Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 406



Only Noblemtl

–

“Ha, this kid, for real.”

The man called several times, but there was no answer.

Even if the toxic fog that covers this place blocks out light, it doesn’t block out sound. The braggart couldn’t have missed his cries.

If so, there is only one answer. The talker abandoned him and went back to the sewage treatment plant first.

“That fucking kid is going back home alone and causing trouble.”

Men don’t have much experience climbing up to the sewage treatment plant at night. If they wander around alone and get lost, they have to wait until morning.

Moreover, raindrops started to fall again from the sky.

“Damn, I came here for nothing.”

The man decided that there was no reason to stay here any longer and walked into the underground passage.

That’s why he never noticed the water behind him churning and then calming down.

–

About 80% of the humans living in AG-01 are homeless.

They are given two choices: either sneak into an unmanaged facility and live there, or sit on the street.

In that respect, Jeff is pretty lucky.

He owns a house thanks to the support money from Daily Mars and the credits he earned from drug dealing here. His house is in an apartment on the outskirts of the old commercial city of AG-01.

Jeff was checking the information he had obtained from the drug dealers from the safety of his home.

In a bare room without any decoration, a small holographic playback device was simultaneously outputting records such as photographs and videos. Jeff carefully examined the data implemented as holograms.

“It is a compromise between Shinoni and the separatists.”

In the holographic image, men in neat clothes and men in shabby clothes carrying weapons were shaking hands. The men in neat clothes among them were members of the Shinoni Cartel.

The biggest ally of the separatist forces so far has been the Star Union. The tin cans who hate Megacorp have been secretly providing weapons to the separatists. Without them, they would have been eliminated by the TNC defense team that remained in the constellation long ago.

‘I expected to find new reinforcements, but it’s the Sino Group.’

Recently, Megacorp and Star Union have been in the process of peace negotiations with each other. Naturally, the amount of weapons sent by the cyborgs is also decreasing.

Because of that, the separatist forces were being pushed back, but now it looks like they have found a new partner.

‘If it were another pirate, I would have just let it go… .’

If it’s a member of the Sino Group or the Sino Cartel, it’s a different story.

As far as Jeff knows, the Sino Group has been active for less than a year. In that short period of time, they have grown into a huge cartel that is competing for first and second place among the Spacedog cartels.

However, there is little information known about their true identity. Who organized the group and where their base is are all hidden behind the cover. Even the members of the organization only know about their own cartel and rarely know about the group as a whole.

However, everyone with an interest in pirates assumed that the Shino Group must have received support from someone.

But here Jeff reveals that the Sino Group has ties to the separatist forces of Jer-11? The name Jeff will forever be remembered in the Megacorp press.

It’s fun to just imagine, but there’s no need to get excited about it yet.

Jeff looked away from the hologram and out the window. The sound of the rain hitting the thick panes in a waterfall was soothing to his spirits.

‘The question is, what did those terrorists give us as bait?’

He thought as he listened to the sound of the rain.

If you’re going to write an article, you need to have a clear cause-and-effect relationship. If you just spit out whatever you want like the average journalist, you’ll end up being treated like a leaflet.

What did the separatists promise the Sinoni Cartel? This question needs to be answered.

‘There is no one who can give it to the separatist forces.’

The easiest thing to find in AG-01 is none other than humans. Humans are everywhere you go.

However, there are better places to kidnap people. Like the Wolf Native Village in the cult territory, or the Megacorp Colony, etc. There is no reason to come here.

‘If you are not human… .’

He manipulated the terminal to transfer the video.

Next up was a photo.

The photo shows a large shadow in the hazy fog. It was taken by a homeless person living in a sewage treatment plant.

“It might be related to this creature.”

Jeff received this photo yesterday from his informant. When he first received it, it was in terrible condition, but after running it through several editing programs, the result turned out the way it is now.

He frowned as he looked at the photo.

“No matter how you look at it, it’s not Gallagon.”

Jeff has never actually seen a Gallagon. Instead, he has seen several sightings of the creature, so he knows roughly what it looks like. The Master of Shadows doesn’t look like Gallagon at all.

“And this, will it fit your head?”

Jeff used a terminal linked to the hologram to zoom in on a section of the photo.

A long, three-pronged shadow jutting out from what appears to be a wing. If that is the head, then the owner of the shadow has a total of three heads. No matter how you look at it, it is far from a normal creature.

“Three heads? Unless you’re a Hulk mutant… Wait.”

At that moment, Jeff felt the puzzle pieces in his head begin to fall into place.

‘This place was originally intended to create the Hulk mutant.’

Jer-11 is known to the world only as a human resource production site. Hana Jeff knows about the secret of this place.

Originally, the three colonies on Jer-11, including AG-01, were all bioweapon testing grounds. They were places set up by TNC to secretly develop Hulk mutants from the Eugene family.

However, the secret project was canceled midway due to a sudden separatist movement.

Jeff was able to access the data left behind by the researchers at the end of the project thanks to bribing a soldier from the defense team. The researchers took only the important experimental data and left the test subjects and samples behind.

‘The defense team is managing it, but the situation there isn’t good either.’

Since they don’t receive proper support from TNC, they use pirates as mercenaries. It’s not at all strange that the Hulk mutant test subjects they were managing secretly escaped.

‘It’s clear that the separatists brought in the Shinoni Cartel in exchange for the Hulk mutant.’

Perhaps, going further, the two forces may be planning to work together to attack the laboratory where the samples are stored. The TNC defense team is guarding the laboratory, but it should not be difficult to break through with the power of the Sino Group.

After taking over the lab, the Shinoni Cartel will take the Hulk mutant test subjects, and the Separatists will take the genetic samples.

“I guess I’ll have to meet the guy who took the photo.”

Jeff manipulated the terminal to send a message to the drug dealer who had obtained the photo from the vagrant, intending to meet the vagrant in person through him.

I sent a message telling him to come out and give me some drugs, so he’ll reply right away. He must be getting anxious by now, since I only gave him one pill when we met yesterday afternoon.

After finishing the call, he looked out the window. The steam from the incessant rain was enveloping the entire apartment.

It won’t be long before I get to see this sight again. Of course, I don’t regret it at all.

With that thought in mind, he looked down at the terminal again.

“what?”

The reply that was supposed to come. It hasn’t come yet.

‘Did you get the medicine somewhere else? Why is there no answer?’

After that, I waited for about 30 more minutes, but there was no reply.

“…this fucking kid.”

Jeff was getting annoyed when he was just about to put the final piece of the puzzle together and the drug dealer was being so uncooperative.

He let out a small curse and started to get dressed. Since the pharmacist hadn’t contacted him, he had no choice but to go to the sewage treatment plant and check for himself.

He grabbed his terminal and laser pistol and left the house.

As he left the apartment, a fierce rain shower greeted him. Jeff pulled his hood up and walked into the flooded street.

The sound of raindrops hitting the hood and the sound of water sloshing around with each step stimulated his hearing. It was a sound he had always heard when he walked down the street, but Jeff felt a vague sense of discomfort.

It wasn’t long before he realized what was causing the discomfort.

‘Why is there no one?’

The streets, which were always full of people, were empty. It wasn’t just deserted. There were no people to be seen at all.

Even inside the store, it seemed as if there was no one there. The lights were on, but there was no sign of life at all.

“… … .”

In my two years of living here, I have never seen anything like this. Jeff pulled out the pistol on his waistband and, tense, entered a nearby store.

An old song is playing through the speakers. There are only traces of people, but no guests or owners are visible.

“Hey, what is this?”

Jeff was horrified when he saw a suspicious black liquid on the floor of the store.

At first I thought it was sewage backflow, but it wasn’t. It was more like tar, like something that would come out of a factory or something. Not only did it look bad, but the smell was also terrible. Every time I breathed, it felt like glass shards were being stuck in my nose and throat.

Realizing that the liquid covering the store was dangerous, he rushed outside.

‘What the hell is going on?’

If other stores on the street are in this situation, it is not an ordinary situation. It is a problem that can only be solved by a large cartel or TNC defense team that dominates the street.

The moment he came out with that thought, Jeff froze.

A street where no one was present until I entered.

In that place, which was clouded by steam, hundreds of black figures suddenly appeared.

They seemed to have sprung from the ground, standing motionless in the rain that spread out like a curtain.

Jeff was so overwhelmed by the strange atmosphere that he couldn’t move a finger.

Black figures approached him as he remained motionless. Strangely, they walked on water without making any sound.

And even though he couldn’t see properly because of the steam, Jeff could feel them watching him. The gaze of the unidentifiable beings was extremely ominous and creepy.

“Damn it!”

Jeff, who had barely come to his senses, fired his laser pistol at the ‘something’ that was slowly approaching. The red light bullet left the barrel and hit a black shadow.

The black figure’s head exploded with the sound of a leather pouch filled with water bursting.

A normal human would have collapsed, but the reaction of ‘something’ was completely different. Earthworm-like things emerged from the torn neck area and clumped together into a head-like shape.

The beings lurking in the white vapor were not human.

‘I have to run away!’

When he realized that, he forced his free leg to run away.

Jeff ran as fast as he could to his home. There was no sound of footsteps following him.

But he kept running. He felt sticky gazes on the back of his cold neck. ‘They’ didn’t give up.

He ran to the apartment and ran up to the house in one breath. As he climbed the stairs, panting, a familiar smell wafted past his nose. It was the strong smell he had smelled in the store earlier.

He came up almost crawling on all fours, went into the house and immediately closed the door.

As soon as I locked the lock, there was a strong impact on the door. The door shook as if two or three adult males had rammed into it at the same time.

After the door shook violently a few times, silence came.

Even if the knocking on the door stops, I can’t feel at ease. I can’t see or hear it, but I can feel it.

That ‘something’ is waiting behind that door.

‘I need help. Now!’

Jeff, barely calming down, took out his terminal. It was to call the person he had bribed in the TNC defense team.

‘I can’t die here!’

He’s been rotting here for two years for credit and fame. If he dies here, everything he’s done will go down the drain.

But this time, his intention was not realized. When he tried to activate the terminal’s communication function, there was no response from the machine at all.

“Why is this…?”

Just as he was about to shout at her for not listening, Jeff felt a shock.

It wasn’t the shock of a door slamming like it had just now. What he felt was a slight vibration from his toes.

“… … .”

Now I felt the vibration again. This time, it was deeper than before.

Jeff slowly turned his head.

A window is seen covered with water droplets. Another vibration. The water droplets that had been clinging to the window are falling like raindrops.

The scenery seen through the water marks was no different from before I left the house.

Except for one thing.

A black shadow was cast across the white curtain of rain and steam. A black figure moved with a vibration that shook the room, no, the entire apartment.

The moment he saw it, Jeff realized why the bum called him a ‘dragon’.

He did not mean to refer to any creature or specific being by calling it that.

What he wanted to say was the existence of the incomprehensible.

The being outside was neither Gallagon nor the Hulk mutant.

Jeff covered his eyes with both hands as he saw the dragon’s hand approaching.