The Trap (4)
｢Just now｣｢What was that?｣
[Bzzz bzzzzzz (I don't know either)]
Adhai, who had been riding on my back, craned her head forward to ask. As we approached the nest, something had suddenly lunged out at us. Wondering if some enemy was still lurking around, I had swung my wing-arm without even looking. Thanks to that, the thing had been smashed to pieces on the spot.
When I examined the corpse, it turned out to be a human.
Why is there a person here?
He was wearing a specially made reinforced suit — equipment focused less on combat capability and more on life-support functions like insulation and temperature regulation. Judging by the outfit alone, he looked less like a soldier and more like a researcher or an expedition member, but that only raised another question. He couldn't possibly have come here alone, so some group or organization must have brought him.
This planet doesn't even show up on any star charts.
Jason had only been able to find this place because fellow players had passed him its coordinates, and he'd told me the Cult Empire's own charts had no record of it either. I had only made it here thanks to Adhai's meticulous guidance — without her, reaching this place would never have been so easy.
And yet, on the fringe of the universe where almost no one knew the way, we now had the Star Union's Screamers, followed by an unidentified human group.
Are they here to capture me too?
Jason had insisted that no players besides himself would come to this place, confident that he alone was more than enough to beat me.
But that was his judgment alone. What his companions actually thought remained unclear. It was entirely possible they'd arranged an insurance policy in case Jason failed.
If luck turned against me, I might end up fighting new players on top of the Gallagons.
Let's find out.
I stuffed the shredded corpse into my mouth. While idly chewing the unremarkable meat, I activated the Human-Faced Insect Host trait.
The genetic information in the corpse was transmitted to the organ managing my Human-Faced Insects. Receiving the new data, the organ discarded one of the five genetic profiles it had been storing. Inside the brood nest on my back, the old insect dissolved in an instant, and a new Human-Faced Insect was born.
Come out.
At my command, the insect tore through the membrane of the tumor-like nest and emerged. Bearing the exact face of the corpse I'd just eaten, the bug looked around in apparent confusion at its own situation.
"■?!"
The moment it realized it had become an insect, it began to panic. I fired a burst of brainwaves at the creature, forcibly calming it down.
"I have questions. Answer them."
When a human voice flowed out of my mouth, the fly-monster with a human head began to tremble all over.
"Who are you, and what organization do you belong to?"
"■■ ■ometh… I… I am Colin Russell."
With my permission, the fly-monster had gained the ability to speak human words. Under my control, it stammered at first but gradually steadied itself.
"I serve Lady Sihyeon Yujin."
"Sihyeon Yujin?"
"Yes. She came to this place to accomplish her great cause."
What the creature told me was something I had not anticipated at all.
Sihyeon Yujin, you say?
It was a name I hadn't heard in a long time. The first truly formidable enemy I'd faced since arriving in this world.
She should be dead.
Two of my core traits had come from devouring her: the Mimic Organ and the Monster's Tentacles.
Thanks to the Essence Harvester's Jaw, eating only the head is enough now, but it hadn't been that way before. To obtain a target's Genetic Essence back then, I'd had to consume every last scrap of flesh.
She's definitely dead. Which means this is either a clone, or an impostor using her name.
When I had encountered Sihyeon Yujin, she had been masquerading as a Space Dog cartel. As her name suggested, her true identity was a member of the Yujin family, one of Mega Corp's Noble Capital houses. The odds of them stealing the clone-manufacturing technology — the Star Union's core technological asset and bitter rival — seemed slim.
Besides, clones come with plenty of side effects.
Star Union clones are psychologically incomplete. They care about nothing but their own identity, submitting to no one's control. So much so that in the game, clones often appeared as the Star Union's principal enemies.
Would the Noble Capital, with egos that scraped the heavens, really invest in such an unpredictable variable? The chances were faint.
Which leaves only one possibility…
"She died months ago. By my hand."
"No. That's impossible. Not once since the day she swore to accomplish her great cause has she ever rested, not for a single day."
"Great cause?"
"Reclaiming the name of Yujin. Punishing the traitor who usurped the seat of Family Head. That is the destiny of Lady Sihyeon Yujin."
Now that I thought about it, something clicked. Among the players Jason had told me about, one had been the head of the Yujin family.
Akira Yujin, was it?
A player who stubbornly insisted on a Japanese-style name and, by Jason's description, behaved like an old man with a terminal case of chuunibyou.
Only one ranker fit both of those traits. If he really was that "Megacorp Ranker" I knew, then blood must have flowed like rivers when he seized control of his family.
His skills were good, but his personality was absolute garbage.
He was the kind of ranker the community openly called a sociopath, so in this world he'd be even worse.
Roughly speaking, I can guess the situation.
Before I devoured her, Sihyeon Yujin had most likely been the leader of a faction purged by Akira Yujin. "Russell" was probably a false family name her remnants used to conceal their true identities.
And since she had died fighting me, her purged faction must have been left in a genuinely awkward position.
So they set up a body double.
The Sihyeon Yujin the creature spoke of was almost certainly a stand-in for the dead leader. An impostor wearing her name, leading her subordinates to this place.
I asked why they had come here.
"Lady Sihyeon Yujin told us that an important relic lies here."
"A relic? What kind of relic?"
"I don't know that either. I was only told that the relic is somewhere within the black mountain, and that we must find it."
I pressed him with a few more questions, but nothing else of substance came out. When I asked about the Screamers, the creature knew absolutely nothing.
It's fine. I've gotten everything I needed.
Fortunately, this didn't seem to have much to do with the players. If anything, the faction led by Sihyeon Yujin — or rather her double — was closer to a group that despised players.
I'll look into them after I deal with Ored Ghad.
There was one crucial piece of information the creature hadn't spelled out but I could infer anyway. Exploring this barren planet required extensive preparation: weapons, equipment, and all manner of survival supplies.
And obviously, supplying all of that required a ship — a fairly large one, at that.
It's probably parked somewhere near the planet's surface, isn't it?
If I seized that ship, I would know everything about what Sihyeon Yujin's faction was doing and where they were.
Having organized my thoughts, I sent the Human-Faced Insect back into the nest. Up on my back, Adhai, who had been bored out of her mind, brightened.
｢Done now?｣
[Bzzzz bzzzzzz (Sorry. That was boring, wasn't it?)]
｢It's fine｣
[Bzzz bzzz bzzzzz bzzzzz bzzz (Let's grab what's inside and go)]
We had picked up interesting information in an unexpected place.
After that, Adhai and I raided the Hellside Hornet's food stores. Thanks to the trail Colin Russell had left behind, we reached the larder without wandering the maze at all.
We searched the storage to see whether there were any other sources of information besides him, but not a single living creature remained. The sealed chambers were packed with nothing but cocoons full of rotting, fermented liquid.
｢This｣｢tastes｣｢good｣
The one who jabbed her tentacle into a cocoon for a taste soon had her eyes curved into crescent moons. Even I had never seen Adhai make that expression before.
Is it really that good?
I plucked one of the dozens of cocoons hanging from the ceiling and took a long drink. My own eyes slipped out of my control and curved into the very same crescents.
It's incredibly good?
The flavor was something like a mojito, only far more sharply effervescent. The aroma was exquisite too — a cool freshness that spread all at once down my throat and through my whole body. It was so good that I actually forgot about the wounds I'd taken in battle.
[Bzzz bzzzzzz (How many should we take?)]
｢Agree｣｢Agree｣｢Agree!｣
I gathered as many cocoons as I could carry. Deploying my combat arms and all six erosion tentacles, I managed about fifteen. The rest went into Adhai's stomach and mine.
And so, having thoroughly emptied the Hellside Hornet's larder, we made our way out.
[Bzzz bzzzzzz (Let's head back then)]
Adhai and I spread our wings wide and soared into the sky. By the time we reached the nest, Ored Ghad's pack would likely be showing some movement of its own.
Heal my wounds quickly at the nest, then hunt the White Gallagons that come out to forage.
Which means the real question is how to hunt them…
Even as I flew, cleaving through the clouds, I kept turning over how to fight Ored Ghad's pack.
The forest, thick with trees bearing dozens upon hundreds of sprawling branches, was an ancient one. Even the youngest of its trees had lived for several hundred years. And there, in that place, a beast crouched low to the ground.
Even in the deep darkness, its amber eyes glowed like lantern flames. The beast had the head of a predatory bird, four legs, and a slender tail. Two sharp horns rose from its skull.
With its thick forepaws it plucked a mushroom-like plant growing from the ground, then picked it up in its beak and gnawed it down in slow bites.
Even as it idly staved off its hunger, the beast's gaze never wavered from a single point.
Where the beast was looking lay beyond the edge of the forest: sheer rock cliffs riddled with caves. Most of the cliffs on this planet were closer to great crevasses where the ice sheet had split apart — but not this one.
Far from a chilling cold, searing heat rose endlessly from beneath the rock face. Had anyone capable of sensing psychic power been crouching there, they would have felt the vortex of energy surging up from below the cliff.
That rock wall was the Gallagons' habitat — the Dragon's Nest.
"……"
Having finished the plant, the beast — the Mother of the Sky — resumed her vigil without moving a muscle. For the past two days she had not so much as stirred, save for brief meals. She knew all too well how dangerous it was to go up against Gallagons, and she was taking every possible precaution.
And it wasn't as though she were alone — her comrades were gathered behind her.
Comrades, huh.
A Sea Demon, a Gallagon, a Screamer, and…
Amorph.
If she told her real-world self — Choi Seoa — that she was moving together with the Rank 5 player Morph-fucker, how would that woman react? She'd fly into a rage and tell her to stop spouting nonsense, no question.
Morph-fucker was hard to read, but in truth she had never liked him. Honestly, it was closer to hatred. If she'd met him shortly after arriving in this world, she would have tried to kill him by any means necessary.
He's the one who shattered my clan.
Back then, she had learned just how fragile the bonds of an in-game world truly were.
Her clan, the Savage Clan, had never had many members to begin with, thanks to its distinct roleplay concept. But after the battle with Morph-fucker, the only member left was her. All of her friends had quit the game in disgust or scattered to other clans.
Because of that, she too had been half-forced out of the game and back into the real world. At the time, Choi Seoa had been escaping reality for a whole host of reasons, and she'd despised Morph-fucker with every fiber of her being.
…It's ironic, isn't it.
Because of him she'd half-quit the game and been driven back to reality — and now here they were, comrades who had fought through life and death together. What was even more absurd was that her relationship with Morph-fucker had grown far closer than her bonds with the old Savage Clan members ever were.
After opening her heart to him a while back, she had felt much lighter. Though he probably had no idea.
He never seems to notice anything.
Otherwise there was no way he wouldn't know what No. 26 or Adhai were thinking. It had been the same in the game — the guy's social circle seemed impossibly narrow.
Then again, maybe even that's a mystery?
Neither the Mother of the Sky nor Morph-fucker knew what kind of person the other had been in reality. Even after growing close, neither of them had ever been the first to bring it up.
Well, that's only natural.
The person she was now had a powerful body, a swift frame, and a magnificent mane — but her real-world self was nothing of the sort. Not the Mother of the Sky, but "Choi Seoa" had been just… that kind of person. No — nothing more than a pathetic, below-average nobody.
Which was exactly why she had no desire to tell anyone about Choi Seoa. And knowing him, Morph-fucker was probably the same.
Look at that personality — there's no way he has a single friend… hm?
Just as she was mentally tearing into Morph-fucker, she spotted movement at the nest and cut off the idle thoughts.
She sharpened her focus, narrowing her eyes. Several Gallagons were emerging from one of the caves in the cliff face.
What's this?
Two green-scaled Gallagons were carrying another Gallagon toward a different cave. The one being carried was drenched in blood from head to toe, with not a single intact limb among its arms and legs.
Ham Ort?
Even mangled as she was, the Mother of the Sky recognized her. The White Gallagon on the verge of death, her horns snapped and her wings torn, was without a doubt Adhai's mother, Ham Ort. The Green Gallagons beside her dragged Ham Ort roughly into the other cave.
What happened? I thought she was dead?
Judging by her severe injuries, it wouldn't have been strange for her to die at any moment. And the way the other Gallagons were manhandling her didn't exactly suggest she'd betrayed them and been caught afterward.
They took her prisoner?
It was important information — she made a note to remember it — and at that very moment—
Twelve White Gallagons burst out of a different cave. They spread their wings, shot up above the cliff, and vanished into the sky.
It's starting!
Having watched the hunters depart, she held quietly in wait for a while. Only after no further movement appeared did she cautiously begin to move.
The black sky hanging above the forest heaved and roiled.
As if answering it, a shape of deepest shadow burst from a cave deep beneath the cliff. The silent rising figure shot upward in an instant and disappeared into the clouds.