Second Collision and Transformation
The northern logistics complex had already become a battlefield. Black mucus spread in thick sheets, gunshots layered over one another, and thin screams ripped through the chaos. Arka made her entrance by stomping down on the head of a massive entity, crushing it beneath her heel.
"Seeing you again?" Her blue eyes locked onto me instantly. Her smile was darker than before, like a predator catching the scent of worthy prey. I answered by steadying my breath instead.
Infection level at twenty-one percent. Neural Acceleration had already become my default state. The world around me slowed to a crawl. But Arka refused to slow down with it.
"Alright. This time, let's really play." She spread both arms wide. A clean line drew itself from her collarbone down to her abdomen, then split open. Once again, Arka transformed into her heavy-combat form. The ground itself sank under the sudden increase in mass.
I gritted my teeth. "This time will be different."
Arka kicked off the earth. The charge came like a cannon shell. I had grown used to it by now. I moved at the exact same moment. Instant acceleration. The two impacts collided head-on.
Kwaaaaaang!
The shockwave tore the air apart. Arka's thick arm hammered down, but I had already read its path and twisted it aside. This time I refused to be pushed back. Our arms scraped together, bones ringing from the force. I heard something crack, but the regeneration was instantaneous.
The number rising was only natural, yet I still held control. This time I didn't dodge. I pressed forward aggressively. The way the skeletal armor overlapped at the joints, the axis where force concentrated, Threat Prediction painted it all in sharper lines than ever.
My fist drove in, slamming the armor and forcing it backward. But contrary to expectation, it didn't shatter. Not even a crack appeared. The instant my fist connected, Arka had slightly contracted her gauntlet, using the pushing force against me to pull her body back and bleed off the impact.
As expected. She's a troublesome opponent.
It wasn't simply a matter of raw strength or superior abilities. Arka simply knew how to fight. Looking into her gleaming eyes right now, the thought came naturally.
"Now it's finally worth trading blows with you, N221!" Her skeletal arm stretched out like a whip. I couldn't avoid it. She caught me and slammed me straight into the ground.
"Kh!" I managed to twist both arms behind my head to protect my skull, but the cost was two broken ribs. The fractured bones stabbed into my organs. The pain was blinding. Yet they fused back together almost immediately.
"It's not N221. It's Chaerin."
Arka's eyes narrowed. "Oh?" She didn't mock me. Instead she smiled and tasted the name on her tongue. "Chaerin. That's a good name."
I wasn't particularly pleased. The fact that she liked my name wouldn't make her go easy on me.
I caught her next punch with both hands. Her eyes widened in genuine surprise that her strike had been stopped. I gripped the fist and shoved with everything I had. Arka's feet gouged the ground as she was driven backward. Even in heavy-combat form, she was being pushed. Her smile only grew deeper.
"Strength is one thing, but your accuracy is insane. It looks like you're predicting my attacks before they even start. That ability's connected to it, isn't it?"
"......"
She clearly loved fighting, but she wasn't stupid. Sharp intelligence flickered behind those savage eyes.
"You also had an acceleration ability. You didn't just block it with one heavy stop. You used rapid palm strikes to scatter the impact points and minimize the shock. And by hitting the exact same spot every time, you made it look like you lightly blocked a dozen blows at once."
How many exchanges had it taken for her to see through the trick already? The energy drain from constant regeneration made every breath feel like fire in my lungs.
"Ah, no need to look so disappointed in yourself. Just because someone's a Completed Bio-roid doesn't mean they all have a talent for combat like me. You'd be disappointed too if you saw the idiots who can't even use their own power properly without combat support AIs. The corporations aren't all that impressive after all."
That's surprisingly helpful information. I adjusted my stance with a sarcastic thought. No matter how hard it became, I couldn't abandon the fight.
She grinned wider, as if she'd been waiting for exactly that attitude.
"Good. Let's keep going. You're the only one who can fight me on equal terms!"
I blocked her next frontal punch. This time there was no need to disperse the impact points.
"Heh?" My muscle fiber density had risen again. This time I stopped her cleanly in a single block.
My nerves burned. My vision grew even sharper. My heartbeat thundered with unnatural power.
"Growing stronger in the middle of battle? You really are like a protagonist from some story!"
I planted my feet and charged. Stacking instant acceleration, I hammered her chest plate.
One point. Only one point!
Once, twice, three times, four times against the heavy armor. Finally the chest plate crumpled. Arka's body flew backward, but she looked delighted.
"There it is!"
Just as we were about to collide again, an acid variant slammed into us from the side.
"Urgh!" I blocked the acid spray with my arm, regenerating even as it melted the flesh, then grabbed the variant and hurled it into the horde of infected. The friendly acid fire melted several of them on impact.
The battlefield had become pure mayhem. Arka, the mutated variants, the recovery team, the survivor group. Everything overlapped. And still my infection level kept climbing.
Damn it... I was keeping control, but something inside me was beginning to writhe.
Meanwhile, the interior of the logistics complex was collapsing. Infected continued to swarm. A six-armed variant tore people apart. The acid variant I had thrown earlier rose again and began melting the defensive line. The survivor group was holding, but they had clearly reached their limit.
"Fall back!" the leader shouted, but it was already too late. The line broke. Children wailed. People fell screaming.
Yerin ground her teeth. "Fuck..."
Seorin's rifle spat fire.
"Chaerin!" At her cry, I glared at Arka.
"Let's stop for a moment."
Arka laughed. "Is there a reason I should?"
I pointed behind her. She glanced over. The infected were overwhelming the humans. Arka looked back at me, thought for a moment, then gave a small snort.
"Fine."
She turned and stomped one of the infected into paste beneath her foot. "Let's clear out the small fry that might interfere with our fight first."
Lee Doyeon watched the scene from her position. The recovery team stood beside her, heavily armored soldiers in reinforced suits. The situation was deteriorating rapidly.
"Infected closing in!" Gunfire roared, but the enemy numbers were overwhelming. One soldier took a direct hit from acid and collapsed with a horrific scream. Another was suddenly dragged underground by a mole variant that erupted from the earth, only his upper torso thrown back out.
Doyeon's eyes trembled.
Something is wrong here...
The timing was too perfect. The HUD on her contact-lens device kept flashing warnings about decreasing combat strength. This isn't the scale for a simple recovery operation. The rate at which infected were appearing was abnormal. Their convergence points overlapped too precisely with the target's movement path. Even the corporate intelligence updates that had detected it. Everything aligned too perfectly to be coincidence.
Her gaze flicked toward the sky. For the first time, the thought formed clearly.
Someone is orchestrating this situation.
Another soldier fell. Three dead, seven wounded already. Even if they had fought according to the original plan, the casualties would have been heavy. But dying like this in a battle no one had anticipated felt like meaningless slaughter.
Doyeon sent a transmission to command.
"Excessive asset loss. Requesting immediate operation suspension."
The response from upper management was brutally simple. The tactical support AI's emotionless voice returned.
> PRIORITIZE RECOVERY OF N221.
A cold light settled in her eyes. Assets were supposed to be used efficiently. Right now, command was wasting them. Doyeon clenched her jaw.
"We are retreating. Suppress the infected and open an escape route."
The recovery team soldiers looked stunned. "But the recovery target—"
"Asset loss has already exceeded acceptable thresholds. How much do you think was invested in your training and equipment alone?"
People had always been the most expensive resource. The death of a single pilot was worth more than ten destroyed fighter jets. Her voice was ice-cold and allowed no argument.
"This is inefficient."
She repeated the order.
"Withdraw."
Lee Doyeon, the agent who had always been loyal to the corporation's stability, had just rebelled against it for the first time.
I kept fighting. One infected. Two. Three. There was no end. The ferocious energy consumption made my body feel heavier by the second, but I refused to stop. My temperature kept rising. My muscles swelled. Something moved beneath my skin.
I gritted my teeth. This wasn't the time to worry about it.
A mole variant burst from the ground and slashed at me with razor claws. Threat Prediction had seen it, but the creature was faster the instant it emerged from the earth. I knew the attack was coming but couldn't fully dodge. I met it head-on.
The claws sank into my wrist and forearm bones, but instead of severing them they bounced away as the tissue regenerated. With my other hand I tore open its chest. The creature died in a spray of black mucus, its upper body ripped completely free of its lower half.
When that mucus splattered across my face—
My heart slammed against my ribs. Something inside me expanded violently. Heat flooded the area below my waist. Blood surged. Muscles rearranged themselves. My pelvic structure shifted in subtle but unmistakable ways.
I drew in a sharp breath and crushed the head of the final infected. At last the battlefield fell silent. People gasped for air around me.
Arka stared at me. "...Interesting."
Her gaze drifted downward. She smirked. "Seeing that makes me like you even more."
I looked down. The lower half of my combat suit had torn open. The bio-nano fiber suit was supposed to repair itself automatically. It had been convenient that way.
"I know about those," Arka said. "Our humans like using them too. They cling to the skin and adjust to body shape on contact. So the infection must have treated it as an extension of your body. In a way, it's a kind of parasitic organism itself. Getting caught up in the infection and being used to change your physical form isn't that strange."
A new organ had formed beneath the torn suit. Male. Fully functional, complete with muscle and nerve connections. It trembled faintly as my body continued adapting.
I closed my eyes.
...This, I hadn't expected.
Arka chuckled. "Hey, be happy about it. Even soft, that size would be called a 'general' among humans."
There was no disgust in her eyes. Only interest, and a hint of anticipation.
A transport drone approached from the distance. Its doors opened, beckoning urgently.
"Tsk. Withdrawal signal already?" Arka sighed and shrugged. "Too bad. Looks like today ends here."
She glanced back at me one last time. "See you again, Chaerin."
The transport drone lifted off. Beyond the closing doors, her silver hair danced in the wind.
I let out a long breath. Infection level twenty-five percent. And once again, my body had changed.