Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 378
Only Noblemtl
Then suddenly an unfamiliar voice echoed through the nest.
“… This is?”
Sechan’s face brightened in an instant. It must have been because he heard the voice of a person, and a colleague at that.
‘Oh, like that.’
Unfortunately, nothing he expects happens.
“Fuck, it’s all over!”
The being that appeared with the harsh curses was a creature far from human. Sechan’s complexion suddenly worsened as he saw the jellyfish glowing pink in the darkness.
“You know the Captain’s personality, don’t you? What the heck! Oh my, really?”
It must be because a familiar voice he knows is flowing out from the creature’s tentacles.
As the small protrusions covering the surface of the tentacles moved, male and female voices flowed out continuously, as if playing back recorded voices.
“Aw, big baby. Hahahaha. Fuck!”
[Zuzuzuzu zuuzuzu (don’t use that word)]
The pink jellyfish, number 26, recognized my wavelength and stopped moving.
“No? Why?”
[Zuzu zuzuzu (that’s a bad word)]
“I called the big baby, so you can’t?”
[Zz zuzu zuzu zuzu (not that part, but after that)]
“What the fuck?”
[Zuzu (that)]
It seems that the ‘speaking out loud’ study has been successful, as No. 26’s vocabulary has reached a considerable level. I think it is probably at least at the level of a kindergarten student.
“Okay. I won’t do it.”
[Zuzuzu (good)]
“huh!”
“That, that voice… Could it be all of my colleagues?”
Normal humans cannot understand the conversation between me and No. 26. Even Se-chan, who appears to have undergone genetic modification, is the same.
However, I am not an idiot who cannot understand how things work in this atmosphere.
I focused my consciousness on my combat arm. A very small object slowly crawled out from the organ in my arm.
A parasite with an eel-like body moves towards its target using its fighting arms. Sechan, who is in my hand, begins to tremble at the sight of the approaching parasite.
“Unlike your subordinates, you do not die.”
“Hey, wait a minute… Huh?!”
“Until I tell you everything that’s on my mind.”
The guy struggled to avoid being infected by the parasite, but it was a futile resistance.
Seconds later, the pirate, whose body had been taken over by the parasite, fell limp. The griffon beast, the Heavenly Mother, who had been watching from the beginning, shuddered.
“I always feel sick when I see parasites. I feel physiologically repulsed by them.”
[Z zu zu zu zu (Really? Isn’t it cute?)]
“I know it’s not the time to say this, but I think your tastes are a bit strange.”
[Zuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu (I don’t think that’s what you should say)]
“What’s wrong with him? He’s cute because he looks like a retriever.”
“Geuuu”
She stroked the mountain crawler, her mind drifting to a trance. The boy closed his eyes slightly, feeling good under his master’s touch.
No matter how many times I look at it, the guy doesn’t look like a retriever at all. There is no dog with four eyes and six legs, whether in reality or in this world.
In addition, its size is similar to mine. Its body length is definitely smaller than mine, but it feels bigger than me thanks to the large dorsal armor protecting its body. This is even though it has bulked up by acquiring the Destroyer’s armor.
“Huh?”
A mountain crawler sensed my gaze and strode toward me. It was as big as a small mountain. My nest shook violently with each movement.
The guy who had closed the distance between me and him stretched his head out and rubbed his head against mine. Just as she said, it reminded me of a pet dog.
Mountain crawlers are independent for their entire lives, except when they are giving birth. Once the young are old enough to walk on their own, the entire family disperses and lives their own lives.
I didn’t know that such an independent species could act this cute.
“Look.”
[Z zu zu zu zu (well it’s cute)]
“Tantan is cute!”
“Geuuuuu”
I scratched the back of the guy’s neck and looked down at his parasite-infested face.
He was waiting for me to give him an order with his eyes glassy.
“First, explain the work you were responsible for.”
“yes.”
I asked him everything I could find out about him, like where he had gotten his stuff from, and where he had moved any items he had asked me to move.
The interrogation ended after about two hours. The guy told me everything he knew.
Most of it was useless information, but there was one piece of information that was interesting.
‘I guess I’ll have to go out and find out.’
I need his ship to verify that information. I had a feeling this would happen, so I left the pirate ship to Isabelle, and luckily for me, it’s the same.
[Zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu (I’ll be back in a bit)]
“I’ll go too.”
I left the infected Sechan in the care of the Heavenly Mother and got up. Then, Number 26, who had been playing with the Mountain Crawler while I was extracting information, climbed on top of my head.
The guy and I climbed up to the surface using the hole dug by the mountain crawler.
As I crawled out onto the black ground, I saw ships I had never seen before, other than three cult ships.
‘Is that the ship?’
It was a ship that looked similar to the Egerton family’s warship that I had seen at the TNC Special Trade Center before.
It appeared to be about 500m long, so it was much smaller than the ones I had seen before. Despite its small size, it had the same impressive gold decorations and a sleek, streamlined body design.
The large, impressive destroyer was now half-buried in the ground.
Isabel and PS-111 were in front of the ship that appeared to have crash-landed. Next to them, Adhai, who had returned from destroying the transport ship, was curled up and enjoying a nap.
“It’s amazing how well Seo-ah and everyone else are able to drive spaceships.”
“If you implant a flight simulation module, you can demonstrate piloting skills at the level of an ace pilot.”
“Isn’t that something you put on your head?”
“We need to manipulate the brain in some way, as we need to modify sensory responses and the ability to analyze information as well.”
“… … .”
PS-111, damaged during a previous fight with Salman.
As you can see, the guy is fine. In fact, he’s been upgraded a bit more than before thanks to a few modifications over the past three days.
What’s different is the guy’s arms. Two of the eight have been replaced with new arms.
Looking at the two arms attached to the back of the torso, instead of hands, there were short cylinder-like things attached. At the end of the cylinder were three appendages, which were used to support the body when moving.
Another minor difference was the addition of four metal pipes on the back.
“If you want, I can modify it for you immediately.”
“My sense of taste has already become strange, and I don’t want to change it any further.”
“Is that so? That’s too bad.”
“But Sister, are your legs okay… Oh, Eimov?”
Isabel, who was talking to her sister, noticed me and stopped talking.
[Zuzuzu (Is that ship?)]
“Yeah. It looks a bit odd.”
[Zuz …
Anyway, the ship itself isn’t that important. I plan to organize the rest after I acquire the ship data.
“If you want information, I can help you.”
[Zuzuzuzu (Please)]
“What information do you need?”
I explained to the guy what to look for.
“We will secure the saved route records and the captain’s personal records.”
[Zz zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu (Okay. If you see anything that looks useful, take that too)]
“All right.”
“I want to go with my friend. I’m going to find my study stuff.”
“I’ll check that too.”
PS-111 nodded and approached the ship, then raised the new arm on the back of his torso and aimed it at the outer wall.
The appendages attached to the cylinder folded outward, and the entire arm turned red.
Soon, white flames poured out of the cylinder and began to burn the outer wall of the ship. At the same time, hot heat poured out from the metal pipes on the back.
This is a flamethrower modeled after the Pyromancer’s attack method that I heard about from Isabel.
Just like a Pyromancer can attack by heating up his arms, this guy can also breathe out high-temperature flames with those two arms.
Of course, he doesn’t have perfect control over heat energy like a Pyromancer. The cylindrical gun barrel is made from the corpse of a Magmasaur, so it doesn’t melt.
Even that isn’t easy, as it requires controlling the heat with pipes on the back.
After a while, the outer wall of the ship began to melt due to the intense heat.
In a matter of seconds, the guy who had blown a huge hole in the ship’s outer wall stopped using his flamethrower. Thanks to the pipes circulating the heat inside his body, his arm quickly regained its original color.
“Minimized damage for future use.”
[Thank you]
“Wow! Friend Seda! That’s cool!”
“Thank you for the great feedback on the main controller.”
PS-111 looked over his creation with satisfaction and went inside. No. 26 followed him, bouncing around as he disappeared into the ship.
‘I guess you wanted to show off your new weapon.’
The guy can hack his way into any door. He must have wanted to show me how he was acting in an uncharacteristically inefficient way. That’s why he didn’t say anything.
“Sister, are you just bragging about getting new legs?”
[Zuzuzuzuzuzu (I think so)]
“I said you’re still a kid, then and now.”
Of course, Isabel pointed that out openly.
Anyway, it takes some time for PS-111 to extract computer records.
‘In the meantime, should I reconsider my future plans?’
There is nothing more to see on this planet.
Before moving on to the next location, I need to check my physical condition and future plans one last time.
With that in mind, I opened a semi-transparent text box that was different from before.
During the three days I waited for Sechan, I did several things.
In addition to treating the Mountain Crawler, I also created my own nests all over the planet to prepare for the possibility of other enemies invading.
In addition, in the process of preparing to prevent an attack by an external enemy, several more creatures were preyed upon. Thanks to this, one more useful trait was acquired after the ‘Destroyer’s Carapace’.
“Destroyer Carapace: Creates leather made of biometallic material to protect the body. Each time it digests refined metal, the carapace and body grow.”
“Fever Spike Carapace: Spikes that generate high temperatures grow from the back. These spikes can be fired at specific targets.”
Both are general physical traits, and one that greatly transforms the body. So my current appearance is quite different from when I first arrived on the planet.
As the Destroyer’s armor was applied, the arms, legs, torso, and other body parts became thicker overall. In addition, red patterns that looked like flowing lava appeared all over the body. Because the armor was reminiscent of a burning furnace, it felt similar to the previous owner of the trait, Magmasaur.
‘It was a trait I liked in the game too.’
Destroyer’s Armor is a trait that you absolutely must obtain at some point, even if it is not a transcendent system. It is because its effectiveness is so good that it can be said to be at the top of the list of general traits.
‘The more you fight, the stronger you become.’
As the tooltip says, the effect of the Destroyer’s Carapace is simple.
The body continues to grow each time it eats and digests artificially created alloys, such as ships or buildings.
The growth effect is applied immediately upon digestion, so your body will grow slightly each time you devour an enemy ship during battle.
The growth rate is about 0.1cm when eating a large battleship. It may seem low, but by the time you gain this trait, you will usually be fighting hundreds or thousands of ships. That is why your body will grow noticeably after every battle.
As the body grows, the thickness of the shell also increases, increasing survivability. As a bonus, the ability to fight in close combat also increases.
Furthermore, theoretically, there is no limit to the size that can be grown into a Destroyer’s Carapace. Unless you gain a trait that limits your body’s growth itself, such as ‘dwarfism’, you can grow infinitely.
‘Actually, this part is both an advantage and a disadvantage.’
Although this trait is powerful, it is not without its weaknesses.
If you eat chunks of alloy without thinking, you will grow uncontrollably large.
If your body grows too large, the hit area increases, so it’s not necessarily a good thing. There are many terrifying weapons in the world of space survival.
So from the moment you gain this trait, you have to calculate the amount of alloy you eat. Or you can intentionally gain a trait like dwarfism to forcibly shrink your body.
‘Well, I’ve experienced trial and error in games, so I need to be careful about this part.’
The next thing we will look at is ‘Fever Thorn Plate’. This is a trait obtained by catching an Elemental Hog.
Currently, my back is lined with a complex structure of spines. These spines are designed to mimic the defense mechanisms of the elemental hedgehog.