Looking at Nel Germa and Sha Belmag, I noticed that they had black spots I had never seen before on the back of their necks and parts of their bodies, but there was no sign of them expanding like Ham Ort.
‘Is it only Ham Ort who has grown up?’
The only one who started growing was Ham Ort. The other three ate all of the White Gallagons but did not change.
‘Is it because the body is in bad condition? Or is it because of its age?’
As far as I know, Ort is the oldest of the surviving Gallagons. He was originally quite young, but most of them died in the battle with Odd Grad and the Screamers, making him the oldest.
‘Maybe both the corpse and age had an effect.’
Unfortunately, there is nothing more I can do. All that remains is to wait until Ham Ort has grown up safely.
It took Adhai about 30 minutes to an hour to transform into White Gallagon. Unlike Aimorph, it didn’t take that long.
An hour passed like that.
Ham Ort remained motionless, his wings folded. His pure white wings had disappeared, and smooth wings resembling obsidian covered his body.
At some point, the sounds coming from the guy’s body stopped. The guy’s growth was finished.
The new black gallagon spread its wings that resembled a curtain. As the new black dragon was born, all the surrounding gallagons bowed their heads.
Ham Ort’s head had two new horns growing. Since the existing horns had not regenerated and had grown, the horns on his head looked quite unbalanced.
The color of its horns and body resembled obsidian, with a black sheen, and its body had become larger than before, giving it a considerable sense of majesty.
Although it was small compared to the old male Odd Grad, it still seemed to be at least 30m long, including its tail.
Ham Ort glanced around once, then bowed his head slightly to me and Adhai.
Looking at the figure of the guy who had completed his growth, I thought.
All preparations are complete.