I Became an Evolving Space Monster

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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Chapter 482

‘Good thing I wasn’t too late.’

The moment The Amorph regained consciousness, he was startled.

Expensively armored humans in top-class psychic-resistant combat suits, wielding weapons designed specifically for anti-psychic warfare, were attacking them.

‘So that’s why I suddenly woke up, this danger triggered the instinct.’

Back in the hotel, he had briefly glimpsed an illusion of water-filled caves, Number 26’s shape flashing past like a fast-forwarded reel. That was his Predator Sense, warning him of approaching danger. Thanks to it, he had stayed lucid even inside the illusion.

‘And I’m glad it helped me.’

The one who tore apart that false world and pulled him out was right there, perched on his head.

Number 26 sat tightly attached to his carapace, hungrily devouring its meal. It had burned a huge amount of energy to protect him.

It ate with every bit of its body, breaking down corpses matter-of-factly, looking to him as cute as ever.

But inside, The Amorph couldn’t help feeling conflicted because of what had happened when it touched him with a small tendril.

At that contact, he’d felt something foreign, alien emotions washing into him:

Embarrassment. Relief. Joy. And… love.

Number 26 had poured its feelings directly into him.

‘Love, huh.’

He already knew it cared for him; he had always thought of it as a familial bond, something like kinship. But this was deeper, more serious, more intimate than that.

‘No... saying I didn’t know would be a lie.’

The truth was, he had always sensed it. He just couldn’t bring himself to accept it. Because, one way or another, he believed he’d have to leave someday to return to reality.

It had never said anything, but surely, deep down, it knew too. Yet still it chose to wait, in silence.

‘…It makes me happy.’

A being that loved him this much…

‘I need to answer that love someday.’

But now was not the time. His Predator Sense had warned him the danger was far from over.

‘The confession will have to wait until everything is over.’

He picked up one of the floating cyborg corpses.

The gear it wore was all too familiar: APNC-forged weapons, cult-manufactured psychic-resistant armor, custom jetpacks refitted for underwater combat. It was the standard kit players used when hunting Sea Demons.

‘So Akira sent these troops…’

Now that The Amorph had become the next target for Beom-ho, Akira was free to act. To both of them, Akira was just as much an enemy. For him to dispatch raid troops was hardly surprising.

And apparently they had tracked him down right before he awakened.

‘And this can’t be all of them.’

Above the waters, there would be reinforcements and many more soldiers prepared to kill not just Number 26, but him as well. Likely even super-weapons, Gigacrackers by the look of it.

‘At least there aren’t any Rankers among them.’

He guessed the ruling faction’s elites weren’t involved. They likely knew too well about Beom-ho’s powers. The army they’d sent was prepared and dangerous, but not perfect. Not impossible to counter.

‘Still, we do have our own problems…’

[ZZZZ ZZ ZZZ (It’s just us here, right?)]

｢Yeah!｣

A spark of light flickered above his carapace where Number 26 clung.

｢A friend sent me home to help Big One!｣

[ZZ? (Home?)]

｢Yes! If we keep going straight from here, my home’s right there.｣

So this place… it was likely Number 26’s homeworld.

He recalled how in Nox’s secret base, PS-111 had collected research data linked to Number 26. That must have been how it traced things here.

[ZZZ ZZZ ZZ (Then what about the others?)]

｢Bad swarm chased too close. Couldn’t bring them. Friend said they’ll keep following. Annoying swarm!｣

As it spoke, anger trembled through its tentacles, flapping furiously at the thought.

If they weren’t described as humans, then they weren’t megacorp troops nor cyborgs. Which left only one possibility

The Outspacer horde he had fought near Nox. Rank 4 had dispatched a pursuit unit.

‘So they’ve created a specialized tracker variant.’

He had moved while leaving as few traces as possible and yet they had followed. Impossible in the game version, but achievable with a tailored creature. No doubt they had burned one of their privileges to design it.

And this wasn’t the end of it. If the goal was to kill him, then other powerful types had been sent as well. That explained why PS-111 had hastily relocated them elsewhere.

‘…I hope the others are safe.’

He had been asleep for quite some time, yet none of them had shown up. Whether that meant they were caught in equal peril or simply trapped elsewhere, he couldn’t say.

‘Either way, it’s not good.’

They weren’t weaklings, far from it, but still he worried. Once he escaped this place, he would go straight to Adhai’s homeworld to check on her.

‘Looks like I’ll need to borrow a ship.’

Because of the interdiction, he couldn’t make faster-than-light jumps on his own. He needed a vessel. Fortunately, there were plenty of ships here he could use.

[ZZZ (Let’s go.)]

｢Are we going to punish the bad people?｣

[ZZZ ZZ Z ZZZZ (Yes. We’ll crush them, then meet the others.)]

｢Yeah!｣

Number 26 sparkled with joy, glowing brightly atop his head.

Before leaving the hideout, The Amorph picked up another corpse besides the one already in his grasp.

｢Snacks?｣

[ZZZZ (Sort of.)]

These bodies were more important than just for feeding a ship. He had intentionally chosen intact ones with limbs still attached, storing both inside the right head’s maw.

‘Good. Next step…’

He prepared to reveal his hidden card, the trait known as Symbol of Hunt. The ability that turned him into an even greater apex.

The moment he invoked it, his body swelled to several times its normal size, filling the hideout to the brink.

Simultaneously, parts of his body shifted, organs and structures reshaping.

His cranial carapace thickened and extended, covering his eyes. Secondary organs were encased in blade-like carapaces.

So far, it seemed the same as the last time he had entered this form. But then came the real change.

Previously, when in the Symbol of Hunt state, he had always grown bony, blade‑bearing arms. This time, no such arms sprouted. Instead, his combat limbs transformed into tentacles and both those tentacle arms and his invasive tendrils changed drastically.

At the ends of six invasive tendrils and six tentacle arms, elongated maws emerged, each armored in horned carapace, resembling his true heads.

‘It’s basically twelve new heads.’

Counting his originals, he now bore fifteen. His form was nothing short of a mythical hydra.

And it wasn’t mere appearance. Inside the tentacles no, now more like neck organs had formed: esophagus-like tracts, able to consume prey, expel matter, or more.

‘Just like we confirmed during the Terramorph experiments.’

But without brains, they couldn’t act independently. They were more like extended limbs with mouths, given sensory ability but no command.

｢Hi, Pointy-Tooth! Hi, Spiky-Head!｣

｢■■■｣

｢■■■｣

Excited, Number 26 waved its tendrils, greeting the new heads cheerfully. In earlier experiments, it had given every one of the twelve extra heads a name.

‘Feels like I’m performing a puppet show…’

It was as though he wore puppet gloves and played along with Number 26.

He wanted to indulge it, seeing how happy it was. But he couldn’t. The trait’s duration was finite.

Once his transformation was completed, he began to move. Tearing through the cavern, his enormous body shattered rock as easily as dried clay. Boulders the size of cars fell in clumps, none hindering him.

Smashing through the collapsed tunnel, he emerged outside where squads of submarines and armored humans awaited.

They froze, startled. They had expected something else entirely. This was not what they had prepared for.

‘Surprised, are you?’

They hadn’t yet seen everything he was capable of. To be so rattled this early was almost disappointing.

The right head opened wide, spewing a mass of acidic fungal spores.

The spores struck one submarine, its hull corroding instantly. Divers and nearby vessels scrambled away, panic rippling through their ranks.

The twelve new heads swiveled toward the scattering enemy.

A single head was already strong enough to shred a human into meat pulp. What would happen when twelve of them howled together?

｢■■■■■■!｣

The shockwave tore through the water in violent ripples. Divers caught in the blast zone were instantly pulverized beyond recognition.

Even those farther away were not spared the vibrations overloaded their helmet comm-systems, shattering their only lifeline. Stripped of communication, their formation collapsed into chaos.

With most of the divers neutralized in an instant, The Amorph surged in among the submarines, belching corrosive fungal masses from multiple heads at once.

The enemy tried to fight back, spitting APNC torpedoes in counterattack. But they were useless.

Yes, his body powered by psychic energies was theoretically vulnerable to APNC. But only if the torpedoes could pierce his flesh and detonate inside him.

Thanks to Symbol of Hunt, his carapace was now thicker than the forward armor of a battleship. No torpedo could breach it. Expensive nanomachines writhed impotently over its surface before being washed away in the current.

｢I’ll help too!｣

[ZZZ (No need.)]

Perched atop his armored head, Number 26 trembled with eagerness, tentacles waving. The Amorph felt grateful, but he didn’t need its intervention here. These enemies were meaningless obstacles, nothing more. The true enemy was outside the planet.

And Number 26 hadn’t fully recovered; there was no need to waste its remaining energy.

‘They must have noticed by now, up above.’

Additional forces or orbital bombardment would surely be on the way. Ordinarily, he would have concealed himself from their sight. Not this time. His plan was the opposite to draw every gaze to himself.

Discarding a half-crushed submarine, he propelled his body upwards, tentacles writhing like an enormous octopus swimming to the surface.

Behind him, submarines closed in pursuit, but he ignored them, surging toward the light above.

He broke the surface where a fleet of starships was already waiting, suspended in the sky overhead. Distant and minuscule, yet unmistakable, he saw countless specks falling from them like scattered sand.

They weren’t missiles. They weren’t strike craft.

‘Star Union bombs.’

He had expected a Gigacracker’s ion cannons. Instead, they’d chosen bombs, wary of his reflective abilities.

These were designed for one purpose alone: to kill him. At minimum, gamma-class warheads capable of erasing an entire city, of sundering continents. And here came hundreds.

‘That quantity could wipe out the planet itself.’

Even for him, surviving amidst a planet-scale annihilation was impossible.

‘Of course, that’s only if they all detonate.’

His choice was not evasion. He lifted himself with his energy field, watching the falling bombs close in fast.

Now he could see them clearly, every sleek cylinder, every glowing seam.

‘Now!’

With the exception of his right head, all fourteen jaws opened wide.

The Symbol of Hunt roared to life, and the trait known as Gluttonous Maw Pouch activated.

Air warped violently into vortices, sucked toward those gaping maws. The bombs themselves, dragged helplessly, vanished into his throats.

The trait placed no value judgments. If the conditions were correct, it consumed indiscriminately. Whether an Alpha-Boy capable of cracking worlds, or gamma-class antimatter bombs built to incinerate entire metropolises inside the maw-pouch, all were just food.

His current colossal size only amplified its capacity nearly 80 meters from head to tail, his subordinate organs swollen in proportion. Hundreds of two-to-three meter bombs fit with room to spare.

｢Grrrk.｣

His swollen pouch bulged taut. One of his leftward heads rumbled in deep, satisfied growls.

No bombs remained before him now. Only the fleet, confused and panicking at what they had just witnessed.

But the feast of his heads was far from over.

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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