Screamer (2)
I snatched the Screamer's head with a combat arm and hurled it away as fast as I could.
Then I wrapped my body around No. 26 and curled up tight.
｢Big Baby?｣
She pulsed a wave of confusion at me, but I didn't answer. Escaping the blast radius was already impossible — this was the only way to keep her alive through the explosion.
Damn it!
Thanks to the Bone Beast trait, my body's defenses had skyrocketed, but No. 26 had no such protection. As a Sea Demon she wouldn't die to a Screamer's self-destruct, but a critical injury was all but inevitable.
Please, hold on.
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for the baptism of fire that was about to hit us.
Several minutes passed.
Huh?
｢Big Baby, what's wrong? Are you mad at me?｣
No matter how long I waited, the searing agony of my whole body burning away never came. There was only the cold air drifting through the ice corridor.
I opened my eyes and checked on the Screamer.
PS-111. Additional damage sustained from external impact. Compiling damage report. 87% damaged.
Smashed into the ice wall, the Screamer did nothing but bleed white fluid and mutter mechanically, offering no response at all.
What's going on?
Only then did I realize something about this Screamer was different.
Screamers operate under machine dominion, but at their core they're still biological beings. Only the androids can survive with nothing left but a head.
Doesn't seem to be an android, though.
I focused my auxiliary organs and studied the thing's appearance in detail. Compared to an android, it had far more organic vitality.
An android built for espionage could pass as human, but no one would ever grant that kind of capability to a Screamer. So that was out.
｢I'm getting bored.｣
While I was quietly examining the thing, No. 26 wriggled out of my embrace. Then she caught sight of the Screamer embedded in the wall, and her whole body flashed bright.
｢Waah! My friend is hurt!｣
> PS-111. Advisory to main controller. Hostile organism detected. Recommend immediate withdrawal.
From everything I'd experienced so far, the darker No. 26's body glowed, the worse her mood was. I knew this for certain, because every time I took a serious injury, she'd shifted to a pink so deep it was nearly purple.
Her color dimming slightly, No. 26 extended a tentacle and pried the Screamer free from the wall.
｢Are you okay, friend?｣
> Reporting to main controller. Repairs currently at 0.5% and in progress.
The moment she set the Screamer down on the floor, six spidery metal legs sprouted from its neck. One look at the thing and I was reminded of the alien creature's duplicate from that classic sci-fi horror movie set at an Antarctic research base.
The grotesque Screamer head scuttled busily on its metal legs and planted itself in front of No. 26. It looked, if anything, like it was trying to protect her.
｢Friend!｣
> Probability of hostile organism threatening main controller: 95%. Eliminating.
Caught between me and the Screamer, No. 26 seemed utterly flustered, at a loss for what to do.
How is this even possible?
The situation defied common sense, and I struggled to process it too.
｢Big Baby, I think my friend is sick.｣
[Zzzz (Quiet)]
｢Oh.｣
My feelings must have bled into the wave, because the word came out colder than I intended. No. 26 shrank in on herself like a child who'd smuggled home a stray puppy without asking its parents.
...Let's think this through, step by step.
The Screamer not self-destructing was a mercy, but that didn't mean the situation was fine.
For good reason: this was the first time since meeting me that No. 26 had ever acted entirely on her own. And not in some minor way — playing around, eating, the like. She'd pulled off a catastrophe.
She hid a danger from me.
If that Screamer had turned on her, she might not be standing here right now. No — Adhai might not have escaped a grave injury either.
Obviously I needed to scold her. But before that, there was something I had to weigh.
I looked at No. 26, glowing pink in the darkness.
She was cowed, deeply so, by the fact that I was angry — but she showed no sign of abandoning the Screamer over it.
In other words, she might have developed a capacity for mercy.
As an Amorph, I am condemned to take the lives of other creatures. It is the only path to evolution, and the only way I survive. There isn't one among my companions who doesn't understand that.
Mother of the Sky is the exception, and she has her reason: to slay her enemies and comfort the souls of her lost family.
It's precisely because everyone grasps my nature that I could come here, to the Dragon's Nest, with them at all.
Under normal circumstances I'd have spent a long stretch roaming, gathering the traits I'd need for the APEX hunt. There's no need for that anymore, because my companions patch the holes in my weaknesses.
But if No. 26 started feeling precious about life itself, it would cripple my hunting. If the one among us who wielded psychic power best dropped out of the fight, taking down Gallagons would become brutally hard.
And that's not even the whole of it.
Her outburst might also be evidence that she's growing.
Which means this could happen again. The smarter she got, the more often she and I would clash.
And not just No. 26. Adhai, who was even younger, could turn out the same way as she matured.
Forcing the issue right here won't solve anything.
What I needed were allies who covered my weaknesses — not slaves. If I wanted to keep a positive relationship with them going forward, I had to put in that much more care.
Whatever you do, the first stitch has to go in straight.
It's the same principle as a child's ego growing large enough to want out from under its parents' gaze. And I knew better than anyone that a rift formed between parent and child at that stage lasted a lifetime.
Whatever the circumstances, scolding No. 26 was a done deal — but I had to choose my words so she could truly understand.
Having sorted my thoughts, I spoke to her.
[Zzz zzzzz zzzzzz zzz (Do you know how dangerous that thing is?)]
｢My friend is dangerous?｣
[Zzz zzzzzz zzzz zzzzzz (If that thing goes boom, every one of us gets hurt)]
｢Really? More dangerous than the loud bang-bang?｣
[Zzz (Yes)]
The moment she heard the Screamer was more dangerous than the Plasma Launcher, the white drained out of No. 26's body until she was paper-pale.
It was no lie. The Screamer self-destruct I'd witnessed had looked more than twenty times as devastating as a Plasma Launcher. I wasn't going to die from it, of course — but there was no need to mention that part.
｢I don't want Big Baby to get hurt!｣
[Zzz zzz zzzzzz zzzz zzzz (Neither do I. So trust me, and help me)]
｢Okay....｣
Seeing her tremble like she had back when the MegaCorp researchers experimented on her sent guilt surging up in me. But I steeled myself.
[Zzz zzzz zzzz zzzzzz (Where did you bring it from?)]
｢I saw it when we ate the great big bad one. It said it hurt so much....｣
Come to think of it, I'd talked with Mother of the Sky about Screamers earlier that day.
She'd been rooting around inside my guts, fishing out the heart to eat, when she discovered half-digested Screamer wreckage in my innards. Judging by what she'd collected, the Ice Horror had devoured at least ten of them.
According to her, from the pattern of the breakage, they seemed to have been devoured or crushed by the Ice Horror before they could even self-destruct.
Same composition as the Screamers that went after the Winter Walker.
That was why we'd concluded the Star Union was secretly running Screamer development trials on this planet — presumably pitting them against powerful predators like the Ice Horror and the Winter Walker to measure their combat capability.
[Zzzz zzz (One more thing)]
｢Okay.｣
[Zzz zzz zzz zzz (Why did you save it?)]
｢Well....｣
At my question, she hesitated instead of answering.
If she said she'd done it out of pity, we'd be in a very tight spot — because that, I couldn't suppress.
Don't get impatient.
Coming down hard for no reason would backfire. I waited with patience.
After a long silence, she sent me a cautious pulse.
｢From the first moment I saw it, it smelled like my own kind.｣
[Zzz (Your own kind?)]
｢Yes. It said it was hurting, so I brought it here so it wouldn't hurt anymore.｣
Right — back when I was hiding, No. 26 had offered the Screamer something to eat.
[Zzz zzzz (Can you do that again?)]
Hearing my pulse, No. 26 extended her tentacles. Just as when she used her Binding technique, violet thread-like strands spilled from the tips and slotted into the metal ports at the back of the Screamer's skull.
The Screamer's eyes rolled back, and machine noise poured from its mouth.
> PS-111. P-p-p-power charge rate confirmed at 5%, rising to 6, 6, 6%.
｢Sick friends get better when you feed them.｣
Watching this, I grasped the shape of the situation.
Bubble Amoeba, or Sea Demon genes.
Viewed that way, the Screamer's ability to stay alive as a bare head made sense too.
Those two slime-like creatures can shift or shrink the placement of their vital organs — the brain included — at will. Thanks to that trait, a Sea Demon can survive with as little as a twentieth of its body remaining.
They shrank just the essential organs and packed them inside the face.
If this Screamer had received Bubble Amoeba or Sea Demon genes, it was entirely possible.
It even explained how No. 26 and the Screamer — with wholly incompatible communication systems — could talk to each other at all.
> Power charge rate 10%. Will allocate to supplemental biological functions.
When it spoke, I felt the faintest thread of psychic waves flowing. To No. 26, it must sound far clumsier than Adhai's speech — a kinsman whose body ached terribly and who couldn't even talk properly. No wonder she'd pitied it so deeply.
She's always been rich with kinship feeling.
The situation was far better than what I'd feared, but problems still remained.
This could happen again if she runs into other Screamers.
If No. 26 hesitated every time we crossed paths with new-model Screamers carrying Bubble Amoeba or Sea Demon genes, that would be bad news.
[Zzzz zzz zzzzzz zzz zzzz zzz (There may be many more friends like this one)]
｢Really?｣
[Zzzzzz zzz zzzz zzz zzz (If those friends attack me, it will hurt me terribly)]
｢Friends are nice, but I hate it more when my babies hurt!｣
Grasping the meaning, No. 26 flinched and puffed herself up in alarm. Looking at her blindingly white body, I judged the odds of another surprise stunt to be low.
This should be enough.
To close, I sent a wave weighted with warning.
[Zzz zzzz zzz zzz zzzz zz zzz zzzz (I have a duty to protect my family. You know how I feel.)]
｢Yes. I know.｣
[Zzzz zzz zzzz zzzz zzzz (If you find a new friend, tell me first. Understand?)]
｢Understood....｣
Seeing her hang her head left a bad taste in my mouth, but there was no helping it. Fighting dozens, hundreds of Screamers with surprises like this popping up was never going to end well.
With No. 26's warning concluded, I turned back to the Screamer glaring at me.
Now — what do I do with this thing?
I picked the headless-body Screamer up between my fingers.
Until moments ago it had worn nothing but metal legs on its face; now its entire form had changed. Tentacles and spike-like growths I hadn't seen before were jutting from its cheeks and jaw. Worse, living flesh had budded along the shattered, severed tubes, shifting the thing into a semi-organic shape.
Self-repair?
Presumably the thing had channeled the psychic power it had just fed on from No. 26 into regenerating its body.
Threat detected from hostile organism. Initiating counterattack.
｢Friend! Big Baby is my own kind! Stop it!｣
As the even more grotesque thing jabbed at my fingers with its metal legs in resistance, No. 26 stopped it.
> Order from main controller confirmed. Suspending counterattack.
At her word, the Screamer ceased resisting at once. Perhaps because they shared the same genes, it seemed to recognize No. 26 as a superior.
｢Friend. You need to listen to Big Baby. Okay?｣
> Reclassifying hostile organism. Classification complete: Sub-Controller grade. Verifying internal database access permissions.
Having finished recalibrating, the Screamer folded its metal legs and looked up at me docilely.
> Greetings, Sub-Controller. How may I assist you?
My original plan had been to scold No. 26, then devour the Screamer.
But seeing how obediently it behaved toward her, my thinking shifted a little.
It might cough up useful information.
I activated the voice mimicry function, one of the effects of my Morphing Organ trait.
"Who are you?"
> My designation is PS-111. PS-class intermediate terminal model, commanding lower Screamers on behalf of the main controller.
The bare-headed Screamer, PS-111, was a unit serving as a kind of field commander.
"Unexpected. I wasn't aware Screamers had commanding units."
> That held true through the previous generation. Former main controller 'Fira Eleven' identified the limitations of that series and, under Supreme Controller authorization, initiated development of a new model — the 'Mutant Screamer'.
"What limitations?"
> The fragile durability of organisms synced to Screamer machines. Low psychic power resistance. Insufficient tactical cognition.
The three things it named were the chronic weaknesses of every Screamer.
Problems that had been locked in by the system's constraints — but this is reality, not a game.
Using Hulk Mutants as the base material would boost the non-mechanical performance by orders of magnitude. Grafting on psychic power capability would be a bonus.
The tactical cognition issue was trickier, though even that made sense on reflection.
Free thought and action are not permitted to a unit that is essentially a penal battalion. So they'd chosen this constrained arrangement instead — mixing in higher-tier units to serve as aides.
"I see. So you're to be regarded as a commander-class Mutant Screamer."
> Correct.
"Fira Eleven, was it? Why did your main controller change?"
> Internal data corruption caused by the Grade 7 dangerous creature 'Ice Horror' forced a system reset. The entity subsequently registered as the new main controller is the Grade 8 'Sea Demon'.
Hearing that, something clicked.
The psychic drill No. 26 fired.
When that mass of concentrated psychic power shredded the Ice Horror's innards to ribbons, the blast must have caught the command system in the fallout.
I pressed on.
"Next question. The genes inside your body — what organisms are they from, and who modified them? Explain."
> The genes applied to my body are....
PS-111 rattled off every biological component woven into its frame in exhaustive detail. As I'd expected, a small quantity of Sea Demon genes was in the mix.
Coldblood genes, though — that I didn't see coming.
The Screamer we'd met last time had been the same; this one, too, carried Coldblood genes in heavy proportion.
It was true that useful traits could be harvested from Coldbloods, but nothing game-breakingly powerful. There was no compelling reason to put them in Hulk Mutants destined for Screamer feedstock.
Is there something I don't know?
Even as I turned it over, the Screamer kept talking.
> Summary: 5 gene types injected into my body. Gene modification conducted by Chief Researcher Chloe Garmelda and Senior Researcher Li Zhao.
"Hold on. Garmelda and Zhao? Don't tell me — the MegaCorp families?"
> Correct. The two researchers belong respectively to MegaCorp's Noble Capital and Prime Capital.
Only after hearing its words did I accept that my guess was true.
The Star Union's Great Leader. MegaCorp's Noble Capital house Garmelda. Prime Capital's Zhao.
All three sat at the very summit of MegaCorp and the Star Union. The heads of factions at open war with each other, colluding behind the lines.
Nine times out of ten, they're players.
I looked down at PS-111, resting in my palm.
I'd wrung nearly everything of value from it. Only the most important question remained — and depending on the answer, I would decide its fate.
"What is the probability of former main controller Fira Eleven reclaiming command of you?"
> Impossible until the system is reset and the firewall disengaged.
"Can other intermediate terminals change their main controllers the way you did?"
If that were possible, I could turn the enemy's own Screamers against them. It would aid the Gallagon hunt, obviously — and prove a mighty weapon in the coming fight against the players, too.
But PS-111's answer dashed my hopes.
> Control transfer due to damage is no longer possible.
"Why not?"
> Before I broke from Fira Eleven's control, I filed a report on the possibility of that error recurring. By now the vulnerabilities in the control authority will have been patched.
In other words, No. 26 could never wrest another commander Screamer away the way she had PS-111.
Then devouring it is the better deal.
The thing in my palm must have read my thoughts, because it added, unprompted:
> However, access to the lines used by lower-tier units — the S-models — remains possible.
"Meaning you can eavesdrop on other Screamers' operations?"
> More than eavesdrop. Limited control of S-models is achievable.
"Limited control?"
> Through physical contact with a Screamer machine, its control authority can be seized.
A Screamer machine was the crab- or spider-shaped mechanical harness that enclosed the biological creature serving as the Screamer's body.
Befitting their nickname as the Star Union's penal battalion, every physical function of a Screamer fell under the machine's control.
So its words meant, in effect, that a Screamer's very actions could be rewritten.
Though I could do without that "physical contact" clause.
Screamers couldn't be hijacked by my parasites or the Human-Faced Beast — and the enemy players would know that fact too.
But if I turned that assumption against them....
I could strike where they never thought to guard.
"Last question. Is there any chance the Star Union will come looking for you?"
> Locating me is impossible for them.
"Impossible?"
> My signal chip was destroyed in the Ice Horror's attack. Officially, I am registered as decommissioned scrap.
I brought my auxiliary organs close against its smooth, glassy cheek. Four long feelers caressed the Screamer's face.
No unusual signals.
I'd checked for any electromagnetic leakage on the off chance there was some — nothing.
No risk of being tracked.
I mentally replayed every exchange we'd had so far.
The gains from sparing it versus the gains from eating it. Which side won was unmistakably clear.
"You seem useful enough."
> I am pleased to be of service.
And with that, PS-111's fate was decided.