章 9: 009
We live in an era where life is not precious.
Nowadays, no one feels uncomfortable about buying human lives with money.
What's interesting is that even in such a dystopian society, there still remains a culture that respects lions.
A body that could have just been thrown out into space is kept in such a safe place.
The two bodies I created are placed in the morgue.
If there wasn't someone guarding it, they would have gone down and eaten it right away.
'One person inside three outside.'
Perhaps because two people had died, the security guards outside were unusually armed. All three were wearing reinforced clothing.
'It's worth fighting alone, but three is too much.'
The longer you fight, the more your allies will come, so it is best to avoid battles with them.
'The people inside are civilians.'
The other person was a doctor, as his body smelled like disinfectant and formaldehyde. He was listening to music with earphones in his ears.
'Is there no other way than a surprise attack?'
The problem is that the author's face is facing in the direction of the vent.
No matter how much you cover your ears, if you go down like this, you'll get caught right away.
'I need to look away.'
Disturbing the prey is also a fundamental part of hunting. I just happened to have a new trait that I learned, so I should try using it.
I moved to my seat first. Out of the doctor's line of sight, I lightly scratched my forearm with my fingernail. Black blood, reminiscent of tar, flowed from the thin wound.
Drops of blood ran down my forearm and landed on the alloy plate. Then the alloy plate melted, emitting acrid smoke.
'Acid blood characteristics.'
It is one of the characteristics automatically acquired while evolving into a fluid. This is a trait that acidifies blood and causes damage to nearby enemies.
The reinforced exoskeleton and acidic blood can easily be seen as defensive characteristics, but the true value of these characteristics lies elsewhere.
'Good for infiltration and armor destruction.'
It is more acidic than chemical weapons, so it can easily dissolve alloy structures. It can be used to melt the enemy's armor in the beginning or to infiltrate the enemy's base or spaceship.
"hmm? "Sniff, what is that smell?"
The doctor reacted to the toxic gases released by the melting ceiling. He held his nose and turned his head repeatedly.
"Why is that…?"
His eyes landed on the holey ceiling. The acid was now dissolving the stainless steel cart.
The doctor stood up and walked over to the melting cart.
The fruit is moderately ripe. There will be no problem if you harvest it before it rots.
I opened the vent and jumped out.
The doctor was unaware of my movements due to both the smell and the earphones. I landed on the floor with agile movements and slowly got up.
"Acidic solution? "Where did it come from?"
The doctor, realizing that the smell that stung his nose was a poisonous gas, quickly covered his mouth with his collar.
While he was looking up at the messed up ceiling, I got closer and closer to him.
"Security… gasp!"
When he turned around, I was in front of him. His face turned pale as he took a deep breath.
My size is about 1m. The doctor was taller than me, but he couldn't feel the difference at all.
Because I was overwhelmed by my appearance.
A chitinous shell that shines as black as the abyss of space.
Four arms so long and huge that they can reach the ground when stretched out, and thick, strong legs.
A tail strong enough to pierce even alloy.
Jaws that can easily chew and crush human bones.
A wonderful fear, as if rising from the bottom of a nightmare, is before his eyes.
The other person's mouth opens against their will. I feel air rising from my lungs. Air passes through the vocal cords and is about to come out at any moment.
He tried to scream but failed.
This is because the 1 meter long tail was stuck in his mouth. A sharp poisonous stinger passed through the mouth cavity and pierced the back of the head.
"Curm …."
His body trembled like a weeding weed. Blood foam continued to flow from its mouth like a frightened crab. The white gown she was wearing was stained red due to the evidence of fading life.
The tremor of the pupils gradually subsides. The life drains from eyes filled with fear.
And so the prey died.
After retrieving the tail, I carefully placed the dead doctor down.
Fortunately, the people guarding the door seemed to have no idea that a murder had occurred. There was no change in their movements at all.
'It was an unexpected hunt, but it was successful.'
Honestly, it wasn't a bad result. Thanks to this, the number of food increased to three.
I left the doctor's body alone and started looking for Kisaragi.
Most of the freezers used to store corpses were empty.
Well, how many people will die on this place, which is not a battleship but just a research vessel? Thanks to this, finding her wasn't difficult.
Yujin Kisaragi's body lay on a cold cart. The severed head and neck were left unjoined.
I could roughly guess the reason.
'I guess it's because it's Noble Prime. 'They don't even let you touch the corpse.'
The doctors probably left it as is because treating it with chemicals could damage the body.
He reached out and lifted her severed head. With her eyes closed, her head looked like she was sound asleep.
When I saw that, I had a strange feeling.
No matter how advanced I am in space survival, my spirit is that of an ordinary college student preparing for graduation.
And yet, they killed people like this. Is that all? Even now, when I kill people and eat their bodies, I don't feel any guilt.
'They say there is evil lurking inside every human being.'
If the environment changes and I change accordingly, am I also ruined by becoming an Amorph? Or was this merciless murderous monster my true self?
'Nothing can be solved by thinking about it.'
It's also ridiculous to say 'I'm sorry' and apologize after killing three people. There was no way they would leave me alone even if I apologized in the first place.
If you want to live, you have to keep killing.
That's how Amov lives. It's also something I have to adapt to.
'Let's eat first and see.'
After finishing the evolution, I was very hungry. It was meaningless to think like this when a person was already dead.
I opened my elastic jaw wide. The mouth opened wide like an anaconda and swallowed the human head whole.
The sharp teeth tore the skin, and the force of the teeth, which could even crush steel, crushed the skull. The brain, which had already stopped functioning, was crushed and brain fluid flowed out.
'…It's delicious.'
As expected, it was the best taste.
To the point where I feel like a fool for worrying about killing people.
Like eating a boiled crayfish, if you crack the thick and hard skull, the soft flesh inside will slide down your throat. The eyes, which only have two, are delicious and burst like cherries on a cake. The hair was a bit rough, but I decided to let that part reflect my personality.
When evaluated overall, the human head was quite interesting. It was obvious that it tasted good, but what can I say compared to a cat?
'Taste of another dimension.'
It seems appropriate to express it that way.
What this means is that cats can be compared to a franchise fast food restaurant. It is a type of competition based on taste that has been verified through rigorous experiments. It's almost like a stimulating taste that sticks in your mind as soon as you eat it.
But people are different. It has a complex taste, as if it was cooked over time by a craftsman in an old restaurant.
Just as a craftsman puts his life into cooking, the same goes for humans. Since the past life is melted into the body, the taste cannot be simple.
'Tsk.'
I ate the head in one go and quenched my appetite. Hunger, engraved like a brand across races, urged me on.
Kill all the remaining corpses.
I followed my instincts and ate the rest of her.
'The body feels different.'
After tearing off the leg and chewing it, the ratio of muscle and fat is fantastic. The cat I ate had a muscle to fat ratio close to 1:9, but Kisaragi has an appropriate ratio to eat.
It was truly perfect, as if someone had genetically improved it.
The skin and muscles were firm and chewy, making it a pleasure to eat, and the bones were hard and delicious to chew. The organs in my stomach were as soft as a well-boiled tomato.
'hmm?'
I was eating well, but a foreign object chewed in my mouth. When I spit it out onto my small hand, it turns out to be a small button-shaped machine.
'Does this come from the heart?'
I don't know if it's a heart rate monitor or some kind of machine or what it's used for. It didn't look like that, but maybe I had a bad heart.
I didn't think it was a big deal and stepped on the machine, destroying it.
After that, nothing artificial ever came out of her body. It didn't leave a single drop of blood like it did when eating a cat.
"Predation effect activated! Succeeded in obtaining the 'superpower organ' genetic essence.｣
｢Takeover the 'superpower organ' among the biological characteristics of 'humans'.｣
｢Would you like to apply the 'superpower organ'?｣
'As expected.'
It's a superpower organ. As expected, Yujin Kisaragi had psychic power characteristics.
Except for cults and some races, other races must have psychic organs to use psychic powers.
'Why is it an organ with supernatural powers?'
Aimorphs are one of the few races that can use psychic power traits without psychic powers.
If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have been able to use my extrasensory abilities and I would have died right away.
To me, it's a supernatural organ characteristic. The card Kisaragi gave was essentially a dud.
'…Tsk. 'Let's not think negatively.'
You can't fill up on the first drink.
So far, things have worked out better than expected, but in most cases, they fail.
Since I had to fill in the number of characteristics to secure the type anyway, I decided to think positively.
As soon as I chose to accept, a signal came from the back of my head. There was a sound of flesh being torn and something came out from inside.
When I touched the back of my head with my big arm, I saw that it was a bundle of small tentacles. Unlike humans, Aimorph's superpower organ was in the form of a tentacle.
'This is what Aimorph looks like. that's interesting.'
I have never gained any superpowers while playing the game. Because I was careful not to collect unnecessary characteristics.
'You never know.'
You don't know what's going on in the world. Who knows, maybe the psychic organ will get lucky and merge with other characteristics to become useful.
'Because there is a precedent for predator senses.'
After fiddling with the tentacles for a while, I decided to go back to focusing on my feast.
When I opened the compartment next to where Kisaragi was stored, I found the body of a security guard. He was a guard who died while protecting Kisaragi.
He took out the body and took a big bite.
'Hmm.'
The guard's corpse had a strange taste. Rather than saying it didn't taste good or anything like that, it was just plain delicious.
Unlike Kisaragi, which had a juicy texture like a cat or tasted like a full meal, it was just edible.
I don't know why there is such a difference, but I decided to focus on providing energy. Still, because it had a lot of muscle, it had a chewy taste, so I ate it like I was eating offal, so it was quite good.
'?'
While I was eating the security guard, I heard a noise outside. The blood-covered auxiliary organ wriggled and read what happened outside.
'The security guard has changed.'
There seem to be not many reinforced suits deployed on the ship, so the guards are handing them over to new arrivals. I received valuable information that there were not many reinforced suits, but a problem arose instead.
'This doctor will also take shifts, right?'
About 40 minutes have passed since I started eating Kisaragi. If someone came in to change shifts, there was no way they would have noticed that the doctor was gone.
It is suspicious to anyone to see soldiers standing outside and people disappearing from inside.
This is the space age. A time when unidentified aliens are as numerous as the stars in the sky. What would a person living in such a world think of this situation?
'They'll think the monster is in the same space as them.'
It is not good for people to be suspicious. When you think someone is targeting you, your guard naturally increases.
We are not yet strong enough to engage in an all-out war with our enemies. Until I become stronger, the target of suspicion should not be me, but other crew members.
As I was contemplating looking at the doctor's corpse, a melted cart came into view. Smoke was rising from the cart, which had become unrecognizable due to acid blood.
'Acting.'
Coincidentally, the place I was in was the morgue. It was a place where all kinds of gunpowder chemicals, including preservatives for disposing of corpses, were provided.
Suddenly a funny thought occurred to me.
This is a very beneficial way to overcome my crisis while also harassing the crew.
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