035

Ep. 35

'Let's take care of this before we go out.'

There is something to do while No. 26 is draining his brains. I cut off the ankle of the man next door and put it in the refrigerator.

'Once my role as Lars is over, I have to imitate this person.'

The organ of mimicry is a trait that is mimicked by eating flesh and analyzing its genes. There is no need to eat all the meat, like when activating the saturation effect.

'You don't need to keep everything, so just keep some of it.'

If you put it in the refrigerator, you may be able to slow down the spoilage a little. Even so, it would be unreasonable to take more than two days.

After disposing of the body, I took out the communicator.

'Next…'

Who should I call out?

Looking at his contact information, I found that Lars' personal relationships were extremely narrow. Other than the team leader, there was no one who seemed to know the broker.

'The team leader is burdened.'

As was the case with the research vessel, if you are a team leader at a government office in a space city, you belong to a medium or higher level of capital.

No matter how low you set it, would it be a middle capital or a higher tier like third capital? He is on a different level from someone like Ras, who can be easily replaced.

'You'll know as soon as that person disappears.'

The situation now is different from when I killed Yujin Kisaragi.

She is a Noble Capital, a class too high for the people on the research ship to handle.

Megacorp is a competitive society, but at the same time, it is a contradictory organization that is a rigid pyramid-shaped society with entrenched class mobility.

The higher the level of capital, the more cruel they tend to be to their subordinates to prevent them from rising to the top.

It will be even worse for Noble Capital because it is located at the top of the megacorp pyramid.

As a result, everyone was afraid of Noble Capital's retaliation and had no choice but to respond passively to her sudden death. Their timid response ultimately brought them great misfortune.

'It's ironic. The death of the highest-ranking person is hidden, while the death of the lowest-ranking person is known.'

Moreover, the smuggled animal control team seemed quite busy. If the person in charge disappears in the meantime, there will be chaos. You have to choose someone else.

'I don't think it's this person, and it's not him…huh?'

While checking the messages on the communicator, there was a contact that appeared particularly frequently. There was only a message asking if you were going to the store after work today, but he was the person you communicated with Lars the most.

'That's understandable.'

The opponent's name is Lloyd. He was a friend who shared a secret hobby with Lars.

Speaking of businesses in special trade centers, they were famous in online communities because they were places that clearly showed a dark, dystopian worldview.

There is so much talk about ethics that it was mentioned several times in the news.

In any case, anyone who enjoys such immoral entertainment may know about brokers.

'It seems like you and Lars are close friends…'

Considering that we were in contact with each other until yesterday, it seems like we have a special relationship with Lars.

I sent a message to Lloyd using my small arms.

"Hey, let me ask you something."

"I heard you quit the company? What happened when the crazy dog went on a rampage?"

"I'm sick of it because there's so much going on. "I'm going to work somewhere else."

"The work here is a bit shitty. "Where are you going?"

"This is all I've learned, so what else are you going to do?" "We should do something similar."

"Similar work?"

"Huh. "Smuggling or something."

It seemed like I brought up the topic hastily, but I couldn't help it. Because I don't know how Lars usually expresses himself. The longer the story goes, the more gaps there are.

'It's better to end it as short as possible.'

The other side, which used to reply immediately to messages, didn't respond this time whether I needed to think about it or not. A few minutes passed and the communicator rang again.

"Didn't you say before that you don't do dangerous things?"

Lloyd seems to have discussed smuggling with Ras once before. It seems like Lars refused at the time.

"Now that I think about it again, I don't really have any money to make."

"You idiot." Do you really think you can now do what everyone else is doing?"

"I have to try it now."

"Okay. I'll send you the information by email."

"Why don't you just meet up today and talk?"

"Let's meet up?"

"I know of a bar in the port district."

"You're not that type, are you?" You're shooting alcohol? "

" I retired at best, but I can buy a drink for my colleague

. " good. "What time do you want to see me?"

To be honest, I was a bit nervous about this, but Lloyd didn't have any doubts, so it went well.

'Things are going well.'

I sent him a message with the location and time.

The location is an alley on the border of the port district. It is as close as possible to the manhole connected to the secret underground passage.

The time was set for evening. In this city, there are a lot of people walking around both day and night, but there is a world of difference in whether there is bright light or not. Of course, if you want to hide yourself as much as possible in the dark, you have to meet at night.

'There will be no regrets if you eat it when the other person gets home from work.'

I sent a message and got a reply right away. It was some miscellaneous information about how he would be bored if he went to the business alone in the future now that he was retired.

'There's no need to be bored.'

Anyway, that side will follow the same path as Lars.

'I received a confirmation.'

There is still a lot of time left until evening. Taking genetic essence from this apartment was on hold for now, so I had to spend time in this house.

"I'm full."

I looked at No. 26 and saw that he had become fat, as if he had eaten until his stomach exploded. The boy waddled up onto the soft bed and fell asleep.

'You're still young, so you should sleep a lot.'

After covering him with a blanket, I opened the laptop again. I need to go through the list before meeting Lars' colleague Lloyd.

Going through the list carefully, I checked off cases where multiple creatures of the same type had been seized.

'The predation effect is triggered by probability, so the more creatures of the same species, the better.'

As I checked, I saw that there were all kinds of creatures. These were all creatures I had seen at least once in the game, but some of them made me wonder if they were really trying to smuggle them out.

'There's also a mountain crawler cub. How did you catch this? And…oh?'

As I was looking at the list, admiring the smugglers' skills, I came across an unusual name.

'You caught the outspacer?'

I quickly checked the items next to the name and found that the transfer item was blank. That means the outspacer is still here.

'The number is 20.'

It would be nice to have a queen, but since it is not written separately, it seems like there are only soldiers, but that alone is a great harvest for me.

'Because outspacer genes are useful.'

As the name suggests, Outspacers are an alien race from outside the universe. There are many similarities to Amorphs, such as collecting genes to strengthen them and antagonizing races other than the same race.

The difference is that, unlike Amorph, players operate as a colony rather than as an individual, and cooperation and conversation are possible among Outspacers.

Simply put, Amorph is XIXUN Outspacer is inspired by XG from the classic game.

Since I'm crazy about alien life, I've been playing Outspacer for quite some time.

'In fact, it is upward compatible with Amorph.'

When the player selects an outspacer, the main goal is to become the colony queen of that species and grow the colony. If you catch another creature and absorb its genes, that creature's genes will be reflected in the soldiers the queen gives birth to.

The Outspacers were a race with a typical king-gui type mechanism in which soldiers collected stronger genes and the colony grew larger as their soldiers became stronger.

Compared to Amorph, which is a similar demon-type race but treated miserably, Outspacer was evaluated by the community as a high-difficulty race with great potential.

This is because the colony can grow into a completely different type depending on the player's choices.

In terms of performance, it is a race that quickly becomes stronger if you endure the difficult beginning, so it was quite loved by players who value performance over concept.

'Still, I like Amorph better.'

If you play Amorph, it is best to get the Outspacer gene if you get the chance. This is because not only are there many helpful characteristics, but they are also related to type acquisition.

'Let's take care of him first.'

Although 20 is a small number, it is good to expect a predation effect since they are eating the living creatures as they are, not samples.

In addition, other useful foods were also checked one by one. Unfortunately, since smuggling is smuggling, there were not many cases where more than 10 animals were brought in.

'Even if I shake it all off, I might not be able to find many characteristics.'

I guess I'll have to rely on luck for this part.

As I was choosing what to eat, a dark shadow began to form in the room.

The time to hunt for food is approaching.

I woke up No. 26 and left the house together.

A dull darkness fell over the entire city. Street lights illuminated the dark residential district.

'Last time there were people around, so it was a bit distracting…'

Late at night, there are police patrolling around residential areas.

In the past, I had to break streetlights to avoid their gaze, but if I keep breaking them, people will get suspicious. Today, rather than destroying streetlights, I will avoid them as much as possible.

I moved through rooftops and exterior walls, jumping between dense apartments.

Although the distance between the apartments was considerable, there was no major problem in running far away thanks to the effect of the leg strength enhancement feature. When landing, I was careful to spread the wings on my back and make as little noise as possible.

'I'm glad there aren't many people because it's still before work time.'

As we moved quickly, we soon got closer to the manhole cover. There was a manhole in front of me, but I hid instead of running straight away.

"Baby, what's wrong?"

[Zuzu (enemy)]

"Enemy?"

An android was patrolling around the manhole.

'It's a combat-type android.'

Unlike the android I saw on the pirate ship last time, it had three arms. In addition to the two arms that resemble human arms, a combat right arm equipped with a Gauss rifle was added near the waist.

'That's strange. 'Androids use Gauss rifles?'

The Gauss Rifle is a high-firepower weapon below the plasma weapon level and is highly effective against heavily armored enemies. By analogy, it can be said to be a plasma weapon with lower cost and destructive power.

However, just as plasma weapons have the disadvantage of being very expensive, Gauss rifles are also expensive equipment for ordinary soldiers or androids to use. The gun costs more than a low-level reinforced suit, and above all, the ammunition is very expensive.

'Because tungsten ammunition is used, it is bound to be expensive.'

Anyway, the level of Android armament that I knew was never that high.

Even if this city has a lot of money, it is not rich enough to equip a single android with a Gauss rifle that uses expensive tungsten ammunition like water.

Unless there are special circumstances where patrolling androids need to be armed with Gauss rifles.

'Are there any events or festivals?'

T&C Special Trade Center was a place where various events were held, including gaming. As it is a city with a lot of tourists, it wasn't particularly strange that a festival that I didn't know about was being held.

If a festival is held, many people will come here, so the level of vigilance and security will naturally increase. The reason the androids are armed to a higher level than usual may be related to the festival.

'Should I say I was lucky or bad?'

I came in safely, but I had no idea there was a festival scheduled to take place.

While I was lost in thought, a heavily armed android wandered around the manhole and then disappeared somewhere. After waiting for a while and making sure no one was around, I approached the manhole.

I, who was lightly carrying a heavy piece of metal that could not be lifted by human strength, let No. 26 in first. Finally, I looked around one more time and went into the manhole.

When we touched the manhole cover, we were greeted by pitch-black darkness, like a black hole, without a single ray of light.

｢Baby, where are we going?｣

[Zuzu zuzuzu (We'll go the way we came)] Neither

you nor I can say that we can't see just because there's no light. It has auxiliary organs that sense airflow and waves throughout its body.

It seems to me. There is a small tunnel about 5 meters high that extends all the way to the end of the ground.

Inside the tunnel, trash discarded by workers in the past and cigarette butts that someone in the city had thrown into the cracks of manhole covers were scattered on the floor.

Dust was periodically poured from the walls surrounding the tunnel due to the vibrations created by the subway as it moved.

I walked towards our destination with No. 26.

'Let's lay down spores in advance on the way.'

Originally, they planned to spread spores after preparing a nest, but if there is a festival in the city, it is a different story. If you have a surveillance network in place in advance, you can easily respond when unexpected situations occur.

When the contamination organ of the lower right arm of the fighting arm was activated, sticky black-brown mucus mixed with spores flowed out. The spore mass that left my body slowly encroached on the inside of the tunnel, as if telling me not to worry.

Since polluting organs are also a trait that receives strengthening effects, after about two days, the spores will grow as much as if I had made the nest myself.

'This is what the surveillance network is like.'

I arrived at my destination when most of the spores had covered the road connecting the residential district and the port district. I carefully opened the manhole cover and looked outside.

'As expected, there is no one.'

Perhaps because it is the border between districts, people do not travel around this area. If you're going to another district, take the subway, don't walk.

[Zuzuzu Zuzu (Wait here)]

｢Why? I want to go with you.」

[Zuzu zuzuzu zuzu (The enemy is afraid of you)]

The guy seemed to have remembered that Lars was afraid of him, so he shrunk glumly. I'm sorry to say this, but people were afraid of No. 26, so I couldn't help it.

I hid number 26 under the manhole and went to the meeting place. The other side hasn't arrived yet. I crouched down in a dark alley with my mimicry organ activated.

'come.'

After about 10 minutes of waiting, someone walked towards me from far away.