Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 414



Only Noblemtl

This trait can only be obtained from three types of creatures. One of them is an Apex creature, so it won’t be here. Instead, we’ll need to check if we have samples of the other two creatures.

‘I wonder how many scrap metal crabs and mushroom snails there are.’

The Hiveformer manipulated the device to search for the names of creatures with the trait. After a moment, detailed information about the sample appeared as a hologram.

‘Let’s see.’

I first checked the genetic samples of the scrap iron crab.

‘You can see scrap metal crabs often at Megacorp, so there should be quite a few samples.’

The scrap crab is a large crustacean that grows to about 2 m in size. Its appearance is similar to that of a hermit crab and a palm claw crab, but its habits are closer to that of a hermit crab.

Instead of conch shells, they use alloy materials from buildings or spaceships as their homes. When moving to a new home, they spend the rest of their time inside the home except when eating. However, if there is no food around, they will eat their own home, so they move frequently.

‘Because of this habit, they are often raised for the purpose of disposing of metal waste.’

In the setting, the Cult Empire and Megacorp use the scrapyard’s habits to operate. This is possible because it does not attack humans due to its gentle nature. It is also popular among players as an ornamental animal, along with the Bubble Amoeba.

‘What? Only 4 samples are currently in storage, the rest are all discarded?’

However, there are fewer genetic samples of the scrap crab than expected. It seems that the managers of the research complex have secretly sold them.

‘If scrap iron crabs are like this, there may not be any mushroom snails at all.’

Mushroom snails are a species that is harder to see than scrap iron crabs due to their unique habitat and habits.

‘Because they mainly live in rotten swamps.’

The mushroom snail’s main food is rotten bones stuck in polluted soil and meat full of bacteria. That’s why they like environments like swamps teeming with bacteria and graveyards full of rotting corpses.

Of course, it is not easy to access such places. Since you have to be thoroughly equipped with gas masks to enter, it is difficult to encounter any living creatures inside.

In addition, mushroom snails are hard to find once they enter the ground. The protrusions on their backs look like mushrooms, so if you don’t know, they just look like a colony of poisonous mushrooms. To catch them, you have to dig through contaminated soil.

And the number of mushroom snail samples was only one.

‘If you combine them all, you can challenge a total of 5 times.’

Even though the opportunities aren’t many, it’s worth a try.

‘Okay. Next is….’

‘Dwarfism’, ‘Sensory Deterioration’, and ‘Slow Life’ are common to many creatures. They are not as difficult to obtain as the reclusive tendency.

Soon, all the necessary samples were checked. I ordered the Hiveformers in the complex to bring me the genetic samples.

The total number of samples collected was 32. After transforming into the ‘Symbol of the Hunt’, I started by putting the samples of the scrap crab and the mushroom snail into my mouth.

A sample smaller than my fingernail passed straight through my throat. The purified essence was digested in an instant, and three text boxes appeared one after another.

‘Three?’

Perhaps due to poor sample storage, only three out of five cases resulted in successful predation.

Fortunately, the last of the three was more reclusive.

‘it’s okay.’

If you successfully prey on a sample while in the state of the symbol of hunting, you will gain an imperfect trait. In this state, you cannot gain any characteristic effects, and can only be used as a unique characteristic material.

Anyway, I got over the big hurdle. I ate all the rest.

A feast of text boxes announcing successful predation followed. Some of them were quite interesting, but that’s not what we’re interested in now.

｢List of ‘Transcendence’ Materials: Dwarfism, Starvation, Sensory Deterioration, Slow Life, Reclusive Tendency｣

“Would you like to use the Transcendence System?”

The important thing is that you have all the desired characteristics.

‘What new unique trait will come out?’

And what kind of illusion will you see in Kochi this time?

‘You’ll find out soon enough.’

With such curiosity in my heart, I accepted the text box’s request.

–

An underground cavity filled with toxic pollutants.

There is a huge kochi that is easily over 100m tall. It is made of tar.

The shell of the gochi, which appears to be made of the same material as the black liquid flowing on the floor, pulses slowly.

A small, spider-like entity approached the moving black hill. It was a fusion of machine and organism, MPS-03.

“Chaechi. Chaechi.”

Mini Screamer kept saying the word ‘collect’ while holding a glass tube in his mouth and poked the liquid produced in the gochi with his metal leg. He collected the drops of liquid on his leg into the glass tube and repeated the same action several times.

After a while, when the glass tube was full, MSP-03 swallowed it and stored it in the back of his throat.

“I have obtained the sample.”

PS-111, who was piloting the mini-screamer far away from the underground cavern, muttered quietly.

“We need to upgrade the functionality to protect the controllers.”

In the recent battle, PS-111 felt helpless. He had never been lazy about improving his body, but his enemies were far ahead.

If this continues, you may be defeated by the enemy and your functions may stop working. If that happens, it will become impossible to protect multiple controllers.

Besides, her younger sister would have a hard time surviving without PS-111, because she is the only one who can control her ‘younger sister’s’ body.

It needs to be more useful to avoid any possible risks.

“If I could mimic the evolutionary abilities of ‘Aimorph’, I could improve my functions.”

To PS-111, Amorph was a singularity in genetic engineering, centuries ahead of the advanced technology of the mutant Screamers.

Even if we analyze the samples we have collected now, we won’t be able to completely understand the mechanism, but that’s okay. Even if we succeed in analyzing just a part of it, it will be a great help in strengthening the function.

“Now that we have completed collecting samples, we can carry out our original mission.”

Anyway, the important work is done.

PS-111 sent a signal out using a communications satellite to call the ‘Middle Child’ who had gone to another constellation to search for the dangerous creature ‘Arcane Orca’.

They brought along the MPS-05, which specializes in communications and hacking. It will respond immediately whenever we send a signal.

As expected, MPS-05 replied quickly. However, the content of the reply was something she had not expected.

“Already on the move?”

The ‘middle child’ who went to meet the Wolf natives on U-08 had already left the planet a few days ago.

“You said you have secured an important clue. You need support?”

PS-111 thought for a moment, then sent a message to the mini-screamers who were coming to Jer-11.

Tell me what you need.

–

“Why are you doing that?”

A captivating voice caressed my ears. I opened my eyes without thinking.

A woman with black hair stood before me. I couldn’t see her face, but for some reason I felt she was beautiful. I also felt a sense of familiarity, as if I had met her before.

A woman of strange charm reached out and gently stroked my cheek.

“Are you still half-asleep? You look tired.”

It’s a strange thing.

Even though I was being caressed by a faceless person, I didn’t feel awkward at all.

“I’m tired. I was just thinking about it for a moment.”

A familiar yet unfamiliar voice came out of his mouth.

“What were you thinking that made you just blankly stare when I called you?”

“I thought about the breakfast menu.”

“Oh? Really?”

“I thought I’d show off my skills after a long time.”

My body kept moving as if I was having a natural conversation with a stranger. Right now, I’m cooking something.

There was a familiar mark on the arm holding the lightly oiled frying pan. The red, wrinkled scar from the burn was exactly the same as the one in my memory.

But this arm itself was very different from what I remembered. My body, which had been immersed in a virtual reality game, was in a state where it was difficult to even say good things. I can’t even imagine having arms with lean muscles like those now.

“I like the cooking my brother makes the best.”

“okay?”

“Well, that’s not the only good thing.”

She approaches and gently wraps her arms around my waist. With that, the woman’s invisible face comes closer to me. ‘I’ responds to her without any hesitation.

A voice that seemed familiar yet subtly mature, a burn scar identical to a memory, an unfamiliar body, and a kiss with a woman who gave him a beautiful feeling.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. This is ‘me’ and yet it is not me.

Maybe it’s what I’ve been hoping and dreaming of… .

‘The ideal future.’

The moment I thought that, I woke up.

The warmth I felt on my lips and the cozy atmosphere of the kitchen disappeared in an instant. Instead, I was greeted by a glass tube filled with green liquid and a chemical smell so strong that it paralyzed my sensory organs.

I know this place. I’ve been here before, every time I went to Kochi.

But this is the first time I’ve had a vision like the one I just had.

‘It wasn’t the reality I knew.’

All the fantasies I’ve had so far have been related to my memories. Things I experienced as a child, memories right before I entered the world of space survival, etc. There’s never been anything so unrelated to my reality as this.

‘To be exact, it’s close to the future I wanted, but… .’

Whether in a game or in real life, I rarely had a proper conversation with others. Naturally, I don’t remember ever kissing a person of the opposite sex.

Besides, my real appearance was not very pleasant. No human would like a body with burn scars all over its body, or a shabby and sickly body. To be honest, I think Aimov’s body is more impressive.

‘Come to think of it, Alshas did that before.’

As you get closer to the ending, you will see visions of your future in reality. The 4th and 7th ranked players in the Return Sect said they saw these visions.

On the other hand, Jason, a ranker of the ruling faction, killed his ‘real self’ in the fantasy. He never saw another fantasy after that, perhaps because he gave up on going to the ending.

I too went through a similar situation. When I went into Kochi to grow into an adult, I had a vision of my ‘real self’ trying to kill me.

At that time, I made a different choice. I did not kill the ‘real me’, nor did I allow the ‘Aimorph me’ to be killed.

Looking at the cases so far, it seems that the illusions you see change depending on the faction, that is, which world you are close to.

So which side am I on? Does what I just saw have anything to do with my choice?

‘The fantasy isn’t over yet.’

If you raise your head and look around, you will see countless green coffins. From some point on, whenever you enter Kochi, you will come to this huge space.

This is a place I have never been to, either in reality or in this world. But if I keep coming here, it must mean something.

‘Let’s check.’

I stood up from my seat, putting strength into my legs.

As I became an adult, my body grew very large, but my current size was similar to the test tubes scattered around. I remember that I was about this size even as a sub-adult. It seems that my size is adjusted to fit my fantasy.

‘huh?’

However, what was different from before was the hair on both sides.

After becoming an adult, my number of heads increased to three. The two heads that are normally under my control can move on their own when necessary.

And now both heads were pointing their snouts upwards.

‘ceiling?’

This space is so large that it is difficult to gauge its width. The height is the same. When looking up, all you can see is darkness, not the ceiling.

‘Up.’

Come to think of it, I’ve always just crawled on the floor, never once looking up.

‘Let’s check.’

Just as I was about to take a step towards the wall to climb up, I noticed a long, outstretched arm. It was a wing arm with its membrane folded.

‘Can it fly?’

He spread out the folded membrane and shook it once. His body rose slightly with the wind pressure. Although his size had shrunk, it seemed to be able to fly without any problems.

I used my wing arms to lift my body and flew in the direction the heads were pointing.

As we went up, the strong chemical smell and unpleasant humidity gradually faded. Along with this, the upper landscape, now filled with thick darkness, changed.

Green granules were visible on the darkness that was laid out like black paper. Just like on the ground, there were many green test tubes stuck on top.

And below that, floating in the air was a black spherical structure.

‘That’s?’

It was a peculiar structure I had never seen before. I circled around and examined the sphere.

At that moment, the left and right heads stretched their necks straight out toward the sphere.