Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 248
Chapter Title: Visions of the Unknown
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When I opened my eyes, the sight before me wasn't the cargo hold but an entirely different place.
Countless green glass tubes. A pungent chemical smell that made my auxiliary organs tingle.
The place, illuminated by the glow from the tubes and exuding an eerie atmosphere, felt less like a research facility and more like catacombs from some distant future.
'...What is this?'
It was a place with such an alien vibe that I could confidently say I'd never seen anything like it in my life.
Yet, for some reason, it felt familiar. No, beyond familiar—it felt comforting.
As if I'd come home.
I crawled out from inside the glass tube.
'I remember.'
Back on the Cult holy planet, when I'd entered the second stage of transcendence, I'd seen a vision too. The place I'd seen then was right here.
'How could I forget this?'
It felt like someone had sealed away my memories and thoughts, then released them. The idea that some unknown entity was manipulating my consciousness filled me with anxiety and fear.
'...Calm down.'
Based on my experiences so far, what I was seeing and feeling was most likely an illusion. In reality, I was probably half-liquefied inside my cocoon.
'Let's look around.'
Better to do something than just sit here trembling. Barely keeping my composure, I crawled forward.
The cavern was vast. Even with my dozens of meters of length, I couldn't see the end as I moved.
Green glass tubes lined not just the floor but the walls and ceiling, packed densely along the path.
I glanced inside each one I passed, but they were empty. Just filled with some unidentified green liquid. Small terminals were attached to the tubes, but they were all powered off.
As I passed the nauseating tubes, I spotted a door. A rusted iron door. I raised my combat arm and pushed it lightly.
At first, it wouldn't budge, but it slowly started to move. Bright light leaked from the gap.
Soon the door swung fully open, and white light enveloped me.
'What's that?'
When the light faded, the new place was one I knew very well.
'My house?'
It was the door to my old one-room apartment from before I entered the Space Survival world. Voices came from inside.
Drawn by the familiar voice, I gripped the doorknob with one of my smaller chest arms.
The moment the door opened and I faced the person inside...
I woke up.
Sensations of my body returned, along with the feeling of warm liquid enveloping me. And a squishy, wall-like pressure squeezing me.
'What was that just now?'
Last time, I'd forgotten it, but not this time. It was hazy like morning fog, but the things I'd just seen lingered in my mind.
The bizarre facility filled with glass tubes, and my old apartment.
The former was a place I'd never seen before, the latter intimately familiar. No connection between them.
'Memories from my body?'
My mind was human, but my body was Aimorph. Maybe memories embedded in the Aimorph flesh were manifesting as visions.
'...Given the settings unlocked after ascension, it could be.'
But from what I remembered, no such facility appeared before or after ascension. The places that show up post-ascension are where Aimorphs first originated—the planet with the ancient ruins.
I pondered inside the cocoon, but couldn't figure out what the vision meant.
'Still, there's a clue.'
There was a commonality between last time, when I'd forgotten, and now.
'That was when I entered Transcendence System stage 2, and now...'
The one unique trait from transcendence had reached four, advancing the Space Monster type to stage 1. Meaning the memories of that enigmatic place might be tied to the transcendence system.
'If Space Monster hits stage 2, something else might come up.'
No point speculating without more info.
Conveniently, my body's transformation was complete. No idea how much time had passed, but my liquefied flesh had solidified into a new form.
I extended a combat arm and tore open the cocoon.
Mucus gushed out like poking a soft-boiled egg with chopsticks. As I ripped through the squishy cocoon and emerged, cold air brushed my carapace.
Inhaling the fresh air, I checked my body's changes.
The first unique trait I'd synthesized, 'Perfect Organism', had reshaped me into a large, sleek carnivore form. The second, 'Nightmare Horizon', had made me bulky and heavy to store erosion tentacles on my back.
The third, 'Organic Evolution', didn't alter my body much since it changed it into specific forms.
So, what about the fourth unique trait I'd synthesized?
In short, it had changed a lot, like the first and second cases.
My body type still maintained the Near-Adult's massive snake-like form. Still no legs, relying on combat arms and wing arms for movement.
But the big difference: my length had shrunk dramatically. Previously nearing 40m, now barely over 25m.
The lower body and tail had shortened a lot, but in compensation, my combat arms had grown enormously.
I propped myself up on a combat arm against the metal floor. Before, my lower body and tail dragged; now, they didn't.
Simply put, my current form resembled a spider body with a long, thick tail attached.
The body type changed most, but details had shifted too.
Starting with the head: the head carapace and shape hadn't changed much.
The fangs from 'Reaper's Maw', the four auxiliary organs under the jaw, the crocodile or theropod dinosaur-like head, the massive but incompletely grown horns, the ornate rear head carapace—all the same.
The change was more in the neck area. The 'Monster's Tentacles' spreading like a mane from inside the head carapace across the neck had benefited.
Currently, the monster's tentacles were retracted inside holes in the neck and head carapace interior.
Like how I hid erosion tentacles under my backplate, ripping the membrane to deploy them, the monster's tentacles now worked similarly.
'This is a really good change.'
Until now, my two biggest weaknesses were the auxiliary organs under my jaw and the monster's tentacles.
Auxiliary organs were fine with Hunting Image covering them in carapace, but monster's tentacles had limited protection. Strong foes always targeted the dangling tentacle bundle at my neck first.
'No need to worry about that now.'
In combat, I could just retract them if needed.
I tensed my neck to deploy the monster's tentacles. My rear neck stiffened like when stretching, and tentacle bundles flowed out from the small holes at the back of my head and neck.
The next big change after the monster's tentacles was the wing arms.
Already longer and larger due to the wings, now they'd grown over a third longer. The vertically folded carapace was double-layered, making them over twice as thick as other arms.
'It's become a structure that folds the membrane inside.'
Moving the wing arms with wing-spreading sensation, the folded carapace parted, and membranes unfurled gently—like pitching a well-folded tent.
Like the enlarged wing arms, other combat arms had grown substantially. Extra joints like the wing arms allowed more versatile movements.
Minor changes elsewhere: the blunt claws were gone. In their place, small biomechanical pipes protruded.
'A normal person would faint at the sight.'
Already terrifying before, now even more ferocious. I like it.
'Now, let's see what changes the text box shows.'
Having checked all body changes, I opened the text box.
+ Stage 1 Rewards Activated!
'As expected.'
I'd suspected it since it demanded Infection and Nest traits, but the new unique trait enhanced those two trait types.
'Enhance 3 traits each from Infection and Nest types.'
Unlike other unique traits that boosted entire trait or type categories at once, this one didn't seem to do that.
'Does that mean it concentrates the effect instead?'
Considering all transcendence unique traits were beyond-spec, my guess was probably right.
'No need to set it right away.'
Once set, can't change until the traits disappear, so choose carefully.
'More importantly, something bigger.'
Thanks to 'Great Infector', Space Monster type hit stage 1. Wondering what reward came from requiring four—hard-to-get—unique traits.
I checked the incoming reward message and my jaws dropped wide.
'Whoa?'
The Space Monster type's stage 1 reward.
It was the most groundbreaking reward I'd ever seen.
"Captain Nern, how much farther to the relic?"
"Almost there. It's not far from here."
"Good."
"...Damn, if only we'd known back when we stored that relic. No idea why this happened."
Former Imperial Mothership Captain Nern and Sihyun Yujin. They led the moving group, conversing. Watching her, Laila recalled the data chip she'd seen earlier. When she first heard Sihyun, she thought she was crazy. Too long in the shadows under Akira Yujin had broken her mind. 'If she were just crazy, it'd make sense...' Regardless of Sihyun's sanity, the data she provided didn't look fabricated. Images were few, maybe a dozen. But annotations, navigation charts, translated texts, research notes—substantial volume. As T&C Special Trade Center's overseer, Laila received weekly city reports. Her accumulated knowledge was vast. To her, Sihyun's data chip contents weren't faked or a madman's patchwork. 'That's what makes it weirder.' The records left by Beomho—Sihyun's supposed mentor from the Cult—detailed two weapons. One had only an incomplete nav chart, ignorable. The other didn't. About 60% decoded, its effect was absurd. 'A weapon that selectively kills specific organisms.' Per Sihyun's decode: it fired particle beams lethal to targeted organisms for mass slaughter. Input new genetic data to retarget freely. Like Star Union's Gremlin torpedo, but targets shifted from metal to lifeforms. Nern's description matched the records closely. One weapon wiped out an Outspacer legion. 'Problem is, no one knows how it works.' Nern had said at their first meeting: mysterious sailor left the weapon but vanished. No one dared use it. Immense power, but unknown mechanism or power source—like a nano nuke killing specific life. Few could handle casually. So they hid it deep in this remote planet's volcano. '...Too many incomprehensible parts.' Even accepting the weapon exists, issues remain. If owner was Sihyun's father, Jeongwoo, why not use against Akira? Wouldn't have lost life or patriarch position. Not clearly a provision for descendants either. If so, Beomho should've given directly to Sihyun. Instead, long after Jeongwoo Yujin's death, they're just now seeking it—with guidance from unrelated Nern. 'What was Beomho thinking?' Sihyun Yujin, Captain Nern. Megacorp top brass, Cult Empire elite—felt like puppets on Beomho's strings. Lost in thoughts, the group reached a dead end.
"Dead end? What's going on?"
"Hmm, there should be a passage here..."
Hearing Nern, Sihyun morphed her arm into a blade and slashed the wall. The cave wall crumbled, revealing a large clearing.
"What the...?"
"My god. So many corpses."
Flashlights pierced the dark clearing. First sight: corpses. Of hazards they'd encountered en route, plus unidentified creatures scattered everywhere.
"What creature is this? Never seen anything like it."
Sihyun's subordinates grimaced at the monster with eight sturdy legs amid the bodies. Unlike natural beasts they'd seen, it looked mechanical.
"This one too. All these died recently."
Unlike outside, warm here—perfect for decay. Yet corpses showed minimal rot. No food shortage, so why fight to death here? Baffled subordinates.
"Was it like this before?"
"No way. When we came, nothing in this mountain."
"What do you... Sihyun?"
Laila called, but Sihyun didn't respond. She walked among corpses like hypnotized. She reached into a corpse pile like a mountain at the back, pulling something out.
"That's...?"
"That! The relic we buried here!"
Laila still skeptical. Nern's face mixed shock and fear. They didn't know. What Sihyun Yujin was seeing.
Semitransparent text boxes stabbed into her brain. She understood less than half.
But one thing she knew for sure.
This thing would now serve its new master.