The Hospital (2)
The footsteps above my head faded away.
Time to move.
I pressed the terminal on the powered armor I was carrying. Its power cells were almost drained, the energy needed to activate the suit's functions nearly gone—but that didn't matter, since I wasn't the one who'd be wearing it. As long as the cloaking function came online, my own carapace would handle the rest.
It works.
The moment I manipulated the terminal on the right wrist, the armor glowed faintly and vanished before my eyes. With that confirmed, it was my turn.
I activated my Metal Absorption trait and bit down on the suit. The tough synthetic fibers tore apart between my teeth, and the metal fragments woven through them were drawn into my body.
Then the trait's effect kicked in, and my body began to blur at the edges.
｢Big Adult?｣
By the time my form had vanished completely, Adhai was turning her head this way and that, searching for me.
｢Little Baby, what's wrong?｣
｢Big Adult｣ ｢disappeared｣
｢He's right over there?｣
｢Can feel him｣ ｢Can't see him｣
No. 26 didn't sense the change in my body, probably because she perceived her surroundings through something other than sight. Adhai, on the other hand, who saw the world through her eyes and tentacles, seemed baffled that she could feel my presence through her tentacles but not see me.
[Zzzzzzt (I'm right here)]
｢Big Adult｣ ｢invisible｣
[Zzzzzz (I'm hiding)]
｢Big Adult｣ ｢hiding｣ ｢perfect｣
Adhai bobbed her head, the gesture carrying clear admiration.
Seems the effect is verified.
I was about to leave the nest with my mind at ease when No. 26, who could still see me, followed along.
[Zzzzt zzzzt (Not this time)]
｢Why not?｣
[Zzzzz zzzzzz zzzzt (I have to go alone)]
｢Can't I help?｣
[Zzzzt zzzz zzzzzz (This is something I have to do alone)]
｢Okay….｣
When I refused firmly, she deflated, her body shrinking down in dejection. Adhai, trailing behind her, read the mood and hunched up small as well.
I could cloak myself, but they couldn't. Show anyone a sea jelly the size of a full-grown human from waist up, or a tentacled lizard flapping through the air, and no one would react kindly.
I was about to leave them behind when I felt their eyes on my back.
...Maybe I should do it this way instead.
If things went wrong, a full-scale battle could break out inside the hospital. With the Board of Directors Meeting barely a month away, I couldn't entirely rule out the possibility of new enemies visiting the place.
After all, running into Jade's team was already something I hadn't anticipated.
Positioning them on standby somewhere close by, just in case, wasn't a bad strategy at all.
Decision made, I called them over.
[Zzzzz (Follow me)]
I led them toward the hole that connected to the subway tunnels.
Along the way, I explained the plan.
[Zzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzz (I can't take you with me)]
｢Okay.｣
[Zzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzz zzzz (Instead, wait where I tell you)]
｢Like we did before?｣
[Zzzz (Yeah)]
｢Got it.｣
I pulled the communicator out of the bag I'd taken off the reporter I'd devoured and showed it to No. 26. My plan was to give the reporter's communicator to them and use the sniper's myself.
After entering the reporter's contact information into the sniper's communicator, I handed the reporter's device over to No. 26.
[Zzzzz zzzzzz zzzzz (When this rings, that's the signal)]
｢Okay.｣
No. 26 stretched out a tentacle and gripped the communicator tight.
Once I'd given her the device, I explained where I would be and how to find me. Whether it was thanks to her increased intelligence, she understood my instructions right away.
By the time the explanation wound down, we had reached the hole leading to the tracks. I told the girls to stand by here, then approached the opening.
I've grown bigger, so I'll need to widen this.
My strength had increased so much that smashing the walls around the hole was absurdly easy.
[Zzzzzzz (I'll be back)]
｢Be careful.｣
Leaving their worried voices behind, I crawled out onto the subway tracks.
Dodging the trains that passed at intervals, I ran along the rails toward the station closest to the hospital. The passage was wide enough for two trains to pass simultaneously, and it was filled with the distant rumble of moving cars and the sound of my own footsteps.
My added weight is making me loud.
Once I was inside the hospital, I'd have to travel pressed against the walls or ceiling. Leaving marks on the walls would draw the androids' suspicion, but that was still better than being caught instantly by the noise.
My reinforced body made short work of the distance—a stretch that would have taken me five minutes before covered in under three.
Night was deepening, but there were still a fair number of people on the platform. I pressed myself flat against the track wall and waited.
Before long, a train pulled in, and the platform packed tight with people getting off and on. The bustle of the crowd didn't last long.
After the train departed, hardly anyone remained on the platform. Moving carefully, I crept along the wall and slipped out past the platform.
Most of the shops inside the station had already closed, or were in the process of lowering their shutters.
Still, the place wasn't entirely deserted, so I hugged the ceiling as I crawled.
"Huh? Where'd this dust on my shoulder come from?"
"What's that up on the ceiling? Looks like it's cracked?"
A few tourists midway through started chattering about the marks I'd left as I passed. Fortunately, thanks to the high-grade optical camouflage, not one of them spotted me.
Once I emerged from the station, I ran for the hospital.
There were still people out on the streets, but none of them noticed my presence. A few tilted their heads at the sound of my footsteps, but that was all.
I arrived at the hospital without incident and headed for the rear entrance instead of the main lobby. Confirming no one was around at the back, I slipped inside in one motion and went straight up the emergency stairs.
I'd considered using the windows at first.
My body was too big for that now. So I was scaling the wall, passing the second floor and heading for the third, when the stairwell door swung open.
"Noise detected."
The enemy that appeared was an android. The instant it moved to close the door, my tail struck its head like a bolt of lightning.
My venomous barb had grown along with the rest of me—these days it was nearly the size of a blade mounted on a ballista. Struck by a weapon that deserved to be called a poison sword rather than a mere stinger, the android's head burst apart on the spot.
It won't show up on camera, at least.
It might have been a different story if it had switched to thermal vision before dying, but the machine never got the chance. Just to be safe, I destroyed the memory storage unit inside its body as well.
Shoving the android's remains into a corner of the stairwell, I surveyed the corridor outside with my auxiliary organ before opening the door. A single android passed through the hallway and entered another patient room.
Confirming the coast was clear, I opened the door and stepped into the corridor.
William is... this way.
Following the guidance of my auxiliary organ, I moved toward the intensive care unit at the far end of the left hallway.
Just as I was about to open the patient room door, my auxiliary organ flagged an anomaly.
What is that?
I could feel something on the floor below.
An immensely powerful mass of energy. Four high-density energy conglomerates, incomparable to any android, were passing through the first-floor lobby and ascending.
Energy stronger than androids... there's only one thing that could be.
High-Grade Powered Armor.
To be detectable from this kind of distance, it had to be a suit built around raw output and overwhelming firepower.
Why would armor meant for the front lines be here?
The enemy was climbing the stairs on the opposite side. In case they came this way, I swiftly hid myself inside a nearby operating room.
"Door opening detect—"
The only one inside the operating room was a cleaning android. I smashed its head with my combat arm before it could finish the sentence.
Having eliminated the android, I held my breath and went still. From beyond the wall came the mechanical hum of thick, heavy armor plating.
"So this is the place, it seems."
"I confess I know not what manner of person this is, that the Vice-Commander would bid us stand guard."
"His Highness's orders are absolute. I hear he stressed the matter most particularly."
"We are His Highness's blades. When the command comes, we obey."
The speech belonged in a historical drama, and the mechanical distortion made it sound absurdly strange—like elite commandos of some space empire out of a classic sci-fi game.
Knights of the stars, is it.
Two factions came to mind.
The first was Garmelda.
A Noble Capital responsible for powered armor and android development among the Mega Corp factions. Powered armor, alongside genetic enhancement, was a critically important element of Mega Corp gameplay, which made Garmelda one of the most popular faction choices among Mega Corp players.
Not Garmelda. They don't talk like that.
As far as I knew, the only faction within Mega Corp with a genuinely feudal political structure was the Martian noble house of Edgerton. A Prime Capital in charge of ship development, unlike the other houses its head ruled as a monarch, with elders and vassals bearing the title of lords—a rather peculiar culture.
So Edgerton received powered armor support and came?
The Edgerton family had always specialized in fleet warfare in open space, never particularly strong in ground combat. Within Mega Corp, ground warfare belonged to the houses of Yujin and Garmelda—not them.
Same with the police armament last time. The enemy is evolving too.
Impossible things kept happening—things that could never occur in the game. The upper houses within Mega Corp despised each other so thoroughly that cooperation like this was virtually unheard of unless players were involved.
Was this difference because this place was reality? Or had a new system been updated, the way I'd received the Transcendence System?
Not a question I can answer right now.
I refocused on the conversation coming from the next room.
"According to the android, this man will need roughly three hours to wake."
"Did the Vice-Commander say anything else?"
"He instructed us to bring back this man's physical examination records and the physician's report once he wakes."
"Does he suspect his mind, then? He's wasted away to skin and bone, true, but I confess I was genuinely stunned when he shot himself with a pistol like that."
From the sound of it, they intended to take William away once he regained consciousness.
I have to finish this here.
I pressed the auxiliary organ beneath my jaw flat against the wall. I needed to map the enemy's positions in the intensive care unit next to the operating room.
Four of them. Two at the door, one beside William. And one is closing in on this side.
Organ pressed to the wall, I drew my tail taut, ready to strike. The moment the enemy came close, I would pierce him and the wall together with a single thrust.
Just then, I caught the enemy talking.
"Guard duty or no, we might as well activate the surveillance systems."
"I was thinking the same."
"Hm?"
"Eh?"
A rhythmic warning tone began emanating from their thick suits of armor.
Oh no.
I tore myself off the wall. Almost simultaneously, the wall shattered and a shell of a fist punched through.
Through the dust, four knights in silver armor leveled their guns at me—weapons shaped like pistol-grip grenade launchers.
Plasma Bolters!
Those were dangerous.
I smashed through the wall and burst out into the corridor. Behind my back, a green flash bloomed, and the operating room was reduced—no hyperbole—to powder.
The Plasma Bolter was a kind of transitional weapon, developed before the Plasma Pistol came along.
It looked roughly like a pistol-grip grenade launcher blended with the character of a concrete nail gun, except that instead of conventional ammunition, condensed plasma energy fired from the muzzle.
As befit a plasma weapon, its destructive power was tremendous, but the attempts to lighten it had failed, leaving it enormously heavy.
Still, weight was its only real flaw, which made it a perfectly serviceable general-purpose weapon for combat units in high-grade powered armor.
High-grade powered armor came with strength amplification built in, so the bolter's bulk and recoil could be weathered with ease.
Thanks to that, even after the Plasma Pistol was developed, the bolter held onto its place as an active-duty weapon.
"An unidentified lifeform, it seems."
"I stand guard over the person of import."
"I entrust it to you."
"Then let us proceed."
Three enemies in silver high-grade powered armor were coming toward me. They were heading precisely in the direction I was hiding—so their surveillance systems were picking up my biometric signature.
Cloaking is useless against this.
High-grade powered armor and Plasma Bolters. A difficult matchup.
I'd fought a sniper in high-grade powered armor recently, but that situation and this one were different things.
With a high-output, heavy-armor configuration, its defenses must be monstrous.
The enemy's armor was likely on par with a warship's outer hull. My claws had been reinforced by my Type bonuses and the Perfect Organism trait, but shattering high-grade powered armor in one blow was still beyond me.
The best weapon I had for landing a clean, effective hit right away was the Barbed Bone Launching Organ, with its superior penetration.
Should I use Monster's Tentacles?
The thought tempted me for a moment, but I shook my head at once. If I forced it without the Psionic Enhancement Type and got countered, there would be no recovering.
...Maybe it's time to use that ability.
While tracking the enemies' movements, I pulled up a text box.
『Paragon of the Hunt』: While active, the Predation Effect probability is dramatically increased. The effects of all held traits are enhanced. Grants resistance to all forms of attack. Duration: 10 minutes.
Paragon of the Hunt—usable once per day. I'd never activated it before because of that limit.
The plan had always been to save it for harvesting a massive haul of Genetic Essence. I'd meant to quietly devour Cultists in the Commercial District, along with a good number of tourists—but everything had fallen apart thanks to William.
No. Look on the bright side.
I had to test the skill at some point anyway, and here was a perfect opportunity. With test subjects conveniently lined up right here, I activated Paragon of the Hunt.
The moment it activated, my vision flooded with darkness.
What the—?
The carapace covering my head surged with sudden growth, swallowing everything except my jaws and my auxiliary organ. My sight vanished, and in its place the precision of my auxiliary organ's senses climbed to the absolute limit.
Because of that, I could perceive exactly what was happening to my own body.
My flesh was evolving, right now.