Nightmare Beyond the Horizon (1)

Before the T&C Special Trade Hub became a city of the dead, Yujin's flagship had barely clawed its way out into open space.

Anyone who knew Akira Yujin would never have believed he'd lingered in a danger zone until the last possible moment — but he had his reasons.

Something important had to be recovered from the Trade Hub first.

"Have you collected all of the Shadows' equipment?"

"Yes, sir. The Black Shroud and the Red Queen have both been secured. However, the damage to them is quite severe…"

"No matter. Even a few fragments are enough — I have ways of restoring the rest."

Once the attendant had withdrawn, Akira Yujin sat in his office, drumming his fingers against the desk. Behind him, Code Blue stood guard in silence.

"I expected great gains from this venture, yet here my predictions have failed me. I have lost a most useful tool."

"……."

"Tools can always be replenished. No — what troubles me is this: who, exactly, defeated Code Black?"

The moment the question left his lips, the sound of a body collapsing came from outside the office door. A heartbeat later it swung open, and a woman stepped inside — a long horn jutting from the left side of her forehead, clad in a white bodysuit.

It was Sihyeon Yujin, the one who had once been called Code White.

At the sight of her, a peculiar smile curled across Akira's mouth.

"Heh heh. So it was your doing, Code White?"

"……."

Sihyeon could not make sense of his words, but she hardly cared. After all, by the end of today, Akira Yujin was going to die on this ship — by her hand.

"Hmm. One question resolved only to spawn ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠another. You were unquestionably dead. How, then, do you draw breath?"

Instead of answering, she drew a sword from the back of her hand.

The white bodysuit she wore was called the White Maiden — an armament capable of manifesting tools of every shape according to its user's imagination. When she envisioned a keen blade, as she did now, a razor edge rose from the armor; when she envisioned flight, wings bloomed from her back.

"Ho."

The White Maiden was a gift Akira himself had bestowed upon Sihyeon when she received her Code. To see equipment he'd believed annihilated alongside her death resurface before him — a faint smile touched his lips.

"Just the item I required, and you've gone and brought it to me. A serviceable tool, this."

"How relaxed you seem, old man."

"Heh. How could I be anything else?"

Akira snapped his fingers, and Code Blue, who had stood at his back, stepped forward — drawing the pair of daggers at his waist.

"While you drifted lost through that vast void, the Shadows have refined themselves over and over."

Despite Akira's utter lack of concern, Sihyeon didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow. Her answer, in fact, strayed entirely from his expectations.

"I know."

"Hm?"

At her flick of the eyes, Blue turned on the spot and slit Akira's throat.

"Gghk… khh…"

His neck half-severed, Akira slumped face-down across his own desk.

"…It's finished."

For the death of the man who had not only destroyed Sihyeon Yujin's bloodline but her entire life, it was a pitifully shabby end. Revenge accomplished — she ought to have rejoiced. Yet no surge of elation came.

'If I were the true Sihyeon Yujin…'

Would she have laughed out loud over her enemy's corpse? Or wept? She could not know.

"I have carried out the task as promised."

"Yes."

"The promise that I would see my family again — I trust you intend to keep it."

Sihyeon was about to nod when her eyes went wide.

Behind him, Akira was rising to his feet.

"Look out!"

"?"

She shouted her warning, but Akira was faster. His hand had already transformed into a mass of great hooked claws, and in an instant it tore Blue apart.

"Yaa — now that is a surprise. To think he'd been assimilated as well."

Akira murmured in an unknown tongue. The wound on his throat had vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed, and the hooked claws that had killed Blue shrank back into an old man's wrinkled hands.

"Your resurrection, no doubt, is also the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠work of that damned tiger."

"How…?"

Sihyeon knew Akira had undergone gene-modification procedures. But those had been for life extension, nothing more. Recovering from a severed throat was simply impossible. Among the Shadows, the only one who had ever displayed such miracles was Code Black, in her Black Shroud.

"Hm? Ah — my apologies. An old tongue of mine slipped out."

"…Are you truly Akira Yujin?"

"Heh, of course. Well — precisely speaking, half and half."

Akira laughed like an ordinary old dandy, but Sihyeon held herself at the extreme edge of tension. Before ascending to the space city, she had undergone every gene modification she could reasonably afford — partly for the mission, and partly because she might cross paths again with the monstrous creature that had once killed her.

Thanks to that, while she was no longer what she had been, her current state was near her absolute peak. And still, against the smiling figure before her, she could see no path to victory.

"Heh heh heh. Scheming for your future opening, are we?"

"!"

"Yes. You never once knew how to give up. Perhaps that is why Kusoto — no, Beom-ho — chose you."

"……."

"I am feeling merciful. I shall permit you three attacks. Do as you please."

Three chances, granted by Akira's word. Without a moment's hesitation, she drew the Plasma Pistol at her hip.

The pistol barked, and a mass of green energy seared past Akira's ear.

"Heh. So even the great Sihyeon Yujin knows fear."

She gave no response — simply fired again. This shot, too, went wide of Akira by a wide margin. He frowned.

"Dear me. Suddenly that was your last chance, it seems. Three opportunities granted, and you squandered every one."

Watching him speak as though in genuine regret, Sihyeon broke into a cold sweat — and smiled.

"I learned something, not long ago."

"What was that?"

A long, thick tentacle bloomed from her left arm and smashed into the wall behind Akira. She had already drilled the plasma shots into that exact spot, and the interior plating — its integrity long since compromised — shattered the instant the tentacle struck.

"Wha—?!"

The office air howled out into open space, and riding that violent torrent, Sihyeon was flung outside in an instant. Even as she went, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did not forget to stretch out a tentacle and snatch up the daggers Blue had dropped.

"Damn it—!"

Akira, who had never anticipated her acting this way, turned his gaze to where she'd been flung. The White Maiden converted into a spacesuit around her, Sihyeon soared away beyond that curtain of black.

"Mmm."

Yu Seong, who'd drifted off the moment he sat down, opened his eyes.

"Haaahm — hm?"

Stretching his arms from his seat, he glanced around the cabin — and strangely, not a single one of the passengers who had packed the ship before he fell asleep remained.

"What's this? Did everyone go eat?"

The ship he'd boarded was a luxury liner serving only VIPs, so it had a dedicated dining hall that served lavish multi-course meals. Assuming everyone had headed there, he closed his eyes again, ready to sink back into sleep.

'Wait. No. Where are the crew?'

Fine — the passengers might all be at dinner. But a total absence of crew was another matter entirely.

"Seriously, what is going on?"

Pricked awake by an inexplicable unease, Yu Seong rose from his seat. As he passed through the passenger cabin toward the dining hall, he caught a strange yet naggingly familiar smell — a harsh, bloody reek, like pressing an ingot of iron right under your nose.

'Where have I smelled that before?'

Thinking it resembled something from his working days, he pushed open the door to the dining hall — and in that instant, he remembered exactly where he'd encountered that smell.

It was the smell of blood.

The dining hall, in place of fine cuisine and quality liquor, was filled with flesh, shards of bone, and blood. In a hell that had materialized in the middle of empty space, nightmare-born monsters were enjoying their banquet.

At the center of the lounge, a monster with deep-green scales and enormous wings was drinking a man's blood. And the man being drained was someone Yu Seong knew as well.

The Medical Team Leader — the same one who'd been barking at the crew before Yu Seong fell asleep. Whether he still lived was hard to say; his legs simply quivered each time another draw of blood left his body.

At a bar table along one side of the hall, a pink monster was holding the Head of Human Resources in a lattice of countless tentacles, slowly eating her alive. Her state was far more wretched than the doctor's. Dozens of slender tendrils had bored into every hole in her face and were pulling out her brain.

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

"Our products! Hek! Always the safest! Hek! Our very best for our customers! Hek! Hik! Th-thank you! Hek! Thank you! Hek!"

The woman who had always cut such an intelligent figure babbled nonsense with the face of an utter idiot.

"Hii—k?!"

At his short scream, the monsters turned to look at him. Unable to endure their gaze a moment longer, Yu Seong slammed the door and fled.

'The—the pilot! I have to tell the pilot!'

He ran between the rows of seats faster than he ever had in his life, reached the cockpit, and pounded on the door like a madman.

"Open up! There's a monster! I'm telling you, there's a monster out here!"

How long had he been hammering?

"O·pen·ing·now."

A human voice from inside — followed by the click of the lock disengaging.

'Thank god! The pilot's alive!'

Believing the rope of salvation had finally been lowered, Yu Seong flung the door wide open.

The pilot he'd been hoping for was there.

"Huh?"

Just not at all in the way he'd imagined — because all Yu Seong could see was the man's ankles.

The 'thing' that had swallowed the pilot whole tilted its head and gulped down the rest of him, feet and all.

Watching the blood-smeared teeth bare themselves as it spoke, Yu Seong let out a hollow little laugh.

'Just a dream.'

Praying he would wake from this nightmare soon, he closed his eyes.

'Well — the ship's ours now.'

Every living morsel aboard the escape vessel had made its way into the stomachs of the three of us. Adhai and No. 26, gorging on good prey for the first time in ages, were curled up fast asleep with their stuffed-full bellies pressed together. I spread out the blankets from the passenger seats over them and returned to the cockpit.

'Now — what do I do from here?'

The cargo hold and the dining hall were stocked with all manner of provisions and Calorie Bars, so food wouldn't be an issue for the voyage. The ship wasn't as finicky to handle as the patrol frigate either — with nothing more than the navigation AI's assistance, I could pilot it perfectly well on my own.

'But there's a problem.'

Even before departure, this ship had set its course for the MegaCorp space fortress nearby, so its stored fuel was far from plentiful. A few jumps at faster-than-light speed and the tanks would run dry.

'Nothing around here is a good destination for us.'

The space fortress was obviously out, and the planet I'd originally been aiming for was beyond our fuel reserves. Hopping to some other world along the way wasn't easy either — every planet in the vicinity was defended far more heavily than the Trade Hub, so sneaking in would be a struggle from the very first step.

'It's not like there's no way, though…'

Simple: hijack another ship. It was a tactic I'd leaned on constantly back in my gaming days.

'There's a place within FTL range of here.'

A sector administered by the Space Dogs. No planets worth strip-mining or turning into human ranches, and no geography important enough to warrant building and governing a space city the way they had at the Trade Hub. On top of that, an event occasionally fired where a swarm of Metallic Gremlins migrated through the region — and any steel fortress caught in their path wouldn't hold out for long. A sector utterly useless for anything at all, which was precisely why neither MegaCorp nor Star Union paid it the slightest attention. And into that vacuum, the Space Dogs had moved in.

'If we go there, the odds of running into MegaCorp or Star Union are close to zero.'

We wouldn't be staying long, and if the goal was simply snagging a single pirate ship, it wasn't a bad option. There was just one problem with that plan, too.

'No way of knowing when the Space Dogs will actually show up.'

The Dog cartels were in constant, restless motion running their raids, so with bad luck they might not return to that sector for months. That was why, in the game, I'd only really used this approach after securing the Spaceflight trait.

'With Spaceflight, I could go hunt down pirate ships myself.'

But trying that with this ship would burn through the fuel in no time.

'I need some kind of breakthrough…'

At the word breakthrough, a thought surfaced at once.

'A new Transcendence trait.'

I called up the translucent text window.

I already had every ingredient for a new Transcendence trait in hand. The Spaceflight and Giant Organism traits had come from samples, so only 0.5 of each was filled — unusable directly, but perfectly viable as materials.

'Come to think of it, my previous Unique trait wasn't entirely unrelated to its ingredients either.'

The materials for the Perfect Organism had all been traits bound to my own flesh. Even if the Unique trait born of Transcendence was something wholly new that had never existed before, it could hardly be said to share nothing at all with the character of its ingredients.

'Judging by the materials alone, it looks deeply tied to free movement through space.'

The only Unique trait I'd obtained so far was the Perfect Organism — but thanks to that one trait, I had scraped through any number of lethal ordeals alive. If my hunch held, there was a strong chance a second Unique trait would deliver another effect beyond all standard scales. It might even cut straight through the predicament I faced right now.

'The problem is the forbidden clause.'

Since I had no way of knowing which trait it would attach to, or in what form, choosing recklessly was dangerous. A new Unique trait — or hold the line as I was. And while I deliberated, a single line of text in the window caught my eye.

'Evolution knows no end.'

After a long, long deliberation, I made my decision.