The Monument (3)

Space Survival's strengths lay in its vast world-building, its diverse array of species, and its exceptionally high degree of freedom. It had everything needed to earn the love of sci-fi enthusiasts, but like most online games, it suffered from one problem it could never quite escape: the state of its operations.

The Space Survival management team had a reputation for being more unresponsive than any other game's operators out there.

By the very nature of the game, Space Survival was riddled with balance problems. Compare the Cult, which stayed strong from the early game to the very end, with the Amorph, which was an uphill struggle from start to finish, and you'd see what I meant. Yet the number of times the developers and operators actually bothered to adjust the balance could be counted on one hand.

In my own case, it was only because I had a genuine fondness for the Amorph that I climbed to ranker status and saw the ending at all. If I hadn't, I would have quit on the spot.

'But they change this instantly?'

It was the first time I'd ever seen them react so fast to anything, balance complaints or otherwise.

'A straight-up cheat.'

Something similar had happened in the old game.

Mega Corp operated numerous colony planets for the purpose of extracting Employees. Some of those planets had environments similar to the real-world Earth, while others were the kind of fantastical places we'd all recognize from fantasy stories. What they had in common was a set of explicit or implicit prohibitions imposed to ensure the inhabitants could never resist Mega Corp's rule — the Employees' armament kept pitifully weak, or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their level of civilizational development kept deliberately low, and so on.

'In other words, a very easy place to farm Genetic Essences.'

That was why, for a time, I roamed nothing but colony planets, hoarding Genetic Essences. Then, on the day I raided three planets in a single run, an emergency notice appeared in-game for the first time ever. The company announced that due to an unintended situation, they were applying an emergency fix.

The community lit up like a bonfire over the cryptic announcement, but nobody ever figured out what had actually been changed.

'Well, of course they didn't.'

They didn't play the Amorph.

Unlike them, I knew right away.

The next day, I raided a colony planet and harvested a mountain of Genetic Essences — but the Predation Effect triggered on only a tiny handful of them. Which meant the operators had adjusted the drop rate so that the Predation Effect would trigger from Employees at an extremely low probability.

'Same thing happened here. I devoured dozens of Employees in this city, and the only trait I got was Dexterity.'

In any case, having lived through something similar before, the situation didn't feel all that foreign to me. But I was still human at heart, and there was no helping the sour taste in my mouth.

'They wouldn't fix anything else, waving around talk of design intent — but this they patch in a heartbeat.'

Which meant I'd have to change my plans yet again. If the traits kept coming up as half-finished no matter how many samples I ate, I'd be better off not eating them at all.

'...Let me at least take this one.'

I accepted the acquisition of the Spaceflight trait. Just as the 0.5 notation suggested, nothing changed in my body.

A hollow irritation prickled at me as I turned my thoughts to what came next.

'I should save the samples for after Hunter's Avatar expires. That way there's at least some chance of...huh?'

At that moment, another translucent text window popped up.

There was no mention of it being urgent or anything of the sort.

'A message like this came last time too, when the Transcendence System was involved.'

I opened it, and my guess was right on the money.

Just as I suspected — a notice that a brand-new Unique Trait could be created using the Transcendence System.

'Seriously, who are they trying to piss off?'

I was about to dismiss the text box, suppressing the irritation boiling up inside me, when —

'Wait a second?'

In that instant, an idea flashed through my mind. I looked over the text box again.

'Why is Spaceflight on there?'

On the Transcendence material list, traits I didn't possess were marked as "not acquired." Giant Organism and Hijacking both carried that tag, since neither was in my possession. Spaceflight, on the other hand, had no such annotation at all — even though it was only half a trait, I couldn't actually use it thanks to the restrictions.

The moment that realization hit me, a single possibility bloomed in my mind.

'Could it be that Transcendence materials don't have to be traits I've fully acquired?'

I pulled up the message about the Transcendence System I'd received before and read it again.

This was the message I'd received when I evolved into my Sub-adult form in the Residential District.

The tooltip said possessed traits would be fused — nowhere did it say they had to be usable traits.

'Wings is unusable too, and yet it's on the list. So there's definitely a possibility.'

If traits locked out by the restrictions could still serve as materials, then Spaceflight could be used for Transcendence as well, couldn't it?

'An interesting hypothesis.'

That left me with two possible paths. The first was to trigger the Predation Effect while still in Hunter's Avatar form and gather Transcendence materials that way.

'Giant Organism and Hijacking are both possible, if luck is on my side.'

The Giant Organism trait could be obtained from a Skywhale, while Hijacking was a fusion trait whose ingredients the Metallic Gremlin carried.

'I'd need to fuse the Dexterity trait with the Radio Jamming trait.'

Of course, fusion traits could only combine traits I could fully use, so the loophole I was planning wouldn't work there. I'd have to acquire the Radio Jamming trait a total of two times before I could use it as a fusion ingredient.

That was the end of the first option.

The other option was simply to wait until Hunter's Avatar wore off and then take the samples. In that case, as long as the Predation Effect triggered, I'd acquire fully usable traits — but the odds were vanishingly small. If my luck was bad enough, I could swallow every sample in this room and walk away with nothing.

I looked down at the samples.

'What should I do?'

After a brief deliberation, I made my decision.

'Eat them now.'

If both paths came down to luck, taking the traits through Hunter's Avatar carried less risk. At least with this route, no matter how terrible my luck got, I'd be left with the half-finished traits as a consolation prize.

I picked up a sample and tossed it into my mouth. With a sharp crunch, a text box announcing the Predation Effect appeared.

'Energy Absorption.'

The Skywhale was a creature that appeared with extremely low probability on a variety of planets — jungle worlds, ocean worlds, and the like. It looked like a humpback whale with eight eyes and iridescent, opal-colored wings, and its body was a massive fifty meters at minimum.

Apart from the moment of its birth, the moment it gave birth, and the moment it died, a Skywhale spent its entire life in the sky. As for food — well, the Skywhale didn't derive its energy from eating at all, the way ordinary animals did. It had no digestive organs whatsoever. Instead, it used the Energy Absorption trait to draw nourishment from the energy present in nature itself. Simply put, the way a plant survived on sunlight, the Skywhale extracted the energy it needed to live from light, from the air, from the moisture in clouds, and from many other sources.

Up to that point, it sounded like a wonderful ability. For an Amorph, it was not.

'The moment you take Energy Absorption, your mouth and digestive tract atrophy completely.'

An Amorph gained traits and nutrients by consuming prey and digesting the Genetic Essences within. Apply the Energy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Absorption trait, and as a side effect my mouth and digestive organs would vanish entirely. At that point, the very method by which I obtained Genetic Essences would cease to exist.

Back in the day, I'd accepted Energy Absorption without knowing any of this, and my evolution had been locked out completely — I'd had to raise an Amorph from scratch all over again.

'Hm.'

Ordinarily it was a trait I should flatly refuse. But circumstances had shifted, if only slightly.

'I have the Transcendence System now.'

Even a trait that was useless to me right now might serve as material for Transcendence.

'I know every fusion recipe by heart, but...'

The newly updated Transcendence System was still uncharted territory for me.

'At 0.5, the effect doesn't activate, so there shouldn't be any problem taking it.'

The fact that half-traits produced no effects had already been proven by the Spaceflight trait. After some deliberation, I accepted Energy Absorption.

Just as I'd predicted, my mouth didn't rapidly wither away, nor did any strange transformation take place inside my body.

With Energy Absorption secured, I kept swallowing the samples one after another. On the fifth sample capsule, the Predation Effect finally triggered. It was Robust Vitality — a trait I'd acquired long ago through a cockroach.

'I have regeneration, so I don't really need it...'

When two traits with overlapping effects existed, only the stronger one's effect applied. Given how many physical traits I already possessed, there was no reason to stack on one that underperformed even my regeneration. As far as I knew, Robust Vitality appeared in fusion recipes only as an ingredient for Regeneration, and nothing else.

'Still, you never know.'

Even Wings — dismissed as useless in the game itself — had turned out to be a Transcendence material. Robust Vitality might well have some purpose I didn't know about.

After taking Robust Vitality, I found only a single Skywhale sample remaining before I knew it. Honestly speaking, the results were a touch disappointing.

'No. Gathering the materials isn't bad either. Let's find the value in that.'

The moment I swallowed the last sample without expecting much of anything —

A new trait appeared.

If it had been Spaceflight, I'd have gotten a complete trait — but sadly, it was something else.

'Giant Organism, huh.'

The Giant Organism trait was a shared trait possessed by supermassive creatures over fifty meters in size. The Skywhale whose sample I'd just eaten was one such creature, as was the Black ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Galagon — the sub-adult form of the Galagon.

'With this trait I could use Gigantification. What a shame.'

Just as the Monster's Tentacles trait let me use Psychic Breath, acquiring Giant Organism would allow me to transform into a special state called Gigantification. I'd swell to roughly twenty meters and become enormously powerful. There was a limit of once per week, but once I went giant, I became overwhelmingly strong — not merely larger, but with all my physical abilities scaling up to match my size. A Gigantified Amorph could wage war against a warship or an entire city and not come out second-best.

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

What's more, Hunter's Avatar doubled the potency of all traits and my Type. With Giant Organism in this state, I'd probably swell past fifty meters at least. A presence that would make the phrase space monster seem like an understatement.

'Tsk. A waste, but nothing I can do about it.'

That was the end of the Skywhale samples. From the eight Skywhale samples, my total haul came to four traits: Spaceflight, Giant Organism, and — for use as materials — Energy Absorption and Robust Vitality.

'If not for the restrictions, that would've been a huge harvest.'

Four traits from a single creature, after all.

'...It's already in the past. Getting angry about it won't change anything.'

I shook my head to shake off the frustration and reached for the remaining samples — and in that instant, the auxiliary organ beneath my jaw shuddered. At the same time, a series of images flashed rapidly before my eyes.

'Oh no.'

I'd thought I'd slipped through cleanly. I hadn't.

'That female Cultist has sharp instincts.'

She'd brushed off the initial fire without much concern, but watching the Dissection Team Leader's erratic behavior had apparently planted a seed of suspicion in her.

'The 3rd Central Monitoring Room is close to this place.'

Five minutes at most? Within that time, the male Cultist would arrive here.

Catching the male Cultist himself was hardly a challenge — I was powered up by Hunter's Avatar right now, after all. The problem was what came after.

If the male Cultist went silent, there was no way that sharp-nosed female Cultist would sit still. She'd contact a superior facility without delay — either the 1st Central Monitoring Room, or the Monument's security team.

'I have to neutralize the cameras.'

And for that, I needed the trait the Metallic Gremlin possessed.

I popped the Metallic Gremlin samples into my mouth one after another. The capsules crushed somewhere down my throat, and the Genetic Essences within seeped into my innards. Each time an essence dissolved, a text box appeared before me.

Dwarfism. Dwarfism. Metal Absorption...

A bad start. Dwarfism came up twice in a row, and then the third yielded Metal Absorption — a trait I already owned. I kept a single copy of Dwarfism as material and declined the rest.

Next, when I swallowed the fourth capsule, the trait I'd been hoping for finally appeared: Radio Jamming.

'Good. One more and I'm there.'

One more Radio Jamming, and I'd have one complete trait. But even after absorbing two more samples, the Predation Effect refused to trigger at all.

Two chances remaining. By this point, even I was starting to sweat.

'Should I just go with my original plan after all?'

The thought crossed my mind that implanting a parasite in the Cultists and controlling them might be the better route after all.

'But that female Cultist's instincts are sharper than I expected.'

As William's case demonstrated, parasites were not a silver bullet. The male Cultist would be unable to resist me, but a sensitive female Cultist like that one would notice right away that her colleague was off.

'And then it's back to square one.'

Looking back at how I'd ended up here in the first place — it was because I'd taken one precaution after another to keep the parasites from being detected. If the parasites got caught here, all the effort I'd put in would go down the drain.

'On top of that, the Suspended State trait would be exposed too, so things would get even worse.'

Chewing over how to deal with the female Cultist, I swallowed the seventh sample. And then — the text box appeared.

The trait, finally made whole through its second acquisition, was telling me something.

That there was no longer any need to hesitate.