The Nest (1)
"Uwaaaagh!"
The soldiers who arrived on the scene too late froze in horror at the blood-soaked situation room. Those with little combat experience vomited on the spot, while the officers grieved over their superiors' corpses.
"You useless bastards! Why are you only getting here now?"
"W-we're sorry, sir!"
Yuseong bellowed at them. Not a trace remained of the man who, mere moments ago, had been cowering in a corner, trembling. For a captain whose duty was to protect his crew, it was a remarkably shameless display.
"Clean this place up. Now."
"...Understood."
Discontent clouded the soldiers' faces, but their opponent was a superior officer — the captain of the ship, no less. Without another word, they gathered up the corpses strewn across the bridge.
Damn it all. How many are dead?
Of all times, the monster had struck when everyone essential to the voyage was gathered in one place. And worse, it had singled out and killed only the most important people among all those present.
The research team leader, the technology team leader, the mess team leader, the navigation team leader, the crisis management team leader... every last one of them, dead!
The deaths of the technology team leader and the crisis management team leader stung the worst.
One was in charge of maintaining the ship; the other commanded its defenses. Both were exactly the kind of people he'd need in a fight against pirates.
He would never know that the monster had eliminated those men first, deliberately.
If we run into the pirates in this state, we're dead. Every one of us.
Yuseong knew absolutely nothing about combat. True, this research vessel had been built on the hull of a warship, but he was no soldier. He was simply a rich man who had bought a secondhand ship. The odds of an ordinary civilian like him commanding a battle against seasoned pirates were close to zero. Better to appoint a new crisis management team leader to direct the soldiers instead.
"...Which of the soldiers holds the highest rank?"
"That would be me, Captain."
"As of this moment, you are the crisis management team leader. I want you commanding the soldiers and defending this ship."
The officer had just been promoted several ranks in a heartbeat, yet his expression was anything but bright. He understood all too well that the battle with the pirates was drawing near.
Still, now that he was team leader, he couldn't let it show. He saluted in silence and withdrew.
Yuseong had appointed a new team leader, but this was no fundamental solution. The monster was still prowling somewhere inside the ship, and the pirates were due to make contact in two days.
He briefly considered breaking the rendezvous and running, but the navigation team leader who would have plotted the course was dead. As captain, Yuseong could set a heading himself, but he was far from skilled at making the fine adjustments that mattered.
And the enemy already knew their exact position. Any clumsy attempt at escape would have the pirates on their tail in no time.
What if I just abandon everything and flee?
Truthfully, his fate was sealed the moment he boarded the escape shuttle. Either he'd fall into debtors' hands, or Noble Capital would hunt him down. Neither was a happy ending.
Still, better to be alive than dead...
As he spiraled deeper into his own escapism, he caught snippets of a conversation among the soldiers nearby.
"This looks different from a normal pistol, doesn't it?"
"Looks like a team leader's weapon."
Yuseong's eyes went wide at the sight of what they were carrying.
"Hey! You there!"
"Sir?"
"Bring whatever you're holding over here."
The object the soldiers brought him was a Plasma Pistol. Yuseong took it and checked the remaining charge first.
Sixty percent. Good.
With more than half its energy remaining, it would serve well enough for self-defense.
There was a fine crack running along the barrel, but Yuseong wasn't a soldier, and he had no idea what that might mean.
He dismissed the soldiers and stood staring blankly at the wrecked bridge.
That was when the medical team leader approached him. He had just finished helping the soldiers move the bodies, and his hands were drenched in blood.
"Were there any survivors?"
"Everyone is dead except the acting research team leader, who was attacked first."
"What? Senior Researcher Wei isn't dead?"
"We placed him in the recovery bay. By a stroke of luck, he proved immune to the creature's neurotoxin. However, he suffered permanent damage to his visual, olfactory, and gustatory organs. Even if he survives, he'll spend the rest of his life on life support."
"......"
For all the talk of luck, Wei's condition was so gruesome that death might have been a mercy. Simply hearing about it made Yuseong's skin crawl, and he shook his head.
"Medical team leader. Is there... any way, do you think?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
"We have more than just the monster to worry about. The pirates are still out there."
"......"
The medical team leader was a man of genuine expertise in healing people, not in killing them. Yuseong knew that perfectly well — he was simply too frustrated to hold the question in.
"...What would you say to surrendering to the Space Dogs instead?"
"What? Haha. You joke well, Captain. You think Mega Corp would just let us off the hook?"
Yuseong gave an awkward laugh at the absurd remark, but the medical team leader's face remained utterly serious.
The Space Dogs were a marauding band of pirates, and precious few factions looked kindly on them. Waging war against every species under the stars, the members of the Space Dogs had lives worth less than gnats.
And that meant they were chronically short of highly educated professionals — the specialists navigation and combat demanded. Doctors, for instance.
And the medical team leader was the finest doctor aboard this ship.
This bastard's only looking out for himself.
The Space Dogs, cartel or otherwise, despised the wealthy with a passion. He'd heard more than one story of people captured by them and put through unspeakable torment. Word even had it that some of them flayed the scalps off their victims.
As the richest man aboard the ship, Yuseong had zero desire to be added to a cartel boss's collection of face-skin masks.
"Cut the nonsense and go look after your subordinates. Am I understood?"
"Ahem."
Yuseong fixed the coughing medical team leader with an icy stare.
With the fire already at his feet, not a single soul around him seemed dependable. The soldiers clearing out the situation room, the officers agonizing over countermeasures, the medical team leader with his head full of schemes — not one of them could be trusted.
The one man he might have relied on was being carried out on a stretcher, a headless corpse.
What am I supposed to do from here...?
Sighing, Yuseong left the situation room.
Everyone was having a terrible day, but they still didn't know.
They didn't know that hell had only just begun.
I've eliminated most of the important ones.
That was what Yuseong believed, but he still fell far short of being a true rival to me. The moment Arnold — the sharpest mind among them — died, the crew's fate was as good as sealed.
Besides, the ship's finest engineer had perished at my hands as well. Which meant that if any of the machinery running the vessel broke down, it would be difficult to fix. Even when the AI reported a fault, repairs would take time.
And in the meantime, I had work of my own to do.
Expanding the nest.
It was time to start seizing not just the ventilation ducts, but the ship's key facilities as well. While the enemy scrambled in confusion, I needed to neutralize the high-security zones first — the armory, the laboratory, the places protected by top-tier security AI.
I had no intention of destroying those facilities myself. Instead, I would lay down new nests and contaminate them.
The mucus those spores secrete is lethal to humans, after all.
I stroked the adorable little spore. As if answering my affectionate touch, it gushed out a thick, viscous fluid.
Once the mucus hardened, it became nearly impossible to break with ordinary tools. And destroy only a fragment of it, and it regenerated in an instant. Unless you burned it out to the root with something like a flamethrower, there was no getting rid of it.
The only reason I'd kept just a single nest of something so useful until now was the limit on how many I could have. In my Hatchling stage, I could maintain only one; as a Juvenile, I could add one or two more.
In other words, the total number of nests I could currently hold was three. With one already laid down in the Cooling Room, that left two spots to claim.
Where should I put them?
First priority: the mess hall. Eating was the single most critical factor in human survival. Lay a nest in the mess hall, contaminate the food stored there, and I could strangle the enemy's supply line entirely.
The real question was where to place the remaining nest.
The armory or the laboratory.
The Plasma Launcher was stored in the armory. It was the one weapon that could finish me off, so eliminating it right away was the logical move — at least, that's what I'd have done if I were a typical Amorph.
But I'm going to steal the launcher instead.
A Plasma Launcher was monstrously heavy — no ordinary human could lift one alone. But I was an Amorph. Four strong arms could carry it with room to spare.
My anatomy meant I couldn't wield it with human-like dexterity, but I knew how it worked, so that was no real problem.
I hadn't planned on this at first, but...
Arnold's last words had gotten under my skin.
The one he served. Sihyeon Yujin.
I had no idea what kind of player they were, but their connection to the pirates was certain. It was entirely possible they'd infiltrate the pirate ranks and come aboard this ship.
Nothing was more dangerous than an enemy you couldn't identify. I needed to scrape together every usable card on my side, too.
I'll take only the launcher from the armory, and lay the nest in the laboratory.
My reasoning for targeting the laboratory was simple: it held a large stockpile of gene samples.
Mega Corp and several other species possessed the technology to refine genetic material. Extracted essence, concentrated from living tissue — if I ate it, the Predation Effect would still trigger.
Looked at that way, simply farming gene samples seemed convenient, but the method had one glaring flaw.
The odds are terrible.
Compared to acquiring a trait by eating a living creature outright, the chance was less than ten percent. The odds of the Predation Effect firing even from a fresh corpse weren't high to begin with — lower it further, and you'd be lucky to gain anything at all.
Eat every sample in the lab, and I might get five traits at best?
Even so, securing just two body-related traits would unlock the Physical Enhancement Type. One more trait would complete the Psionic Enhancement Type as well, though the odds of finding anything psychic-related aboard this ship were slim.
Plus, there's not just samples in there — there's Psionium too.
With Psionium on hand, I could draw on Sub-adult abilities. I'd need it when the pirates came.
Target locked. Time to move.
It was around mealtime for the crew — ideal conditions. I decided to start with the laboratory.
I made my way there without delay.
The laboratory was in far worse disarray than before. With every soldier conscripted into the search operation, not a single guard remained at their post.
I took up a position just outside the lab.
｢Hello!｣
Hm?
I had barely begun to drool mucus from my mouth when someone called out to me. Bubble Amoeba Number 26, inside the laboratory.
Someone's in a good mood.
Even through the psychic wavelengths, I could feel its lively energy. I answered through the psychic organ at the back of my head.
[Zzz zzzzz (Good for you)]
｢Yeah! No hurt today!｣
No experiments today?
Come to think of it, with the ship in this state, the researchers were unlikely to come poking around. They were probably all hiding in their quarters.
In that case, maybe I can be a little bolder.
I began inching my way over the laboratory. The AI installed inside detected the vibration and flared red. By now, the ship's AI had surely flagged the anomaly and relayed it to the technology and security teams.
｢What doing?｣
[Zzz (Waiting)]
｢?｣
I waited a good thirty minutes, and not a single person appeared. Sweeping the surrounding sectors with my auxiliary organs, I confirmed no humans were approaching.
I was certain of it.
The ship's security network had yet to recover. There was no longer any need to creep about in silence. I smashed through the vent opening and set foot on the laboratory floor.
[Zzzzzz (Long time no see)]
｢Yeah.｣
Seeing Number 26 after so long, it looked healthy. I'd only ever seen it pale and sickly white, but today its Bubble Amoeba pink glowed vivid and bright.
Watching it bounce about cheerfully, I found myself hesitating over a sudden thought.
Should I take it with me?
Number 26 was the only creature on this ship that had formed a friendly relationship with me. If it had carried useful genes, I would have eaten it without a second thought — but it was a Bubble Amoeba. Unless I was starving to the point of needing to devour anything that moved, there was no reason to kill it.
If it stays here, it'll starve to death.
There was no telling when the researchers would come back.
Bubble Amoebas, like the jellyfish of space, were immune to toxins, so keeping it in my nest or carrying it along would pose no problem at all. As for food — calorie bars or human flesh would do fine.
[Zzzzzz (Want to come out?)]
｢Out? Where?｣
[Zzz zzzzz (Outside the lab)]
｢Yeah! Want out!｣
The answer came without a beat of hesitation. And with that, Number 26's fate was decided.
After signaling it to brace itself, I shattered the test tube. I caught it in my hand just as it was about to be swept away with the fluid inside.
Having been steeped in drugs for so long, it seemed unaccustomed to fresh air, and it flinched and curled inward. The shrunken creature inflated and deflated, over and over, until at last it seemed to acclimate and returned to its original form.
｢Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!｣
It seemed rather taken with the taste of freedom. It squealed with joy and plastered itself against my arm. I gave the little thing a brief stroke with one small arm and set it down on the floor for a moment.
[Zzzzzz (Wait here)]
｢What doing?｣
[Zzz zzzz (Making a nest)]
Leaving it to gawk at me, I sprayed mucus all across the laboratory.
Number 26 trailed after me wherever I went, apparently fascinated by everything I did. Curious about the taste, it even swallowed a bit of the mucus — but with its toxin immunity, it was perfectly fine.
In less than a few hours, the once-spotless laboratory transformed into the most contaminated space aboard the ship. The translucent mucus hardened into grotesque dark-brown stalks, and the spores studding every surface began disgorging a foul, noxious fluid. It looked less like a laboratory now than like a cursed, rotting swamp.
And with that, the laboratory is done.
Thanks to the total absence of visitors, I'd managed to expand it quickly and on a grand scale. Building it so much larger than the nest in the ventilation duct left me suddenly ravenous. I smashed the test tubes open and pulled out their contents.
The taste, though... absolutely not.
Compared to human flesh, it left a great deal to be desired. Best to think of this less as savoring a meal and more as refueling.
I was chewing through a lab-grown brain — telling myself it was just like choking down a bad hamburger — when Number 26 climbed up onto my shoulder. It had to be hungry too, so I tore off a small piece for it, and it gobbled the offering down happily.
Having filled my stomach well enough, I turned to the freezer. Inside, a massive quantity of gene samples was stored away.
I swept the samples together and stuffed them straight into my mouth. The security alarm mounted on the wall shrieked like a madman, but I ignored it.
Semi-transparent text boxes popped up before my eyes several times, but I brushed them aside and focused on eating. I was halfway through when my auxiliary organs alerted me to approaching humans.
Finally showing up, are they.
Two sets of footsteps in total. One walked with a perfectly even stride — a soldier. The other was a civilian. A researcher, most likely.
Two people, when even a full squad would have been too few. I wanted to snort at the absurdity — but unfortunately, Amorphs don't have noses.
I abandoned my meal and stepped out of the freezer.
"Wha—?!"
"Wh-what is this?!"
The two standing at the entrance gaped, mouths hanging open, at the contaminated laboratory. A call for reinforcements would have barely been enough — and instead they stood there, frozen, like idiots.
The price of such stupidity was death and nothing else.
I had been concealing myself among the dark-brown tendrils, and I lunged at the soldier first. He jolted in alarm and leveled his laser rifle at me, but I already knew — my auxiliary organs had computed his movements and the muzzle's trajectory in a single instant.
Just as predicted, the laser shot wide and struck something irrelevant. My tail, by contrast, did not miss. The venomous barb — a living dagger in every sense — shattered his ribs and shredded his lungs to ribbons.
"Ghhk—!"
The soldier vomited a mouthful of blood and crumpled forward, head hanging. Having killed him instantly, I turned toward the researcher.
"H-hiiick! Please, spare me!"
His legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor. A yellowish liquid spread beneath him, and the acrid stench of ammonia flooded my auxiliary organs.
I moved to slit his throat without a second thought — but then I felt Number 26 on my shoulder stirring with excitement.
[Zzz (What's wrong?)]
｢Hurt! Hurt me!｣
It hurt you? Ah.
Its limited vocabulary confused me for a moment.
This man had apparently been one of the researchers involved in the Bubble Amoeba experiments. With one of his own tormentors standing right before him, no wonder the creature was seething.
A Bubble Amoeba can kill a human too, you know.
The creature was roughly a little larger than a basketball. In other words, it could easily melt down and consume a human head.
I gave the researcher a light jab with the tip of my tail. The neurotoxin spread through his body, reducing him to a piece of furniture that could not so much as twitch. Then I placed Number 26 on top of his head.
"!"
Understanding my intent at once, Number 26 spread its body wide and engulfed the researcher's head.
Which was the more pitiable — the soldier who died in a single instant, or the researcher who perished in the slow agony of his skull melting away?
They were both dead either way. What did the process matter? While Number 26 fed, I tore into the soldier's corpse myself.
No new visitors came after that. With my first avenger perched on my shoulder, Number 26 and I returned to the laboratory nest. Behind us, the researcher's body remained alone in the ruined lab — nothing left of his head but bleached bone.
Once I had finished everything I needed to do in the laboratory, a new semi-transparent text box hung before my eyes.
One specialization Type is available.
Would you like to unlock the Physical Enhancement Type?
Having achieved my goal, I smiled.