Chapter 400
‘This is not the time to be like this.’
I quickly pulled myself out of the wreckage of the ship.
5 minutes at most? The attack of 5 Giga Crackers will begin within a few minutes.
Currently, I have fallen into Akira’s trap and my recovery ability has been sealed. If it were me now, even if just one Gigacracker fired its ion cannon, I would be mortally wounded. If 5 ships attack at the same time, you are guaranteed to die.
‘But it’s also impossible to intercept.’
We’ve countered imperial carriers before, but the situation is very different now. The effect of the symbol of hunting is only a few minutes away, and ‘King of Monsters’ is no longer available.
So there is only one option to choose now. All I have to do is leave this place right now.
‘Wait a minute, before that…’
Unlike me, Akira, whose head was cut off, did not collide with the ship. Then it will remain there.
I checked on the incapacitated Akira using auxiliary organs. It stayed where I hit it, floating motionless.
‘good. It’s okay… huh?’
But something was strange.
The guy who was running wild when his head was cut off is now completely motionless. Like a dead body.
‘What happened?’
It has a special organ that sustains life, so it does not die even if its head is cut off. In fact, Isabel blew the guy’s head off, but he quickly came back to life.
‘I need to go closer and check.’
I immediately dismissed ‘clever underdog’. The body rapidly grew larger, and the body shape returned to its original shape.
As his body grew larger, Akira’s head and the inactive MPS-05 he was holding became smaller than his fingernails. The mini screamer was put back in the mouth, and the head was carefully held in the small arms on the chest.
In that state, it spread its wings and flew near Akira’s body.
When I got closer and checked, it was clear that his condition was not normal. The wound around the severed neck was wide open and empty inside. Internal organs were completely gone, and only a small amount of bone and flesh remained.
‘It’s not the color of the abyss.’
Psychic breath strengthened with the ‘color of the abyss’ eats up any organic object. Do not gnaw only the inside flesh instead of the outside.
‘Something inside pulled itself out.’
Looking at the torn neck area, there was evidence that an object estimated to be approximately 60 to 70 cm had crawled out from the inside. It’s as if a person wearing a doll mask has taken off his clothes.
‘Is this a life support perk?’
I thought it might be a special organ that sustains life, such as the heart or a general organ. Now that I look at it, I think I misjudged.
‘Is it its own body, or an organ that plays a similar role as the main body?’
On the contrary, what was thought to be Akira’s body should be viewed not as a body but as biological armor. I never imagined there would be this type of perk.
‘If you had used this, you could have taken me by surprise, so why?’
It’s strange that the guy who laid all kinds of traps to catch me missed a good opportunity.
‘Or did you not do it?’
Looking back, Akira did not abandon his fake body even when he was mistaken for an Amorph or attacked by the colors of the abyss. If I had this ability, I would just have to escape from my main body and create a new body.
That means that when there is only the main body, it becomes weak.
‘Or that it takes time to create a new body after escaping.’
At least when fighting me, it is clear that the real body and the fake body cannot be separated.
‘Once I dumped the fake body here, the main body will be here somewhere.’
I abandoned my fake body, which was being engulfed by the colors of the abyss, and looked around with my auxiliary organs.
The battlefield, where heat waves, torpedoes, and ships were fiercely moving back and forth just a moment ago, is now much quieter. There were still ships fighting the metallic gremlins, but there were not many of them.
Except for the few ships left here, the rest of the ships were already far away. Star Union’s warships were not even visible at all. It was clear that everyone was retreating to avoid Gigacracker’s offensive.
‘There’s no one here.’
Even though I searched the area, I couldn’t find any sign of him. While I crashed into the boat and was pushed away, he escaped on another boat. It’s probably hiding somewhere among the ships rushing away in the distance.
‘Should I chase after him?’
Akira is the CEO of Megacorp. No matter how vicious and selfish the Megacorp humans are, it is not easy to fire an ion cannon where the top leader of the force is.
‘The problem is if another ranker sent it.’
It is presumed that there are other rankers in Megacorp besides Akira. First of all, there are two strong candidates: the head of the Carmelda family and a researcher from the Prime Capital Zao family.
What if they prioritize killing me over the life of the CEO? I will die chasing Akira.
‘You have to get out of here.’
In this battle, I exposed a lot of my cards. If I were to face them again, it would be a much more difficult fight than it is now.
However, chasing after him when 5 Giga Crackers have been taken out from the other side is too risky.
「Big baby.」
At that time, number 26 approached me. As if he had realized that the battle was coming to an end, his body had returned to its pink jellyfish-like appearance.
The animal was gently holding its injured ‘right head’ with the fin it used as a leg.
‘You worked hard.’
When No. 26 let go, the clone approached him, bleeding profusely, and bowed his head.
「It looks like it hurts a lot.」
[zuzuzu zuzu zuzuzuzu (It’s okay. It’ll get better soon)]
「Really?」
[Zu (yes)]
It was split thanks to the ‘Hydra Split’, but this alter ego is no different from my original body part. I lightly touched the clone’s head and immediately retrieved it.
“Aki, was that porridge?”
Isabelle, who was buried in the fin along with her clone, stuck out her head. I answered his question by shaking my head.
[Zuz zuzuzuzu (He ran away)]
「You missed it? Could it be because of a special device or pipe?”
He also found Akira’s empty shell floating in space. Since he saw that the inside was empty, he must have guessed what was going on.
[Zuzuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzu zu Zuzuzuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzu Zuzuzu (Sorry, I’ll explain later. The attack of the 5 Giga Crackers will begin soon)]
「What?」
[Zuzu (No. 26)]
Instead of explaining, I called number 26.
[Zuzuz, zuzu, zuzu, zuzuzu (I’m leaving here. Call the kids)]
「Yes!」
A strand of silver tentacle protruded from the body of the tangled tentacle. As the tentacles began to glow, the metallic gremlins scattered everywhere began to gather.
Among them was Warp Boy, a small silver demon with blue patterns on his body. I need their help to get out of here safely.
[Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzu Zuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzuzu Zuzuzu (Tell me to send them to different places, not the same place all at once)]
「Why? Glitters are weak when they are alone.”
I know that too. Because metallic gremlins become stronger when there are a lot of them.
However, there is a reason why they are asked to separate and move it.
“You’re trying to avoid tracking.”
Isabelle, who immediately realized my intention, sent a thought wave.
Every faster-than-light voyage leaves behind residual energy. The higher the amount of energy generated during navigation, the longer the maintenance time is.
And if you have equipment like a warp finder, you can track where a specific opponent jumped until the remaining energy is lost. Even if we leave this place together, the enemies and Gigacrackers will continue to pursue us.
‘That’s the only way to get rid of them.’
If you divide the group based on warp boys and send them on a super-light voyage to different locations, several traces will be left behind.
Here, rather than directly sailing at faster than light speeds, I plan to use the warp boy’s ability to blend in with the leaping group.
If the enemy has recorded my energy signal, it is possible for them to follow me with the warp finder when I attempt to travel at faster than light speeds. To prevent this, I’m asking Warp Boy to move me.
I don’t know exactly where I ran away, but there are several traces? They also have no choice but to worry about tracking them. Since I know the danger, it is not easy to split up my troops to pursue them. If you do that for no reason, you could be destroyed individually.
And while the enemies hesitate, the Metallic Gremlins and I can continue to attempt faster-than-light sailing to escape.
[Zuzuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (I won’t fight this time)]
「You won’t fight with bad guys?」
[Zuzuzuzu Zuzuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (Yes, so they won’t get hurt)]
In fact, if the enemy chose to split up their forces and pursue them, they would have no choice but to fight, but that was not mentioned.
“okay! I’ll ask the glitters to move us!”
[Z (yes)]
No. 26’s silver tentacles sparkled again.
The warp boys saw this and prepared for faster-than-light sailing. As the blue tattoo on the silver background gave off a soft light, the bodies of the metallic gremlins gathered here and there, including me, also turned blue.
[Zuz zuzuzu (both come here)]
In case there was a problem while moving, I put Isabelle and No. 26 in my mouth.
When the blue light almost completely enveloped my body, I felt a very strong energy response from far away.
Energy generated at a distance so far that even my enhanced auxiliary organs cannot detect it is approaching at a very fast speed. This is a heat ray launched by Gigacracker.
Just before the enormous heat hit my body, the energy response disappeared in an instant. Instead, what I felt was a familiar pressure.
After a while, the pressure pressing down on my whole body disappeared. There were no giant turquoise heat rays or broken pieces of metal around. The only people in the dark space were me, the kids, and a few metallic gremlins.
‘I succeeded.’
Just before being directly hit by the heat ray, escape through faster-than-light sailing was successful.
[Zuz zuzu zu zuzu zu (Can you tell me to move it one more time?)]
I asked No. 26 to have the warp boy who came with me use faster-than-light navigation again.
After that, the voyage was repeated several more times and crossed several star systems.
Even when the symbol of hunting applied to my body ended, there were no people pursuing us.
‘It’s over.’
A large-scale battle involving Megacorp, Star Union, and Dominant and Returned rankers.
It finally came to an end.
–
A pure white and clean room as if it were carved from marble.
At the center of the pathologically clean-looking space was a cylindrical tank with one side made of transparent glass. The tank is a rare facility installed only on some of Megacorp’s ships.
And now Megacorp’s CEO Akira Yujin is in it.
‘くそ! (Shit!)’
As the tank filled with liquid, Akira barely suppressed his anger.
‘あのくそモーフやろう! (Damn Amorph guy!)’
Aimov, the vicious 5th ranker who harassed him several times in the game.
He did everything he could to catch the guy. He captured the 4th rank that was in a hostile relationship, and borrowed various weapons and troops from other rankers of the ruling faction. If it were a game, he prepared so thoroughly that he would have won.
But the results were disastrous.
He lost most of his troops and weapons, and almost all of his privileges were exposed. He got away with it, and now he’s wasting his time in this fucking tank.
“Well, Boo, is there anything that makes you uncomfortable?”
A man’s voice was heard through my slowly regenerating ears. Akira looked out of the tank with one newly formed eye.
There was a man holding a captain’s hat in his hand. I am the captain of this ship. Thanks to his quick rescue efforts, Akira was able to enter the tank safely.
“What happened to the target of the subjugation?”
Akira communicated with the captain through a chip connected to his head. The captain glanced at the monitor outside the tank and answered hesitantly.
“Well, since Gigacracker fired the ion cannon, he probably didn’t die…”
“You idiot!”
Akira, angry at his subordinate’s stupid remark, hit the glass wall of the tank hard.
It’s not for nothing that he didn’t use a super weapon to capture Aimorph.
If there is a super weapon, it is difficult to freely operate troops on the battlefield. This is because if you are not careful, you may be caught in the attack of a super weapon.
Aimorph is a guy who is good at using his opponent’s weapons against his enemy. Disguise it as if it died after being attacked by a super weapon, or steal it and use it to attack this side, etc. Even in games, there are more than one or two times when I brought a super weapon to fight against a guy and ended up getting the reverse.
Knowing that, we only used super weapons to a very limited extent during this subjugation operation.
“Hmm, the search is currently in progress! Joe, just wait a little longer and the search party will bring the results the CEO wants!”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a very small trace. Take anything with you, whether it’s biological tissue or a piece of metal. “If you have attempted faster-than-light navigation, record all remaining energy.”
“I understand!”
The captain hurriedly bowed his head at the stern command of his enraged master.
「And did you find out who called Giga Cracker?」
“Well, the investigation is also underway! “It looks like someone involved in the operation has requested assistance, so it will be confirmed soon.”
Although he didn’t like any of the captain’s words, Akira suppressed his anger.
Normally, I would have torn it to death with my bare hands, but I can’t do that now.
He is currently in a weakened state that requires absolute rest in a special solution in a tank. Going out of the tank and trying to kill the captain will only delay the reconstruction of the body.
“Go away.”
“Yes, yes!”
The captain, reading Akira’s discomfort, hurriedly left the room.
In the quiet tank, Akira thought about the person who called Gigacracker.
‘I said I wouldn’t use any super weapons other than Alpha Boy.’
However, someone disobeyed his orders and secretly sent a rescue request to Gigacracker. And that was at a time when Akira’s defeat was deepening.
If it weren’t for this ship, Akira would have been killed by the ion cannon.
‘Are you really trying to kill me?’
Did another ranker try to take advantage of his weakened position? If that is true, there is a need for an immediate purge immediately after returning.
‘I don’t need them anymore anyway. To catch Amorph, you need more perks, so it’s better here…’
At that time, I heard the door opening. A researcher wearing a white coat approached the tank.
“Adjustment is unnecessary, so go away.”
This tank was designed by Akira. He knows best, so he doesn’t need anyone else’s coordination.
‘huh?
The researcher did not leave despite Akira’s order to congratulate the guests. He was looking at the tank with an unknown smile.
“Is it because my body has changed? Or is it because it’s been a while since we last met? “Don’t you remember me?”
“what?”
A researcher who speaks as if he knows him well.
Akira was startled by that eerily familiar tone of voice.
「く, くそ虎?(Ku, kusotora?)」
“When you’re embarrassed, Japanese still comes out first. That’s amazing. “I’m not good at Korean, but my memory is good.”
The identity of the researcher was someone Akira knew well.
‘Shin Beom-ho’, the leader of the returning faction and a strong man ranked 7th.
He now came to Akira with an unfamiliar face and a body of an unfamiliar species.
A word from the author (author’s review) In the previous Fine Ranker (4), I added a scene where he removes the MPS-05 that he kept in his mouth before turning into a ‘clever weakling’. See the next episode.”