Chapter 257
Chapter 257
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 257
Chapter Title: Ep. 257
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After Wolf, who had been bossing around the Satua organization's grunts, departed from the military port, five pirates approached the ship. They kept their heads turned away like they weren't interested, but their eyes flicked toward the vessel.
"It's just like I said, right?"
"...No one's guarding the ship. That's definitely suspicious."
The Marcio Cartel, rulers of the fortress, didn't tolerate disturbances in their territory, but they didn't bother cracking down on every petty crime either. The guards at the military port only performed the bare minimum inspections—they didn't give a damn about securing individual ships.
In other words, docked ships had to fend for themselves. Glancing at the other vessels, pirates and mercenaries were diligently standing watch.
But the Satua Cartel's assault ship? Nothing of the sort. There wasn't a single sign of movement outside or inside.
As if the ship was completely empty.
"Looks like we can head on in."
The wide-open hatch, devoid of any guards, beckoned to the pirates. Come on in—no worries.
The five pirates gave the area one last sweep to ensure no one was watching, then set foot on the stairs leading to the hatch.
"Heh, things are going our way."
"Why don't we just hijack the damn thing and fly off?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, punk. How the hell are we supposed to pilot a beast that si—"
Chatting idly as they boarded, the pirates abruptly fell silent.
The interior corridor was lit only by the dimmest emergency lights. As expected, there was no one aboard, but not a single one of them cracked a smile.
The atmosphere in the dimly lit corridor felt profoundly off.
"...Fuck, this place is creepy as shit."
"Crazy bastards. They'd sail around in a tub like this?"
If it had just been dark, no one would've batted an eye. These were Space Dogs who prowled the infinite void.
But this ship was different. Something dank and indescribable lurked within.
"Let's check it quick and bail."
The green-haired pirate spoke up, and the other four nodded without a word.
They all sensed the bad vibes, but none suggested turning back. They needed to grab something to make it worth it. With that, they began advancing down the shadowy corridor.
The temperature inside wasn't particularly low—life support systems were still humming along. Yet the pirates felt an inexplicable chill. With every breath, frigid air seeped into their skin.
And then there was the smell. Not the stench of unwashed pirates or smuggled beasts. The entire ship reeked of something bizarre and foul.
A smell this strong should've stung their noses the moment they stepped onto those metal stairs. And yet, not one of them had clutched their face before crossing the threshold.
As if the ship had been waiting for them to come aboard. They hadn't voiced it, but they all shared the same thought.
Separate from their instinctual dread, no overt threats materialized. Unimpeded, they came upon a massive iron door.
"Cargo hold up ahead?"
"...Let's see what's inside."
The pirate with a prosthetic eye in one socket pulled out his terminal. He jacked it into the door and hacked it open with ease.
The hulking iron door groaned ajar, revealing a cargo hold swallowed in darkness that welcomed the outsiders.
"Light it up."
"Without messing with the ship computer directly? Tough."
"Fuckin' hell."
Muttering curses, the pirates drew laser pistols from their belts. The tiny flashlights mounted on the gun barrels pierced the cargo hold's gloom.
"Pitch black in here."
"Paint job issue? Explains the stink."
"Both of you, shut it. Fan out and search."
"Agreed."
The flickering corridor had been eerie enough, but this place was far darker and more unsettling. Lingering here felt like it could drive them insane. The pirates scattered, eager to snag valuables and bolt.
...Thought it'd be fine when we came in.
The green-haired pirate slunk between the steel cages by flashlight alone, already regretting his choice.
This wasn't some fat merchant cruiser—it was a slave runner. What the hell had possessed him to board?
In hindsight, the Satua crew not posting guards was the first red flag. They'd docked here plenty before.
"C'mon, something... Whoa?!"
Shining his light into a cage, he recoiled in shock. There was something inside.
"Statue?"
He'd first thought it was a person, but closer inspection proved otherwise.
It was a sculpture. A human figure carved from translucent, crystal-like mineral.
"Hah, thought it was a guy."
The green-haired pirate pried open the cage door and touched the statue. The cool inorganic chill and hard mineral texture felt utterly real.
Damn, this is masterfully done.
The statue was so lifelike it could pass for a living person. Especially that expression—eyes and mouth agape in terror, brimming with vitality.
As if a living human had been frozen into stone in an instant.
This'll fetch a nice price.
"Hey! Get over here!"
The others smelled credits too, it seemed. He dashed out of the cage toward his comrades.
Thus, he never noticed.
The statue's eyes tracking his back.
"Even a few of these will make us a killing."
"Grab too many and we might get spotted. Let's snag three first."
The scattered steel cages housed human-like statues. There had to be at least a hundred.
Worth creeping through this hellhole. The five pirates beamed with satisfaction before the sculptures.
With security this lax, they wouldn't notice a couple missing. Emboldened, the pirates began hauling the statues.
"On three, lift together. One, two, three!"
"Ugh, heavy as fuck."
"Hold it steady... Whoops!"
The statues were insanely heavy. Even with four grown men heaving, it was a struggle. Inevitably, one pirate slipped, and the statue toppled to the deck.
"You fucking idiot!"
"Sorry."
"Everyone shut up! If it cracks, the value tanks."
The prosthetic-eyed pirate inspected the fallen statue. Fortunately, no damage. As he breathed a sigh of relief and stared, an odd sensation crept over him.
This dynamic human figure, poised to scream. The face looked... familiar.
"...Anyone still in touch with Poncha's crew?"
"Poncha? Didn't the Cult wipe 'em out?"
As the green-haired pirate said, contact with the Poncha Cartel had gone dark a month ago. The prosthetic-eyed one knew that too.
But he'd asked anyway. Because the toppled statue bore an uncanny resemblance to someone.
Definitely one of Poncha Cartel's guys.
A statue identical to a Poncha organization member—from a Satua ship that went dark two months back, declared wiped a month ago. What did that imply?
...Fuck, what the hell is this?
Shit had gone sideways in a big way. His instincts screamed to get out now.
That's when the green-haired pirate called out.
"...Hey."
"What?"
"Those statues—were they always facing this way?"
"Huh?"
The pirates snapped their heads up in unison.
Four flashlight beams swept toward the cages littering the hold. The statues stood in the exact same poses as before.
Except for their eyes.
Every single one stared straight at where the pirates stood.
"Sh-shit!"
"Don't shoot, you moron!"
"W-we gotta get outta here! This place is bad news!"
"Hold up! We leave now, we get nothing!"
"Damn it! Quick, grab—hey, where's that one guy?"
Come to think of it, they'd entered as five. Now there were only four.
"Wh-when'd he vanish?"
"Fuck! That matter right now?"
"Forget the credits—run!"
"He'll catch up!"
Instead of searching for their missing comrade, they bolted for the cargo hold door.
It wasn't a huge space. Escaping should've been easy.
They realized how wrong they were soon enough.
No end to it?!
They'd sprinted until winded, but the door was nowhere. The prosthetic-eyed pirate toggled his lens to night vision. Still nothing.
The others? Where'd they go?
His comrades, who'd been running beside him moments ago, were gone. He whipped around frantically. The hold contained no allies—only the statues, staring with unsettling obsession.
Meeting those chilling gazes, he trembled and clenched his pistol hand white-knuckled. He had no idea if the puny weapon would help, but without it, his heart might just seize up.
"...Gulp."
He swallowed hard, then crept cautiously between the cages. With every step, the eyes beyond the bars tracked him.
He'd endured hateful glares from countless victims over the years. But these eyes terrified him to his core.
As he shook, shambling toward him came a figure. The green-haired pirate, vanished mid-flight.
Nearly blasting his own crewmate, he bellowed.
"Fuck, almost shot you!"
"......"
The green-haired pirate staggered closer without reply.
Up close, seeing his face, the prosthetic-eyed pirate felt his blood turn to ice.
"......! ......! ......!"
The translucent crystalline material—from the hold's statues—encased the green-haired pirate's neck and mouth.
He hadn't been refusing to speak. He physically couldn't.
The green-haired pirate seized his collar, eyes pleading desperately for help as his body rapidly hardened.
"U, uwaaaagh!"
The prosthetic-eyed pirate shoved him away and stumbled back. Now he knew exactly what those statues were made of.
This ship was cursed. No clue what the Satua crew had done. But one thing was clear: it had ventured somewhere darker than hell—and returned.
The moment that thought hit, the surrounding statues' gazes shifted upward. Even the fallen comrade's eyes pointed above his head.
The prosthetic-eyed pirate instinctively knew something loomed over him.
Too terrified to look, but curiosity rebelled against his fear.
His head tilted up slowly.
There, a being from hell gazed down upon him.
Mother of the Sky sighed at the five new pirate figurines added to the collection.
Is it?
I'd ended the intruders quickly without much torment. I'd only used two of my new unique traits.
Reality bends to perception. Spread psychic power to distort the senses of all sapients within a 500m radius. Randomly implants 'Madness Bomb' in affected subjects.
* 'Madness Bomb': Rattles the target's senses and mind, driving them insane. On death, infects the nearest sapient.
* Caution: Effect halved against psychic resistance. Agility drops sharply during use.
* P.S.: Don't trust reality too much.
Injects silicon-based microbes into the target, mutating their genes. Mutated subjects gradually crystallize over time.
* Caution: Requires physical contact to activate.
One from the transcendent system, the other the sole trait from my new 'Environmental Adaptation' type. I had one more new unique trait, but it wasn't for this occasion.
Earned this Medusa Organ the hard way.
It came from a Black Galleron—and one rivaling Od Grad in strength. Took two full weeks to hunt it down.
But the reward was sweet.
...Yeah, suppose so.
I coiled an erosion tentacle around one statue.
This one'll do.
He was one of the pirates who'd invaded the cargo hold while I rested.
After the kids left, I'd lingered alone and activated Herald of Great Chaos to warp their senses, ensuring they couldn't flee.
With their cognition in shambles, they spun in circles or wandered the hold's walls, deluded into thinking they were escaping masterfully. They weren't.
Once they step in, they're in my palm.
Clinging to the ceiling, I'd used erosion tentacles laced with the Medusa Organ to turn the maddened pirates into quartz statues one by one.
The Medusa Organ worked by implanting silicon-based microbes stored in my body. Victims or objects swiftly transformed into crystal-like matter.
In short, it turned foes into mineral lumps—just like its name. The only counter was excision before the microbes spread.
Fail that? Eternal imprisonment in a flesh prison, like the hold's statues. No wonder it came from an Apex stronger than a Black Galleron.
Still, pairs well with my other traits.
Petrified foes had uses aplenty. Like raw material for the mimicry organ.
I gaped my maw wide and crunched the crystallized pirate whole. Like biting a juice-filled hard candy—the shell shattered, sweet flesh juices flooding my mouth.
The green-haired pirate's body dissolved through my digestive tract into nutrients. In the process, my dormant mimicry organ awakened, absorbing his genetic data.
I dropped from the ceiling to the deck, landing soundlessly. I approached the pirate pissing himself in terror.
"Y-you...?!"
The prosthetic-eyed pirate reeled from terror and confusion.
To him now, I looked exactly like the green-haired pirate. Intellectually, he'd know I wasn't his buddy, but his body rejected that logic.
Thanks to the Shape Master trait I'd acquired months ago, my mimicry organ's potency had surged.
Before, it disrupted senses via pheromones alone. Now, psychic power seeping from my exoskeleton's pores overlaid a psionic illusion on my form.
Like cloaking in psychic-fueled optical camo—it even fooled cameras, rendering me a blurry ghost rather than my true monstrous self.
Since leaving the dragon's lair, I'd roamed star systems, devouring countless sapients. Key figures' genes went to the facehugger organ for storage; lesser ones became statues like these—for ambushes on planets or ships.
"The kids?"
In the container. No. 26's behaving, but Adhai seems hungry.
"Gotta grab some chow for 'em."
I scooped up the prosthetic-eyed pirate with a wing-arm. Trembling in my grasp, he begged.
"P-please! Spare me! Spare me! Mercy...!"
Meant him as Adhai's snack, but a better idea struck. I murmured to Mother of the Sky.
"First time in our reality here, right?"
Yeah. Supposed to be the Cult's space fortress originally. No idea why it's changed.
"Then we need a guide."
"Wh-what?"
His eyes bulged at my words.
I'd used parasites to control the guards, but a few remained.
My hallucinatory shroud flickered as a black, eel-like creature slithered from my combat arm. Seeing the wriggling parasite approach, his face drained to ashen gray.
"W-wait! Hold on! Hold—guwaaagh!"
The elongated parasite whipped around his face and burrowed into his throat. As it tunneled toward his brain, blood poured from his eyes and nose.
Moments later, the pirate bowed to me with a blissful smile.
"I serve the new ma-master! I serve Aimorph! Long live Aimorph!"
Changed fishing spots? Time for fresh bait.
The kids' snacks would be the fish caught on this new lure.