Chapter 2

chapter 2

where should i go next? in fact, i’ve already decided where to go.

‘let’s go to the cooling room next to the reactor.’

even in the space age, the way humans handle heat hasn’t changed much from before. next to the ship’s heart, the nuclear fusion engine, there was a cooling room responsible for temperature control.

‘the cooling room is an important facility, so not many people visit it.’

despite being under strict security as a highly critical facility, the flip side is that there are fewer visitors. it’s like they say, where it’s darkest under the lamp. as long as i don’t physically interfere with the cooling room, the area around it is a good place to grow while avoiding the gaze of the surveillance.

another advantage is that the cooling room is right next to the reactor. if, for some reason, i’m exposed to people, the cooling room is an easy place to use as a last line of defense.

‘if things go south, i can always destroy the reactor and the cooling room and make my escape.’

if there’s a problem with the cooling room, it means there’s also a problem with the reactor, and a ship with a malfunctioning heart has no choice but to stop operating. once the ship stops operating, all the life support systems that maintain the ship’s environment will also cease to function.

initially, they might try to recover the ship, such as by running the auxiliary engines, but that won’t last long either. just as a creature with a damaged heart cannot escape death, the same goes for the ship. unless there’s a nearby planet to crash-land on, the people on board the ship have only one fate: to kill and be killed in the dwindling oxygen.

of course, if the ship were to stop, i would have nowhere to go, so i should leave attacking the reactor as a last resort.

‘well then, shall we go?’

before departing, i ate two more calorie bars. with my belly filled, i jumped up to the ceiling. tiny suckers between my claws firmly anchored my body to the ceiling, allowing me to move easily even while hanging upside down. the reason insects can move along walls is thanks to structures called pulvilli.

these structures secrete a highly adhesive substance that helps them easily traverse smooth walls. thanks to the substance secreted from between my claws, i could move just as smoothly while hanging from the ceiling.

while walking upside down on the ceiling, i noticed an entrance leading to an air duct. its external appearance resembled an enlarged window-type ventilation fan, with iron bars screwed on the outside.

on the inside, a giant blade rotated incessantly, emitting a fierce sound as it carried out its work.

‘breaking through the bars is still impossible.’

it would be nice to break everything impressively and enter, but it was impossible in my current hatchling state. even if i tried to strike the bars with my claws, there was doubt as to whether i could damage the tough alloy material. and even if i did manage to damage it, it would be a problem.

if there were any additional security measures, the ai overseeing the ship would immediately report any newly occurring errors to humans. in that case, my future would be nothing but tracking and death.

‘in this case, i’ll have to rely on my intellectual abilities.’

i raised my claws and turned the screws that secured the bars. if the ship’s humans had paid more attention to security, they might have welded this place shut. fortunately, they were a tribe that liked to use 1234 as their cargo password.

the first barrier that blocked the air duct was easily disabled by my claws. the next obstacle was the blade of the ventilation fan on the inside.

‘this is the critical moment.’

i had two ways to pass through here. one was to time it and avoid the blade while entering, and the other was to bring something and damage the ventilation fan blade. it goes without saying, but the latter method was impossible.

even if i threw an object at the thin fan blade, it was doubtful whether it would be enough to break it. moreover, even if i succeeded in breaking it, there would be a problem. if there were any issues with the ventilation fan, the super ai controlling the ship would definitely not overlook it.

the ai would immediately report any newly occurring errors to humans. in that case, my remaining future would be nothing but tracking and death.

‘i have to go through here.’

from now on, it was time to rely on amorph’s abilities. i just stood there, waiting, as i couldn’t risk entering and having the blade tear me to pieces.

while waiting, the auxiliary system began to collect various pieces of information, such as the flow of air, the flow of energy generated at the junction of the blades, and more.

it wasn’t just the auxiliary system working diligently. a highly developed sense of vision focused on the precise movements of the rotating blades to find weaknesses in the intricate machinery.

‘how much time had passed?’

the auxiliary system detected traces of iron oxide mixed in the air and fine metal particles carried by the wind. additionally, it discovered that the junction of the rotating blades slowed down briefly at certain points due to wear and tear.

my brain, after reviewing all the information from my eyes and the auxiliary system, was saying, ‘jump in right now’.

‘it’s now or never.’

i trusted my heightened senses and leaped into the ventilation duct. the merciless machine god struck me with its air pressure as the blade sliced through the air.

if i were still human, i might have shouted with joy, but my oral structure was not suited for laughter. all i could produce was a dry, hissing sound.

after briefly savoring the moment of survival, i continued my journey.

the ventilation duct had a complex, maze-like structure, but it posed no obstacle before my heightened senses. normally, the ship’s interior, which was like blood vessels, would have been quiet, but today, it was even noisier due to the presence of an unfamiliar visitor.

the sounds of the wind passing through the various ventilation fans scattered throughout, combined with the noise of my claws colliding with the metal plates.

‘there are spiders here.’

‘help? someone’s asking for help?’

using special wavelengths that humans couldn’t perceive, some life form was requesting assistance from me.

intrigued, i followed the wavelengths, which led me to a test chamber labeled [026]. inside the chamber floated a pink, bubble-like organism.

‘a bubble amoeba.’

bubble amoebas were non-player creatures that inhabited aquatic planets. they usually floated in water like droplets but would engulf and digest their prey in an instant when it came close.

unless they were exceptionally large, they posed no significant threat to players, and they were harmless and cute-looking. many players seeking solace in the harsh space survival world often favored them.

i had never expected them to possess intelligence. however, this one had approached me and sent another wave.

⌈pain. help.⌋

while an exact translation was impossible, thanks to amorph’s unique senses, i could roughly grasp the meaning. this creature was in pain for some reason and was asking for my help.

‘what should i do?’

i could consider eating it, but based on my memory, the bubble amoeba had the most useless trait for amorph.

its trait was called “oxygen storage,” allowing it to provide a certain amount of oxygen in oxygen-deprived environments. while this might have been useful for other races, amorph could survive for extended periods without oxygen, so this trait was entirely unnecessary.

‘eating is out of the question. but i want to help, and i don’t know how.’

i focused my senses on the test chamber, searching for clues. i detected the flow of the mixture circulating within the thick hose connected at the bottom, the movements of measuring instruments inside the machine checking the liquid’s state, and a faint flow of electricity above the liquid’s surface.

‘electricity?’

come to think of it, the little guy had a small sensor attached to its body. connected by a wire, the sensor periodically sent electricity through its body.

understanding what the creature was requesting, i climbed up to the terminal next to the test chamber. on the terminal screen, there were periodic appearances of the creature’s bio-rhythm graph and the experiment results of the ai.

‘was this what those two researchers were talking about earlier?’

seems like they muttered about a failure and left without turning off the machine.

i pressed the terminal button to stop the experiment. the faint electrical signals from the sensor were cut off, and the creature regained its vitality. it blinked its pink bubble-like body as if expressing gratitude.

⌈thanks.⌋

‘it’s okay’

i didn’t consider it a favor. if the creature had been necessary to me, i would have used it as a source for absorbing essence without hesitation. i just indulged in a whim momentarily, judging it as a harmless and incompetent creature.

‘survive on your own.’

in megacorp’s lab, there was no avoiding destruction. nevertheless, i hoped to spend what remained of my life as comfortably as possible and left the laboratory.

after about 30 minutes of walking through the corridor, the temperature suddenly dropped. water droplets clung to the walls, and a thin frost covered the corridor floor.

i had finally reached the cooling chamber.

‘all right. let’s make a nest now.’

i gathered water droplets stuck to the walls and swallowed them in one go. then, i held water in my mouth for a while, as if gargling, and spat it out again.

it was no longer pure water. the water that entered my body had transformed into a substance with a peculiar composition harmful to creatures other than amorph.

this filthy mucus, resembling gum chewed and spit out, had the effect of extending the lifespan of nearby amorph, enhancing the effects of their heightened senses.

once the coating of the corridor above the cooling chamber was complete, i settled down here. i stretched my body in the center of this sticky, toxic, and contaminated space. i felt cozy, like i was inside my mother’s womb, and closed my eyes.

‘i can feel it. the ship feels like a part of me.’

what’s the most important thing to win in a war?

it’s information.

the humans of megacorp and me, amorph.

they didn’t know me, but i knew them. i knew where they were, what they were doing, where they were going, who they were talking to, and every piece of information flowed to me through the liquid that coated the corridor.

they wouldn’t know the war had already begun, and they were already in the midst of losing.

in the darkness of the nest, i smiled silently.

join our discord for release /invite/dbdmdhzwa2