The Beast Beneath (1)

I woke to the sensation of currents rippling around my body.

How long was I asleep?

From the faint light filtering in through the cracks of the manhole cover, it seemed to be daytime. When I focused on my auxiliary organ, I could pick up the sounds of people moving about on the surface above.

Good thing Amorph doesn't have a nose.

Call it a blessing in misfortune — not one of the members down here had anything resembling a nose. The Gallagons had the whole nose-and-mouth region replaced with tentacles, and No. 26 didn't have anything you could properly call a head.

As for me, the auxiliary organ beneath my jaw handled sensory perception in place of the real thing.

How to put it — the smell information the auxiliary organ fed me felt like analyzing the individual components of an odor, one by one, and registering each separately.

For instance, exactly what proportion of ammonia was in the filthy water flowing through here, how much nitrate made up the rest, and so on.

...Let's stop thinking dirty thoughts.

I shook my head to fling off the pointless musing and rose to my feet.

Close by, I could see No. 26 and Adhai still asleep. Adhai had fallen asleep with her head resting on top of No. 26, who radiated a soft, gentle glow as she lay in slumber.

She did live in the water, after all.

To my eyes it was unmistakably foul sewage, but to her it must have felt positively comfortable.

Without waking them, I wandered down the tunnel.

The sewer pipe must be about six meters in diameter.

Even standing fully upright, there was still plenty of clearance above my head, so that felt about right. Even in my Hunter's Avatar form, my head would just barely fail to reach the ceiling.

Come to think of it, I applied a trait before falling asleep. Let me check it.

I'd been so exhausted that I'd brushed past it without a proper look. I activated the text box.

Huh?

As I reviewed the text box, a newly changed trait caught my eye.

Bloodsucking Tentacles? So the trait I picked up was the bloodsucking one?

In my half-sleep I'd only confirmed that it wasn't a trait with negative effects before letting it slide, but the result was better than I expected.

The bloodsucking trait wasn't particularly rare in the game. In reality, plenty of creatures feed on the bodily fluids of other animals too.

The bloodsucking trait scales in strength with the wielder's body size.

Adhai was only around fifty centimeters long, yet she could drain the blood of a full-grown adult male in ten minutes flat.

And that was with suckers small enough to fit a creature her size. Naturally, the larger the siphoning organ grew, the faster it got.

I extended one of the bloodsucking tentacles from my arm. From the palm-hole of my upper combat arm, a tentacle flushed deep red sprang out.

Before, it had been lined with saw blades running the length of its body; now the blades were gone, replaced by suckers along the inner face like an octopus's arm.

Looking into the suckers, I could see rows of spiny teeth jutting out from inside them, like the mouth of a lamprey.

With suckers like these, I could use ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them to cling to walls.

Back when I played, I used the bloodsucking tentacles for purposes beyond drinking blood far more often than for the actual feeding.

Draining every last drop of blood from a corpse to erase the evidence, or scaling buildings using the sucker-lined tentacles — those were its main jobs.

Well, bloodsucking tentacles are a highly versatile trait, so that's a win. And...

Strangely enough, another new message had arrived. I opened it.

The newly arrived message detailed the conditions for a new Transcendence trait.

So it's a trait built by combining four.

Perfect Organism was a Unique trait made by fusing three physical traits through the Transcendence System. This new one, unlike the last, seemed to require blending two physical traits with two psionic ones.

But Hallucination is something I can't get here.

The Hallucination trait could only be acquired from the Genetic Essence of a Red Mist. Red Mists were creatures that inhabited only ancient ruin worlds and jungle planets — they didn't exist in this place.

Even if I had it, I couldn't complete the fusion right now anyway.

Until I acquired the two psionic traits, obtaining Hallucination wouldn't let me perform the Transcendence fusion. If I did, I'd lose my Type.

I tucked the new Transcendence information away safely in a corner of my mind.

Might as well take a look around.

I needed to confirm whether there was anywhere safer than where we were, and whether any dangers lurked nearby.

So I moved, parting the current with my body — and then something registered on my auxiliary organ. Something was moving in the black water.

I lashed out a bloodsucking tentacle, seized the object, and hauled it out. A creature with a long, bone-white body wriggled in my tentacle's grip.

A Corpse Catfish.

Corpse Catfish were the scavengers that cleaned up the large and small byproducts that washed into the sewers.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The Mega Corp's sewers didn't receive mere filth alone.

The facilities that serviced Mega Corp citizens' sadistic appetites would sometimes secretly flush the remains and byproducts of the Employed down into the sewers.

Those byproducts were far too bulky for the sewage treatment plants to process.

So there needed to be something to shrink them down — and that was this revolting creature's job.

He's the one who used to show up as nightmare fuel on the community boards.

He was ugly enough to make an ordinary person's skin crawl.

Of course, that didn't mean I had any intention of throwing away perfectly good Genetic Essence. I chomped down hard on the catfish.

Honestly, the taste was mediocre. The texture was mushy, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the juices that oozed out carried a sour tang that turned my stomach. Well, it would be stranger if a creature living in sewage and gnawing on corpses tasted good.

I'll just think of it as nutrition.

The thought that I might be eating nothing but this for a while was honestly a bit depressing, but it beat nothing. And who knew — eating more of them might yield a new Genetic Essence.

Come to think of it, the Corpse Catfish had a trait too. That's what I'm really after.

I swallowed the catfish down and moved on.

"You're telling me nothing was found in the subway?"

"Ahem — yes, yep. Correct, Your Highness!"

"Deputy Commander. Is what he says true?"

"According to the knights, only a secret passage was found — one presumed to have been used by the monster."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Th-that's—!"

Two days had passed since the carnage at the hospital.

With only a single day remaining until the Board of Directors Meeting, no progress whatsoever had been made.

Lyla, who had been reviewing reports alongside Denver until just moments ago, had left the room to greet a newly arrived VIP.

And thanks to that, the District General Security Team Leader managed to escape the indignity of being dragged out by the guards mid-report.

The smuggling incident, the disappearance of criminals, the deaths of police officers — a string of major problems had erupted over the past several days, and the District General Security Team Leader had reported none of them. He'd been convinced that if Lyla learned such things had happened on the eve of the Board Meeting, she would never let it slide.

Had Denver not gathered the relevant intelligence himself, those incidents would have been buried forever inside the security team's filing cabinets.

Lyla, the city's chief administrator, was beside herself with fury that she had learned of the rot not from her own insiders, but from an outsider.

She declared that upon her return, she would replace every single bureaucrat in the security team's employ, and stormed out of the conference room.

Denver clicked his tongue as he watched the District General Security Team Leader dabbing sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, again and again.

"District General Security Team Leader."

"Yes, sir!"

"If you wish to keep your position, I'd suggest devoting a little more attention to your work. Your masters are generous people — but not the type to simply endure forever."

"Y-yes, sir."

"If you'd rather serve in the Entertainment District, I won't stop you, of course."

"N-no, sir! Not at all!"

Having delivered his warning, Denver stroked his chin.

The monster has intelligence. It surely knows we're searching for it.

A creature that had gone so far as to use a secret passage to avoid being caught by people. It would be a mistake to regard it as a common beast.

"Hm, let's think this through. Suppose the creature had the mind of a man inside a beast's body. How would it behave, in that case?"

"Are you speaking of the Hulk Mutants, Your Highness?"

"No. Those things are idiots. We should assume something considerably smarter. Crisis Management Team Leader — any thoughts?"

Denver turned the question to the Crisis Management Team Leader, who was participating in the meeting alongside him. A broad-shouldered East Asian man with a stern, sturdy bearing, the team leader pondered briefly before answering.

"Even if it escaped the station, it can't have gone far. Judging from the information submitted by the Silver Lion Knights, the creature is not small."

"Quite."

"Then might I suggest we cross-reference the city maps against its likely movements and reexamine whether any hiding places exist near the station?"

"Not a bad idea. Then let's start with the maps. Security Team Leader, if you would."

"Yes, yes, sir!"

The District General Security Team Leader hurriedly operated his terminal pad and projected an image of the city map onto the conference room wall.

As Denver studied it intently, he tilted his head.

"I say."

"Sir?"

"What are all those lines running alongside the rail lines?"

"Ah, those mark the sewer passages. No need to concern yourself with them, Your Highness."

"Sewers?"

Denver called on the Crisis Management Team Leader again.

"I heard you personally led the search with your men. Were there any spots near the station that came close to the sewers?"

"The sewers are, naturally, underground structures, so it was difficult for me to... ah."

"What is it?"

"Now that you mention it, I do recall that around certain stations, some of the manhole covers were shaped differently."

"Manholes?"

"I-I can answer that one, sir."

"Go ahead."

"The manholes connected to the sewers are square. What the Crisis Management Team Leader saw was likely one of those sewer-linked covers."

"The Security Team Leader is correct."

"Hm."

At the words of the two team leaders, Denver's eyes gleamed.

"Deputy Commander, ask your knights. Whether there were any square manholes near the station where the fire broke out."

"Understood, Your Highness."

"Do you believe the creature went into hiding in the sewers, Your Highness?"

"If they run close to the station, I'd say there's a real possibility."

"But the sewer layout is far more complex than the subway lines. There's a strong chance another incident occurs before we ever find it."

"I-I think so too!"

The Crisis Management Team Leader offered his opinion calmly, and the District General Security Team Leader scrambled to pile on before he could be left out.

How should I play this?

Denver cared little whether the citizens of this city lived or died. Even if hundreds, thousands of them perished, capturing that monster alive would be a net gain for him.

But saying so outright would send his carefully cultivated, beloved public image plummeting straight into the abyss.

"Then how about this instead?"

"What do you mean, Your Highness?"

"Rather than hunting for it ourselves, why don't we use a method to draw the creature out?"

"A lure operation, you mean. But how do you propose to entice it?"

"It's all but certain the thing eats people. In that case, we simply provide it with food."

"You're suggesting we make use of the Entertainment District's resources."

"Precisely. We prepare traps in the sewers, lure the creature in, and put it down."

That the monster was a being as intelligent as a human was beyond doubt.

But it was not human.

High intelligence was one thing; detailed knowledge of the city was quite another. Unless the creature was a human being living in this city, the odds that it would find it strange for food to be appearing in the sewers were low.

It might be suspicious at first — but so long as the food kept coming, it would inevitably let its guard down.

Judging Denver's proposal a sound strategy, the Crisis Management Team Leader nodded.

"It will need approval from the Head of Human Resources Management, but I believe we can procure two hundred without any trouble."

"It would be better if we could get more."

"I-I'll see to that part myself, sir!"

"Oh, excellent. That's the spirit. Security Team Leader."

It was an unhinged plan — feeding two hundred innocent lives to a man-eating monster — yet not a single person in that room found anything strange about it.

To the Mega Corp, the Employed were not people.

They were classified, administratively, as resources. Common, disposable resources that could be butchered or disposed of as needed.

Capturing that monster for the cost of a mere two hundred units of human resources was pure profit for everyone present. Denver gained his captive prize; the two team leaders gained the removal of a threat to the city's security. Everyone walked away a winner.

"Very good. As soon as the Deputy Commander confirms, we move straight into the operation."

"Understood, sir."

"Security Team Leader — should this operation end in success, I will personally speak to the General Manager on your behalf."

"Y-you mean it? I'll give it my absolute best, sir!"

"Your Highness — it feels awkward to simply call it an operation, and since we are deploying military force besides, an operation name would be fitting. Might we ask you to choose one?"

"You would have me name it?"

"There is not a soldier among us who does not revere Your Highness. It would be our honor."

Denver considered for a moment. Come to think of it, Lyla had once said something to him about that.

About what that invisible evil spirit of a being was.

The memory surfaced, and Denver opened his mouth.

"How about this one? Demon Hunt."

"A Demon Hunt. An excellent name, Your Highness. That unseen demon — we shall be the ones to destroy it!"

"Magnificent spirit! Hahahaha!"

Everything was turning exactly as he had planned. Denver burst into laughter, joy flowing through him in earnest.

The creature is mine!

His family's long-held obsession was drawing near at last. Still smiling, Denver quietly clenched his fist beneath the table.

As if to vow that the monster he caught would never, ever escape his grasp.