Chapter 54

chapter 54

“cough!”

the sniper, who had fallen from the container, spurted blood. his heart was pierced, and he crashed onto the ground, but the expression on his face wasn’t one of pain; it was confusion.

he couldn’t comprehend why he ended up like this. he had no idea where the attack came from or who shot him.

the troublesome sniper, who had annoyed me, died without solving the mystery.

[what happened?]

[dwayne’s link got severed.]

confirming the sniper’s demise, i approached jade. currently, jade found it challenging to move his eyes due to my neurotoxin. consequently, he had to watch his teammate die without any filter.

how would he process the fact that a teammate died because of him? would it be more agonizing than having limbs broken? would he ignite with a vengeful desire against his teammates, or would he resign, anticipating his own demise?

‘to die, there’s still a long way to go.’

his suffering wasn’t over. i planned to hunt down all his teammates he brought here before killing him.

i grabbed jade’s body, turned his gaze in a different direction, and went towards the sniper’s corpse.

the advanced reinforced suit that the sniper wore reverted to its original state. although it might seem that there’s not much difference between advanced and intermediate reinforced suits based on their names, in reality, there’s a significant gap.

for example, while the intermediate suit looks like regular clothing, the advanced suit is closer to a kind of powered exoskeleton. the equipment the sniper wore was a high-tech armor.

‘it seems he sacrificed defense for multiple options.’

i wanted to examine it further, but it was a battlefield. i lost interest in the reinforced suit and focused on the corpse.

‘let’s go with the right hand.’

with my combat arm, i grabbed the right hand of the corpse and pulled it straight. perhaps due to amorph’s transcendent strength, not only the hand but also the wrist tore apart.

holding the bleeding wrist with one hand, i picked up a sniper coil gun lying next to the corpse with the other hand.

‘fingerprint recognition device... ah, here it is.’

the sniper coil gun didn’t have a separate trigger. instead, it had a fingerprint recognition device on the right side, allowing only registered users to operate it.

‘they designed it this way for security.’

i pressed the sniper’s finger against the sensor on the coil gun. after a moment, an electronic sound echoed, and the coil gun lit up.

‘let’s check the bullets first.’

touching the terminal attached to the coil gun with my finger, a list of ammunition appeared on the screen. among the list, only the ap rounds were shining in yellow.

‘great.’

ap rounds are special ammunition created by megacorp and starunion for psychic warfare. these rounds contain a special substance that blocks the flow of psychic power, rendering the target unable to use psychic abilities for a certain period. even if the bullets miss, the destruction of the rounds releases the special substance into the surrounding area, making it difficult to use psychic power within that range.

‘number 26 and adhai must have had a hard time.’

with the coil gun in hand, i focused on the sensation on my back. as the armor split on my back, giant wings resembling insect wings extended outward. the wings flapped vigorously, propelling my body rapidly upward.0v3l.b11n.

‘the second target is cultist.’

from the sky, i aimed the coil gun at the distant location where the enemies were.

cultist, wearing a tiara, appeared behind the enemies.

pressing the sensor on the coil gun with the sniper’s finger, perhaps due to the power of psychic abilities, cultist sensed an ominous feeling and turned her head towards my flying position.

as she opened her mouth to shout something upon discovering me, the coil gun was fired.

***

recently, she often recalled past memories. in reality, these were not the memories she wanted to recall. it wasn’t because they were pleasant memories; on the contrary, they were unpleasant. whenever she reminisced about her childhood, the deaths of her family also came to mind. in that foul-smelling place, she had to watch her beloved family die.

the memory of her family’s demise became a dagger that stabbed her, made from their final moments. the pain seemed eternal, but at some point, she started feeling it less. though she still occasionally had nightmares, they had improved compared to before.

she knew what healed her wounds— a new family. the family she failed to protect in the past now comforted her pain.

of course, she was aware that the current kid by her side and those who had passed away were different beings. however, recently, for some unknown reason, she began to feel a growing desire.

a desire to become stronger to protect her family. terms like ‘desire’ or ‘longing’ were higher-level thought processes that were unfamiliar to her. while she had always been conscious of the need to protect her group, that feeling was more like an instinct, akin to eating when hungry or sleeping when tired.

appetites are satisfied when fulfilled, but desires are insatiable. what remains unfilled often leads to something better.

she could feel that something unknown was causing her to change. it was more than just change; it was a transformation.

her recent obsession, anxiety, affection, and longing to somehow protect the newly formed family transcended the limits of her species. she embraced this remarkable change with both fear and active acceptance.

she instinctively felt that emotions were making her stronger.

“a monster subject to the theme!”

the smelly thing that had taken down the baby animal rushed towards her, swiping away her appendage with an attachment. dizzying pain struck her, and the transformation happening in her body came to a halt.

“you damn monster, strip its skin while it’s alive.”

“i’ll skin you alive, you fucking monster.”

“hope! now! capture gallagon!”

“got it!”

the smelly thing roared and pulled out a pointed stick. as it approached her, the hairless one targeted the little kid.

she urgently sent a wavelength to the little one, urging it to escape. however, the little one seemed reluctant to run away alone and didn’t move at all.

「run away!」

「i」 「adult」 「won’t」 「run.」 「rejected」

「hurry!」

with all her strength, she shouted out a wavelength, and finally, the little one moved. unlike her, the little one could fly above the ground, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for it to escape.

however, the bad guys trampled her expectations.

“where do you think you’re going!”

the less hairy one shot a net-like thing, capturing the little one. the little one tried to emit violet power, but it was futile. the strange wavelength from the net suppressed the little one’s power.

“cut off those damn tentacles first.”

she thought she had failed again.

she failed again. she and the little one would probably die here. the only difference from before was that the big baby had escaped safely from this place.

if it were the big baby, he would surely survive even if she died.

thinking like that, she felt an inexplicable sense of regret.

she wished she could be by the side of the big baby, who was growing so magnificently.

unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen.

the smelly thing approached, raising the pointed stick.

“die... huh? what’s this?”

[dwayne? dwayne’s link got cut off!]

at the moment of impending death, a miracle happened.

“what?”

[could it be... huh? ack!]

“jeanette?!”

“damn it! the link has been disconnected!”

while the bad guys were muttering to each other, the atmosphere was different from before. it felt urgent, as if something was wrong.

“check on jeanette... tin can! evade!”

“huh?”

and then, ‘it’ fell from the sky.

after ‘it’ had neutralized the smelly thing, it stood up.

the monster with eight appendages and a long tail was a familiar presence to her.

the fantastic baby who had grown so quickly from a little baby, just like her.

the big baby she cherished the most in the world.

[zzzz zzzzzz zz (am i too late?)]

it, whom she called the big baby, spoke to her.

the wavelength emitted by the big baby seemed somewhat embarrassed and shy.

if only she had known what emotions were, she might have recognized the nature of the feeling rising within her right now.

it was a sense of ‘satisfaction.’

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