Chapter 79

chapter 79

“akira sir, we’ll soon arrive at the t&c special trade center.”

akira yujin, who was taking a break in the special capsule that regulates his body, opened his eyes at the voice of his subordinate. as the capsule opened, a young woman approached him.

she was astonishingly beautiful but lacked any emotions in her eyes. she held the position of code black among the shadows of the yujin family, making her one of akira’s closest aides.

without any expression, she handed akira a towel and a black beverage.

“how much time has passed?”

“it’s been a week since we started the journey.”
“we’ll be a day late compared to the scheduled date.”

he didn’t ask what happened or why they were delayed. the shadows would have handled it well. in the ship they were on, the flagship of the yujin family named ‘heaven sword,’ three shadows were on board to escort akira, not just code black but also code red and code blue were performing security duties somewhere inside the ship.

akira casually tossed the towel aside and left the capsule room.

code black, leaving the handling of the capsule room to the others, followed behind akira.

as they walked towards the bridge together, akira spoke suddenly.

“the t&c special trade centre. it was thriving even before i became the head.”

“is that so?”

“they called it ‘hwamu shipilhong (花無十日紅)’ which means when the moon becomes full, things are bound to tilt.”

[note:- “花無十日紅” is a korean idiom that translates to ‘flowers bloom for ten days without withering.’ this expression conveys the idea of predictability or inevitability, suggesting that certain events follow a natural course, much like the cyclical nature of flowers blooming and the full moon rising. it symbolizes the fleeting nature of moments and serves as a metaphor for the impermanence of life’s pleasures.]

before akira yujin, who had been re-elected as ceo three times, two families held the longest reign over the megacorp throne: the veda family, famous for android and ai development, and the garmelda family, renowned for enhanced combat.

in the early days of mega corp, the veda family monopolized the ceo position, but they rapidly declined after the rise of the starunion. currently, the veda family barely maintained their status under noble capital.

in contrast, the garmelda family, who received support from the elders of the eden family, sustained its dominance as the ceo of the megacorp for a long time.

following garmelda, the next influential family among the noble capital was t&c.

as they held significant sway in space development, t&c never lost its top position in noble capital.

“at that time, the yujin family didn’t have much influence in the upper class of the megacorp. some mocked us as a family which belonged to the lower classes.”

while slightly exaggerated, what akira said wasn’t entirely inaccurate. the impact of yujin’s cheap genetically modified food for the lower-tiered capitals was substantial. in fact, yujin’s share in megacorp’s food supply was almost 50 percent.

however, despite its importance in megacorp, the yujin family lacked influence over other noble capitals. as one ascended in the capital tiers, the consumption of genetically modified food sharply declined.

as a result, during the council meetings for the ceo selections, the yujin family frequently faced defeat from the other families.

the turning point for yujin was when their hulk mutants were deployed on the front lines.

the previous generations actively pursued using genetically modified soldiers in war due to their potential. and it was during akira’s time as the new head of the family that they finally saw the fruition of that strategy by selling the hulk mutants to other families.

of course, there was opposition within the family to akira’s decision to sell what was essentially a secret weapon, but he wasn’t worried. yujin’s genetic modification technology was unparalleled.

other families attempted to develop the hulk mutants but failed due to technological shortcomings.

“recently, eden’s coward seems to be playing games, but it’s unlikely that it will reap fruits.”

akira utilized his shadows to scout for information on various families within the megacorp, so he already knew what the eden family was planning.

“are you referring to the silver lion knights?”

“that’s right. mixing just two or three genes and blabbering about the essence of genetic modification technology, isn’t it rather amusing?”

if denver listened to this, he would have been greatly infuriated, but akira had the right to say such things.

in fact, code black standing before him now justified this.

those belonging to the shadows were ultimate biological weapons synthesized with over dozens of genetic types.

“it seems t&c’s snake intends to only take out the filling through eden, but they started wrong from the first button. it would have been better if they supported our yujin family.”

of course, the likelihood of samdam, who coveted the ceo position more than anyone else, forming an alliance with akira was low. even if he requested, akira wouldn’t have complied with it.

during their non-verbal conversation, they arrived at the bridge.

the soldiers on the bridge, who were focused on their duties, quieted down and bowed their heads when they saw akira.

“hehehe, it seems this council meeting will be truly enjoyable.”

akira, who sat on the commander’s seat on the bridge, smiled looking forward to the upcoming council meeting.

***

‘a genetic storage. it’s been a while since i’ve been here.’

under the blue lighting, dissected bodies of creatures were visible in various places.

some were stacked on stainless steel tables, while those resembling human bodies were vacuum-sealed in plastic hanging from hooks on the ceiling.

the eerie feeling from the lighting and the creepy scene were just like in a game, but there were two differences: the cold breeze from the air conditioning units on the walls and the smell emanating from the bodies.

these sensations were beyond what a game could provide.

“now that i see it for real, it gives a very uncomfortable feeling.”

there was an incident where i once ambushed users hiding among corpses in here, and they questioned why i always popped out in scary places.

at that time, i couldn’t fathom why they were making such ridiculous complaints, but now, it was definitely an atmosphere worthy of complaint.

“i remember each surveillance team had a total of three members.”

if i could pull all three simultaneously, it would be ideal, but the probability was low.

‘one must always remain in the control room.’

the original plan was to lure cult members into the genetic storage using the researchers and inject the parasite in them when they arrived.

but after seeing the list, i decided to change my plans slightly.

‘if i acquire traits from metallic gremlin, i can become more proactive.’

metallic gremlins possess a trait like an emp that disrupts all the machinery in their vicinity.

with that trait, it wouldn’t be difficult to seize not only one cult member but also control the management room.

so, deliberately increasing the chance of extracting good traits, i requested multiple samples per organism.

there were a total of 8 samples each for metallic gremlin and ‘that’ in the storage.

meaning, i had 8 opportunities to acquire the traits of those creatures each.

‘of course, if all i get is dwarfism, it’s a total loss

however, even with dwarfism, i could deploy various strategies, like navigating through ventilation ducts or ambushing enemies by hiding in human corpses. in this monument, where there were many spaces accessible to small bodies, dwarfism wasn’t a bad trait for assaulting the building.

‘the problem is, in this game, once you acquire a trait, you can’t discard it.’

unless the transcendent system eliminates the dwarfism trait, i’ll be unable to exceed 1m in height until i reach ascendant.

with numerous adversaries ahead, some needing to be subdued by force, dealing with them alone won’t be easy with a small stature.

‘though i don’t plan on acquiring it anyway.’

“i’ve brought them.”

while pondering how to handle cult members, the team leader returned.

he placed the capsule containing the samples on a stainless steel table.

‘great. shall we begin then?’

i activated the ‘symbol of hunt’.

“eek?!”

as my body rapidly grew, the researchers inside the genetic storage gasped in awe. my exoskeleton covered my eyes, and my horn grew even larger. my body swelled, reaching nearly 5m from the initial 3m. thanks to the tail’s corresponding enlargement, the combined length of my body and tail nearly approached 10m. combat-ready arms sprouted, resembling shields at the wrists and two bone-bladed arms emerged from my back.

“grrrr...”

i growled softly, feeling the overwhelming sensation throughout my body.

one of the overwhelmed researchers seemed on the verge of fainting, whimpering,

“uhh...”

then came the rising smell of ammonia. but no one blamed him; they all had identical expressions.

ignoring their reactions, i used my smaller arm to pick up the capsule containing the samples.

the surface of the capsule was inscribed with the words ‘skywhale’.

‘shall we unlock a new type then?’

i needed the traits of ‘that,’ the skywhale, the most. i placed the capsule with the genetic samples of skywhale in my mouth. the capsule broke inside, and the essence of the genetic material permeated my body.

‘alright. success...’

[predation effect activated! successfully obtained ‘space flight (incomplete)’ genetic essence.]

[extracted ‘space flight (incomplete)’ from the biological traits of ‘skywhale’.]

[do you want to apply ‘space flight (incomplete)’?]

[note: cheats are not allowed.]

[an urgent message has arrived.]

as always when the predation effect occurred, a semi-transparent text box appeared. this time, it contained additional information.

‘what? no cheats allowed? seriously?’

i hurriedly opened the urgent message.

[when the predation effect is triggered for a sample during the ‘symbol of hunt’, only incomplete units of genetic essence will be obtained. to completely acquire a trait, the predation effect targeting the same trait from the same sample must occur twice.]

[note: this is for balancing the transcendence system.]

‘crazy.’

i have faced a lot of adversities since i arrived in this world. at the beginning i had panicked because of the unfamiliar body and struggled to survive against those adversities.

furthermore, there were situations unfamiliar to me in the game, and i had found myself in danger.

but i, as the sole player among the amorphs who had entered the ranker level, utilized my experience and knowledge i gained over a long time of playing as an amorph to overcome obstacles.

hence, i had forgotten that space survival was an insanely challenging game.

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