Ep. 170
The blood flowing from the corpse spreads across the snowy field.
Amid the faint sound of leaves, a spider-like monster runs by.
His target is me.
Specifically, around my neck. How did he know this? He immediately targeted my weakness.
Six erosion tentacles came out at once from my back. The tentacle, which was originally strong but became much stronger thanks to the synthetic scales, spread its appendages wide to capture the creature.
Its size is approximately 4m. It is slightly smaller than the Mother of Heaven. No matter how powerful it may be, it is not enough to reverse the disadvantage that comes from its size.
The six-pronged tentacles and the creature's eight legs collided. The loud sound of metal being ground was heard throughout the forest.
The creature, which was much smaller than the eroding tentacle, twisted its legs to dodge the tentacle's attack. The thing with a black metal skeleton dyed bright red got on top of my tentacle and quickly crawled over.
A spider monster quickly approached my back. Its front legs aimed for the monster's tentacles around my neck.
'Where!'
I shook my body loudly at the right time. Three mechanical claws at the end of the metal legs tore through the air.
When the guy's posture collapsed, I launched a counterattack.
It bent its tail upward and swung the claws at the end of it sharply. It quickly raised its two front legs to defend itself.
Unfortunately, my claws are the hardest part of my body, along with my head carapace. A loud cracking sound was heard, as if it had been hit by a very large hammer, and its body floated in the air.
And the Mother of Heaven leapt upward upon my fighting arm. She put all her strength into her front paws and struck his right legs.
「Tch!」
The spider monster somehow changed its posture even as it flew away after being hit by the claws. Unfortunately, her attack only crushed one leg.
She and the spider monster crossed over and landed on top of each other. Unlike the Mother of Heaven, who gracefully stepped on the snow, the spider monster was half-slung to the ground, perhaps because of its damaged legs.
"…It's harder than I thought."
[Zuzu Zuzuzu (It seems so)]
Her blow is heavy enough to make a hole in a ship. However, instead of breaking his leg, it ended up being crushed.
'I guess it won't work.'
Originally, I was going to eat meat to confirm my identity, but my opponent fought better than expected. There is not much time given to us. It would not be wise to take any longer than this.
I activated the 'Insight' trait I had been saving.
「Name: S-422
Species: Mass-produced Mu■■ ■■■■
Status: Contains unverifiable information.
Equipment worn: Contains unverifiable information. 」
'What?'
The information he gained through insight was unusual. I tried it again to see if there was a mistake, but it didn't change much.
'Why is he not a player?'
This is the first time since Muriel that information has been displayed as unverifiable.
"Leg damage is 'serious'. No recovery possible. Main controller 'Pira Eleven' not responding. "The battle continues."
While I was not moving because I was using Insight, the guy who had adjusted his posture started attacking again.
S-422 runs quickly with its seven legs.
I twisted my body and swung my tail forward. The snow that had piled up on the ground became a blizzard and scattered.
It lowered its body closely to avoid my attack, and at the same time, it bent its two front legs upside down and scratched the underside of its tail. A sharp pain came as the scales and blunt claws were torn off.
The erosion tentacle rushed to defend its owner from being attacked, but the creature seemed to have anticipated this and jumped upward to avoid the attack.
My tentacle was stuck on the ground, and the Heavenly Mother's attack flew at the one floating in the air.
Her beak, the most powerful weapon she has, clashes with its front paws. Rather than the sound of body parts colliding with metal, there was a sound similar to when swords were fighting against each other.
"Left number 2 leg damaged."
"Ugh!"
The guy's metal leg was cut as if it had been cut by a knife. However, Heavenly Mother was also not fine. Because its claws cut into her side.
I crawled forward and caught her with my fighting arms while I opened my mouth wide at the thing. The acidic fungal gland located in the back of my throat near the esophagus became activated and soon green, acidic fungi were shooting out of my mouth.
"Acid Hazard."
The one that was still floating in the air forced its body to avoid the flying liquids.
But this time, he couldn't completely avoid it. The voracious fungi that touched its body began to eat away at its metal skeleton.
"External skeletal damage 88%."
The one who landed rubbed his legs against the snow, but it was already too late. Because his legs are already in a state of no recovery.
The guy could no longer stand and fell down in the snow.
'Is it over?'
This is a guy whose main weapon until now was his legs. It looks like he has no other weapons.
'no. There might still be something more.'
Since we couldn't see the equipment he was wearing, there may be some hidden weapon. I approached him, keeping my guard up.
"Main controller 'Pira Eleven' confirmed to be in communication failure state. Completed registration in defeat record database."
The guy with his head down on the floor was muttering something non-stop.
"Incineration protocol activated. 20 19…."
'Incineration Protocol?'
"18 17 16…."
I was about to finish him off with my fighting arm, but he suddenly started counting down.
"15 14 13…."
'No way?'
An ominous feeling came over me and I quickly grabbed hold of Heavenly Mother. I crawled like crazy and got out of the clearing.
"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?" When
I suddenly hugged her and ran, she shot a thought wave with a feeling of embarrassment. She didn't seem to know why I was doing this, but I was running out of time to explain everything.
Instead of explaining, I kept crawling forward, knocking down all the trees.
After about 10 seconds, I felt a huge amount of energy and heat coming from behind me. With that came an overwhelming roar that made my auxiliary organs tremble.
Heavenly Mother's eyes widened as she looked behind me.
"This is crazy! Run fast!」
'I know!'
I can already feel an unusual heat in my back and tail. Just by looking at it, you can see that the amount of energy generated from its body exceeds dozens of plasma launchers.
'I probably won't die, but…'
It's not the Mother of Heaven in her fighting arms. I'm so strong that I'll just lose my carapace and arms and legs, but she'll burn up without leaving even ashes behind.
Thanks to a frantic run using its three combat arms, blunt claws, and erosion tentacles, it was barely able to escape the explosion range.
The Mother of Heaven muttered as she looked at the forest burning brightly in the fire.
「Was there a guy like that in the game?」
[Zuzuzu zuzu (I don't remember)]
「Right?」
It's not like there wasn't someone in the game who used self-destruction as a weapon. In the case of Megacorp, the standard play was to plant bombs in the bodies of useless employees and have them self-destruct, and there were also wild creatures that self-destructed and caused damage.
However, there was no entity that caused an explosion this strong.
'Are they by any chance the remnants of the Space Dog we met before?'
Suddenly, I thought of the huge Hulk mutant who had troubled me by planting a bomb in one of his two hearts. Although I was weak at the time, I still remember the fact that my opponent was quite intelligent for a Hulk mutant.
I quickly shook my head.
'No, it's unlikely to be him. It's so unexpected to suddenly appear in a place like this.'
Rather, it is a new Screamer that I met on the Star Union warship before arriving here. It would be reasonable to assume that it is closely related to him.
'For a screamer, the specs are too over-the-top.'
Besides, I saw it when I checked it with Insight earlier.
The word 'mass production type' appears in its species name. There are two things you can know from this word.
That the first one was created by someone. And….
'It's not just one guy.'
There may be dozens or hundreds of monsters resembling Screamer somewhere on this planet.
'…Let's think about that later.'
We have to get out of here now. If such a huge fire breaks out on this planet full of only snow and ice, the Gallagons will definitely come flying.
Or his colleagues.
'I missed hunting today.'
From now on, I will never be able to come near this forest. The Gallagons will keep wandering around.
Turning the other way and approaching the mountain range should only be attempted after you are sure it is safe.
So we escaped the burning forest, but faced a new problem.
"It is dangerous to cross the snow field."
A black beacon is rising above a world filled with white. Everyone will be paying attention to this place, but passing through an icy plain with no cover is too risky.
You wouldn't know it if my scales were white, but they are purple, almost black, so they would be easily visible from a very long distance when the snow isn't blowing like right now.
However, if you use 'organic evolution' to reduce the size of the transformation to a 'clever weakling', the situation is not good.
You may end up fighting unknown monsters and Gallagon. In that case, 'King of Monsters', one of the special states that can be transformed through organic evolution, will become your trump card, so you must save it.
'I have to go underground.'
There is a very large underground space under the ice sheet.
The nest I made is not completely surrounded by walls, but is an open space on both sides. I don't know if the underground space below here connects to the nest, but it would be safer than walking on the snow.
[Zuzuzu zuz zzu zzu zzuzu zzuzu (I'm going to break through the floor. Just watch who's coming)]
「Okay.」
I left the watch to Heavenly Mother and repeated what I did yesterday. It heated its body with heat radiation and broke the ice with its fighting arms and tail.
"I think we should hurry."
[Zuzuzu (Who's coming?)]
"Dozens of Gallagons."
I increased my speed at the bad news that came down from above. Using its eroding tentacles and bifurcated jaws, it quickly dug out the ice.
Thanks to my best efforts, I was able to complete the tunnel that leads to the underground space. I quickly crawled out and sent Heavenly Mother down first.
Now the Gallagons were so close that I could see them with my own eyes. Fortunately, despite the misfortune, they were concentrating on the burned forest. They took the corpses of the burned creatures and flew off somewhere.
While the enemy was paying attention elsewhere, I quickly hid the entrance to my newly created den.
After finishing all the work, I climbed down into the ice cave. Fortunately, there was no sign of anyone noticing.
"Didn't you get caught?"
[Zuzuzu (probably)]
After arriving at the underground space, I quickly left the place with Heavenly Mother.
'shit.'
I had no idea that I would be in such a difficult situation because of a mass-produced monster that I don't know who created.
'I don't know who it is, but…'
It's been a long time since anyone made me this uncomfortable. It's as annoying as when evolution was hindered by morph hunters in the past.
'Just try to find it.'
I have never forgiven anyone who hindered my evolution. I retaliated against the morph hunters in the game with every means at my disposal.
The creator of the ugly spider monster. He too will walk the same path as the morph hunters.
–
A huge underground cavity with a radius of hundreds of meters.
'It', which was coiled up and enjoying the cozy darkness, felt a vibration. It was clear that some idiot had dared to misbehave in his territory.
Recently, this has been particularly frequent.
Don't hordes of 'small beasts' that I've never seen around here rush at him? Don't the colorful flying snakes suddenly start roaming around his territory?
'It', which has lived for countless years, does not like to move its body much due to its lazy nature. It only responded by crushing or swallowing the 'small animals' that attacked it, leaving the flying snakes alone.
However, today's tremor was different from other incidents that occurred at other times. This is because the strong vibration even shook 'it's' nest.
'That' was what he thought when the arrogant guys threatened his house.
If idiots keep trampling on his territory like that, I wonder if the snakes in the sky will look down on him. It is said that 'it' has become so weak that it cannot even protect its own house.
'It' is lazy, but not stupid. In this barren world, the only future left for the weak is death.
So we must show our enemies that this king of the underworld is still alive and well.
'It' decided to move just for today, and traced the scent of its enemies with its two long antennae. Two fragrant scents reached the tips of the old but still sharp antennae.
Intruders entered 'it' territory after a large tremor. The scent of the two animals reached his antennae.
Now that the prey has been found, all that's left is to find it and punish it. The 'thing' that filled the cavity hundreds of meters long unwound its rolled up body.
It's been a long time since I last hunted.
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