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[Translator – Jjescus]
[Proofreader – Demon God’s Disciple]
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[Successful collision of ship number 98.]
“Hmm, seems remarkably sturdy. It didn’t explode immediately, as expected.”
“The estimated durability is nearly identical to that of X10-class ships.”
“It’s like a medium-sized destroyer. I have no idea where such a monster came from…”
Sanadaeff, acting commander of the Nemea Fleet, observed the battle situation through external cameras. As per his orders, ship number 98 successfully rammed an unidentified bio-ship.
“Where’s MacF’s position?”[A signal chip has been detected inside the bio-ship.]
“I’d like to capture and interrogate the prisoners, but orders are orders.”
According to the Machinery Committee, they were warned not to approach the bio-ship as it was an extremely dangerous entity. Despite Sanadaeff’s attempts to subdue it with long-range attacks due to that warning, it wasn’t easy.
Initially, they thought four ships would be enough, but they were quickly all sunk. Whoever the pilot was, they were maneuvering that huge escort ship like a fighter jet. Despite facing numerous enemies before, rarely had Sana seen someone evade torpedoes so adeptly.
He dispatched ten ships against the bio-ship. Indeed, it seemed the bio-ship struggled against ten ships.
“If it had fled, it might have lasted longer. Foolish.”
In his sight, the damaged figure of the bio-ship appeared at the upper right end.
The front of ship number 98 was so deeply embedded that it would now be difficult for the bio-ship to move. Whether it was a real ship, its lifespan was now ended by the attack, and if it was a biological entity, the injuries were likely fatal.
Whatever it was, all that remained for it now was death.
“Just in case, dispose of it with torpedoes and leave no traces.”
“Psychic cannon operation detected from the Imperial flagship.”
“Damn it! Ships 1 through 12, execute evasive maneuvers; ships 70 through 80, defend with APD.”
“Confirmed.”
“Ship number 98, handle it yourself and leave a record. Report to the Machinery Committee and make the record as detailed as possible.”
“Order received and executed.”
He wanted to see the bio-ship blow up in a spectacular fashion, but right now they were in the midst of battle.
With regret, Sanadaeff continued to command.
“20% damage to the ship’s frontal section.”
“Insane! 20% damage? Retreat and fire torpedoes immediately.”
“The cannons are too damaged for use.”
Captain Keynes of ship number 98 confirmed the hull’s condition.
A 3D model of the ship floated above his eyes, connected to the ship’s computer. As ship number 98 had said, many of the cannons at the front had been damaged, all due to the recent collision.
“Surely, we received APD support. Why is this happening?”
“The ship in question lacks shields, so the effectiveness of APD is diminished. Estimated to have the same outer wall durability as X10-class ships.”
“That explains it. Contact other ships and instruct them to fire immediately if we’re in trouble.”
“Understood.”
“Activate undamaged front rockets, and engage the side rockets. Also, deploy drones and send the tech team as soon as we detach.”
“Command confirmed. Front thrusters and side lateral thrusters activated.”
Following Keynes’s command, Ship 98 immediately activated the rockets. As the hull moved, the gravity inside the ship shifted, causing slight vibrations in the internal facilities.
They were trying to quickly disengage after the collision when suddenly they felt a larger vibration than before.
“Impact detected from the exterior of the hull.’
“What’s happening suddenly…”
“Urgent report! High-energy flow detected in the front! Atomic reactor overload suspected!”
“What? Damn it! Increase the output of the side rockets!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Keynes felt an unprecedented pressure. Metal cracks could be heard from the inner walls of the hull, and in some areas, items stuck to the ceiling or floated in mid-air due to gravitational anomalies.
“When we disengage, back off straight away!”
“Confirmed.”
Along with Ship 98, other ships also distanced themselves from the bio-ship. The cameras attached to the ships showed the bio-ship. The black outer walls cracked like eggshells, and purple light emanated from within.
“Great idea! Drone, push the remaining ones to the Cult’s side!”
Keynes communicated with other cyborgs connected to the drones. Repair drones quickly flew out and pushed the bio-ship away.
The Cult ships also sensed something strange about the bio-ship and began to retreat.
“Too slow!”
Soon, a bright purple flash erupted. Two nearby Cult ships exploded,;triggering a chain reaction.
“That’s it. Ship 98, did you record everything?”
“Recording completed.”
“Record the internal damage as well and hand it over to the acting flagship commander.”
“For preservation of evidence, it is recommended to retreat to the rear.”
“Well, openly retreating feels a bit… Side rockets, how are they?”
“Right the thruster was damaged by 30%. While the left thruster was damaged by 70%.”
“Damn, it’s not good. Let’s retreat for now.”
“Confirmed.”
Keynes’s mission ended here. Ship 98, escorted by other cyborg ships, withdrew to the rear.
“Phew, that was close.”
The other ship came crashing in deeper than expected, almost causing the reactor to explode. When I’m in control, there’s no issue, but it’s different when I unlock the horizon of nightmares.
A ship that has undergone corrosion becomes irreparable. Since the reactor is also damaged and rendered inoperable, I thought there was nothing to worry about.
However, it was my mistake. When the front of the other ship collided, it touched the reactor, almost causing everyone to die because of it. Number 26, the most proficient in Psychic Power control among us, managed to defend against the explosion somehow, but Adhai and The Mother of the Sky are definitely gone.
***
‘I was in danger too.’
Currently, I’m in a special state where I can transform into ‘Organic Evolution’ and have mutated into a state called ‘Crafty Weakling’. If I were in my normal state, I would have survived without fatal injuries thanks to the thick armor, but not now.
As my size decreased, so did my defense.
‘Seems like a blessing in disguise.’
Although we almost died, the explosion of the reactor diverted the enemies’ attention.
‘At least the infiltration was successful.’
As we thought about where we could find a place to catch our breath, Adhai poked me with her wingtip.
｢Elder｣ ｢Yes?｣ ｢Confirm｣ ｢Needed”｣
‘Hmm?’
He was continually tilting his head, finding my transformation quite awkward.
Adhai’s reaction wasn’t particularly strange. My transformation felt awkward to me as well.
The changes that occurred to me were not best described as mutations or transformations. Literally, it was closer to ‘evolution’.
Firstly, my overall size decreased to about 5 meters, including my tail. The tail was about 2 meters long, and the body stretched for about 3 meters.
As the tail shrank, changes occurred in the body as well. The combat arms located near the armpits and pelvis descended and began to function as legs.
In short, it was akin to the physique of a centaur from Greek mythology.
Although four of the combat arms were lost, there wasn’t as much decrease in combat power as expected. This was because the small arms located near the chest had grown significantly, comparable to the combat arms.
‘The form is a bit different.’
The development of the muscles and the covering of the outer shell on the area that had become long arms, or more precisely, now had elongated arms, were impressive.
Although they appeared weak for defensive purposes like other arms, they seemed capable of easily crushing a human skull.
Aside from the changes in physique and arms, there weren’t significant changes in other parts, such as the six horns, the giant head carapace, or the pincer at the end of the tail.
The only difference was that the proportion of faces with human features had increased due to the decrease in size of the body?
‘No, there’s a huge change besides that.’
What I called evolution wasn’t because of changes in physique.
It was the fur.
Thin, long fur had sprouted all over my body except for the head carapace, covering everything in dark purple fur. From a distance, it might seem like I was wearing a fur coat inside out.
‘An Amorph with fur.’
of fur-growing traits in the game, but there wasn’t a trait that would change
Even Number 26, who always speaks kindly, expressed an opinion that I looked strange. This was the first time Number 26, who had diligently observed my evolutionary process, found me peculiar.
As I remained silent, Number 26 quickly added,
｢But you’re still big, so it’s good!｣
[Horns] ｢Cool｣ ｢Stems｣ ｢Peculiar｣
It seems that my appearance is out of place according to the standards of both alien creatures.
Finally, when I looked at Mother of the sky, she awkwardly shook her head with her eyes.
｢It’s like Wendy without fur covering her head.｣
[ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZ (Isn’t it more like a centaur?)]
“…It feels like Wendy grew eight legs.”
Among the creatures that Wolph can transform into is Wendy. It possessed tremendous power, but I remember that its appearance wasn’t rated highly.
“Hmm. Seems fine to me.”
Despite much negative opinion, there was one fortunate aspect. It was that this fur wasn’t ordinary fur.
When transformed into the Crafty Weakling, some traits were restricted in use, but new bonuses were gained.
True to that, this fur was a new body part formed by a powerful bonus effect.
[Mysterious Creature’s Fur Skin: A bonus provided by the ‘Crafty Weakling’ trait. It provides a stealth effect that allows the user to evade detection equipment, traits, and technologies through the subtle vibrations of the fur.]
[*Note: Some electronic devices may not be affected by this effect, so be cautious.]
[Sealed traits due to being in the ‘Crafty Weakling’ state: Bone Axe, Aerial Membrane, Reinforced Large Tail, Corrosive Tentacles.]
‘Indeed.’
If the Monster King in the Organic Evolution’s special state was akin to a combat mode, the Crafty Weakling was closer to a survival mode. I wasn’t sure how powerful the stealth effect of the mysterious creature’s fur would be, but considering the Monster King, it was expected to be significant.
‘The downside is that some physical abilities are sealed.’
Especially disappointing was the disappearance of the Corrosive Tentacles, which was a side effect of the Horizon of Nightmares and one of my main weapons. Instead, faces formed by the trait of Human Features took their place where the Corrosive Tentacles used to protrude.
‘Though the decrease in combat power is regrettable.’
In situations like sneaking onto a ship unnoticed, it’s actually an appropriate trait.
‘But let’s think about this later.’
Right now, we are inside the Cyborg ship. When we crashed into the Cult Escort Ship, the front of our ship was damaged, and we took advantage of that gap to enter.
‘Drones will come to repair the damaged parts soon.’
Until then, we need to hide in a safe place.
As in the old days of hazarding, I affixed auxiliary equipment to the ship’s interior wall.
The heavy sound of the reactor running, the footsteps of androids and cyborgs bustling around the ship, the noisy alerts of flying drones, and even the smell of rusted iron and synthetic petroleum mixed with sweaty flesh.
It felt like being connected to a living, breathing ship. Even the cyborgs directly linked to the ship wouldn’t be able to sense it as intricately as I did.
‘We often used this on the research ship to track enemy movements.’
The performance of the current auxiliary equipment far surpassed that time.
A cyborg ship with a much larger and more complex structure than a research ship. I swiftly read the structure of half of the ship in an instant.
[ZZZ (Over here)]
Having found a safe location, I led everyone there. Along the way, there were drones and androids, but we didn’t encounter any trouble.
Having thus avoided all threats, we arrived at the safest spot on the ship.
｢Trash disposal site?｣
[ZZZ (Yeah)]
‘…It should be safe, indeed.’
There are no surveillance cameras inside the waste disposal site, except for one near the entrance.
Although the entrance to the disposal site was right in front of us, I stopped the group.
[ZZZ ZZ ZZZZ (Wait a moment)]
“Are you going to test that fur?”
Having a fellow ranker present made understanding swift. Before entering, I planned to conduct an experiment targeting that camera.
“Is this square enough?”
I pressed against the wall, moving just within the camera’s sight range, and extended my tail enough to be barely visible to the camera.
‘The fur of the mysterious creature nullifies detection equipment.’
Cyborg cameras support various detection systems, and even in normal mode, they ensure much higher image quality than those of the MegaCorp surveillance cameras.
So, if someone on the other side were to see this, they’d surely send surveillance drones.
‘If not…’
I extended my tail a few more times to ensure it was captured by the camera. However, there were no drones coming here even after some time passed.
‘It’s effective.’
After waiting for more than ten minutes without any response, I crawled up the wall and adjusted the angle of the camera.
‘This should do.’
If I move along the wall’s edge, I won’t be caught by the camera. The tricky part is to hide behind large covers like the crane used to move garbage before entering the disposal site.
Having disabled the camera, I finally touched the terminal next to the entrance of the disposal site. It was to find out when the next scheduled garbage disposal was.
Upon checking, there was still a long time until the next disposal. Having completed all the checks, I called out to the others.
[ZZZ ZZ ZZZ (Turn behind the crane and enter]
‘What’s the crane for?’
‘Just go that way.’
That way, we were able to safely leap into the garbage disposal site.
｢Wow! So many toys!｣
｢Fascinating.｣
｢Don’t go near the compactor. It’s dangerous.｣
Number 26 and The Mother of the Sky seemed to be enjoying the inside of the garbage disposal site. She followed the children, cautioning them not to do anything dangerous.
There is a very famous sci-fi movie that entered the museum long before I was born. In that movie, there’s a scene where the protagonists fall into a trap set by enemies and get trapped in a garbage disposal site.
‘Was that where the robot saved them?’
In the movie, it was a place where the protagonists found themselves in dire straits, but not here. This dirty place will be our way out.
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[Translator – Jjescus]
[Proofreader – Demon God’s Disciple]
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