020

–

The era when the universe visible above our heads is no longer a myth but a reality.

In space, humanity was divided into two huge forces: Megacorp and Star Union.

Although both were strong enough to dominate dozens or hundreds of star systems, they were nothing more than dust compared to the wide and vast universe.

The infinite space filled with countless galaxies and celestial bodies was filled with places that their feet could not reach.

For example, C-08 was one of those places.

In a place untouched by Megacorp, Star Union, and other intelligent beings, there were beings that were not friendly to humans.

C-08 is an area managed by Space Dog, a cartel known for being particularly cruel.

Dvara Cartel.

Notorious marauders were now ravaging prey that had entered their territory.

"Ahhhh! help me!"

"Aaaah!"

A mournful cry filled the luxuriously decorated passenger ship. Inside the ship, armed guards and innocent victims were lying dead.

"Take everything they have!"

"Kill the man and rape the woman!"

The sight of ruthless marauders was unusual. Some had the heads of ants, while others had half their bodies as machines. Some of them were wandering around carrying the loot, while others had a sinister look on their faces and disappeared somewhere, dragging the noble ladies with them.

The appearance and behavior of those carrying out the plunder were all different, but they had one thing in common.

They had blood-red clover tattoos near their shoulders. The tattoo had one meaning.

It is under the protection of Elchen Dvara, the godfather of the Dvara Cartel.

The Dvara Cartel's members were all former soldiers, mercenaries, and criminals, so they were all on the same level.

Although they all boasted a body that was larger than average, there was one who was particularly gigantic.

It was 3 meters tall, its entire body was full of muscles, and its head resembled a lion, with a red mane and beast ears. The eyes and right arm were replaced by machines.

A hybrid between a human and an animal machine, he was none other than Elchen Dvara, the head of a large family of 50 people.

He was sitting diagonally in the captain's chair, watching his men's plunder with a displeased expression. There was a mountain of goods donated by his subordinates next to the chair, but he seemed to have no interest.

'That's a lot of money. 'I tried in vain.'

As Elchen clicked his tongue, his eyes met with a prisoner who was being dragged by his subordinates. He, no prisoner but the captain of this ship, shouted when he saw Elchen.

"Hey, Commander! "How could you do this to us!"

"what?"

"We hired your mercenaries for protection! But where is this?"

Elchen, a former Hulk mutant from Megacorp, was considered extraordinary even compared to other cartel leaders. Those who don't know him may be surprised by his large body created through genetic modification, but Elchen's true weapon is not his body.

Elchen's weapon is cunning.

Although he was a member of Space Dog's cartel, he boldly registered as a mercenary group belonging to Megacorp. While working as a mercenary group, his main tactic was to stab a client in the back if he thought they were easy.

"Stupid bastard. "Isn't the guy who entrusts the escort to a mercenary an asshole?"

"What?!"

"Are we friends? "It's strange to give a complete stranger some money and expect things to turn out well."

"Such shameless…!"

"Why are you doing this? That's to save money, too. Megacorp pigs always do that."

"You damn son of a bitch!"

There was no obligation to answer each and every cry of the losers. Elchen responded to the captain's swearing by picking his ears.

"The Megacorp Defense Force must have received a rescue signal and arrived by now! "When they come, you will all be executed!"

"oh. Be scared. Hey, drag it away."

"profit! Even death is a waste for you guys. I will tell the National Guard myself. "Turn all of you into Hulk mutants."

"…for a moment."

Elchen's eyebrows twitched. The beast ears in his mane trembled as if to express his displeasure.

He hated the idea of turning him into a Hulk mutant the most. This was because he was 'hired' by Megacorp and forcibly underwent genetic modification.

The foolish captain touched the beast's disgust.

Elchen stood up and approached the captain.

When he reached out his hand to the subordinate who had captured the captain, the subordinate pulled out the machete from his waist and handed it to Elchen.

The machete, commonly called a jungle sword, looked like a dagger in his hand, which was over 3 meters tall. The sight was quite, no, very scary, so the captain swallowed his saliva.

"What is it?"

"Hey captain. "It looks like you don't know much about Megacorp mercenary methods, so I'll teach you."

"huh?"

"Do you know that if a mercenary betrays during a request, it is a serious crime, but if there are no witnesses to prove the fact, it is invalid?"

"what?"

"It was a waste of time to call the National Guard. "There's no one to explain it to me."

The captain's face turned white as he understood what I meant.

"Oh, are you planning to kill us and destroy us?"

"I don't know such noble expressions. At least one thing is certain…"

Elchen viciously grabbed the captain by the hair. The captain screamed in pain and kicked Elchen, but in front of those monstrous muscles, it was like kicking a baby.

"The fact is that my hobby is skinning Megacorp pigs."

The machete in Elchen's hand glowed menacingly.

By the time his hobby ended, there were no living humans on the ferry. As always, after the plunder, only an eerie silence remained on the ship.

While his subordinates were cleaning up, Elchen returned to his assault ship. All the pirates guarding the ship came out to greet him.

"Are you here?"

"hey. Take it and do whatever you want."

"yep."

The vice captain disappeared somewhere carrying the face leather that Elchen had thrown. That leather, after proper treatment, was to be decorated on Elchen's throne.

"Now that I think about it, don't you have more work to do today?"

"what do you mean?"

"You're done. "Bring the garlic."

After a while, a subordinate brought a petite woman.

With black hair and glasses, she was the bright spot of the Dvara Cartel. Her colleagues called her Garlic because she smelled like garlic.

Garlic, with long flowing hair and hunched shoulders, looked timid to anyone's eyes. Garlic greeted Elchen in a trembling voice.

"Oh hello? boss. "Did you call Boo?"

"uh. They say there is work around here. "What happened?"

"Well, we were originally supposed to meet today, but they suddenly stopped contacting us…"

"What?"

"Huh?!"

When Elchen frowned, the garlic shrunk.

If it were any other subordinate, he would have broken the bone right away, but Garlic is the smartest person in the cartel. I don't know where she came from, but I cherish her because she is smart and obedient.

Elchen calmed down his anger and asked her for an explanation.

"Explain it properly."

"My acquaintance is on a research ship led by a captain named Samuel Yoo. "There was a request to dispose of the body that came out of there."

"The Samuel family? "Are they here?"

"Do you know?"

"It's Titan's Third Capital. Did you come all the way here to get something to eat? What's good? So who is the body?"

"No Noble Capital. "It's a woman from the Eugene family…"

Titan's Third Capital requests that Earth's Noble Capital's body be abandoned. Considering the gap between the two, it could not have happened.

"You crazy bastards. "How much do you give me in return?"

"In the last communication, they said they could give you 1 million times the credit."

"Huh, 1 million?"

Elchen snorted.

He knew well how paranoid Noble Capital treated corpses. It was an unacceptable condition even if they were given 10 million or even 100 million credits.

'There is a conspiracy.'

Elchen knew that the atmosphere within Megacorp was unusual recently. This was because there were frequent rumors that Egerton, a young blood from Mars, was challenging the Eugene family, the old kings of Earth.

It had nothing to do with Elchen, a member of Space Dog, but he smelled money.

The Edgerton family's main business is ship development, but they were putting a lot of effort into genetic modification without anyone knowing.

The reason Elchen knows the Edgerton family's secret is because he is the prototype of the new Hulk mutant that the Edgerton family was secretly developing.

'for a moment. What if they intercept the body and hand it over to Egerton?'

I don't know who the corpse was, but if it was from the Eugene family, it was obvious that it would have undergone extraordinary genetic modification. Since it is the essence of the Eugene family, the Egerton family will try to obtain it even if it costs 10 million won.

Of course, Elchen hated the Egerton family very much, but resentment and credit are separate issues.

'Rather, if Egerton and Eugene fight over this, they'll both be screwed, so it's better for me.'

Elchen, who decided to steal the body, asked Garlic again.

"You lost contact? "Is it an attack?"

"I'm not sure about that, but…"

"I don't know what kind of cub it is, but it has a big liver. "In our territory, there is a piglet, right?"

Elchen stood up and ordered his subordinates.

"We will leave as soon as everything is sorted out. The destination is Yoo Seong Samuel's ship. Prepare to track communications."

"yes!"

With his subordinates moving in perfect order, Elchen thought about what to do next.

Garlic quietly retreated, leaving the leader lost in thought.

The Dvara assault ship, carrying the men who had returned from cleaning up, disappeared on the spot at the speed of light.

The remaining passenger ship soon exploded and disappeared into space dust. No one knew that a group of poor souls existed here.

–

'Hmm?'

I was resting and opened my eyes. A slight shock occurred outside the ship. I thought it might have collided with space debris, but it seemed like that was because the shock and vibration from the outer wall were artificial.

It was as if someone was knocking on the door to enter the ship.

'It's them.'

I focused my nest-linked senses on where the impact occurred. The hull of the ship felt like my own body, and the outline of the person who caused the impact was drawn.

Unlike the round oval research ships, it was a battleship with a thin design reminiscent of a sword. The surface of the battleship was painted with red clover.

'There are no other people who scribble on ships other than Space Dog.'

The battleship was closely following the research vessel and attempting a forced docking. When the outer wall was destroyed by the plasma cutter, several people entered the research vessel through the gap.

'It's fast?'

Their actions were clearly consistent, as expected from professionals in fleet warfare. As soon as they invaded the research vessel, the destination they headed to was the bridge.

'Are you smart or stupid?'

Although any normal intelligence would know that this ship was clearly in a strange state, there was no hesitation in their actions.

Currently, Yoosung's research vessel has deteriorated to the point where it is difficult to find its original appearance.

This crystal of cutting-edge engineering, designed to withstand the harsh environment of space, was useless in front of Amorph.

The hallway, made of smooth alloy plates with no cracks, was eroded by dark brown stems and became ugly, as if blood vessels were protruding. Spores were constantly pouring out a mixture of neurotoxin and acid on the ceiling and floor. The place of the melted alloy plate was filled with slime from the nest.

If we don't teach people that this is a ship, no one will think that this is a man-made structure.

In a way, it is safe to say that this place is a kind of garden in that it was artificially created for a specific being. The owner of that garden is me, Eimov.

Like grave robbers seeking treasure, they were blinded by greed. They don't even know where they have stepped.

Currently, I am lying in the second nest installed in the laboratory, watching for intruders.

The intruders, who knew nothing, were operating the communication device on the bridge. A psychic organ strengthened through the nest read the radio waves.

"The bridge has been taken over. But something is strange."

"What?"

"There is no one on board, and strange trees are growing."

"Trees? "Where are the plants in space?"

"It's true. "Boss."

"You bastard, I'll go and check for myself. Otherwise, prepare to have your head broken."

"…Yes."

The person who speaks in a gangly tone seems to be the boss. A leader with a presence that was incomparable to others came over to the research ship.

'He's a Hulk mutant.'

The sound of two improved hearts beating at high output can be heard in his body. Seeing the fine radio waves flowing over the skin, it appears that several mechanical devices have been implanted.

Following the leader, others invaded the research vessel one after another. I checked the people crossing one by one.

'Looking at the pheromones coming out of his body, this Insect Man of the Chungin tribe makes mechanical noises instead of a heartbeat. You're a Star Union cyborg. A multi-ethnic cartel. Great.'

The condition for subadult evolution is to kill 10 people from each of the two races that the user can play and eat their genes. Currently, half of the population is filled with humans, so the remainder must be filled with 10 people from other races than humans.

It is not filled by simply eating any race, but all 10 people must be of the same race to satisfy the condition.

'So far, Star Union is the largest with 12 people, so what will happen?'

It didn't matter because they were treated as different races in the game, but I'm not sure if that would be the case in real life. Because according to the setting, they are the same humans as Megacorp. I guess I'll have to try it to find out whether they will be treated as humans or as an independent species.

As I continued to wait, the total number of people who entered the research vessel was 29. I thought that was the end, but one more human came across.

'huh?'

The opponent was extremely ordinary. So I tried to ignore it, but when I looked at it again, I felt something strange.

'How can a person be this ordinary?'

It has eaten more than 100 humans so far, but not one of them has a body that can be called normal or average. Every human body has unique movements and sounds, like fingerprints.

But that is not the case with the author who has just arrived. It is ordinary itself, as if someone calculated the average of all humans, entered it into a machine, and then printed it.

In summary, the author's body is artificial. It's as if there is a computer in the head instead of a brain, and 'acting' is completely ordinary.

'…person of interest. Let's remember that.'

After the suspicious person, no more people entered this ship.

Then now it is my turn.

I unlinked the nest and stood up. Number 26, who was resting next to me, responded to my movements.

｢Baby, where are you going?｣

[Zuzu (going out)]

｢I'm going with you.｣

[Zuzuzu zuzuzu (It's dangerous, so stay here)]

He puffed up his body as if he didn't like it, but I still couldn't listen.

From now on, I plan to go to the enemy's battleship.

[Zuzu Zuzuzu (Protect that instead)]

｢That one?｣

I pointed to the plasma launcher placed in the corner. That heavy weapon, which showed the irony that it was created by humans but slaughtered humans, was resting for a while after completing its mission.

[Zuzuzu (important thing)]

｢Yes! "Baby, just trust me!"

I believe you. Does No. 26 know what that means? Anyway, when I gave him an important mission, he was happy and jumped up and down.

I came out of the cooling room while seeing him off.

Since the enemy's vigilance has weakened, now is the only opportunity to disable the battleship. You can drive the enemy in by destroying the power source of the battleship and making retreat impossible.

After that, the enemy has two options. Should we split the personnel into two to protect both the research ship and the battleship, or concentrate the manpower on one ship?

They're greedy, so they won't want to miss out on either one. They'll probably split into a predatory team and a defensive team.

When the people disperse, my hunting begins.

Just like it always has been.