Transcendence (2)

Well, that explains why it felt so off.

No trait I knew of had ever come with a transformation this long and this complicated.

This is exactly the kind of moment where I need to check things carefully, step by step.

With the mindset of a man reviewing a contract before signing it, I went through every change listed in the text box, line by line.

The Transcendence System is tied to evolution, just like I suspected.

Beside "Sub-adult," the words Transcendence Stage 1 were written in parentheses. The details would only become clear once I evolved into a Young Adult, but it was safe to guess that my future evolution conditions would be intertwined with Transcendence as well.

The real problem is...

...that two of my important traits had been sealed.

The moment the change finished, a heavy weight had settled over my whole body, and I'd wondered if my wings would become unusable from now on. Sure enough, they were. It stung, badly — my very first trait, the one that had carried me through crucial battles, sealed away just like that.

And losing access to the Morphing Organ hurts too.

I tried to activate it, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the fine pores across my body gave no response at all. Looking closely, I saw that the thickened outer shell had sealed off most of them. A few remained open, though their shape had changed slightly.

Come to think of it, Perfect Organism was said to project an intimidating presence, wasn't it?

The intimidation effect was part of Perfect Organism's description. Perhaps that fear-inducing pheromone worked by overriding — smothering — the pheromones the Morphing Organ used to produce.

Space Survival was full of traits, equipment, and skills, but some of them locked out other abilities. Fitting for a game that emphasized realism, it never simply banned things arbitrarily; the restrictions always operated on logic that could be swallowed as plausible.

For example, AP rounds contained a substance that severed the flow of psionic power, blocking an enemy's psionics within a certain area for a certain period of time — that sort of thing.

This was the same principle. My wings were grounded because my body mass had swollen dramatically, and the Morphing Organ was offline because the organ itself had been altered in order to generate a new pheromone.

In that case, voice mimicry should still work, right?

Just in case, I tried producing a voice through my mouth.

"A·a·it·｢gruk｣ comes·out·but·｢grrrrr｣"

Sound did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come out, but it was nothing like the flawless mimicry of before. It warbled like a broken tape recorder, and Amorph's signature guttural rattle kept bleeding through mid-syllable.

As if such loopholes were unforgivable, Perfect Organism had applied itself all the way down to my insides.

Deceiving anyone with this voice is out of the question.

It might serve to terrorize an enemy, perhaps, but for deception it was useless.

Usually when a restriction like this appears, the game offers a way to lift it, too.

Right on cue, a new message notification had arrived. I accepted the message.

A breakthrough of Transcendence, huh.

I checked the Transcendence (Stage 2) Breakthrough.

Hmm.

A method was being offered, but it was anything but easy. Creating fusion traits wasn't the hard part — the problem was that each one had to be tied to a different Type.

I've currently unlocked three Type acquisition conditions.

On top of those, I'd need to obtain two more fusion traits tied to Types I hadn't acquired yet. That was nearly as demanding as an evolution condition itself.

The one mercy was that any trait related to a given Type would work as a material. If it had demanded one specific trait the way Stage 1 had, reaching Stage 2 would have taken me an eternity.

Not exactly a cakewalk.

It was a shame my most-used traits had been sealed, but what was done was done. When the environment changes, you change your strategy to match it.

Ambushing people one at a time from the shadows is going to be much harder now.

And I still wasn't strong enough to confront this city head-on. My trait count was short, and I possessed only a single Type.

Everything hinges on how powerful this new trait turns out to be.

I approached the wall to put it to the test.

Last time, I had to soften it with Acid Blood before I could punch through.

It was metal that bore the entire city's foundation, so its sturdiness went without saying. The question was how much stronger a body — reinforced toward perfection by Perfect Organism — had actually become.

I channeled a touch of strength into my combat arms and swung at the wall. A hiss of cleaved air was followed by a thunderous boom that shook the entire corridor.

Well, well.

The wall — previously unmarked except for a layer of grime — now bore four deep gashes.

Each one was identical in depth: more than twenty centimeters, matching the length of my claws precisely.

And yet my claws were completely unharmed by the crack they'd split into the hardened metal.

Next, durability.

I stabbed those same claws against my own reinforced shell. A light prick didn't even break the surface. Only when I dragged them across with real force did a shallow scratch finally appear.

Strength, speed, shell hardness — all of it has leaped ahead.

At this level of defense, I could weather a fair amount of plasma-weapon firepower too. In other words, the armed police and androids — the ones without plasma — couldn't kill me.

Unless the planetary defense fleet rains artillery down on my head, the odds of my dying are low.

That was undeniably good news, but the problem was the Cult, with their psionic abilities.

My body's physical defense was superb, but my resistance to psionic power lagged far behind. I did possess the Psionic Resistance trait, but because it received no Type-enhancement bonus, it fell outside Perfect Organism's scope of application.

Hunter's Avatar grants resistance to all attacks, though. If I use it, I could block psionics to some ext— hold on?

I reread the Hunter's Avatar entry.

Hunter's Avatar. Once per day, limited to ten minutes — but it increases the probability of essence capture.

The restrictions were pretty tight, but what it gave back in exchange was nothing to sneeze at.

If I activate Hunter's Avatar and butcher the Cultists, I can farm psionic traits with ease.

I was only one trait away from the Psionic Enhancement Type. And once I had a Type, I'd fall within Perfect Organism's scope — my psionic defenses would climb dramatically too.

On top of that, as long as I could secure a large number of traits quickly, lifting the restrictions Transcendence had imposed wouldn't take long at all. For the Stage 2 breakthrough, quantity mattered more than quality — I just needed to gather and fuse many traits fast and feed them into the breakthrough.

Which means, once again, the Commercial District it is.

Conveniently, the Board of Directors Meeting was drawing near.

When the Board convened, all manner of alien species would pour into the city for sightseeing. And tourists, by their very nature, inevitably gravitated toward the center of consumption and entertainment.

I need to strike during the window when the new arrivals are at their thickest.

New Genetic Essences, all pooling in one place. If I timed my hunting properly, harvesting them would be trivial.

Besides, where tourists gathered, every brand of ragtag criminal followed — which meant the surveillance net would tighten. But think of it the other way around: my enemies would have just as many targets to watch, and couldn't possibly concentrate all their manpower on me alone.

If I went around killing people, they would of course hunt me — but committing every resource to my capture was another matter entirely. Sooner or later they'd come to see my existence as a critical threat, but by then, I'd have banked enough traits to break through Transcendence.

I should finish the nest work I'd been putting off until the Board meeting, too.

The sites in the Entertainment District and the Commercial District. I'd build new nests there.

I was still laying out plans for what came next when No. 26, roused from sleep, pulsed a thought-wave at me.

｢What was that sound just now?｣

[ZZZT ZZZZT (It was nothing)]

｢Huh?｣

When I told her I was fine, she was about to drift back to sleep — then caught sight of me and bolted upright.

She seemed baffled that I looked different from how I'd looked when she'd fallen asleep. Light flickered across her body.

｢I got small ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again.｣

Standing on two legs, I was now over three meters tall. Compared to before, when I'd fallen well short of two, that was growth of one-and-a-half to two times. My tail lagged slightly behind my height but still stretched well past four meters.

Given that I'd ballooned like this while she slept, her confusion was only natural.

[ZZZT ZZZZT ZZZT (No. I got bigger)]

｢Already? But you haven't even eaten that much?｣

No. 26, sharper now that she'd grown, asked back. I gave her a simple answer.

[ZZZZZ ZZZT (That's because I'm still a baby)]

｢Big Baby grows up so fast. Amazing.｣

Apparently satisfied, she asked no more. While we were talking, Adhai also woke from her slumber.

The moment she saw me, she leapt clean off the ground as if startled out of her wits.

｢Surprised｣｢Surprised!｣

[ZZZT (What's wrong?)]

｢Elder｣｢Cool!｣

[ZZZT (Thank you)]

It seemed my transformed appearance was very much to Adhai's liking. Like a puppy desperate to play, she would glance at me, spin in a circle, then look back — over and over. All the while, the wings on her back fluttered and trembled with a strange, unmistakable energy.

｢Elder｣｢Egg｣｢Unneeded?｣

Hm?

｢Me｣｢Elder｣｢Egg｣｢Needed｣｢Egg｣｢Egg｣｢Egg｣

Apparently, Adhai liked me very much indeed.

When I stayed silent, No. 26, beside her, whipped out a tentacle and smacked Adhai squarely across the head.

｢Ow!｣

｢Big Baby can't lay eggs.｣

｢Me｣｢Grow｣｢Egg｣｢Possible｣

｢Little Baby can't lay eggs either.｣

｢Pain!｣

With those words, No. 26 smacked her once more. Only after the second blow did Adhai seem to come back to her senses; she stopped spinning in circles and settled down, meek as a lamb.

...Nothing is known about Galagon mating, after all.

The display Adhai had just put on looked an awful lot like courtship behavior. If a Galagon fanatic had been in this room, they probably would have fainted on the spot.

Honestly, I had considerable interest in Galagon reproduction myself. Evolution demanded I slaughter Galagons in droves, and knowing how they bred and grew would be an enormous help in that pursuit.

But that's a problem for later.

Catching Galagons was a story for another day. Right now, building the nests came first.

[ZZZZ (I'm heading out for a while)]

｢Building a nest?｣

[ZZT (Yeah)]

｢I'm coming too.｣

[ZZZZ (You'll be bored)]

｢It's fine.｣

Not just No. 26 — Adhai was also eyeing me like she wanted to tag along.

No real reason to leave them behind, is there?

I took both of them along to the nest-building work.

I had just finished two new nests in the Entertainment District when I detected a familiar thought-wave.

The parasite I'd implanted in William was transmitting from somewhere far away.

What now?

It wasn't yet time to replace the parasite — a few more hours remained. There was no way he was already dead.

Just as I'd expected, the wave the parasite carried wasn't about William's death.

A suicide attempt?

To be precise, he was not yet dead. According to the parasite's signal, he was currently in a coma, moving at high speed toward some location in the Commercial District.

A hospital? Don't tell me—

Only then did I understand what William was after.

He was trying to expose the parasite's existence through a detailed medical examination at the hospital.

A substantial number of the detectives on the team already knew a parasite had been extracted from Sander's body. I had ordered William to interfere so the police wouldn't connect the parasite to Sander's death.

Thanks to that, the police had lost interest in the parasite and were merely keeping it in storage.

But what would happen if an identical parasite turned up inside William's body — now, of all moments?

They would never sit still.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠parasite carried an organ dedicated to generating the thought-wave it sent to me. If they discovered that organ, they might well mobilize the Cult of the Administrative District to track me down.

Psionic tracking techniques exist among the Cult's abilities, after all.

William hadn't attempted suicide knowing all of this. But there was no doubt he'd done it as some form of resistance against me — however desperate.

I'll have to pay the hospital a visit.

The new plan I'd laid out for taking the Commercial District — it seemed it would have to be moved up.