056

Ep. 56

After the battle at the apartment complex, meat from intelligent beings was not often eaten.

This was the human meat that this woman had recently eaten a few hours ago, that is, last night.

Was it a reaction?

Jade was paralyzed, a heavy weapon soldier with most of the bones in her body broken, and even the corpse of a cult member.

There was a lot of new food today.

'If I just take care of this, the hunt will be over.'

The place where I am now is the place where Jade's gang had a fight with Mountain Crawler.

In front of me was a mountain crawler cub lying down, breathing heavily.

The guy who was buying time by being controlled by my parasite was seriously injured by the enemies.

Of the six legs, three were amputated and two were broken. The stomach, which was soft compared to the carapace, was torn apart by sniper and grenade attacks, causing the internal organs to spill out.

Mountain Crawlers have no healing abilities. The only thing left for him is death.

'I don't really have any ill feelings towards this guy.'

I injected poison into a mortally wounded mountain crawler. It was to alleviate the pain.

As the poison that paralyzed his entire body spread, his expression improved as if he could no longer feel the pain.

The guy's breathing gradually slowed down and stopped at some point. And a parasite came out of the guy's ear.

When I put my arm close to it, the parasite went back to where it came from.

'If a parasite is seen every time an incident occurs, someone might suspect it.'

Sander couldn't collect the parasites because I had difficulty accessing the hospital morgue, but not now.

After safely recovering the parasites, I left the mountain crawler's body and moved on again.

If it were any other time, we would have disposed of the corpse by eating it, but the situation is not so easy. Because of this heavy weapon on my shoulder, the police and androids would have been dispatched here a long time ago.

No matter how fast I eat, I can't handle 6m of food before the police arrive. If you don't eat it all, the predation effect won't activate, so it's better to use it for other purposes.

'Because the smuggler tried to take out the Mountain Crawler but failed and ran away.'

The body of the man who was fatally wounded by a stray bullet and the traces of battle remaining here and there will serve as evidence.

'That's why Cyborg didn't eat it either.'

The role he will play is that of a smuggler who, unlike his colleagues, was unable to escape. I put the cyborg's head I had pulled out into the mouth of the mountain crawler corpse.

'I guess this is enough, right?'

Of course, if the police investigate, they will realize that something is strange. However, it is unlikely that they, who do not even know of my existence, would think that another monster existed at the scene of the incident. They'll probably be looking for smugglers who are already dead.

'good. Then, let's pack our things and leave quickly.'

Auxiliary organs warn. Footsteps are heard outside the port district.

I picked up the paralyzed heavy artilleryman again. The next thing to take care of is the cult's corpse.

Avoiding the direction where the police and androids were moving, they picked up the cult member's body first and then returned to the direction where the kids were.

While I did not come, No. 26 and Adhai had finished eating. I removed the armored suit from the sniper's headless, mummified body.

'I'll take it and take a look.'

It is very important to check the enemy's armament. Especially if it's information I don't know, I need to check it as soon as possible.

'If it's not a relic-grade reinforced suit, it can be mass-produced, so we need to prepare for that.'

After taking the reinforced suit, I picked up Jade, who was still paralyzed.

'As expected, having four arms for combat is convenient in times like this.'

All you have to do is carry one person on each arm. But it seems that other kids didn't see it that way.

No. 26 must have seemed heavy as I was carrying three people and a reinforced suit, so Number 26 called me.

｢Can I help you?｣

I was about to say it was okay, but I changed my mind when I saw how big the guy was.

'You can at least carry a reinforced suit, right?'

When I handed him what he was holding, he pulled out a tentacle and wrapped it around a reinforced suit. The guy who made the reinforced suit into the shape of a fork wrapped around spaghetti noodles and fastened it tightly took out the fins that were hidden inside his body.

It moved its fins and tried walking back and forth a few times and blinked the light on its body as if there was no problem.

"it's okay. Let's go."

To be honest, I expected growth in the combat aspect, but it seems like the utility aspect has also grown significantly.

'A remarkable guy.'

I wanted to pet him, but I thought he might drop the reinforcement suit, so I stopped. He seemed to know how I felt and his body lit up as if he wanted to receive my heart.

After cleaning up and before returning to the nest, I called William and instructed him to clean up after himself.

There is a mountain crawler's body and traces of a smuggler, so it won't be too difficult for William to manipulate the situation.

Also, as far as I know, William was the one chasing the smugglers in the port district from the beginning. No police officer would think it strange that such a person was here in the early morning.

"…All right."

After giving instructions to William, I headed to the nest with the kids.

And so the early morning hunt ended.

There were no encounters with enemies on the way home. As the police's attention was focused on the center of the port district, the outskirts of the district were less vigilant than usual. Thanks to this, we were able to enter the underground easily.

When I arrived at the nest, I put down Jade and the heavy weapons. I would die if I stayed too long because of the toxic gas, but it didn't matter.

They'll eat us anyway before they suffocate from the gas.

[Zuzuz, zuzuzu, zuzu (This food is yours.)]

｢Adult｣｢Thank you｣

I handed over the heavy weapons to Adhai. Paralyzed, he looked at Jade with pitiful eyes, but there was nothing he could do.

I just watch my comrade's end with sad eyes.

"Ugh! Ugh!"

Aadhai spread out a mound of tentacles and covered his face.

The suction cups at the ends of the long, thin tentacles clung to various parts of the heavy weapons trooper's head. And the small, sharp teeth on the suckers dug mercilessly into his skin.

"ugh! Ugh! "Bwak!"

As if sucking a drink through a straw, the tentacles moved and vigorously sucked up the blood.

As expected, since it is a baby gallagon, it seems that it is still not full after already eating one person.

No. 26 seemed uninterested in Aadhai's meal, as he was already full. He leaned against the corner of the nest and slept quietly.

While the kids were doing their own thing, I picked up the cultist's body. When she was killed, her abdomen was cut open with claws, so her internal organs were spilling out.

'Normally, I eat from the head first, but…'

You don't always have to stick to the same way of eating.

I ripped out the cultist's intestines and put them in my mouth.

'Are you okay?'

Human meat literally tasted like meat, but cult meat had a complex and unique flavor.

'It feels like jelly and a bit like tripe, doesn't it? It's a unique texture.'

It tasted closer to the sweetness of sugar rather than the unique sourness of fruit like Cyborg. The texture was a bit softer than that of humans, but it didn't feel completely soft.

'I'm glad. I was worried because I would have to eat a lot of cult food in the future.'

She may be unusual, but if other cults tasted like this, I'd be happy to eat them.

So I ate every last part of the cult's corpse.

Finally, after chewing on a piece of her broken horn, a translucent text box reported that some of the evolution conditions had been met.

'I finally filled a cult.'

The predation effect did not activate.

If she had acquired her Soul Link technology, her range of tactics would have been more diverse, but it's a shame.

While I was eating the cult, Aadhai had already finished his meal and was sleeping.

Until yesterday, when No. 26 was with him, Aadhai would hold No. 26 in his arms, but now it was the opposite. Because No. 26 has grown, it looks like he is sleeping while hugging Aadhai.

'great job.'

After taking a look at the sleeping ones, I stood in front of the last prey. Jade was crawling on the floor with her body turned over, as if the anesthesia had worn off slightly.

'There's no need to be anesthetized, right?'

I grabbed him and lifted him up. His body smelled bad, as if he had urinated after seeing his colleague being eaten.

Of course, I am not a picky eater, so I opened my mouth wide to bite his head.

"Wait…!"

Just as he was about to chew his head off, he shouted loudly.

"You know how to speak Saman, right? I can help you! "If you spare me, I will serve you!"

Jade shouted desperately.

'hmm.'

This is another refreshing reaction.

So far, the reactions of the people I've tried to prey on have been almost the same. This is the first time that someone has offered such a negotiation, just asking for their lives.

'how will we do it.'

I thought about what benefits I would gain from using Jade as a slave while holding Jade.

'I could give you information about Sihyeon Eugene, but…'

She has already died and became my nourishment for a long time. If Sihyeon wasn't dead, he could get information from Jade, but in the current situation, the information he has is useless.

'Is there any advantage to using it only as a slave?'

Looking at the clothes he was wearing, he didn't look like he was working in a high-ranking position in this city. In the first place, there was no way he could get a proper job after escaping from prison and hiding in the city.

'Maybe it's a police officer or someone in a professional profession like William. Jade's job doesn't help me.'

And Jade is a dangerous person for me to rule over as a parasite.

If you were Sihyeon Eugene's subordinate, you would have seen a wide variety of genes and what effects they had. If so, you may know parasite-related genes, ways to avoid being dominated by parasites, etc.

After considering it again, I made a decision.

'There is no need.'

Jade is not useful to me. The only value he has is his flesh.

"Now wait…!"

I ignored the last cry and just chewed on its head.

The strengthened jaw crushed the guy's head in one fell swoop. The debris inside flowed out and down my throat.

'hmm.'

It was an interesting taste in a different sense than cult. This one tasted like it had been heavily loaded with chemical seasoning.

'It's not that it doesn't taste good…'

I cooked it with good ingredients, but it tasted like each ingredient played separately. Would you say it feels like an inexperienced chef made it with all kinds of precious ingredients and then served it with plenty of seasoning?

'But it's not to the point where I can't eat it.'

The cult side had less meat, so it felt a bit lacking. Perhaps thanks to my moderate hunger, I was able to finish off Jade's meat.

The moment I ate it all.

｢Some of the 'subadult- >subadult' evolution conditions have been met.

Intelligence body capable of transformation 2/20 (not achieved) Humanoid intelligence body 14/20 (not achieved) Intelligence body using psychic power 1/20 (not achieved) ｣

"Predation effect activated! Successfully acquired the 'Metal Absorption' gene essence.｣

｢Taken away 'Metal Absorption' from the biological characteristics of 'Metallic Gremlin'.｣

｢Do you want to apply 'Metal Absorption'?｣

A semi-transparent text window appeared.

'Metallic Gremlin?'

Clearly the jade I ate was human. Metallic gremlins look much more hideous than humans and are smaller in size.

I was not mistaken when I saw that it was counted as a humanoid intelligence.

Then there is one conclusion. Jade, like Sihyeon Eugene, is also a being that has undergone genetic modification.

'Why did it taste so strange?'

Unlike Sihyeon and Eugene, who were perfect, Jade's taste was very strange, and in fact, I think it was due to inappropriate genetic modification.

'Well, if it was a transfer of the Metallic Gremlin's genes, it would be the perfect match for me.'

Metallic Gremlins are a species with unique abilities such as eating metal, paralyzing electronic devices, or blocking the effects of equipment. Thanks to this, it is the end of the war against cyborg androids, but it is very disadvantageous to Amorph and Outspacer, who do not use any electronic equipment.

'Jade was unlucky.'

His ability would have been very useful if the goal was terrorism, but his bad luck was that the opponent was me.

'Absorb metal.'

Metal absorption is the ability to reflect some of the properties and effects of the ingested object onto the outer shell for a certain period of time when you ingest metal or equipment.

For example, if you consume Black Silver, which is resistant to psychic powers, with metal absorption activated, your outer shell will temporarily have high resistance to psychic powers.

If you look at it this way, it seems like a very good feature, but unfortunately it has two drawbacks.

First of all, the duration of the effect of metal absorption is short. The basic 10-minute physical strengthening type effect increases to 20 minutes, but it is difficult to consider it as long.

And once the effect has been used, it automatically expires after the time limit expires. If you want to enjoy the effect again, you must activate the trait and re-consume the same metal.

Because of these shortcomings, it should not be used at any time, but it can be said to be a feature that only pays off if used carefully.

'It has a lot of shortcomings, but it's a trait I need right now.'

As I am vulnerable to long-range weapons, there are not enough characteristics to increase my defense. There are many ways to use it, such as using metal absorption to increase my defense when under heavy fire from enemies.

'And metal absorption is classified as a physical trait.'

Currently, the total number of body-related characteristics I have is 12, and if I obtain metal absorption, the total number will be 13.

That means the time has come to try out the transcendental system.

With a pounding heart, I accepted the application of the new trait.