Became an Evolving Space Monster

The corridor was drenched in blood, splattered across walls and ceiling alike.

This gruesome display was the result of the pirates being blown to pieces by the 'Destructive Sonic Waves' I unleashed.

"En-enemy threat level...ca-ca-calculations failed..."

An android, reduced to just a head and a partial torso, emitted garbled machine sounds with its broken voicebox. I brought my winged arm down hard, smashing what remained.

‘The vanguard's done for.’

Now the others would be aware that something significant had gone wrong inside the fortress. A break-in at the underground storage, especially right before the auction, was no small matter. This would be far worse than just dealing with a few lunatics running loose in the city.

‘They’ll all unite and try to kill me—every single living thing and machine in this fortress, and anyone who’s visiting the city, all of them will become my enemies. Except for the ones I brought with me.’

‘So, what’s my next move?’

The first thought that came to mind was to flee the fortress, but escaping right now wasn’t the best option. The fortress's defenses, designed with fleet battles in mind, were immensely powerful. The exterior was lined with defensive turrets, far more numerous than those inside. Even if I managed to board a ship and escape from the military port, I’d be met with a barrage of concentrated fire from those cannons.

To take down this fortress, the most effective way would be to start from the inside, hollowing it out.

The question was how to go about it.

I could charge out, massacring people on my way to the command center, or I could break through the fortress's outer walls and disrupt the internal environment.

In the game, I destroyed Kesha Arma three different times, each using a different approach. Multiple strategies came to mind this time, but I decided to try something new—something involving my unique traits from the Transcendence System, which hadn’t existed in the game.

‘Technically, I’ve already tried this once.’

I opened a translucent text box and focused on the combination of the unique traits ‘Messenger of Mass Confusion’ and ‘Organic Evolution’, specifically the 'Mutated Virus Host' aspect.

The last time I used these traits together was during the destruction of the pirates’ slave market. They worked well together, both being strong crowd-control tools. Especially against large groups of enemies, they proved very effective.

With the right setup and environment, I could cause an explosion strong enough to shake this steel fortress to its core.

‘Now that the method’s decided.’

The next step was choosing the location, but that wasn't much of a concern. I turned and crawled deeper into the storage facility.

｢Are we not leaving?｣

“This terrain is not suited for large-scale combat.”

[Z ZZZ ZZ ZZZ (There is a way, Follow me)]

PS-111, who was in the A-Sector storage unit, expressed his doubts when I returned. I took them inside the storage unit.

We stopped halfway through the D-Sector storage area. I pressed my head closely to one of the walls.

｢What’s Big One doing?｣

“I believe it is searching for something.”

There was no need to explain further; they would know soon enough. I continued feeling along the wall with the auxiliary organ under my jaw.

‘It should be around here… Ah, found it.’

In a corner of a wide, hollowed-out section, I detected faint vibrations—exactly what I had been searching for.

Through my many attempts to invade this city, I knew precisely what these vibrations meant.

‘The subway line.’

This space fortress, much like the Colossal Trade Nexus Center, was equipped with several transport systems designed to move large numbers of residents efficiently. These included things like hovering buses and subterranean trains.

And just 50 meters away from this D-Sector storage lay one such subway line.

Marcio Cartel's operatives, cartel members from different star systems, mercenaries hired by the Megacorps, and even visitors from the Star Union—plenty of enemies would be boarding and moving around via the trains.

‘The fact that the subway’s still running means they haven’t all gathered yet.’

The forces stationed throughout the fortress were likely still converging at the command center in response to my threat.

Of course, they weren’t going to make it there in time.

[ZZ ZZZ (Everyone, fall back)]

Hearing my command, Number 26 and PS-111 moved away from me, retreating to a safe distance.

I opened my mouth wide at the point where I could feel the vibration. The upper and lower jaws spread apart as if they were going to tear, and the teeth attached on both sides protruded outward.

My long neck trembled, and soon green liquid poured out like a waterfall from inside my mouth.

A sound like pouring cold water onto a hot frying pan was heard, and a dense gas rose up. A hole about 10 meters in diameter was pierced through the thick alloy wall in front of me by the acidic cannon.

'If it were a game, I couldn't have imagined such a method.'

No matter how many ways the Amorph can strengthen its body, breaking through an alloy wall several tens of meters thick in one go is never easy, especially in its protozoan state. If it hadn't been for the 'Acidic Fungal Glands' strengthened as the 'Great Infectious Organism', I would have sought another way.

The acidic breath that was melting the wall so vigorously weakened rapidly after a few seconds. This was because the fungal liquid inside the fungal gland had run out.

'That's enough.'

I stopped the acidic breath and lowered myself in front of the hole in the melting wall. As I bowed my head at the hole, two pods on my back aimed inside the hole.

With force applied to the muscles of my back in that state, two orange blobs were fired from the end of the pod cannon.

The pods flew quickly inward like shells fired from a cannon. Gradually, a loud explosion was heard from inside, and intense heat burst outwards. It was the pods containing explosive bodily fluids that had detonated.

'It's not over yet.'

Now, a powerful chemical reaction will occur when the explosive bodily fluids and acidic fungi come together.

After a while, the underground storage where we were shook greatly, as if an earthquake had occurred. With each vibration of the wall, intense heat strong enough to lightly cook a person was emitted from inside the hole. Deadly chain explosions of two types of chemicals occurred inside the walls surrounding the storage.

｢Bang bang! Exciting!｣

"Interesting chemical reaction."

Number 26 emitted light from its body, apparently finding it amusing that the storage room was thumping. PS-111 fixed its gaze on the inside of the hole, whether it found what I did interesting.

The loud explosions and vibrations continued for a while, then gradually subsided and finally stopped.

I lowered my body in front of the hole in the thick alloy wall that continued to melt. As I crawled inside with the children, a wide space greeted us through the unevenly opened passage.

[ZZ ZZ (Let’s go now)]

A vast space emitting a nauseating odor. In the middle, I could see power lines with magnetic fields flowing through them.

'Good.'

The subway will pass through here again in a few minutes. We need to prepare to welcome the guests who are scheduled to come here.

I activated organic evolution after a long time. In the underground depths of the fortress floating in space, my body began to twist.

There was a sound of the skeleton twisting from long battle arms and winged arms. Things like spider legs shrank to a size that couldn't be twisted anymore.

In contrast, my body swelled like air being pumped into a balloon. The armor that had wrapped around my arms all went into my body, covering my bulging body.

As my body enlarged, my head grew larger as well. The head became heavy, and the neck became so thick that it could not be distinguished from the body. Shortly after the change began, I became a form close to that of a caterpillar.

Of course, the mutation is not over yet. Holes were pierced in the armor covering the body, and hundreds of tentacles emerged from inside.

The newly formed tentacles had a different appearance from the corrosive tentacles I possessed. Overall, they resembled the legs of an octopus, but differed in that their ends were divided into three branches. The length was roughly between 5m and 10m, much shorter than the corrosive tentacles.

The change didn't take long. Feeling my rapidly changing body stabilize, I displayed a text box.

｢Mutant Virus Host: A creature harboring a virus that triggers mutations. Physical and internal organ-related traits are deactivated. The transformation state can be voluntarily released by the user. Maximum duration is 3 days, with a cooldown of 30 days.

-Mutant Virus: Triggers rapid genetic mutations in subjects who come into contact with tentacles. The mutation effect is random but generally leads to extreme aggression.｣

The mutant virus host is a special state unlocked when I raided Pyra Eleven's support line before leaving the dragon's nest.

Unlike the 'King of Monsters' that greatly enhances combat power and the 'Cunning Weakling' specialized in infiltration and assassination, this special state is specialized in infecting and mutating enemies.

From a physical standpoint, as you can see, it's not much help in melee combat. Its speed also slows down significantly, making it unfavorable in maneuver warfare. Due to the sealing of physical traits written in the tooltip, fighting one-on-one with a formidable opponent is close to suicide.

But there's only one reason why I chose this. It's because of this thing called the 'Mutant Virus.'

Those infected by my tentacles' virus experience rapid genetic corruption. Normally, the moment their genes are ruined, they would die, but this virus isn't that simple. It manipulates the host's body to adapt to the mutations, ensuring they don't perish.

‘It's like becoming a Necro-XX.’

Creatures infected with the mutation virus transform into something resembling space undead from classic sci-fi games. They lose all intelligence, dedicating themselves to killing other living beings until the energy stored in their bodies runs out.

The term "other living beings" includes me, so the mutated enemies also charge at me. That's when I play my next card: the Messenger of Mass Confusion.

The Messenger of Mass Confusion is a trait that distorts the senses of nearby targets. It warps the senses of those infected by the mutation virus, making them focus on specific targets.

‘And the Madness Bomb is just a bonus.’

Mutated creatures are consumed by endless fighting and death. Naturally, the contagious effect of the Madness Bomb increases dramatically as well.

The deadly downside of the Mutation Virus Host and Messenger of Mass Confusion combo is that my speed drops to a crawl. Originally, the Messenger of Mass Confusion also has the penalty of slowing down the body's movements when activated, but this penalty is now doubled.

However, this isn't a problem. My friends nearby will protect me.

｢Wow! Big One is becoming more and more like me!｣

“Congratulations.”

Number 26 seemed to love my transformed appearance, hopping around and glowing brightly. It also had been thrilled when I first transformed into this form at the slave market.

‘Not everyone shared that sentiment, though.’

For the record, Adhai had said she didn’t mind if I looked ugly, while the Mother of the Sky had pretended she was about to vomit. PS-111, on the other hand, was more curious about the chemical processes occurring in my body, without offering any further comments.

‘You can't please everyone, I suppose.’

Personally, I find this form quite appealing.

‘Anyway, enough of that.’

Sensing strong vibrations from the tracks, I closed the text box.

The trains carrying our sacrifices are coming.