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Chapter 11

The officer hesitated for a few minutes in front of the cargo container. After confirming that no one was coming, he entered the password. As the door opened, he entered briskly, as if he didn’t want anyone to see him.

While there was a cargo container manager, it wasn’t unusual for the Material Management officer to know the password due to his position.

‘But why hide something like this?’

It would have been more natural to enter confidently rather than being so cautious. He didn’t emerge from the cargo container for over 30 minutes.

When I tracked the officer’s movements using auxiliary sensors, I noticed that he was repeatedly wandering around the cargo container. After an hour of seemingly meaningless actions, he left the cargo container.

I decided to enter the empty cargo container. Dust and the smell of metal mixed in the air. The rough grating-style floor beneath my feet replaced the smooth alloy plates I had walked on earlier.

Maybe due to my increased size, each step I took produced a noticeable sound. It seemed that hunting cockroaches would no longer be possible.

‘Well, now I might have to resort to eating humans or livestock.’

With my increased size came greater strength, but it also meant increased energy consumption.

I began to trace the remnants left by the officer—his sweat, the foreign substances stuck to his feet, and the traces they left behind served as my guide. The place where he had stayed the longest was in front of a particular container.

‘I’ll need an ID card and fingerprint recognition for this.’

Containers seemingly connected to the officer had a higher level of security compared to others that only required the caretaker’s ID card.

‘It’s not even detectable with my enhanced senses.’

The walls seemed considerably thick, and even with my enhanced auxiliary sensors, I couldn’t determine what was inside. One thing was clear: the officer was hiding something important. My curiosity grew with every moment.

‘Should I make the Material Management officer my next target?’

Originally, I had planned to target The Chief Medical Officer. However, considering the current situation, it didn’t seem easy. They would undoubtedly be extremely cautious, knowing more about the suspicious deaths of their subordinates than anyone else. In that case, it might be easier to focus on an easier target.

“The cargo container manager and the entire Material Management team seem to be acting strangely.”

If that were the case, even if the officer disappeared, would no one suspect anything? That became my new goal.

***

“officer, please stop drinking now.”

“Just one more drink, just one more.”

“Why are you acting so differently today?”

Lately, the Material Management officer didn’t seem to be living his usual life. In addition to his material management duties, he had a small side business: obtaining prohibited organisms from the black market and selling them to the upper echelons.

Before boarding the ship, he had acquired something from the black market—an unusual egg not registered in the MegaCorp database. He had dealt with all sorts of rare animals, but this was the first time he had seen an egg like this. According to the Cult merchant who sold it, it was an egg obtained from a forgotten ancient ruin.

“Ancient creatures, damn…”

Regardless of its origin, he smelled money. After buying the egg, he contacted his trading partner, who also showed immediate interest. They agreed to make the trade on a planet where the research ship would dock midway. He secretly loaded the egg onto the ship.

Until then, he had believed that everything would work out well.

Until the mortuary fire incident happened. When he heard the words uttered by a certain officer as if passing by, he couldn’t help but wonder. The words suggesting the misdeeds of extraterrestrial creatures.

He immediately went to the cargo container to check. The container door was slightly ajar, and inside, one of the eggs that should have been quietly sleeping was empty.

‘Damn, I should have checked it earlier!’

After boarding the ship, he had only checked the eggs once to see if they were alright. If only he had properly closed the container door that day, even if the egg hatched, nothing would have happened.

No, more than that, if he hadn’t been drinking that day, he wouldn’t have made such a mistake.

“…Alcohol is the enemy. Alcohol.”

“Captain, let’s go in now.”

Because of one missed door inspection, three people had perished. Moreover, among the deceased was a Noble Capital.

Even though the monster that had awakened from the egg and killed people was probably still roaming the ship, the officer couldn’t go anywhere to complain. Before the retaliation of Noble Capital, he was terrified that the captain might lose his sanity and try to kill him. That’s why the officer spent every night drowning his fears in alcohol.

“Sigh.”

His team members shook their heads and left the bar. The bartender next to him licked his lips.

“I’ll close the door.”

“Just one more drink. Just one more, and then I’ll go.”

With each gulp of synthetic alcohol, his torment was diluted. While he claimed that alcohol was his enemy, his body remained as usual.

In the end, the officer, once again, left the bar in a drunken state.

“Damn… What’s bothering me so much…?”

The officer muttered a curse mixed with a tremor. The corridor he stood alone in was locked in silence. Except for the faint vibrations generated by the ship’s atomic reactor, which served as the heart of the ship, there was almost no other sound.

It was because night had arrived upon the ship.

In space, the concept of day and night didn’t exist, but human ships artificially created night at certain times for the crew’s rest.

The research ship led by Captain Samuel was no exception, so an artificial night had descended upon the ship.

Stumbling through the silence, the officer walked. It was a corridor he had always walked, but today it felt strangely unfamiliar. Was it because of the alcohol? In a familiar space, he felt an unknown chill.

Beyond the bright corridor lights, a terrible danger seemed to lurk, pressing him with an ominous premonition.

“Ah, for fuck’s sake…”

The officer denied his own premonition And with a tongue-tied curse, he headed for his quarters.

In the corridor, made of high-strength composite panels with no gap in sight, the sound of his shoes echoed.

“Hmm?”

His ears caught an unfamiliar sound. At first, he thought it was the sound of his own footsteps, but it was different.

It was too faint for a human. It was like a soft, low sound, as if a wild beast were tiptoeing to hide its footsteps.

An eerie feeling washed over the officer, and he stopped in his tracks. As he did, the footsteps following him abruptly ceased.

The corridor enveloped in silence.

The officer shivered all over. Something unknown was following him.

“Who’s there?!”

He shouted, but there was no answer.

It felt like someone had forcefully poured cold water over him. He sobered up instantly and quickened his pace.

His shoes made a discordant noise as they struck the hard metal floor.

Step by step, the eerie footsteps following him seemed to quicken.

Thud! thud! thud! thud!

“What the hell is this?!”

He didn’t know if it was a prank by one of his team members. Even if it wasn’t a team member, there could have been a way to confront whoever was playing this disgusting trick head-on. But he didn’t.

From a corner of his alcohol-clouded mind, a feeling was screaming at him.

‘Never confront that presence.’

After turning the corner in the corridor, the officer glanced back for a moment.

The officer saw it clearly.

A shadow with a long tail reminiscent of a snake passed by in an instant.

“This damn thing!”

It was “it.”

An extraterrestrial creature that killed people. The space killer that had devoured the research officer and the security guard had set its sights on him.

The officer’s movements became frantic. Thanks to the alcohol in his system, his legs felt sluggish. His appearance resembled a deer shot by an arrow, fleeing.

“Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!”

His face was a mess of saliva, tears, and mucus. His clothes had long since been soaked with cold sweat, rendering them ineffective.

A light, popping sound.

The footsteps of “it” behind him became audible. The once faint sound had grown loud enough to mix with his own breath.

The approaching presence of “it” from behind became more distinct. A growl, not of human origin, licked his spine.

Despite his intoxicated state, the chilling sensation was unmistakable, as if it were etched into his brain.

The officer wanted to scream, but he couldn’t.

The moment he made even the slightest noise, “it” seemed ready to pounce.

Arriving in front of his room at last, he hastily entered the access code. He had never entered the keypad this quickly since boarding the ship.

“Damn it! Open up!”

Finally, the door opened, and he rushed into the room. As he closed the door, it vibrated as if struck by something. The impact sent the officer sprawling to the floor.

He lay there frozen.

Behind the door, there was no sound, as if the previous shock had been a lie.

The officer could feel it.

“It” was still outside.

‘Th-the phone! I need to call…!’

With great effort, he regained his composure and thought of the emergency phone installed in his bedroom. Due to his tension, his legs didn’t respond as they should, making him crawl like a cripple.

Then it happened.

A sound that should never have reached his ears.

Beep.

His head turned back towards the door like a puppet on a string.

“It” is entering the access code.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

A cheerful alert sounded out of place as the door lock was released, and the door opened slowly.

***

The hunt had been easy.

Well, could it even be called a hunt? He had merely cornered someone who was too drunk to think straight.

‘His routine is so simple, it was easy.’

After observing him for two days, the daily life of the materials management officer was identical down to the last detail. He spent his days idling away in the materials management room and stayed up all night drinking at the bar within the ship.

With a superior as pathetic as this, the team members didn’t care about where he was or what he was doing.

I wonder if Captain Samuel knows his subordinate is embezzling his salary.

He should be thankful to me. I’m reducing the number of people wasting their salaries.

‘Thanks to that, I’m doing well.’

Originally, I had planned to wait for about three or four days, but there was no need for that. I decided to attack him while he was still intoxicated.

Today, just like any other day, he had wasted his time at the bar. I had already confirmed that there were no surveillance cameras from the bar to the materials management officer’s room.

All that remained was to enjoy the leisurely hunt.

I deliberately didn’t ambush him. Just occasionally showing myself briefly was enough to make him follow my lead. It was frustrating that he was slow in fleeing due to the alcohol, but other than that, everything was satisfying.

After desperately running, he hid in the room. A titanium-based ultra-high-strength alloy door that even a laser weapon couldn’t penetrate separated him and me.

He’s probably feeling safe, thinking that the door made of titanium will protect him.

That’s not wrong. Using my thumb, I read the fingerprints on the keypad.

The materials management officer never intended this, but he was now little more than a guest who had received an invitation.

The door opened very easily, and inside, there was a terrified face.

A civilian with no weapons had no chance of resisting an amorph.

‘I’ll enjoy this.’

The materials management officer’s taste was honestly mediocre. There was plenty of fat, but the strong scent of alcohol made it hard to taste anything else.

Of course, I’m not a picky eater, so I ate everything except the thumb I needed for fingerprint recognition.

‘Where is the ID card?’

I wondered, scanning the room. A stainless steel bed with a seemingly comfortable mattress was against the wall. There were cabinets and a desk nearby.

‘Oh?’

A partially torn female poster adorned the wall. It might have been sexy, but my current state didn’t register any feelings.

I lost interest in the poster and approached the desk. A clutter of empty bottles and stacks of documents covered the worn-out desk.

‘I should clean up before I head out.’

While sorting through the documents, an ID card slipped out.

I had everything I needed. One hand held the ID card, and the other held my thumb firmly. I left the room.

‘Should I go straight there?’

Now that I had everything I needed, I went to the cargo container.

I approached the container in the cargo container and held my ID card up to the recognition panel. The red light on the terminal above the recognition panel turned green, and a message appeared instructing me to proceed. I pressed the recognition panel firmly with the materials management officer’s thumb, and the door opened with a clunk.

‘I wonder if there’s anything good inside.’

As I stepped into the container, a cold chill passed through my body. Inside, there were several cryogenic tubes containing various kinds of organisms.

‘So, this gentleman was a smuggler.’

If there had been any problems within the ship, he could have reported them to someone. But he had been muttering to himself alone, and I never expected there was such a hidden story.

I looked around the cryogenic tubes, and among them, I saw something I recognized.

‘Amorph’s egg?’

There were two Amorph eggs in the cryogenic tubes. One was tightly packed and plump, while the other was empty.

An empty egg.

The materials management officer had been searching for something with a puzzled expression.

‘Could this be my body that came out of the egg?’

It seemed strange somehow. In the game, Amorph’s starting point was not a steel ship like this but an unidentified ruin.

‘He was trying to smuggle me.’

Judging from what was placed in the cryogenic chamber, it seemed that the materials management officer had intended to sell Amorph’s eggs somewhere. Somewhere along the way, something happened, and one of the eggs hatched and escaped from the container.

Perhaps shortly after escaping, my body’s previous owner had died.

‘And that’s when my consciousness took over.’

I could easily guess why the previous owner had died. Since it had just been born, it must have lacked nutrients.

‘Even eating cockroaches makes sense.’

No matter how much I liked Amorph, it wasn’t easy to see a cockroach and immediately eat it with human sensibilities. Probably, it was instinctively done to survive.

‘…’

Seeing the traces left by the previous owner of this body somehow made me feel awkward. Even though it wasn’t intentional, thanks to its struggles for survival, I could start in a relatively favorable situation.

I bowed my head in front of the egg where Amorph was born. Regardless, the creature was already dead, and it wouldn’t understand human gestures, but I just wanted to do it.

‘Let’s end the mourning here.’

Human actions were over, and now it was time for Amorph-like actions.

I opened the cryogenic tubes and began to consume another intact egg. I didn’t spare any of the Amorph hatchlings that were inside.

Amorph was hostile to all species, including its own kind.

‘The one that hatches first eats the other eggs.’

Perhaps Amorph itself was the embodiment of extreme survival competition.

When newly born, there were two advantages to consuming other hatchlings or eggs. One was that it could provide the necessary nutrients in its hatchling state, and the other was that it could quickly obtain Amorph’s genetic essence.

Strengthening traits like super-sense through identical genetic essence is extremely helpful in the early stages.

I had hoped to acquire genetic essence, but unfortunately, there was no notification of predation.

Disappointed, I looked around, and another cryogenic tube came into my view.

‘Come to think of it, there’s quite a bit of prey here.’

The owner of the cryogenic tubes inside the container was inside my stomach. Since the smuggler had been the one dealing with smuggling, there would be no one else on this ship who knew about the existence of this container. That meant there would be no one to object even if I consumed everything.

I opened the cryogenic tubes and consumed the creatures inside one by one. Contrary to appearances, the materials management officer seemed to have done quite well as a smuggler, and there were many rare creatures. Thanks to that, I was able to obtain several rare genetic essences.

[Race: Unidentified Aggressive Space Morph

Status: Metamorph

Objective: Survive (1st Evolution Successful)

Special Traits: Predator Senses (Fusion), Wings, Chitinous Exoskeleton, Robust Vitality, Neurotoxin Glands (Fusion), Enhanced Exoskeleton, Acidic Blood, psychic organ, Enhanced Angular Momentum, Mimicry

Type: Undetermined]

[Currently, there are two potential specialized Types.]

[Physical Enhancement Type (8/10), Psychic Enhancement Type (2/3)]

‘Great. Only two more to go.’

To obtain the Physical Enhancement Type, I only needed two more traits. When I consumed Keisaragi, I was honestly a bit disappointed because I had hoped to gain psychic power abilities, but I ended up with a useless psychic organ.

But now, the materials management officer had given me such a valuable gift. Especially in a game scenario, obtaining powerful traits early on that would usually be available only in the mid to late game was a significant advantage.

Among all the traits I possessed, this was the most effective one for killing the crew members. With this ability, I could be more proactive. While there was a strategy to hide and slowly choke out the crew members over an extended period, my encounter with the Space Dogs was approaching soon. I didn’t know how dangerous they would be, so I needed to get stronger before that happened.

‘Genetic essences, wait for me.’

Even if I screamed in space, there would be no one to hear it. This research ship was no different. The pitiful cries of the crew members would be buried deep in that black abyss, never to be heard again.