“Starks? No signal from this side.”
“What? I can’t hear you! Say it again!”
｢zzz..zzzz….this place….zzzz…is…zzzz…here｣
As the communication ended, Milo cursed loudly.
“Hey! Is the communication not restored yet?”
Until they passed the docking port, everything seemed fine. Thanks to the signal chip attached to the spacesuit, the signal was displayed well, and communication proceeded smoothly, except for some minor noise.
However, after they entered the ship, one by one, they disappeared from the detector, and communication became silent.
“The signal is fine, but there seems to be something interfering in the middle.”
“How can we resolve it?”
“Well, it seems we’ll have to go in and handle it ourselves.”
Knowing the kind of situations people entering might face, should they send someone else.
Milo, like any typical space smuggler, wasn’t one to cherish the lives of his subordinates.
‘But Starks and Justin are a bit valuable.’
The chief engineer had been working with Milo for a long time, and Justin was a somewhat valuable engineer within the space smuggling community.
While he was contemplating whether to abandon them or not, a subordinate from the situation room called him.
“Captain, there’s a signal appearing.”
When Justin mentioned the cult of the Wolf God, his movements appeared on the detection system, and the illuminated indicator on the detector was getting closer to the connected docking port.
“Did he go to the engine room? Why is he coming back?”
“Turn the docking port camera.”
The camera screen appeared at the bottom of the situation room’s large display.
After a while, Justin walked into the docking port.
He had apparently discarded the transparent helmet somewhere, and he was not wearing it. Thanks to that, his pale face was clearly captured by the camera.
“Huh? Why is he not wearing the helmet?”
“Oh, damn! He’s carrying a bomb!”
Justin was carrying the bomb that he had given to the chief engineer with the instruction to detonate it if there was nothing valuable on the ship.
“If it explodes inside the docking port, the damage will be severe!”
“I know, damn it! Hey, turn on the speaker!”
Milo quickly picked up the microphone and called Justin.
“Justin! What are you doing right now?”
Justin, carrying the bomb absentmindedly, stopped in his tracks.
“Where’s Starks, and why are you carrying that bomb?”
When Milo looked at him, Justin didn’t seem to be in his right mind. It was suspicious that he had the bomb given to the chief engineer in the first place, and it was strange that he was walking around without a helmet inside the spaceship when they didn’t know what might be inside it.
But if that guy detonates the bomb at the docking port, the Colossal Raider will undoubtedly suffer significant damage.
“Hey, what’s so scary? Where is there anything a pirate like you should be afraid of?”
While Milo was talking to Justin, he signaled to his subordinates.
It was to block all the surrounding areas connected to the docking port on the Colossal Raider.
“Enough. Put down the bomb and come in to talk. Okay?”
[Captain, you don’t know anything. I’m trying to protect the Colossal Raider.]
“What? Suddenly talking nonsense,”
Justin, who was staring at the camera, laughed strangely.
[Keuk…no…it’s already too late. Darkness, darkness will devour this ship.]
[Kugh…kugh…kugh…kugh]
Smiling as if his mouth had split open, Justin pressed the switch of the bomb.
Before Milo could stop him, the bomb exploded, shaking the hull significantly.
As soon as I felt the vibrations on the ship, I prepared to leave the ship.
I changed the structure of the ship to connect the area where the explosion occurred, the engine room, and the place where the kids were.
The black walls squirmed and changed shape, and the space where Number 26 and Adhai were connected to the engine room as one.
Number 26, pushing dozens of tentacles into the helmet, and Adhai, sucking blood after removing the helmet, looked at me and shouted.
[ZZZZ ZZZ ZZZZ(Well done, everyone)]
About half of the intruders into the ship fell into the trap I set.
There were some who resisted trying to escape, but Number 26 and Adhai took care of them.
‘It’s fortunate that the corrosive tentacles also have a predation effect.’
Amorph’s predation effect doesn’t appear by eating dead bodies.
Precisely, it only counts when I consume a creature that ‘I killed.’ Similarly, for the evolutionary condition of capturing an intelligent species, only the creatures I killed are counted.
We have to cross over before the protective door surrounding this area closes. Almost simultaneously with me, Number 26 and Adhai landed without hesitation and followed behind me. In the distance, at the end of the corridor, an as-yet-unsealed protective door is visible.
Through the auxiliary organs, I sensed the movement of surveillance cameras beyond the protective door. While running, I extended the corrosive tentacles and destroyed the surveillance cameras. Anyway, if I want to control this ship, I’ll have to face the pirates directly, but there’s no need to get caught unnecessarily.
After destroying the surveillance cameras, we were able to barely cross the protective door.
‘Infiltration was successful without any issues.’
Repair personnel will come soon. Before that, we need to leave this place.
[ZZZ ZZZZ(over there)]
While controlling Justin, I heard that there might be a hiding place on the pirate ship. According to Justin, this ship is a modification based on the Star Union’s cargo ship, where the first and second floors are entirely used as cargo holds.
Usually, live animals or cargo for sale are stored in the cargo holds, but currently, the ship is returning after completing a trade, so some of the cargo holds are empty.
‘The goods are stored only on the second floor, and the first floor is empty.’
Since there’s nothing to guard, and the surveillance personnel patrol roughly, it’s a perfect place for me to hide.
‘Our location is on the third floor.’
If we go straight, we’ll definitely be caught on camera. The rear is closed by the protective door, and the only available path is on the opposite side. If we go that way, there’s a high chance of encountering pirates coming to repair the area.
‘Let’s go through the floor.’
Once I go down to the second floor, I’ll have to find another way or something. I inflicted a wound on my arm, letting acidic blood fall to the floor. As the sturdy metal plate corroded, a pungent smoke rose.
‘It’s not good that I’ve grown in size.’
Number 26, who can shrink its body, and Adhai, can easily escape through the hole that has just been created. However, I can’t. Shedding more blood to quickly enlarge the hole, I grabbed the edge of the corroded floor with my combat arm and widened it significantly.
‘The hole is large, but…’
That side is probably due to the explosion in the isolated area. Of course, during repairs, they will realize that it was not caused by an explosion, but it doesn’t matter. By then, the situation will be chaotic enough that it won’t matter who created these traces.
[ZZZ ZZZZ ZZZ(go down first)]
I sent Number 26 and Adhai down first, and not far away, I detected movements of people. Pirates wearing space suits were coming here to repair the damaged area.
‘Should I use the newly acquired trait?’
I briefly considered it but gave up.
‘No, there are many other ways.’
Providing crucial information to the enemies early on is not desirable. Instead of using the newly acquired ability, I used the Dreadful Overseer on one of the pirates beyond the corridor. At the moment they were about to pass the corner, a pirate in the middle began to glow in terror.
“Why is this guy acting ?”
“Darkness! Darkness is swallowing us! Aaah!”
While other pirates were trying to calm their terrified comrade, I melted the floor and leaped downward. Various facilities related to animals, such as numerous containers, large cryogenic capsules, and rectangular prisons with alloy iron bars, came into view.
Using the auxiliary organ to detect the area, I sensed that there seemed to be stairs in that direction. We ran towards the direction of the stairs. The camera installed on the stairs shot quills to neutralize it. After hiding in a corner of the first-floor cargo hold, we could finally catch our breath.
‘Okay. Now that we’re here, what’s next…’
While contemplating what to do next, a deafening noise came from above. It was the sound of the plasma turrets mounted on the pirate ship firing. The target was probably the abandoned ship that I had dominated and discarded. The pirate reconnaissance team is all dead, and the ship is damaged, so the captain of this ship must have received quite a blow.
‘Now enjoy the captain’s seat to your heart’s content.’
That position will soon be mine.
“They’ve really messed things up.”
“How do we fix this?”
Engineers from the Ruslak Cartel sighed while wearing space suits.
“Since the captain is furious, we have to handle it somehow. Huri and I will take care of the outer wall, so Cooper, you handle the inside.”
Cooper, holding a metal injector, headed inside alone to repair the damage that occurred inside the ship. The metal injector, shaped like a welding machine but the size of a human, is a tool commonly used for repairing giant artificial structures like ships.
By connecting several alloy plates to the device and activating it, liquid alloy comes out from the tip of the injector to weld the damaged area. While repairing with the metal injector for a while, he noticed something strange.
“This wasn’t caused by an explosion, was it?”
The hole in front of the protective door had edges that seemed to be melted, as if acidic liquid had been poured. To check the lower part, he lifted his head.
At that moment, a hand reached out from the hole and grabbed his helmet.
Without being able to scream, he was dragged into the hole. All that remained where Cooper was standing was the lonely metal injector.
A few minutes later, Huri, who was repairing the outer wall, came in for a break.
“What’s up? Where did Cooper go?”
Seeing only the metal injector in front of a sizable hole, he shook his head.
“Cooper! Where are you?”
“Why did he go down there?”
There was no reply. Hui waited for Cooper to come up, but he was nowhere in sight. Helplessly, he jumped down into the hole.
“Hey! What are you doing from the cargo hold?”
The cargo hold had minimal light to avoid stimulating the smuggled animals. Hui knew that fact, but even considering it, the place was much darker than usual.
“Did the lights go out?”
Still not sensing anything strange, Hui followed the voice.
‘Did it come from the stairs?’
Hui knew that currently, there were no stored creatures or cargo on the first floor. Thinking of it as a joke, he descended the stairs.
Earlier, he thought the second floor was quite dark, but compared to that, the first floor was incomparable.
“Cooper! It’s too dark; I can’t see anything!”
As he shouted, a white light turned on in the distance. Hui, not realizing it was a helmet-mounted flashlight, followed the light with relief.
“What on earth are you doing here…”
Following the light, Hui met Cooper, whom he had been looking forward to seeing. However, Cooper looked very different from what he had expected.
He wasn’t wearing a helmet.
To be precise, Cooper didn’t have a head to wear a helmet.
Then where is the light that illuminates them coming from?
Hui’s gaze followed the light upward.
About 5 meters high, four long fingers held Cooper’s helmet.
“Why…are you here now?”
With those words, the light on Cooper’s helmet went out.
What remained afterward was nothing but the profound darkness that seemed to swallow even the terminal despair.