002

Cargo Where will we go next?

Actually, I have already decided where to go.

'Let's go to the cooling room next to the reactor.'

Even with the advent of the space age, the way humans deal with heat has not changed much from before. Next to the nuclear fusion engine, or reactor, which was the heart of the ship, there was a cooling room in charge of temperature control.

'The cooling room is an important facility, so not many people visit it.'

Because it is the most important facility, it is under tight security, but if you think about it conversely, it means that there are fewer visitors. Can we say that it is dark under the lamp? As long as I don't physically touch the cooling room, the area around the cooling room is a good place to grow while avoiding the gaze of guards.

Another advantage is that the cooling room is located right next to the reactor.

For example, even if people discover my presence, the cooling room is an easy place to use as a last resort.

'If it doesn't work out, we can just destroy the reactor and cooling room and run away.'

If there is a problem in the cooling room, it means that there is a problem in the nuclear reactor, and a ship with a heart problem has no choice but to stop operating.

When operation is stopped, all survival facilities that maintain the internal environment also cease to function.

At first, they tried to revive the ship by turning on the auxiliary engine, but even that did not last long. Just as a creature with a destroyed heart cannot escape death, the same goes for a ship.

If there is no planet nearby to crash-land on, the people on the ship have only one fate.

The only miserable fate is to kill and kill each other in order to survive even a little longer in the depleted oxygen.

Of course, if the ship stops, I also have nowhere to go, so attacking the reactor should be left as a last resort.

'Then let's go.'

I ate two more calorie bars before leaving. With my stomach full, I jumped up to the ceiling. The tiny suckers between the claws held my body firmly against the ceiling.

It is said that the reason insects can climb walls is because of sucker-shaped protrusions called baths. It is said that a strong sticky substance is secreted from the bathtub, helping the bathtub to go up and down the smooth wall easily.

Like insects, I was able to move easily even while hanging upside down from the ceiling thanks to the substance coming out of the suckers between my claws.

As I stood upside down on the ceiling and walked lightly, I saw an entrance leading to a ventilation shaft.

It looked like a window fan enlarged to the size of a child, with a wire mesh screwed to the outside.

Inside, the huge blade was busy doing its job without a break, making a bloody sound.

'It's still impossible to tear down the wire mesh.'

It would have been nice to break everything down nicely, but it was impossible in the hatchling state.

Even that thin wire mesh is made of a special alloy refined with advanced technology. If I hit it with my claws blindly, my claws will break.

'I guess I'll have to borrow the power of intelligence here.'

I raised my claws and turned the screw that held the wire mesh in place. If the humans on the ship had paid more attention to security, they would have tinkered with this as well, but fortunately, they were the ones who set the cargo number to 1234.

The first cordon blocking the ventilation shaft was easily neutralized by my claws. The next thing that greeted me after the wire mesh was the ventilation fan blades inside.

'This is the turning point.'

There are two ways for me to get through here. One is to avoid the blades at the right time and go in, and the other is to bring any object and break the ventilator blades.

Of course, the latter method cannot be attempted.

It is questionable whether throwing an object at a blade made of such a hard alloy can break it, and even if it succeeds, it is problematic. This is because if anything goes wrong with the ventilation fan, the super AI that controls the ship will never miss it. AI will immediately report new errors to humans, and then the only future left for me will be tracking and death.

'We have to pass through here.'

From now on, it's time to rely on Amorph's abilities.

If I just went in, the blade would hit me hard, so I stood there and waited.

While waiting, the auxiliary engine began to collect various information, including the flow of air and the flow of energy generated at the joint of the blade.

It wasn't just the auxiliary organizations that were working hard. Highly developed vision focused on the motion of the blades as they rotated repeatedly to find weak points in the precision machinery.

How much time has passed?

The auxiliary organ detected iron oxide mixed in the air and fine metal powder blown by the wind. In addition, it was discovered that the joints of the rotating blades were worn out, causing them to slow down briefly at certain times.

My brain is speaking after reviewing all the information provided by my eyes and assistive organs.

Jump in right now.

'It's all or nothing.'

I trusted my extra senses and jumped into the ventilator.

The God of Machines, who has no mercy at all, raises his scythe. As the scythe cuts through the air, the pressure of the air hits my carapace mercilessly.

The remnants of his human days were screaming at him to get out of here, but there was no sign of any disturbance in Aimov's small heart. My whole body's senses were focused on avoiding the guillotine, as if my thoughts were a luxury.

The blade of the vent narrowly missed the tip of my tail. The Reaper's hand failed to touch me.

That's how I survived.

'I survived! 'I lived!'

If I were a human, I would have screamed and laughed, but my oral structure was not suited to laughter. It only made a hissing sound and a sad cry.

After taking some time to enjoy the fun, we set off again.

The ventilation passage had a complicated maze-like structure, but it was no obstacle to my extra senses.

The normally quiet ship's veins became even more noisy today as they welcomed an unfamiliar visitor. The sound of the wind coming and going through the vents located here and there, and the sound of my claws hitting the steel plate, were faintly mixed together.

'There's a spider.'

The spiders and flying insects we encountered along the way became good snacks during the short trip. Everyone on the spaceship, including the cockroaches and spiders, seemed to have eaten well and had a good time, and their weight was plump. Thanks to this, I never went hungry or lacked energy on the way.

As I was walking, chewing on the spider's leg, I felt the residual heat remaining in the passage fading away through the tips of my claws. It was evidence that the cooling room was getting closer.

I was trying to hurry, but an auxiliary engine stopped me in the middle. There is something important in front of me and I need to check it.

'hmm?'

Although not yet visible, waves of light were detected not far away. After 4 pairs of feet walked for about 10 minutes without stopping, a wire mesh appeared on the floor of the passage.

I stood on the wire fence and looked down. People wearing white coats were seen moving around between large test tubes and incubators.

'laboratory? Wasn't it an ordinary ship?'

There was a lot of food and weapons in the cargo hold, so I thought it was a supply ship or a trade ship, but it turned out to be a laboratory.

If this ship is actually a research vessel, it is not a bad condition for me.

"Hey, what are the results of Subject 026?"

"It's a failure this time too."

"Tsk, the team leader is going to be a bitch again."

"You're from Earth. "There is nothing we can do when the captain is in a state of confusion."

"Ugh, let's stop here for today."

After confirming that the two men were leaving the laboratory, they unscrewed the wire mesh and came down.

'Looking at it, it looks like it's from Megacorp.'

Megacorp is a group of humans that thrived around the solar system. Simply put, it is a race modeled after Earthlings.

According to the tribal setting, the country is ruled by large corporations instead of the government, and most of the members are extreme materialists.

In Space Survival, several types of human races appear, and most of them are close to neutral, but Megacorp is closer to evil, perhaps due to the setting.

'Megacorp is the only place that converts normal people into slaves.'

Megacorps capture poor people and other alien races and transform them into war slaves. It is one of the unique characteristics of the race called 'employment', and when playing Megacorp, the benefits gained through hiring are so great that you actively use it without even realizing it.

Since it happens in games too, how great would it be if it were in reality? The lingering scent of blood permeated the air in the laboratory.

'how will we do it.'

Although the auxiliary agency informed us of the location of the refrigerator where the genetic samples were stored, we cannot make a hasty judgment.

'When to eat is important.'

For Aimorph, the condition for evolution is not just collecting genetic essence.

A prerequisite for passing the hatchling stage is eating a living sapling. In other words, in order to become a hatchling, you must kill a person.

'Kill people.'

You can kill people without problems in games, but can you do that in real life?

Even if you think you can do it easily right now, if you hesitate when it's right in front of you, that's the end of it. My body is so weak that it could easily kill a child, so I have to finish it with just one attack.

'Until you make up your mind, you should hold off on opening up this place.'

Genetic samples are desirable, but if you eat them on the spot, you will not be able to avoid being tracked. The attack on the laboratory will be after I eat people.

'Let's just see what we have today.'

My career path changes greatly depending on the purpose of this research vessel.

If it were a facility that studied Hulk mutants, mutant soldiers specialized in land combat, I would be able to secure a strong body and combat ability. On the other hand, if you are a place where the space elf cult's supernatural powers are tested, you can obtain powerful psychic powers.

'Personally, it would be better if it was a cult, but it would be impossible to gain psychic power from the beginning.'

I began to use all my senses to see what was in the laboratory.

A laboratory surrounded by clean white walls, unlike the dark and dull cargo bay.

It looks incomparably better in image, but paradoxically, behind the bright surface, it was full of death and pain.

In the test tube, living human brains and forcibly dragged creatures were submerged in a chemical solution. In the incubator, AI sent electronic signals while checking the status of the embryos.

All kinds of information poured into my head, including the smell of chemicals, the electromagnetic waves busily moving through the air, the smell of blood and rotten skin tissue, and the pheromones that creatures unknowingly emit while in pain. While I was absorbing a flood of information from auxiliary organizations, I caught one unique piece of information.

'help? 'Need help?'

A living being is asking for my help using a special wavelength that humans cannot detect.

I got interested, so I followed the wave and found a test tube at the end.

[026]

Inside the test tube with the number 26 on it, a pink creature that looked like a water droplet was floating.

'Bubble Amoebane.'

Bubble amoeba is a non-player creature that only lives on ocean planets. Usually, it floats in the water in the form of a water droplet, but when its prey approaches, it attacks in an instant and eats it by dissolving it with digestive juices.

You might not know how big they were, but most of them were about the size of a person's palm, so they didn't pose much of a threat to users. Because it is harmless and looks cute, I heard that many users looking for healing in the harsh space survival world visit it.

I didn't expect him to be intelligent since he was like an ornamental pet, but I was surprised that he even talked to me like this. As I got closer, he fired one more wave at me.

"pain. Help."

An exact interpretation was impossible, but thanks to Amov's unique sense of humor, he was able to roughly grasp the meaning. He was suffering for some reason and asked me for help.

'how will we do it.'

I could consider eating it, but from what I remember, the characteristics of the bubble amoeba were the most useless to Aimorph.

The property name was 'oxygen storage', which was a property that provided a certain amount of oxygen in anoxic space. It would have been quite useful for other races, but since Amorphs can survive for long periods of time without oxygen, this trait was completely unnecessary.

'It's okay to eat. I want to help, but I don't know what to do.'

I focused my senses on the test tube, looking for clues. The flow of the mixture circulating in the thick hose connected to the bottom. The movement of the measuring device inside the machine to check whether there was any abnormality in the state of the liquid. I could feel the faint flow of electricity flowing over the liquid.

'electricity?'

Now that I think about it, I see that there is a small sensor attached to its body. A sensor connected to a wire periodically fired electricity into the guy's body.

After understanding what he was asking, I climbed up to the terminal next to the test tube.

Biological biorhythm graphs and AI experiment results appeared and disappeared repeatedly on the terminal screen.

'Is this what the two researchers were talking about earlier?'

He left, muttering that he had failed or something, and I guess he forgot to turn off the machine.

I pressed the terminal button to stop the experiment. The weak electrical signal coming from the sensor was blocked, and the guy regained his vitality. The guy expressed his gratitude by blinking his pink water drop-like body.

｢Thank you.｣

'Thank you.'

I don't think I've done anything to deserve gratitude. If he was someone I needed, I would have mercilessly made him a target for essence absorption. Because it was judged to be a harmless and incompetent creature, it only acted on a temporary whim.

'Live well on your own.'

As long as you are in Megacorp's laboratory, destruction is inevitable. Still, I left the lab hoping that I would have a little more comfort in the rest of my life.

About 30 minutes after I started walking down the aisle, the temperature dropped drastically. There were water droplets on the walls and a thin layer of frost on the floor of the passage.

We finally arrived at the top of the cooling room.

'good. Now let's make a nest.'

I scraped up the water droplets on the wall and drank them all up. Then I held the water in my mouth as if I was gargling, and then vomited it out again.

It was pure water a while ago, but not now.

As the water entered my body, it was transformed into a substance that was toxic to all living things except Amorphs.

This impure slime, which looks like chewed and spit-out gum, has the effect of extending the vitality of nearby Aimorphs and strengthening their extrasensory effects.

Once the aisles above the cooler are finished, I will be able to sit here and monitor about half of the ship.

I repeatedly put water in my mouth and vomited it.

Soon, the passage above the cooling chamber was transformed into an environment suitable for Aimorph to live in.

A sticky, toxic, unclean, polluted space.

I laid down my body in the middle of a space that would be repulsive to any living creature. I closed my eyes, feeling the comfort of being in my mother's womb.

'I feel it. The ship feels like my body.'

What is the most important thing to win the war?

It's information.

The humans of Megacorp and I, Aimov.

They don't know me, but I know them. Where they are, what they do, where they move, who they talk to, all the information is transmitted to me through the liquid in the passage.

They won't know.

The war has already started and they are already losing.

I smiled silently from my dark nest.