Chapter 248:

Chapter 248:

What lay before me when I opened my eyes wasn’t the cargo hold but a completely different place.

Numerous green glass tubes surrounded me. The air was filled with a stinging chemical scent that made even my auxiliary organs tingle.

The eerie atmosphere created by the glowing glass tubes made the place feel more like a catacomb from a distant future than a research facility.

‘...What is this?’

It was a place with such a strange and unsettling aura that I could confidently say I’d never seen anything like it in my entire life.

Yet, somehow, it felt familiar. No, it was beyond familiarity—I even felt a sense of warmth and comfort.

Almost like I had returned home.

I crawled out from the glass tube.

‘I remember now.’

I’d seen a vision when I entered Transcendence Stage 2 back on the Cult’s holy planet. This was the exact place I’d seen back then.

‘How could I have forgotten this?’

It felt like someone had sealed and then unsealed my memories and thoughts. The notion of an unknown force manipulating my consciousness brought a surge of anxiety and fear.

‘...Stay calm.’

Based on my past experiences, it was highly likely that what I was seeing and feeling now was an illusion. In reality, I was probably still inside my cocoon, half-liquidated.

‘Let’s look around.’

Rather than trembling in fear, it was better to do something, anything. Clinging to a fragile sense of calm, I began to crawl forward.

The space around me was vast. It was so expansive that even my body, which stretched over dozens of meters, couldn’t reach its end.

The green glass tubes filled the area not just on the floor but also on the walls and ceiling.

As I crawled past each tube, I gave them a cursory glance, but there was nothing inside. They were filled with some kind of green liquid of unknown purpose. Small terminals were attached to the glass tubes, but all were powered off.

As I continued past the glass tubes, which exuded a foul stench, I saw a door. It was a heavily rusted iron door. I raised one of my combat limbs and gently pushed against it.

At first, the door didn’t budge, but gradually, it began to move. A bright light seeped through the gap.

Eventually, the door opened wide, and a white light engulfed me.

‘Where is this?’

When the light faded, I found myself in a space that was very familiar to me.

‘My home?’

It was the door to the room I used to live in before I entered the world of Space Survival. I could hear someone speaking from inside.

Almost entranced by the familiar voice, I reached for the doorknob with one of my small arms on my chest.

The moment the door opened, and I came face-to-face with the person inside—

I woke up.

My physical senses returned, and I felt the warmth of a liquid enveloping my entire body. Something soft and wall-like seemed to be constraining me.

‘What was that just now?’

Last time, I had forgotten, but this time I hadn’t. Although it was as hazy as morning fog, the things I had just seen lingered in my mind.

That strange facility filled with glass tubes and my old room.

The former was a place I’d never seen before, while the latter was a space all too familiar to me. There was no apparent connection between the two.

‘Is it my body's memory?’

My consciousness is human, but my body is that of the Amorph. Perhaps the memories contained in the Amorph’s flesh had manifested as an illusion.

‘...If I consider the settings revealed after ascension, that might be possible.’

However, according to my memory, such a facility never appeared before or after ascension. After ascension, the place that appeared was where the Amorph was first born, that is, the planet where the ancient ruins were located.

I continued pondering inside the cocoon but couldn’t figure out what the vision meant.

‘But there’s a clue.’

There was a common factor between the time I forgot and this time.

‘Back then, it was when I entered Transcendence System Stage 2, and now...’

I had advanced my only unique traits through Transcendence, reaching a total of four, thereby raising my Cosmic Monster type to Stage 1. This meant that the mysterious place I saw could be related to the Transcendence System.

‘If I reach Stage 2 of the Cosmic Monster, perhaps something else will emerge.’

Since I still lacked enough information, there wasn’t much point in spending time guessing.

By now, my transformation had finished. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but judging by how my liquidized body had solidified into a new form, my transformation was complete.

I extended my combat limb and tore through the cocoon.

Much like stabbing a soft-boiled egg with chopsticks, the fluid inside the cocoon spilled out in a rush. As I tore through the soft cocoon and emerged, the cold air brushed against my carapace.

Taking in the fresh air, I began to inspect the changes in my body.

The first unique trait I synthesized, "Perfect Organism", transformed my body into the shape of a large, agile predator. The second, "Horizon of Nightmares", gave me a heavy, massive image as it stored corrosive tendrils along my back.

The third, "Organic Evolution", was a trait that altered my body into a specific form, so it didn’t cause any notable change to my overall appearance.

So, what about the fourth unique trait I synthesized?

In conclusion, just like with the first and second traits, my body changed quite a bit.

My overall form retained the massive, snake-like shape typical of a semi-adult. I still moved using my combat limbs and winged arms instead of legs.

However, the difference was that my body length had significantly decreased. I had previously reached nearly 40 meters, but now I barely surpassed 25 meters.

While my lower body and tail had shortened considerably, my combat limbs had grown remarkably large instead.

When she first heard Si-hyun's words, Lyla thought she’d lost her mind.

Maybe she’d gone mad after living in Akira Yujin’s shadow for too long.

‘If she really had gone insane, that’d be easier to understand...’

Regardless of Si-hyun’s mental state, the data she’d handed over didn’t seem to be fabricated.

In fact, there weren’t that many visual images on the data chip—barely a dozen. However, the annotations, research papers, and supplementary notes attached to interpret the navigation charts and texts in the images were extensive.

As the general manager of the T&C Special Trade Center, Lyla received weekly reports on the city's overall affairs, so her knowledge and information were vast.

To her, the contents of Si-hyun’s data chip didn’t seem like the ramblings of a madwoman or something hastily pieced together.

‘Which only makes it all the more baffling.’

The records left by Beom-ho, the cultist who was supposedly Si-hyun’s former master, concerned two weapons.

One of them was merely an incomplete navigation chart and wasn’t worth focusing on, but the other was different. About 60% of its details had been deciphered, and the weapon's effects were simply absurd.

‘A weapon capable of selectively killing only certain organisms?’

According to Si-hyun’s interpretation, the weapon fired a particle beam that was lethally effective against specific organic lifeforms, enabling mass slaughter. The weapon could be recalibrated to target different life forms by inputting new genetic data.

In simple terms, it was like the Star Union’s Gremlin Torpedo nanoweapon, but instead of targeting metals, it targeted living beings.

Based on what Captain Nern had mentioned, many aspects of the weapon matched the descriptions in the records. They claimed that this single weapon wiped out the entire Outspeiser legion.

‘The problem is that nobody knows how this weapon works.’

When they first met, Nern had told her this:

A mysterious crew member left the weapon behind and vanished, and nobody dared to use it. Despite its immense destructive power, no one understood how it worked or what powered it. Few people would dare to touch a weapon akin to a nano-nuclear bomb that selectively killed certain life forms.

So, they decided to hide it deep within the volcano of this remote planet.

‘...There are too many incomprehensible elements.’

Even if I accept the weapon’s existence as fact, there are still too many unresolved issues.

If Si-hyun’s father, Jung-woo, was the original owner of the weapon, why didn’t he use it when fighting Akira? If he had, he wouldn’t have lost his life or been stripped of his patriarchal position.

And it’s also unclear why this was left as a legacy for his descendants. If that were the case, Beom-ho should have personally handed the weapon over to Si-hyun.

Instead, she’s only now beginning to search for it, long after Jung-woo Yujin’s death, under the guidance of someone entirely unrelated to her family—Captain Nern.

‘Just what is Beom-ho thinking?’

Si-hyun Yujin, Captain Nern.

It felt as though the upper echelons of the Megacorps and the elites of the Cult Empire were being toyed with by Beom-ho.

While Lyla was lost in her complex thoughts, the group reached a dead end.

“This path is blocked—what's going on?”

“Hmm, there should be a passage here....”

The moment Nern finished speaking, Si-hyun transformed her arm into a blade and slashed at the wall. The cave wall collapsed in an instant, revealing a large, open space.

“What is this...?”

“Good heavens. There are so many corpses.”

As they shone their flashlights into the dim, hollow space, the first thing they saw were bodies. The carcasses of dangerous creatures they had encountered on their way here, along with unidentified organisms, were scattered everywhere.

“What kind of creature is this? I've never seen anything like it before.”

Si-hyun’s subordinates grimaced at the sight of monsters with eight sturdy legs mixed in among the corpses. These creatures, which they had never seen on their journey here, looked more mechanical than natural.

“Same with this one. These things seem to have died recently.”

Unlike outside, it was relatively warm in this space. That meant it was an environment conducive to decomposition. Yet the corpses lying around here were still in the early stages of decay.

Why had they fought and killed each other in this place despite the abundance of prey outside? Faced with this incomprehensible scene, the subordinates were bewildered.

「Was it like this the last time you were here?」

“Of course not. There was nothing in this mountain when we were here.”

「What do you think... Si-hyun?」

Lyla called out, but Si-hyun didn’t respond. As if entranced, she walked through the pile of corpses.

Then, reaching into the mound of bodies in the far end of the cavern, she pulled something out.

「What is that?」

“That’s it! The artifact we buried in this chamber!”

Lyla still reacted with suspicion, while Nern’s face reflected a mix of astonishment and fear.

They didn’t understand.

What Si-hyun Yujin was seeing at that moment.

「Perk 'The Forge of the Omniscient' has produced 'Abyssal Destroyer.'」

「Current Owner: None (Temporary Holder: Shin Beom-ho)」

「Acquisition Condition: Genetic similarity to 'Player Jung-woo.'」

「New user 'Si-hyun Yujin.' Acquisition condition confirmed. Disabling barrier.」

「Ownership of 'Abyssal Destroyer' has transferred from 'Player Shin Beom-ho' to 'Si-hyun Yujin.'」

The translucent text boxes felt as if they were directly piercing into her brain. Si-hyun couldn’t comprehend even half of the contents displayed.

But there was one thing she was certain of.

This item would now serve a new master.