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'Cargo compartment?'

The team leader lingered in front of the cargo bay for several minutes. He confirmed that no one was coming and entered the password. When the door opened, I hurried in to see someone.

Although there is a separate cargo bay manager, it is not unusual for the material management team leader to know the password since he is a senior in his position.

'But why are you hiding it like that?'

You can just go in confidently, but being wary of your surroundings like that is clearly unnatural.

He didn't come out for 30 minutes, wondering what he was doing inside.

When we tracked the team leader's movements using an auxiliary device, we found that he was repeatedly moving around the cargo compartment.

He continued his senseless actions for an hour and then left the cargo hold.

I entered an empty cargo hold. The smell of dust and metal mixed in the air entered my senses.

Instead of the smooth alloy plate I had stepped on a while ago, I was greeted by a rough grating-type floor.

Maybe it's because I've grown so big that I hear footsteps every time I walk. In this case, hunting cockroaches will no longer be possible.

'Well, now I have to eat people and livestock.'

As the size increases, the strength also improves, but the amount of calories consumed also increases.

I started tracing the remnants left behind by the team leader. The sweat he shed and the marks left by foreign substances on his feet became a guidepost and guided me.

The place he stayed the longest was in front of a container.

'I need an ID card and a fingerprint reader.'

The container that seemed to be related to the team leader had a fairly high level of security. It was different from other containers that only required the manager's ID card.

'I can't even sense it.'

The plate was so thick that even with the reinforced auxiliary organs, it was difficult to determine what was inside.

The team leader is clearly hiding something important.

It started out as interest, but as it progressed, I became more curious.

'Should the next target be the material management team leader?'

Originally, I was going to aim for the medical team leader.

However, looking at the current situation, it doesn't seem to be easy. Since he probably knows better than anyone else that his subordinate has met a mysterious death, he is sure to be extremely alert.

In that case, one way would be to target easy prey.

'The cargo bay manager and the material management team themselves seemed to have a relaxed atmosphere.'

If so, wouldn't everyone be suspicious even if the team leader disappeared?

With that, my goal was set.

–

"Team leader, stop drinking now."

"I'll just have one more drink."

"Why are you so soggy today?"

The material management team leader didn't feel like living these days.

In addition to material management, he also had a small side job. The task was to obtain creatures whose trade was prohibited and sell them to high-ranking officials.

Before boarding the ship, there was something he found on the black market.

An egg from a mysterious creature that is not even registered in the Megacorp database.

He, who traded all kinds of rare animals, saw this egg for the first time in his life. The cult merchant who sold the egg said it was an egg obtained from a forgotten ancient ruin.

'The ancient creature is Niimi…'

Whatever the origin, he smelled money. After purchasing the eggs, I contacted the customer and they were immediately interested.

Promising to do business on a planet where a research ship would stop along the way, he secretly loaded the egg onto the ship.

Until then, I believed that everything would work out well.

That is, until the morgue fire incident occurred.

When he heard a team leader say something in passing, he couldn't believe it.

They say it might be the work of an alien creature.

He immediately went to the cargo hold and checked.

The container door was slightly open. One of the eggs that was supposed to be sleeping quietly inside was empty.

'Damn, I should have checked this a long time ago!'

After boarding the ship, he checked just once to make sure the eggs were in good condition.

If the container door had been closed properly that day, even if the eggs had hatched, nothing would have happened.

Or rather, if he hadn't been drinking that day, he wouldn't have made that mistake.

"…Alcohol is your enemy. "Alcohol."

"manager. "Let's go in now."

One mistake while locking down the door caused three people to suddenly become deceased.

Moreover, among the dead is Noble Capital.

The monster that hatched from the egg and killed people may still be wandering around the ship, but the team leader couldn't go and complain.

I was scared that the captain would lose his temper and kill himself before Noble Capital's retaliation.

This was the reason why the team leader stayed up all night drinking every day.

"Ugh."

The team members shook their heads and left the bar. Next to me, the bartender clicked his tongue.

"The door is closed."

"Just one drink. "I'll just have one more drink and then I'll be gone."

"phew. All right."

With each gulp of synthetic liquor, my agony became diluted. Although he said that alcohol was his enemy, his body was as usual.

In the end, the team leader became drunk again today and left the bar.

"Sweet haircut… ugh. "I don't know if it's that short…?"

The team leader let out a belch mixed with profanity.

The hallway where he stood alone was immersed in silence. Except for the slight vibration created by the powerful beating of the nuclear reactor, the heart of the ship, almost no other sound was heard.

Because night in space has arrived.

There is no concept of day and night in space, but humanity's ships artificially created night at certain times. This was to ensure a good night's sleep for the crew.

The research ship led by Yoo Seong Samuel was no exception, and an artificial night fell on the ship.

The team leader walked unsteadily through the silence.

It was a hallway I always walked down, but today it felt unfamiliar.

Is it because I was drunk? I felt an unknown chill in a familiar space.

He had an ominous premonition that a terrible danger was lurking beyond the bright lights of the hallway.

"Ai ssiipal…. Cheshuup."

The team leader denied his premonition.

He swore in a tongue-in-cheek tone and headed to his room.

The sound of his shoes echoed in the hallway made of high-strength plywood with no visible cracks.

'huh?'

A foreign sound reached his ears. At first he thought it was his own footsteps, but something was different.

The sound was too quiet for a human. It was a small, low sound, like a wild animal walking with its toes raised to hide its sound.

Feeling strange, the team leader stopped in place. Then the sound of footsteps following me stopped.

A hallway engulfed in silence.

The team leader had goosebumps all over his body.

Something unknown is following him.

"Nyu nyugyu?!"

I shouted, but there was no answer.

It felt like someone forcibly poured cold water on me. He sobered up and hurried his steps.

The shoe makes a dissonant sound as it hits the hard metal floor. The sound of strange footsteps following them gets

faster and

faster, as if competing with them.

Beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat,

'What the hell?!'

Maybe a teammate was playing a prank.

Even if you weren't a teammate, there was a way to confront the person who was pulling such disgusting pranks head-on.

But he didn't.

In a corner of his alcohol-addled brain, a feeling was shouting to him.

Never confront that being.

After turning the corner of the hallway, the team leader glanced back.

The team leader saw that clearly.

The shadow of a long tail reminiscent of a snake passes by in an instant.

'Oh my gosh!'

It is "it".

An alien creature that goes around killing people.

The space killer that has devoured the research team leader and the security guard is targeting him.

The team leader's movements became urgent. I forced my legs, which had become dull due to the alcohol content, to drag them.

His appearance was like a deer running away after being shot by a hunter.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!'

His face was a mess of saliva, tears, and snot. My clothes had already been soaked with cold sweat for a long time and no longer did their job.

A light sound, like a popping sound.

I can hear the footsteps of "it" behind me.

The sound that had only been heard a little while ago suddenly became loud enough to be mixed with his breathing.

The presence of "it" following from behind becomes clear. A growl that is not human licks his spine.

Even though I was drunk, the cool sensation was so clear that it was stuck in my mind.

The team leader wanted to scream, but couldn't.

The moment he made a loud sound, it felt like "it" would attack him.

He barely arrived in front of the room and frantically entered the password. I don't think I've ever pressed the license plate number this quickly since I got on the boat.

"Tch! Open it quickly!"

Finally the door opened and he quickly entered the room.

The moment he closed the door, the door vibrated loudly, as if it had been hit by something. The team leader fell to the floor from the shock.

He froze in his sleep.

As if the shock from earlier was a lie, there was no sound beyond the door.

The team leader could feel it.

"It" is still out there.

"That phone! "You have to call…!"

He barely came to his senses and remembered the emergency phone in his bedroom. Because of the tension, his legs completely gave out and he did not listen to his master. He had no choice but to crawl on the floor like a slug.

It was then.

A sound that should never have been heard reached his ears.

His head creaked and returned to the doorway, like a doll hanging by a string

.

"It" is entering the password.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

A cheerful notification rang out of proportion to the situation. The door lock was unlocked and the door slowly opened.

–

The hunt was easily successful.

Is it correct to call it hunting?

It's just a case of pushing a drunk person into a corner.

'It was easy because my lifestyle was simple.'

After observing for two days, the material management team leader's daily routine was the same without a single difference. During the day, I stayed in the material management room and lounged around, and in the evening, I spent the night drinking at the bar on board.

The boss was so pathetic that the team members didn't pay attention to where he was or what he was doing.

I wonder if Yoosung knows that his subordinate is a salary thief.

He should thank me. Because I am reducing the number of people wasting their salaries.

'Thanks to you, it's good for me.'

Originally I was going to wait 3 or 4 days, but it wasn't necessary. I decided to attack him while he was drunk.

As expected, he wasted time at the bar today. We have already confirmed that there are no surveillance cameras from the bar to the material management team leader's room.

All that's left is to leisurely enjoy herd hunting.

I didn't intentionally attack him to corner him. He followed my intentions just by showing me briefly in between. I was dissatisfied with the fact that the speed of running away was slow due to the alcohol, but other than that, I was satisfied with everything else.

He ran away and hid in his room. An iron gate that could not be penetrated by anything less than a laser weapon stood between him and me.

You're probably relieved. An iron door made of ultra-high-strength alloy material based on titanium will protect you.

It's not wrong. It's still impossible to break through the door with my fingernails.

However, if your body is tired, you can use your head. My faithful servant Auxiliary read the fingerprints on the license plate.

The material management team leader may never have intended it, but now I am no different from a guest who received an invitation.

The door opened very easily and a terrified face appeared inside.

There was no way a civilian without any weapons could resist Eimov.

'thank you for this food.'

He easily became my prey.

To be honest, the taste of the material management team leader was so-so. There was plenty of fat, but the smell of alcohol was so strong that I couldn't taste much of it.

Of course, since I am not a picky eater, I ate everything except the thumb that would be used for fingerprint recognition.

'Where is the ID card?'

I looked around the room while picking my teeth with my small arms. A soft-looking mat was placed on the stainless steel bed. There was a cabinet and a desk against the wall.

'oh?'

There was a poster of a half-naked woman on the wall. It was quite sexy, but I didn't feel anything because my body was like this.

I stopped paying attention to the poster and walked towards the desk. Empty liquor bottles and piles of documents were piled on the old desk.

'I'll do some cleaning.'

As I was looking through the documents, my ID card fell out.

I got everything I could. I left the room with my ID card in one hand and my fingers clasped in the other.

'I'll go right away.'

After gathering all the necessary items, I went to the cargo hold.

Standing in front of the container in the cargo hold, I first put my ID card on the recognition plate. The red light on the terminal above the recognition plate changed to green, and a message to proceed to the next procedure appeared. When the head of the material management team pressed the recognition plate with his thumb, the door creaked and opened.

'What a jar of honey there is.'

As I stepped into the container, a cold chill swept over my body.

There were several freezer tubes inside. There were various types of living things inside the freezer.

'This gentleman was a smuggler.'

If there was a problem on board, I would have let others know, but I was sobbing to myself, and I never thought something like this would happen.

As I was looking around the freezers, I saw something I knew well in one of them.

'Eimorph's egg?'

Two freezer tubes contained Aimorph eggs.

One of the eggs was plump and full, while the other was empty.

Empty egg. The material management team leader was looking for something in confusion.

'Is this really the egg my body came from?'

I thought it was strange.

In the game, Aimorph's starting location was not a steel ship like this, but an unidentified historical site.

'You were trying to smuggle me out.'

Looking at what was put in the freezer, it looks like the material management team leader was trying to sell Amorph's eggs somewhere. I don't know what happened along the way, but one egg hatched and escaped the container.

It seemed like the owner of my body probably died right after I escaped.

'And then my consciousness entered.'

It was easy to guess why the previous owner died. Since they were just born, they probably lacked nutrients.

'It also explains why they caught and ate cockroaches.'

No matter how much I liked Amorph, it wasn't easy for human sensibilities to catch and eat a cockroach as soon as they saw it.

Perhaps it was the body's instinct to survive.

'….'

Looking at the traces left by the previous owner of the body, I felt a sense of confusion.

Even though it wasn't my intention, thanks to his struggle to survive, I was able to start in a not bad situation.

I bowed my head in front of the egg from which it was born. He was dead anyway and had no way of understanding human behavior, but I just wanted to do it.

'The memorial ends here.'

Now that the human action is over, it is time to do the Aimorphic action.

I opened the freezer and started eating the other healthy eggs.

The Aimorph hatchling that was sleeping inside was also eaten.

Aimorphs are hostile to all races. That race also includes fellow tribesmen.

'The one that is born first eats all the other eggs.'

Perhaps Aimorph is the embodiment of the extreme struggle for survival.

There are two advantages to eating other hatchlings or eggs after birth.

The point is that it can supply the nutrients that are lacking in the hatchling state, and the genetic essence of the Amorph can be obtained quickly.

If a trait such as extra sense is strengthened through the same genetic essence, it is very helpful in the beginning.

I expected to obtain the essence, but unfortunately the predation message did not appear. As I was savoring my appetite with regret, another freezer came into view.

'Now that I think about it, there's a lot of food?'

The owner of the freezer tubes in the container is in my stomach.

The owner of the freezer was a smuggler, so no one else on this ship would know of the existence of this container.

That means that even if I eat it all, no one will say anything.

I opened the freezer and ate the creatures inside one by one. Contrary to appearances, the material management team leader seemed to be doing a pretty good job as a smuggler, and there were many rare creatures.

Thanks to this, I was able to secure several rare genetic essences.

｢Species: Unidentified hostile space creature

Status: Fluid

Goal: Survive (successfully evolve once).

Possessed characteristics: Predator sense (fusion) Wings Chitinous outer shell Strong vitality Neurotoxin gland (fusion) Reinforced exoskeleton Acidic blood Superpower Organs Strengthened leg strength Mimic type: Undetermined｣ ｢Currently, there are two types of specialization possible.｣ ｢Physical

enhancement

type

(8/ 10) Superpower enhancement type (2/3) ｣

'Okay. Now there are only two left.'

To get the physical enhancement type, you only need to acquire two more characteristics.

When I ate Kisaragi, I was honestly a bit disappointed. This is because they hoped to gain psychic power abilities, but ended up with a useless psychic power organ.

But the material management team leader gave me such a precious gift.

In particular, it is encouraging to gain powerful characteristics early in the game that would have been obtained only later in the game.

Of all the traits I have, this is the trait that allows me to kill crew members most effectively.

With this ability, you can move a little more actively.

There is a way to hide and slowly tighten the crew for a long time, but the day of contact with the Space Dog is not far away. Since we don't know how dangerous they can be, we need to become as strong as possible before that.

'Genetic essences, wait.'

Even if you scream in space, there is no one anywhere who can hear you.

The same goes for this research vessel.

The pitiful cries of the crew will be buried in that black abyss.