Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Ep. 78
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The Monument, a towering skyscraper in the administrative district of the Special Trade Center.
Older players call this place BLXMX.
'It does look similar, just from the twisted helix shape.'
Of course, it only resembles the alien artifact from that classic horror game in appearance—the lore is completely different.
The Monument in Space Survival doesn't drive people insane or warp them into grotesque shapes.
'Instead, it grants buffs to its owner.'
If a specific clan claims ownership of the Monument, they gain an exclusive clan trait called "Slave Trade."
Clans with this trait see their revenue from the owned planet more than double.
That's why major clans will do anything to get their hands on it.
As a result, wars never cease in the Special Trade Center.
'It might actually be a homage to BLXMX.'
After all, plenty of clans have gone bankrupt after recklessly starting wars over a single Monument.
For the record, I had no interest in the Monument's ownership.
'What I was interested in were the clan members coming to claim it.'
In the past, I'd infiltrated Monuments in various ways to drain the genetic essence from those clan members.
There were times I'd pretended to be dead using the "Comatose State" trait, just like now.
"Hah, I was planning to head to the entertainment district and have some fun today."
"You're a married guy and you still go to places like that?"
"Tch, that's exactly why I go now. Don't get married, man."
"You're insane."
"It's almost year-end, and we have to pull an all-nighter? For real?"
"You don't even have a girlfriend, so what's the big deal?"
"Damn it, does that mean I'm not human? I want to spend it relaxing at a resort too. A fateful encounter in an exotic locale, passionate love, and then a heartbreaking farewell..."
"Cut the nonsense and move this stuff already."
The researchers chatted idly as they carried over their tools.
They didn't suspect for a second that I was alive.
'Perfect.'
While they were distracted with their pointless banter, I activated my Parasite Swarm.
From the fingertips of my lower right arm, four black thread-like worms slithered out one by one.
'All of you, hide under the dissection table.'
The four parasites obeyed my command and concealed themselves beneath the dissection table.
"Hm?"
"What? What's up?"
"Weird. It looked like it moved."
"It's dead. Don't worry about stupid stuff."
One researcher examined me closely before returning to his preparations.
'Four researchers in total. All wearing masks.'
The parasites lacked any offensive capabilities, so they couldn't force their way into the masks on their own.
'I need to create an opening for them.'
I could probably make a hole by firing the bristles from my tail.
But there were surveillance cameras, so I couldn't move just yet.
Using my auxiliary organs, I checked the cameras' angles—there were no blind spots from the dissection table where I lay.
Something thin and small like a parasite might slip by unnoticed, but any big movement from me would be caught immediately.
'To hide my tail's movement, I need a smokescreen.'
Conveniently, there were chemical supplies near my tail that could produce smoke.
'But those alone won't generate enough smoke.'
To trigger a chemical reaction from those supplies, I'd need a catalyst.
Something like an acidic liquid. And my blood had strong acidity.
'Guess I'll have to wait a bit longer.'
They'd come here to dissect me anyway.
The moment they made me bleed would be my cue to act.
"Alright. Everything ready?"
The dissection team leader under the Biology Management Team of the Science Research Institute clapped his hands to liven up the mood. Beside the dissection table stood a stainless steel alloy table loaded with various tools: scalpels and medical saws, plasma cutters for slicing tough hides, chemical solutions for preserving excised tissue samples, and more. Even in the space age, dissection procedures hadn't strayed far from their primitive roots.
"Where do we start?"
"It's face-down, so the back?"
"Take it slow. Collect skin tissue samples first."
At the team leader's order, a researcher picked up a scalpel. The auxiliary arms of their exoskeleton suits grabbed cover glasses and genetic data scanners.
"Let's check what kind of creature this is first."
He drew the scalpel across the monster corpse's arm.
"Huh?"
Far from cutting the arm's exoskeleton, the scalpel blade itself was ruined.
"This thing's insanely tough. It's almost on par with an adult Mountain Crawler."
"Try this."
His colleague handed him a sonic blade. It was a medical incision tool, not military-grade, so much smaller—but just as effective. The researcher flicked the switch, and a thin blade extended from the rod with a eerie high-frequency hum from the ultrasonic vibration.
"Let's see..."
As he brought the sonic blade toward the monster corpse— "Huh?"
"Did it move?"
He caught a glimpse of the monster's tail twitching slightly. This time, it wasn't just him; his colleague tilted his head too.
"Looks like the rigor mortis is wearing off."
"Y-yeah, probably."
"Whew, scared me there. If this thing were alive, we'd be dead already."
"Dude, don't say creepy stuff."
"Enough chit-chat. Get those skin samples."
The researcher scraped at the monster's arm with the sonic blade. The exoskeleton was so hard that it sparked like metal on metal.
"That doesn't sound like something from an animal's body."
He kept scraping, and finally, scratches began to appear on the exoskeleton.
"Nice. Just a bit more... Whoa."
At that moment, the blade shattered completely, and the ultrasonic effect died out. The tool was wrecked, but fortunately, he'd managed to slice off a tiny piece of exoskeleton.
"Small, but enough for analysis. Put the sample in the analyzer."
"Tch, this thing's brutally tough."
"Let's try the plasma cutter this time."
Two researchers picked up plasma cutters. Normally, cutters were fixed to stable surfaces like the floor to counter recoil. But they wore exoskeleton suits with auxiliary arms designed to handle heavy loads, so they could manage the recoil. The auxiliary arms gripped the plasma cutters firmly to keep them steady. The two researchers aimed the cutter nozzles at the corpse and hit the activation buttons. A thin green beam lanced out, searing the exoskeleton's surface. No matter how tough a monster's biological armor, it couldn't withstand plasma energy. Meanwhile, the data analyzer finished processing the sample and displayed a notification. The researcher reading it jumped in surprise and called the team leader.
"What's wrong?"
"This creature isn't registered in the Mega Corp database."
"Really? A new species then?"
"That's the weird part—it shares genes with dozens of different species..."
Before he could finish, trouble erupted from the plasma-cutting side.
"Team leader! Smoke's coming from its body!"
"No, wait! That's not smoke!"
"Holy shit! The blood's acidic!"
As the researcher shouted, the blood oozing from the corpse was melting the dissection table.
"Blood's splashing this way! Watch out!"
Not only that—the beam had vaporized acidic blood toward the researchers. If his colleague hadn't yanked him back, he'd have taken serious damage.
"Ugh, thanks."
"Get your head in the game."
As the grateful researcher checked on his colleague, he spotted something odd attached to his body.
"Huh? What's that on you?"
A black thread-worm was clinging to his colleague's side. He blinked, thinking he'd seen wrong—but no. It wriggled, crawling upward.
"Wh-what the—?"
The others were in the same panic; black thread-worms had attached to them too.
"What is this...?"
As a researcher flailed and tried to peel it off with his auxiliary arm, he heard glass shattering. Then liquid spraying, followed by scorching heat on his back. He turned to see flames roaring from the chemical solution table. Thick black smoke billowed up instantly, engulfing the researchers.
"F-fire!"
"Gah, hack! Cough!"
"Grab the extinguisher!"
The panicked researchers floundered about, and the monster corpse—which had lain still—twitched. Its tail flicked, launching bristles from the tip straight at their faces.
"Ack?"
"What was that?"
Fortunately, they missed; the bristles merely grazed past the team leader and researchers, tearing their masks and exposing their skin to the toxic smoke.
"What the hell?"
"Where'd that come from?"
The sudden sharp projectiles shredding their masks threw everyone into chaos. But the real threat was something else. The black thread-worms on their bodies. The parasites from the monster's body raced up their forms and latched onto their faces.
"Aaaagh!"
"H-help!"
"Gurk! Gah!"
The researchers clawed at their faces, but the parasites had already burrowed inside the masks. They coughed violently to expel the intruders from their noses or scratched wildly to grab them. If they'd stayed calm, they could have used the powerful auxiliary arms to yank them out. But the sudden fire and bizarre parasites shattered their composure. Psst! The lab's sprinklers activated from the smoke, dousing everything. In the deluge, the researchers succumbed one by one to the parasites, freezing in place.
"...Guh."
"......"
The last one standing, the dissection team leader, struggled desperately to extract the parasite from inside his mask. When it was half-burrowed into him, he finally grasped its tail end. The slimy, repulsive texture pressed against his palm, but he pulled anyway. It resisted, deep in his nasal cavity, tickling the back of his throat.
"Urk! Blugh! Hack!"
Even retching, he kept pulling. He'd almost gotten it out when his strength suddenly drained away. 'What's happening?' A slender bristle was embedded in his limp wrist. The parasite darted into his nose, but he felt no pain. His knees buckled involuntarily. As he collapsed, he saw it. The monster on the dissection table, still prone. Its white eyes staring right at him. It wasn't dead.
Monument's Third Central Control Room. The first day of the board meeting had ended, but the control room couldn't slack off. Anna, the female Cult administrator with goat horns, checked the surveillance cameras with a bored expression. Her coworker, a male Cult with ibex horns, stretched and stood.
"Where you going?"
"Coffee. Want one?"
"Yeah. Black, strong, no sugar."
The male left, and Anna refocused on monitoring. Her psychic power specialized in observation, letting her watch hundreds of cameras at once. All Cults working in this administrative district had unique psychic abilities suited for city management. 'Sigh. I just wanna go home, shower, and sleep.' Having a useful ability didn't make the job any easier. Originally, the Third Central Control Room had three monitors, including a female Cult named Janet. If Janet hadn't vanished, Anna wouldn't be pulling overtime for days. 'That bitch just up and ran. I wanna run too.' As she grumbled inwardly and kept watch, something odd caught her eye.
"Science lab, Room 30? Fire?"
The camera feed was choked with smoke, researchers panicking visibly. Soon, sprinklers kicked in, flooding the room.
"...What? Why are they acting like that?"
The flailing researchers suddenly froze in unison, as if on cue. They stood at attention, simply enduring the downpour. One had collapsed unconscious, ignored by the others. A bad feeling stirred in Anna. Something was off. A fire meant investigation. She grabbed the communicator. As she contacted them, the people in the feed—who'd been stock-still—sprang into action like they'd received orders, starting cleanup. One researcher pulled the communicator from the team leader's pocket and answered.
"Third Central Control. Room 30—fire, confirmed?" ｢Y-yeah, ch-chemical spilled, th-think it's a f-fire. W-will normalize s-soon.｣ "Need the fire team?" ｢N-no! D-don't call them, p-please!｣ "Hm? There's someone down. You sure no help needed?" ｢Y-yeah, t-toxic smoke, j-just passed out. W-will wake s-soon.｣ "Alright?" ｢Y-yes. A-anyway, when team l-leader wakes, w-we'll transport the c-corpse, so no more m-monitoring needed. Bye.｣ Even after the call ended, Anna stared at the communicator suspiciously. 'Why's he shaking like that?' Maybe the panic? But the researcher's voice trembled excessively. As if terrified of something. 'And transporting a specimen at this hour?' As she pondered, her Cult coworker returned with coffee.
"What's up?"
"Dissection team had a fire, but their reaction was weird."
"That's where all the weirdos work. Ignore it."
"Yeah?"
His point was valid, so Anna shelved her doubts about Room 30. 'Anyway, plenty of other stuff to do.' Pushing the dissection team to the back of her mind, she sipped coffee with her coworker.
'Knew the call would come quick.' The researcher I controlled answered, but I knew who was calling. 'A Cult.' One Monument trait: indoor surveillance handled entirely by Cults. Humans falter in crises with many weaknesses; androids lack autonomous thinking. Cults have fewer such flaws. Plus, their psychic senses outstrip humans', spotting stealthy foes or traps easily. Thus, Cult immigrants to Mega Corp often serve as sentries or scouts. 'By lore, Cults have a tradition of hunting strong foes.' Cults resembled wolves: innate hunters and watchers. Even in the starfaring era, traditional hunting culture lingered in Cult society. 'Their unique "Quest" system is all "hunt this beast for its horns" or "bring its heart."' Cults working with humans were somewhat less feral. On a Cult planet, my plan would've failed instantly—but Mega Corp Cults were duller in instinct. Too many distractions in human society to rely solely on gut. They probably sensed something off but dismissed it as not their problem. 'Of course, if this happens often, they'll act.' I'll be careful. Anyway, phase one of infiltrating the administrative district: success. New "friends" made, no suspicions raised.
"Wh-when the t-team leader wakes, w-we'll transport it."
I nodded faintly at the researcher's words. Next stop: the cryogenic storage. Where they kept large animal corpses like mine—and no surveillance cameras inside, from what I recalled. I'd hidden in an animal corpse there in the game before. ｢Is there a g-gene storage n-nearby?｣ "Y-yes? Of c-course. R-right next door, no w-worries."
Facility layout was ideal too. 'Have a researcher fetch samples.' Short distance meant minimal authentication logs en route. Few reasons for monitors to get suspicious. 'Once I devour all the gene samples, eat the researchers.' Call them when Predation Effect ends to clear debuffs. 'Any way to make this more perfect?' Delay discovery even if researchers vanish. A good idea struck. 'That call earlier.' Could use it well.