Chapter 195
Translator: uly
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Stranded in the Astral Dimension
Sparkling brightly and flashing noisily to announce its position, R3D3's head bobbed as I patted it. Roze approached and immediately checked me over from head to toe.
But then her eyes lit up as if she'd noticed something.
"Congrats!"
As she spoke, Merdi arrived.
She was breathing heavily, probably from the tough expedition inside the space crawler's belly.
After spotting me, she stood there catching her breath while scanning me, then slowly opened her mouth.
"You're in one piece?"
Her voice carried a hint of grumpiness.
I couldn't help but burst out laughing, which made her glare sharpen.
"Don't laugh! Do you have any idea what we went through looking for you?"
"Sorry."
"And what's with those horns?"
"Whoa."
Both their gazes locked onto the horns.
They'd been small enough to hide before, but now that was impossible.
Doubting if they were real, Roze reached out and stroked one.
"Whoa, they feel so real! Super tough, too."
"They are real. Doesn't it look weird?"
"Of course not."
"I think it's fine. But they make me look like a total demon."
"Normal people would freak out."
Guess it is weird after all.
I groaned and tried running a hand through my hair to cover them.
No dice.
Merdi spoke up to me then.
"But don't stress too much about it. You'll get used to them eventually. Besides, they're just unique—nothing scary or gross about them."
"You're right. So, what's the situation outside?"
"Here."
Merdi held out her hand, and R3D3 snapped it up.
It was using close-range data transfer tech.
I received the filtered info from R3D3 and realized we were already in space.
"Do you know how much chaos erupted after you got swallowed?"
"I didn't expect the space crawler to move that fast."
"Anyway, right after it gulped you down, it shot off at insane speed, flipping the whole city upside down. The building that ate you was on the outskirts, so damage wasn't too bad."
"Then what?"
"We were chasing it, figuring out what to do, when it suddenly twisted its body. That was you, right?"
Merdi glanced around, saw me nod, and continued.
"When it started flying, there were signs it was prepping another attack, so we held back. The barrier was weakening on its own anyway. Everyone figured the same. But even after the space crawler went totally quiet, we hadn't heard from you, so just me and Roze came in."
"Just the two of you?"
"The rest are cleaning up on the surface. When you stirred up trouble, all the parasitic aliens living in its shell back fell out."
Listening to her story while checking the sitrep, I got the full picture.
"But what's that?"
"Huh? Oh, this."
I patted the egg tucked under my arm, then handed it to R3D3 as I said,
"I got it from the building I went into... but the rest can wait."
"What...?!"
Before Merdi could finish her question, the ground shook violently.
Then something started surging up from deep inside.
"...Last gasp?"
I'd told them both—the space crawler's lifeline hadn't been fully severed yet.
It was on the verge of dying on its own.
But now it was using its remaining strength for some desperate final act.
"Stick close!"
As I deployed a barrier in front, a backflow of liquid slammed into us.
A sticky mess of blood, stomach acid, and unidentifiable gunk.
I grabbed the ground and braced as best I could, but the slick friction made it brutal.
In the end, we got swept away as one tangled mass.
"How far is this gonna take us?"
"Probably trying to spit us out its mouth!"
We had to get out anyway—if we just waited, it'd puke us up for free.
No need to fight the flow.
But a dying space crawler attempting something pointless like this didn't sit right.
I heightened my senses to the max.
Its internal energy flow had nearly vanished after this stunt.
Meaning nothing to block my sensory expansion.
My range widened steadily.
From its guts to the epidermis, and beyond.
The space crawler was thrashing passionately, like burning its final spark of life.
'Where are you headed?'
As my senses expanded once more, I realized what it was doing.
"A rift...?"
"A rift?!"
The space crawler was heading straight for a rift.
It hadn't opened this one, so some other creature had.
Either way, the key point was it was right ahead.
Too late to stop.
Swept out its mouth amid the backflowing liquid, I grabbed the two tightly.
"Hang on tight! Don't let go!"
We were hurled into the astral dimension.
"Need thrust."
-Affirmative!
One wrong move, and we'd be lost in space forever.
R3D3 fired its thrusters to push us away.
But the rift was blocked by the crawler's head.
We tried to punch through somehow when suddenly the rift snapped shut.
"Wha—...?!"
Blood sprayed.
The rift mercilessly sliced off the space crawler's head as it closed.
Nothing left in the vanished rift's space but endless astral dimension.
We were trapped in a realm where physics didn't apply.
"Look behind!"
I turned at Roze's words.
There floated an intact space crawler amid a swarm of flyers.
'I see.'
The one that ate me had achieved its goal.
Trapped in the astral dimension, our options were wander the endless cosmos until death or get eaten again.
And by then, we'd be dead.
'It lured our fleet in, tangled them with the flyers, then slipped here via astral dimension. It just opened a rift, so it'll be drained, but plans to rest up and move after.'
Proof: the space crawler was utterly relaxed.
No aggressive moves like sending flyers to attack.
Just circling our position slowly from a distance.
I climbed atop the severed head and explained the situation.
"So what now?"
"It'll probably wait till our oxygen runs out. Then go for the egg once we suffocate."
"The egg's that important?"
"To aliens, yeah."
Had to find a way before oxygen ran dry.
-Remaining oxygen: 8 hours 15 minutes.
"Can't process it from the space crawler's blood?"
-Insufficient equipment. Beep! Can collect and use toxic gas leaking from space crawler's body. High chance of fatal internal damage after 1+ hour inhalation.
Even combining every option, max survival was about 3 hours.
I grimaced and gave the order.
"...Collect it. And split my oxygen with them."
"Lemon!"
"Most toxins can't touch me. I'll be fine."
"But still..."
"Just do it."
"What're you talking about?"
Roze demanded at Merdi's urging.
But Merdi continued coolly.
"You know his body's special. If something goes wrong after we do it his way, we switch back."
No time to argue here.
Once Roze seemed to get it, I ordered R3D3 to swap.
"How is it?"
"Usable."
Toxic stuff.
Couldn't keep inhaling indefinitely like I'd boasted.
But with my detox ability and core weapon's help, a day seemed doable.
And that was way longer than they'd last on their oxygen.
"Now what..."
Merdi started to speak but trailed off, eyes scanning around.
All that met her gaze was vast, unknowable space.
Unlike our pitch-black dimension, this one shimmered with every color imaginable, but the silence was just as oppressive.
In the end, Merdi clamped her mouth shut.
I got it.
Roze or Merdi.
Both superhumans with few peers, but powerless before this immense cosmos.
"To escape, we need a rift. How can we make that thing open one?"
"It's not even engaging—how?"
"We've got R3D3. Stick it on me."
Roze clenched her fists as she said it.
But way too optimistic.
No way threats would faze the space crawler, and we lacked oxygen for combat.
Battling consumed over 10x normal oxygen—had to end in under an hour, impossible.
'At least they're not panicking. Small mercies.'
I racked my brain.
Two viable options.
One: Use that intact space crawler, like Roze said.
Not by bullying it with fists, but weakening it enough to obey, then using the breeder fluid to force a rift.
But too many preconditions.
'The fluid's friendly toward me, sure. But it's gotta grow first to do anything.'
Just fluid.
No—even unborn from the egg.
Controlling a hazard level 8 colossal like a space crawler? Insane.
Plus, no guarantee it'd do what I want.
Only one option left.
"Space crawlers can open rifts. If I absorb that trait, maybe I can too."
I'd already snagged space crawler spoils back on Acheron.
Touched on rift generation then, but ditched it for reasons.
First off, my abilities couldn't utilize it.
'Rift opening isn't a personal trait.'
Needs massive energy and gear.
Strain on the engine exceeds main guns—even fully prepped, ships only crack it open briefly for passage.
Same for aliens.
Hive nests dump all energy just to open one.
Sure, nests sustain theirs longer to deploy swarms, thanks to specialized organs.
I could absorb the rift trait.
But without support organs, I'd shoulder the insane load solo.
Reducing load skyrockets energy cost, which I can't supply.
But now, with horns and core power surging several-fold, worth a shot.
Still short, so rift would be tiny and short-lived.
Better than nothing.
"How long?"
"Fast as 1 hour, but if it drags, no clue."
I looked each of them in the eye.
Fail before deadline, we suffocate here.
Merdi didn't blink.
"Then get to it."
I nodded and jacked in immediately.
I plunged into a sea of information.
As befits its massive body, dwarfing mid-to-small peers like red ones or beholders by dozens-fold in data volume.
Mostly meaningless junk, though.
Either way, familiar turf—I didn't wander.
Straight to the central zone housing the desired info.
'Found it.'
Rift generation data sprawled like a continent.
Even with my boosted psy, too vast to swallow in one gulp.
No time to hesitate.
'Cutoff: 8 hours.'
I began greedily carving out the trait.