Suddenly, William woke up from his sleep. It wasn’t someone deliberately waking him up; it was the vibrations he felt from something covering his body.
‘Where am I?’
As he opened his eyes, a lukewarm liquid tickled his eyes. After blinking a few times, his eyes gradually adjusted. Currently, he was submerged in a healing capsule, wearing a respiratory device.
‘I’m not dead.’
At the time of his suicide attempt, William had resigned himself to death. It was because the Noble Capital had made a mess of the welcoming event for the Prime Capital because of him. Laila Chemblin, the owner of this city, was a rational lady but not exactly merciful
Originally, William shouldn’t have been waking up in a healing capsule with his brain intact; he should have been dead. The fact that he was safe in the hospital was probably thanks to Denver protecting him.
That meant William’s plan had partially succeeded.
‘I hope His Majesty understands my intentions’
Thud!
Once again, the liquid surrounding him vibrated. Something, possibly the healing fluid or the entire healing capsule he was in, shook due to some external force.‘What’s going on?’
There can’t be an earthquake. There shouldn’t be any seismic activity in an artificial structure floating in zero-gravity space.
Thud!
This was a vibration occurring within the hospital as if something heavy was shaking the whole hospital.
‘Could it be’
Thud!
William felt a chill running down his spine. The fact that something substantial enough to shake the hospital was moving around this late at night meant only one thing.
‘It’ had come for him.
Thud!
The vibrations grew stronger. ‘It’ was getting closer to him.
At that moment, the door to the intensive care unit opened, and a person clad in silver armor rushed in.
His expression was hidden by the armor, but his frantic movements hinted at his state of mind.Amidst the chaos, the knight noticed William, who was awake inside the healing capsule. Operating the terminal, the treatment liquid drained out of the capsule’s openings.
“Are you awake?”
William nodded as he came out of the capsule. The knight handed him a patient gown.
“I am not sure what’s happening in this hospital, but an unidentified creature is attacking us.”
“…”
William knew who was pursuing him, but he couldn’t answer. There was still the parasite inside his head. If he spoke or even thought of ‘It’ in a disrespectful manner, the parasite would cause excruciating pain. The higher the disrespect, the more intense the suffering.If he mentioned the parasite to the knight now, the agony he’d faced until now would be child’s play. Revealing the parasite in this situation would only worsen things.
Regrettably, silence was his only option.
“What about the people in the hospital?”
“All my comrades were killed by that thing. The people in this hospital, probably…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but William could understand.
“Central AI likely detected the crisis and called the police. I’ve also requested reinforcements. We have to hold on until they arrive.”
“…Understood.”
William felt a sense of déjà vu.
A similar situation had occurred before, during the battle in the apartment. Back then, he had believed that he and the android could handle it without much difficulty.
And what was the result? They lost all their comrades leaving only one police officer alive who was also made deprived of his freedom turning into a puppet.
Thud!
At that moment, a loud noise came from across the door.
It had reached the door.
The knight stood in front of William, wielding a plasma bolter in one hand and a blade claw in the other. William, a former soldier, knew well what a blade claw was.
The blade claw was an enhanced version of a sonic blade, a weapon with two ultrasonic saws attached to the back of the hand. It was much heavier than a sonic blade but had superior durability and cutting power,it was primarily used by armored soldiers or hulk mutants.
If it were any other creature, William wouldn’t be concerned, but the problem was that the knight was facing an adversary that was ‘It.’
‘Engaging in close combat with that thing is suicide.’
Having fought against the monster before, William was convinced that the knight had no chance of winning.
‘I should get out, it won’t start a rampage outside. It avoids human eyes.’
Having been a slave to the monster for a while, William knew what it feared.The vicious creature avoided direct confrontation with the city and only operated in the dark. It only fed on what William offered, occasionally attacking the ones chasing him.
This gruesome hunting occurred only during the hours when there were no people, usually in the early morning.
Therefore, William intended to persuade the knight to jump out of the window.
Certainly, many civilians would get hurt, but it was better than losing his life. If William died, the damage would be far greater.
However, there was something he didn’t know – the current state of the monster.
With a roaring sound, the steel door was blown away like a piece of paper. The wall partly collapsed, and dust filled the air.
“It’s here!”
William squinted his eyes due to the dust. Standing on the fallen debris was a figure wearing armor identical to the silver knight.
‘What is this?’
No, precisely speaking, he only appeared to be standing. It seemed as if he were suspended in the air, caught by something.
“Charlie!”
“R-Run… Ugh!”
The one called Charlie tried to say something but couldn’t finish his words. His body twisted grotesquely, and a cracking sound emanated from the armor.
Charlie’s desperate scream turned into three distinct cries. His body was torn into three pieces. Red blood, organs, and bone fragments mixed and splattered on the ground.
“Oh my God…”
Some of the blood from the corpse flowed down, carrying something invisible in the air. It was then that William understood why the knight didn’t run outside.
“It” had somehow turned invisible. Moreover, it was implemented at such a high level that was usually possible with the help of highly advanced technology.
Despite the blood obscuring his vision, William, with keen eyesight, recognized ‘It.’ Ordinary people wouldn’t be aware of its existence even if they went outside to check.
“Get Down!”
“!”
The knight grabbed William’s head and pushed it down. Thanks to that, William barely managed to bow his head in time. Something barely missed his head.
He didn’t know what it was wielding, but the creature’s weapon seemed immense. It was enough to slice through not just the healing capsules but also the entire wall. Due to the creature’s attack, people inside other healing capsules were also sliced in half. The floor was covered in a pink liquid mixed with blood and treatment solution.
“Damn! I’ll hold that thing off. Survive until backup arrives! I must inform our leader!”
“I, I will…!”
“Please!”
Without waiting for William’s response, the knight rushed towards the invisible monster.
***
‘This is troublesome.’
The knight had interfered just as I was about to kill William with my tail. Perhaps due to the detection equipment embedded in his advanced reinforced suit, the knight accurately perceived my movements.
“Go anywhere, just run quickly!”
“Damn it!”
Ignoring the knight’s words, William leaped through the collapsed wall. I had no intention of letting him escape. I swung my tail towards him but my intention to rip his limbs apart was thwarted by the plasma shot from the knight. The trajectory of my tail deviated to another direction because of it.
Instead of piercing William’s side, the poisonous stinger at the end of my tail stuck into the wall of the corridor. Startled, William clutched his head with both hands and escaped.
“Hyaaah!”
Since that attack failed, I decided to finish it with my bone spikes, but the knight, with a war cry, forcefully shouldered me, hindering my attack.
With the weight of over several hundred kilograms of reinforced armor and propulsion that exceeded the output of a small spacecraft’s power source, the combined force was terrifying enough to bring down my body, which weighed more than twice that of the reinforced armor.
Due to the knight’s charge, I was pushed through the broken corridor to the opposite side of the critical care unit. As the walls crumbled, the patients and on-duty doctors hidden inside were startled and rushed outside.
“Kyaa, Kyaaaah!”
“Save us!”
Even though my current form was not visible to others, I couldn’t let them escape as is. I launched my spike bones from the tip of my lower left arm, piercing through the backs of those who were exposed.
“Kek!”
“Ack!”
Unfortunately, I was only able to kill a maximum of three people with one shot of the spike bones. One survivor sprinted away at a speed that made me wonder if someone could run that fast.
‘Where did William go?’
While I was capturing the survivors, William had already distanced himself from me. Confirming that he ran through the emergency stairs, I turned my head again and faced the knight.
The knight had no intention of protecting the innocent victims. Instead, he kicked the bodies spread on the floor, seemingly annoyed by their obstruction.
“You are killing innocents, you vile monster!”
The knight’s actions didn’t match his words, but it wasn’t particularly strange. The knights of Eden was a special unit composed of the upper-class members of the MegaCorp. Their concept of honor was designed to build a positive image externally but had little to do with reality.
They probably know that the patients staying in the hospital are of low class, so they treat them like that on purpose.
‘But they are all potential sources of food.’
Looking at the knight, who seemed to have had no training in how to prepare for the dinner table, I calculated the remaining time.
‘The effect will last for about 8 minutes.’
I had planned to kill William first and then leave, but the knight kept bothering me. I estimated the remaining time until the effect wore off.
Ignoring me, the knight activated the blade claw on his arm.
‘Blade Claw.’
In a normal situation, the plasma bolt would be a far superior weapon to the blade claw, but in the current limited circumstances, the blade claw was not a bad weapon. Like the Sonic Blade, the blade claw specialized in destroying armor with high defense.
“Die!”
The knight, firing suppression shots with the plasma bolter, rushed towards me.
Plasma shots flew towards the tentacle under my chin. I wasn’t sure if he deliberately aimed there, but the auxiliary system wasn’t reinforced under the effect of the’ symbol of hunt’. I crossed the upper combat arm over the lower one to block the plasma shots heading towards the tentacle.
In the meantime, the knight approached me and swung the blade claw from bottom to top.
He wasn’t targeting my head but my combat arm. Two saw blades made a gruesome sound, cutting through the air.
I stepped back, widening our distance, and used my arms as a shield to block the two spinning blades. The collision between the ultra-vibration saw blades and my alloy-reinforced shell generated sparks.
He calmly aimed the plasma bolter at me from close range, showing no signs of surprise. His composure was excellent, but his intent was bound to fail as I still had plenty of weapons at my disposal.
My tail targeted his waist, piercing through the darkness and dust.
“Kuk?!”
Instead of firing the bolt, the knight twisted his waist just in time to avoid my tail. I swiftly grabbed his hand holding the plasma bolter before he could step back.
“You dare!”
Thinking we were engaging in a power struggle, he exerted force on the arm holding the bolter. Because of the enhanced strength from the advanced reinforced suit he was wearing, his strength was comparable to mine.
Our combined weight, exceeding that of a ton, pressed down on the hospital floor without both of us moving.
He grabbed my arm with his other arm as the concrete floor cracked from our fight, probably planning to push me away.
But he was mistaken. My intention was not to engage in a strength contest with him. The bone blade on my rear arm flew towards his shoulder.
“Kweuk!”
The blade, at least 50 cm in length, pierced through the knight’s body, invisible due to the darkness and dust. The blade lodged deep inside him, turning his insides into a complete mess.
I shook the rear arm a few times to worsen his injuries before pulling it out. With no strength left to stand, he slumped down on the floor.
“I, forgive me, my lord…”
There was no time to listen to his last words. I kicked his head with my legs while he was still kneeling.
Even with a heavily armored suit covering the entire body, it couldn’t protect the neck or joints. When the rubber plug burst, I fell back with the knight’s lifeless body. The fallen knight’s corpse had a neck much longer than when he was alive.
‘I need to eat everything here and leave.’ To maximize the effect of the ‘Symbol of the Hunt,’ I had to eat every strand of genetic essence over here.
‘Anyways, with the parasite inside his body, William can’t escape.’ The parasite was saying that William hadn’t left the hospital yet.
I checked his movements while stuffing the corpses into my mouth. Some were delicious, some were not, and I wasn’t able to fully enjoy the meal due to the limited time I had.
The text boxes kept popping up after each meal, but I ignored them. I planned to check them later because there wasn’t enough time now.
‘I don’t need new traits right away.’
The time it takes for the absorption of traits to be automatically canceled when not acquired is 10 minutes. There is still plenty of time before trait selection.
Fortunately, the corpses of ordinary people seemed to transition smoothly, perhaps because they were wearing patient gowns. Thanks to that, the meal ended earlier than expected.
‘Only took 2 minutes, huh?’
The remaining time for metal absorption should be around 10 minutes. It was enough time to capture and consume William.
‘Now, let’s go.’
The signal was coming from upstairs. I led my massive body there, ready to find the traitor.
***
“Heuk, heuk, heuk….”
William panted heavily, leaning against a cabinet as if he was about to be engulfed. The gust of wind caused the cleaning tools inside to spill out.
William gripped a high-pressure washer, a rather pathetic weapon against the monster, but he had no other choice. It wasn’t certain if he could even wield it against the creature in the first place, considering the parasite was still alive in his head.
“Damn….”
William lamented. He had been loyal to MegaCorp. He was closer to someone who captured those doing wrong rather than being someone doing wrong. MegaCorp, however, was an organization that inflicted pain on many, a group far from justice. Loyalty to such an organization might not be considered just, but at least William believed his convictions still held some values.
However, his beliefs were powerless in the face of a disaster that an individual could not handle.
He, a courageous soldier unafraid of death, was different when it came to that monster. The overwhelming terror paralyzed him and awakened a primal emotion within him—’Fear.’
“……”
William grasped his trembling thighs together, trying to calm himself down
Moments ago, he could still hear androids causing a commotion outside, but now it was quiet. He held his breath, pressing his ear to the door. The sound of a patient murmuring in the corridor reached his ears. The voice sounded muffled, like it was coming from a broken radio.
Seeing a survivor indicated that the creature had likely moved to another floor. His reasoning was based on the absence of the heavy footsteps that the creature made while walking.
‘Now’s my chance.’
William cautiously opened the door, but what greeted him in the hallway outside the tool room was a ruined corridor. The ceiling lights were all destroyed while some were sparking sporadically.
The patient beds, once neatly arranged, were either bent or broken, seemingly having hit with a powerful impact.He was the only person on the hallway that was so damaged that it was impossible to imagine a clean image of the hospital.
.
“I’ve fou…nd.” Then, the voice resounded again.
Only now did he realize who the owner of the voice he heard was. He thought the sound didn’t transmit well through the blocked door, but that wasn’t the case. The voice was naturally like that, eerie and distorted, like coming from a broken radio.
The creature had been waiting for him to come out from behind the door.
William tightly closed his eyes. As soon as his eyes closed, his body was thrown into a disarray by something transparent.
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