Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 398



Only Noblemtl

But now, dozens of minutes after the battle began, the Nemean Five realized something.

The mechanical committee made a mistake.

“Anders, please! We’re surrounded by metallic gremlins! Need immediate assistance!”

“Sashabi reporting! The creature that Special Objective A was carrying suddenly… ugh!”

“A monster that can’t be detected by the detection system… Sa, save me! Kkaaa, squeak.”

“Look at Mr. Gesta… Chijijijijik. Stop.”

The XAX01-class battleship, a citadel of machines with no trace of life.

The ship’s ruler, the Nemean Five, sat on a rough metal throne, sorting through the urgent communications coming in from all directions.

It wasn’t like this until a few minutes ago.

Special Objective A was caught in a trap prepared by the CEO of Megacorp, and the deformed Gallagon he was carrying was fatally injured. The damage to the fleet in the process of getting there was not small, but it was within the acceptable range.

As time passed, the punitive force was gaining an advantage. The Supreme Council members decided that continuing the operation as it was would be beneficial.

But this was also a misjudgment. The situation changed in an instant. Now even the highest members could not predict the course of the battle.

So a decision must be made here. The Nemean Five sent a message to their old comrades.

“Nemea Five. Report the damage.”

“Red Tail Eight. Fleet 8 at 55% loss. Command failure due to communication problems. Loss is expected to reach 60% within 3 minutes and 21 seconds.”

“Calion Eleven. 11th Fleet. Loss rate 72%. Reached annihilation stage.”

The loss rate of the 5th fleet currently commanded by the Nemea Five was 31%. Although the loss rate was relatively low, it was meaningless because the 8th and 11th fleets that came with them suffered heavy damage.

In particular, the newly created Kalion Eleven, which replaced the destroyed Pira Eleven, was still very immature. Although she possessed the same knowledge and physical abilities as the other members, she lacked the ability to deal with situations.

“Nemea Five. The probability of the operation failing is calculated to be 71%. We believe that we need to retreat immediately.”

“Red Tail Eight. Negative. The Machine Committee has demanded a retreat once the probability reaches 80%.”

“Calion Eleven. Request analysis from the Machine Committee.”

Redtail expressed his opposition to the opinion raised by the Nemea Five, and Kalyon was unable to present his own opinion.

“Nemea Five. Negative. There is a 67% chance that the 8th fleet will enter the destruction phase before the analysis results come out. You have to make a decision before that to reduce the loss rate.”

“Red Tail Eight. Partially positive. I agree with the opinion that we must make a decision before the 8th Fleet is destroyed. However, deciding to retreat within 5 minutes is against the decision of the Machinery Committee.”

“Calion Eleven. Difficult to analyze. Request analysis from the Machine Committee.”

Nemea Five twitched his fingers ever so slightly at Redtail’s stubborn attitude and Callion Eleven’s mechanical response.

“Nemea Five. There is concern that the Supreme Council member may be injured if the operation continues. The safety of the members participating in the operation must be prioritized.”

“Red Tail Eight. Some irregularities. The current Supreme Council model has been improved. Unless a unique variable occurs, the probability of losing a Council member is only 11%.”

Isn’t it because that singular variable keeps occurring that things have gotten to this point?

An unfamiliar sensation that they had never felt before flashed through the minds of the Nemean Five and then disappeared.

Just as he was about to realize that it was the feeling of ‘impatience’, a message was sent to Nemea’s head.

After confirming the contents of the message, Nemea immediately shared the information with the committee.

“Nemea Five. Large-scale energy reaction confirmed within the N-51 constellation.”

“Calion Eleven. Question. Are you a reinforcement?”

“Nemea Five. Negative. Energy response analysis results confirm that five St. Caysan anti-planetary weapons are preparing to enter.”

“Red Tail Eight. Question. Megacorp has suggested that they will not be deploying planetary weapons in this operation. Is this false?”

“Nemea Five. Negative. It has been confirmed that these planetary weapons received a distress signal from a Megacorp ship and came to provide support on their own initiative.”

“Calion Eleven. Question. What time is your expected arrival?”

“Nemea Five. Estimated to be within 10 minutes.”

The intrusion of reinforcements that were not discussed.

And these aren’t just any ordinary ships, either. Five planetary weapons called Giga Crackers are suddenly trying to enter this place.

The firepower of five Giga Crackers could wipe out not only Special Objective A, but the entire Star Union fleet in this location. From their perspective as the most powerful people in the Star Union, this was a very suspicious act.

“Nemea Five. I suggest canceling the operation again.”

“Red Tail Eight. Agreed. Retreat starting with the ships with restored communications capabilities.”

“Calion Eleven. I agree.”

The ‘occurrence of a singular variable’ that Redtail spoke of.

That sealed the failure of the operation.

–

Akira mutated into a form resembling Aimorph.

The thing changed its small arms on its chest, its battle arms, and its tail into different shapes. The battle arms became a dull warhammer, and the small arms became hooked claws. The tail developed a mouth with pointed appendages at the end, like my erosion tentacles.

I used the privilege of randomly changing body parts and the privilege of imitating myself at the same time.

[Zuzu zuzu zuzu zuzu (Any other perks besides that?)]

“Life support, there are special privileges, huh.”

[Zuzu zuzu (life support?)]

“If you have special organs, you won’t die, no matter what. Even if your head and heart disappear.”

As the guy said, even though his head was blown off, he had no problem moving around.

‘Is it a similar mechanism to Vortex One?’

Because they won’t die unless you destroy the part called the Abyssal Core.

‘So what about genetic predation?’

It’s unclear whether you should just eat its head like other creatures, or whether you should eat its life-sustaining organs like Vortex One.

‘I guess I’ll have to try it myself to see for myself.’

However, there is one issue to consider before preying on it.

‘Akira can contaminate genes.’

If I eat his body without caution, there is a high chance that I will fall into a trap like when I eat his shadow. Regardless of whether it is a special organ or a head, the moment I eat his meat, my body will become greatly weakened.

‘But as time passes, everything will return to its original state.’

It is fatal to become weaker than you are now in the middle of a fight. You should minimize the risk factor as much as possible before eating.

‘Is there only one answer in the end?’

To make Akira immobile for a while. The head and special organs should be targeted after the guy is incapacitated.

I spread my wings and ran towards Akira. He spread his wings and faced me in return.

And then a strong impact shook my head. A heavy hammer-shaped arm broke my horn and embedded itself inside my skull. At the same time, my auxiliary organs, surrounded by bone blades, pierced the thing’s legs. In that state, the thing began to force its staked fighting arm into my head.

I opened my mouth and pulled out my double chin. The strength of my double chin was strong enough to crush even the outer shell of a magmasaur. The moment my jaws were about to bite the thing’s abdomen without mercy, the hooked claw arm moved to the chest.

“Pain relief activated!”

A sharp pain filled my mouth along with the taste of blood. The bastard had cut my double-chinned tongue with his hooked claws.

He pulled the arm he had stuck in my head out and slapped me in the face with his cheek. My neck snapped to the side against my will, and my body was pushed back hard. If this were a planet, I would have slammed my head into the ground.

He must have had similar thoughts to me as he smiled with his teeth exposed. I also smile like that when I succeed in a hunt, so it felt strange to see someone else do that.

At that moment, a large pink tentacle flew towards the creature’s side. Akira quickly covered his body with his wings, which were now much larger than before, and defended against No. 26’s attack.

However, No. 26 also seemed to have expected his opponent to block it this time. His second attack, a net of condensed psychic power, blasted the enemy. The amount was so enormous that it was nearly twice the amount of energy consumed by psychic breath.

“Don’t imitate the big kid!”

No. 26 presses Akira with a massive force greater than that of the Sea Demon. This time, Akira responds by switching body parts instead of blocking with his wings. The horns protruding from the creature’s head touch the psychic power, causing the energy to scatter in all directions.

‘The Horn of Gallagon.’

The creature attempted to break free of its bindings with its horns, which had the effect of tearing through energy fields, and bite off No. 26’s tentacles. Its intention was to mimic the appearance of No. 26, a special sea demon.

‘I can’t leave it like that.’

I turned my body around and swung my tail wildly. The one trying to hit No. 26 was hit by the pincers at the end of its tail and flew far away.

It soon stopped itself by spreading the membrane on its wings. Everything else was intact, but the arms attached to its chest were completely crushed by the pincers.

The thing tore off the mangled arms with its teeth without a care. After a moment, two long arms with bone swords appeared in their place. They looked exactly like the bone scythe arms that appear when you become a symbol of hunting.

Instead of charging at him, I turned around. He followed right behind me, seemingly retreating.

A cyan beam shot out from the tip of its tail and hit my back. It was similar to the particle beam shot by Crystal Wing, but the power was much stronger because of the higher output.

Every time he was hit by the light, his back armor would fall off and a huge wound would appear. As he couldn’t recover, small wounds would gradually increase on his body.

The thing that destroyed my carapace with particle beams accelerated and climbed onto my body, then plunged its bone-blade arms into my wounds and dug into my flesh.

“Pain relief activated!”

‘Ugh!’

A sharp pain surges from the torn muscles and torn flesh. At the same time, I can feel the enemy’s emotions as the blade mercilessly stabs my wounds. Akira finds pleasure in torturing me.

The special abilities he possesses have excellent synergy with each other. That’s why he is overwhelming me and the kids even though he imitates Aimorph.

‘… you must be thinking.’

It’s true that he’s powerful, but not to the extent that he can completely overwhelm me like he is now.

There’s a reason I ‘acted’ like I was running away helplessly. It was to lure the guy to a specific location.

Strong energy reactions are felt not far away. The heat rays fired by the battleships are getting closer.

And one of them hit me in the back, or Akira to be exact.

Could it be that the aiming devices of the battleships are broken due to the psychic powers unleashed by No. 26? He is confused.

But that wasn’t a mistake. The subsequent heat rays all struck Akira. He fell away from me to avoid the pouring plasma barrage.

As the thing fell, the heat rays fired by the battleship’s main guns split into two. The battleships were aiming for exactly two targets: the thing and me.

Akira flinched when he saw that. He realized what he looked like.

‘Now I can’t even undo my transformation.’

The enemies also know that I can change my body at will and fight. Even if he were to transform into something other than Aimorph, those warships would not stop being suspicious.

Even if he had left information about his transformation abilities to the fleet commanders, the enemy’s coordination is very weak due to the instability of communication caused by No. 26’s psychic power and the ‘Herald of Chaos’ that I used. In this situation, smooth communication cannot be expected.

[Zuzuzuzu zu (stupid guy)]

“■■■■■■!”

I bared my teeth at the guy and jumped into the area where the enemy ships were gathered. The guy who saw my laughter let out a roar of rage and chased after me.

The chase resumed amidst the pouring heat from all sides. However, the situation was very different from before.

The one who had been overwhelming me with speed just a moment ago was now barely able to keep up with my tail. It was unable to fully display its skills as it was trying to avoid the thick plasma rain that was as thick as my torso.

‘As expected, your defense is inferior to mine.’

Its size is only 10m. Even if its shell material is the same as mine, it is thinner, so its defenses are bound to be different. When it gets hit by a battleship’s main gun, it’s not me who will take more damage, but it.

One of these creatures has an accessory organ of far superior performance. While his eyes have disappeared while mimicking the appearance of his clone, a sensory organ has been created under his chin to replace them.

Just like me, he also uses auxiliary equipment to evade the battleships’ attacks without difficulty. Of course, he still can’t use it properly, perhaps because it’s an unfamiliar feeling.

‘You’ll get used to it with time.’

So, we have to decide the outcome before that.

In the middle of a battlefield where countless ships and metallic gremlins were entangled in a mess, I dug into the ships that were clumped together. When I got close enough to the ship, I spat out the MPS-05 that I had in my mouth and held it in my hand.

I’m planning to use ‘clever abbreviation’ here, so I left it out in advance.

When I activated the trait, my body shrank drastically. My long neck and huge wings became smaller and disappeared completely, and my body shape completely changed.

By the time my transformation was complete, my body had grown to about 5 meters in size. My body shape resembled a four-legged centaur, and my entire body was covered in hair, all of which are typical characteristics of a clever weakling.

I transformed into a clever underdog and clung to the bottom of a nearby ship. Akira, who had been following me, looked bewildered when I suddenly disappeared.

If you stand still and focus on the auxiliary organs, you can find me, but you probably won’t. This is a chaotic battlefield. In a space where all kinds of stimulating elements are mixed together, it’s not easy for him to find me alone.

‘It would be even more so if I were smaller.’

Warships everywhere aimed at Akira. The ship I was attached to also aimed its main gun at the fake Aimov, or rather, their master.

Having picked a fight with my enemies, I climbed up the outer wall of the ship to find a ‘suitable spot’. As I did so, I called out to my clone, ‘Right Head’, who was still fighting on the battlefield.

At that moment, a battleship that was only about 100 meters away from me was hit by a blue-green beam and exploded. Akira, whose anger was at its peak, began to fire particle beams at the men he had brought with him.

‘also.’

Third place is the one who often gets caught up in my distraction tactics in the game and attacks his fellow teammates. It seems like he’s been in this world for a long time, but he hasn’t been able to fix that.

‘Thanks to you, I’m fine.’

While he was distracted, I took a seat in a suitable spot. And just in time, my clone appeared near Akira.

Akira also recognized the presence of the right head just like me. The head of the thing turned to the side according to the direction of the auxiliary organ. And immediately fired a particle beam at the right head.

My clone had a hole in its chest from being hit by a beam of light. Akira flew like lightning and thrust his bone-blade arm into the clone’s wound.

Blood spurts out like a fountain and the body of the clone sags. The guy smiles at the sight.

Then, the guy stops. It must be because he realized something was wrong.

The clone he attacked was bait.

I’ve been preparing to snipe Akira since the moment his right head appeared. And just now the fruit of that act has left my body.

The ominously glowing Chaos Orb rolls. Its power has been greatly reduced due to its clever weak state, but it doesn’t matter. Rather, the size of the bullet has been reduced, so it is more advantageous when shooting stealthily like now.