Situation Room on the Aircraft Carrier.
The pirate leader, upon hearing my voice, fell silent. Judging by the faint sound of breath being held, she seemed quite startled.
“…The 5th ranked Amorph.”
She spoke in a trembling voice. Unexpectedly, the first words from the leader, or rather the player, were about my identity. She seemed to know exactly who I was.
‘Well, considering the chaos I caused it’s not surprising.’
It wasn’t an inflated sense of self-awareness. There weren’t many Amorph players who engaged in psychological warfare with the enemy by exposing their stripped bodies. If they were players experienced in the game on the other side, they might have heard about me at least once.
“You’re quite audacious. Do you know who I am?”
“Hu…ma…ni…ty…ran…king…20th…I suppose.”
After occupying the Situation Room, I was engaged in other activities until the communication came through. Specifically, I was examining the information on the pirate leader stored in the computer.
The pirate leader, the woman conversing with me beyond the communication device, was named Muriel. In the game, she had been the 20th-ranked Spacedog, a space survival expert.
‘I haven’t met her in person.’
I had quit the game shortly after she became a ranker due to academic warnings, so I hadn’t fought against Muriel directly. However, I had collected information about other rankers, including her race, faction, and clan.
‘She wasn’t a cultist originally.’
As far as I knew, the 20th-ranked Muriel was a cyborg of the Spacedog race. Therefore, until I confirmed her name on the computer, I didn’t think the pirate leader would be a ranker.
‘Of course, there were Spacedogs from the cult too…’
He was a man, not a woman. I remembered him as the 11th-ranked American ranker, whom I had fought against a few times in the past.
Anyway, looking at the picture of Muriel displayed on the computer monitor, she clearly belonged to the female cult, specifically a cult with deer antlers, a symbol of the cult’s royal family.
‘I don’t know why the deer antler cult is engaged in piracy.’
If she is a ranker, she would know how much the deer antler cult could achieve within the cult society.
The ship she brought was probably not just an ordinary aircraft carrier but an Imperial MotherShip..
‘Gotta investigate that step by step.’
Currently, I know very little about the player. There were many other things that I didn’t know too, such as whether there were other players in this world besides her and me. Therefore, I needed to extract enough information through our conversation.
“You being higher-ranked than me is just a game talk. Do you still think you can beat me now that this is the real world?”
Her confident attitude indicated that she was no longer feeling tense. Despite losing the aircraft carrier, she seemed to have confidence in herself.
I know there have been negative rumors about her being a queen bee or something. However, she is also a ranker in Space Survival.
If the person on the other side isn’t impersonating the 20th ranker, they must be hiding an ace up their sleeve.
‘Let’s delve into it a bit more.’
“They’ve gone as far as taking over the aircraft carrier, claiming it’s all in the name of the Ascension Battle.”
“Hmph. Such ships are nothing compared to the power we possess.”
What could the ‘us’ she mentioned mean? It might refer to the Humanity Cartel, but it doesn’t seem right. Thanks to Amorph’s unique intuition, I could somewhat grasp the emotions conveyed in her voice.
‘It feels more like referring to a comrade than a subordinate.’
In other words, there is another player with her and what she implies is that there is a shared intention between her and the player, or an entity equivalent to a player.
While I was quickly processing this in my mind, she continued speaking.
“Praising you for coming to this planet on the Ascension Battle topic is fine, but that’s the extent of it. If you had just stayed quiet, I might have overlooked it.”
“Don’t misunderstand. You’re the one who provoked my ship from a distance. What could you possibly have to say in this situation?”
“How foolish. I can’t just leave an unidentified intruder alone. Besides, right now, you’re nothing more than a weakling. You have no right to complain in the face of weakness.”
Her words sounded childish, but they cut to the core of this world’s reality. The world of Space Survival was a dystopia dominated by the logic of the survival of the fittest.
‘Further conversation is meaningless.’
Seeing her dismiss the discussion of weakness, bringing up negotiations seemed futile. To obtain detailed information, it seemed I would have to meet her in person and hear it directly from her. I had plenty of useful tools to ensure the truth from my counterpart.
“It seems like you’ve immersed yourself in this world.”
“Ha. Anyone who spends a long time in this world will end up like that. You know what this place is like, right?”
I was about to end the conversation when she provided an important clue.
‘Spent a long time here?’
I hadn’t been in this place for even half a year. Although it felt lengthy due to constant activity, it wasn’t long enough to be described as spending a long time.
‘Muriel and I have different durations in this place.’
At least she had been in this world much longer than me.
‘This aspect is quite intriguing.’
The reasons to capture Muriel seemed to be increasing.
“And by the way, do you think I’m mindlessly engaging in this useless conversation?”
“Do you think I’m so stupid? Do you think I haven’t prepared anything for the aircraft carrier?”
She spoke as if to mock, making it sound like she had some kind of trick up her sleeve regarding the aircraft carrier.
“Are you talking about explosives?”
“You Spacedogs seem to love bombs.”
Before I took control of the Situation Room, I told the tooth fairy swarm scattered within the ship to alert me to a potential threat. They reported that remote-controlled bombs were planted around the reactor.
Being discreetly installed and not recorded in the ship’s computer, it seemed that Muriel had likely placed them in anticipation of the ship being seized.
“Ha. Indeed. This is the real deal for a 5th-ranked ranker.”
The bombs were already rendered inoperative as the front line was cut off. Confirming this fact, Muriel let out a sigh.
However, the emotion permeating her voice was different from what I expected. It wasn’t astonishment or shock but rather a sense of relief.
“You’re clever, but do you think I only prepared that?”
[Detecting unidentified energy flow in planetary orbit! Danger! Everyone, evacuate!]
As soon as Muriel finished speaking, warning alarms echoed throughout the Situation Room.
‘Orbit? Could it be?’
“I hate to lose the ship, but throwing a bait to catch a ranker is still a good deal, right? Don’t you think?”
Without hesitation, I left the Situation Room. There was only one thing the energy flow in orbit could indicate – orbital bombardment.
If it was an orbital bombardment delivered through the fleet, the ship’s AI could detect it. Since it was mentioned as an unidentified energy flow, it wasn’t a spacecraft conducting the bombardment.
‘Unique-class weapon!’
Among the unique-class weapons exclusive to the cult, there was a satellite weapon called ‘Noshin.’ It assisted in striking specific areas on the ground, utilizing the owner’s psychic power as fuel to unleash a massive lightning bolt.
Although it might sound weak to call it lightning, its destructive power surpassed that of a nuclear bomb. Once fired, everything in the targeted area would be obliterated.
While it had a disadvantage of a 14-day cooldown, making it difficult to use frequently, it was extremely popular in the game for dealing with powerful enemies by using it strategically before entering battles.
Even if I am a Quasi-Saint, a direct hit from Noshin’s lightning means instant death.
I quickly crawled underground through the hole I had made beneath the aircraft carrier.
‘This won’t be enough.’
The distance from the ground was well over a hundred meters, but I couldn’t relax yet. Although the nest filled the hole I made, it was still insufficient.
Hastily, I dug downward, facing the ground.
When I was a few hundred meters away from the surface, the link connected to the tooth fairies was severed.
Soon after, I felt a powerful vibration from above.
It was the lightning bolt unleashed by Noshin, striking the ground.
Even though it was far from the aircraft carrier, Noshin’s lightning was powerful enough to be visible. The night sky cleared as clouds were swept away by the lightning coming from the planetary orbit.
In the area where the lightning struck, a massive nuclear mushroom cloud rose as the aircraft carrier’s reactor exploded. Even a jungle filled with redwoods, boasting sizes of several hundred meters, couldn’t withstand this unprecedented catastrophe. A colossal demon of fire engulfed the jungle and its inhabitants, swallowing countless lives. Watching the extinguishing lives, Muriel clapped her hands, seemingly delighted.
“As expected of Noshin, its performance is exemplary.”
Seeing Noshin in action for the second time, the mother of the sky grinned. This wasn’t the first time Noshin had been activated on this planet; Muriel had used it when capturing the father of the Earth and mother of the sky. Although the Father of the Earth, a Wolf Named with remarkably high defense, couldn’t withstand Noshin’s lightning, he sacrificed himself to shield the mother of the sky.
Thanks to that sacrifice, he fell into a fatal state with a single blow and was subsequently beheaded during the battle with Muriel.
“Hehe, even if you’re the 5th-ranked ranker, there’s no chance of surviving that lightning, right? Not to mention the father of Earth? He also went out in one shot.”
“Still, safety first. I should see the corpse with my own eyes.”
Muriel called a few of her subordinates.
“Brothers, go there with the mother of the sky and check.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Do you think I’ll listen to you?”
“Huh? Isn’t it obvious?”
In response to her answer, Muriel released the spear she had been carrying on her back. Then, with an indifferent expression, she casually stabbed a young Wolf boy with the spear.
“Are you going to throw away your ‘family’?”
｢I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you apart no matter what!｣
“Oh, how terrifying. But before you kill me, it seems like these cute little ones here will die first.”
“If you want to save your family, it’s better to listen to me. Rank 15, please.”
Faced with Muriel’s threat, the mother of the sky could do nothing but lower her head once again.
‘I thought I was going to die.’
Although I managed to avoid the range of Noshin, that didn’t mean I was completely safe. The combination of the reactor explosion and the bomb created a tremendous blaze that penetrated the underground tunnel I had dug.
Fortunately, having evolved into a pseudo-entity, my exoskeleton had become strong enough to endure within the destructive energy flow. Moreover, the perceptible shaking caused by Noshin’s lightning prevented the overwhelming heat from chasing me relentlessly as my tunnel collapsed.
I waited underground until the aftermath of the explosion subsided before surfacing. The area that was once filled with redwoods and grass had turned into a desolate wasteland. Where the aircraft carrier had been, only sand remained, and in the distance, the jungle was still burning fiercely in the flames.
‘This is the result.’
Up until now, I had consumed countless lives, including humans. However, somewhere in my heart, there was a lingering thought – perhaps it was acceptable because they weren’t people living in my world. That might be why I approached her with an ambiguous attitude, different from how I treated actual humans.
Even though I knew that Muriel posed a significant threat not only to me but also to No. 26 and Adhai, I approached her with a certain ambiguity. It was clear.
Now, that thought has completely disappeared.
‘Would killing someone who goes around striking lightning into other people’s heads be considered self-defense?’
Emerging from the ground, I swiftly crawled towards the burning forest in the distance. The heat I felt emanating from my body could be due to the aftermath of the nuclear explosion or simply my anger – it was impossible to discern.
Regardless, it didn’t matter.
‘The cooldown for Noshin is 14 days.’
Whether this is her trump card or if she has more hidden, I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter now. I won’t kill her right away. There are pieces of information I need from her.
Instead, I must convey to her something more frightening than death. I will use all the strategies and means at my disposal. Soon, Aymoph will learn just how terrifying an enraged entity can be.