Chapter 432
Inside a factory in AG-01.
Conveyor belts, small drones, and industrial robots move busily.
In the middle of a machine kingdom where there were no people, there was a being with a strange appearance.
A woman’s face made of metal, a body mixed with warm flesh and cold parts. Its identity, reminiscent of a grotesque exhibit that has not yet been completed, is PS-111.
He is currently using the factory’s machines to fuse the remains of the Supreme Council member and parts of the new Prometheus with himself. Unlike her face, which looked peaceful as if she was asleep, all of her functions were focused on assembly work.
‘Core parts transplant completed. Simultaneous progress of simulation of compliance rate and error response simulation using sub-brain. 9 minutes and 45 seconds left to complete.’
The work, which lasted four hours, has reached its completion stage.
PS-111 sent a message to the ‘middle baby’ outside the planet. There isn’t much left until the work is finished, so prepare for battle.
The dangerous creature targeted by sub-controller Amorph appeared earlier than expected. Aimorph is currently dealing with ‘Arcane Orca’, a creature with an unspecified risk rating.
The middle baby said. It is said that Arcane Orca is difficult to deal with even with Amorph.
So I prepared.
To help Aimorph, he decided to upgrade himself to defeat the dangerous creatures.
‘Simulation complete. Final test required. It is expected to take 17 minutes and 31 seconds to complete the 5th stage test.’
The newly implanted secondary brain signaled the transition to the final stage. She answered immediately without hesitation.
‘I will replace the test with one where I move and check myself.’
As soon as she made the decision, her ‘new body’ lit up. The drones and robots nearby quietly retreated.
PS-111, upgraded with a new look, slowly began to move.
–
‘How many times already?’
Was it the 59th or 60th? I don’t remember whether it’s because I experienced burning pain all over my body several times for several hours.
‘I hope it’s over now.’
I shook my body and brushed off the burnt scales and body parts.
New skin can be seen growing from the injured area. I have already seen similar scenes hundreds of times.
And the entity that messed me up like this is still alive and well.
The sky has suddenly become dark. Light gathers there. The halo of light instantly turned into a golden whale bone.
Arcane Orca, who recovered from her injuries through ‘quantum transfer’, was similar to when I first met her. The difference is that the color of the energy skin that protects the bone-shaped body has changed.
The transparent skin that used to be a light blue color has now become lighter in color. This is evidence that the energy possessed has decreased significantly.
‘It feels like about half of it was shaved off.’
You can kill him by repeating the process so far one more time.
The good news, though, is that things are progressing just as we experienced in the game. As long as no new variables arise, I think I will be able to finish the hunt easily.
I maintained flight and prepared for the enemy’s attack to come again. But Arcane Orca did not move.
‘Why are you doing that?’
So far, it has always counterattacked with powerful attacks after regenerating. There has never been a case like now where I stayed still without attacking or avoiding.
‘Are you scared?’
The special effect used by 25th place was canceled a long time ago. Even after that, he continued his fierce offensive. There is no reason to suddenly feel afraid.
‘Whatever it is, let’s approach it first.’
Since they aren’t coming, I have no choice but to attack. I accelerated and approached him quickly. When it saw me getting closer, it also created an energy sphere.
More than hundreds of light spheres fly by. As I prepared for the coming impact, the spheres diverted along the way. They passed me and fell towards the ground.
‘what?’
It soon became clear what Arcane Orca’s attack was aiming for. This is because craters appeared in my nest as if hit by a meteorite.
‘no way?’
In the attack just now, numerous hiveformers were oxidized by the high-temperature energy.
Then, Arcane Orca created an energy bullet again. This time, they targeted the hiveformers in the nest, not me.
‘You’re trying to block my means of recovery!’
Is it because it’s reality and not a game? This is my first time seeing him act so intelligently.
There are many important things about the above-ground nest other than the hiveformer.
When the special effect ended, I put down the number 25 that I had hidden in my left mouth in the nest. As he was barely breathing, 10 young Wolfs carried him inside and watched him.
I don’t know anything else, but I can’t lose the ranker. Without hesitation, I rushed towards the enemy.
After quickly closing the distance, he thrust his fighting arms together. When I was about to tear apart the body hidden inside the transparent skin, the pale skin color suddenly darkened.
「Pain reduction activated!」
At the same time, the temperature rose rapidly and my arms evaporated in an instant.
I almost screamed for a moment, but I gritted my teeth and held it back. I swung my claw tail in place of my lost arm.
The tail claw is one of the strongest parts of my body. A bionic mace made of carapace and bone was lodged in the enemy’s side.
Pieces of broken golden bone can be seen floating within the vivid light blue skin. It’s not a fatal wound, but looking at precedent, now is the time to use quantum transfer.
However, the guy reacted differently than expected. Instead of running away, he hit my abdomen with his head.
「Pain reduction activated!」
‘Oh no!’
Currently, Arcane Orca’s body is no different from the sun condensed into a size of tens of meters. If you do this incorrectly, your upper and lower body may become separated due to high heat. I quickly fell back.
As soon as the distance between me widened, he immediately launched a chase attack with a wide ball. His appearance was incomparably more aggressive than before.
‘You’re afraid of me.’
When do wild animals become most vicious? This is when you feel that your life is being threatened, that is, when you feel fear.
The same goes for Arcane Orca. The survival instinct may have been awakened due to fear.
‘…It won’t be easy.’
It is an unpleasant situation to see an already powerful creature move differently than expected. I used ‘Hydra Split’, which I had saved.
The necks on both sides became mushy like purple jelly and separated from my body. The jelly falling to the ground quickly changed into the form of Amorph. Just before hitting the ground, the completed left and right heads spread their wings wide.
The right head shot up quickly like a launched rocket and hit my enemy. The impact split its body in two. Perhaps because it was a fatal wound this time, Arcane Orca immediately used quantum transfer.
The left head flew after an enemy that regenerated in the distance.
While the two heads were wasting time, I headed to where the young Wolfs and 25th were.
‘I need to move to the basement.’
My nest extends deep underground. If we evacuate the Wolfs there, we can buy time during the fight.
I flew at high speed and landed in front of a huge structure standing alone in a remote place. A gigantic tower several kilometers in size spewing clouds through an ejection port at the top. It is a terraforming machine, a facility that adjusts the planet’s atmosphere and weather.
As soon as I landed, Wolf with the jackal head came running out from inside. From what I remember, it was Wolf whose name was ‘Tane’.
“Bring out all the kids inside.”
“yes! “God!”
The guy who answered energetically quickly went inside. After a while, the other Wolfs came out carrying the half-corpse Ranker.
I hid them in my mouth and crawled into a large pit I had prepared near the facility. The slime filling the underground nest welcomed me. It swam downwards with only its head exposed.
At that time, the dark surroundings suddenly became brighter. And then I felt a strong shock on my back and tail.
Arcane Orca chased me all the way to the basement.
‘crazy!’
Due to the high heat it gave off, the slime accumulated in the ground evaporated and the nest began to collapse. Despite the checks of the clones that followed, it only targeted me.
I had no choice but to escape from the collapsing nest.
‘I didn’t know it would catch on like this.’
If I had known this would happen, I would have moved to self-immolation. Due to its sudden behavior, it became impossible to move Wolff.
‘What do we do?’
If we continue to fight like this, not only the 25th place, but all of Wolff will be burned to death. However, as long as the Arcane Orca is targeting me, it is impossible to put them down.
‘In that case, it might be better to swallow it.’
At least you can get some perks.
The wolfs in the mouth remained silent, unaware of anything. I didn’t feel any fear from them, perhaps because they trusted me.
‘…I can’t help it.’
The Arcane Orca that was tracking me prepares to attack. There is no time. Just as I was about to make a decision, I saw something in the night sky.
What looked like starlight or a satellite grows bigger and bigger. It is a Sachs Beta-class battleship, a ship whose front part is split into three parts and looks like a trident.
‘Jax Beta? no way?’
Arcane Orca also recognized the suddenly appearing battleship. Is it because it’s a completely new enemy? Half of the orbs of light were aimed at the new enemy, not me.
Things are once again going differently than I expected. Instead of swallowing what was in my mouth, I bent my neck closer to my stomach. Then, he pulled out all the remaining erosion tentacles and threw them at the flying Gwanggu.
Meanwhile, other energy bombs were rapidly narrowing the distance to the battleship.
White cloud-like things poured out of a battleship so far away that it could be seen as a fingertip. Guided missiles controlled by Arcane Orca hit the battleship shrouded in clouds.
Even a Zax Beta-class battleship would be impossible to withstand the attack of a top-level Apex. However, unexpectedly, the battleship survived. Although the front part where the main gun was mounted was shattered, it was in good condition considering it had been hit by such a brutal attack.
‘Now is your chance!’
Thanks to Jax Beta, the enemy’s attention was diverted. I approached closely and grabbed hold of the bone-like body with my wing arms. My clones bit him from behind.
Arcane Orca, who suffered a fatal wound to the lower body, tries to escape using quantum transfer.
Just before its entire body turned into particles and dispersed into the air, its skin shook as if there was noise. After blinking a few times, the rest of the body disappeared except for the part that the clones had bitten.
“I can’t run away anymore.”
A familiar voice is heard nearby.
When I turned around, I saw a being with an unfamiliar appearance floating in the air.
[Zuzuzu (PS-111)]
It looked like a fusion of a round disk-shaped spaceship and a screamer, and its identity was PS-111.
[Zuzuzuzu (what does it look like?)]
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, Prometheus V2 was fused to my body.”
PS-111 and Heavenly Mother, who moved separately from me, had the goal of capturing the supreme council member alive. This was because the Supreme Council member knew how to operate Prometheus and the locations of key parts needed during assembly.
But now, he seemed to have merged with Prometheus. It was clear that an unexpected variable arose during the operation.
[Zuzuzuz Zuzuzu Zuzuzuz Zuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (I’ll talk about the details later. Let’s deal with him first)]
“Yep.”
While we were talking, Arcane Orca completed quantum transfer.
But his body was not healthy. There was a slight wound on the tailbone area from the self-immolations.
Warp particles emitted by Prometheus’ reactor perfectly control faster-than-light navigation within a specific area. Arcane Orca also cannot avoid the influence of warp particles. Even if you succeed in moving, your injuries will not fully recover due to the interference of warp particles.
In other words, now that PS-111 has merged with Prometheus, its infinite vitality has been sealed.
‘furthermore….’
A Jax Beta with a broken front end approached us, leading a white cloud, or rather, a bunch of drones of a design we had never seen before. The Mother of Heaven, who took control of the ship, came to help.
The panicked enemy created a lot of guided missiles, but there is no need to worry. The battle situation has already turned this way.
Afterwards, Arcane Orca died while attempting the 9th quantum transfer.
“Watch next episode”